At the end of May of the twelfth year of orthodoxy, the Yushan Military Bureau.

After some construction, the expansion project of the Yushan Military War Bureau was finally completed, and Liu Juntao couldn't wait to rush to the Yushan Military War Bureau to check it out.

After receiving the news, Zhang Baigui and Yan Hu both led people to wait outside the gate of the War Bureau early, and the entire Yushan War Bureau took action, waiting for Liu Juntao's inspection.

It didn't take long for Liu Juntao to arrive at the Yushan Military Bureau under the escort of Tao Ji's new department.

After meeting, Liu Juntao laughed and greeted Zhang Baigui and Yan Hu, and then looked at the hundreds of people who came to greet them behind them, and said with a smile: "Haha! This meeting is a bit too much, it's too much of a toss for everyone! ”

Yan Hu said with some excitement: "Where is the big brother, the eldest brother came to see us, it's too late for everyone to be happy!" ”

At this time, Liu Juntao saw Fan Jing in the crowd behind him at a glance, and saw Fan Jing standing among the young people around him, as if standing out from the crowd, very conspicuous.

So, Liu Juntao pointed at Fan Jing and asked, "Who is that person?" ”

Yan Hu said with a smile: "Mr. Hui Lian, that is the talent discovered during this expansion, named Fan Jing, is a good man!" A long knife is very powerful! ”

"Good!"

Liu Juntao said with a smile: "That's it, as the president of Qian, you must be able to discover and promote talents!" ”

Yan Hu also wrote them down one by one.

Zhang Baigui said: "Okay, now let's go in and take a look, and let Jun Tao see the changes in our Yushan military battle!" ”

So, everyone entered the Yushan Military Battle Bureau together, and Liu Juntao also looked around in the Military Battle Bureau under the guidance of Zhang Baigui and Yan Hu.

After the expansion, the Yushan Military Bureau occupies a large area, which is at least twice as large as the original Yushan Salt Pond!

After Zhang Baigui's planning, the entire military war bureau is divided into several areas, such as firearms workshop, gunpowder workshop, armor workshop, steelmaking workshop, blade workshop, warehouse, etc., each area is a relatively independent existence, separated by a courtyard wall, and there is a gate in the middle, which is guarded and inspected by the young and strong of Yan Hu's department.

The crowd first looked at the Blade Shop and the Gunpowder Workshop.

Liu Juntao saw that the long knives built by the Blade Workshop were all made by Seiko, and he was also very happy in his heart, so he picked up a handful casually and looked at it carefully, only to see that the blade was like a seedling, the blade was extremely sharp, and the hairs could be broken, which was very sharp!

After that, Liu Juntao looked at the granular gunpowder configured in the gunpowder workshop, although it was not as powerful as the military gunpowder of later generations, but it was far more powerful than the gunpowder of the Ming Dynasty and the West at this time, and it could be said that it was the strongest at that time!

After reading this, Zhang Baigui sighed and said: "Jun Tao, now the configuration of gunpowder is also in difficulty, and the saltpeter used in the configuration of gunpowder is not available, so it is better to think of a way earlier!" ”

In this regard, Liu Juntao has long been prepared, after all, in various parts of China, the output of saltpeter has never been large, and even has to be imported from Japan and other countries.

Therefore, Liu Juntao has already thought of countermeasures.

Liu Juntao led everyone to walk through the toilets, stables, pig and cattle pens, and courtyard corners in the war bureau, and after a while, everyone was disgraced.

Liu Juntao looked around, and then commanded several young guards to drill in and out of the stables and bullpens, and let everyone take brooms and dustpans, and swept them when they saw white mangs, and sure enough, they swept out all the nitrate, and swept more than a dozen catties in a while!

After a while, Liu Juntao was still standing in the shade of the toilet, carefully observing the surface soil, nodding and saying, "These are good nitrates!" ”

So, several of the guards picked up their hoes again and dug out the large piece of dirt.

