On the dock of Nanao Island, Zheng Zhibao walked briskly from the ship across the deck, raised his head to look at the Zhengzi flag flying high above the city, and couldn't help but feel a burst of joy in his heart.

After the Battle of Kinmen Bay, the imperial court rewarded it, on the one hand, Zheng Zhilong dotted up and down, scattering gold, silver and jewelry, and on the other hand, it was also the real results of the battle in front of the princes of the imperial court. As the saying goes, people are heroes, money is courage, and Zheng Zhilong can be described as a rich hero. Therefore, the bigwigs in the DPRK and China are naturally figures who have a discerning eye for heroes.

Zheng Zhilong became the commander-in-chief of Nanao, managing the sea surface of Fujian and Guangdong, and also managing the affairs of Fujian and Guangdong to suppress bandits.

At this moment, the private soldiers of the Zheng family can completely stand in the sun, and fight smuggling on the sea under the banner of the Ming official army, and arrest the bandits.

"Big brother! Eldest brother! ”

Watching his brother Zheng Zhilong drinking tea under the banyan tree from afar, Zhibao trotted all the way over briskly.

"Have you done everything for the big guy?"

Zhilong handed Zhibao a teacup, motioned for him to take a sip of tea first, and said slowly.

Zhibao went to the big man this time to handle the transfer with Zhang Xiaohu, the commander of the left wing of the naval division of the South Central Army. After cleaning up the Spaniards in the big army, the South Chinese Army said to the Zheng family that we are few people and sparsely shipped, and the big people are too far away from our fundamental place.

The expansion of strength and territory is naturally gratifying, and with the Spanish base in Dayuan, it is possible to increase the number of immigrants who travel between Fujian and Dayuan. More grain could be fetched, and a trading post could be set up in Daikan, as the Dutch were doing now, to trade with Japan.

"Zhang Xiaoliuzi's guy is very righteous this time, and he didn't make it difficult for us at all, and handed over the Spanish castle, forts, artillery, gunpowder, and warehouses to us."

In addition, he robbed nine of the merchant houses opened by the Dutch in Dayuan. Proceeds of property. The color of the goods is also added to five with us, two and a half. I made a rough estimate, just the tens of thousands of bundles of raw silk. Shipped to Nagasaki. You can sell it for more than 100,000 pieces of silver! With this silver. We can recruit at least 30,000 displaced people to reclaim the land! ”

Zheng Zhilong used to recruit displaced people in Fujian to open up the wasteland in Dayuan, and he gave money to those who were willing to go to sea at a price of two yuan per person, encouraging them to go to Dayuan to farm. Now there is territory. With these belongings, the cost of money and food for these tens of thousands of people to go to sea to clear the wasteland will not be a problem.

However, Zhi Leopard's eyebrows danced for a long time, but he found that the eldest brother's face was only reluctant to smile, and his face was very ugly.

"Brother, what's wrong?"

Zhibao put down the teacup in his hand, approached the eldest brother, and asked in a low voice.

"You go down first."

Zhilong waved his hand and retreated the soldiers who were waiting beside him, letting them stand far away, and the two brothers began to discuss secretly.

"These days, when you go to Dayuan, the Liangguang region is not peaceful, and the Nanzhong Army is attacking the city in Liangguang. coerced the people to go to sea, and pulled out the gentry's encirclement in all directions, and some people who had a relationship with us wrote to Brother Wei for help, asking us to send troops to help. ”

"Brother! That's a big deal! Can we turn against the South China Army now? If we turn the other cheek, do we have the strength to face them head-on?! After listening to what his brother said, Zhibao immediately adjusted the angle of looking at the problem to the interests and disadvantages, and began to analyze the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us.

"It is also very difficult for my brother, it is said that this matter should be under the control of Governor Xiong, but Governor Xiong only watches flowers, listens to music, drinks and writes poems every day in the city of Guangzhou, and reports to the imperial court are, 'Although there are small groups of hungry people and bandits, they are not enough to cause trouble, and there has never been a county town in eastern Guangdong that has fallen so far.' Judging from the facts, Guangdong has indeed not lost a county seat at present, and all that has been lost is some township ruins. However, our people have reported from there, and in many places, it has been decreed that they will not go out of the city gates! If it weren't for the brothers below who played the banner of our Zheng Jiajun, I'm afraid it would be difficult to move an inch! ”

