Early the next morning, Wang Yuan got up early in the morning, and the first thing he did was to take people to the northwest corner of the city where the pills were being refined to see how the refining of the pills was going under the auspices of Liu Xunzhi.

In the northwest corner of Chengdu, a small pond was originally a place of residence, not a prosperous place, and it was precisely because of the remoteness and barrenness that Liu Xunzhi chose to set up the Dan furnace for refining gunpowder here to minimize the nuisance to the people.

But even so, the smoke and pungent smell produced during the refining process still disturbed the few dozen families in this area. So Liu Xunzhi decided to empty this place, arranged dozens of families to a densely populated place in the south of the city, and erected a tall wall to circle the area within a radius of several miles into a forbidden area, making this area a special area for refining gunpowder.

Wang Yuan led the crowd to the northwest of the city, and he could smell some pungent smells in the air from a long distance, and when he reached the left side of the wall, the smell became even stronger. Wang Yuan understood Liu Xunzhi, it made sense for him to spend money to move the people here, and it was obviously inappropriate for the people to live under such a smell all day long. Of course, it costs a lot of money, but it obviously has to be spent.

Entering the gate of the wall, Liu Xunzhi, who had been staying here for a long time to supervise the progress, heard the news and hurriedly came out to greet him. Liu Xunzhi was very decadent, his hair was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his robe was full of dirt. There was a strange smell on the whole person, and he still looked like a scribe, obviously under a lot of pressure.

"Dashuai, you're here. The smell here is pungent and unpleasant, why bother to come in person? You can send someone to call Xun Zhi to ask questions. Liu Xun bowed and arched his hand.

Wang Yuan got off the horse with a smile, stepped forward and patted Liu Xunzhi's shoulder and said, "Why bother you to run, I'm not without long feet." Why do you look like this? Don't clean up yourself, you are the steward here, how can you act like a servant. ”

Liu Xun bowed and said: "Last night, a furnace was refined overnight, and I stared at it all night, and I didn't close my eyes." ”

Wang Yuan said with a smile: "Refining is a matter for Fang Shi and servants, what are you doing with you?" ”

Liu Xun said with an apologetic face: "I am incompetent, I have spent a lot of money and property, and I have not achieved any results in two months, so I am really ashamed." If you don't step up your supervision, you will have to live up to the commander. “

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "Did you hear what others said?" ”

Liu Xun arched his hand and said, "Don't dare, don't dare." They said that it should be, and the old man did spend a lot of money on the handsome, but there was no result. The desire to spend the money did live up to the expectations of the marshal. ”

Wang Yuan sighed and said: "Don't think so, this matter is what I want you to do, you can do your best, don't have a psychological burden." ”

Liu Xun's eyes were red, and he said in a deep voice: "Thank you Dashuai, thank you Dashuai."

Wang Yuan smiled and said: "Take me to take a look, I came here when I was choosing the site, and I was a little irresponsible when I said it." ”

Liu Xun answered directly, and walked with Wang Yuan and his party deep in the courtyard, walking through a road paved with gravel, in front of which was a row of houses, and after the side of the houses, there was a row of trees in sight. There was a man-high fence below the trees, and on the other side of the wall, yellow, white, and black smoke floated in the air for a long time. At the same time, the smell in the nose is even stronger.

"Marshal, please, the Dan furnace is in the courtyard." Liu Xun stretched out his hand and said.

Wang Yuan nodded, stepped into the vertical gate, passed a forest, and a large open space suddenly appeared in front of him. In the open space, two rows of courtyards from east to west are neatly arranged. In the courtyard of each small courtyard, a tall smoke-emitting tower-like object can be seen, which is a foot high and in the shape of a hexagonal shape.

"Dashuai, that's the Dan furnace and the Dan room, there are ten in two rows, each furnace is in charge of a monk, and behind it is the fine house and medicine room where the monks live." Liu Xun straightened.

Wang Yuan nodded, walked into a small courtyard quickly, and when he entered the courtyard gate, a heat wave hit. But seeing that around the Dan furnace, several servants were sweating like rain, two of them were chopping wood, one was adding firewood, and one was fanning, and they were busy in full swing. The hexagonal furnace has six doors, each of which is spewing red flames outward. The heat was rolling around, and I almost suffocated my breath.

Liu Xunzhi stretched out his hand to summon a handyman who was chopping wood and asked, "Where is Zhang Zhenren?" ”

The handyman pointed to the fine house ten steps away and said, "Steward Liu, the master is resting in the fine house, do you want to call him?" ”

Wang Yuan waved his hand and said, "Let's go see this Zhang Zhenren, and see what these Fangshi are doing." ”

So they fled from the scorching furnace and went to the two houses in the back, and when they came to the door, a boy was washing under the porch, and when he saw a group of people coming, he got up and looked around. Liu Xun said straightly: "Go and tell Zhang Zhenren that Jiannan Jiedu made Wang Dashuai come in person and let him come out to greet him." ”

The little boy hurriedly lifted the curtain and entered the house, and after a while, an old man with gray hair hurriedly came out, and hurriedly saluted when he saw Wang Yuan and Liu Xunzhi.

"This is a real person." Liu Xun introduced directly to Wang Yuan.

Wang Yuan nodded and said: "I recognize, I met when I came to Chengdu, Zhang Zhenren, it's advantageous." ”

"Handsome and polite, please come into the house and sit down, boy, go and pour tea." Zhang Zhenren said.

Everyone entered the house, but saw that the house was empty and there was nothing, and there were dozens of open clay pots on a long bar in the corner of the wall, and there were all kinds of powders in the clay pots, which emitted a pungent smell mixed together, so that Wang Yuan couldn't help but cough a few times.

