Lin greeted the two nobles in front of him with the etiquette of a magician. After all, we are on the other person's territory, and the other person's attitude seems to be friendly, so there is no need to forcefully turn the other person into an enemy.
After the white sword master William Greco introduced each other, Baron Engels cordially invited Lin and his party to have dinner, including the silver-bearded dwarf and two apprentices who were followers in the eyes of others. At this time, Fen slowly used the method of a normal magician to cast the magic of levitation, slowly moved to the big ship, and came behind someone.
There is also a person who loves to cry and follow, screaming at the top of his lungs in other people's heads. Although I kept my promise not to speak in front of others, the bombardment in my mind was even more unbearable. Fortunately, the same remote positioning procedure as the spy eye had been done before. With a flash, Hagiri was in his hand again.
The sudden appearance of the weapon certainly caused a commotion among the baron's guards. Lin had no choice but to explain: "Don't worry, don't worry, it's just a cane, it won't hurt anyone." He touched the blade with his hand and showed that he was unharmed, which reassured the responsible guards a little.
The banquet belonging to the nobles has not yet begun. Everyone is resting and chatting in the reception room of this big ship. Only then did William Greco talk about his search for rice wine.
After leaving the Wadwo tribe, William Greco did not wander around like a headless fly. Instead, he directly used his own connections to ask for possible clues. But there is no news related to 'rice'.
The Golden Waterway is an excellent cargo transportation channel, and of course there will also be all kinds of business information and gossip flowing in it. Therefore, it became one of the ways for William to find rice.
In every river port city, he used his influence or found some well-informed organizations to find the existence or news of rice, but found nothing.
Until he remembered a friend on this golden waterway, a baron with the same name as him. The other party was not only the legitimate son of the Grand Duke of the Wei Da Military Kingdom, but he also married a wife who was well-connected and powerful.
Ruan Thi Hui was a descendant of the royal family of a certain kingdom in the Northeast Continent of the Mysterious Land. That kingdom was established more than two hundred years ago and was destroyed more than a hundred years ago. There were only three kings. This is considered normal in the area in the northeast of Midi that still maintains chaos. To this day, countries are still being built and destroyed over there.
Once you understand the background of the area, this phenomenon will become more familiar.
There are many races of Homo sapiens with different appearances in Midland, unlike Earth, which only differ in skin color. Moreover, the species of Homo sapiens with the largest number of lost areas and the strongest overall strength is undoubtedly 'human'. What about the rest of Homo sapiens?
Also, how many species of Homo sapiens other than humans have the means to establish and protect their own country surrounded by human kingdoms, like the elven kingdom of Pyat Jaime?
If they join the human kingdom, can they get equal status?
In conclusion, most of the Homo sapiens races other than humans were driven to a corner of the Lost Continent──to the northeast. In this chaotic land, humans no longer have the upper hand. At any time and at any time, there will be people who gain the support of the majority and build a country; and others who do not support will rebel and lose the country.
After all, different races have different beliefs, different living habits, and even different taboos. These are not problems that can be solved by anyone's cooperation. Let the murlocs live in the desert, let the dwarves farm, let the elves mine, and let the halflings live in the cold mountains... Maybe these are some extreme examples, but in reality If anything goes wrong in the slightest, it could lead to rebellion.
It's just that rebellion isn't called rebellion in that chaotic land, it's called "different ambitions." Countless races are there, uniting for benefit and opposing each other for benefit. Loyalty is an out-and-out luxury in that land.
Such an environment is both a crisis and an opportunity. The ancestors of the Ruan family should have established a country in such an opportunity, and then perished for some reason.
It's just that before they perished, they chose to branch out and bring their accumulated strength to other countries, instead of betting everything on the small kingdom they established. Although in the beginning, this approach was just to win the support of other countries and thus consolidate their own kingdom. But after that misfortune, this approach became the biggest reason to preserve their family's strength and survive.
Maybe the country it was leaning against had perished, but those who survived became queens of the royal family. In terms of status, even without a title, it is enough to be rampant in the aristocratic circle.
In terms of strength, the wealth accumulated by the Ruan family cannot be underestimated. Used to build private armies to defend one's position before other nobles, thereby using money to overcome obstacles.
In addition, tribesmen of different branches pledge allegiance to different countries and obtain the actual titles and territories of that country. And because of the blood ties between the tribesmen, these different countries are connected together, becoming a bridge of communication between countries, or a medium for conspiracy and calculation.
In short, during the chat with Baron Engels, his wife and the white swordsman, someone saw the prototype of a large multinational enterprise, and even small city-states were controlled by them in turn.
