Seeing that Guo Kang could no longer control his expression, Shi Huizhen laughed twice and walked away.
"Oh my god, I thought the historians were too harsh at first, leaving Hua Mulan alone." Zhu Rongna sighed with emotion: "How did she survive until now without being beaten to death? Is it because her father never cared about it? What's the matter?"
"You should stop saying a few words!" Zhu Wenkui quickly stopped him: "You, a sharp-tongued person, are not much better than others."
"She grabbed my pig!" Jeanne complained loudly.
"Okay, okay, sister, help you take care of her." Theodora had no choice but to comfort Jeanne, and then said to Zhu Wenkui: "Her father did die in the war very early, and she and Stan were raised by their mother. Shi Dan Later, Dan was educated by her uncle, so basically... she was really left alone."
"That's it..." Zhu Wenkui sighed: "During this period, I seem to have heard that many noble families have had similar experiences. Looking at it this way, it turns out that it is not very peaceful here."
"You don't need to sigh. For those real Romans and real Greeks in ancient times, dying in battle was not a sad thing. But now, we are all too cowardly." Theodora persuaded.
"Sacrifice is the cornerstone of the Roman Empire, and we can't just let ordinary citizens make sacrifices. Every commander will always have to face his own destiny. Prince Zhu will understand as he gets used to this place."
"This is a great saying. Did any sage say it?" Zhu Wenkui asked.
"He told me." Theodora pointed at Guo Kang and said with a smile: "He may have said that when he was a child, he never had stage fright when speaking in front of everyone. I don't know why he became a boring gourd when he grew up. ”
Guo Kang wanted to tell her that it was just because the second phase of the second phase of traveling to this world had passed.
But this statement sounds too mediocre to others. It was as if I was the Messiah thrown from heaven by Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, claiming to save the world. I really couldn’t say it out loud, so I had to hold it in.
"Well, Brother Kang, have you really tasted saltpeter?" Jeanna didn't know if it was intentional, but she started to bring up this topic with another evil smile on her face.
"Don't worry." Before Guo Kang could think of what to say, Theodora spoke. She looked at Jeanne, smiled gently, and said, "I didn't care when we kissed him. What does Princess Jeanne care about?"
"Ugh——" Jeanna blushed and let out a mournful cry. The whole person was wilting before his eyes, and he was no longer in the mood to tease Guo Kang.
"Sister, sister, what's wrong with you, are you feeling uncomfortable?" Zhu Wenkui realized something was not going well and hurried to comfort her.
It seems that Jeanne studied theology in France, but was still not as good as Theodora in other aspects, and she was solved in one sentence.
"Hey, you too, why are you playing with these things." Theodora looked at Guo Kang and shook his head: "I heard that firearms research and development is very dangerous. In the past, engineers from various countries encountered accidents and were killed. These It’s basic work and you don’t need to keep an eye on it yourself.”
"Now is a critical period, and I'm afraid that the technology will go wrong." Guo Kang explained.
"The skills you are talking about are the ones that the Franks used to pile up dung?" Theodora didn't seem to want to mention this word: "Well, the barbarians are really skilled at this. After all, their cities are made of dung. I guess The congenital conditions are relatively good in this regard.”
"I think we really can't look down on them too much." Guo Kang said: "The group of people in Western Europe who believe in the Roman Catholic Church - the Franks as you collectively call them, have actually done very in-depth research in this area."
"I estimate that if this continues, their firearms will rise fastest before long. Maybe by then, we will all have to learn their firearms technology."
"Why do you think so?" asked Theodora.
"I heard that there is a great shortage of saltpeter mines in Western Europe." Guo Kang said: "They collected saltpeter by accumulating it bit by bit. In England, the king banned the placement of pedals in defecation areas to facilitate the collection of saltpeter; In France, local governments have specialized 'toilet scrapers' who often break into residents' homes and scrape away the saltpeter from the walls."
"Their church also has a 'bench tax'. Because the various ceremonies are too long, believers often urinate on the bench legs in the middle of the process. Over time, it becomes a place for saltpeter, so there are dedicated people , to collect saltpeter from the benches as part of the tax.”
"Compared to these, our saltpeter fields are clean and hygienic - at least those places are managed centrally and cleaned carefully." Guo Kang spread his hands.
"It's really vulgar and barbaric." Theodora sighed: "Then why do you say they can develop firearms?"
"I'll tell you directly. You may not believe it, but I can give you another example that has already produced results." Guo Kang said, "Everyone should know about the iron pots exported by Siris."
"Indeed, many people miss them." Theodora didn't know why he suddenly changed the topic, but nodded anyway.
"Actually, the iron ore in Seris is very poor." Guo Kang said: "Although the quantity is large, the quality of the iron ore there is not suitable for early development."
"Let's put it this way, in the forests of France, you can still find heaps of slag left by the Gauls when they made iron. And the iron content of those slags is higher than the iron ore in Serris."
"So, the problem faced by the Seris people is that if they don't try their best to explore and improve their technology, they won't even have enough iron."
"The quality of the early iron over there was really not good, and everyone couldn't stand it. But soon, they developed superb technology. Until now, they are using the lowest quality iron ore to create products that sell well in the known world. Iron products. Moreover, no one can catch up with them in a short time."
Of course, Guo Kang knew that this "short time" was a very conservative statement.
In his world, ironware has always been one of the most important bulk export products in the Central Plains. Its status and total value are no less than that of porcelain. In terms of freight weight, it exceeds the other party. Iron pots are the main export method of ironware.
At least since the Song Dynasty, iron pots have been the main cargo of merchant ships going to sea. Until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, at least more than 700,000 iron pots were exported every year. There were almost no merchant ships coming to China who did not purchase iron pots. Even during the Guangxu period, iron pots were still an important export product - which formed brand dependence.
"We here can also smelt iron, and the craftsmanship of the Greeks is relatively good in Europe. But there is no way, businessmen are not fools." Guo Kang shook his head: "People have insisted on importing iron pots from the East for so long. It can only show that the ironware there is indeed of exquisite craftsmanship, high quality and low price, so much so that even with the high shipping costs for such a long distance, it is cheaper than the local ones."
"And this kind of technology, to put it bluntly, was forced out back then."
"You mean, the Franks' gunpowder is the same?" Theodora asked.
"Yes. They can really stop fighting because of lack of gunpowder." Guo Kang nodded: "I suspect that it is also because of the lack of gunpowder that they did not do all kinds of weird things like they did in the Central Plains. Instead of weird explosives, he concentrated on developing firearms—such as muskets and cannons."
"It seems very shabby now, but they worked hard every day to make saltpeter and make firearms, and they were forced to become familiar with these items. In this way, it is not surprising that although they started late, they developed faster. After all, people are forced from."
"It's embarrassing for barbarians to play with feces and urine every day, but it would be even more shameful if the Romans couldn't defeat the barbarians who play with feces and urine." Guo Kang pointed out: "I heard that saltpeter caves were also discovered in southern Romania, but I didn't know about this It is the mercy of Heavenly Father, or it is a test for us. Therefore, we should not despise these things. Let us continue to study what should be studied."
(End of chapter)
