Holding this flintlock musket, Li Wenyuan was very excited in his heart, and was about to draw out the tong bar to load the gunpowder projectile and conduct a round of design tests, only to think that no one had invented gunpowder yet, so he had to give up. He asked the golden shopkeeper again: "Do you know those warlocks, alchemy and other detailed things?" ”

The golden shopkeeper nodded and said: "I have heard of this slightly, I once heard him say it when he was making a tripod for an alchemist in the royal family, it seems that there is a male yellow female yellow, saltpeter and something that occurred when refining the tripod incident." But it's been so long that I can't remember it anymore. ”

Li Wenyuan nodded and said, "Yes, this is the thing." This is the propellant of this musket. I once had an occasional party among the people, calling it the sulfur fire method. According to the formula, three out of four for gunpowder saltpeter, one for sulfur and one for charcoal. Saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal are each milled into powder in a wooden trough. According to this ratio, it is mixed with shochu to make wet mud. It is determined that the sand and stones will be blown away in the trough, and the wooden pestle will be hammered and stirred, if it is not endless, there will be a thunder and fire, and the disaster will not be shallow. So reciprocating several rounds, so that the plaster in the trough is delicate and square. Later, as for the exposure to the sun, the black ash powder obtained is called red thunder powder. It is the propellant of the musket that I just mentioned, which can also be called gunpowder. For each trough of red thunder powder, take a little of it and put it on paper. If it is ignited by fire, if it burns quickly and leaves no traces on the paper, it is of the highest grade and can be used in the musket. If there are black spots left on the paper after combustion, it needs to be returned to the tank for re-grinding. Until it is inspected as a top grade, it can be used in the gun. ”

When Li Wenyuan said these things, the golden shopkeeper on the side had already written down all the recipes described by Li Wenyuan on paper. Li Wenyuan looked at the things recorded by the golden shopkeeper and saw that there was nothing missing, so he handed the recipe back to the golden shopkeeper and said to him: "The people must not believe it, and they must not believe it. You can find some craftsmen to try out the production and fine-tune the proportions according to this recipe. It is better to increase the power of the iron pellet that can be stimulated by the musket as much as possible, but not to make the powder too strong and make the musket explode. At the same time, it is also necessary to take into account the problem of loss of gunpowder properties when carrying for a long time. ”

Li Wenyuan saw that the shopkeeper Jin carefully put away the recipe, so he took a sip of tea and moistened his throat and asked the shopkeeper Jin: "Since arriving in Wuwei County, the shopkeeper Jin has lived in a simple place and has not interacted with people for a long time. Summoned me here today, I must have some other surprises for me besides this flintlock musket. ”

When the shopkeeper saw Li Wenyuan and asked if he had any surprises, he smiled and said to Li Wenyuan: "I can't hide anything from the manager, I really have something to show the manager here." With that, he pulled Li Wenyuan and walked towards the big open space in the northeast corner of Guantun City. This is a place specially planned by Li Wenyuan for craftsmen to test the effects of various siege equipment.

Upon arrival at the testing ground, a few men who had worked for the craftsmen brought up an object covered in red cloth. When he got closer, the golden shopkeeper stepped forward and lifted the red cloth, and the sunlight reflected by the objects under the red cloth pierced Li Wenyuan's eyes. Then the eyes adjust to the bright light. I saw that the object carried by the two guys was the Mo knife that he had sketched for the golden shopkeeper earlier.

Li Wenyuan was overjoyed in his heart, with this thing, he could have a hard-fought encounter with the cavalry on the grassland. I just don't know if the Mo knife created by this can meet my own requirements, and whether it can withstand the force of the horse without breaking? At the moment, he was also very curious, so he reached out and grabbed the Mo knife that the two guys were carrying in his hand. As soon as he was able to move slightly, he picked up the Mo knife. The whole Mo knife feels quite heavy in the hand, but it is very reasonable, and there is no top-heavy feeling when held with one hand. At this time, as a test, Li Wenyuan was opposite a wooden stake with Mingguang heavy armor made by the best contemporary craftsmanship. Li Wenyuan made a little more effort, and with a wave of the Mo knife, he slashed diagonally at the Mingguang Heavy Armor from top to bottom.

I only heard a click, and the wooden stake with the Mingguang heavy armor and the heavy armor was cut into two sections by Qi Brush at the moment. The whole process is like a hot knife cutting cream, without any sense of blockage. Retracting the Mo knife and looking at the blade that slashed towards the heavy armor earlier, there was no collapse in the slightest. Li Wenyuan was overjoyed in his heart, and immediately took out his sword again to cut the wooden stake in front of him and the remaining heavy armor into several pieces, and then he retracted the knife momentum and stood the Mo knife on the ground.

Li Wenyuan, who was very satisfied with the Mo knife in his hand, turned his head and asked the smiling Jin shopkeeper on the side and said, "This is really a good knife, but I don't know how fast this knife can be made?" ”

Seeing that Li Wenyuan asked about the production speed of this Mo knife, the golden shopkeeper also spread his hands helplessly and said: "This Mo knife in your hand is a sample made by the five most skilled masters under my command who worked together for more than half a month. However, with the sample production speed, it can be improved a lot, but even if the materials are sufficient, it is the limit to be able to produce more than 100 Mo knives per month. If you want to forcibly increase the speed, it may affect the quality of the Mo knife produced. ”

Li Wenyuan nodded, and with some reluctance, he handed over the Mo knife to the two guys and carried them back to the warehouse. He asked the shopkeeper again, "How is the enrollment situation of the technical school now?" ”

The technical school mentioned by Li Wenyuan is a technical school as the name suggests. At this time, Li Wenyuan was in the Western Regions, and deeply felt that there was a shortage of craftsmen, and craftsmen in this era had always been a low-status profession. Therefore, if it is not forced by life or ancestral craftsmanship, few people will take the initiative to join the ranks of craftsmen.

This made Li Wenyuan a big headache for the scarcity of craftsmen, but there was no good solution. We can only increase the support for craftsmen in the administrative aspect, and improve the welfare of craftsmen to attract some people who do not have any skills to join and learn their crafts from the craftsmen. Unlike private schools, where you need to sit down and read, the craftsmen learn from practice makes perfect, so they don't have a special school building, and they are all at the processing site. Li Wenyuan gave an extremely efficient education method that was practiced in later generations.

And at the end of each year, these students' skills are evaluated, and once they can get better results in the competition, they can get a lot of rewards together with the students and teachers. This also ensures that these craftsmen will teach each other when they sell students, and there will be no hidden tricks. Coupled with the subsistence allowance policy that Li Wenyuan has now set up, these people can eat a full bite of food even when they can no longer work, and there is no need to worry about the situation of the church disciples starving to death of their masters.