The Rise of the European Emperor

Some people may be wondering-isn't Portugal at war with the Ming Dynasty? Is it useful to offer a glass mirror? Really useful! Because, at this time, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was Zhengde...

Although Emperor Zhengde was smart, he was also very mischievous. Otherwise, in history, he wouldn't be so nonsense that Wang Shouren let King Ning go, and asked him to catch King Ning himself again... This is simply treating military affairs like a child's play...

Zhengde loves to play too much, so new things like glass mirrors will definitely win his favor. If the Portuguese could be the first to present the glass mirror and bribe the "eight tigers" around Zhengde to help him speak, Zhengde really wouldn't care about such a "trivial thing" as having fought a war.

The Portuguese are not stupid. They have also inquired about the virtues of the emperors of the Ming Dynasty. They know that Zhengde loves to mess around, so they have their own ideas and judgments. Originally in history, the Portuguese finally succeeded in obtaining the right to land and reside in Macau through various bribery methods, and became the only European country in Europe that could do business in the mainland of Ming Dynasty at that time.

But it is a pity that in this time and space, the Portuguese met Marin, a traveler who is more familiar with the Ming Dynasty than them...

Marin was a Chinese in his previous life, and he was also a top student in the history department. Can you know more about Zhengde, the troublesome emperor, than the Portuguese?

Therefore, Marin will definitely give the glass mirror before the Portuguese, and then, when the Portuguese offer this thing again, the freshness of Zhengde has long passed, and it will be useless to present the glass mirror again. After all, what Zhengde likes is freshness. Once there is no freshness, then there is no point...

Unfortunately, Beihai was able to send glass mirrors to the Ming Dynasty a few months before the Portuguese. It must be very rare for Zhengde to get a glass mirror for the first time. However, after playing with it for a few months, even if it is rare at first, it will get tired of it. At this time, the Portuguese went to offer treasures, and it would not have any novel effects.

However, how to explain why I was able to send the glass mirror up a few months in advance...

On the way back to the mainland, Marin came up with a reasonable explanation - he had sent people overland to deliver glass mirrors along the old "Silk Road"...

The land route does not need to make a big circle like the sea route, and you can take a relatively straight route. If you are in a hurry, you can indeed arrive earlier.

Moreover, the reasonable explanation that Marin intends to give is that after he left Venice, he hired a Venetian ship to send the glass mirror to Egypt, and then rented a camel team from Egypt to cross the desert through Persia, and then sent it from the Western Regions to India quickly. Merchant ships from India to Southeast Asia...

In this way, it must be much faster than the Portuguese fleet circumventing the entire African continent. After all, it is just a glass mirror, and it is expedited and fast transported by land.

It does make sense...

...

But in fact, Marin brought back the glass mirror with mercury and tinfoil that was photographed with 18,000 gold coins.

Because he was worried about the toxicity of the mercury on this glass mirror, Marin didn't regard this expensive glass mirror as a treasure at all, but directly cushioned it with a natural sponge, put it in a beautiful wooden box, and held it by his hands , brought back to the native land.

As Marin expected, after seeing this mirror, Angela couldn't put it down immediately. After all, women love beauty. Although Angela is over thirty years old, she also loves beauty.

After getting the glass mirror, Angela immediately took the glass mirror as her own as if she had obtained some rare treasure, and did not let others touch it. Felice, Angela's own sister, wanted to spy on her, but Angela refused without hesitation.

So, Felice murmured—you even shared your husband with me, why can't you share the glass mirror?

Later, Marin even saw Angela sleeping with the mirror in her arms. Then, Marin freaked out...

But Marin knew that the mercury hadn't evaporated completely within two or three months after the mirror was produced. It’s fine to use it for taking photos occasionally, but if you sleep with it in your arms, you’re definitely looking for death...

However, Marin cannot publicly publicize the toxicity of mercury tinfoil glass mirrors. Otherwise, he would not be able to use this kind of glass mirror to make a lot of money in the future.

Therefore, Marin quietly told Angela that this mirror is poisonous, and it has not been more than a year, and the poisonous gas cannot be dissipated...

Angela was frightened immediately, but she was extremely disappointed that she could no longer use such a clear glass mirror.

In addition, other women in Beihai Kingdom are also very concerned about this glass mirror. For example, Marin's cheap mother, Mrs. Mary, also likes this glass mirror very much, and often comes to take a picture with the mirror. As a daughter-in-law, Angela is not easy to stop...

