Wuwei County, gunpowder test site, in a newly built stone house, a man threw down the torch and ran out in a panic, there was no movement in the stone house, everyone present stared at it intently, looking nervous, and their hearts seemed to be about to rise to their throats.

Zhang Huan was also engrossed in watching the movement in the stone house, sitting next to him was a middle-aged Taoist priest, his expression was extremely nervous, licking his lips from time to time, his hands and feet were trembling slightly, he was counting down to himself: "Six, five, four,

Suddenly, boom! There was a dull loud noise from the ground, and the stone house shook and almost collapsed, and then a thick black smoke rushed out of the window.

"It worked!" Dozens of craftsmen and officials immediately cheered with excitement.

Zhang Huan's joy was overflowing, he couldn't hold back the excitement in his heart, and strode towards the stone house, but the Taoist priest next to him moved more quickly, and flew out all of a sudden, and the first one grabbed the front of the stone house, and everyone didn't dare to go in immediately, waiting for the black smoke to dissipate.

This was the fourth test in three days, the first three failed, one was not moving, the other was only black smoke, and the last one exploded on the spot, killing the person who ignited the fire.

The middle-aged Taoist priest is called Wang Chuzi, he is the original Wuwei County refining pills of the monk, because the practice of the pill to eat people to death, he fled to Jincheng County to become a monk, Song Qi sent people to inquire in many ways, and finally found him, after learning that he was not arrested, but only for the military to refine gunpowder, Wang Chuzi then relieved his heart and returned to Wuwei.

It is not difficult to refine gunpowder, the raw materials are mainly saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal, bamboo ru, and hemp ru, and asphalt, tung oil, small oil, wax and other adhesives are added, which are recorded in many books, and Wuwei is close to the Qilian Mountains. There is no shortage of these raw materials and can be easily manufactured.

But the key is to get gunpowder that can explode inside the porcelain jar. In particular, it is necessary to control the explosion time of gunpowder, which requires a monk with rich refining experience like Wang Chuzi.

The smoke in the stone house had gradually cleared, and everyone walked inside. This stone house was built specifically for testing gunpowder, and the inner walls were covered with wooden boards, and the porcelain altar used for testing hung in the middle of the room, containing only half a jar of gunpowder and hundreds of nails. At this point, it has completely exploded. The entire interior wall is covered with porcelain tiles and fine iron nails.

"Oh my God!" It was the first time for Du Mei to see such a powerful weapon, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh, and turned back to Zhang Huan in disbelief: "Dudu, I have read countless histories, and I have never seen a record of using gunpowder in war, I'm afraid you are the first person!" ”

"That's not what I thought. Lin Lei" Zhang Huan smiled and patted Song Qi's shoulder beside him, and praised: "My local ordnance department is the first person." ”

Song Qi scratched his head embarrassedly and said, "Actually, it's not what I thought, when I was a child, there was a strange old man living in our village, and he never interacted with people. I also saw him put gunpowder and iron sand into a bamboo tube and shoot it out a hundred paces, which was much more powerful than a bow and arrow, but unfortunately this man was killed by An Lushan's rebel army. ”

Wang was dumbfounded. He stared blankly ahead. muttered to himself: "How can you make iron sand with a bamboo tube?" ”

"Gunpowder is a magical thing. As long as you're willing to delve into it, you'll be even better than that weird old man. ”

Zhang Huan smiled, looked around the scene carefully, and then looked at the Taoist priest with a handful of goatees with a smile on his face and asked, "Why did you succeed this time?" But you improved the recipe. ”

Wang Chuzi was still immersed in the whimsy of playing iron sand in the bamboo tube, and suddenly saw Zhang Huan ask himself, he hurriedly replied: "Dudu, in fact, it's not a recipe problem, the formula I use is the kind that can explode, the key is the particle size, the first few failures are here, if you want to make the gunpowder burn evenly, in order to control its burning speed and full combustion, you must use gunpowder of general size, preferably as thin as corn, so that not only can you make twists, but also make a small explosion effect will be better, just like this." ”

Wang pointed to a piercing nail that had penetrated deep into the thick plank and said, "If you shoot it with a thin tube tied to a crossbow arrow, such an arrow will be more lethal than just one person." ”

Zhang Huan nodded silently, he took a bottle from Song Qi's hand, poured a little bit of fine-grained gunpowder into his hand, and sure enough, they were round, all the size of corn.

"And what is your current difficulty?" Zhang Huan tried his best to suppress the ecstasy in his heart, and said to Wang Chuzi in a calm tone: "I want to mass-produce this gunpowder, you may be able to do it?" ”

Wang Chuzi saw that Zhang Huan was not as excited as he thought, and he was a little disappointed in his heart, but he also knew that he was a guilty person, and if he wanted to avoid the death penalty, he could only work for the army with peace of mind, so that maybe one day he would be able to live an official addiction.

Thinking of this, he pondered for a moment and said, "I now want to find a quick way to grind gunpowder, and I also want to continue to improve the gunpowder formula, and I hope that the governor can give me a few skillful craftsmen as deputies." ”

"That's no problem, as long as you can refine the gunpowder I want, I will fully support you with money, materials and manpower, and I won't treat you badly in the future, but now you can't go anywhere."

