Lost and Spy

Chapter 3448: Alcoholism
The house is completely suitable for a bachelor to live in.

Dirty and messy.

The ground was littered with cigarette butts and wine bottles.

It seems that this so-called "waiter" named Bella relies on these to kill her empty time every day.

As for the others?
Wu Kang and Yuan Bin searched for a long time but found no clues.

Gan Ning didn't seem to be in a hurry at all.

He picked up the half-drunk bottle of wine on the table, uncorked it, and sniffed it. He even poured some into his palm and tasted it.

Wu Kang and Yuan Bin were somewhat puzzled and looked at Gan Ning curiously.

"Do you know what kind of wine this is?" Gan Ning suddenly asked.

Both of them shook their heads.

“It’s called a torpedo.”

When Gan Ning said this, both of them were stunned: "What kind of wine? Torpedo wine?"

"You heard it right, it's torpedo wine." Gan Ning said with a smile: "This was invented by real American soldiers."

If Meng Shaoyuan were here, he could also tell them that this was the earliest "cocktail".

In the early 20th century, the United States once issued a very strict prohibition law, which destroyed all kinds of alcohol and made alcohol as hard to come by as drugs.

This is already very uncomfortable for ordinary people, and it is even more painful for American soldiers who are fighting hard on the battlefields of World War II.

It was a torture for the alcoholic American soldiers.

Especially during World War II, US warships were ordered to attack Japanese ships in the Pacific Ocean. The soldiers would not be able to go ashore for a long time, which meant that they could not drink for a long time, which was really unbearable for the soldiers.

But military orders are as firm as a mountain. No matter how dissatisfied the soldiers were, no one dared to disobey orders and bring wine on board. But they were unwilling to give up drinking. So what should they do?
Then I had to brew wine privately.

This is a secret accidentally discovered by a soldier on a warship. He is usually responsible for maintaining the torpedoes. One time, he suddenly found that the fuel used to propel the torpedoes on the warship was actually edible.

At that time, the torpedoes equipped by the US Navy were MK14 torpedoes and MK10 torpedoes. These two torpedoes had one thing in common, which was that they required ethanol brewed from grains as fuel.

To put it simply, ethanol is alcohol. There is nothing wrong with it except that its alcohol content is too high. If you dilute it with some water or soda, wouldn't it become fine wine?

So the American submarine soldiers were not polite and directly pried open the torpedo to take out the ethanol, and then mixed the ethanol with fruit juice to make a delicious cocktail, so this name came into being:

Torpedo juice!

Then began the happy days of drinking underwater.

While the American submarine soldiers were drinking happily, they also boasted to their comrades in the surface fleet during their rest periods about how they managed to drink delicious cocktails underwater.

After this statement was made, the officers and soldiers of the U.S. Navy's surface fleet could no longer sit still, and they followed suit and soon drank the torpedo juice.

However, because the officers and soldiers of the surface fleet failed to handle the evidence properly, they were caught red-handed by the military police, and this matter reached the ears of the top US Navy officials.

The top U.S. Navy officers and soldiers who drank alcohol were immediately ordered to be severely punished, but military orders are not always followed when they are abroad, and the senior officers on the fleet ships also turned a blind eye to these things.

The top US Navy officials thought about it and decided, let’s add some ingredients to the ethanol.

The top brass of the U.S. Navy were not good people either. They began mixing dyes with ethanol in a certain proportion. The soldiers suffered from vomiting and diarrhea after drinking it, and some even drank too much and were directly poisoned.

Later, because the dye was not very effective, the U.S. Navy simply replaced it with toxic methanol. This made the U.S. submarine soldiers even more miserable. Whether they were unaware or aware of the situation, they still couldn't help it. Countless people were poisoned, and some unlucky ones even died from drinking it.

In the end, thousands of soldiers died or became blind from drinking torpedo fuel, which frightened the soldiers and made them afraid to drink fuel again.

But the temptation of alcohol was too great, and soon the soldiers figured out various ways to filter the methanol, so soon they were back to drinking Torpedo Cocktails.

When the U.S. Navy top brass saw that methanol failed to prevent soldiers from stealing torpedo fuel, they switched to adding croton oil.

Although croton oil is not as fatal as methanol, it can cause abdominal pain and diarrhea, which is more uncomfortable than methanol.

However, this did not pose a problem for the soldiers who were addicted to alcohol. They soon invented a "torpedo juice" distiller that could separate alcohol and croton oil, so they could continue drinking.

Speaking of these American soldiers, they have truly fully developed their talents in order to drink.

Some black market merchants also saw its commercial value and began selling torpedo cocktails among the public.

Since this torpedo wine was almost zero cost for American soldiers to produce, while satisfying their own appetite, they also began to secretly sell it to black market merchants.

After the explanation, Gan Ning continued, "Now, you can find torpedo wine in many places in the Philippines. However, the demand for it among American soldiers is huge, so only a small amount can be provided to black market traders, and this half bottle of wine is torpedo wine!"

Wu Kang understood immediately: "The quantity is not large, so the price must be high. There are so many empty bottles here, Bella must have a lot of money. Maybe Takeda left him some gold bars."

"It will definitely stay." Gan Ning said very confidently: "Besides, I think there are not many black market merchants in Quezon who can provide this kind of wine. Then, I think we have a clue."

Yuan Bin frowned and said, "You mean, Bella will take the risk to buy wine? And as long as we control the black market dealers who sell wine, we can find Bella and Takeda?"

Wu Kang also said: "The question is, in such a dangerous situation, will Bella show up?"

Gan Ning smiled faintly: "You don't know how deep a drunkard's desire for wine is. Even though the U.S. Navy added toxic substances and thousands of American soldiers died, those American soldiers still brewed wine regardless of the risk of their lives.

What about Bella? Judging from all the empty bottles here, he is also a heavy drinker. Once the addiction to alcohol strikes, it's not easy, so I'm sure Bella will go out to find some wine."

Wu Kang and Yuan Bin immediately became excited: "Understood, let's go out and look for the black market liquor dealer immediately."

"Don't worry." Gan Ning was confident: "Takeda just ran away with his men. Bella can still control him for a while. Wu Kang, go find the black market wine dealer. Yuan Bin, come with me to do some things. If we catch Takeda this time, I will treat him well!"

(End of this chapter)