"The news sent by the secret piles everywhere, by the end of last month, that is, in October of the seventh year of Chongzhen, the territory of Liangguang that was openly and secretly controlled by the Nanzhong military was almost more than thirty percent! This is not counting the chaotic people who were bought by the Nanzhong military with knives, guns and equipment, and the territory controlled by the outside camp, if they are all counted, I am afraid that it will be more than sixty percent! ”

Since the meeting on Nan'ao Island, the Zheng family and the South Central Army have reached their respective sphere of influence agreements, the Zheng family to the east and north, and the South Central Army to the west and south. However, he only ignored the division of the development direction of the mainland, and now Zheng Zhilong remembered it, and couldn't help but grit his teeth and scold in his heart, this kid of the Li family was obviously premeditated and was ready to grab land with me on land! However, he knows his own affairs, and Zheng Jun can be said to be able to compete with the Nanzhong Army at sea, but on land, I am afraid that Ding Zhuang, who receives three months of training every year during the agricultural slack, can defeat Zheng Jun!

Moreover, what worries Zhilong even more is that the ships and sailors that were lent to the Nanzhong Army before have completely fallen to the Nanzhong Army, and many people have come back to pick up their families and family members to Nanzhong with a bit of a taste of returning to their hometowns, saying that they give land there, and the salary is high and the price is low, which can make their parents, wives and children live a comfortable life for a few years. Such news spread in the army, causing some soldiers and sailors to have the idea of changing jobs, forcing Zhilong to send everyone two months' salary and a month's Mid-Autumn Festival gift to suppress this trend of thought.

"Our merchants have heard from all over the south and central that ships are being built in various shipyards, and it is said that the largest shipyard launches six ships of various types every three months, including two gunboats and four large and small ships. If this continues, Old Five, we will soon be forced into a corner! ”

I see! No wonder when I saw my brother, I found that he was always smiling, and he couldn't keep up his spirits for such a thing as occupying the territory of the Spaniards! Zhibao was thinking in his heart, and his brain was quickly analyzing the countermeasures.

"Zhibao, I'm afraid I'll have to work hard for you, go to Hue, go to meet that guy from the Li family, and want to touch his details. Of course. On the face of it, it is to thank him for handing over the big man to us. Give you five days, make some gifts, you can choose the things in the storeroom at will, and besides, I have discussed it with your sister-in-law, and you take Damu with you. This makes us more sincere. ”

"Brother, do you want to bring Shi Daxuan's son Shi Lang with you? The last time Da Mu and the Li family girl clashed, he helped stop it, so the fire didn't ignite. "Zhibao has always had a good impression of Shi Lang's kid, and took the opportunity to promote him.

"Good! I think that kid is good, too. Take him with you. I also let Da Mu get closer to him, maybe this kid will be Da Mu's good helper in the future! ”

The two brothers had decided to make a decision, and the atmosphere immediately became much more relaxed. Ordered someone to make tea again and began to gossip.

"Brother. You don't know. Now the Dutch Hongmaoyi who is in Dayuan is almost poor and crazy! We beat them up in Liuluo Bay. Then he was beaten up by Li Shouhan's kid again, and it was almost to the point where there was no overnight food at home. To ease his breath, the East India Company's bullshit Formosa Governor Putsman. Convene a meeting of local chieftains to increase taxes and tribute. It is said that for deerskin alone, this group of students has to hand over 30,000 pieces every year! ”

"Oh?!" Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but have a twinkle in his eyes, the strength of those people on Dayuan Island, he had experienced it, it was Yan Siqi back then, and it took a lot of effort to establish ten villages in Bengang to house the homeless people and subordinates.

This group of red-haired people is really poor and crazy, and they are so squeezed by these students? Aren't you afraid of making trouble?

"Afraid! Of course I'm afraid! Therefore, the Dutch red-haired soldiers looted the villages everywhere, and those who dared to resist were almost the result of annihilation. Zhibao's words couldn't tell what it tasted like, there was regret, and there was schadenfreude from watching the fire from the other side.

"However, eldest brother, before I came back, I had already instructed Guo Huaiyi, who was left behind, to keep an eye on the movements of the Dutch at any time, if he suppressed this group of people too ruthlessly, we can also use the banner of the king's army to crusade against this group of red-haired people who are tyrannical and perverse! In this way, those students are bound to respect and fear us, and the adults will completely become our Zheng family! ”

Riding the autumn breeze, Zhibao's fleet arrived in Hue very smoothly, and accompanied his eldest nephew into the city with a group of attachés to the front of the Hue royal palace.

"Uncle, this is the home of that girl from the Li family?" Zheng Zhilong's eldest son, the Japanese milk name Fumatsu Maru, and the Chinese name Zheng Damu Zheng Sen, looked at the mansion in front of him with a little surprise. That's too much, isn't it?! It seems to be much more extravagant than the emperor and shogun of Toei!

