Once the goal is clear, it's time to take action. After sending off his uncle Zhang Siwei, Gao Pragmatic called the only person under his command who could go out, the scholar Gao Xiaozhuang, to his study and asked him to go out to inquire about the price of a few things.

Gao Xiaozhuang is fifteen years old this year, as his name suggests, although he is not very old, but he looks tall and strong among his peers, with a high and pragmatic estimate, this kid is estimated to be more than one meter seventy-five according to the weights and measures of his previous life, and his shoulders are wide and his shoulders are thick, and he has one hundred and fifty pounds. In Gao Shishi's previous life, it was not uncommon for him to grow to 1.75 meters at the age of fifteen, as for his weight...... Hehe, exceeding the standard is guaranteed, after all, the nutrition is simply too sufficient. But Gao Xiaozhuang, who was born in the Ming Dynasty, is just a "family child", although he is quite guaranteed to eat well, but to say how adequate the nutrition can be, I am afraid that he thinks a little too much, and he can grow to this size, which can only be said to be a genetic problem - his father Gao Lao Si is quite burly, and he is one of the few strong men in the Xinzheng Gao family.

Gao Xiaozhuang didn't originally work in Gao Gong's family, he was the son of Gao's sixth house, that is, Gao Pragmatic and his father's Gao Xuan. However, Gao Xuan has been away all the year round, but Gao Xiaozhuang has been staying in Xinzheng and has been by Gao Shishi's side for a long time. This time, Gao Gong took Gao Pragmatic to Beijing first, but Gao Xiaozhuang and a few other subordinates were then sent by Gao Pragmatic's mother Zhang to take care of Gao Pragmatic, after all, in Zhang's opinion, Gao Xiaozhuang and the other four people have served Gao Pragmatic for several years, and they are both familiar and assured. The four people sent by the Zhang family, in addition to Gao Xiaozhuang, a scholar, also had a horse groom and two maids.

Gao pragmatic is still young, there is no chance to ride a horse, the groom is actually used as a handlebar on weekdays, and older, in his early forties, usually silent, Gao pragmatic in addition to knowing that his driving skills are good and his strength is not small, but not much communication with him, really can't talk about understanding, this kind of purchase will obviously not be handed over to him to do.

As for the two maids, they are twin sisters, and their original names can't even be remembered by themselves, anyway, now one is called Moon-Watching and the other is Tingqin, which was taken by a pragmatic mother. It stands to reason that it is not uncommon for the maids to go out to buy something, but the sisters are also very young, and they are only eleven years old this year. In fact, they were sold into Gaofu as maids as early as four years old, and they are also the "old men" around Gao Pragmatic, of course, there is no problem with loyalty, but it is not very appropriate to let the two little girls do this.

In this way, Gao Pragmatic had no choice but to pull out the general among the short men and let Gao Xiaozhuang go for a run. Gao pragmatic asked Gao Xiaozhuang to inquire about the price, which was basically related to the manufacture of soap, and of course, there were several spices that could be used to make fixatives.

As we all know, the basis of the modern chemical industry is "three acids and two alkalis", "three acids" are sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, and "two alkalis" are caustic soda and soda ash (sodium carbonate). Perhaps in the impression of many people, only sodium carbonate is a commonly used chemical material in ancient China, after all, who makes steamed bread without alkali? But this impression is actually too underestimating the wisdom of the ancient Chinese, in fact, in ancient China, sulfuric acid, nitric acid and even caustic soda could be made and were actually made.

The main raw material for the manufacture of sulfuric acid in ancient China was alum, also known as alum. When the heat of alum reaches more than 500 °C, it can decompose to form iron oxide, sulfur dioxide, sulfur trioxide and water; Sulfur trioxide reacts with water to form sulfuric acid. The chemical equation is: 2FeSO4·7H2O = (high temperature) Fe2O3 + SO2 + SO3 + 14H2O

There is sulfur trioxide in its product, and sulfur trioxide is dissolved in water to become sulfuric acid. Because this sulfuric acid is obtained by calcining alum, it was called "alum oil" in ancient China. Green alum is a traditional Chinese medicine in ancient China, there are many pharmacopoeia records, the method of calcining green alum is not difficult: put the green alum and rice vinegar in the casserole and cover it, put it on the charcoal stove to burn, when the green alum is dissolved, that is, stir evenly with bamboo slices, so that the alum and vinegar are fully mixed, and then heat and calcine again until all are crimson for the degree, take out and let it cool. [Note: The ratio recorded in ancient times was "100 catties of calcined green alum, 20 catties of rice vinegar per calcined alum.] ]

Gao Shishi is not very clear how the ancient Chinese method of making nitric acid was obtained, but he knows that in the eighth century AD, the Arab alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan discovered and prepared nitric acid while drying saltpeter, which seems to be the earliest record of nitric acid by humans. At the same time, he was also the discoverer of sulfuric acid and aqua regia. Therefore, China may have obtained the method of making nitric acid through the Silk Road or the Maritime Silk Road during the Tang and Song dynasties.

