"Really? Where? Why didn't the maid see it? Chen Qiudie searched around the room, but found nothing, and saw that Sun Mengjie was snickering, so she leaned over and sniffed hard, and said with some disappointment: "My sister doesn't have it either!" ”

"Fool, it's only now that we can succeed, at least until Xinyuan," Li Zicheng smiled, "Does Die'er really want it?" ”

"As long as it's done by an adult, the servant wants it," suddenly saw Sun Mengjie snickering, Chen Qiudie woke up, and blushed unconsciously, "The adult will bully the servant!" ”

"No, no, what Master Ben said is true," Li Zicheng felt that Chen Qiudie was more appreciative than Sun Mengjie, and if she made a perfume, she would be the best first customer, the free kind.

wanted to laugh at a few words, but He Xiaomi came in a hurry, "My lord, it's not good, there is a foul smell in the round ball that is the retort...... Maybe it's astringency, but in short, it smells so bad, should you pour it out? ”

"Stench?" Li Zicheng was shocked, how could it be? This is obviously a fragrance distilled from lavender, because it is suspended on the surface of the water, so it is also called essential oil or essential oil.

He put down the unfinished glassware in his hand, extinguished the candle, and immediately went to the small hall of the central government.

There is only half of the cold water in the glass retort, but there is a layer of oil halo floating on the surface of the water, and the color is pale yellow, and it can be seen very clearly from the outside of the glass.

Li Zicheng came to the other retort, because the heating time was one day in the evening, although he saw a layer of oil halo, it was extremely light and very light, if it was not carefully distinguished, it was almost impossible to see.

He put his nostrils close to the upper end of the retort mouth, and gently fanned it with his hand, a trace of air entered his nose, and sure enough, there was an indescribable strange smell, could it be that the distillation process was wrong? Or what chemical reaction happens to the copper kettle at high temperatures?

Li Zicheng originally planned to make the urn body into a glass flask, but unfortunately the bottle mouth was too small to put flowers and plants, and he was temporarily unable to make an asbestos net, if the flask was heated unevenly, it was likely to burst when heated, so he finally chose the copper kettle.

What's the problem?

It is true that the properties of glass are stable, but the chemical properties of copper are also quite stable.

If this smell is sprinkled on the body and face, let alone attractive, a man may be scared to run away when he smells it.

Li Zicheng went through the whole process in his brain, but he still didn't find any problems, so he had to frown and paced slowly in the small hall.

The pro-soldiers also knew that there was a problem with the distillation, but they didn't even know the principle, so naturally they couldn't find the reason, they stood aside one by one, and they didn't dare to breathe, and their eyes kept moving with Li Zicheng, but Li Zicheng was frowning, and it seemed that this smell was also unexpected by him.

After pacing for a while, Li Zicheng suddenly opened the lid of the copper kettle, put his nostrils up, and did not smell any peculiar smell, but there was a faint fragrance, which should be the smell of lavender.

Ma Qiao, it turns out that the problem is here!

With the steam distillation, it is the flavor of lavender, because the concentration is too large, the smell is naturally not correct, if this flavor is diluted ten times, a hundred times, and then after proper treatment, the fragrance will become lighter, and it will be more pure.

Just like saccharin and monosodium glutamate, a small amount of added to food, in order to experience sweetness and umami, if anyone is greedy, directly eat saccharin and monosodium glutamate, the taste is definitely not good, Li Zicheng in later generations, once stole monosodium glutamate, bitter, astringent, greasy, it is more unpalatable than medicine, scared him almost poured out a bottle of monosodium glutamate.

Looking at the oil halo in the retort body that was constantly washed away by water droplets, but stuck together, Li Zicheng suddenly showed a greedy gaze, as if it was yellow gold and silver with white flowers......

"Continue to heat, there is no need to put water in the retort for the time being, wait until the liquid level rises to the position of the bottle mouth, and then tell me."

Li Zicheng went home and took a small white porcelain vase that was glazed inside and out, and a small porcelain spoon, the small porcelain vase is not more than two inches high, but it is very exquisite, the bottle body is a picture of a long-haired lady, although the contour of the lady's face is not very clear, but the image of the character can be carved on such a small bottle, and the craftsmanship of the maker can be seen.

He washed the porcelain bottle and porcelain spoon with clean water, the mouth of the bottle was facing down, so that the water in the bottle flowed out, and just after a few words of laughter with Sun Mengjie and Chen Qiudie, He Xiaomi came over, "My lord, the water in the retort is full!" ”

Li Zicheng returned to the small hall, swept his eyes, the glass retort body was clear at a glance, the pale yellow oil halo was about to spread to the mouth of the bottle, he used a clean small porcelain spoon to go deep into the mouth of the retort, gently scooped out the oil halo, poured into the porcelain bottle, while letting the soldiers watch, "Be careful to scoop the oil into the porcelain bottle, don't bring in the water, the bottom layer is not easy to scoop in, don't worry about it for the time being, leave it for the next time to scoop it in, in addition, when the small porcelain bottle is not in use, be sure to cover it to prevent the oil halo from volatilizing." ”

He left the porcelain vase and porcelain spoon before returning home and continued to make the remaining glass retorts.

