It sounds ridiculous to go thousands of miles away to find a desert, but in Xiong Jing's opinion, it is much more reliable than a blind man touching an elephant like this - there is a very important premise for the crystallization method to obtain a mixed salt with potassium nitrate accounting for 64.17%, that is, the potassium nitrate in the solution is saturated, and the saturation can be cooled to 20 degrees to precipitate 215 grams of potassium nitrate. But what if it's not saturated?

This is also the reason why saltpeter was widely used in European gunpowder later. Soil nitrate, collection of Ao is time-consuming and laborious, and it is very impure, Chilean saltpeter does not need to be purified to reach 95% of its nitrate content, and the less is more than 90%. The nitrate content of soil nitrate is very low, and I don't know how to purify it, and the presence of impurities makes the gunpowder in Xiong Jing's hand only one-fifth of the power of Western gunpowder in the nineteenth century, and even worse than the gunpowder in the hands of the Qing army in the Opium War.

Such gunpowder can only bully the side without gunpowder, and the actual killing effect of the shells is extremely limited. And the range of shotguns is inherently short, the range of light shotguns is about 300 to 400 meters, and if the power is reduced to one-fifth, it will be only 70 meters. At such a short distance, it is estimated that after a few shots, the gunner was killed by the opposing crossbowmen.

"It's scary." The courtiers all looked at the omniscient king, and Xiong Jing said after spitting out the gunpowder in his mouth.

"King, if you catapult more than 200 steps, you can also kill people, isn't it just scary?" Nao was the first to disagree, after he finished speaking, the others nodded immediately, and the next few cannons watched the cannonballs fly out horizontally, and the iron bullets that could fly out more than two hundred steps were not only terrifying.

"How many steps do you shoot with a bow and arrow, how many steps do you take to kill?" Xiong Jing asked rhetorically.

"This ......" Nao was asked, the range is the range, but there is also an effective killing range.

"Even if the gunner shoots one shot a minute, how many steps does the Qin army run in one minute?" Xiong Jing asked again.

This is the real key question, with a range of 300 meters, if you shoot a cannon and people rush over, is it possible to fire again? And what really stopped the infantry charge was the shotgun, but because the range of the shotgun was only 70 meters, it could not stop the enemy charge at all. Such artillery is capable of killing, but it is more intimidating because it cannot form an effective shotgun barrage to stop the enemy from advancing.

Xiong Jing originally wanted to pull the boring line, because the boring line can increase the range, but the shotgun does not need a boring line, and the range is still so close. It is possible to consider increasing the charge, but the result of increasing the charge is that more ash will be produced in the barrel, which will increase the gunner's reload time. In addition, there may be a hidden danger: if the nitrate content of the gunpowder increases inexplicably that day, does the multiple-charge mean that the cannon will explode?

"You can reject it with a huge wire net." Nao Cunning said again, Xiong Jing's sentence 'can only be scary' was more because of disappointment, but Nao Cun, the former great Sima, saw the true power of the Thunder God Weapon.

"Barbed wire is only for defense, not for field warfare. If the Qin army saw the barbed wire, would they still run forward and die? Xiong Jing asked rhetorically. The purity of saltpeter is too poor, so the power is insufficient, only two percent of the original power. ”

"Twenty percent?" The eyes of Nao Cunning, Gong Yi Ji and others widened instantly. Now the firing range is only a little more than 300 meters, if the purity of saltpeter is improved, then the shells can not be shot 1,500 meters away?

"Ahh A few people couldn't help but sigh, and said slyly: "If it's ten, wouldn't it be possible to shoot four miles?" ”

The Chu ruler is six meters shorter than the Qin ruler, and the Chu Li is ten meters shorter than the Qin ruler, only four hundred and five meters. Four miles is 1,620 meters. Of course, this distance is longer than the five-degree range of a twelve-pounder gun, but it is about the same, barely four miles. Seeing Xiong Jing nodding, the group of people was amazed again.

"However, the effective range is only a little more than two miles." Xiong Jing corrected. "The hardest thing these days is the purity of saltpeter,"

"The king, the minister is guilty!" Gong Yin Dao finally came back to his senses from the shock, and the range of four miles became less than one mile, which was his sin.

"You're not guilty." Xiong Jing smiled bitterly. "It's not that I don't know how to purify, I ...... back then"

If the range of the artillery was as far as four miles and shocked everyone, then Xiong Jing's 'back then' made everyone live to see the ghost. He had to immediately change his tune: "...... When he was about four years old, he hit his head once in the garden, and he couldn't think of how to purify saltpeter. ”

Hearing that this was not the previous life, the horror of the courtiers subsided a lot, Xiong Jing said again: "Saltpeter purification is not boiling salt, but should also add a thing, so that it can be purified, but I don't know." Or, find saltpeter mines. ”

"There are also mines of saltpeter?" Nao Cunning hurriedly asked.

"Yes. Also overseas. "The saltpeter mine that Xiong Jing knows is India, and before the discovery of saltpeter in Chile, the British used Indian saltpeter." I'm afraid it's thousands of miles away. ”

"My lord, I think that all the weapons of the thunder god should be listed as a matter of urgency." Nao suggested sly. His proposal was met with the approval of all.

"King, if our army has the weapon of the thunder god, the Qin army will be terrified." Zhao Huang also said.