"I'm sorry Shuai, the old man is preparing grinding powder, and he didn't have time to put it away. Boy, take the lid and cover all the powder. ”

Wang Yuan waved his hand and said, "No need, I just want to take a look at these things." ”

Wang Yuan stepped closer, frowning at the contents of these clay pots, and did not recognize any of them. The real person pointed out on the side: "This is realgar powder, this is soil frost, this is large intestine powder, this is purple nitrate, this is nirvana, this is arsenic. Frost ......"

Wang Yuan frowned, there were many things he didn't know what the names were, but Wang Yuan felt very strange. Wang Yuan was born in the liberal arts, and even though gunpowder was known to everyone in later generations, Wang Yuan was lackluster in his knowledge of gunpowder. What black. Gunpowder yellow powder, some kind of T.N.T explosives and stuff. The name seems to be very familiar, but Wang Yuan doesn't know anything about the drug ratio and the method of production. Therefore, after crossing over to this point, Wang Yuancai could only use the recipe of Fangshi to refine gunpowder. This was still inspired by the poisonous phosphorus bombs of the Ten Tigers of the Prime Minister's Mansion, otherwise Wang Yuan would not even think about refining gunpowder.

But even so, Wang Yuan still knows the basic knowledge of gunpowder, which is nothing more than the mixing of the three substances of nitrate, sulfur and carbon in proportion. But how to mix, how to proportion, how to make it explode within a controllable range, Wang Yuan was confused. But it was precisely because of this concept that Wang Yuan felt that this matter was not difficult from the beginning, and the monks of the Tang Dynasty would definitely have a way to refine the gunpowder they needed. However, what I didn't expect was that this matter tossed for nearly two months and spent so much money, but there was still no result.

Wang Yuan was also helpless, he expected that this was the limitation of science and technology and the limitations of raw materials and other aspects, and he could not change it. Wang Yuan didn't know more about this knowledge than these monks.

"Zhang Zhenren, I don't know if there is any progress in the refining of the Fuhuo Fang. With all due respect, I thought it wouldn't be difficult, but I didn't expect the progress to be surprising. Wang Yuan said.

Zhang Zheng said with a look of guilt: "Handsome, old and embarrassed." If we don't do our best, it's really far from the requirements of the marshal. The marshal said that the required fire recipe was flammable and burst rapidly, and the old man and the other alchemists had refined more than 300 pairs of recipes in the past month, but none of them met the requirements of the marshal. The old decay is also introspecting what is the cause of it. ”

Wang Yuan said: "Among the more than 300 pairs of recipes, there is no effect?" ”

Zhang Zhengyi: "It's not nothing, the old man said, it's far from what the marshal asked." No, there are two formulas that can barely be regarded as some progress, but the effect is very poor, and the handsome will definitely not be satisfied. ”

Wang Yuan said: "Take a look." ”

Zhang Zheng nodded in agreement, and took out two small paper bags from the drawer of a small cabinet in the corner of the wall and held them in his hands. Wang Yuan opened the paper bag in turn, looked at the granular black and yellow powder inside, and sniffed it, but there was some smell of gunpowder.

"Try the effect, and the handsome will know." Zhang Zhengyi poured a pinch of medicinal powder into two small bowls, picked up a fire fold and blew it, and approached one of the small bowls of medicinal powder. The fire was red, but it took a long time for the powder to be ignited, but it was like a lit rat droppings, and a pinch of the powder burned for dozens of breaths, emitting a pungent yellow and white smoke, and it was difficult to even see the fire. Obviously, it is not the effect of rapid sneering and burning and instant explosion that Wang Yuan needs at all.

The powder in the other small bowl was also not very effective, although it burned faster, but the light of the fire was like lighting an oil lamp, and it actually came out with a yellow fire. Naturally, this is not the kind of effect that bursts quickly.

Wang Yuan was also speechless, he spent so much money, he only got this kind of thing, and he used it to make a fire, this kind of gunpowder can't be called gunpowder at all, and it is a hundred times worse than the oil-rich pine pier when used to throw it, what is the use?

Seeing Wang Yuan's ugly face, everyone was speechless. Zhang Zhengyi waved his hand and ordered Xiao Tong to clean up, and stood aside speechless.

Wang Yuan wiped his chin and said, "According to Zhang Zhenren, where is the problem. Why did I read a book about an alchemist who had refined a fast-burning medicine and burned down both the house and the furnace? However, the record is not clear, so it has not been handed down. ”

Zhang Zhengyi arched his hand and said: "What the big marshal said is the record in the book "Sun Zhenren Danjing". Indeed, Lao Yu also read this paragraph, Sun Zhenren a hundred years ago was the leader of my generation, and his record will not be wrong. Otherwise, Lao Yu would never come to Chengdu to take this errand, that is, he believes that this matter is true. It's a pity that there is no specific recipe left in the book, and the old man thinks that Sun Zhenren must have obtained it unintentionally, and he did not deliberately refine this thing. After all, what alchemists like us want to refine is an elixir, not the kind of thing that the marshal said, so the direction of our thoughts is somewhat skewed. However, the old decay seems to have opened up a few days and seems to know what the problem is. ”

(PS: A reader who watched pirated copies questioned how it was so difficult to practice gunpowder as Wang Yuan.) What I'm trying to say is, if it were you, you wouldn't have been able to figure it out. There were no raw materials that you could reach out for, and even if you took a piece of saltpeter in front of your eyes, you might not know that it was saltpeter. So, don't stand and talk without a backache, the situation you expect the protagonist to be omnipotent and omnipotent cannot exist in my book. Besides, you're just a pirate, and I'm just going to make you unhappy, what can you do? ）