"Eldest prince, you don't know, this was originally the palace of the Ruan family, it is said that it was built in comparison with the Forbidden City in Beijing, and later, the Ruan family was defeated by General Li, and this became the location of General Li and his shogunate, and it should be his inner house behind."

Shi Lang, who was standing behind Zheng Sen, should have done his homework before coming, and he was not as fuss about this mansion as Zheng Sen.

At the gate of the mansion, Changshi Li Peilin stood on the steps with a smile, waiting for the guests who came from afar.

After a period of courtesy, lack of manners, and politeness for serving tea, Zhibao began to ask Pei Lin if General Li had time to see him, and he was ordered by his brother to express his gratitude to General Li in person. Thanks to General Li for ceding the land fortress won by the soldiers in the bloody battle to the Zheng army.

Shouhan was very busy at this time, how could he have time to meet Zheng Zhibao?

In half a month, four or five thousand catties of sulfuric acid have been produced, which can meet the needs of the next test consumption.

Bags of cornstarch are removed from the storeroom and placed in wooden barrels with water and stirred well. However, more than a dozen wooden barrels are proportioned according to different amounts and proportions, and the optimal hydrolysis ratio must be found. Similarly, in order to increase the rate of hydrolysis, dilute sulfuric acid after adding water is carefully added to the barrels in several other wooden barrels to speed up the hydrolysis process of corn starch.

Compared with the process of hydrolyzing glucose from corn starch, the production of nitric acid is much simpler. Thanks to the blessings of nitrification fields and plant ash, the purity of potassium nitrate is now a little stronger than that of the best saltpeter in the mainland. Therefore, a container made of glass carefully sprinkled concentrated sulfuric acid on the saltpeter, and the liquid formed after the violent reaction of the two is the product that Shouhan needs, nitric acid.

"See, with this thing, the gunpowder I mentioned is one step further!" The head and face are tightly wrapped, and the guard man has a pair of goggles on his nose. Wang Bao, Chen Tianhua and others proudly publicized this phased achievement.

The next step is to produce silver nitrate from nitric acid.

The silver powder taken out of the mint, wrapped tightly by the same head and face, the official slave with the mask on his mouth, put his hand wearing sheepskin gloves in the ceramic basin, and gently poured a bottle of nitric acid into it, and the people next to him observed his movements without blinking, and there were several official slaves at the door holding shovels in their hands, carrying sand baskets ready to be dispatched at any time, rushing in to extinguish the fire with sand.

However, it can be regarded as a smooth lì. The silver nitrate that Shouhan wants. After several trials, the most suitable production process was found and large-scale production could begin.

However, in the course of this trial. Those lunatics in the chemical workshop. The produced silver nitrate is used for further realization. There was a new discovery.

A person diluted silver nitrate with distilled water at a rate of 2 percent, put it in a beaker, and made a portion of ammonia at the same dose in the same proportion. After mixing the two together, stirring continuously until the initial white precipitate is just completely dissolved, the real yàn person covers the beaker with a piece of glass and rests to watch the other real yàn performed on the Shouhan's side. However, I don't know if it's Shouhan's bad luck or too good, this real yàn and Zhou Xingxing's chemistry teacher have the same characteristics, and their memory doesn't seem to be very good. Leaving this real yàn behind at once, when I remembered it a few days later, a few purple-black crystals appeared in the beaker, this thing seemed to be more impatient, and after a few collisions and scratches, there was a violent reaction in the beaker, fortunately, the guy reacted relatively quickly, and immediately threw the beaker in his hand into a water tank on the side. This prevented a catastrophe from happening.

And Shouhan, who had just organized people to complete the extraction of iodine from kelp, rushed to hear the news and took the real record from the hands of the bold guy, and was pleasantly surprised to find that this guy had actually completed the production of silver thunder acid, the twin brother of the famous thunder mercury, Lei Yin, who almost caused a big disaster. It can also be used to make primers and other things.

However, Shouhan immediately ordered that the test record be sealed.

"You can do the next step."

Shouhan's words may sound contradictory, but if you think about it, they are also the best choice: none of the existing muskets can be loaded with breech loads, so what is the use of creating a primer? It can only be used as a technical reserve.

"The silver mirror reaction is very simple, to produce ammonium carboxylate, and there are three ammonia monohydrate, two silver, and three ammonia."

"The amount of ammonia should be clean in the test tube, and the water bath should be warm out of the silver mirror."

