A large pot of boiling hot water, Li Zhang poured the saltpeter next to him into it and kept stirring, and when the water really couldn't melt more saltpeter, he stopped, and then scooped out the saltpeter solution in the pot, and used gauze to filter out the insoluble debris inside, leaving the clean solution to cool slowly, and some crystals were slowly precipitated inside, these are relatively pure saltpeter.

The three elements of gunpowder, saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur, among which saltpeter and sulfur can find natural minerals, but these minerals generally contain a large number of impurities, if they are not purified, the power of the gunpowder will be greatly reduced, and the maximum power of gunpowder cannot be reached at all, which also affects the power of the musket.

The purification of saltpeter is still very simple, it is nothing more than using it to melt in water at different temperatures, so as to obtain purified crystals, and sulfur is a little troublesome, you need to heat it on the fire, wait until it boils to get sulfur gas, and then cool to get relatively pure sulfur, which requires a distiller, and the structure is not complicated, Li Zhang asked Judge Liu to help him build one, and he purified the sulfur yesterday.

After filtering out the saltpeter crystals precipitated in the solution, and then drying, Li Zhang mixed saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal in a ratio of 15:2:3, and then sprayed with clean water to knead the gunpowder into a ball, squeezed into small particles with a sieve and then dried, it became granule gunpowder, this step is very critical, gunpowder granulation can not only keep the various components of gunpowder in uniform proportion, but also increase the power of gunpowder.

The production of gunpowder was all operated by Li Zhang, and no one was allowed to interfere, because he knew that this thing was too important, speaking of which, gunpowder appeared in the late Tang Dynasty, and was used in the military during the Song Dynasty, but it has not been used on a large scale, the most important of which is that the ratio of gunpowder is wrong, and there are too many impurities, resulting in too little power of gunpowder, so even if the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty play with firearms, they can't exert the power of gunpowder.

However, the craftsmen of the Great Song Dynasty were very smart, since the power of gunpowder was not great, they began to take the sword sideways, simply adding more impurities to the gunpowder, such as poison, iron nails, ceramsite and other things, so that when the gunpowder exploded, these things could be used to kill and injure the enemy, but the gunpowder had more of these things, the power was also smaller, and the enemies killed were also very limited.

After waiting for the gunpowder to dry for a while, the flintlock pistol on Judge Zhang's side was finally made, and during this period, Li Zhang often ran to his side, mainly because the blacksmiths who worked did not know the purpose of the musket, so it was inevitable that there would be some problems when casting, and Li Zhang had to correct it from time to time, so as not to make an unusable musket.

"Brother Li, are you satisfied with this musket?" Judge Liu sent the made musket to Li Zhang and said, this gun is about two feet long, except for the handle, all of them are made of fine iron, the barrel is not very long, the main reason is that the manufacturing process of the barrel is not up to par, more than a dozen barrels have been made before, and the only successful one is this one, and it is only two feet long, such a short barrel will definitely affect the power of the gun, but there is no way for the time being.

Li Zhang took it and wrenched it, and it was jammed smoothly, and then pulled the slap, and the hammer also hit the anvil in front of him, and the flint on it also hit a string of sparks, which made him also show joy and said: "Yes, that's it, thank you so much Brother Liu!" ”

"Brother Li doesn't have to be polite, but I'd love to try the power of this musket." Judge Liu also laughed at this time, he also spent a lot of thought in order to make this musket, and he had personally participated in the modification of some of them, so now he is also very curious about the power of this musket.

"No problem, Brother Liu, come with me, let's try it now!" Li Zhang immediately laughed and said, people bothered to work hard for the musket, and he was embarrassed to hide it, and through this period of getting along, he also found that although this Judge Liu was born in a low-level, he was a person who was thick on the outside and fine on the inside, plus he was involved in the manufacture of the musket, and he had already figured out the principle of the musket, and it was normal for people to want to see the power of the musket with their own eyes.

At that moment, Li Zhang took Judge Liu to his yard, and then asked the wild dog to bring the granular gunpowder that he was drying, and some lead shots made by Li Zhang, which had a low melting point, and he also knew the caliber of the musket for a long time, so it was also very convenient to make a few lead pellets by himself, and it was said that many musketeers in later generations carried small crucibles with them to facilitate the manufacture of lead pellets at any time.

The diameter of the lead pellet was a little smaller than the caliber of the musket, and after Li Zhang poured the gunpowder from the muzzle, he wrapped the lead pellet in linen, and then stuffed it into the barrel, and pushed the lead pellet into it with a push rod, and compacted it with the gunpowder to lay the gun flat. Judge Liu next to him saw that the gunpowder that Li Zhang took out was a little special, but he didn't care, after all, there were various gunpowder formulas in the Great Song Dynasty, and there were all kinds of gunpowder made.

