As one of the "four great inventions" in ancient China, gunpowder is no stranger to everyone, and its appearance has indeed brought great blessings to mankind. In fact, strictly speaking, it should be called "*black* gun*", which is still a little different from the various *gunpowder* powders used in a large number of wars in later generations.

*Gunpowder* was originally only used in medicine, which can be seen from the word "medicine" in its name. From the Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty, the emperors and nobles were intoxicated with the fantasy of immortality for a long time, and they drove some Taoist priests to refine the "elixir", and gradually invented the formula of *gun* medicine in the refining process.

In the book "The Secret of Taishang Shengzu Jindan" written by Qing Xuzi, an alchemist in the Tang Dynasty, there is a record of the "Fuhuo Alum Method", which is considered to be the earliest written record of *gun* medicine in the world.

Around the end of the Tang Dynasty at the beginning of the 10th century, gunpowder began to be used in warfare, but because it was not very powerful, it was mostly used for arson and other purposes. It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that gunpowder was widely used in the military. Zeng Gongliang is the author of the book "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", which records three kinds of gunpowder recipes and a variety of gunpowder weapons, and is also illustrated, which is the world's earliest record of the production process of *hot* weapons.

By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the technology of gunpowder weapons became more and more advanced, not only the use of muskets for charging in war, but also the invention of tubular firearms with far-reaching influence. The invention or technological improvement of these firearms made the Song Dynasty the first country to use "hot* weapons", and also made more people aware of the important position of firearms in war.

During the Mongol and Yuan dynasties, due to various reasons, the technology related to *gunpowder* stagnated slightly. It was not until the Ming Dynasty that firearms were once again taken seriously, and all kinds of new firearms emerged one after another, although some ideas in the application, may not be practical, but let people see the hope of progress.

Some ideas kept popping up in Zhong Nan's mind, not only the improvement of firearms, but also the improvement of production methods. In the Ming Dynasty, whether it was guns, cannons, mines or various daily necessities, they were mainly handmade, which led to the inability to increase the output, and at the same time, there would be different batches and very different product performance. Therefore, it is also urgent to adopt other methods that are more efficient and faster than manual work, such as animal power, water power and other driving methods.

Thinking about the big things, Zhong Nan felt that there were too few masters around him. Unlike the male pig's feet in the later generations, there are all kinds of abilities as soon as they come up, and all kinds of cattle are impressed by their domineering spirit and come to vote one after another.

But as for himself, he has been here for five or six years, and he has gained nothing except fighting in the army, relying on his military exploits and the favor of Emperor Wanli to get the official position of a general soldier. Fortunately, he got a good wife, otherwise Zhong Nan would really be extremely depressed!

Thinking of the things listed just now, any of them could not be done by himself, Zhong Nan frowned. I don't know if he's unqualified, or for some other reason, none of the fierce people in my memory have been met, and I don't know when God plans to let me subdue them!

Since he can't meet these big names for the time being, Zhong Nan can only rely on himself. He racked his brain to recall the knowledge of chemistry, but after a few days of hard work, there was no major progress except for the way he could remember the writing of calcium, iron, zinc and other commonly used elements. However, the knowledge I remember is useless, and it can only make Zhong Nan, who was born in liberal arts, somewhat regret not studying science, otherwise it is not a problem to *nitrate*chemical*sweet*oil, and *bitter*taste*sour.

If you can't develop a new type of gunpowder, you can only continue to use the original black. Although Zhong Nan felt helpless, he didn't feel that the sky had fallen, in his opinion, even if everyone was using *black*gun*, he could still make his *black*gun* potion much more powerful than others.

Just do it, Zhong Nan found the senior craftsman of the firearms battalion and consulted in detail about the ratio and production process of *gun* in the Jizhou military camp. This craftsman's surname is Hong, Tianliang, in his forties, and he has been making gunpowder in the barracks since his ancestors were several generations ago, and he is considered a family of gunpowder. After talking to Hong Tianliang, Zhong Nan breathed a sigh of relief, his limited knowledge could barely make the power of *gunpowder* to a higher level.

The various craftsmen of ancient times were not respected and valued, and their status belonged to the same low order. Hong Tianliang saw that the dignified chief soldier was eating and living with him, and in order to improve the *gunpowder*, his heart was also very moved; Moreover, this chief soldier has a lot of respect for him, and he is called "Master Hong", and his salary has also risen a lot, which has given him the belief that "the soldier dies for his confidant".

First, the proportions were redetermined, and then the production process was improved.

Whether it is from the beginning of the world, or the current Ming Dynasty, the production of gunpowder in the army is purely manual, so the output and quality of gunpowder are uncontrollable, which also leads to firearms not playing their due role in actual combat. Zhong Nan suggested to Hong Tianliang: Replace manual grinding and pressing with water power and animal power, and after practical application, it can greatly improve the power of gunpowder.

After that, the test of the application of new *gunpowder* to firearms was also in full swing, but all this was carried out quietly, whether it was the formula or the process, only Zhong Nan and Hong Tianliang knew.

