It's just that the premise of the effectiveness of the grenadier unit is to get high-purity saltpeter, otherwise it will be difficult for the bomb-grenadiers with four times the weight to be thrown into the enemy position no matter how powerful they are, and maybe they will injure their own people and let the Qin army break the formation.

Since I don't know how to purify nitrate, the remaining option is to purchase saltpeter. Before the ammonia industry in 1909, Chilean saltpeter was supplied to the whole world, and before Chilean saltpeter was supplied to the world, India had a monopoly on the supply of saltpeter to the world market. The former is sodium nitrate and the latter is potassium nitrate, because of the monopoly that has lasted for more than a century, another name for potassium nitrate is Indian saltpeter.

Now India does not export saltpeter, if the Chu State deliberately looks for saltpeter, will the secret of gunpowder be broken by the Indians? Perhaps the best option is the Atacama Desert in Chile, or some unknown, hot and dry island.

Xiong Jing thought about these questions, but after a while, he felt that everything was too illusory, and transporting saltpeter across the ocean should be more than ten years later. The purity of saltpeter can only be tolerated, overcome with a quadruple charge.

"I think it's not right to throw gunpowder." He didn't make a sound until this time. "Gunpowder is the weapon of the god of thunder, and the weight of Da Chu is also. However, it needs to be ignited with flint, and if the spark suddenly disappears after being thrown into the enemy formation, the gunpowder will be obtained by the Qin people. ”

"Gunpowder must not be obtained by the Qin people." Including Xiang Yan, everyone nodded again and again. Gong Zhiji was the most sensitive to the leakage of gunpowder, and he continued: "The Qin people are connected to Kunlun in the west, and if they know the secret of gunpowder, there will be no shortage of sulfur. ”

Saltpeter, charcoal, sulfur, that's the whole secret of gunpowder. Of course, saltpeter in Chu is produced in nitrate, not in broad daylight, and people go to scrape large and small toilets in the capital of Ying. After returning to Yingying, who had visited the nitrate fields on the island, he noticed that there were fine saltpeters of the same color at the foot of the walls of the thatched houses and old houses, and this discovery surprised him.

Xiong Jing's consolation for this is that the Qin people can't cast cannons - if it is the Yin Shang period, then it can make a usable bronze cannon, the Western Zhou Dynasty maybe, but it must be the early Western Zhou Dynasty, before the Yin Shang craftsmen did not die of old age; There is a high probability that the Eastern Zhou Dynasty could not make a bronze cannon. When it comes to the Warring States, the possibility is even smaller.

Bronze technology has always been degrading, with the end of the Yin Shang Dynasty and the early Western Zhou Dynasty being the peak, and then there was a long period of degradation. During the Yin Shang period, even the barbarian land of Jiangxi Xingan had bronze circh, and the Central Plains under the control of Yin Shang had more, but in the two-week period, even the Western Zhou Dynasty had few bronze crests, and the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was completely missing, only leather crests, and iron cirls appeared in Zhongshan and Yan Kingdom in the late Warring States period.

Is it that the Zhou people don't want to use bronze armor? Of course not. The bronze armor of the Zhou people was not a whole piece of armor, but a small piece of nailed to leather armor and cloth armor. In the final analysis, the technology is still poor, and the Zhou people can't cast bronze armor and bronze armor, so they can only be so tricky.

In the past, the king said that the Qin people could not cast artillery, but now the king said that they could break the formation without artillery gunpowder. The public loss taboo was the most moving. "The minister thought that artillery should be used, so the Qin people did not have gunpowder, and they did not understand the secret."

"Exactly, when artillery, when artillery." Everyone echoed one after another, and the last time the trebuchet almost leaked the secret, the court discussed it for more than a month, but fortunately, in the end, the war boat sank the boat transporting the trebuchet, which calmed the worries. If an artifact like gunpowder is obtained, it will be a hundred times more harmful to the Chu State than a trebuchet.