However, Li Zhang didn't dare to test with a musket in his hand, after all, this was the first musket to be manufactured, God knows what the problem would be, in case of a borehole, maybe his life would have to be lost here, he didn't want to really dedicate himself to the development of gunpowder weapons.

Of course, Li Zhang would not let others test for him, so he fixed the gun on a tree in the yard with a rope, but at this time, Judge Liu saw his actions and smiled: "Little Brother Li, your musket can't hold much gunpowder even if it is full, can you be so careful?" ”

"Hehe, there's nothing wrong with being careful." Li Zhang also smiled at the moment, and did not bother to explain that the power of his gunpowder was different, after all, Judge Liu would see it with his own eyes.

After fixing the musket, Li Zhang poured the gunpowder into the fire door, then tied a thin rope to the trigger, and then pulled the hammer on, and then carefully withdrew more than ten meters, after all, he hid behind a large wooden shield held by the wild dog, and this shield was also borrowed by him from Huyan Shouxin in advance.

Judge Zhang was reluctant to hide behind the shield, but he was pulled hard by Li Zhang or came behind the shield, and then Li Zhang grabbed the thin rope, and then pulled the trigger suddenly, only to hear a loud "bang", and Judge Liu next to him was also startled, because he didn't expect the sound of this musket to be so loud.

"Success?" Li Zhang immediately poked his head out from behind the shield when he heard the sound, but found that the musket was all blocked by black smoke, black powder is like this, the smoke released after the explosion is too large, if too many muskets are used together, the smoke will even block the gunner's vision, which is also one of the reasons for the rise of smokeless gunpowder later.

At that moment, Li Zhang walked quickly to the tree, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the gun was intact, but on the wall opposite the muzzle, there was an extra trace of blowing.

"One, two, three......" Judge Liu walked from the position of the muzzle to the corner of the wall with a solemn face, and found that the muzzle of the gun was about twenty steps away from the corner of the wall, although this distance was not far, but the traces of the lead shot hitting the wall were very deep, which showed that the lead shot from the musket was extremely powerful, and this distance could even penetrate the armor, which also made him start to face the musket for the first time.

Although the first shot was successful, Li Zhang was not too happy because of this, but after cleaning the barrel, he reloaded and fired again, and still pulled with a rope, and the result was thirteen times in a row, and on the fourteenth time, it was a loud "bang", the sound was obviously different from before, and when they walked over, they found that the barrel of the gun at the place of the fire gate had exploded.

"This ...... Why is this gunpowder so powerful? At first, he only noticed that Li Zhang's gunpowder was different, and later he found that Li Zhang's gunpowder was not very much, but such a little gunpowder could shoot the lead pellet out more than 20 steps, and it also made a pit in the blue brick wall, which was beyond his knowledge of gunpowder.

"The power of gunpowder is on the one hand, on the other hand, this musket can also bring out the power of gunpowder, but unfortunately the material of the barrel is not up to par, and it only exploded after a dozen shots." Li Zhang took off the gun at this time and checked it, and found that all the parts inside were destroyed, so he had to return to the furnace for refinery.

"The iron used in the musket is already quite good, and if you want to use better iron, you can only use the kind of fine iron that is only used to make weapons." Judge Liu also said at this time that his craftsmen only made some iron tools for the imperial tomb, mainly some tools, and the quality of the iron used was not as good as the iron used to make weapons.

"Brother Liu, can you get some fine iron, let's make another one?" Li Zhang immediately asked, the first gun can release more than a dozen shots, indicating that there should be no major problems in the structure, if better materials can be used, maybe a truly practical gun can be made.

"Yes, yes, it's just ...... It's just that Brother Li, what did you create such a killing weapon for? Judge Liu nodded first, and then hesitated for a moment before asking, Li Zhang's musket can almost be compared with crossbow arrows in terms of power, and the Great Song Dynasty's control of weapons is very strict, for example, it is strictly forbidden for people to hold crossbow arrows, he didn't know that the power of muskets was so strong before, but now that he knows, he naturally has some scruples about muskets, in case Li Zhang uses it to do illegal things, I'm afraid he will also be implicated.

"Brother Liu, rest assured, of course I made the musket to dedicate it to the imperial court, but there were no craftsmen in my hands before, so I borrowed the craftsmen in Brother Liu's hands to use it, if the musket can be successfully trial-made, I will personally dedicate it to the Queen Mother and Your Majesty, and I will never forget your merits, Brother Liu!" Li Zhang said again with a smile at this time.