As for saltpeter (potassium nitrate), it has always been considered a specialty of China in ancient times, because only Chinese can refine naturally occurring potassium nitrate.

It is recorded in "Heavenly Creation": "Where nitrate, Huayi is born, and China specializes in the northwest." If the southeast traffickers do not give official citations, they will be guilty of believing that they are private goods. Nitrate is the same as salt, and it is vaporized by moisture under the earth, and it is now on the ground. Those who are close to the water and the soil is thin become salt, and those who are close to the mountains and the soil is thick become nitrate. It dissolves when it enters the water, so it is called "nitrate". Long, Huai north, the Mid-Autumn Festival, that is, in the living room, sweeping the floor every other day, you can take a little for refining.

Where the three nitrates are the most: those who come out of Shu are called Sichuan nitrate, those who are born in Shanxi are commonly called salt nitrate, and those who are born in Shandong are commonly called soil nitrate. When the nitrate scraping and sweeping (in the wall or in and out), into the tank water immersion for a night, the filth and miscellaneous things float on the surface, when the grabs away, and then into the kettle, water is poured into the decoction. The nitrified water is dried, poured into the vessel, and after a night, it is formed into nitrate. The one who floats above it is called mango nitrate, the old man is called horse tooth nitrate (all from the essence of the party), and the miscellaneous one under it is called Pu nitrate. If you want to remove impurities and return to purity, you can refine. Put a few pieces of laiphane into the same cooking, pour it into a basin, and form snow after the night, then call the pot nitrate. Where gunpowder is made, the function of tooth nitrate and pot nitrate is the same.

Where nitrate is used, the less is baked with new tiles, and the more is baked with clay kettles, and the moisture is dried up, that is, the end of the research. Where nitrate is not crushed into the stone mortar with iron, and the fire is excited, the disaster is unpredictable. Where nitrate is prepared what medicine is divided into two, into the yellow and research, charcoal is added from the back. After the nitrate is baked, it will be reborn after a long time. Huge cannons are used, mostly from advent loading also. ”

Although it is still forty or fifty years before "Heavenly Creation" appears, its technology has already existed - in fact, there is no need to say much about this, otherwise how would gunpowder come from?

To put it simply, potassium nitrate is calcined in a closed container to produce nitrogen dioxide, which is dissolved in water to become nitric acid. Nitric acid is mixed with sulfuric acid, which is the extremely corrosive aqua regia, and the Arab alchemist should have used the above method to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

As for the production method of caustic soda, it is even simpler. The chemical composition of hydrated lime, which is often used to build houses, is calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2), and caustic soda can be obtained by mixing it with a solution of alkali (Na2CO3). The chemical reaction equation is: Ca(OH)2+Na2CO3=CaCO3(precipitation)+2NaOH

Caustic soda has many uses, such as Gao Shipra, which is now being used to make soap. The manufacture of soap is also very simple, in fact, it is to use the caustic soda generated by the reaction to saponify the fat and turn it into soap. However, it is also a coincidence, the reason why Gao Pragmatic remembers clearly is because when he inspected a primary school in the town when he was the mayor of the town, the primary school was engaged in comprehensive practice and interest cultivation, and it happened that Gao Pragmatic saw those children making a lot of fancy little soap with high interest. At that time, in order to show the great image of caring for the flowers of the motherland, the mayor of Gao Da was enthusiastic to work with the children and made a few pieces of soap...... Of course, in all kinds of time-traveling novels, the protagonist makes soap is a standing skill, and he can learn it by reading novels when he has nothing to do.

As for soda ash, the current soda ash is not an industrial soda ash made by the famous alkali making method in later generations, but uses natural soda ash. Of course, at present, on the side of the capital, it should mainly use the "mouth alkali" produced in the Hetao area of Mongolia - most of it should be produced in the alkali lake belt of Eketuo Banner in Inner Mongolia in later generations. Soda ash in alkali lakes, like salt in salt lakes, requires little technology, can be sold directly in a truck, and because the Mongols themselves are not very useful for taking alkali themselves, it is used as a simple means of generating income, and the price is not high - or to put it simply: shockingly cheap.