When the war in Dongchuan was in full swing, there was a manor thirty miles northwest of Liangzhou City, which was the courtyard of Ouyang Yunzhong, a great man in Liangzhou, and at this time, several people in the secret room of the courtyard were watching a Taoist priest fiddling with some black powder.

They all looked very serious, and they treated the black powder in front of them very solemnly, for fear that the powder would be lost except for something. As the steward of the annex and the leader of the research powder, Ouyang Mingde was very patient.

This powder was the powder in the palm of the thunder that Ouyang Qingshuang sent back a few years ago, and their research had been going on for several years. From the beginning of their research, they have now been able to roughly distinguish the substances in these powders, such as the most common clay, lime and charcoal, and the most obvious smell of sulfur.

After Ouyang Mingde and others studied and summarized, they found that the powder in this palm thunder actually contained more than ten kinds of substances, which made him very big. At first, they made new powders based on the substances they found, but the powders they made almost didn't work, which puzzled them, what kind of substances were working?

Ouyang Mingde is the eldest of the righteous sons of the Liangzhou tycoon Ouyang Yunzhong, Ouyang Yunzhong has no parents, he has adopted more than ten righteous sons and a righteous daughter.

These righteous sons are no different from Ouyang Yunzhong's parents, so the competition for favor between brothers often happens, Ouyang Mingde has a delicate knack, he knows that in the Ouyang family, they are all outsiders.

The elders of the Ouyang family made Ouyang Mingde very afraid, after all, they were not the bloodline of the Ouyang family, so if he wanted to gain a foothold in the Ouyang family, he could only get the favor and trust of Ouyang Yunzhong, the head of the Ouyang family, then his position in the Ouyang family would be more stable.

And it was never easy to get Ouyang Yunzhong's letter, so he took the initiative to ask Ying to study the secret of this palm thunder.

Years have passed, and his progress has been slow, because he is anxious, but helpless, watching his father-in-law's ugly face day by day and the ridicule of other brothers, intentionally or unintentionally, make him depressed. Because so far he has only figured out the types of substances in this formula, and he still doesn't understand the rest.

Therefore, he has been very anxious for a while, but it is useless to be anxious, he can only continue to swear in his heart that he must grind out these powders. Little by little, I slowly verified my ideas and devoted myself to research. A year ago, he had a flash of inspiration in his head, and finally came up with the idea of mixing these substances together and then taking turns experimenting with them.

At first, he reduced one substance, and then experimented with each other, and finally it was possible to verify that one substance was necessary, and after dozens of days of verification, he concluded that charcoal and sulfur were indispensable.

But there is one thing that he can't verify in any way, because the nitrate in the gunpowder in Weizhou is purified, so that after mixing, they have completely dissolved in other materials.

Ou Yangmingde did not understand the chemical knowledge of later generations, nor did he know how to purify and extract technology, so he was as clueless as a day in and day out for several years.

However, today he was in a very excited mood, because he heard a message that after the thunder incident on the fifteenth day of the first month of the first month of Chang'an, the capital, rumors began to circulate in Beijing that Li Baonai, the king of Ji, was the reincarnation of the thunder god.

And there was a very prominent figure among the people who were with Li Bao that time, and that person was a Taoist priest named Weiyangzi. Before this, King Ji Li Bao was very ordinary, and no one had ever seen this person. But after the death of Yang Gongqing, the Xuanhui Academy, the relationship between this Weiyangzi and Li Bao, the king of Ji, was very close.

When Ouyang Mingde saw this, he not only moved in his heart, could it be that this Taoist priest was the key to making palm thunder?

So Ouyang Mingde used the influence of the Ouyang family in Liangzhou to search for Taoist priests in Hexi. For a while, the Taoist priests in Hexi were panicked, for fear that they would suddenly fly into trouble and send their lives to the Ouyang family.

Ou Yangmingde interviewed the captured Taoist priests one by one, asked them to identify the black powder, and told the captured Taoist priests about the substances he had analyzed. In the end, the hard work paid off, and finally a Taoist priest named Yujizi recognized what this recipe was.

As a disciple of the Danding Sect, he immediately recognized what these black powders were, and he informed Ou Yangmingde that this name was gunpowder, and that he could easily make gunpowder.

Hearing that Yu Jizi was actually able to make gunpowder, this made Ouyang Mingde, who had not thought about tea and rice for several years, almost jump up with excitement, and after being excited, he excitedly asked Yu Jizi if he could really make gunpowder.

Yu Jizi replied in the affirmative to Ouyang Mingde while despising this guy in his heart, making gunpowder is a necessary skill for every disciple of the Danding Sect. And this gunpowder is not the most important, the important thing is the Jindan Dao, these mortals are putting the cart before the horse.

However, he knew that the Ouyang family had the weight of the entire Hexi in Liangzhou, so he took his contempt for Ouyang Mingde in his heart, and agreed to the request to help Ouyang Mingde make gunpowder with a smile on his face.

