Chapter 15 Making Gunpowder
In the afternoon, it was easier to build a house with Qingsong, but there was only one carpenter in Qingsong, and he was so old that he couldn't be busy just digging holes. On the one hand, please ask the uncle to put down other work to create a batch of chisels, on the other hand, they will recruit others to learn to use chisels, not to ask for a group of carpenters to be able to produce a group of carpenters immediately, but it is better to have a batch of chisels.www.biquge.info Ten chisels were left, and the rest of the adults hurried to level the new foundation. After several mistakes in arrangement, the old people and Xiaogang all made reflections, and things still had to be rhythmic, and seeing that the New Year was approaching, they couldn't mess up, so everyone called it a day early in the afternoon.
When the veterans drove the military horses back to pull the green bricks, they were also stopped by Qing Song, who was waiting at the entrance of the village: "Don't do it again today, everyone take a rest and let the horses rest well! I will let people boil a lot of hot water and take a bath, and give everyone some good wine for dinner!" This decision was approved by the whole village.
Then the old people and Xiao Gang held a meeting in the backyard shed to discuss the arrangement of work, and the meeting resulted in a discussion that tomorrow let the adult young people and veterans drive the horses to Shigang Village to retrieve some urgent materials, and then recruit some temporary workers from Shigang Village to help with transportation, mainly to learn to drive horses. Let the young people get all the wheelbarrows stored in the cave, and they are not afraid of being known, which they will not be able to do well if they learn it, and it will be promoted to the whole country in the future. Then hand over the remaining twelve ingots of gold to the stones, and all go to Jinsha City to exchange them for silver two coins, and when you go to exchange money, you can find Liangpi and tell him not to transport things to Shigang Village for the time being, let him keep the materials of the village in Jinsha City, first, if Jinsha City needs to work, Liangpi will send someone to Shigang Village, and the transport team will come over, and immediately notify the Lifudian family to move to the village, and Liangpi will send chariots and horses to Shigang Village to help them, and then wait for the transport team to arrive, and use horses to help them move over, first make winter clothes for the veterans. When the adults in the village had learned to drive their horses, they would give enough money to the lone veterans to be entangled and let them go immediately. After the wheelbarrow came back, ten adults were arranged every day to follow the green pine to learn the chisel, and the matter of the saw should still be kept secret, and the construction site should be fenced with coarse cloth in the future.
After the blacksmith has a good chisel, he will continue to produce a saw and an axe, and when the temporary workers from Sands City arrive, let them go and bring back the huge logs that were put down on the surrounding hillsides a few days ago, I don't know when it will start to snow, once it snows, the weather will be very cold, and the road will be more difficult, and the transport team will also have to shoulder the responsibility of building a transfer station on the way halfway, thinking about it, or let the people of Shigang Village do this thing, let the transport team bring some green bricks every time they set off from the village, and each horse should bring thirty green bricks, and the transfer station must be largeIt is estimated that a large area of sheds can be built in one day by cutting bamboo or wood on the spot and cutting bamboo or wood to build a large shed.
After the shed was built, the horse team was divided into two teams, while going to Shigang Village to transport materials to the home, while moving from home to green bricks, continuing to expand the ground of the transfer station, and pulling back the materials from Shigang Village from the transfer station, so that the horse team in the village would be more difficult, so the transfer station was set in the place where everyone went out to sell wine and rest at noon last time, the horses came and went faster than the wheelbarrow, but the horses needed more time to rest, and when the horses rested, the people of the transport team could just lay green bricks or strengthen the shed.
Zhuzi and Qingshan should hurry up to brew sorghum wine, and let Qingshi go to Fengxian County again to discuss with Niu Nan and ask him if he still wants the immortals to get drunk, and let him go to other county or state cities to sell, but he can't owe money. The new wine will be pulled to Sands City and stored for Liangpi to send troops to guard it, and Niu Nan will give him as much wine as he brings in gold. Qingshi can go to negotiate with Niu Nan, and the bottom line of the price is two grades of nine taels of gold, and three grades of seven taels. Let's just say that the family always steals wine and drinks and doesn't dare to store it at home, and if they save it, they will lose their money, so they will deal with him cheaply. When the gold arrives, he will give the county order five ingots of gold to Jinsha Cheng and let him help buy pigs and sheep, and collect as much as he can within the jurisdiction of Jinsha City, and let Qingshi Shou pay in Jinsha City. After the pigs and sheep are received, the pigs are sent by Liangpi and a horse-drawn carriage, and the sheep walk to Shigang Village, rest in Shigang Village for a night and feed well, and then let Shigang Village walk to the transfer station. Try not to let the pigs die of exhaustion in the middle of the road, of course the sheep will not be tired to death.