For some substances that are not sure whether it is nitrate, Liu Juntao took some charcoal and burned it red, and then put these suspected nitrate clays on it, only to see some sparks bursting out, so he nodded and said, "It's not bad." ”

I saw that the young men of the guards were busy, and they quickly dug up a lot of nitrate, I am afraid that there are hundreds of catties.

It is hard to imagine that these places could be connected with gunpowder and saltpeter.

Liu Juntao has seen some information before, which records: Collecting some human and animal urine feces can make nitrate, and at this time he will learn and use it, and sure enough, the records on the information are true, and the effect is really good.

After that, Liu Juntao asked several guards to take some plant ash, crush the dug up nitrate and wood ash respectively, sieve them, mix them into a large cauldron, and then began to wash them with hot water.

Everyone saw that the liquid that was washed out was slowly filtered and refined, and the concentration gradually faded from reddish brown to lightened, and after cooling and crystallization, pure nitrate soil became formed.

Seeing these nitrates made by Liu Juntao, Zhang Baigui, Yan Hu and others were overjoyed. In this way, the problem of insufficient raw materials for the production of gunpowder in the Yushan Military War Bureau was finally solved, and it could be self-sufficient in the future and would not be controlled by others.

Liu Juntao looked at everyone's amazement and said: "This method is just a trivial matter for 100 catties of nitrate in a month. In addition, I have another way to make nitrate in large quantities, but it requires a lot of manual materials. ”

Hearing this, everyone hurriedly asked.

Therefore, Liu Juntao demarcated a shady place, mixed human and animal manure with sand particles and furnace ash, piled up several high dung heaps, and stipulated that tens of thousands of people from the Yushan Military War Bureau would urinate here at regular times and fixed points every day.

Liu Juntao said: "At this nitrate collection site, you can easily get 200 to 300 catties of pure nitrate in a month, which is much better than the nitrate mud dug from toilets and stables." ”

Zhang Baigui also said excitedly: "Two hundred catties of pure nitrate can be made into at least three hundred catties of gunpowder a month, and with so much gunpowder, three hundred to four hundred catties of granular gunpowder can be made every month, which can completely keep up with the needs of the military battle!" ”

After solving the problem of insufficient gunpowder and saltpeter, everyone looked at the steelworks, and then came to the firearms workshop and the armor workshop.

Liu Juntao saw that hundreds of lathes were neatly placed in the firearms workshop and armor workshop, and hundreds of craftsmen were nervously and orderly creating orthodox nine-year-old bird guns and various armors.

"Master Zhang, can the current output of refined iron and steel in the War Bureau still be sustained?"

"Yes."

Zhang Baigui said: "It's just that this firearms workshop, armor workshop, and blade workshop can't expand production anymore, otherwise the steel output will definitely not be able to keep up!" ”

Hearing this, Liu Juntao also sighed, and said secretly in his heart: "This is the disadvantage of not mastering raw materials, you can only be controlled by others!" ”

This strengthened Liu Juntao's desire to contact the Xu family in Xuzhou, whether it was a blessing or a curse, he had to give it a try!

At this time, Liu Juntao suddenly remembered that when the Kong family was exterminated, the escort team had used the improvised earth method earth-shaking thunder, and his heart suddenly moved, so he said to Zhang Baigui: "Master Zhang, the firearms workshop needs to mobilize some people to produce one more firearm!" ”

Zhang Baigui said with a smile: "Manpower is not a problem, now our War Bureau has accumulated enough manpower through methods such as apprenticeship and art." But what is this new firearm? ”

"Earthquake Thunder!"

Zhang Baigui and Yan Hu were all shocked when they heard this, and they both secretly said in their hearts: "Now they are not satisfied with the orthodox nine-year-old bird gun, and they still want to build a heaven-shaking thunderbolt?" In the future, Jun Tao (Mr. Lian) is afraid that he will have to cast artillery! ”