Watching those officials and slaves add water and dilute sulfuric acid to decompose the corn starch into glucose, use the iodine extracted from the kelp to detect whether the starch has completed the thorough decomposition, add silver nitrate to make a liquid, tremblingly follow the steps explained by Shouhan on several glasses carefully smeared, after the application is completed, the process of heating in the hot water bath, Shouhan suddenly remembered the mantra of the silver mirror reaction taught by the chemistry teacher back then. Unexpectedly, such a mantra would also come in handy today.

In this reaction, the ammonia solution produced by silver nitrate and ammonia contains silver hydroxide, which is a weak oxidizing agent that oxidizes acetaldehyde to acetic acid, which reacts with the generated ammonia to form ammonium acetate, and the silver ions are reduced to metallic silver. The metallic silver is attached to the surface of the glass, creating a silver mirror effect. Mirrors, just like that, were made! It's simpler, more straightforward, and less expensive than the previous manufacturing process!

"My lord! The lord is really like a god! ”

Everyone witnessed this scene with their own eyes, and couldn't help but sprout the worship of Shouhan again in the bottom of their hearts, although they said that they were silent and strange, but the scenes over the years couldn't help but make people have almost god-like reverence for Shouhan.

"Lord, this is the children's test record, please take a look!" Jian Qing, the undertaker of the chemical workshop, respectfully handed a record of the entire test process to Shouhan, and the others immediately consciously flashed to the side and took their eyes off the test record.

"At normal temperatures, the reaction time in hot water is about two to three minutes with 1 percent glucose solution, 1 percent or 2 percent silver nitrate solution and ammonia, and the whole process can be completed according to Western clockwork."

The summary of the trial says so.

Shouhan closed the test record, "Well done, tell me to go down, add food to the people who participated in this test, and you can have a good drink in the evening, and start working tomorrow." Everyone's salary will be doubled this month. ”

After listening to the reward given to everyone by the lord, everyone in the chemical workshop present cheered.

"Lord, will this thing belong to our chemical workshop or to the glass workshop in the future?"

Jian Qing planned to take advantage of Shouhan's happiness to clarify the ownership of this mirror. It is also good to leave a cornucopia and a cash cow for the brothers.

This one? It was unexpected by Shouhan. Everyone looked at him in disdain, hoping to hear the voice they wanted from his mouth. Suddenly, he laughed loudly, "Look at your little family-like looks!" That's all there is to it as a mere mirror? The people in the glass house and the chemical workshop have become like black-eyed chickens? ”

He reached out for a pen, brushed a few strokes on the paper, and threw it to the person in the glass room, "Can you do this?!" ”

The paper is painted with a glass bottle, but the people in the glass room look like a round bottle, with no technical content at all.

"No problem, this thing can be done by apprentices!"

"That's good, this thing, called a hot water bottle, can be operated in the same way as a zuò mirror. Boiling water is on the inside, and the outside is made of bamboo to make a set, and the top is made of cork to make a stopper, and the boiling water is poured in, and it will not be cold for half a day. You say, "Shall I give these two things to you separately, or will you come up with a better way?" ”

Cheng Zheng, who left the two departments, looked at each other there, and Shouhan led a group of people away.

"Otherwise, let's go to Chen, and the two families will work together, anyway, without the cooperation of you and me, none of us can make this thing!" Jian Qing broke the deadlock between the two and proposed a plan for cooperation.

However, Shouhan didn't care about this, and he wanted to rush back to receive Zheng Zhibao.

"Haha, Brother Zhibao, I haven't seen you for a few months! This time, you and I must let the brothers have a good drink! Come on, send someone to settle down the food and accommodation of the Zhibao brothers and the entourage of Zheng Dagongzi, and you must not be lazy!"

The words are cordial, the attitude is warm, and the people who don't know what to do almost believe that this is a pair of good brothers who have been reunited after a long absence.

And Zheng Zhibao's attitude was also very correct, first thanking the brothers of the Southern Central Army for handing over the city territory obtained in the bloody battle to the Zheng Jiajun, and then thanking them for selflessly selling weapons, armor, gunpowder, guns and other things at low prices many times. After that, the economic and trade exchanges between the two sides are a win-win move for each other.

After a long and nutritious greeting, Zheng Zhibao had no choice but to let the two children come up to greet General Li, and Shouhan simply called Li Huamei out and asked Huamei to lead Fusongmaru and Shi Lang to take a walk around.

Leaving Zhibao and Peilin behind, the three of them began to talk secretly (to be continued......