After the meeting, the family killed a fat pig, and everyone had meat to eat at night. Everything went according to the track arranged at the meeting, and the production of ash and soda was very low, but it was possible to produce some of it every day. After Shigang Village sent some sulfur ore, Xiao Gang unhurriedly asked Qingsong and his uncle to work together to make cooling tools to prepare for refining sulfur, and the pollution with cooling tools would be greatly reduced. Mobilize the children to search for soil under the walls of each house. Let some pottery cauldrons be burned in the kiln before the most difficult refining of the moment, sulfur and nitrate, begins. The backyard was steaming and fermenting the grain day and night, waiting for the wine, the pillars and the green mountains had been replaced to rest, and the aunts were barely enough to help. The old ladies are also very hard to cook every day, but fortunately there is enough honey to supplement the nutrients. On the contrary, the old people's health is getting better and better, and Aunt Cuihua doesn't need a cane anymore!
Finally, there are more than 100 temporary workers in Jinsha City when there is still a month and a half for the Chinese New Year, and the whole family of Lifudian has also followed, and it is Da Qing Belt! In the end, Liang Pi still has to take care of him, Da Qing Pi met Liang Pi's mother and learned about the honey and begged Qing Song to let him pick up the old lady over, Qing Song was approved, but Da Qing Pi had not started to work and was going to run away again, before returning to Jinsha City, he explained that the second skin face first helped him to OEM the other riffraff with him to meet the old lady. With so many people coming, the shortage of manpower has finally improved, and there is no need to cover up the construction site with fabrics. In the middle of the village, a large area of wood was fenced off so that the workers of Sands City could carry the mountain back during the day and sleep in tents at night. The whole family of Lifu shop kept rushing to make new winter clothes, and the aunts stopped steaming the grain to help sew, and the golden scissors were mainly for measuring and cutting, which was much more efficient.
On the winter solstice, heavy snow fell in the sky, and the plan to buy fat pigs was aborted, and the temperature plummeted, not to mention that there is no money now, even if there are collected pigs, they will be frozen to death on the road. The snow fell intermittently for three days, and all the people could not work outdoors for these three days, and it was terribly cold in the tent. Fortunately, a lot of cotton clothes and cotton pants were made first, and there were still more than 30 people who did not wear cotton clothes and cotton pants, but the quilt was enough for them to nest in the quilt and wait. The transportation was also stopped, and all the manpower was concentrated to rush to put the horse pen with a blue brick wall when it was snowing. The lime was too late to mix with mud, and all the mortar was freshly made from the quicklime that had been burned before, and the hot air came out of the lime pile in the cold air, and before it cooled down, it was carried to build the wall with a bamboo basket. The snow had stopped, the whole village was full of fires that had been raised for warmth, and sometimes some rosin was thrown in to increase the burning, lime mixed with yellow mud and grass stalks began to build walls vigorously, and construction began to take place where huge wooden frames had been built. The men of the village are divided into two teams, one quietly brewing wine in the backyard and the other working on wood in the tent area. The village killed all the adult sheep to make soup for everyone to celebrate the festival, and the two skins ran east and west shouting: "The city lord has killed all the fat sheep to make up for the winter solstice festival for everyone, everyone work hard!" Three days later, the walls of the two new houses were completed at the same time, and all the workers from Jinsha City also put on the cotton clothes and pants of Zanxin, and the two houses were made of thick wooden planks, and the small green tiles were also neatly covered with the roof, and then the interior was powdered, and the white lime and rice milk were evenly smeared on the wall with tools made of green pine, and when they were about to solidify, they were compacted and polished with the tools made by the uncle.
