After returning to Hoffman Manor, Marin settled five kittens and began to resettle the four fishermen. These fishermen have been fishing by the beach for generations.

However, these families were not lucky. They had their fishing boats capsized at sea (a fishing boat bought by the four families). You should know that fishing boats are the most important property of fishermen. If the fishing boats are gone, it means that the sky of the family has collapsed. The boats are just very expensive. For ordinary fishermen, without the fishing boats, the whole family has no hope. Although they can escape by relying on their skillful water quality, the hunger at home is inevitable.

Seeing that bankruptcy was about to come, Malin came to recruit fishermen. The four families who were desperately struggling to follow Malin...

Marin was by the river, built a house for them and settled four families. But the problem came - they didn't have fishing boats...

The four families brought fishing nets, but if there is no boat, is it useful?

Originally, according to the wishes of the four families, they wanted to ask Marin to help them buy a Hanseatic speedboat they were skilled in - a sloop sailboat. However, Marin considered that the inland rivers were different from the outside seas. The wind was strong at sea, and the sails could drive the ships. However, inland rivers, there would be no wind or breezes. At that time, the sailboat would be dumbfounded.

A large "inland sea" like the Mediterranean Sea often has no wind. Therefore, it is popular for Venetians and Rennesians to use galleys. When there is wind, sailing is driven by sails, and when there is no wind, sailors row together...

Although the Ruhr River is not small, it is not big. It would be a waste to introduce Italian sailboats to fish. After thinking about it, Marin decided to use the Oriental inland boat - rowing boat.

Rowing boats are generally not big, with a maximum displacement of only a dozen tons. However, rowing boats have a great advantage - that is, they save labor.

There is an old saying: "One oar and three oars", which means that once rowing the oar is equivalent to rowing three oars. Oars are inventions by orientals and are also very scientific. His advancedness is that the oars are placed behind the oars, similar to later ship propellers. The oars are placed left and right, so it is more laborious to row.

Malin found several shipbuilding craftsmen in the nearby town and spent several days working together to build a small wooden boat with a displacement of about five or six tons and a oar board. Not only that, Malin also asked the craftsmen to build a black tent on the boat to facilitate the rain, which is somewhat similar to the black tent boat in Zhejiang.

To be honest, although Marin knew what the rowing boat looked like, he had never rowed. So, when he first demonstrated to others, the boat was shaking and sometimes even circling. Fortunately, the Friesian fishermen he recruited were more talented than him. After a few days, Marin, the demonstration man, did not master how to row, but the Friesian fishermen, mastered how to row, which made Marin very ashamed.

Then, several Friesian fishermen began to ride rowing boats on the Ruhr River and cast nets to catch fish. It seemed that no one caught fish in the river in this era. Therefore, several fishermen had a great harvest. Every time they fished, they could catch hundreds of pounds of various river fish.

As lords who protect the four families, the Hoffman family got half of them and they were given priority. But what left Marin speechless was that Old Hoffman and others (except Mrs. Mary) seemed to be the first time they ate fish. Old Hoffman and Adler were both stuck in the fish bones and screamed in pain. Fortunately, the three children were not stuck.

After the two mermaid bones were found out, Mrs. Mary decisively ordered that children only eat meat without thorns on the fish belly. The rest of the matter was solved by Mrs. Mary, who grew up on the beach since childhood. As a Friesian, Mrs. Mary grew up eating fish since she was a child, so she naturally would not be stabbed. From then on, the Hoffman family ate fish, and Mrs. Mary wrapped the meat with many thorns on the fish spine. As for the meat and fish roe on the fish belly, they were divided by others.

Marin also showed off his oriental cooking skills, which is said to have learned from "Daxian Einstein", and used Chinese iron pots customized from the blacksmith shop to make many delicious meals. For example, fish, although there is no balsamic vinegar, there is apple cider vinegar in Europe. Marin made a sweet and sour fish, which was so delicious. Before the sweet and sour fish was released, the saliva of the younger brothers and sisters flowed into a long river...

But Marin also has some depression - it is difficult to find ginger in Europe, and there are onions and garlic. However, the taste it makes is not so authentic.