According to the requirements of the jade machine, Ou Yangmingde ordered people to prepare charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter mixed evenly, and then ignited them together, seeing that the powder burned violently and emitted flames and smoke, all of which made Ouyangmingde even more excited, and he shouted in the choking smell of gunpowder: "That's it, that's it, so-and-so finally succeeded!" ”

Yu Jizi looked at Xiao Langjun of the Ouyang family who looked like a mad in front of him, and secretly sighed in his heart: It seems that Dao Ye's skills are still useful. At least this Ouyang family's little Langjun is very rare.

After Ouyang Mingde was excited, he grabbed Yu Jizi's hand and said to him: "Dao Chief, you must hand over the ability to make this gunpowder to me, and Dao Chief, you have to swear that if you dare to spread this ability, you will be killed by five thunders immediately!" ”

When Yu Jizi heard this, his head was sweating, what the hell is wrong with this guy. This ability to make gunpowder is understood by a disciple of the Danding faction, but it is better not to tell him about the situation in front of him, otherwise I don't know what this noble disciple will think at that time. Since he values himself, it is better to hang out here for a while.

So Yu Jizi, who had made up his mind, immediately swore to the Sanqing Patriarch, and after a vicious oath, Ouyang Mingde was full of laughter. He immediately ordered his subordinates to take Yu Jizi to rest, and then immediately hurried to his home in the city, and this good news must be told to his father-in-law in time.

Ouyang Mingde hurried back to Liangzhou with a few attendants, galloping all the way to the gate of Liangzhou City, he suddenly stopped the galloping horse, then turned the horse's head and began to run back.

The servants were all puzzled, and they immediately stopped Ouyang Mingde: "What's wrong with Lang Jun, didn't you want to report to Ah Lang, why did you suddenly turn around and go back?" ”

"Something is wrong, don't change it at this time, it's only possible to get the finished product. Let's go back and study it. ”

……

Under the city of Zizhou, the Weizhou army has been attacking for a day, and both sides are tired as the sun sets. Li Bao looked at the potholes on the city wall of Zizhou, a little tired, even if there was artillery in the face of the Jiancheng Weizhou army, it was not achieved overnight, not to mention that the power of Weizhou's artillery was still too weak!

It is still very difficult to cast a large iron cannon for Weizhou, so Weizhou is now equipped with only some small mortar cannons, and the cannonballs are only more than five catties, which are far from causing too much damage to the city wall of Zizhou.

However, now that the city of Zizhou has an understanding of their tactics, every time the Weizhou army wants to charge the head of Zizhou City, the counterattack is also quite fierce. There are not many artillery in Weizhou that can hit the head of Zizhou City, but the catapults hit far enough high, but the density of the attack is still not enough.

At the end of the day, the casualties of the Weizhou army were limited, less than 100 people. The disability of the Dongchuan Army in Zizhou is still very high, and it is estimated that there are at least hundreds of disabled people in the city of Zizhou, which can be regarded as some advantages.

These troublesome things are mixed together, which makes Li Bao even more tired. It seems that it has to be carried out by digging tunnels, as long as the city wall is blown down, even if the gods descend to earth at that time, they will not be able to save the Dongchuan army in Zizhou.

In the evening, Li Bao gathered the generals again and began to discuss the army.

The generals were tired, but today was the first siege of the city, and they had to sort out their shortcomings and ideas for improvement together.

Zhou Rui presided over the post-war analysis, and the generals who participated in the attack analyzed their own shortcomings, and repeatedly promised that they would not commit it again next time. After the generals finished their analysis, Zhou Rui found that Li Bao was a little absent-minded.

He didn't know what Li Bao was thinking at this time, but since the king had something to think about, he still didn't interrupt Li Bao, he gestured to everyone, and then they each went back to the camp to organize his subordinates to open up and summarize after the battle.

And Zhou Rui and Zhang Siliang sat in the tent waiting for Li Bao, and I don't know how long it took for Li Bao to finally come back to his senses, and found that only Zhou Rui was left in the tent, he was stunned and said: "Why are you the only one here in the Zhou army, and what about their people?" ”

"Back to His Highness, I asked them to go back and prepare for tomorrow's battle, and I also arranged for Han Brigade Marshal and Lu Brigade Marshal to urge their subordinates to continue digging the tunnel and complete it as soon as possible."

"Oh, that's right. I'm just distracted, hehe. ”

Zhou Rui and Zhang Siliang glanced at each other, and then asked cautiously: "I don't know what the king is thinking just now, why is he so engrossed?" ”

Li Bao thought for a moment, and then spoke: "I'm just thinking about how to improve our Weizhou artillery, and how to forge bigger artillery." Today's battle made me realize that there are still big problems with our Weizhou artillery, for example, the shells of this artillery are still too powerful in attacking the city. ”

"Oh, the king is very thoughtful, but I don't know how the king wants to improve this cannon, can you say something about it?"

"This matter is not in a hurry, I just thought about it roughly, and this matter has to be considered again, and it will not be determined until I return to Weizhou in the future to meet with the craftsmen of the workshop. Well, it's not too early, go back and rest, tomorrow will be another hard day. ”