The new houses here and there are finally completed, and the ruffians also carried the old lady with the big green skin in the cold wind at this time. It turned out that when they rushed back to Shigang Village, they happened to encounter snow and did not move forward, and they stayed in Shigang Village for three days before they began to take dry food on the road again. The old man didn't dare to walk too fast, and rested there for the night, many places at the transfer station had been crushed by heavy snow, but fortunately there were no supplies left. Da Qingpi was very guilty about picking up his wife because he had delayed so much time, but Qingsong didn't blame him, but praised him for his filial piety, and Da Qingpi said that he would work hard to repay the city lord!
Knowing that the transfer station had collapsed a lot, the village sent 50 workers to rest by pillars carrying five green bricks each. And inform Shigang Village to suspend transportation, and be sure to wait for the road situation to improve before going on the road. The rest of the people continued to be busy in the village, building the vacant land into new houses. The new houses that have been completed are too cold to live in because they are powdered, but fortunately the ground is made of green bricks, and each house is made of charcoal, and the older children take care of it so that the fire will not go out.
In the blink of an eye, fifteen new houses have been completed, and five of them are on the first floor for occupancy.
The workers of Jinsha City became the first batch to move into the new house, and the convoy also set off again, this time fifty horses, each carrying four jars of sorghum wine, to go directly to Jinsha City, Qingshi is not young, such an intensity, I am afraid that he will not be able to stand the pillar, and he also took ten brothers and all the veterans to follow, there is no way! If you want to run on, you must have the support of money. After Qingshi left, Qingsong stopped the construction of the house, and let Daqingpi lead the workers of Sands Cotai to start paving the road, and 32 wheelbarrows were pushed by 32 people, pulled by 32 people, and walked along the road that was built last month. The steep place of the road is bypassed or the blacksmiths make tools to slow down the slope, the road as long as the conditions are widened as much as possible, the workers who do not have carts go to pave bricks and level the road, the new road extends at the foot of the fifth day of the lunar month and finally arrives at the transfer station! At the same time, Qingshi also completed this transaction with Niu Nan in Jinsha City, because Niu Nan did not have enough money and wanted to buy all the immortals drunk this time, Qingshi found the Fengxian County soldiers and horses to be a witness and let Niu Nan set up a note, so it was delayed for some time. When the two hundred gold was in hand, he immediately asked the Jinshacheng County Commander to help buy pigs and fat sheep. Bluestone left one hundred and fifty gold, and asked the pillar to go home with the horse team and the county order using the silver and coins worth fifty gold that had only been exchanged for the stock of Sands City. The county order also asked the twenty officials to escort the convoy to Fengxian County to find the city guard to exchange one hundred gold of silver and coins, and the forty officials went out to buy pigs and fat sheep, of course, the wages let Qingshi out.
In this cold winter, Qingshi gave a salary of 100 yuan a day, so that these officials were willing to endure the cold to do this thing that should not be done by themselves. Why is it so troublesome? The soldiers of the Soldiers and Horses Division cannot leave the garrison city indiscriminately, and the official service to and from the city is a normal official business, but there are too many official servants used. They are also trying their best to earn some extra money. If these things are found out from above, both adults will be punished, but fortunately, the county keeper is a not too nosy person!
Xiao Gang also gathered enough materials to make twenty catties of black powder at this time, and began to stir carefully and slowly with a wooden tool made of green pine. Use a wooden frame to fix the suspended wooden spiral fan blades, and use the wood gear to drive the wooden basin to rotate. Although there was no accident with the addition of clear water, Xiao Gang still repeated it like this. After completing the mixing, two-thirds of the materials were separated, and a small amount of pulp and rice pulp was mixed into the bamboo tube as a binder and stabilizer, leaving a place with a bamboo skewer to fill the gunpowder and leads, and Aomatsu and Aoyama went into battle in person, carefully making these things according to Xiao Gang's instructions, which they did not understand. The blacksmiths were put on vacation because of Xiao Gang's secret production this time. After these steps were completed, Qingsong called the adults of the village to carry the bamboo tubes on their backs to the brick kiln, which had been suspended for a long time, and the wet black powder was also wrapped in thick rough paper and sent to the brick kiln, which was dry enough and kept secret so that no one could see it. Then the entire backyard was cleaned with ice-cold clean water, and the blacksmiths were allowed to start making brick tongs. While the blacksmiths were working, the pillars also returned with a team of horses. In the front yard, he vacated the firewood room to pack the coins in exchange, and moved the silver to the room of the green pine in the backyard.