"If you want to use artillery......" Xiong Jing remembered the six-pounder cannon being made by Jutiefu, and said, "Do you want to use a dragon horse?" ”

"No, you don't." Xiang Yan still shook his head. Although 6,000 horses were bought from Seleucus, 2,000 of them were mares, and only 4,000 were available, and most of them were still on their way.

"Don't use Ryoma, it's better not to use twenty-one pounds of artillery." Twelve pounds is twenty-one and six pounds. The weight of the nearly 2,000-kilogram column is too heavy for four horses and eight horses to tow, but the entire towed artillery column is too long, and it should not be used unless it is a last resort.

"Don't use twenty-one pounds, how many pounds should you use?" Xiang Yan asked.

"The best one is ten pounds, and the heaviest one is ......" Xiong Jing has a little ambiguity, there are several modern artillery systems, and the division of artillery is different, and the difference between the French pound and the British pound is about 35 grams, he can't remember the weight of the French eight-pound gun and the British nine-pound gun, but fortunately, this weight can be estimated.

In the modern French artillery system, if it is a standard gun (non-mountain howitzer, howitzer), a pound of shell needs a 150-fold gun body. If it is an eight-pound shell, then it will require a barrel of 1,200 French pounds, which is converted into kilograms and 586 kilograms. The weight of the 12-pounder gun carriage was more than 600 kilograms, and the barrel of the gun was more than 900 kilograms, and the eight-pounder running gun carriage with only 600 kilograms should be about 500 kilograms, plus the front car of about 300 kilograms, the weight of the ranks was 1,400 kilograms.

"The heaviest one is fifteen pounds," Xiong Jing replied after estimating. "This can be towed by six horses. The ten-pound cannon can be towed by four horses......"

The six-pounder gun did not belong to the French artillery system, and strictly speaking, the M1857 twelve-pounder gun during the American Civil War was also an imperial pound rather than a legal one. The mixture of the two pounds gave Xiong Jing a bit of a headache, but the reason why he went to great lengths to make 'rice' and reconstruct the weights and measures of later generations was to borrow the numbers and experience gained from hundreds of years of use by others. This is the fastest way to do it.

He shook his head and tried his best to eliminate the headache, and only said: "When the ten-pound cannon is bombarded, the total weight is only 3,200 catties, and it may be possible to push forward by manpower in an emergency." ”

Three thousand two hundred catties is eight hundred kilograms, although it is still very heavy, but it is already within the range of human power. E Zhuo also nodded when he heard this weight, compared to the twenty-one pound cannon of nearly eight thousand catties, this is really light and lovely.

"The bullet is half light, dare to ask the king how it is used?" He interjected again, wanting to know the power of the six-pounder cannon.

"This ......" It is said that a twelve-pounder can easily penetrate a company column at a distance of six hundred yards, while a six-pounder cannon can hardly penetrate half a company column even at a distance of two hundred yards. Xiong Jing also did not know how thick and wide a company column was. He could only say: "How powerful the ten-pound cannon is, we will know when we test fire." ”

"Can a war boat be equipped with artillery?" He asked another question, which was also a topic that the Operations Division had only recently discussed.

"Artillery on the warship?" The thin bodies of the big wing war boat and the pawn wing war boat passed through his mind, and Xiong Jing shook his head and said, "Unbelievable." However, this sentence is also incorrect, he corrected: "The war boat is not a sea boat, the side of the sea boat gun door is facing the enemy, and the displacement is more than 500 tons, so it can be placed with 21 catties of guns and 32 catties of guns." The displacement of the war boat is only a few dozen tons, and the cannon is less than ten catties of guns, and the war boat is facing the enemy, and the bow cannon is mostly intimidating, and the enemy boat cannot be sunk. Even if you injure an enemy with a shotgun, you can only shoot once. ”

