Ma Cheng also had a headache after listening to Ma Shun, money is different from others, and it can last a few days without food, but it is absolutely impossible to develop industry without money. But at present, when the rice is put into the pot, you can't stop your own development.

Ma Cheng thought for a while and asked, "Ma Shun, what good way do you have?" ”

Ma Shun thought for a while and said: "Second master, originally the villain wanted to practice a few pots of wrought iron, and then sell it as a farm tool, which is also a way to make money, but the second master wants to renovate the iron factory, and the villain has no way." ”

Ma Shun's opinion is very good, exchange products for money, and then improve their own strength. But time waits for no one, what Ma Cheng lacks most now is time, it is already June, and there is less than a year before the Manchu army will come to the city in May next year, and Ma Cheng will not be able to develop step by step at all.

Just when Ma Cheng was in a dilemma, the new master Xu Zhenye said on the side: "The proprietor, if you need money, I have an idea!" ”

Ma Cheng heard Xu Zhenye say this and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Xu, if you have any ideas, please tell me!" ”

This is probably the first time Ma Cheng called Xu Zhenye Mr., which made Xu Zhenye a little uncomfortable, but he didn't expect that the second ancestor, who always talked about Lao Tzu, could say the word sir.

"The proprietor, there are usurers in the city, if you use the money for a short time, you can go to them, I dare not say more, it is still okay to have eight thousand taels!"

This kind of thing has existed since ancient times, and the earliest history is recorded in the time of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty, there was a rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, and a large amount of money was needed to quell the rebellion, and the finances were tight, so they had to borrow money from the people. In the "Historical Records of the Colony of Goods", it is said that "the Ziqian family...... Moken and, but the Wuyan clan donated a thousand gold loans, and the interest was even there. ”

The so-called "sub-money family" is a person who specializes in usury. In the process of money lending, after lending money, in addition to recovering the original amount, that is, the principal, you can also get interest, it seems that money can give birth to children, so the ancients called the principal "mother money", the interest is called "child money", and the person who runs this business is "child money".

Because the war between the central government of the Western Han Dynasty and the rebels was still unclear, "Ziqian family Moken loan". Only one of the unsalted clans was willing to borrow money, but the conditions were harsh, demanding ten times the interest.

In the end, the two sides made the deal. After the Han government put down the rebellion, it also fulfilled its promise. Since then, Wuyan has become one of the top richest people in Chang'an City.

In the Ming Dynasty, especially after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the development of the commodity economy, usury capital was more active than before.

In the "Tongzhou Chronicles" of the Wanli period, it is said: "Fangqi Valley is beautiful in the field, and there are people who urge rent, moneylenders, and wait for them to fulfill their acres; than its debut, the burden of the unmasking is full of hustle and bustle......"

When the peasants have a bumper harvest in sight, the "rent-mongers" in the government and the "moneylenders" who lend usury are already ready, and when the harvest is over, these people are "full of hustle and bustle", and the peasants pay taxes to the government while paying interest to the moneylenders.

At the same time, government officials are also borrowing usury, and some candidates and newly elected officials spend a lot of money to get through the joints, and often have to borrow money from others. Therefore, Wu Yingji, a famous scholar in the late Ming Dynasty, said in his anthology: "Those who take office come to the court, and those who ask for it come to the twilight, so this is not taken from the people?" ”

Although Xu Zhenye's family is not poor, he is not rich, so after winning the promotion, he borrowed 2,000 taels of usury to open up the door of Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei, so that he could be elected and released.

Because he has been in contact, Xu Zhenye knows this industry very well, and now he heard that Ma Cheng needed money, so he quickly said such an idea.

Usury? That's a way. Ma Cheng thought for a moment and asked, "Mr. Xu, how to calculate this principal and interest?" ”

"The current market is to pursue profits, one book and one profit!"

Ma Cheng didn't understand the name of the Ming Dynasty, and asked Ma Shun in detail to know that even the principal and interest are the interest rolling, that is, the interest of this month will become the principal and interest next month, and the interest of one book is 100% interest. For example, if you borrow 10,000 taels of silver this month, you will have to repay 20,000 taels of silver with interest next month, 40,000 yuan in two months, and 80,000 yuan in three months.

Ma Cheng thought for a while that if he borrowed 10,000 taels of silver, if he didn't repay it in a year, it would be more than 40 million taels, but a year later, either the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupied Nanjing, or Lao Tzu beat the Manchu Qing Dynasty away, no matter what the result, the loan shark didn't have to pay back. If the Manchu Qing Dynasty wins, it must be that they have run away, and what kind of usury is there if they run away? What if you win? Then who would dare to come to the door to ask for debts with heavy troops in their hands?

Thinking of this, Ma Cheng said to Xu Zhenye: "Okay, Mr. Xu, you go and contact me, I want to borrow 10,000 taels of silver for a period of one year, and I will use this sugar workshop as a guarantee!" ”

"Proprietor, this year is too long! Is half a month bad? Xu Zhenye didn't expect Ma Cheng to really dare to borrow, he thought that Ma Cheng would only use half a month to ease the financial situation, and he knew that Ma Cheng was not ready to pay it back.

Ma Cheng shook his head and said firmly: "No, one year!" This matter is left to Mr. Xu! ”

Xu Zhenye couldn't help it when he saw that Ma Cheng was so resolute, so he had to give up his life and go to the creditor to borrow usury for Ma Cheng.

The renovation of the iron-making furnace was completed, and the next step was to wait for Xu Zhenye to borrow money to start construction. Ma Cheng looked at it and saw that it was still early, so it was better to go to the gunpowder workshop to have a look.

