The Rise of the European Emperor

On the Apennine, the conspiracy continues and never stops. And far away in Moa, Cuba, according to Marin's instructions, Welz successfully found laterite nickel ore.

In order to find the exact location of Moa, Wiltz and his group spent a full month wandering to the northeastern coastal areas of Cuba. After repeated comparisons of coastlines and landings to find the lake described by Marin, Moa's location was finally determined.

Fortunately, the Taino people in Cuba were very friendly. After seeing the Wiltz and his party, they did not shoot directly. Wiltz is also a person with many years of work experience. He gave gifts such as salt and bread in a timely manner, which won the great favor of the local people.

Taino people are gentle and hospitable, and Wiltz knows how to use small things to draw closer. So, Wiltz quickly established himself in the Moa area. With the enthusiastic help of the Taino people, Wiltz quickly led people to build a house and settle down there. Of course, the Taino demanded - bring them salt often.

In fact, Wiltz was pretty speechless about the lack of salt in the Taino. why? Taino people live by the sea. It is a pity that the Taino people in Cuba are less civilized and can only fish with canoes or hunt with bows and arrows. Of course, a little cassava is also grown, but the planting technique is extremely extensive. Although living by the sea, the salt of the Taino people requires the brave to drive a canoe to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and exchange it with the Mexican Indians. Mexicans know how to cook salt in clay pots, but Mexicans will not teach the Tainos, otherwise, how can they exchange goods with the Tainos?

But driving a canoe to exchange salt in the Yucatan is a journey of death. The canoe is too small. If the sea is angry, no big storm is needed. A small storm that is a little bigger can engulf the canoe. Therefore, it is very expensive to go to the Yucatan Peninsula to find the Maya to buy salt, and it often costs people's lives.

Therefore, more than a dozen tribes near Moa held a joint meeting to inform Wiltz that as long as enough salt was provided to the locals every year, Wiltz could settle and "dig stones" locally, and would get help from the locals. Of course, salt is not free, and the locals will also take out prey or cassava for exchange. Only, the price should be cheaper, preferably the same as the Mayan price in the Yucatan Peninsula. It should be noted that those brave people who paddled their canoes to exchange salt in the Yucatan peninsula sold the salt back to Cuba, and the price often increased several times. After all, that was what they bought with their lives.

Locals use cassava as a reference for food and trade, and, of course, shellfish currency. However, outsiders are unlikely to recognize the shell currency. For example, when trading with Mexicans, most of the currency in Mexico uses cocoa beans as a reference object. When the currencies of the two sides are inconsistent, cassava and oats, which can be used as food, become an important reference.

In the Yucatan Peninsula, one pound of table salt is exchanged for five pounds of cassava. But in Cuba, a pound of table salt can be exchanged for more than 20 pounds of cassava. So, the local chief asked that if Wiltz could provide them with a large amount of salt for 5 pounds of cassava for a pound of salt, then all his activities in the local area (except killing people),

will receive strong support from the locals.

Wiltz knew that Cape Breton Island could provide Cuba with a large amount of salt, so he agreed without hesitation. Moreover, Wiltz also promised to provide the locals with iron farming tools and bows and arrows to facilitate the locals to farm and hunt. In this way, the relationship between the two parties will be more pleasant. If it weren't for Marin's three applications and five orders, which strictly prohibited the colonists from having relations with local women, some immigrants might have gone to bed with local enthusiastic girls. Fortunately, the terrifying legend of syphilis and Marin's harsh punishment frightened these lads.

After settling down, Wiltz began to lead the team to find nickel mines. Although Marin gave a rough range, if Marin pointed it casually, it was a very large piece of land. Therefore, Welz and others also broke their legs. Luckily, Wiltz used brown bread as a reward and hired a group of locals as guides, and he wasn't worried about getting lost in the rainforest.

Although, Marin explained that he was looking for red soil. However, before development, the island of Cuba was full of dense jungles and lush grasslands. If you want to find the red soil, you have to cut open the grass first...