Four sets of distillation devices are all completed, it has been two days later, when Li Zicheng went to the small hall again, the porcelain bottle has almost filled half a bottle of essence, and he is overjoyed, according to this speed, within three days, you can get the first bottle of flavor, and now with four sets of devices, the speed of distillation will be accelerated.

However, this is the first time, Li Zicheng is not ready to make too much, the key is success, as long as all the craftsmanship is eaten thoroughly, the silver will be earned sooner or later, this first time, just make two bottles of lavender, a bottle of rose essence, if it is successful, wait until next year to expand the scale, it is best to be an independent perfume factory, just like a glass factory, completely an enterprise existence.

At this time, the distillery has distilled two jars of high-purity alcohol, Li Zicheng temporarily sealed it, and waited until the flavor in the porcelain bottle was full, and then esterified the alcohol, esterified alcohol, before injecting one or two drops into the flavor for aging, and then sealed the alcohol and flavor separately, labeled it, indicating the variety and time, and left for a month to mix and re-age.

The distillation matter was temporarily handed over to the soldiers, and when the essence in the porcelain bottle was full, Li Zicheng would deal with it personally.

………………………………………………………………

The pig iron that Mu Qingshan bought from the Qin Wangfu arrived in Xining one after another, which was actually purchased at the same time as the pig iron that arrived in Xining for the first time.

These pig iron, a total of three or four thousand catties, after the craftsmen worked overtime day and night, all made into Xining rifles, with molds, the speed of production is greatly accelerated, under the existing conditions, as long as there is pig iron, almost can be quickly built into rifles.

The original experimental rifle was recast by craftsmen after testing the necessary data, and there was no pig iron in the interval.

These more than 140 rifles are still too few to become an army, but compared with the original 21, there is a world of difference in training soldiers.

However, Li Zicheng changed the training of soldiers, the first to receive rifle training was the cavalry of the first cavalry hundred households, considering that the rifle could not be fired on horseback, and the cavalry still relied on cold weapons for combat, so after the 100 soldiers under Liu Yunshui completed the tactical training, they returned to the team on time.

The next soldier to train was Liu Yunshui's department, and for the convenience of training, Liu Yunshui's department returned to Xining in time.

One hundred and forty rifles, which can almost train the soldiers of the three general flags at the same time, Li Zicheng gave them only one month for shooting training, and after a month, they either entered tactical training, or gave up the rifles and let other soldiers train.

What makes Li Zicheng a headache is that Lei Wanjun and the craftsmen have not yet found iron ore, is there really no iron ore in Xining? Even if you find a small iron ore, it would be fine.

Li Zicheng was a little crazy, Ma Qiao, he prepared so many materials, but he forgot to bring the ore distribution map, there was not enough pig iron, so he could only sell it with silver, but pig iron was an embargo of the imperial court, although at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this embargo was not strict, but Shaanxi Province, which is close to Xining, bought three or four thousand catties by Mu Qingshan last time, and then to buy it on a large scale, I'm afraid it will be difficult, after thinking about it, Li Zicheng suddenly said to He Xiaomi: "Immediately let Wu Ermao come to see me!" ”

"Yes, sir!" Seeing Li Zicheng's solemn expression, He Xiaomi immediately flew away and quickly brought Wu Ermao, who was recuperating in Xining City.

"Big brother!" Wu Ermao saw Li Zicheng and hurriedly kowtowed.

"Ermao doesn't need to be polite, get up!" After Li Zicheng asked Wu Ermao to get up, he explained a few words in his ear.

"Yes, big brother, I understand!" Wu Ermao respectfully saluted Li Zicheng before leaving the study and leaving.

On June 13, a month has passed since the first bottle of lavender essence was sealed, and Li Zicheng couldn't wait to take out the first small porcelain bottle, the bottle was still the same bottle, and the water-red skirt on the lady's picture was still so ruddy and delicate.

Li Zicheng held a small porcelain bottle in both hands, like a sunspot in the bottle, weighing more than a thousand catties, and he silently muttered in his heart, God, you must bless this first bottle of perfume.

It wasn't until his hands almost warmed up the cold porcelain bottle that Li Zicheng burned off the sealing wax and removed the glass lid.

There was a faint smell in the house, if there was nothing, it was like a willow bud at five or nine o'clock, it was already a green from a distance, but when I walked in, it was hazy, and the shadow of green was almost invisible.

Li Zicheng didn't know whether it was good or bad, the production process of perfume, he also encountered it for the first time, so he put the small porcelain bottle in front of his nostrils and smelled it, a familiar smell rushed straight to his nostrils, although the smell is not very suitable for people's sense of smell, but compared with last time, it is a little lighter and purer.

If the original essence is like a girl who comes down from the sports field, the sweat stains on her face will wash the fat powder into scattered places, and the shallow grooves will be shallow, and today's fragrance is like a beautiful woman who has just taken a bath, no matter what her appearance is, at least she has recovered her original appearance.

As long as it didn't deteriorate, Li Zicheng didn't care much, he poured the high-purity alcohol and distilled water he had prepared earlier into a huge porcelain jar according to the proportion, stirred it well with a glass rod, and after about half an hour, he put it into several small jars, sealed them with wax, labeled them, and put them in the shade under the bed.