After seeing the medicines that Tie Yi and a few miners carefully took out from the crockpot, Zhou Shixiang could see at a glance that these medicines were black fire made of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal. Medicine. Compared to the modern gunpowder in bullets used when he was a soldier in his previous life, black fire. The power of the medicine is not very large, and it is easy to smoke, and the lethality is also small, but these black fires. The medicine still made Zhou Shixiang excited, because he knew what gunpowder meant.

After holding a handful of medicines and putting them between his nose and sniffing them, Zhou Shixiang asked Tie Yi how many medicines he had, but the answer he got was not much, only more than ten cans, less than two hundred catties together. A miner next to him interjected and said that there were still a lot of medicines in the mine in the past few years, but when the Ming army attacked Xinhui last year, people from Zhaoqing Mansion took most of the medicines from the mine, saying that they were sent to the provincial capital for the soldiers under the command of the prince of Pingnan.

The soldiers and horses under the command of Pingnan Wang Shang Kexi were the banner of the Han army, which had a large number of firearms and soldiers. Kong Youde, who was burned to death, and Geng Zhongming, the former king of Jingnan who committed suicide because of his escape, are both subordinates of Mao Wenlong, the former commander-in-chief of Pingliao in the Ming Dynasty, and they are both miners, and they have also come into contact with the new army trained by Sun Yuanhua, the former governor of Denglai in the Ming Dynasty, with the skills of Baiyi (Portuguese) firearms, so they have a certain understanding and mastery of gunpowder. After the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the banner soldiers of the Han army under the three subordinates were basically all firearms soldiers, and they made great efforts to pacify Jiangnan for the Manchu Dynasty. In the sixth year of Shunzhi, although Dolgon issued an order strictly prohibiting the Han army from possessing firearms, it was only for the green battalion, and the Han army banner under Shang Kexi and others was not listed. There are not many saltpeter mines in Guangdong, so when Li Dingguo attacked Guangdong for the second time, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao successively sent people to loot the medicine stored in various provinces in Guangdong, thinking that it was used to defend the city.

After listening to what the miner said, Zhou Shixiang secretly said that it was a pity, but it was a pity that he was worried afterwards, although there were not many medicines, there were more than two hundred catties, but there was no fire in the medicine, what was the use of this medicine.

Is it possible to find a way to get some firearms from the Ming army? Although this thing can't be compared with the guns of later generations, it is better than nothing, and I can't say that I can improve it, and changing it well is a sharp weapon against the Qing army. Although weapons are not the key to victory, it is better to have weapons that are more advanced than the enemy.

While thinking about it, Zhou Shixiang casually opened a jar with a seal on it, reached out and touched it, but he felt a chill, pinched a handful of medicine and came out to see, the medicine was actually damp.

"How did it get into the water?"

Tie Yi frowned and reached out to grab it, looking at the medicine that was packed into granules, he was quite distressed, and the medicine was useless as soon as it was a tide. was about to blame the people who kept the medicine, but Zhou Shixiang's eyes suddenly widened, and he suddenly grabbed another handful of damp medicine, and then held it in his hand and stared at it deadly, half a ring, the corner of his mouth suddenly smiled, and said something inexplicable: "I forgot about this stubble." ”

Forgot which stubble?

Everyone was confused, and they didn't know what Qianhu was talking about this week.

Zhou Shixiang smiled and said nothing, as long as the person took the damp pot of medicine outside, found a piece of cloth and poured it evenly on the ground, and then waited for the sun to dry it before bringing it to him.

Everyone didn't know what this order was, but Zhou Shixiang was a thousand households and the commander of the first battalion, so naturally no one dared to disobey what he said, and some miners did what they said at the moment.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Zhou Shixiang met those miners again under the guidance of Tie Yi, all of them were well-known men, but they had some symptoms of malnutrition. A few of the miners were burping one after the other because they had just eaten too much, and their faces were satisfied.

Engaged in heavy physical work in the mine all year round, the foundation is there, and with a little recuperation, you can live again.

Zhou Shixiang was very happy, and after saying a few words of encouragement to the miners, he announced in public that they would be members of the Taiping Battalion from now on, and would be immediately organized into the Taiping Battalion Engineer Battalion.