"What should I do? Women love beauty so much? Do you want to die?" Marin was very worried.

Regarding Marin's doubts, Angela told him seriously - for a woman, beauty is the second life...

Marin had to express his admiration, but for the safety of his relatives, he had to find a way...

"How to do it? It must be safe and satisfy women's beauty-loving nature..."

Marin thought about it, and finally felt that he could only use that method...

"I have no choice but to find a way to copy the 'Silver Mirror Reaction'..."

Yes, Marin intends to use his chemical knowledge at the middle school level to engage in a "silver mirror reaction" to make a safe silver-coated glass mirror to replace the toxic mercury-coated glass mirror with tinfoil, and give it to Angela and Mrs. Mary .

Moreover, the brightness of silver-plated glass mirrors is much higher than that of tin-foil-coated glass mirrors. After all, silver is brighter than tinfoil...

The silver mirror reaction was discovered by German chemist Liebig in the 1830s. After this method was discovered, people found that the glass mirror produced by this method not only has higher brightness and clarity, but also is safer. After all, there is no danger of highly toxic mercury vapor. Silver-coated glass mirrors then quickly replaced mercury-tin-foil glass mirrors. After the 20th century, cheaper aluminum-plated glass mirrors replaced silver-plated mirrors...

Of course, there is no way for Marin to get out the aluminum-plated mirror. The main reason is that Marin can't get this thing out of aluminum. Marin does know the method of electrolytic aluminum, but the problem is that he does not have the important raw material needed for electrolytic aluminum-cryolite. It is said that in nature, it seems that only Greenland has natural cryolite mines. When electrolytic aluminum first appeared, the cryolite mines in Greenland were almost the most important source of cryolite in the world. It was not until later that people discovered that cryolite could be synthesized artificially, and then the aluminum smelting industry was really popularized.

However, that should be after World War II. Marin remembers that during World War II, the United States sent people to control Greenland to prevent the Germans from getting enough natural cryolite...

Marin didn't understand how to synthesize cryolite artificially, and he didn't know where the natural cryolite mines were in Greenland. Although Marin knew that the cryolite mines in Greenland must be on its southwest coast, Greenland is too big, with a long coastline and extremely harsh climate. Therefore, it is very difficult to find the cryolite mine, and Marin should not think about smelting aluminum for the time being. Even Marin didn't know what the cryolite looked like, even if he sent someone to find it, he didn't know how to find it! The lateritic nickel ore in Cuba is too obvious, so it is easy to find. How to find cryolite?

And it is too simple to prepare silver mirror with silver mirror reaction. After all, this is a very important content in middle school chemistry. For Marin, who was a high school student at the time, he still remembers it clearly.

The process is actually very simple, that is, silver ammonia solution is first prepared with silver nitrate and sodium hydroxide solution. It seems that the preparation method is to drop sodium hydroxide solution into the silver nitrate solution, then add dilute ammonia water, or pass through ammonia gas, and then the silver ammonia solution is obtained.

Then, drop formaldehyde, acetaldehyde or glucose solution, and a "silver mirror reaction" can occur to obtain a silver coating, and a very clear and high-brightness silver-coated glass mirror can be produced...

For Marin, silver nitrate and sodium hydroxide solutions were readily available. Although the preparation of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde is difficult, it can also be produced. As for glucose, it's even simpler - honey contains glucose directly...

The really difficult thing to deal with is actually ammonia water or ammonia gas...

After all, there are ammonia synthesis equipment in later generations, and it is easy to make ammonia. But in this era, the preparation of ammonia is very unrealistic.

"No, there is a way that seems to be possible..." Marin suddenly remembered-it seems that the urea solution seems to contain urea. And heating the urea solution, it seems that a small amount of ammonia gas can be obtained...

Just do what you say, and then, the great Marin the Great, took a group of chemical men to cook urea...

After a very unpleasant and disgusting operation, Marin finally collected a little ammonia gas and put it into the water to get dilute ammonia water...

Then, after preparing the silver-ammonia solution, Marin added honey and heated it. Soon, a very bright silver-coated glass mirror was obtained...

However, Marin ordered the preparation process of ammonia to be strictly kept secret. After all, the process of cooking urea to produce ammonia is too indecent, and Marin feels sick when he thinks about it...