It's just that one or two hundred years is not enough for this family to grow into dinosaurs. Their radiation range only accounts for a small part of the entire Mystery. To those really big countries, this family is still not worth mentioning.
The Ruan family's foundation was based on some industries that had never existed in Midland before, or had not been paid attention to. Especially food! They mastered many special crops, but the grain varieties and planting techniques were only spread in a small area.
...After talking about this, their ancestors are not the predecessors of time travel, someone really doesn't believe it.
The marriage between Nguyen Thi Huy and William Engels was not only a mutual love between them, but also a combination of wealth and power between the two families behind them.
For example, the warship that everyone is riding on now was brokered by Archduke Engels, who sold the imperial first-line warship that was "eliminated" because of "lag behind" six months after its launch to his son. The cost of purchasing the ship was paid for from Nguyen Thi Hue's dowry.
In addition, a fleet of ships was built for trade. Relying on the unicorn flag, there is no disadvantage on the golden waterway. These expenses are of course paid by the Ruan family. Then the nobles of the military state collected taxes, and the Ruan family also strengthened their influence while making money.
Regardless of the calculations behind these, for a certain white swordsman and a certain magician, the key point is the rice brought by Nguyen Thi Hue, and it is still rice.
Because of the huge differences in planting methods, rice is not very popular in Midi. And of course some of the extended products will never come out. Maybe there are too many choices, which makes them feel that they don’t have to do some thankless things and push hard to sell something that is not yet accepted by the world. Or... the other party really doesn't know that they can take advantage of it in this way?
It is difficult to get to the bottom of all the mysteries from the woman in front of me.
After all, we learned from the conversation that Ruan Shi Hui was a branch of their family, far from being a direct lineage. The reason for the connection with William Engels was simply that the two young men and women met their eyes when they saw green beans. For the two families, the status of the two parties can only be regarded as a casual game, so the two young people were allowed to marry.
Putting aside the troublesome matter of exploring and traveling through his predecessors, Lin listened carefully to the life-loving white swordsman describing the hardships of brewing wine.
First of all, the rice seeds were available, and with the family power of Baron Engels, it was not difficult for him to get a piece of land as a test paddy field. The rice growth cycle only lasts four to five months under suitable climate, and a group of professional farmers harvested the rice smoothly.
However, after rice became available, how to make wine became the second problem.
Since there was no previous experience to follow, the professional brewers in the Engels and Ruan families could only try to use existing technologies. Anyway, the focus of winemaking lies in fermentation, and the details can be adjusted depending on the situation.
Some people have made it using the method of brewing ale, some have used the method of brewing beer, and some have tried to use the method of brewing wine. There are also all kinds of weird methods that have been used by people. William Greco used several methods to find wine suitable for drinking warm. The method Yirumi uses when conducting various researches - the trial and error method.
After all this trouble, he really came up with some tricks. At least according to William Greco, warm wine has received good reviews in small-scale tastings. In fact, this was also the reason why Baron Engels was willing to help. Wine itself is a profitable thing.
During the chat, the Baron knew that William Greco's idea came from the magician in front of him, so he directly asked for a bottle of each of several drinks that he thought were suitable. Lin Ye directly tasted the cold wine first. Also called at the same time were the brewers in charge.
After trying them one by one, Lin felt that some of them already tasted very much like Earth rice wine, but the taste was very strong. Recalling the taste of the drink I had before, and asking a few brewers, I figured out what the problem was.
Unlike some natural fermentation brewing techniques, wines made from grains require the help of koji to ferment. Midi also has the technology to make koji, but these are koji made based on wheat when brewing ale. The taste will be slightly different from that brewed with rice koji.
Secondly, after the brewing is completed, is there a heating process and how many times? However, this batch of wine has not gone through such a process, because heating the finished product is not a standard brewing method in Midland. Without the heating process, the yeast in the wine will continue to ferment. At this time, the storage environment will be very particular. If it is not stored well, the wine may become rancid.
Anyway, after one taste, Lin started discussing the brewing methods with the 'professional' winemakers. Of course, I don’t know much about winemaking, but that doesn’t stop someone from telling some shocking truths.
But these are things that have never been done before, and these experts are quite dissatisfied with a certain magician's pointers. On the contrary, the baron and his wife, who did not understand, and the white swordsman were frightened by someone.
To compete with these experts, you have to focus on the finished product and make the wine taste better. Otherwise, even if you say something, you won't be able to convince the brewers who have mastered a craft.
