Chen Shou's "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" has not been written for a long time, and not many people have seen it, but Wei Langzhong Yufeng privately wrote "Wei Luo", and many people have read it, including Yang Yi. "Wei Luo" mentions Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition to attack Chen Cang, which was garrisoned by Hao Zhao-

“…… Ladder and rush to the city. Zhao then fired a rocket at the ladder, which burned and everyone on the ladder was burned to death. Zhao also used a rope and a stone mill to press his punching car, and the rushing car was broken. Liang Nai shot into the city with a hundred feet of well, filled the trench with soil pills, and wanted to climb the city directly, and Zhao built a heavy wall inside. Liang is also a sudden ground, wanting to rush out of the city, and Zhao crosses the ground in the city. Attacking and resisting each other day and night for more than 20 days, Liang had no plan, rescued and retreated. ”

Pei Gai has never read "Wei Luo", that kind of private book and private history, his family disdains to read it, but from the soul of later generations, he has read this paragraph in part of the text of "Wei Luo" quoted by Pei Shu in "Three Kingdoms". As for how Hao Zhao used the rocket, not to mention that Yang Yi didn't understand, even Pei Cai couldn't figure it out.

The usual ignition in the army in those days was nothing more than animal fat or pine resin, mixed with some hay, sawdust, and charcoal ash, which was solid before heating, and did not burn quickly, so it was easy to shoot out and extinguish when applied to the arrows—it was impossible to apply rockets on a large scale. Vegetable oil extraction has already been invented – mainly soybean oil – but unfortunately it is not widely available, and vegetable oil is not much more effective than animal fat as a ignition.

There was no distilled liquor in those days, and naturally there was no alcohol......

Even around the world, the famous "Greek fire" was not recorded until more than 300 years later, and some kind of burning agent using petroleum as a raw material may have been used in some parts of the world, but the records are unknown and difficult to confirm. So could Hao Bodao have discovered oil in China? It's very unlikely......

Even Pei Gai couldn't figure it out, let alone Yang Yi, he couldn't help blurting out: "Could it be that Pei should have obtained Hao Bodao's secret inheritance?!" "I think there is such a possibility, isn't it all about defending against the enemy in Guanzhong......

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The ignition that Pei should have applied to the arrow was naturally the newly invented "gunpowder".

He once forged a simple recipe for black powder into an ancient smelting remnant - God knows, there was no burning fire alchemy in the ancient world - to Peng Xiao Peng Ziqin, who was introduced by Ge Hong, and ordered him to test it according to law, and strive to "invent" gunpowder as soon as possible. However, soon after, Pei Gai led his troops to the Northern Expedition, Peng Xiao lacked supervision, completely herded the sheep, and every day he either used the excuse of looking for raw materials to see the beautiful scenery, or pretended to burn Dan behind closed doors, but in fact, secretly welcomed prostitutes to come and have fun......

This period of time is really happy and more like a fairy, so who will think about testing prescriptions and burning pills.

It wasn't until Pei Gai mentioned Peng Xiao in a letter to his family that Xun Guanniang, who stayed in Huaiyin, began to pay attention to this matter. Xun Guanniang is also very strange, why did her husband raise a famous Taoist in Xuzhou with the country's wealth? However, based on the belief of many scholars at that time, there were countless things about refining medicine and taking pills - in fact, "Wushi San" was a kind of pill - Pei and Xun had not been married for a long time, and they couldn't say how much they knew each other, so after she was surprised, she also followed Pei Gai's instructions and sent someone to inquire about the progress of Peng Xiao's smelting.

Peng Xiao was perfunctory at the beginning, but Xun Guanniang was not an ordinary boudoir woman, she was very smart and more actionable, and when she heard Peng Xiao's reply, she seemed to be insincere, so she sent her slave Pei Fu and others to secretly investigate. When she learned that Peng Xiao had taken the financial aid given by her husband and knew how to eat, drink and have fun all day long, Xun Guanniang couldn't help but be furious, and immediately called Peng Xiao over and reprimanded her face-to-face. Peng Xiao didn't take a female stream in his eyes at first, and wanted to carry it hard, so Xun Guanniang sent someone to ask Bian Yan, saying that someone today falsely claimed to be able to cause strange goods, so as to defraud people of a huge amount of money, how should I deal with it according to the law? Bian Yan replied: "Forty rods, or far streams." ”

Xun Guanniang immediately used Pei's house slaves to enforce the national law, pressed Peng Xiao to the ground and beat him violently, beating Peng Ziqin's ass almost to pieces, and half of his life was gone. After receiving less than twenty rods, Peng Xiao was convinced, and mourned repeatedly, saying that he would do it immediately and complete the mission delivered by Pei Gong as soon as possible.

Xun Guanniang said: "Give you 20 days, you must succeed, otherwise...... The world is so big, how can there be no second person who can refine it? ”

Peng Xiao also knew that this matter might not be easy to do, so he cried and wiped his tears and bargained, saying that I had been beaten like this, how could I still smelt? You'll have to let me take a few more days to heal — and eventually extend the deadline to a month.

After being returned to his residence, the more Peng Xiao thought about it, the more depressed he became, and he planned to wait for the injury to be almost recovered, so he simply packed his luggage and ran away. Unexpectedly, Xun Guanniang had already taken precautions and sent troops to surround her subordinates, Peng Xiao was helpless, so she decided - I still work.

It's not that he didn't do anything before, he still collected some materials, and immediately lay on the couch, ordering someone to light the fire and open the furnace to purify the raw materials, but the original goods in his stomach were limited, and he didn't do it himself, so for three days, there was no progress.

