Chapter 383: Granular Gunpowder

Jiang Feng's appreciation made the emotions of the craftsmen mobilize at once, and the invention was affirmed by the ruler, if it was in the Ming Dynasty, it might not be beneficial, but in Huazhou, a large sum of silver was indispensable. The two craftsmen who had improved the smelting method before, each of them were rewarded with three thousand taels of silver, and they were directly promoted to the leader of the craftsmen, and they could manage forty or fifty people below.

Everyone knows that as long as you invent something that is beneficial to Huazhou, there will definitely be rich rewards, which greatly mobilizes the enthusiasm of these people.

If you want to succeed in this gun mount, the benefits you get are indispensable.

Coming to this kind of place full of craftsmen always made Jiang Feng feel a little delusional, as if he had returned to modern times, where the factories and factories were there, and this emotion always made him feel happy.

The craftsmen and related occupations of the time were called lowly servants. People of status were not willing to have more contact at all, and craftsmen were not treated better than slaves in government-run artisan camps and factories. If you set up a workshop in the private sector, you will basically make a living.

But the treatment here in Jiangfeng is much richer than that of the households who farm in the civil guard, under Jiang Feng's policy of attaching importance to maritime trade and giving priority to the military, the craftsmen have become the first to get rich, and this wealth is not the kind of well-off in the interior of the Ming Dynasty.

Someone who is interested has also estimated that if a craftsman who works in the workshop with peace of mind, his annual income has already caught up with those small landlords in Beizhili, and if he borrows money from Huazhou Qianzhuang and opens his own shop, then he can catch up with those ordinary officials in Daming, of course, these are already calculating those gray incomes.

Moreover, most of the craftsmen in Huazhou are military dependents, and the military families have received Jiang Feng's favor, which undoubtedly makes their children more loyal to Jiang Feng's regime, on the other hand, in order to defend the good life that their families are now living, they are training and fighting harder, which can be said to be a virtuous circle.

In any case, the enthusiasm is mostly mobilized.

There are a thousand soldiers guarding here, so there is no need to worry about any safety issues, Jiang Feng except for his own personal fifty guards, the rest of the people are arranged outside.

Since they are all personal guards, Jiang Feng is also relatively open, he himself got on the gun carriage with the artillery, drove the horses around the field behind the mountain, and several personal guards sat on the seats behind the gun car, which was also the original design, in order to let the soldiers who control the artillery also move quickly with the artillery.

But obviously the comfort is not so good, and soon those guards are bumpy buttocks hurt, and the craftsman who was sitting next to Jiang Feng was sincerely afraid, and quickly recorded it in his notebook: The seat provided for the gunner must have a cushion, otherwise it will hurt the soldiers.

Jiang Feng was in a better mood when he recalled Liu Shisan from the place of captivity to the army, and the success of this gun carriage and gun carriage obviously made him more happy, and when he jumped off the gun carriage, he opened his mouth and said to the guards around him:

"Write it down, and when you go back, let Master Zhao arrange the production of the workshop, and equip it to Guanwai and Huazhou as soon as possible, and give priority to Guanwai."

Although there are 6,000 troops stationed outside the pass, there are only some three-pounder guns because of transportation problems, but the terrain outside the pass is suitable for large troops to carry out operations, so it is most necessary to use artillery to increase their strength and troops, and at the same time, it can be regarded as stabilizing Jiang Feng's rule.

On the contrary, it is Huazhou, because of Jiang Feng's powerful naval army, so that Huazhou can not worry about any enemy attacks.

As soon as he said this, the soldiers on the side immediately took a quill pen and recorded what he said, the arrival of the Dutch people was not only a military exchange, but also some small details of life were borrowed from each other, such as this quill pen, which is much better than a brush in shorthand.

After Jiang Feng finished giving the order, the leader of the craftsmen on the side leaned over with a smile and said a few words in Jiang Feng's ear, Jiang Feng's personal guards did not want others to be so close to Jiang Feng, because in this case, it would be difficult to complete the requirements for safety and security, but they put their hands on the hilt of the knife and looked nervously, Jiang Feng's expression was very interesting, first his eyes widened in astonishment, his face was full of incredulity, and then he turned his head to look at the leader of the craftsmen beside him, and asked, his voice was full of distrust:

"Is that the thing you're talking about yellow powder?"

The craftsman was one of the Dutch people who first came to Dengzhou with Jason Hogan, he was already quite proficient in Chinese, he was just a blacksmith, and he did not have any advanced skills, but because he learned Chinese very quickly, he soon became a bridge between the Dutch and the Han people, and he also had some coordination ability, so he was promoted by Jiang Feng to be the leader of the craftsmen.

