Like the layout of all the cities in the Great Song Dynasty, the north of Yacheng is the official area, covering an area of about ten acres, which is equivalent to the area of a standard football field in later generations. This official office area is naturally not large, and it looks tight as soon as it is placed in the yamen of various ministries. However, as long as you think about it, this is the end of the world, a place outside the world, and there are such military cities and government offices, which cannot but be said to be a miracle.

Due to the narrow area of the government office, the office is afraid of insufficient, and it is difficult to live in it anymore, so they can only abandon the pattern of the front and back yards, and the officials and generals either purchase or lease urban dwellings as residences.

Zhao Lie rented a three-entry house of several hundred square meters in the south of the city. The reason why he didn't buy a house but rented a house was not because he was reluctant to pay for money, but he was also a person with hundreds of thousands of yuan in his pocket, but he knew very well in his heart that Yacheng was not a place to stay for a long time.

Although Yacheng is active in commerce and trade and convenient in logistics, it is now the place where the dynasty is stationed, and Zhao Lie's every move here is in the eyes of Empress Dowager Yang, Zhang Shijie, Wen Tianxiang, Yang Liangjie and a number of civil and military officials. He knew very well in his heart that once the Dragon Bird Army and the Yuan Army officially faced each other and showed the power of firearms, it would definitely attract great attention from the top and bottom of the Xing Dynasty, and countless hands would stretch out to him to ask for weapons.

Weapons, Zhao Lie can give, originally he wanted to use muskets to arm the armies of the Great Song Dynasty. As long as enough iron is provided, he will give as much as he wants. But it is only limited to flintlock pistols, breech guns are the foundation of his life, and the raw materials are limited, even if the Dragon Sparrow Army is still underarmed, how can it be allocated to others? In this way, it is inevitable that there will be friction with the generals, and even contradictions with the Privy Council, and then the military base will be confiscated by force or through an edict of the Empress Dowager Yang, and he will have no second way but to launch a mutiny.

In order to avoid such an extreme situation, it is necessary to take precautions and leave Yacheng, away from the eyes of the courtiers, and develop independently before the firearms have attracted sufficient attention from the military.

Wan Anjun seems to be a good choice.

This is the real reason why Zhao Lie invited himself to be a pioneer, and it is also the real reason why he never moved the military industrial base into the city.

To develop independently, there is much more to prepare for a rainy day.

Zhao Lie, who left the festival hall and returned to the mansion, immediately recruited Wang Ping'an.

With the sound of crutches tapping the ground, Wang Ping'an staggered into the room, bowing with his back to Zhao Lie. After this period of recuperation, his physical condition gradually improved, and of course, he inevitably fell into the root of the disease.

Zhao Lie stared at Wang Ping'an, his face was unbearable, and he was silent for a long time.

Wang Ping'an was uneasy, and couldn't help but ask: "All the small ones are called...... What will happen in the end? Despite the explanation, my old Wang's body is okay, and he can still do errands for the capital. ”

Zhao Lie used Wang Ping'an to kill Meng Yuan Baihu, and invited him to be the general, the master of Wuyi. In the past, the boatmen are now wearing green robes (seven products). Wang Ping'an didn't sleep all night the night he received the farewell, and he went to dawn. The next day, he bought incense, candles, paper money, and went out of the city on crutches. Some people saw him erect the ancestral tablet on a high slope and look north to worship.

Zhao Lie pondered for a long time, and finally said: "The Dragon Bird Army needs gunpowder, a lot of gunpowder. If there is no ready-made one, we have to make it ourselves. Therefore, a large amount of raw materials is required. The only way to do this is to go to sea to Champa to buy. ”

As a pure firearms army that uses projectiles as a long-range firepower output, the Dragonbird Army relies on gunpowder.

When the Privy Council distributed the original Jiyang military treasury to the armies, the generals rushed to get bows and arrows, followed by armor and armor, then side swords, and finally standard plain wood guns. However, Zhao Lie exchanged the bows, crossbows and arrows allocated to his hands for gunpowder from various armies. There is no gunpowder weapon like earth-shaking thunder in the Jiyang armament, and most of the gunpowder stored is used for ignition, and all armies look down on it, and they can't imagine that they can actually exchange it for bows and crossbows and arrows.