The gunpowder workshop is two miles away from the iron-making workshop, on the right bank of the Jinchuan River, and there are farmlands on the left and right.

The gunpowder workshop was given to Ma Cheng by the Ordnance Bureau, which was originally outside the city and was moved into the city by Ma Cheng.

Now there are a total of eleven craftsmen in the gunpowder workshop, and the leader is the domestic slave Wang Lin that Ma Cheng collected outside Fengyang City.

Wang Lin saw Ma Cheng coming, and hurriedly stepped forward and knelt down and kowtowed: "Second master, Wang Lin meets the second master and Steward Ma!" ”

Ma Cheng picked up Wang Lin and asked, "Wang Lin, how is it?" It's a lot stronger here than the Fengyang Liumin camp! ”

"This is nature, the villain eats and sleeps well here, thanks to the second master's takeover!"

"Okay, as long as you do your best to make gunpowder for the second master, the second master will not shorten your salary! Tell me, what's going on with the Gunpowder Workshop now? ”

Wang Lin stood up and said: "Second master, a few days ago, under the orders of the second master, the villain tried his best to buy raw materials, and now there are five hundred catties of saltpeter and nitrate, thousands of catties of charcoal, and seven hundred catties of sulfur. ”

Gunpowder is different from ironmaking, even if ironmaking is scrapped, you can make some farm tools and sell them, but gunpowder is different, if it is scrapped, it is all over. So Ma Cheng's order to Wang Lin was to purchase raw materials, and then he was teaching them how to purify saltpeter.

The optimal ratio of black* gunpowder is 15:2:3, that is, fifteen parts of saltpeter, two parts of sulfur, and three parts of charcoal, but Ma Cheng is not ready to use the original material to prepare gunpowder, but further purifies saltpeter to become potassium nitrate.

As for how to purify potassium nitrate, Ma Cheng knows the door clear, when he was at home in the past, in order to save money, his father boiled potassium nitrate by himself, that is, he used toilet soil and plant ash, and it was easy to boil potassium nitrate, the most basic fertilizer.

Ma Cheng first asked Wang Lin to prepare a cauldron, and then grinded the nitrate soil and plant ash separately. The raw materials are weighed according to the quality ratio of 8:1 of nitrate soil and plant ash. Mix and place in an iron pot and add boiling hot water until the mixture is submerged.

Stir continuously with a wooden stick for about a quarter of an hour, then filter, put the slag in the pot again, add an appropriate amount of hot water and stir for a quarter of an hour, filter again, and combine the two filtrates together, and the filtrate obtained at this time is called nitrate.

Pour the nitrate water into another cauldron, heat and evaporate, and stir constantly when heating to prevent sticking to the bottom and splashing, the taste at this time is very wonderful, you must know that the nitrate soil is toilet soil, can it smell good when heated and boiled? However, Ma Cheng smelled this familiar smell and felt a little nostalgic for the scene when he was a child.

Stop heating when 60 to 70 percent of the volume of water has evaporated. At this time, the solution is relatively sticky, and a small amount of solids have been precipitated from the bottom of the iron pot. Take a drop of solution with a wooden stick and drop it on the rice paper, if the solution immediately condenses into a clump, it means that the requirements have been met, and immediately filter it while it is hot. At this time, the temperature is very high, and the solubility of potassium nitrate is large and will not precipitate, while sodium chloride, potassium chloride, etc. will precipitate due to the small solubility.

Let the filtrate naturally cool to a slightly lower body temperature, when the solubility of potassium nitrate changes the most under the influence of temperature, and the solubility drops sharply and precipitates a large amount. The solubility of salts such as sodium chloride changes little and basically no longer precipitates. Filter again, and what you get is potassium nitrate crystals. If further purification is to be desired, it can be recrystallized.

After two hours of hard work, Ma Cheng got more than two catties of potassium nitrate, Ma Cheng called Wang Lin over and said: "Wang Lin, you now make these purified saltpeter into gunpowder, and the proportion is made according to fifteen parts of saltpeter, two parts of sulfur, and two parts of charcoal, and then put them into a clay pot and compact. ”

Wang Lin cautiously took the potassium nitrate in Ma Cheng's hand, it was the first time he had seen such a wonderful thing, those strange-smelling nitrate clay could turn into transparent crystals. Although Wang Lin had doubts, he didn't dare to ask, so he took the potassium nitrate given by Ma Cheng to prepare gunpowder.

Wang Lin's subordinates are all mature gunpowder craftsmen, and the gunpowder was configured in less than half an hour, and they were all pressed according to Ma Cheng's instructions and polished into particles of the same size.

Wang Lin took the craftsman to put this new gunpowder into the clay pot and seal, this is the Ming Dynasty to defend the city of the thunder, but the Ming Dynasty thunder in addition to gunpowder to fill the arsenic * frost, after the explosion with poison gas to kill the enemy, as for the effect is like that.

Wang Lin lifted a large clay pot in front of Ma Cheng: "Second master, there are all new gunpowder here, are you experimenting here?" ”

"Bastard, can we still survive here? Go get some pigs and use them to test the power of gunpowder! ”

The experiment was soon delivered, and in addition to the two big fat pigs, there were also a few chickens, and someone tethered the unlucky domestic animals to the test field, and then put the clay pot bomb in the middle, and ran to it after igniting it.

Because it was a new type of gunpowder, Ma Cheng specially instructed that the fuse should be left longer to give the ignition personnel time to escape. Thirty seconds later, there was a loud bang and a blaze at the test site, and the new bomb went off.