Winter is never a good season, at least for the vast majority of people in Handan.

Zhao Dan sat in the carriage, looked at the black smoke rising from the surrounding households, and asked Mao Sui with some puzzlement: "Is it so common to burn wood for heating in Handan City now?" ”

Mao Sui said with a smile: "The king doesn't know, in today's Handan City, coal heating has begun to be popularized. ”

"Coal heating?" Zhao Dan couldn't help but pause.

After Mao Sui's explanation, Zhao Dan slowly understood.

Due to the continuous expansion of Zhao over the years, the demand for steel has also increased significantly, and the supply of coke required for steel has also increased.

Coke as a deep processing product of coal, inevitably brought about the large-scale production of coal, because Zhao is located in China's most abundant coal production "Jin", that is, the land of Shanxi, so a few years down, Zhao has now explored five large coal mines, and carried out large-scale mining, and even the mining volume has exceeded the supply required for blast furnace ironmaking.

Under such circumstances, the Zhao government began to supply coal to the residents of Zhao at a large scale at cheap prices, at first only in the surrounding cities of the coal mines, and then gradually continued to expand south.

Until the year before last, Yu Xin, who was still the history of Zhao's domestic history at the time, made an important decision after reporting to Zhao Dan: Zhao's merchants were allowed to mine and sell coal, and Zhao's treasury would collect a certain amount of taxes in this process.

Different from Qin, although Zhao also pays more attention to agriculture, after all, Zhao Dan must understand the truth that the people take food as the sky, but the business atmosphere of Zhao is also very strong.

In fact, except for the Qin State, the attitude of the other Warring States princes towards commerce was actually very good, and the Qi State encouraged business from the time of Guan Zhong, and communicated with the rest of the countries to increase the financial revenue of the Qi State.

So when coal was opened up from a state-owned resource to allowing the capital of the merchants to enter, the merchants suddenly burst into great enthusiasm.

In just two years, coal has swept the entire Zhao country at a flying speed, replacing firewood as the new favorite of heating in major cities in Zhao country.

Zhao Dan was also very surprised when he heard Mao Sui tell him all this.

In Zhao Dan's impression, it was not until the Han Dynasty that China began to use coke for iron smelting, and it was not until the Song Dynasty that coal was used as heating fuel that it really entered thousands of households.

And now, because of Zhao Dan, the history of China's large-scale coal use has advanced by more than 1,200 years!

Without a doubt, this is definitely a step forward.

Coal replaces firewood, which can largely prevent firewood from being cut down by people, protect the environment and prevent soil erosion.

The problem of soil erosion is actually very worthy of attention, not to mention, Guanzhong, which is now the Qin State, has completely declined after the Tang Dynasty because of serious soil erosion and climate change in history, and has never become the center of China again.

As for the pollution that can be caused by mining and burning coal...... To put it selfishly, even if the entire land of China burns coal 24 hours a day, it actually does not play a role in polluting the earth's atmosphere, and it is completely within the scope of the earth's self-regulation.

After all, there is no such thing as industrialization in this era.

It's just that even so, Zhao Dan looked at the Handan sky above his head, which seemed to have darkened a little, and was still a little stunned.

Could it be that Zhao Guo will become the first city on the entire planet to experience air pollution in the future?

Forget it, let's talk about this later......

Zhao Dan coughed and said: "Mao Sui, I will remember to notify the Handan City Order later, and let him organize people to preach it, so as not to let the people burn coal in the sealed house for heating, so as not to be poisoned by gas." ”

Gas poisoning was a common occurrence in later generations.

The wheels of Zhao Dan's carriage rolled, and Zhao Dan came to the destination this time, the workshop area of Zhao Guo.

Zhao Dan came all the way to a workshop in the deepest part of the workshop area, which was also the most secret workshop of Zhao State, where the top craftsmen and workers of Zhao State were concentrated, and they were specially responsible for researching various secret weapons for Zhao State.

The news of Zhao Dan's arrival had already been notified here, so when Zhao Dan stepped out of the carriage, Zhao Guoda's general Zuo Zhen had already waited here with all the Zhao Guo's masters.

Zhao Dan glanced at the belly and found that this Mo family spirit had not seen him for a few years, and the whole person had become unshaven, and there was a strong smell on his body, which made people dare not approach him within a zhang.

Well, this fanatical tech nerd......

"I've seen the king!" Belly Zhen led the masters to salute Zhao Dan.

Zhao Dan covered his nose and coughed, and said to Belly Zhen: "Doctor Belly, what is the matter with you, you want to call the widow here." ”

In addition to the Eight Ox Crossbows, Belly Zhen has devoted himself to research over the years, and has made improvements to the weapons and armor of armored cavalry, the standard crossbows of the Zhao army, and the vehicles used to transport grain, etc., which can be said to have made great contributions to the Zhao State.

Zhao Dan naturally did not owe this most outstanding master of Zhao Country today, and with a wave of his hand, he directly gave him the title of a doctor.

Although he is only a doctor, this doctor is already an out-and-out high-ranking nobleman.

As a craftsman, he was awarded the title of doctor, which caused a lot of controversy in the Zhao State, and even several important ministers of the Zhao State expressed their dissatisfaction with it to a greater or lesser extent.

