The Rise of the European Emperor

The Ishikari Plain covers an area of ​​4,000 square kilometers, and the water network is criss-cross, which is very suitable for opening up paddy fields to grow rice. In fact, "Ishikari" means "bending river" in Ainu language. The Ishikari River is also the largest river in Hokkaido, with sufficient water to meet the needs of paddy field irrigation.

Although the yield per mu of rice is generally much higher than that of wheat, the labor intensity of paddy fields is incomparable to that of dry fields. For example, to plant wheat, you only need to drill it with a columbine cart, and you can finish the job. At most, we will clear the weeds later. At the same time, pull out the extra seedlings that are not growing well, leaving only the strong wheat seedlings. These jobs do not require a lot of labor. With tools such as columbine carts, Prader plow carts, and wheat samarium, it is still possible for a family to plant hundreds of acres of land.

However, rice fields are different. Among other things, the labor intensity of rice transplanting alone is not comparable to that of dry land. For transplanting rice seedlings, Marin couldn't think of any simple machinery that could help transplant rice seedlings. Because, even the seedling throwing machines of later generations are not so effective. Of course, better rice transplanters came later. However, Marin hadn't seen it. Because the older generation of farmers in his hometown in his previous life insisted on transplanting rice seedlings by themselves. The main reason is that the local family only has a few acres of land, and the labor intensity is not high, so they can be planted in a few days. In addition, the older generation is illiterate, and the rice transplanter can't handle it. And the younger generation have all gone to big cities to work. Therefore, only some original ways can be preserved. However, when rice is harvested, harvesters are used. Moreover, they are all small harvesters using Japanese technology. In the early days, it was expensive imported harvesters such as Kubota, but then many counterfeit brands appeared in China with low prices, and then, um, needless to say...

In addition, Mai Samarium does not seem to work well for harvesting rice. Mainly, wheat straw is not quite the same as rice straw. Wheat straw is relatively brittle, and when harvested, there is a crisp sound of straw breaking. Rice straw, on the other hand, is tougher and more difficult to harvest. Wielding a samarium knife can easily cut wheat stalks, but it is a bit difficult to deal with rice stalks. Because straw has good toughness, straw is often used in rural areas to weave straw ropes, which are very strong, and straw can also be used to weave very strong straw curtains. Wheat straw is relatively brittle and has a high degree of hollowness, so it is not as effective as straw in this respect.

Therefore, rice transplanting or harvesting is much more troublesome than wheat and requires a lot of manpower. Fortunately, whether it is ancient China or ancient Japan, there is no shortage of manpower. The reason why Japan has a population of 17 million in this era is also inseparable from the promotion and planting of rice.

Also because of the high labor intensity, Gan Fushuizi believes that it is best for a farmer to plant 30 mu of land, but it is a bit difficult to plant 50 mu of land. Moreover, there must be cattle suitable for paddy fields.

In desperation, Marin came up with the idea of ​​using leather to make leather armor to exchange cattle with the Japanese daimyo. But because of this, I accidentally learned that there are extremely rich deerskin resources in the Northeast, and I gained a lot.

Moreover, when thinking about how to build a Hokkaido tannery, and use the worn-out leather from the Northeast to process it into leather armor and sell it to the Japanese daimyo, Marin suddenly thought of one thing-it seems that those broken leather armor cut out Leather corners are also useful, and they are of great use...

What is it for? It can be used as a lining for musketeers to wrap lead bullets.

Right now, when the musketeers of the North Sea country are loading lead bullets, most of them wrap the lead bullets with oil-soaked linen cloth and press them into the barrel of the gun. Alternatively, wrap lead bullets in oiled paper and press them into the chamber.

However, when publicizing to the outside world, Marin always promoted the use of deerskin and linen soaked in grease. why? Because of the cost!

Many of the bullets used by the Beihai Kingdom are wrapped in oiled paper bags containing gunpowder and pressed into the barrel. However, this oil-paper package technology is a military secret of Beihai State, and it will not be leaked casually, nor will this oil-paper package be sold to the outside world.

In fact, oiled paper in Beihai is very cheap. Because Marin has a large-scale paper mill on Cape Breton Island in Canada, which can also be soaked in whale oil to process a large amount of oiled paper.

However, these things are for domestic use by Marin and will not be sold to the outside world, so as not to strengthen the opponent's strength. And the opponents will not learn from Beihai to use oiled paper to pack gunpowder and wrap lead bullets. why? Because of the cost...

At present, Europeans only know Cai Lun papermaking technique using rags and fishing nets as raw materials, and the cost of papermaking is very high. In the original history, until the end of the 18th century, the French missionary Jiang Youren sneaked into the Qianlong court, stole the Chinese papermaking technology, and introduced the Chinese papermaking technology with detailed pictures and texts, and sent it back to the French court, which greatly promoted the development of European papermaking technology. develop.

Speaking of which, the ancient French were also quite shameless. The Venetian glass mirror technology was somehow stolen by the French. Chinese papermaking and porcelain manufacturing were all stolen by French missionaries...

In other words, apart from Marin's application of modern papermaking technology to make paper from wood in Canada, other European countries can only use expensive paper made by Cai Lun's papermaking technology. In addition, because there is no cheap whale oil, they use linseed oil to soak the paper to become oiled paper, which is also quite expensive. Therefore, the technology of Marin's North Sea Army to pack gunpowder in oiled paper and wrap lead bullets, even if other countries know it, they will not adopt it. No, they don't have cheap oil paper...

The cost of using oiled paper is much higher than using buckskin sheets to wrap lead bullets. What should I do? Marin also thought of this, and decided to ask the Hokkaido Tannery to package and ship back the remaining deerskin fragments for tanning. Then, sell it to other countries, let their musketeers use it to wrap lead bullets... Of course, it will also be sold to domestic hunters who try arquebus...

For domestic hunters, it is impossible for Marin to provide them with oiled paper bags of custom-made gunpowder, which are military supplies. Therefore, it is the most correct way to provide them with deerskin fragments left over from Hokkaido tanneries to wrap lead bullets.

In this way, those tannery deerskin corners can be used in exchange for money, and at the same time, the North Sea country does not need to provide military oiled paper bags to the people. Of course, at the same time, you can also use these buckskin corners to make a wave of foreign money...

After listening to Marin's ideas, Kohler, Suha, and Glock, who was newly elected as the governor of Hokkaido, were all shocked by Marin's genius idea-Nima, even the leftovers of the leather factory can be used to make money, What else can you not use to make money?

And the three of them all depended on Marin for their lives, so they were naturally flattered, which made Marin feel extremely comfortable. He has nothing against flattery, as long as he can do a good job, what's the matter with a little flattery when he's free? This is the way people live. If they were looking for faults like Wei Zheng all the time, if it was Ma Lin, he would be so angry that he wanted to dig Wei Zheng's grave. Damn, is it shameless to be the boss? Being the boss but being bullied by his subordinates all day long, everyone will have resentment...