Originally, Zhou Shixiang planned to break up these miners in order to strengthen the strength of each team, but after carefully considering the maximum use of these miners, he still dispelled the original idea, because it was completely wasteful to use these sappers in the same way as other troops, and only by using these miners in a concentrated manner could they exert their maximum strength.

"Thank you, Senno-sama!"

Although he didn't understand what the engineer battalion meant, but the brothers were able to be together and they could be reused, Tie Yi was still happy in his heart, and under the guidance of Master Liao, he gave a full military salute to Zhou Shixiang. The posture of the salute looks a little rusty, and I expect that after a long time, I will be able to fully adapt to this new identity.

Ge Zheng, who came with Zhou Shixiang, saw that Tie Yi was a new recruiter who had been a test hundred households, and he couldn't help complaining, Zhao Sihai had no opinion when he tried a hundred households, because it was his own brother, and he still managed everyone's money and food, and his status was not high, and it was difficult to convince the public, but why did this Tie Yi become a test hundred households when he just joined the gang, and he also received more than 300 people at once, is this engineer battalion even tighter than the public treasury?

Zhou Shixiang saw Ge Zheng's dissatisfaction in his eyes, and didn't say much at the moment, while Tie Yi went to choose the general flag and the small flag, he told Ge Zheng what the engineer battalion did. As soon as he heard that this engineer battalion would be specially digging for burying medicine in the future, and he would have to die if he was not careful, Ge Zheng immediately dispelled his dissatisfaction, and secretly said that this dangerous errand should not be climbed, there is no gold and steel drill, no porcelain work, and it is not unreasonable for Tie Yi to try a hundred households. Besides, with these people who specialize in burying medicine, their brothers' futures and lives can be guaranteed a little more, and they will not lose a hundred households to others.

As soon as Ge Zheng's thoughts are passed, the rest of the people will naturally understand, and Zhou Shixiang is relieved. After a while, Tie Yi came in with the seven general flags and more than 30 small flags of the engineer battalion to report to Zhou Shixiang, and Zhou Shixiang naturally still had good words of encouragement.

The sun is very sunny today, and it didn't take long for the damp medicine to dry, Zhou Shi took Tie Yi and a group of general flags and small flags to light these grains of medicine with fire, although the flash speed is not as good as powder, but after burning, there is no residue at all, which makes everyone surprised, especially Tie Yi is incredible. Since he went down to the mine with his master, he has always learned the work of burying medicine, but he never thought that the medicine could be burned so thoroughly after it was damp and then dried.

Zhou Shixiang asked someone to fetch a small sealed jar, rubbed the lead and buried the jar in the soil, but when it exploded, there was a bang, and the ground was blown out of a hole several feet in size. If you try it with gunpowder that didn't enter the water, the hole is much smaller.

This experiment naturally made everyone even more surprised, and they looked at Zhou Shi like a celestial one by one. But for Zhou Shixiang, it is nothing, because the principle of this experiment is actually very simple, when he was a soldier, he knew that powdered gunpowder has strong water absorption, and gunpowder with more than 2% water content is basically unusable. Therefore, whether powdered gunpowder can be detonated or not, and what it looks like, is completely left to fate and is not controlled by manpower. On the contrary, the water absorption of granular gunpowder is greatly reduced, and the explosion power can be controlled by human power to a certain extent, which is much stronger than the detonation of powdered powder.

Of course, this experiment is not very sufficient, nor is it very complete, Zhou Shixiang is now just to show these miners the simplest and most direct visual effect, later, he will teach these miners how to press gunpowder powder into high-density and uniform composition of the cake, and then crush the cake to obtain particles, sieve to remove the powder and too fine particles, and then polish the treatment, and then sift, and finally obtain the size of the particles gunpowder. This kind of gunpowder is the safest and most powerful black. Gunpowder. This process is not difficult, the important thing is to be careful.

After two full days in the engineer battalion and two days of teaching, a completely granular jar of gunpowder was buried under the ruined walls of Luoding.

Of course, Zhou Shixiang did not expect a pot of gunpowder to blow down the city wall, he just used it to show the engineer battalion the explosive effect of granular gunpowder.