The production of distilled spirits has stabilized, and after the approval of the tasters, the two craftsmen have gradually mastered the heat of distillation and fixed it, and the next step is to improve the distillation container and expand the scale of production.

What Li Zicheng has to do is to sign a contract with a supplier of low-alcohol liquor, and knowing that the monthly output is only 200 catties, Li Zicheng simply contracted all their liquor, but the quality must be guaranteed, and only low-alcohol liquor of the same quality can ensure the quality of distilled spirits.

The manufacturer is also very happy, in this way, they are only responsible for production, even the money for marketing, shop, and labor remuneration are saved, and finally the contract is signed at a price two percent lower than the market price.

Li Zicheng is quite satisfied with this contract, this low-alcohol liquor producer, once it loses the market, the liquor produced in the future can only be sold to himself, but for the long-term stable supply, it is best to have its own low-alcohol liquor production workshop in the future, so the contract signed by the two sides is only half a year, which is considered a trial.

He also found time to go to a craftsman's workshop.

The firearms craftsmen led by Fang Zhi have made some progress in the development and analysis of M1841, and have some new understanding, and they even made a model of a rifle out of clay, according to Fang Zhi's estimate, if the quality of the iron is qualified, maybe they can produce this kind of fire # gun, but it is difficult to achieve the same size with the barrel and trigger.

However, Fang Zhi is most worried about the bullet, the copper warhead of the paper bullet is not difficult, the key is to boost the bottom # fire of the warhead, I don't know if it can be ignited, he is not sure that it has not been tested in the relevant way.

Li Zicheng boiled down these difficulties into three categories, one of which is the size problem, but now there is no unified ruler, if you want to do it like an assembly line, it is really difficult for them, and the key problem still needs to be solved by yourself.

As long as you make a standard meter ruler, you can solve the problem of specification, the problem is how to determine this standard, on the drawings of M1841, all the dimensions given are millimeters, if you can't make the craftsmen familiar with millimeters, these dimensions are difficult to master, at least you have to be familiar with centimeters.

The answer can only be found in the Hereafter.

He vaguely remembered that the "meter" was determined, and it was related to the length of the meridian, but now it was obviously impossible to measure the meridian, what should I do? Li Zicheng suddenly thought that in the later life, he had nothing to do, holding a ruler in his hand, often measuring in his hand, he pressed down hard with his right hand, and the length of a handful was cut to 22 centimeters.

I don't know if the handful of "Li Zicheng" is also this length, he estimates that it is about the same, if it is not very accurate, it should be about the same.

Li Zicheng asked He Xiaomi to find a smooth thin wooden strip, measured 22 centimeters with his fingers, and asked Cao Jian to divide the thin wooden strip into 22 equal parts, and then make a meter ruler according to the length of each piece.

In order to prevent the craftsmen from figuring out the problem of the progress rate, he took out a blank piece of paper, wrote the conversion relationship between meters, decimeters, centimeters, and millimeters on it, and then pasted it on the inner wall of the gold workshop so that they could easily inquire at any time.

The second is the iron problem, which is easy to solve, the iron is too soft, mainly because the carbon content is too high, as long as the carbon content is reduced, it can become a harder steel.

In the later life of Li Zicheng's life, this is what he learned in junior high school chemistry, as long as oxygen is injected into the molten iron and then heated, so that carbon, sulfur and other impurities form gases to escape.

Although the principle is simple, the problem is how to get relatively pure oxygen, and now the Ming Dynasty has no relevant science and technology at all, and raw materials are the biggest problem.

However, if such a problem has been solved by the Ming Dynasty, then the M1841 made by Li Zicheng and the craftsmen will not be considered an advanced firearm.

He pondered for a moment, either sorting out the oxygen or replacing it with other raw materials.

I feel that the problem is about to be solved, but in a trance, I can't find the breakthrough of the problem, and I can get a lot of oxygen by separating the air, but at low temperature and high pressure, such conditions obviously cannot be met, if I use the laboratory method, not only can I not get a lot of oxygen, but the raw materials are also a big problem.

Li Zicheng thought about it for a long time, and suddenly had an idea, isn't the air itself the best source of oxygen? Although the content of oxygen is only more than 20%, as long as the air is repeatedly poured into the ironmaking furnace, the oxygen as the active ingredient will be continuously utilized, and the nitrogen with the most content in the air will not undergo chemical reactions at all in the steelmaking process because of its relatively stable properties.

It is necessary not only to continuously rush oxygen into the iron-making furnace, but also to discharge the excess air with low oxygen content, and the air outlet must be added to the iron-making furnace to allow the air to fully circulate in the iron-making furnace, which is like paddy field aquaculture, there are inlet pipes for pumping clean water, and there are also outlet pipes for discharging sewage.

Li Zicheng immediately found Liu Fang, the chief blacksmith, and asked him to modify the iron-making furnace of the Ming Dynasty, adding an exhaust hole opposite the air intake, and at the same time continuously replenishing fresh air to the furnace to re-refine the existing pig iron.

Liu Fang didn't know Li Zicheng's intentions, but since Li Zicheng said it, he could only do it.

The problem of steel was initially solved, and Li Zicheng had to face another problem, that is, the problem of the firing pin hitting the bottom # fire, but he thought about it for a long time, but he had no good solution, and he couldn't go back to the old road of ignition.

Maybe the Westerners have solved this problem, Li Zicheng can only sigh secretly, but unfortunately, such an important technology, the Westerners will never reveal it to Daming.

Western missionaries!