Zhang Huan glanced back at Song Qi again, and said with a faint smile: "Do you understand what I mean?" ”

Leaving the gunpowder test site, Zhang Huan and Du Mei returned to the street, because Li Mi always refused to come to Hexi, Du Mei was actually Zhang Huandi's No. 1 military division, Du Mei's biggest characteristic is to see the big from the small, he can often see the clues of the problem from some inconspicuous small things.

In the past two months, he saw that Zhang Huan had secretly sent people to various parts of Longyou to spy on the military situation many times, and purchased grain from the people at a high price, so he somewhat guessed that Zhang Huan might have to use troops against Longyou.

However, he didn't ask much, and this young governor has been dealing with him for a long time, and he also slightly touched Zhang Huan's temper, he doesn't like to be controlled by others in decision-making on major matters, and often asks his subordinates for advice on details after making a decision, and today he brought himself to see the gunpowder test probably not his real purpose.

Sure enough, after walking less than a hundred steps, Zhang Huan pondered for a while and asked Du Mei: "What do you think of Zhu's rebellion in Shu County?" ”

Du Mei understood Zhang Huan's thoughts, and he smiled slightly: "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the governor. If the governor can catch it, we will celebrate the New Year in Longyou. ”

Zhang Huan smiled with half-squinted eyes. Since the imperial court wanted to make an alliance with the Tibetans and reconcile with the Hui, of course he would not do anything to destroy the atmosphere of good-neighborliness and friendship at this time. Since he can't develop to the west for the time being, he can only go east, Longyou is densely populated and the land is abundant. It has always been a rich place in the Tang Dynasty. If he can take it as a foundation, then he will no longer need to act in the eyes of men.

Zhu's rebellion was timely! Whether it is his rebellion or self-reliance, Cui Yuan will not let him do anything, and will inevitably send a large army to suppress it in the name of the imperial court, the key is the composition of this army, which is the focus of his Zhang Huan's attention.

"You're right, I do have a plan." Zhang Huan glanced at him and said meaningfully: "If you want to take Longyou, you must make Longyou's troops empty." Wei Ge is not stupid, of course he has to guard against my sneak attack on Longyou, so we have to make Wei Ge believe that I will not attack Longyou, or dare not attack Longyou, this is why I called you today. I want to discuss something with you. ”

Du Mei did not immediately answer Zhang Huan. He walked slowly side by side with Zhang Huan, bowing his head and pondering. Since ancient times, when the two countries did not trust each other, they exchanged protons, but Zhang Huandi's child has not yet been born, even if he is born, how can he be handed over to the Wei family, of course, the extermination of Zhu will not be a matter for the Cui family, and in the end it must be the joint dispatch of troops by the major families, this is the first time since the first year of Qingzhi, which involves the balance of interests in all aspects, and it is not as simple as making a few small actions.

However, Du Mei also knew that the reason why Zhang Huan asked him was to let himself think about some details, which was what he was good at, until he was about to reach the Governor's Mansion, Du Mei Fang raised his head and looked at Zhang Huan and said: "Take precautions, I thought that the Governor would start preparing from three aspects now." ”

"You say!"

"The first is to expand the army, Wuwei now has more than 20,000 troops, but if you want to seize Longyou, you have to leave a part of the guards, then at least 40,000 people are needed, I think the governor has begun to raise military rations, presumably to prepare for the expansion of the army!"

Zhang Huan smiled and said: "Of course I want to expand the army, but the expansion of the army at this juncture is a bit too ostentatious, which will make Wei Ge feel defensive, and he has to think of a good way." ”

"I thought of two good ways to expand the army on behalf of the governor."

"Tell me, what's the best way?"

"One is the county militia group, there are more than 20,000 people in it, and they are trained in the agricultural slack in peacetime, and the governor may as well treat them as new recruits, increase the intensity of training, and if the situation requires it, they will be soldiers if they change into military uniforms."

"That's a good idea." Zhang Huan smiled approvingly, and then asked, "What about the second method?" ”

"The second way is the party slaves in the hands of the governor, those party members are all soldiers, and they are quite brave in battle, the governor might as well pick some men with small families to form a militia first, I think I can get at least seven or eight thousand people from this, so that the problem of expanding the army will be solved unconsciously."

Zhang Huan nodded silently, Du Mei's second method involves the party members, how to properly solve the future of the 40,000 party members, has always been a problem he is considering, these party members are currently slaves, registered by the government one by one, some of them are building weapons in the ordnance workshop, some are panning for gold in the quicksand river, some are quarrying in the Qilian Mountains, and the women are weaving cloth and making shoes in the workshop.

Although these were cheap labor, Zhang Huan did not intend to keep them in slavery forever, his ultimate goal was to integrate them into the Han Chinese, so he always wanted to choose an appropriate time to restore their civilian status, and joining the army was a good way to exchange military merit for their and their families' land freedom and land.

Thinking of this, Zhang Huan resolutely made up his mind, he temporarily put down this thought, and asked Du Mei with a smile: "You just said that you will prepare from three aspects, the first is to expand the army, what about the second?" ”

"The second is to prevent Cui Yuan from inviting the governor into Chang'an as a hostage."