There is no hurry to organize the army to go south to Italy, because, according to Archbishop Rovere, it is more difficult to install spies in the Borgia family, which is good at conspiracies, and it will take time. After all, the Borgia family is the most conspiratorial family. It is indeed necessary to be careful and careful when installing spies in such a family.
Therefore, Archbishop Rovere estimated that it would take one to two years before he could send his spies to Alexander VI and his son to get the chance to poison him. Therefore, Marin has plenty of time.
But in the industrial sector, because the artificial high-level reservoir has not been able to start construction, the development of the forging industry has been restricted. Whether it was Old John and others who cast cannons, craftsmen who made muskets, and those who forged plate armor, they all urged Marin to hurry up and build artificial high-level reservoirs.
Therefore, Marin sent his cronies to the secret base where the cement was fired to urge the craftsmen. These craftsmen who fired cement were not experts and scholars, but serf craftsmen under the control of Marin. Originally, these people only fired bricks and had rich experience in firing kilns.
In fact, these guys do just fine as they're told. But asking them to invent and create is really overestimating them. The reason why Marin entrusted them with the task of firing cement was that they valued their status as serfs, and it was not easy to leak secrets.
However, due to their limited talents, these serf craftsmen were also slow in researching cement formulas. In fact, Marin has clearly given the composition and range of the ingredients, and they just take it and try it out. It's not troublesome at all.
This is indeed the case. According to the ingredients given by Marin, they quickly fired qualified cement according to different ratios.
If they only needed ordinary Portland cement, which is not waterproof, they would have been able to deal with it long ago. However, Marin asked for waterproof fly ash cement that could be used to build reservoirs.
Therefore, according to the ratio range given by Marin, they fired more than a dozen types of fly ash cement with different ratios. Then, using a dozen different types of fly ash cement, they built a pier by the sea. Next, just wait...
After all, it takes time to test the waterproof effect of cement. In this day and age, there is no time-saving test method for corrosion resistance, so we can only wait.
When Marin sent someone to urge them, these craftsmen ran to the beach in person to carefully observe the cement piers. After all, these piers have been built for several months, and the corrosion resistance can be seen by comparing them.
After a day of careful observation, the craftsmen finally selected the best proportion of fly ash cement with the best waterproof and corrosion resistance.
Then, the result was sent to Marin's desk...
"Huh—it's finally successful, it's not easy!" Marin also heaved a sigh of relief. During this period of time, those craftsmen who urgently needed to use the hydraulic forging hammer kept sending representatives to apply for urging, which caused Marin a bit of a headache.
Whether it is a craftsman in the Middle Ages or a scientific researcher in later generations, there are some tendencies. Those scientists who are immersed in the ocean of science and great craftsmen who are immersed in crafts only have their careers in their eyes, and they don't pay much attention to the Earl Marin, and they don't give face at all when it's time to make trouble. However, Marin has nothing to do with these technical experts. After all, Marin still counts on them to serve him. If it were an ordinary little craftsman who dared to show his teeth in front of Marin, he would have been dragged out and beaten hard. Moreover, when people come to make trouble, it is also for Marin's own industrial needs, not for his own treatment. Marin has nothing to do with it, so he can only coax him well.
Now that the cement has finally been fired successfully, it is natural to start the plan to build an artificial high-level reservoir...
But Marin hesitated for a long time about where to build the cement plant...
Built near the city of Aurich, Marin is sure to resist the coveting of others and prevent the enemy from obtaining the formula. However, this also explained to the world - "I have a cement formula" secret.
You know, the role of cement is of great strategic value. If steel bars are used, reinforced concrete buildings can completely withstand any shelling in this era, and they are stronger than stone city walls.
Such an important technology, if others know about it, why don't they try to snatch it? At that time, it is absolutely impossible to guard against.
Therefore, Marin finally decided to build the cement factory on the island to prevent outsiders from seeing it...
Moreover, Marin had already thought about it. When the cement is made public in front of the world, they directly call it volcanic ash, and falsely claim that it was shipped from Italy.
In fact, some pozzolans do act like cement. In the ancient Roman era, the Romans did use volcanic ash to make Roman cement.
The reason for this is that the volcanic ash that can be used as cement contains limestone and ordinary soil just in line with the ratio of cement. In addition, the temperature below the crater is extremely high, and the environmental effect is similar to that of the interior of a cement kiln, which naturally creates a unique cement pozzolan.
In fact, hydraulic pozzolanic cement structures were used in many buildings in ancient Rome. Therefore, this reason is very reasonable. Moreover, in Italy, where there are many volcanoes, you can indeed find a lot of volcanic ash suitable for cement. Of course, because the ratio is too arbitrary, the quality cannot be guaranteed.
It just so happens that the fly ash cement that Marin needs requires a large amount of fly ash produced by boiling salt. In addition to limestone and fluorite, it is necessary to send ships to Hamburg, Bremen and other areas to purchase, and to build cement kilns on the island, which is convenient and concealed.
Moreover, a cement kiln is built on the island. After the cement is successfully fired, it can be shipped to Emden, and then falsely claimed to be volcanic ash shipped from Italy...
As for which island the cement plant was built on, Marin quickly made a choice—or Baltrum Island...
Before, Marin had established the new Yancheng on the southwest corner of Baltrum Island, built a fort there, and stationed a reliable defense force.
However, the area required to boil the salt base is actually not that large. The entire boiling salt base only occupies the southwest corner of the entire island of more than 6 square kilometers.
Therefore, there is a lot of open space on the island, which can be used to build a cement factory. In order to facilitate the workers' living needs, the final cement factory was naturally built on the south bank with fresh water resources, east of New Yancheng in the southwest corner...
Marin selected a group of serfs who were good at burning bricks and sent them to Baltrum Island together with their families to start building shaft kilns for burning cement and houses for workers. Wait until the first batch of cement is successfully fired, then build a large wall and put cement on it...
Then, the cement road from the cement factory to the salt boiling center will be paved. Because, on the island, there is only an excellent deep-water pier on the side of the boiled salt center.
In the future, the coal required by the cement plant will be obtained directly from the salt boiling center, which is imported from Newcastle. The fly ash can also be obtained from its own shaft kiln besides the boiling salt center; as for limestone, clay and firefly Stone, although it is shipped from Hamburg and Bremen, Marin does not plan to transport the material directly to the new Yancheng pier on Baltrum Island, but first transports it to the Norden pier for transfer, and then sends a credible ship Ship it to the new Yancheng wharf. Similarly, after the cement is produced, it is first transported to Norden Port by a confidential ship for transfer, and then transported to Emden... In this way, the risk of the base on Baltrum Island being discovered can be greatly reduced.
At the same time, Marin will build a fleet in the future to cruise around Baltrum Island and sink any ships that try to approach Baltrum Island to protect the secrets of the island's salt cooking center and cement factory.
After the cement plant has been arranged, the construction of artificial high-level reservoirs can naturally be put on the agenda. Marin asked the craftsmen to choose the location of the reservoir, and arranged a large number of labor to start laying the foundation. As for the bricks and gravel needed to build the reservoir, Marin also started sending people to place orders. The construction of the reservoir can be officially started only after the foundation is laid and the cement in the cement factory starts to be mass-produced and sent to the construction site...