In order to hold the alcohol that is easy to emit Xiao Gang asked his uncle to try to make a wine jug with silver, but fortunately the silver texture is relatively soft, and after many failures, the uncle finally succeeded in making three wine jugs with a spout with threads that can hold two catties. There are still ten days left to do this, and the Spring Festival is coming, and the road paved with blue bricks is about to connect to Shigang Village, and 200 pigs and 500 fat sheep have also been sent to the village by the leather armor soldiers of the Liangpi faction. This was a timely rain sent by two people in Jinsha City at great risk, and each soldier gave them a reward of two taels of silver and sent them back quickly. The next day after the soldiers set out on their way back to the city, it snowed again, and the work on the road was halted again. There was no time to worry about whether the soldiers would be blocked, so they began to kill pigs and make bacon in the front yard. Because of the alkali, Xiaogang asked Qingsong to boil the pork neck meat, fat, and lard and move it to the backyard to make soap, killing ten pigs every day, and eating just some things that are not easy to preserve. It took five days for the snow to stop completely, and the bacon was already hanging in the place where the Sands workers used to pitch their tents. Seeing so much bacon, everyone was beaming, Qingsong told the workers in Jinsha City that if they want to go back for the New Year now, if they don't go back for the New Year, the reward of 200 yuan per person will be given after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and then they will give a piece of bacon to calculate the wages and go home, and everyone is willing to go home after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. The ruffians are even more simply, and when the spring comes, they will take the whole family and ask the city lord to help transfer the household registration. Qingsong said: "Since everyone is not in a hurry to go back to the city, let's continue to build the road!" So Daqingpi took the workers of Jinsha City to continue to build the road, and the veterans who did not go to the lone veterans also drove the horse team to help transport the green bricks, because the road has improved, and now the transportation capacity of the horses has greatly increased.
After they left the village, Qing Song led the middle-aged men of the village to the brick kiln five miles away with Xiaogang Pillar and Qingshan. When I got here, I opened the brick embryo at the door, carefully took out the gunpowder and bamboo tube that had been dried, and Xiao Gang personally completed the final step to make a detonator, Xiao Gang first rubbed the lead with tissue paper and gunpowder into a hemp rope shape, then inserted it into the bamboo tube, poured gunpowder into the center, and plugged it with grease-soaked paper and sealed it with lard, placed it in the distance and connected a long lead, took out the match that Qingsong helped to make and scratched it on a small black wooden board. Light a pine torch and give it to the pillar, tell it to light the fuse, and tell him to run back as soon as it is lit. The pillar nodded cautiously, ran with a torch and lit the fuse, and ran back as fast as he could. I saw a small pinch of smoke moving forward unhurriedly, and Xiao Gang beckoned everyone to cover their ears with their hands. The moment everyone covered their ears, the smoke accelerated, and then there was a loud bang, and the sand and rocks were flying, and the earth was trembling! Everyone was stunned! After the shock, there were all kinds of noises in the mountains, and squirrels and rabbits were seen jumping everywhere, and after a while, pheasants fluttered and crashed, and the quail also appeared. Everyone looked at Xiao Gang in astonishment, and finally understood why Xiao Gang repeatedly explained all kinds of cautions, and Xiao Gang was also excited and blushed and smirked! Xiao Gang said: "It's done! With this thing, it will be much safer for us to go into the mountains to find the bones of our ancestors!" For a while, cheers rang out! Qingsong Qingshan knelt down in the general direction of the burial of his ancestors, crying and shouting! After a while, Xiao Gang beckoned to the pillar: "Dad! Let the uncles and uncles go and help the two grandfathers up!" After sealing the brick kiln again, everyone returned to the village, and the village also heard a loud noise, but Xiao Gang and his party did not say anything.
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