Li Zicheng suddenly remembered that in the Ming Dynasty, with the arrival of Western maritime merchants from the East, they were accompanied by Western missionaries, all of whom were well educated in church schools, especially in advanced science and technology, and had unique views.

The most famous missionaries of the Ming Dynasty are all famous in later generations, the key is that they not only mastered advanced science and technology, have a pious attitude towards theology, but also have good qualities, the famous Matteo Ricci, John Tong......

Li Zicheng was shocked in his heart, Tang Ruowang, the missionary who should have been the most able to promote the development of Daming science and technology and was greatly appreciated by Xu Guangqi, seemed to be in Shaanxi at the moment, and he must be found before he was excavated by Xu Guangqi.

What makes Li Zicheng the most headache is that John Tang is not a simple ambassador of science and technology, but a missionary, let him come to the small Xining, how can he be moved, should he be allowed to preach in Xining?

Apart from coming to Xining to preach, what else could have touched him? Li Zicheng thought hard, but he couldn't find a sufficient reason.

If he is allowed to preach in Xining, will it be a good thing or a bad thing? Li Zicheng is thinking not only about Xining, but also about all the Han people, as well as the future trend of the central country.

The Han people's own culture has a long history, does it need religion?

Li Zicheng thought that all kinds of terrorist attacks in later generations seemed to have nothing to do with Catholicism, and moreover, there was no theocratic regime in Europe that believed in Catholicism, and apart from giving the people a hopeless hope, it did not have much negative impact on the country and the nation.

He also thought of the expansion of the central state, since the Qing Empire, which replaced the Ming Dynasty, could expand its territory to the Western Regions and the steppes in the north, it would have to face a large number of alien problems, and the key to naturalizing a nation was a common faith and language.

If there had been a strong modern religion in the central country that could religiously convert people from different ethnic groups, perhaps there would not have been all kinds of terrorist organizations in southern Xinjiang, and perhaps there would not have been any terrorist organizations in Tibet......

Buddhism has been inherited in the central country for a long time, can it be used as the state religion of the central country? Li Zicheng quickly denied that Tibet was because Buddhism was too powerful, and it established a nondescript theocratic regime, and Buddhism preached celibacy.

So what does Catholicism preach? Li Zicheng thought of the "monogamous" system, which is what the central country lacks the most.

The evil of "polygamy" abounds in the life of the Ming Dynasty, not to mention that the officials with groups of wives and concubines, in order to support their families, must be greedy for a lot of ink, not to mention that a large number of strong men among the people have no wives to be desirable, which is probably also the root cause of fewer and fewer beauties in the central country.

The extra wives and concubines of those officials and businessmen are often beauties, this is an era when beauties are collected, many beauties share a man, no matter how good the man is, but their chances of conception will definitely decrease, ordinary "monogamy", if there is no restriction on childbirth, women will basically give birth to three or four, five or six are also normal, and even reach seven or eight, but once the beauty is collected by the powerful, it can have two or three children, which is basically the limit, and many beauties are essentially no queen, excellent genes, It was annihilated by the system

And those mediocre-looking women, because they lost the opportunity to be collected, can marry ordinary men and have children normally, this kind of non-excellent genes have been widely preserved, and in the long run, there will naturally be fewer and fewer beauties on the street who can be eye-catching.

Of course, "monogamy" does not guarantee loyalty to the family, with the experience of later generations in Europe and the United States and the central country, from now on, will enter the era of lovers, but this is also a hundred times better than "polygamy", although beautiful women will also cheat, may be active, or forced, no matter which possibility, at least they increase the chance of conception, at least they give birth to children, half of the beautiful genes.

It seems to be far away, but Li Zicheng found that this is also a social problem and plays a vital role in social stability.

"Monogamy" can make the people at least two widowers less.

Li Zicheng thought about it for a long time, and finally made up his mind that he wanted to create a new world in Xining, just like the new education he was trying.

He immediately returned to the official office and sent a message to Wang Anping: immediately send all the people sent to Shaanxi to inquire about the missionary situation of the missionary John Tang in Shaanxi, and let him come to Xining no matter what means are used.

………………………………………………

Sun Mengjie continued to send the students' homework and Mr.'s handouts to the study of the Central Government on time.

On this day, He Xiaomi was not there, the study was locked, Sun Mengjie had no choice but to send these materials to Li Zicheng's home, and when she saw that the door was open, she did not hesitate at all, and broke in.

It happened that Li Zicheng came out of Song Yulian's room, and Song Yulian, who was following behind, tidied up her clothes while walking, and straightened out her somewhat scattered hair with her hands.

Sun Mengjie's face suddenly turned black, and she almost vomited in her heart.

Song Yulian's face turned red, but she took the initiative to greet, "This is Miss Jie'er, right?" On such a cold day, I still have to run away! Come in, come in and have a hot cup of tea! ”

Sun Mengjie raised her eyebrows coldly, expressed her contempt with white eyes, stuffed her homework and handouts into Li Zicheng's arms, didn't speak, turned around and left, went out of the main gate, snorted coldly, and kicked the snow in front of the door far away.

Song Yumian was extremely embarrassed, her face was white and red for a while, and she said, "This Jie'er girl, what's wrong?" The servant didn't offend her! ”

Li Zicheng laughed, "Ao, when I was teaching in the morning, she didn't do her homework well and was severely reprimanded by me, I'm afraid I still have anger in my heart." ”

Song Yulian didn't believe Li Zicheng's nonsense, and gave him a blank look, "It's all adults, it's broad daylight, you have to ...... I don't even close the door......"