Hearing Jiang Feng's rhetorical question, the leader of the craftsman was also stunned, and replied hesitantly:

"Lord Governor, the power is indeed a lot greater, but it's still a black-brown ......."

Both sides were stunned, Jiang Feng waved his hand, and also thought that he might have misunderstood, so he waved his hand there and said:

"Take me there!"

This time the place he went was deeper than the site behind the mountain, he was directly built on the mountainside, and he relied on a stream of water flowing down the mountain.

After Jiang Feng came, the entourage of craftsmen hurriedly ran inside to call out the people inside, but the people who came out of it made Jiang Feng quite surprised, although he was wearing the short dress of a craftsman, but his head was combed in a bun dressed as a Taoist priest.

The leader of the Han craftsmen introduced Jiang Feng in a playful manner:

"This Master Chen turned out to be a Taoist who traveled to Shandong from Louguantai, and the former Taoist number Chong Fang, now it is still a custom, called Chen Chong, when he came to Shandong, he caught up with the chaos, and he happened to be in a state of emergency, and the family who took care of him brought it to Huazhou, and he still has a lot of experience in alchemy."

After hearing this, Jiang Feng's brows furrowed and he was about to get angry, thinking to himself what are you looking for an alchemy Taoist priest to do, how old am I now, and what are you looking for an elixir. But then he reacted, the alchemy Taoist priests of this era are often the most knowledgeable about chemistry, they are alchemy, the sulfuric acid, mercury, sulfur and other substances mixed and refined, years of experience accumulation, always have some useful knowledge.

When Jiang Feng was pondering here, Chen Chong over there was already a joke hand, this is Taoist etiquette, and it is a bit nondescript to use at this time, Jiang Feng laughed, just stepped forward to greet and said:

"How is Master Chen doing here?"

"Thank you for your concern, there is wine and meat, mountains and water here, this is where the gods are!"

This Taoist priest who has already returned to the world calls himself a 'poor Tao', and his words are quite free and easy, which makes Jiang Feng have a good impression of him, Chen Chong naturally knows what the purpose of this big man in front of him is here, and hurriedly leads him in.

Under the order, several helpers followed by the secret ware workshop opened a cellar on the shady side, the lid of the cellar was covered with wet mud, which seemed to be quite important, and the helpers brought out a half-person-high wooden barrel from the cellar, and in the process of transporting, Chen Chong kept saying "Be careful, be careful".

And motioned for Jiang Feng and the others to stay farther away, and after the wooden barrel was carefully placed on the ground, Chen Chong led Jiang Feng to the wooden barrel and opened the lid.

Jiang Feng stretched out his head to take a look, it was still black-brown gunpowder, not what he imagined, and heard the leader of the white craftsmen in the Netherlands say that powerful gunpowder had been invented in the 'Secret Weapon Workshop', Jiang Feng's first thought was directly yellow explosives, which was only invented in the nineteenth century, about four hundred years later, could it be that there was something so ahead of his time?

After looking at it, it was still the same kind of arquebus and the black powder applied on the artillery, and there was no difference, Chen Chong on the side explained there:

"Lord Dudu, Poor Dao has been wondering if it can be made into gunpowder by other methods, and there are often some prepared here, but it rained a few days ago, and it was not cleaned up in time, and as a result, the water was damp and formed a large piece."

Chen Chong's explanation was more cumbersome, but Jiang Feng didn't interrupt and just listened quietly there, it turned out that after the water was damp, Chen Chong's black powder here was all clumped, in order to be used in the future, Chen Chong carefully took a wooden hammer to break these clumped gunpowder, but the wooden hammer knocking obviously did not become uniform, and he also used a sieve to sift out the knocking gunpowder particles with a sieve.

Just half a month ago, a technician who studied arquebuses on the mountain temporarily used some gunpowder, and found that both the power and the range were greatly improved, and after several times of research, Chen Chong finally determined that the black powder was moistened with water, kneaded together and agglomerate, and then smashed and processed into particles of about the same size, blowing away the dust, so that the gunpowder efficiency would be much higher than before.

Jiang Feng's face was solemn, and he didn't say much, he just called a guard, loaded the ammunition with the firearm he carried with him, and hung a helmet on the edge of this area as a target.

After the dispensing was launched, there was a loud noise, and the unprepared guard took a step back, obviously underestimating the recoil, and after the adjustment, it was a charge launch, and after a few test shots, the soldier who went to check the results opened his mouth wide and came back to report:

"Your Excellency, Your Excellency, the range has increased by forty paces, and its power has not diminished! Even bigger! ”