As a result, Zhao Lie only used 20 bows, 12 crossbows, and more than 1,000 arrows to get all the more than 5,800 catties of gunpowder hidden in the Jiyang Military City. It's just that there are too many impurities doped with these gunpowders, and it is illegal to refine, so they can really only be used to ignite. To be converted into propellant, it is necessary to sieve out impurities and re-purify, there are more than ten processes, and finally more than 2,000 catties of propellant can be obtained, which is barely enough for the 200 musket team of the Dragon Bird Army to fight at a medium intensity.

This is certainly not enough. Flintlock guns consume not much gunpowder due to their slow rate of fire, while the high rate of fire of breech guns requires far more ammunition than flintlock guns. Although there are not many breech guns in Zhao Lie's hands at the moment, and there are not many team members equipped with breech guns, there must be a large amount of ammunition reserves. Otherwise, when the guns are produced and the troops are expanded, but there is not enough ammunition, it will be stupid.

Zhao Lie couldn't always count on ready-made gunpowder waiting for him, he had to have his own gunpowder production base.

In terms of talents, he has no shortage of talents, and the Gunpowder Bureau has a department, and there are more than a dozen craftsmen from the Gunpowder Bureau under Guo Dajiang. As court craftsmen, their skills in this area are top-notch. Zhao Lie only had to hand over the recipe and the refining equipment, and the craftsmen of the Gunpowder Bureau quickly came up with the finished product. The quality is good and the loss is small, which is far better than the propellant that Zhao Hunt made himself. As a result of the test firing, both flintlock and breech-loading guns, the effective range was one-fifth longer than the original.

If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools, and the ancients were honest and did not deceive me.

Among the three main raw materials for the preparation of black powder, charcoal with the largest amount is the best solution, and there are not many others in Qiongzhou, that is, the most primeval forests. Sulfur is also easy to solve, what is Qiongzhou? On the island, there are a large number of volcanic remains in the section from Qiongguan to Wenchang, and the associated sulfur is not only superficial and easy to mine, but also quite pure. A little more difficult is the nitration, which is most commonly found in arid alkaline soils and is most common in the northwest. An island like Qiongzhou will naturally not have the risk of drought, and there is little alkaline soil, but fortunately, there are many karst caves, and the karst caves have always been one of the areas for fire and nitrate. Due to the inconvenience of transportation across the sea in Qiongzhou, the preparation of gunpowder has always been made from local materials, and a series of processes have been formed in the collection and extraction of fire nitrate in caves very early.

However, even though Qiongzhou is full of treasures, at the moment, it can only be hoped for but not eaten in the mouth. At present, if you want to obtain a large amount of gunpowder, you can only buy it, and you still have to buy it abroad. There is a more important reason why Zhao Lie sent people to buy instead of ordering from maritime merchants, that is, he hoped to take this opportunity to establish a maritime trade route. Wang Ping'an is a pathfinder.

The reason why Zhao Lie chose Wang Ping'an was also a last resort, he had to find a trustworthy old brother to do it, and there were only a handful of trustworthy old brothers around him. The Wan'an Army is about to attack, Shi Yang can't get out, and Ma Nanchun also has something to do, and the Ding family sisters and brothers are still young, and it is difficult to entrust them with heavy responsibilities. Who are you looking for if you don't look for Wang Ping'an?

Wang Ping'an patted his thin and angular chest: "In the end, I am used to boiling this body, although it can't be done for a long time, but it doesn't hurt to take a boat." It's just that the last general has never been to Champa, and he doesn't understand the local customs and slang, and the business is also black-eyed, so I'm afraid that I will mistake the affairs of the capital. ”

Zhao Lie smiled slightly: "You don't have to worry about this, Lao Wang, I invited someone for you to accompany you." Chen Gongzi, please come in. ”

As soon as the door curtain moved, a person lifted the curtain and entered, and bowed to Zhao Lie: "Chen Bingxuan has seen Zhao Dutong." ”

Zhao Lie returned the salute with a smile and said to Wang Ping'an, who looked ignorant: "Old Wang, I will introduce you to one person - Chen Xianggong's nephew Chen Bingxuan. ”