After Marin sent away the 700 brothers who had fought side by side with him, he was very sad. After all, they fought together for seven or eight months. But he was urgently summoned by the emperor before he could recall the past.

"Oh noon, your Majesty!" At the palace in Vienna, Marin met Maximilian I again.

"Baron Marin, I have something tricky to ask you."

"Speaking!"

"In these French prisoners, some people had strange symptoms! They began to develop nausea abscesses..."

"Syphilis..." Marin exclaimed. When he was in Italy, Marin was excited and forgot about this.

"Syphilis?" The emperor had never heard of this thing, so he was a little confused.

"Your Majesty, this is what I heard from the teacher. This malignant disease called 'syphilis' comes from the West Indies, which is where Columbus discovered..."

"Columbus? I know, he said he discovered a route to India west..." Columbus discovered the New World in 1492. Now three years have passed, and Maximilian I also learned the news.

"In fact, what Columbus discovered was not India at all, but the area where a wilderness group was located..."

"Are you sure?" Maximilian I was a little suspicious, because the Western Europeans had never been to the real India.

"My teacher, I've been to real India!"

"Oh, is it? What does real India look like?"

"The so-called 'India' discovered by Columbus, the people there are yellow-skinned. There are two main types of people in real India, one is the white West Asians, which is similar to the Arabs, and the other is the race with very dark skin..."

"Where is Columbus going?"

"A wild continent to the west has a low level of civilization. Moreover, this terrible syphilis was also from the West Indies."

"How did it come?"

"According to my teacher's inference, it was probably a sailor from Columbus who had had sex with local indigenous women in the West Indies and had contracted this kind of disease. Then, you know, the sailor was a Spanish, who went to Sicily, and then had sex with local prostitutes, and then brought them to Naples near Sicily, and then passed on to Naples' prostitutes, and spread in Naples..."

"It happened that the French invaded Naples, and the French soldiers could not control themselves and went to visit the sick prostitutes. This disease spread to the French army. It is said that this time the French went to tens of thousands of people, and only more than 10,000 people came back intact, but there were still 4,000 people captured by us..."

"So amazing?" Maximilian I took a breath. How powerful and terrifying a disease that destroyed tens of thousands of troops!

"According to the news I found out in Italy, there were only tens of thousands of people who died of this disease within the French army, but it caused an unparalleled panic and caused the morale of the French army to be depressed. Otherwise, Charles VIII would not have led the army to flee north and then was taken advantage of by the ministers. You must know that even when the French army escaped, the Italian coalition suffered a great loss."

Maximilian I nodded, he knew the information about this. The French army that ran away in a hurry still killed 2,000 Italians, while the Italians only caused 1,000 casualties to the French army.

"We have to thank this evil disease, otherwise the French would not retreat so easily, and they might fight us to the end. You should know what the Italian army is. If the Imperial Parliament does not support a full-scale war, we can't defeat the complete French army at all."

"However, this disease is extremely easy to spread. Please be careful of it."

"What? It's serious?"

"Yes, this disease, as long as it has a relationship, there is a high chance of being infected. Your Majesty, think about it, if a person who came back from Italy is infected with this disease, then he went to Vienna to find a prostitute and spread the disease to the prostitute. Then, the soldiers in Vienna also went to find this prostitute, and they were also infected..."

Before he could finish his words, Maximilian I was frightened. If the Vienna army was infected with syphilis in large quantities, the Hungarians could take Austria again without any effort...

"What's the way to deal with me?"

"There is no way, we can only let the soldiers abstain from asceticism for a period of time. Otherwise, if the Vienna army is infected with this kind of disease and loses its combat effectiveness, it will not be able to resist the invasion of the Hungarians..."

"I'm afraid the soldiers will rebound..." Maximilian I was worried.

"It's not a problem. Your Majesty, just tell them the consequences of this evil disease and announce the tragic situation of the French in Naples, and they will know how to choose. Is life important or temporary joy important?"

"Well, what you said makes sense. But, among the 2,000 prisoners, dozens of people seem to have been infected with this kind of disease. What should we do? If they die, they will not receive the ransom..."

As soon as Maximilian I spoke, he exposed his poor nature. He was not worried about the safety of the French, but about not getting the ransom...

“How long have those people had an attack?”

"It's not long before..." It seems that it was in the incubation period before and just broke out.

"That's fine. I may have a way to temporarily suppress this kind of evil disease, but it cannot be eradicated. However, it's okay to persevere until I get the ransom..."

"That's good, that's good!" Maximilian I's eyes lit up. As long as he can get the ransom, he will care about the French to die in the future?

So, Marin proposed a very primitive treatment method - external application of mercury and sulfur...

This is just a way to treat skin diseases, among which mercury is still very toxic. However, if it is used externally, as long as the dosage is controlled well, it is also OK.

Although this method cannot be cured, it can greatly slow down the onset of syphilis and suppress syphilis to a certain extent. Some mild patients may even be cured.

Afterwards, Maximilian I decisively found a hot spring with a strong smell of sulfur, and let the dozens of French people soak in order to kill the germs. In addition, they also asked them to apply some mercury on their affected areas.

In order to prevent syphilis from breaking out in the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian I issued an edict introducing the source of syphilis, using the formal name "syphilis" to define the disease, and strictly prohibiting any prostitute from receiving guests from Italy and France, otherwise he would be executed...
Chapter completed!