In this way, Wiltz searched for two weeks, and finally found the red clay...

Fortunately, the clay is easy to recognize, otherwise, Wiltz would have to die of exhaustion. After finding the red soil, Wiltz immediately set up a stove and burned the collected red soil at high temperature.

Sure enough, after being burned at high temperature, the laterite changed color and turned into green nickel oxide. At the same time, a pungent odor (SO2) is emitted. After finally finding the nickel ore, Welz was so excited that he immediately began to mine laterite nickel ore, and began to assemble the furnace and pipes built on the ship, intending to calcine laterite nickel ore on a large scale.

According to Marin's plan, Wiltz needs to calcine laterite nickel ore into green nickel oxide locally, and use a desulfurization water tower to collect sulfur dioxide gas.

However, at the beginning of production, the desulfurization system leaked due to the rupture of the pipeline and the lack of attention paid to the desulfurization work by the construction personnel. The leaked sulfur dioxide gas suffocated people. Moreover, it angered the nearby Tainos. So the nearby Taino people asked Wiltz to stop making this "terrible gas"...

Welz, who had no firm footing, had no choice but to suspend production. Then he saw the map Marin had given him that marked an island called Great Inagua not far from Moa. After thinking over and over again, Wiltz decided to relocate the production process of calcined laterite nickel ore to Great Inagua Island. He came to mine, not to fight with the locals. If possible, it is better to live in peace.

Seeing that Wiltz doesn't make that horrible gas (SO2) anymore, the Taino don't bother Wiltz anymore.

Exploration by the crew of the ships assigned to Wiltz revealed that the west coast of the island of Great Inagua, about 100 kilometers away from Moa, was unpopulated. Moreover, there are many trees on the island, which are very suitable for cutting down as firewood for the calcination of laterite nickel ore.

In this way, Wiltz divided mining and smelting into two places. Of course, conflicts with the local Taino people in Moa were also avoided. After the relocation of the smelting site, the local Taino people in Moa also volunteered to help dig laterite nickel ore.

On the west coast of Great Inagua, Wiltz directed artisans to rebuild the smelting system and improve the water desulfurization system. The forge was isolated from air, but had a bellows-driven air inlet for oxygen to react with the nickel sulfide to produce nickel oxide and sulfur dioxide.

The sulfur dioxide gas enters the water tank with the pipeline and is absorbed by the water in the water tank. Of course, because SO2 is not as soluble as SO3. Therefore, after a period of time, the water in the water tank that absorbs SO2 will form a saturated sulfurous acid solution after absorbing enough SO2. At this time, the water in the tank can no longer absorb SO2. Then, the foul SO2 overflows. Then, the workers present need to change the water in the sink in time.

The previously saturated sulfurous acid solution was poured into another container, and the workers kept stirring with wooden sticks to allow enough oxygen to enter the solution and react naturally with the sulfurous acid to generate sulfuric acid.

However, this process is very inefficient. Even after a few weeks of stirring, only a fraction of the sulfurous acid was converted to sulfuric acid.

Moreover, due to the volatilization of water vapor, SO2 gas will leak out, causing workers to inhale SO2, which is harmful to health. Therefore, Marin requires frequent replacement of workers to avoid long-term inhalation of SO2 by a single person. Moreover, as a worker in charge of a dangerous process that easily inhales SO2, Marin prefers to use Uncle Black...

Of course, when activated charcoal comes out later, Marin will make gas masks. That way, you don't have to put anyone at risk.

As for how to separate sulfuric acid and sulfurous acid? Don't be too simple. Just put the mixed solution in the air and let the water vapor evaporate. SO3 is infinitely soluble in water. As long as there is water, SO3 will stay in the water and will not easily escape. Unlike SO2, it has a dissolved volume ratio of 40 to 1 with water. With the volatilization of water vapor, SO2 will gradually escape. When the water is reduced to a certain level, SO2 will escape almost. Then, the rest is sulfuric acid with a higher concentration...