What shocked Marin was that in this era, ginger was actually regarded as a precious spice imported from the East, and was expensive. Although it was not as precious as extremely expensive spices such as lilac and nutmeg, it was considered expensive. According to Old Hoffmann, in the northern part of Germany, a pound of ginger was generally worth 8 shillings (96 Finney), and in some places with inconvenient transportation, you can exchange for a sheep...

A sheep has dozens of pounds of meat. According to 2 pounds of mutton (wholesale purchase price), it is also worth dozens of finneys, which cost about 100 finneys, which is extremely expensive! In fact, considering the value of wool and sheepskin, a sheep is estimated to be worth about 160 finneys, which is about 1 mark.

(Note: Before the rise of Ottoman Turkey, the land trade with the East was still very smooth. Therefore, spices were not particularly expensive at that time. However, after the rise of Ottoman Turkey, it began to block the land trade route, causing the price of spices in Europe to rise wildly. For example, in the early Middle Ages, the price of ginger was only 2 shillings per pound. However, due to the obstruction of the Turks, the price of spices began to rise wildly. When Turkey destroyed the Mamluk Dynasty in Egypt, the land trade routes were basically isolated and could only be obtained by relying on the Portuguese sea route. By the time of Elizabeth I, the price of ginger generally rose to the point where one pound of ginger was exchanged for a sheep.)

Not to mention the ginger, the Hoffman family ate the oriental dishes made by Marin, and they all ate oily mouths, and they didn't care about their image.

Mrs. Mary seemed to realize the value of this oriental cooking, and personally learned oriental cooking with Marin and planned to open a hotel in the city.

But Marin strongly disagrees:

"Mom, I know that using this magical oriental cooking technique to open a restaurant will definitely make money. But have you ever thought about it? If such delicious food appears, those great nobles will let go of this secret technique? They will definitely find ways to take away this oriental cooking technique. At that time, this may not be the luck of the Hoffman family, but a huge disaster. After all, the Hoffman family is just the lowest aristocrat in the empire..."

As soon as Marin said, the smart Mrs. Mary reacted. She was born into a family of aristocrats and naturally knew the dirty things of the nobles. Her son was right. Her family was just the lowest-level nobles and could not withstand the pressure from above. Just the Baron Bochum above their heads asked them to hand over the secret recipe for cooking, the Hoffman family was unable to resist...

In the end, Mrs. Mary decided that this cooking skill was mastered by herself, and was limited to making it for her family...

...

On this day, Malin, who had enough food and drink, decided to go to the back of his territory to take a look...

It’s strange that the 1,000-acre fief of the Hoffman family, except for the 200 acres of land on the Ruhr River, the other 800-acre hilly areas not only cannot grow crops, but also cannot grow trees and weeds.

So, Malin decided to go to the back mountain to study and see why the hilly areas in the back mountain were so barren...

Although Marin is not a geologist, he is not bad as a history student and geography. Not to mention that he can study soil problems, he still knows some simple common sense.

Under the leadership of Marin, several strong young men from Kahn followed Marin to the back mountain area to dig soil for Marin to take samples and inspect.

After investigation, Malin found that the land in the hilly areas of the Houshan Mountain seemed to be a bit salinized. Therefore, the land here is very barren and the plants grow very poorly.

This made Marin a little excited. He doubted whether there was a salt mine underground here...

This suspicion is not unreasonable. Bochum was a famous mining city in later generations, with abundant underground mineral reserves. Perhaps, there is a salt mine buried underground in Hoffman Manor.

You should know that in the Middle Ages, the price of salt was very expensive. How expensive? In the Middle Ages, as an island country, the salt price of Britain was relatively cheap, at 4 shillings (about 48 Finneys) per quarter (12.7 kg) (equivalent to 1.7 Finneys/penny per pound). In the European continent, except for the Mediterranean coastal areas, the salt price in other regions was much more expensive than that in the United Kingdom.

In the German region, the salt price in the northern coastal areas is about 2.5 per pound. In the inland areas, a few hundred miles away from the sea like Bochum is about 3 per pound. In the inland areas further south, the salt price can be as high as 5 per pound.