"I see." The Operations Division came up with a lot of plans for the battle boats, but Xiong Jingyi said that these planners seemed to be completely useless. But Xiang Yan did not miss any opportunity to expand the combat effectiveness of the foot soldiers, he only said: "If you build a ten-pound cannon, you can give it a try." ”

"Naturally, I want to try." What Xiong Jing said was just his own speculation. He was not optimistic about the warboat and the artillery, and firing a cannon in one minute was enough for the warboat to sprint two or three hundred meters. It is very difficult to hit an enemy boat with one shot at a distance of 200 meters, and even if it hits, it cannot be sunk, and it will definitely sink if it collides with an enemy ship. "This matter will be handed over to the public secretary to try."

"Respectfully obeyed. The king, Wukong ...... "The public is still reluctant to lose the taboo, he wants to take Wukong back."

"From now on, the witch captain belongs to the seamen." Xiong Jing did not intend to release him. "The artillery operation has been customized, and there are still several artillery commanders below the witch lieutenant. And overseas, there are many thieves, and if there is no artillery, it cannot be deterred. If there is no deterrence, how can there be brimstone? ”

Xiong Jing was speechless, and he said again: "Instead of asking for the witch captain, it is better to train more gunners and gunners." How many cannons do you think the Chu army has? ”

"Ten catties of artillery should be used as a crossbow, and a division should be equipped with fifty-four parts." Gong Yi said, as soon as he spoke, Xiong Jing said: "It's a lot." ”

"If it is used to break the formation, it is indeed a lot." Xiang Yan also said. "One division prepares sixteen divisions. There are more than 30 divisions of the whole army, and 500 can be also. ”

At the time of the decisive battle, they gathered to bombard and break the formation, and five hundred doors were already a big deal. Xiong Jing couldn't help but nod when he thought about it, but he didn't immediately agree with Xiang Yan's next words. “…… In this way, when our army attacked Qin, it was like a bamboo. ”

"It will take three years before the artillery can be used." Xiong Jing said, "This year's artillery will be built, and it will be available next year, the year after next, and the third year." ”

"Three years?" Xiang Yan was puzzled, and only then did he understand why Xiong Jing didn't let go of Wukong.

"At least two years." Xiong Jing couldn't figure out how long modern artillery should be trained, but he felt that artillery as a technical branch of the army could not be trained quickly, especially artillery officers. The officer decides on the effectiveness of the use of the artillery, and not the gunner, who wipes the breech. And the artillery has never been in real combat, there is no drill. The correct approach should be to compile a code of conduct through actual combat and then generalize it.

"It's not as good as two years." Xiang Yan said distressedly. Now the Operations Division has two plans to attack Qin, one is to go out of the fortress with the cavalry of the Three Kingdoms and attack Xianyang in a roundabout way to kill the King of Qin, which is a one-and-done method, but it is difficult to implement and requires absolute secrecy;

The other is the Fuying plan that began to be formulated a long time ago, this plan is simple, because it is only an attack by the Chu army, so it can be kept absolutely secret.

The timing of the Xianyang plan was that the Qin State would attack Zhao again, and the domestic army was on the Qin-Zhao border, and it was too late to rescue Xianyang; There are two more prerequisites for the Fuying plan: the Qin army must be exhausted after a long battle, and then accumulate millet for at least three years, that is, the year after that. Xiang Yan always believed that Zhao was weak, and if the Qin army attacked Zhao again, the Xianyang plan should be implemented in the first year, and the Fuying plan should be implemented in the second year at the latest. It is impossible to restore Ying at the expense of Zhao State, this gain outweighs the loss.

Last year, the Qin army withdrew, and in less than a year, the Qin army was ready to move again, and a lot of information provided by Zhibisi believed that the Qin army would attack Zhao again next autumn at the latest. It means that the Xianyang plan will be implemented next year, and the Fuying plan will be implemented the year after next. Whether he can train a sufficient and qualified artillery unit in two years, Xiong Jing has no bottom in his heart.