Chapter 150: Worm Worm Repellent

In fact, the discovery of Panama is much more than that. After owning Panama, you can not only use this as a base, but also travel to China and Japan on the other side. You can also use this as a center to go north to attack the Aztec empire in Mexico, or go south to attack the Inca Empire in Peru.

It can be said that Panama is a transportation hub in the Western Hemisphere. Not only can the route to Asia be opened here, but it can also serve as a transit point for Peru and Mexico. Especially in Peru, the original gold and silver plundered by the Spanish from Peru were transported to the Caribbean by the Panama Isthmus, and then shipped back to Spain.

Now, Panama is about to fall into the hands of Marin, the gold and silver of Peru ... Well, Marin intends to accept it "to make it difficult" ...

As for the Panama Canal, Marin never thought about it. As for why? Of course, the water level difference between the Pacific and the Caribbean!

The Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean on the other side of the Panama Isthmus have a water level difference of more than 20 meters. Such terrain is completely unsuitable for the establishment of ordinary canals and must be supplemented by large mechanized locks. This huge ship lock requires a high-power machine to lift extra large gates weighing tens or hundreds of tons, which is completely impossible with the current technology.

Even if Ada had a steam engine, Marin would not choose to build a Panama Canal that required a large lock. Because the early steam engine that Ada made was not capable of such a heavy task. Moreover, the steam engine has a long residual heat. Many steamships of warships need to be ignited one hour in advance, otherwise they will not run. If you let the steam engine control the gate, it is estimated that the ship will die, and the cost is very high, and the safety is not guaranteed.

Therefore, Marin still intends to learn the Spanish and open up a land directly. Anyway, the isthmus of Panama is only tens of kilometers wide. If Peru ’s gold and silver are transported to the Pacific Ocean side, people can use the carriage to load the gold and silver, transport it from the land to the Caribbean side, and then change the boat. Similarly, the trade with China can also refer to this example.

In the future, Marin intends to build a concrete road across the isthmus in the isthmus of Panama, near the Panama Canal. The cement road is smooth, not afraid of rainy weather, but also convenient for land transportation.

Know that Panama has a tropical rainforest climate and heavy rainfall. If it is an ordinary dirt road, once it rains, the carriage carrying gold and silver can easily get stuck on the road and cannot move. With the cement road, it is much easier. Not only can it continue to transport when it rains, but the resistance of the carriage is greatly reduced, which can greatly increase the speed of the carriage.

In the more distant future, if the steam engine and train are successfully developed, Marin also plans to build a railroad track in the isthmus of Panama and use a small train to transport goods, which is faster and more convenient.

Of course, the terrible Panama is far more difficult than this. The Panama area is even more terrifying because there are many poisonous insects and mosquitoes in the area, and it is easy to infect a very terrible disease-yellow fever.

Yellow fever has a high mortality rate, and even in later generations, there is no "magic medicine" like the golden nectar that restrains malaria. Therefore, in developing Panama, yellow fever is the biggest threat.

This is why Marin chose Grenada as the first tropical colony, because Grenada does not have these poisonous insects and mosquitoes, and people will not die easily.

The Panama Canal was cut at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Due to yellow fever and malaria (only a small part of deaths due to malaria, because of the anti-malarial cinchona), more than 30,000 people died.

However, Marin also has a response to this. That is-Marin intends to cut down all the trees around the road passing through the isthmus, not to let the higher shrubs pass!

This is because Marin knew that yellow fever was mainly transmitted through mosquito bites. And mosquitoes have a great feature-that is, hiding in the shade during the day. If it is exposed to sunlight, it will die.

Therefore, during the daytime, mosquitoes generally hide in cool and damp woods, or in bushes by the water. When the sun goes down, dare to come out and bite.

Marin allows people to directly cut down the surrounding trees and tall bushes, especially those near the water. In that way, mosquitoes will be much less if they have no hiding place.

Wait until there are fewer mosquitoes, then build the road, and then engage in transportation, it will be much safer.

……

Moreover, Marin not only intends to cut down those big trees and shrubs, but also intends to replace the wild grass on the side of the road with a magic herb that can naturally repel mosquitoes-wormwood ...

Wormwood is a kind of traditional Chinese medicine with many effects. It is spread all over the north and south of China, and it is also found on Mongolian grasslands. Mozhigen and Battle had brought some wormwood seeds over and cultivated them successfully in Marin's glasshouse.

In the previous life, Marin's hometown, people loved to use wormwood, and the wormwood was picked at home for the Dragon Boat Festival. Moreover, in summer, you can also light the dried wormwood as a natural mosquito coil. Such natural mosquito coils not only exterminate mosquitoes, but are also non-toxic and do not affect health. In later generations, many families with small babies in their homes, in order not to let the mosquito coils poison the babies, there are well-known elderly people at home ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ will choose to go to the countryside to pick wormwood, and summer dried wormwood The healthy version of mosquito coils can repel mosquitoes without harming babies.

After several years, the few wormwood seeds brought by Morrigan and Battle had been cultivated into large wormwood grassland. Wormwood is extremely viable. It can be grown in temperate or tropical zones (not in the cold zone). Where there is wormwood, the mosquitoes are not very happy to be near.

Marin's plan is to build a concrete road in the isthmus of Panama. Then, all the wormwood is planted on a wide area on both sides of the cement road.

The smell of wormwood can make mosquitoes retreat. Mosquitoes will naturally decrease in the cement road area surrounded by wormwood. By then, transportation in Panama will be more secure ...

Thinking of this, Marin patted his head somewhat regretfully-Columbus should be brought with some wormwood seeds and sprinkled directly on the local Panamanian.

However, this is nothing. When the next time someone is sent to Panama to colonize, it is not too late to sow wormwood seeds.

In order to obtain enough wormwood seeds, Marin decided to send enough staff this autumn to collect as many wormwood seeds as possible on the wormwood grass field for planting in Panama.

Even, Marin planned that, no matter which tropical colony it opened, wormwood will become a standard plant for the colonists. He planned to use a decree to force the colonists' houses to be planted with wormwood before and after the house, so that the mosquitoes would not want to come close. After the dried wormwood leaves are dried, they can also be used as mosquito coils at night.

In the future, Marin relies on a variety of wormwood and the use of wormwood to smoke mosquitoes, so that when colonists under Marin developed tropical colonies, few people died of disease and became a miracle in colonial history ...