If a salt mine can be found underground in the Hoffmann Manor, it is basically no different from a silver mine. White salt can be exchanged for white silver and there is no need to worry about sales. The Duke of Lüneburg relied on the salt mine of Lüneburg and became the famous tycoon Duke in Germany.

With the enthusiasm of finding the salt mine, Marin directed Kahn and his men, using Chinese shovels to start digging soil in the back mountain...

After digging a lot, Kahn finally dug a shovel of black dust in a small hilly valley in the back mountain, a few meters deep underground...

"This is...coal..." Marin opened his mouth wide in surprise...

Without the expected salt mine, coal was discovered...

Marin thought about it, but he felt normal. Where is Bochum? Ruhr District. And Hoffman Manor is located on the banks of the Ruhr River. In the Ruhr District, there are coal mines everywhere. It is very normal to dig out coal from the hills behind Hoffman Manor.

However, coal was not as valuable as salt in the Middle Ages, and it was not very popular...

Why? It’s normal that everyone must eat salt. But coal is not necessarily used. Coal can be used as fuel, and firewood can be used. In areas far away from coal mines, instead of trying to transport coal from a distant place, it’s better to pick up some firewood on the spot as fuel.

Unless it is in the city, whether it is a firewood or coal, it must be transported from outside. Moreover, transportation in this city must be convenient and transportation with coal mines must be convenient.

It is now the Middle Ages, not the era of steam engines with amazing coal consumption. In addition, there are coal mines everywhere in the Ruhr area. Therefore, coal mines are not that valuable.

But then again, the back mountain of the Hoffman family was originally a ruined place. Now, there are coal mines at least, so there will be no waste of this place.

When the whole family learned that there was a coal mine in the back mountain, they were very happy. At present, although coal is not very valuable, it can be sold for money. Moreover, Hoffman Manor is right next to the Ruhr River. At that time, as long as a wharf is built on the banks of the Ruhr River, coal can be transported out of ships. The Ruhr River runs through the Rhine River and can reach many cities, making transportation very convenient.

However, the price of coal is really not high at the moment. A Chaltron coal (288 gallons, weighing about 1.5 to 1.7 tons) is only 3 shillings (36 Finneys). Even if it is pulled to the big cities on the Rhine, it is only about 5 shillings. Salt, a quarter (12.7 kg) can be sold for at least 4 shillings. Therefore, coal and salt cannot be compared.

But no matter what, it is convenient to transport water in Hoffman Manor. It is still possible to make money by digging out coal and selling it to various cities. Old Hoffman invited professional mining engineers to conduct an evaluation. After the evaluation, the hilly areas behind Hoffman Manor are full of coal, and they are all first-class coal. It is estimated that digging out several million Chaltrons is not a problem. The coal that is estimated to be dug is no more than 100 meters deep. As for medieval technology, it is still difficult to dig. Not to mention, deep well drainage alone is a big problem. In the 18th century, the British invented the steam engine in order to pump water from deep underground. The Watt steam engine was actually based on the coal mine pumping steam engine, and it was not considered the first invention at all.

Because of the discovery of the coal mine, the old Hoffman and Marin began to urgently discuss how to mine coal and transport sales.

First of all, the Hoffman family must have to recruit a group of serfs to be miners outside. Now there are many serfs who cannot be tolerated by the manor. The main reason is that the serf family has many children, and the manor needs only a limited number of serfs. Therefore, every year, the manor will drive away some extra serfs. These serfs are forced to go to the city or mine to be coolies. Just like the Hoffman Manor, seven or eight young men went to the city to be coolies. Marin knew that it was dangerous to dig coal underground. The Hoffman family's coal mine was obviously an underground coal mine. Although it was not buried deep, it was also underground and not open-pit. The mine was dangerous to go down the mine. The coal mine often exploded and collapsed. Therefore, Marin was unwilling to use the serfs from this manor as coal mine workers. Therefore, recruiting people outside was the best choice.

Then, there is the transportation problem. After the mine is excavated, tracks must be laid and the mine trucks must be pulled along the track to the side of the Ruhr River. This distance is about two kilometers away. After being pulled to the side of the Ruhr River, the Hoffman family also had to build a dock for merchant ships to moor the coal.
Chapter completed!