Chapter 3394 Lynx Eye (IX)

Compared to "archaeology", young people nowadays prefer to have fun. Just look at how many people sleep in Professor Binns' history class.

In fact, from another perspective, the Firebolt did come in handy. Whether it was the Triwizard Tournament or the subsequent wars, the high price and performance were proportional.

Napoleon brought back a lot of Arabian horses from Egypt. At the Easter ceremony in 1802, he used them to pull a carriage, which looked very beautiful. In fact, even at the British royal wedding in the 20th century, carriages were still used instead of sedans. This may be the romance and fairy-tale sentiment engraved in the bones of human beings.

If there are other choices, most Europeans will not eat horse meat, whether it is a nag or a thoroughbred horse. When Josephine bought the horse, everyone's focus happened to be on war, and nags could not serve as cavalry horses.

However, when Georgiana came, it happened to be two consecutive years of grain production reduction, or even three years, because Father Piazzi said before that there were signs that there would be grain production reductions in some places this year, although France was not the one affected.

During the war with the British, France became a huge "siege" due to the blockade; during the peace with Britain, although the price of bread rose for a while, it still had to rely on the rationing system to suppress the price, but there was still a lot of meat available, horse meat was horse meat, and Victor Hugo even ate rat meat during the Franco-Prussian War.

Georgiana bought horses through logistics transportation, and Josephine bought meat. Perhaps it was because of this that Bonaparte thought of offering a reward for canning. Mercury can be used for preservation, but that thing cannot be eaten. Everyone knows the consequences of mercury poisoning.

But people who love beauty can't care so much. Mercury does have the effect of whitening and anti-wrinkle, but even a trace amount will accumulate in the body and eventually reach a poisoning dose. Even if it is solved this time, if the living habits are not changed, it will still be poisoned.

As early as 1428, seventy years before Columbus discovered the New World, the Maltese paid a huge sum of money to the Kingdom of Aragon and received a promise that the Maltese Islands were the king's territory and not a fiefdom. Malta was not strategically important at the beginning. The Knights Hospitaller were originally stationed in Rhodes, but after losing Rhodes, the Knights Hospitaller, like their predecessors, were once again in the embarrassing situation of being homeless. They wandered in Crete, Sicily, Naples and even Nice, France. Finally, with the consent of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, Malta was handed over to the Knights Hospitaller to rule, with the purpose of letting them deal with the Turkish navy and Barbary pirates.

The Knights Hospitaller used to be the army, but all their assets during their wandering were large galleys, so they had to become the navy.

After obtaining the territory, Charles V asked the Knights to pay tribute to a Maltese falcon every year, but the Grand Master refused because the tribute meant that the Knights Hospitallers became Charles V's vassal in name, which was contrary to the relative independence granted when the three major knights were established.

At that time, both Charles V and the Knights Hospitaller ignored the agreement between the Maltese and the Kingdom of Aragon. After knowing that the Knights Hospitaller had become the new master, the Maltese immediately reiterated the agreement of the year to the Governor of Sicily.

A hundred years later, the Kingdom of Aragon had merged with the Kingdom of Castile and became part of Spain. As the heir, Charles V had no intention of fulfilling his promise, and the Knights deliberately ignored the ideas of the Maltese - if they consulted the Maltese, they would have to wander again.

So in 530, the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller, who had lost Rhodes for 8 years, moved to Malta, and they were called the Knights of Malta from then on.

But if Rhodes is the "Pearl" of the Mediterranean, Malta is as desolate as "a lone rock in the ocean". It is only covered with a thin layer of soil, and there are many rocks in it, making it difficult to grow grains. This poor place has only three dilapidated castles, not to mention fortifications, and even living facilities are lacking.

But the Knights of Malta are famous for their expertise in infrastructure. If this island was just an island and not suitable for docking, it would not be fought over by the French and the British.

The key is that it has a port. Like Gibraltar, there is no surface water there, and even the materials for building fortifications must be carried with the ship. The Barbary pirates in North Africa also went out to rob for a living because of insufficient local production. The Knights relied on the island of Malta, fighting against the Barbary pirates while also robbing passing Ottoman merchant ships. The good thing about the Knights was that they could import food from Sicily, and it was impossible to imagine raising food and grass for the army on the island.

Because of this, the Knights of Malta were self-sufficient. The island had only 10,000 residents, but there was no heavy taxation, because the Knights' looting not only provided the Knights' needs, but also formed an army where everyone had iron helmets.

Spain did not make a fortune when it discovered the New World. The first batch of silver mines was discovered in Potosí, Peru. However, the output of these silver mines was still very low before people discovered the method of extracting silver from mercury in the mid-16th century.

The manufacturing process of magic silver is not passed on to the goblins. Even if humans and goblins marry and give birth to a hybrid like Filivi, it is impossible.

As the level of the vault door of Gringotts increases, the number of parts using magic silver increases. To open them, more than just a special key is needed.

The spyglass is actually a kind of glass product. It appeared almost at the same time as Galileo's telescope. When Muggles invested a lot of energy and money in astronomical observation, wizards took another path.

As the identification ability of the spyglass improved, the counterfeiting technology also improved, but no matter what kind of counterfeiting could not escape the anti-thief waterfall. Except for Harry's invisibility cloak, disguises such as polyjuice potion were ineffective.

If mercury is not fixed by special methods, it will be easily wiped off like the blood stains on the sword.

After waiting for less than a minute, two people appeared in front of Georgiana, but they were not the messengers she thought.

The first to come in was Chiconyara, followed by Francois Zabini, who hid mysteriously in the darkness behind Chiconyara.

"I thought you couldn't leave your residence casually." Georgiana said while sitting in the candlelit area.

"With so many interesting things to do, how could you not call me?" Chikonyara said with a smile, "It's so boring to stay at home."

"What about you?" Georgiana asked Zabini, "Are you bored too?"

"The French wizards are now at loggerheads with the Lombard goblins, and they don't have extra manpower to protect your safety." Zabini said politely, "That's why I applied to be your squire knight."

She just remembered the Lombard tradition.

"I'm a wizard, and being a squire knight is already my limit." Zabini said.

She reluctantly accepted this statement.

"What were you talking about just now?" Chikonyara said with a smile while looking at Fredley.

"We were talking about light." Fredley smiled hypocritically, "I heard that you are also going to introduce the French lighting system?"

Ciconyara looked at Georgiana.

"Do you believe that there is gas in wood that can be ignited?" Chikonyara asked.

"It's just a pipe, a wooden pipe." Fredley rolled his eyes and said, "Just like the pipe used for water supply."

Ciconyara stared at Fredley.

"What?" Freddy said, pretending to be stupid, not feeling guilty for ruining the mystery and surprise created by Cikonyara.

Zabini found a stool and moved it to the door to sit, like an audience in an opera house watching a play.

"I thought you wouldn't say it." Cikonyara smiled hypocritically, "Just like you stole our twisting machine."

"Oh, you want to do it again, right?" Freddy said tit-for-tat.

"They knew each other a long time ago." Zabini "explained the plot" to Georgiana on the side.

"Unlike some "thieves", I am protecting Italian works of art." Cikonyara said coldly.

"Oh, those sculptures in the ruins would be covered by weeds wherever they were placed. I found them and dug them out." Freddy grinned and gritted his teeth, "Who told you to stay in the gorgeous living room."

"I don't think you need me to explain how they knew each other." Zabini said on the side.

Georgiana spread her hands, and the two of them started arguing.

So she stood up and looked at the astronomical telescope to see if there was any "revelation".