"King, the two armies are facing each other, and during the fierce battle, our army ignites the thunder medicine behind the formation and throws it into the Qin army's array, and the Qin army will definitely collapse." The idea of public defeat is different from others, which has been removed from the category of artillery and has become the category of grenadiers.

"King," Gong Yiji also interjected, but was stopped by Xiong Jing.

"Saltpeter is impure, sulfur is insufficient, how can it be used in actual combat?" Xiong Jing knows what everyone means. "It will take a year for Hu Tanshao to go to the river, and it will take another year to return. Even if he arrived half a ton of sulfur at a time, it would be only five tons of gunpowder, too little and too little.

The weapon of the thunder god Qin Jun was frightened for the first time, panicked for the second time, and became accustomed to it for the third time. The artillery weighed more than 4,000 catties, plus the front cart exceeded 8,000 catties, and the horses towed at least four horses, and six or even eight horses were needed for long roads, bad roads, and sloping ground.

Artillery is not the same as trebuchet. The trebuchet fires continuously, without stopping, but the artillery is not, the artillery is fired too quickly, the gun body is hot, and if it is not cooled when it is heated, it is bound to explode. It is not known how many times the iron cannon can be fired in a row, but no matter how many times, there is a limit. It is precisely because of this restriction that there is a lot of artillery needed, and it is useless to fight without much. 500 artillery pieces cost 30,000 horses, and that's just the cannon. The cannonballs need to be horse-pulled, and if you don't need horse-pulls, you have to be carried, but the Dingkou of Chu State is not enough......"

In the era of cold weapons, gunpowder and artillery seemed to be invincible, but the limitations of technology, materials, horses, and population made Xiong Jing unhappy. In particular, the weak power of gunpowder seriously dampened his enthusiasm, and he even had an urge to give up. Gunpowder is only a sharp weapon to tear apart the enemy's position and kill and injure the enemy's troops, and this is only a weapon, not a tactical, let alone a strategic one. Its role is more reflected in the defense and siege of the city, and then the sea boat.

"Gunpowder has tried to improve and strive for greater power." Xiong Jing calmed down and barely reluctantly kept his spirits up. "The gun body can be fired several times in a row at various temperatures and in various climates, and you need to know; Shooting tables of various angles, shells, and charges need to be compiled; The lethality of all kinds of shells, all kinds of distances, and all kinds of tactics needs to be clarified. The effects of various processes, various thicknesses, various charges, and various shells on the life of the gun body need to be understood. ”

"Yui." They knew that this was to find out all aspects of the performance of the artillery.

"The personnel and order of artillery artillery, as well as the establishment and use of artillery, should also be run in and improved." Xiong Jing finally said.

"King, gunpowder is limited, can you ......" Of course, the artillerymen who are taboo are willing to shoot every day, but the gunpowder is limited, and Gong Yin Dao is worried that he will run out of sulfur by playing that little bit of sulfur.

"If the artillery is to be put into battle, it must be fully test-fired, otherwise how can it be used?" Xiong Jing didn't feel sorry for that little bit of sulfur at all, and after two years of use, Hu Tansao would ship it again. Even if it won't be delivered, a large number of sea boats will be launched next year, and you can go to Japan to find it. Japan is full of volcanoes, and sulfur should be everywhere too. Xiong Jing thought so, although he didn't know anything about the current Yingzhou.

For the artillery, everyone was shocked at first, and then gradually became dull under the influence of Xiong Jing. Power is still secondary, and the brimstone and horses make those who know the inside story start to frown, especially Nao.

From the perspective of weapon use, artillery is in a very awkward position among the many throwing weapons in the Chu State: the trebuchet weighs more than ten tons, it fires 100 kilograms of shells and oil shells, the range is more than 300 meters, the combat range is mostly on both sides of the waterway (boat-loaded), and the number of times it is transported to land is very small, except for defending and besieging cities; The crossbow is only a few hundred kilograms, and it can be dispersed and disassembled into lighter parts during transportation, and a ten-kilogram iron bullet can hit 200 meters away, and the combat range is almost unlimited.

The artillery and its front vehicle weighed more than two tons, and fired 5.44 kilograms of iron bullets could only hit more than 300 meters. Such weapons are in the case of trebuchets and crossbows, and have no value at all. To be powerful, choose a trebuchet; If you want to be light, choose a crossbow, why choose this kind of iron guy that needs six horses and can't fire continuously?

Whether it is Xiong Jing or Lian Po, they have repeatedly mentioned that the essence of war is based on transportation. At this time, the war was no longer like hundreds of years ago, when it was fought for only one day, two days, and ......only three days, and the war lasted for many years, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers. If the logistics can't keep up, it will repeat the Battle of Changping more than 20 years ago.

The essence of logistics is horses, and the Chu army replaced horses with boats according to local conditions, and canceled the chariots in the establishment, but there are still many places where horses are needed. A four-wheeled carriage of twenty men is the minimum estimate of the Transport Division, and this is the vehicle accompanying the army, which does not include the transportation vehicles in the camp and the rear, and does not include the short-distance vehicles used to transport grain and straw in the counties and towns of the country. The Chu army is already short of horses, a cannon has at least six horses, not counting the cannonballs, counting the need for at least eight horses, who can afford this?

The more he thought about it, the more disappointed he became, and there was one more thing he and Xiong Jing didn't realize: there was a difference between a six-horse artillery and a three-horse four-wheeled carriage, that is, the six-horse gun carriage was longer than the four-wheeled carriage that transported grain, so the road requirements were much higher than that of the four-wheeled carriage.