On the water, following the command boat that Zhao Ying was riding, a row of three-oared war boats galloped on the water. Zhao Zheng didn't know about water warfare, and he had never seen the Jingren war boat, he only felt that the Qin army war boat in front of him was like centipedes flying on the water, and these centipedes went farther and farther, turning into black dots, and then these black dots beat the drum again, changed from the black dots back to the centipede war boat, and rowed back to the front of him.

He looked at these warships and did not speak, but was a little confused. The water is connected to the Weishui, but to the north of the Weishui, the water flowing down from the Sanguan is only in the south of the Weishui. However, the water was not connected to the water in the south of the Qinling Mountains, and Zhao Zheng could not imagine where this water battle would take place. He couldn't imagine what kind of war he would encounter, and Xiong Jing, who was negotiating, couldn't imagine what kind of war he would encounter.

"Please give it a try." In the prefectural office, he held a flintlock pistol loaded with ammunition in his hand.

Since Xiong Jing decided to develop muskets, the main force of research and development is still Yufu. Cutting jade is very different from making guns, but for flint devices, it is no different, and it is all about the mind and skill of the craftsman.

"Yes." The flintlock pistol was still heavy, the bolt was not improved, and this time the main test was gunpowder. Xiong Jing, who took the gun, was a little careless, and slammed a shot at the target not far away, but he didn't hit it at all. He quickly took the gun, loaded it with gunpowder, and offered it again. Xiong Jing took it and shot again, and after the battle, he took the charge again, but when he hit again, there was a 'bang', and it was another shot.

At this time, Xiong Jing was suddenly stunned, seeing that he was stunned, Yufu Yin, Yu Tang and others on one side smiled brightly, and Yan Yan, who was charging, also laughed, he once again presented the gun, this shot was unsuccessful, broke the gun and then pulled the trigger, 'Bang-', the gun body shook, this shot hit the bull's-eye.

"Why so?!" Xiong Jing threw the gun to Yan, his hand wide open, and the man looked very excited.

"The king, the minister thinks it is pure saltpeter, and the grinding is enough." He laughed, and couldn't find the sorrow of that day on his face. "Therefore, the first five shots are seven out of ten, and the last five shots are ten dozen and four shots."

"No, it's fine medicine! Fine medicine!! Xiong Jing snatched the gunpowder from his hand. He wasn't familiar with flintlock pistols, but he did know a lot of things, such as the fine medicine now.

It is said that the gunpowder that the flintlock muskevigator kept in the medicine pool had to be ground to a very fine extent in order to increase the rate of fire. According to the words, the first five shots were fired seven out of ten, and the last five shots were ten dozen and four hits, which was far higher than the previous 80 percent of the first shot, 50 percent of the second shot, and the miserable rate of fire after the third shot.

Of course, saltpeter's purity cannot be ignored. The saltpeter is pure, and the grinding is fine enough to be the bottleneck of the flintlock pistol. In other words, gunpowder is the soul of the gun, and the bolt and barrel are just the containers that carry this soul. The vessel may be important, but more important is the soul itself, because all power comes from gunpowder.

Xiong Jing grasped the gunpowder bottle as he spoke, and then his color changed greatly, and just as he was about to cheer, a bucket of ice water was poured over - he only realized what the bottleneck was, and there was no technology to solve the bottleneck.

"Your Majesty, although the medicine is fine, it is very difficult to grind." Said with a bitter face. "It took 1,000 people a month to grind out a ton, and there were many bombers during the period, so you must be very careful."

"A thousand? January? A ton?! Xiong Jing felt that he had heard something wrong.

"Yes, yes. The craftsman only grinds four taels a day, which is less. "The soup complains of bitterness." More than 40 tons of saltpeter have to be ground for more than three years. The minister also wanted to grind with instruments again, but every grinding was fried, and the people in the workshop were panicked and did not dare to try again. ”

"So what?!" One ton per month for 1,000 people, in other words, a craftsman grinds four taels of gunpowder a day (Xiong Jing did not calculate carefully, but one ton per month is less than four taels a day), one tael is about fifteen grams, and two or three shots are fired. You might as well use a bow and arrow! A craftsman makes at least 15 arrows a day. In the face of the Qin army wearing leather armor, the range is about seventy steps, and the bow and arrow are faster and more accurate, is it better to shoot seven arrows or five arrows?

"I don't know." Soupy road. "I can only ask the builders to send more craftsmen, if there can be tens of thousands of ......"

"Tens of thousands?!" Tens of thousands of people grind gunpowder by hand, Xiong Jing can't imagine such a scene.

"It has to be tens of thousands!" He emphasized. "If there are 10,000 men, you can produce 120 tons of gunpowder a year; If there are 50,000 people, 600 tons of gunpowder can be produced every year; If 100,000 people ......"

"Get out!" Xiong Jing angrily reprimanded.

The technology is not enough to make up the manpower, and even if the manpower can make it, there is still one thing that has not been announced, that is, the quality of hand-ground gunpowder is uneven. Some people grind it heavily, some people grind it lightly, and the same is 50,000 times of grinding, and there is also a difference in the thickness of the medicine that is grinded, and this difference will bring trouble to shooting whether it is used on a musket or a gun. If the charge is too much and exceeds the bore tolerance range, it can also lead to a blow up -

Unlike some people who talk about granulating to increase the power of gunpowder, granulation of gunpowder of the same fineness has a very limited increase in combustion rate. What can really increase the power of gunpowder is to increase the fineness of the particles, and after increasing to a certain level, the gunpowder can be ignited normally without the low ignition point and binder action of sulfur. And because the nitrate content increases, the power can be greatly increased, and the smoke will be drastically reduced.

It's just that it's hard to improve the fineness. One is that there is no better grinding method in Zaofu, cement grinding is the limit of gunpowder grinding fineness, but Zaofu cement is not even coarse cement; The second is that even if the fineness of cement grinding is barely feasible and the firing rate of flintlock pistols can be increased to a temporarily acceptable level, there is no way to industrialize large-scale manufacturing, and the grinding technology that is safe and does not explode can not be achieved overnight.

Xiong Jing, who doesn't understand where the bottleneck is, can still have hope, and if he understands where the bottleneck is, he can't solve the problem, then he is really disappointed. Of course, Dongzhou saltpeter still needs it, and it is transported back to mix in about 20% of impurities, and it is a feasible option for the Chu army to continue to use gunpowder with a quadruple charge, and the grinding technology can only be solved in the hope of being able to solve it in his lifetime.

"Stand down, there's no rush to grind." The sulfur of Hu Tansuo has arrived, and with sulfur, it does not matter when Dongzhou saltpeter is ground into it.

"Minister......" Before the others came, they thought that Xiong Jing would be happy, but they didn't expect Xiong Jing to be a little happy.

"The art of grinding is a top priority." Xiong Jing had to emphasize. "After today, the Gunpowder Mansion will think hard about the grinding technique, or you can ask the Concrete Mansion for advice. Your skilled craftsman only grinds four taels a day, how many shots can you shoot in four taels? How many days does it take to fire a shot? ”

"The minister knows that he is wrong." He didn't think about the cost at all, Xiong Jing was stunned when he mentioned it, and realized that manual grinding is really not good.