If you want to say that Xun Guanniang's board really made Peng Ziqin sober up, I know that this matter is difficult, just relying on my own half a bottle of vinegar, let alone a month, I am afraid that half a year may not be able to achieve results - that is the secret method of the ancients after all! I had to write a letter with sad words, send someone to send it to Jiangdong quickly, and hand it to the teacher Ge Hong, saying Teacher Ge, please hurry up and save me, if you can't complete the requirements of Pei Gong and Mrs. Pei on time, "The teacher will ask me to be in the abalone's house"!

Ge Hong smiled when he saw the letter, and said in his heart that you have today, your life is not guaranteed, and you have entered the "abalone house", what do you have to do with me, why should I "ask" you? But looking at the so-called "secret recipe" transcribed by Peng Xiao, he couldn't help but feel a little itchy, plus - he wouldn't really watch his disciples die, if he wasn't annoying, he could help or help.

So he used his years of experience in smelting, retreat and experiment, and really only took ten days to get the gunpowder out.

In the original history, black powder is said to have been invented by smelters, and even Ge Hong himself inadvertently, thinking that it must have been accompanied by many violent burns and even explosions, and some people may even lose their lives because of this. That's because the smelters tried to put all kinds of minerals into the Dan furnace to burn, and maybe at some time they had nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, and the proportions were suitable, so they burst into flames or even exploded. They were forced to do some trial and error, but what were the ingredients that caused the results?

But in this timeline, since there is already an "ancient secret recipe", there is naturally no need to take that detour. The "secret recipe" is very clearly written, these raw materials are combined, "you can get fire essence, burn and explode", in this case, how could Ge Hong rashly use fire to ignite without protection?

As long as you know the approximate ratio of the three raw materials, middle school students in later generations can easily prepare black powder, but in this life, the key is that the purification of raw materials is not easy, and the second is whether it is "simple nitrate" or "real nitrate", whether it is "sulfur" or "realgar" or "orpiment", and what kind of charcoal is used, it needs to be tried and compared repeatedly. For others, this matter may be difficult to do—for example, Peng Xiao—but Ge Zhichuan has rich experience in smelting, and all kinds of raw materials around him are relatively complete, so it is much easier to do it.

As the saying goes, "those who are difficult will not, but those who will will not be difficult".

After the test was successful, Ge Hong carefully recorded the ratio and purification techniques of various materials, returned them to Peng Xiao, and promised: Since this is the secret recipe given to you by Pei Gong, I will not pass it on, but I may use it when smelting at home.

He sent a disciple to the north to deliver the letter, but unfortunately the distance was far away, and the disciple was not used to going back and forth to Xu Fang, so he took a long detour, and when he arrived in Huaiyin, Peng Xiao's second board was over...... Fortunately, Xun Guanniang finally spared this guy's life and gave him an extra month. Peng Xiao received the letter, the so-called desperate life, crying with joy, and hurriedly presented Xun Guanniang, Xun Guanniang didn't know if it was right, whether it was what her husband wanted, so she still put Peng Xiao under house arrest, and wanted to wait for Pei to come back before dealing with it.

Not long after, a letter came from the front, Pei should ask Xun's father and daughter to go to Guanzhong, and Xun Guanniang took the formula, a small number of finished products and Peng Xiao on the road. After entering Da Licheng, Pei should have taken it for trial and found that there was still a problem with the proportion...... This thing burns violently, but it doesn't easily explode. But it's right to think about it, gunpowder has always been divided into two types: incendiary and explosive, and black powder itself is more suitable for combustion, and it is not very explosive. So he summoned Peng Xiao, reprimanded him sharply, and ordered him to continue to test the ratio of various raw materials, and look for suitable sulfur and flame nitrate in Guanzhong.

It's just that now that he knows what kind of character Peng Ziqin is, Pei Gai's attitude is naturally different from when he first met, he deprived Peng Xiao of his position in Xuzhou, and ordered him to "wear guilt and make meritorious service" under the custody of the sergeant to atone for his past sins. Poor Peng Xiao, he has changed from a guest to a prisoner, and his treatment is no different from that of ordinary craftsmen in the army, and his degree of freedom is not as good as that of ordinary craftsmen......

At this time, he was already under siege of Dali, but the external contact had not been completely severed, so Pei Gai collected raw materials everywhere and began to make black powder on a small scale. His original plan was to fill the black powder into the clay pot, ignite it and throw it with a cannon cart to greatly damage the besieging enemy, and did not plan to use rockets - rockets are mainly used to deal with wooden siege equipment, but what siege equipment can the Hu army have?

Although they didn't have enough attacking tools, once they were killed by Hu Bing to the city wall, they would always have ladders to build, so Pei should more or less prefabricate some rockets in case of emergency. Unexpectedly, Hu Yingzhong launched the "Flying Beam Car" today, because there were only ten of them, and they were very scattered, so he tried to smash them with a cannon truck first, and found that the probability of hitting was not high, so Pei Gai switched to rockets.

The first round of rockets, just like the normal feather arrows launched before, only 30% were successfully nailed to the upper plate of the "flying beam car", but the outside of this upper plate was originally attached to the hemp and even leather, as long as the fire was not extinguished in the flight of the arrows, once nailed, it would soon be extended. Then a second round of arrows was fired from the city, no longer rockets—not too many of them—but straw and grease tied to the arrows to enhance the fire. The third round was a cannon cart that fired gunpowder canisters, and clay pots that only contained grease and firewood, which could not hit the "flying beam cart", but caused a wall of fire to ignite in an instant on the land behind the car!