Chapter 301 Bomb and Wine

The day after the Sleeping Island witch moved, Roland called Barov, the head of the city hall, to his office.

"I need you to issue a recruitment announcement." He pushed the drafted content in front of the other party. "Short-time workers for a week, about ten people, preferably women."

Barov picked up the paper and read it carefully, "Your Highness, may I ask what starch... is?"

"You know wheat flour?"

The steward hesitated for a moment, "Do you mean coarse flour or refined flour? Wheat grains can be baked into bread or baked into wheat cakes after being ground, but what you eat is refined flour that is further sieved to remove the bran. The output is only 60% of the former, and the baked bread is softer, but the price is very high, only the nobles can afford it."

The former assistant to the Minister of Finance made Roland most satisfied with his full understanding of various underlying commodities. Due to the backwardness of agriculture and the lack of food, the same food is eaten in different ways in different classes. For example, the most common way of eating wheat is to cook porridge directly with the shelled wheat grains, so that the food can be used to the maximum extent, but some residual wheat husks and gravel will also be boiled into the pot together, and it often tastes greasy. Bang rattling rattling teeth.

Lesser nobles have to pay more attention. They will order people to sift the wheat grains to remove sand and stones, grind them into coarse powder, bake them into bread and pancakes, and enjoy them.

Further up is the aristocratic class with rich families. For these people, food is no longer just a tool to fill their stomachs, but a means to pursue delicious enjoyment. The kitchen will further sieve the wheat flour to remove the bran, and get white finely milled flour. The baked bread is beige in color. It tastes not only delicate, but also much sweeter.

"Starch is made from refined wheat flour, which is further purified and processed," Roland spread his hands, "When you recruit people, I will send someone to tell them the specific method."

"Continue to process?" Barov couldn't help but widen his eyes, "How much wheat will be used then?"

"I don't need too much, three or four hundred kilograms..." Roland paused, then changed his words, "Just a basket as big as my desk."

He nodded in response, and then asked, "Why do you want to be as female as possible?"

"Because they are more careful in doing things. Moreover, I hope to see more women go to work instead of sitting idle at home," Roland suddenly thought of something, "The current universal education in Border Town seems to be that the girls' class progresses faster Bar?"

"Although the main person in charge of the Ministry of Education is Ms. Shujuan, this is indeed the case. Apart from taking care of children and housework, they don't have much to do, so they spend most of their time reading and writing."

"In this case, I request that after the next round of assessment is over, the city hall you are in charge must recruit a group of female apprentices and gradually increase the proportion of female apprentices," Roland ordered.

"Your Highness, there is no precedent for this," Barov frowned, "If you only talk about carefulness, my apprentice is no worse than any other woman."

"If there is no precedent, create a precedent," Roland said bluntly, "This is also the easiest and fastest way to increase the labor force without expanding the total population. If all women can take on the task of building a town, we will The available manpower can be doubled. All you have to do is to guide people to change their minds—as long as the salary is attractive, I think they will stand up one by one.”

After Barov left, Nightingale smiled next to the prince's ear, "Are you planning to make something delicious again?"

"Starch? No, it's not for eating." Roland took a sip of his tea, "although you can indeed get a good ingredient during the processing."

Soak refined wheat flour in water, then knead and scrub until the water turns white completely, then change another basin of water and continue. The sticky mass left at the end is gluten, which can be used for frying or stir-frying, and has a pliable and elastic texture. It is delicious to spread honey or sprinkle spices after it is out of the pan.

But Roland's focus is not on food.

After the milky white water was sieved and left to stand, what precipitated was starch, which is also the main material for making explosives.

Under the conditions that nitroglycerin has not yet been tested, and T.N.T. is impossible to talk about, nitrostarch has become the easiest high explosive to manufacture, and the manufacturing process is exactly the same as that of nitrocellulose. The finished product has low sensitivity and cannot be ignited with an open flame. It needs to be detonated with a detonator. It is more powerful than T.N.T. and was widely used as a substitute for the former during the two world wars.

With high-purity starch, those alchemy apprentices who are familiar with the production process of nitrocellulose must be able to quickly produce a batch of nitrocellulose.

After lunch, Roland was about to go back to his room to take a nap when there was a knock on the door outside the office.

Usually it was Anna who came to him at this time. His heart was beating twice. Could it be because he was too tired and fell asleep last time, so he decided to choose noon this time?

"come in."

The door creaked and was pushed open, Roland was startled, and it turned out to be Evelyn standing outside.

Uh... This is a bit different from what I thought, he coughed twice, and smiled kindly, "What's the matter?"

She walked to the table and bowed her head, looking a little nervous, "Your Highness, I want to ask you a question."

Is it the old "why are you so nice to witches" again? However, in the spirit of treating comrades warmly like a spring breeze, he smiled and said, "You can ask any questions."

"You...why did you choose me to come to Border Town?"

Roland was taken aback for a moment. Could it be that she thought the wine was bad?

"My ability is not as good as Sylvie's, nor is it as practical as Lian and Mitang," she said in a low voice, "If it's just wine tasting, the salary of one gold dragon per month is enough to hire professional winemakers from the capital Teacher."

"What do you think of the wine...?"

"At the beginning, I thought it was too hot, but I can accept it when I drink it slowly. As for the mixed wine mixed with ice cubes, fruit juice and sugar water, the taste is richer. But this is just my personal opinion," Evelyn replied cautiously, "The tavern at home only sells cheap wine and watered ale. The tendency of the nobles... I don't know."

It turned out that there was no doubt that there was something wrong with the wine, the prince quietly breathed a sigh of relief. He got up and opened the bookcase, took out a can of ale from the top shelf and placed it in front of Evelyn, "Then can you convert this can of ale into the white wine I brew?"

"I think...it should be fine." She stretched out her hands to hold the jar, and soon the dim yellow wine inside changed. As the bubbles surged, the ale became clearer and clearer, until it was as clear as boiled water, but Roland could already smell the rich aroma of the wine. He impatiently dipped a little bit with his fingers and put it in his mouth. Bitterness and scorching heat came out at the same time, which was exactly the taste of high alcohol.

Roland couldn't help laughing, "That's why I chose you."

Looking at the confused Evelyn, he clapped his hands and said, "I plan to open an alcohol factory... No, it's a winery. Would you like to be my chief winemaker?"