But Zhao Dan ignored these opposing voices, and passed the proposal with an extremely tough and non-refusable attitude, making Belly Zhen the first craftsman doctor in history.

Science and technology are the primary productive forces, as a traverser, Zhao Dan knows this.

As the saying goes, a thousand dollars buy horse bones. The belly is really the horse bone that Zhao Dan wants to buy with his daughter, Zhao Dan just wants to tell the whole world through this matter that it is not only possible to be an official and knight only by fighting and studying, as long as you do a good job in scientific research, there is a way out!

After hearing Zhao Dan's question, he smiled slightly, and a mysterious smile suddenly appeared on his face: "The king, please come with his ministers." ”

said that the belly was really not nonsense, and walked directly to the back.

Zhao Danleng paused for a moment, and said in his heart, this kid actually dared to sell Guanzi with the widow?

If it was someone else, then he would definitely not dare to pretend to be so coercive in front of Zhao Dan, but the problem is that Belly Zhen is the chief master of Zhao Guo and the talent that Zhao Dan values the most, so Zhao Dan thought about it and decided to let go of the bad behavior of Belly Zhen who openly pretended to be forced for the time being.

Let's see what he has come up with, if it doesn't work, he can settle the account after the fall.

A moment later, Zhao Dan and Yu Zhen came to a school yard in the workshop, the entire school yard had now been emptied, and only one wall stood there.

It can be seen that this wall was definitely built temporarily.

Belly Zhen waved his hand, and then several masters disappeared immediately.

After a few moments, the two masters carefully carried a large bag, which they placed into a pre-buried hole under the wall.

Zhao Dan looked at the scene in front of him, his eyes lit up unconsciously, and his heart began to beat thumping, could it be ......

After seeing that these masters had finished burying this, he immediately said to Zhao Dan: "King, this thing is very dangerous, please ask the king to go up to the high platform first, just watch it from a distance." ”

Zhao Dan nodded, and followed Yu Zhen to the high platform a few hundred steps away.

Seeing that everything was in place, he yelled directly: "Ignition!" ”

One of the master craftsmen immediately fired the fire breaker, then lit the fuse, and immediately ran in the opposite direction.

The long fuse burned out quickly.

"Boom!"

After an earth-shattering sound passed, thick smoke rose into the air, and Zhao Dan on the high platform subconsciously took two steps back even though he had already been mentally prepared, and Zhao Dan's side was even more unbearable, and he sat directly on the ground with a frightened look on his face.

As the smoke cleared, a crater appeared in the place where the explosion had just occurred, and the walls that had been standing there had been reduced to rubble in the explosion.

Zhao Dan watched all this quietly, and a smile slowly appeared on his face.

Gunpowder...... You've finally appeared!

The belly really straightened his body, and his face was full of smugness: "King, please look, I named this thing - Earthquake Thunder!" ”

Of course, there are reasons to be proud.

After he became the general of Zhao State, he received a highest-level secret order from Zhao Dan, that is, to devote himself to the research and development of gunpowder.

At first, he was a little unimpressed by this, but since this was an order from Zhao Dan, he had no choice but to invest in it.

However, he never expected that when he saw those alchemists demonstrate the effect of gunpowder to him, he was completely obsessed.

After several years of research, Belly Zhen finally succeeded in adjusting the gunpowder to a very reasonable ratio, which led to the scene that Zhao Dan saw today.

The joy in Zhao Dan's heart could no longer be suppressed, and he couldn't help laughing out loud.

After a long time, the smile on Zhao Dan's face slowly stopped, and patted Belly Zhen on the shoulder vigorously, only to feel how cute Belly Zhen looked at at the moment, if it weren't for the smell of Belly Zhen, the smell was too strong, and even Zhao Dan wanted to give Belly Zhen a big hug.

Zhao Dan suppressed the impulse in his heart and asked to the belly truth: "What is the output of this earth-shaking thunder now, can it break through the city wall?" ”

Yu Zhen thought for a moment and said, "King, to be honest, this formula of the Heaven-Shaking Thunder was just concocted, so the output is quite limited for the time being, but it will soon reach a considerable level." As for the power, the minister has actually already tested it, and if the walls of ordinary small towns only need enough gunpowder, then there should be no problem. But if it is a big city like Xianyang and Yingdu, it may not have much effect for the time being. But please rest assured, as long as you give your ministers some more time, as fast as one or two years, or as slow as three or five years, any city wall will become vulnerable in the face of earth-shattering thunder! ”

To put it bluntly, although this gunpowder has made great progress compared to the beginning, it is still in the initial stage of use, and it still needs a lot of improvement in both the material and the application method, and it is not as powerful as any TNT in later generations.

However, Zhao Dan was also satisfied with this, and saw him smile and say, "Very good, very good." The widow announced that the belly was promoted to the middle doctor from now on, and the rest of the masters will have their own rewards! ”

After seeing the performance of the belly, Zhao Dan was completely relieved, so when he left the workshop, Zhao Dan took out a small book very carefully and handed it to the belly truth.

"Steam engine?" Belly Zhen looked at Zhao Dan with some doubts.

Zhao Dan patted the belly Zhen on the shoulder, and said: "Doctor belly Zhen, don't underestimate this thing, the widow can promise you here today that when you build this steam engine, it will be when you become the king of Zhao State!" ”

Genius one second to remember the address of this site:. Mobile version reading URL: m.