Li Yan continued to go back to design his gun mount, the general structure is easy to say, but whether it is suitable or not, only after slowly trying it, can it be finalized.

There is also the problem of the movement angle of the barrel, which is not to be taken into account in the left and right directions, but must be considered in the upper and lower directions. The current wooden platform turret is achieved by padding wood chips at the tail of the gun, but this will be limited by the thickness of the wood chips, and the artillery will lose the ability to shoot accurately.

Although Li Yan has some ideas, this requires the cooperation of other things, so he can only make an assumption at this time for the time being. In addition, some metal components were used in the production of gun carriages and gun carriages to make the gun carriages stronger.

The next day, Li Yan went to the woodworking workshop and asked Master Huang to make the gun carriage. As for the specific size, it depends on Master Huang's eyesight and experience. Master Huang has been a carpenter for 20 years, and his eyesight is naturally there, but how to do it is still to try step by step.

After that, Li Yan went to the blacksmith's workshop again, and he wanted to ask if Blacksmith Zhou could make screws. This is very important, and he intends to use the characteristics of small screw lifting amplitude to adjust the height angle of the gun. In this way, accurate firing from artillery became possible.

After asking, Blacksmith Zhou really knows how to make screws. Because the Chinese bird gun was learned from the Japanese, and the Japanese fire gun was sealed with a screw at the end of the barrel. Because of the use of screws, the characteristic of the Japanese firearm is that it is easy to clean the chamber. Therefore, China's fire gun manufacturing also carries forward this advantage, and the gun tail is also sealed with screws.

Now Li Yan is relieved, as long as there are screws, then it will be easy to do. Now we are waiting for Master Huang's gun mount, as long as the gun mount is made, then all kinds of tests can be carried out.

Ma Chaodong's gunpowder workshop also began to operate, saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal were all good goods, and of course a lot of silver was spent. However, Li Yan still continued the previous measures, and the displaced people who wanted to stay would collect all their gold and silver. The current situation is that there is little food, so gold and silver naturally appear worthless. Some wanted land, so they handed it in, and of course some people wanted to keep the gold and silver, and Li Yan could only let them leave. Coupled with the baggage left by the thief last time, the money and food in his hands can still last for a while.

They had already started purifying nitrate and sulphur some time ago. Boil nitrate with clean water, then add kraft glue to remove impurities, and then filter the nitrate water through cotton cloth into the water tank. It is necessary to repeat boiling and straining three times to get pure, snow-white nitrate. Sulfur is purified by frying tea oil and butter once.

With pure nitrate and sulfur, and with the addition of fine charcoal, it can be mixed to make gunpowder. Li Yan asked Ma Chaodong to put only these three things, and nothing else. The ratio of the three is seven to one to two, but this is the formula that Ma Chaodong and they learned.

After the three are mixed in proportion, they are placed in the stone mortar of the rice and start to be licked non-stop. This is the more scoops, the better, but the manpower is limited, so the three of them are divided into shifts, and each person changes shifts after two hundred steps, and a total of fifty shifts can be regarded as completing the process of scooping.

The gunpowder foam that came out is not finished, and it still needs to be granulated. This time, we will use barley to boil water, three catties of barley with 100 catties of water. After cooking, spray the barley water on the foam with your mouth and shake the sieve evenly. The top will naturally be grained, and the leakage will be used to continue sifting. After the granulation is completed, it is placed in the sun to dry, if the sun is insufficient, as long as the humidity is not high, it can also be dried at night.

When Li Yan came to the gunpowder workshop, Ma Chaodong and the others had just dried a batch of gunpowder and were testing it in another yard. I saw Wang Renhui put a handful of pills in the palm of his hand, while Ma Chaodong blew the fire medium, and then ignited the gunpowder in Wang Renhui's hand. The gunpowder burned instantly, and a puff of white smoke rose and was immediately extinguished.

Wang Renhui patted the black marks on his hands casually, nodded and said, "Well, it's done, it's not hot." ”

After Ma Chaodong listened, he handed over the fire medium to Wang Renhui, and also took a little gunpowder in his hand and burned it. found that it was indeed not hot, so he said happily: "Well, it is indeed done." ”

Li Yan stood at the door and didn't disturb them. It wasn't until they finished checking that Wang Renli, who had already seen Li Yan, said happily: "Childe, our gunpowder is ready." ”

Li Yan went in, looked at the plump black medicine grains the size of wheat grains, and nodded and smiled: "Yes, there is no white learning." But how effective it is, let's wait until it's been tested. ”

Wang Renli said: "Don't worry, Childe, this gunpowder is ready, the paper tube and the lead are all done, and you will soon be able to make a firework." ”

"Don't worry, the iron cylinder hasn't been made yet." Li Yan said: "The blacksmith workshop is busy building a big furnace now, and it will take a while to get the iron cylinder out." When it comes out, you have to remake the fireworks according to the diameter of the iron cylinder, and the size must be appropriate and you can hit far. "The blacksmith has also moved back to the county seat, after all, it is safer in the county seat.

"Okay, as long as you know the inner diameter of the iron cylinder, you can make fireworks of the right size." Wang Renli said confidently.

Li Yan nodded and said, "Don't be idle, take apprentices when you should bring them, don't hide them." I'll reward you, don't feel like you're at a loss. ”

"Don't dare, don't dare." Ma Chaodong bowed down and said: "Our craft was learned with the money given by the son, so we naturally don't dare to hide it." And our family members are also able to eat and clothe themselves thanks to the grace of the son, so we dare not do our best for the son. ”

Li Yan patted Ma Chaodong's shoulder, looked at the three of them, and said with a smile: "It's good that you don't have a pimple in your heart." Don't think you're done, but keep working on it, refining the recipe to make gunpowder more powerful. More importantly, think about it, what is the cause of the burning and explosion of gunpowder? What kind of thing does it do? What role does it play? Not only to know what it is, but also to know why it is true, this is the way to keep improving. ”

"Xie Gongzi's teachings, we must keep them in mind." All three of them bowed and said.

Li Yan asked them to get up and said, "Not only remember, but also do it." Later, there will be a literacy school, and you will go too, although you can all recognize a few words, but there are not enough, so you need to learn more. ”

The three of them glanced at each other, and they all thanked each other happily: "Gongzi Xie." "They don't have any foundation like the other poor soldiers, they have all gone to private school for a few days. They are very interested in reading and know the benefits of reading, so they are very happy that they have the opportunity to continue reading.