At the end of the year, the improved firearms such as firearms, tiger squat guns, and mines have been formed, and the rest is mass production. The production of weapons is not a trivial matter, the imperial court has a special arsenal to do it, and Zhong Nan does not dare to overstep the bounds. It's just that someone else makes what he needs, and he always feels uneasy. After thinking about it again, he still felt that he was better, so he had to report to the emperor for policy.

Zhu Yijun replied quickly and asked Zhong Nan to use facts to convince him. Zhong Nan brought a new type of firearm and *ground* mine into the Beijing Saint, and the Tiger Squat Cannon originally wanted to bring one, but it was just a trouble to transport and operate, so he did it.

Witnessing the power of the firearms improved by Zhong Nan, Emperor Wanli immediately made a decision: Zhong Nan, the chief soldier of Jizhou, was allowed to choose a site in the jurisdiction to produce new gunpowder and firearms, and the military department must give priority to providing him with various raw materials.

Originally, the Ministry of War was in charge of the manufacture of weapons, and the Arsenal Department was in charge, and the full name was the Arsenal Clearance Division of the Ministry of War. In the sixth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, the military department was only divided into three subordinate departments, namely the headquarters, the driving department, and the staff department; In the thirteenth year of Hongwu, the arsenal department was added, and in the twenty-second year of Hongwu, the headquarters was changed to the Sima Department. In the 29th year of Hongwu, the military department was restructured again, and it was changed to the four divisions of military selection, staff, car driving, and arsenal, and the descendants of the Zhu family have been using this system since then. Each division has one Lang Zhong and one Wai Lang, and two directors. In addition, it has jurisdiction over the same embassy, customs clearance and other institutions, each with ambassadors and deputy envoys.

The Arsenal Division was in charge of the squire Xing Jue, who felt the power of the new firearms with the emperor in the martial arts arena, so he strictly implemented the holy decree, gave priority to allocating various raw materials, and also selected experienced people from the firearms craftsmen of the military department to help Zhong Nan quickly build the Jizhou Arsenal.

Jizhou Arsenal is located in Pinggu County, Zhong Nan is the factory owner, responsible for macro control, and Hong Tianliang is the deputy factory owner, fully responsible for daily management. From a humble firearms craftsman to the deputy owner of the arsenal, Hong Tianliang couldn't believe it was true. He knew that this was all thanks to the trust of the general soldier, and for this reason, Deputy Factory Owner Hong privately swore that from now on, everything will be based on Zhong Nan's horse head!

The scale of the Jizhou Arsenal is temporarily small, there are not many skilled workers, and the production capacity is also insufficient, so it is difficult to provide the supply of firearms in Jizhou. Zhong Nan's idea was to ensure the quality first, and then expand the scale when the time was ripe, with the ultimate goal of providing combat weapons for all firearms battalions in the country.

At present, the main production in the arsenal is three categories: firearms, mines, and cannons, and each category is divided into several subcategories, such as mines, pottery shell mines, and iron shell mines. Zhong Nan also deliberately added some materials to the iron shell Leili, which is still the inspiration given to him by anti-Japanese war movies such as "Mine * War", although film and television dramas are inevitably exaggerated, but it is not useless after all, right?

In addition to these, Zhong Nan also planned to improve the firing device of the fire gun, but his ability was limited, and he pondered for two or three days with a fire gun, but he couldn't come up with a feasible plan.

Zhong Nan was born in an ordinary family in the original time and space, his father was a worker in a coal factory, and his mother was a worker in an iron foundry. When he was a child, Zhong Nan lived with his mother and brother in the staff dormitory of the foundry, and he could see all kinds of iron living utensils freshly baked every day.

My mother's factory was a collective enterprise, also known as the "Iron and Wood Society", which was a freshly baked product after the liberation, mainly producing iron cooking pots, rice cooking jars, shovels, scoops and other things. The eighties and nineties of the twentieth century was a relatively hot era, and the iron-making blast furnace did not stop every day, and the boiling iron liquid was injected into various molds, and after cooling, various products were formed. After polishing, grinding and other follow-up processes, these products can be continuously loaded into trucks and sent to all parts of Sichuan and Shu.

Because of these experiences, Zhong Nan is no stranger to cast ironware, and now it has come in handy. In this regard, Zhong Nan proposed several improvement methods for the craftsmen, and added earthen blast furnaces and sand molds, which greatly improved the quality of firearms.

Although the end of the year is approaching, the Jizhou Arsenal is still running all day, with people and machines stopping, working overtime to manufacture weapons and equipment. Because Zhong Nan intuitively felt that the Mongols would not give the Ming Dynasty too many days, he had to stock up on enough arms and equipment before going to war.

The Spring Festival of the twenty-third year of Wanli is approaching in this atmosphere, and Zhong Nan, who is busy, deliberately gave himself a few days off to have a good New Year's dinner with Qiuxiang and small sweet potatoes. The little sweet potato is the girl adopted by Qiu Xiang, who is now almost four years old, Zhong Nan treats her as his own, Qiu Xiang saw that his father-in-law liked children so much, and he was even more determined to give him a few concubines.