71_71495ps: Look at the exclusive story behind "Strong Beams at the End of the Ming Dynasty", listen to your more suggestions for the novel, pay attention to the official account of Biquge www.biquge.info (add friends on WeChat - add an official account - enter qdread), and quietly tell me! Looking at the layer of salt-like powdery solids covered with books on the bamboo sieve, Xu Liang suddenly felt that the afternoon's busy work had not been in vain.

The next day, Tie Tou and a few Tsing Yi guards who were assigned to the munitions department opened the windows in the house, and Xu Liang stood outside the house, holding a handwritten plan for gunpowder in his hand, pondering for a long time.

The three ladies of the Xu Mansion heard the movement and ran over curiously to see the excitement, and heard that it was an experiment in making gunpowder, and they were surprised at first, and snatched the plan in Xu Liang's hand and looked at the sun for a long time, and saw that there were many bottles and cans of things hand-painted on the plan, and there were some symbols that the three of them couldn't understand, and shook their heads, Lou Xian'er first asked: "Uh, Xianggong, is this the formula for gunpowder manufacturing?" How is it so different from the one I gave you? ”

Xu Liang smiled proudly, beckoned the three girls to the shade of the tree, pointed to the test instrument drawn on the plan, and said: "This is the method that your father-in-law and I have figured out by myself with reference to the formula given by Xian'er, do you see this thing like a big square bucket?" ”

"Hmm."

"Xianggong, I call it a beaker, you see a triangle is drawn on the bottom, that represents the flame, which means heating, and this small saucer-like thing, it was originally supposed to be called a crucible, but unfortunately it is not now, it is replaced by a bamboo sieve, and the heating has also been changed to exposure ......to the sun," Xu Liang pointed out carefully.

"......" The three girls watched with wide eyes and listened in confusion, you look at me, I look at you.

Half an hour later. Xu Liang concluded: "The general process is like this, although I have not tested it myself, but the formula given by Xian'er should be theoretically feasible." Now I'm going to ask them to get things ready, and I'm going to make some of them along that lines. See how it goes. Seeing that the third girl was confused and serious, Xu Liang couldn't help but sigh and said: "It seems that you still don't understand, so let's do it, I'll explain it again." ”

"No, no need for Xianggong." The three girls glanced at each other, and the fairy came out. waved his hand awkwardly and said, "Although we haven't figured out Xianggong's method, but ...... It sounds like a good stake, and we believe that Xianggong will be able to succeed...... What, Sister Feng fell in love with a very good-looking skirt on the West Street Cloth Village, and we just wanted to go and see it. Xianggong, you're busy, let's go first......"

Feng Suqin and Dai Yingying nodded violently with Lou Xian'er's words, and as soon as Xian'er's words fell, the three girls hurriedly turned around and left.

Xu Liang was dumbfounded, his eyes chased after the three of them, and he shouted angrily: "Hey, come back, you three ruined girls who don't learn and don't know how to learn!" ”

The three girls heard this. It's even more urgent.

After standing in the courtyard for a long time, the iron head came running and reported that the chimney had been opened and that it was time to start working. Xu Liang paced into the room. Looking at the five people standing side by side in the room, he nodded, and said, "In the future, you will be classified as the Arms Department, and in the future, you must keep your mouth shut about all matters related to gunpowder and firearms, even if it is to your own mother-in-law." After a while, the iron head will sign a confidentiality contract for each person, and if there is a leak of secrets. You have to take full responsibility! When the time comes, not only will you be punished personally, but those who are strict will also bring disaster to your family. ”

The faces of the five men from the munitions department changed slightly. Hurriedly arched his hand and said: "The subordinates and others are absolutely tight-lipped and do not divulge the contents of the Arms Department." ”

Xu Liang saw the faces of the five people, although he swore an oath, but he was still a little unwilling in his words, thought about it, and said: "Gunpowder technology is an extremely important technology for this official, and even for the entire Liang army, and this official has to be cautious. Of course, as a compensation for keeping your promise and keeping it secret, the wages of all the munitions divisions will be double that of the rest of the Tsing Yi Guard, and in addition to the normal salary, each person will receive a secrecy allowance of one or two silver per month. ”

The five of them listened, weighed the pros and cons, and thought that there would be a double salary and an additional subsidy, so they put their minds at ease and promised again with a smile, and this time the tone was much happier.

At that moment, Xu Liang ordered the five people to carefully record their subsequent operations, and then began to purify the sulfur. According to the practice on the plan, Xu Liang first grinded the small bag of sulfur soil into a fine powder in the stone mill, and then poured the fine powder into the vegetable oil, stirred it quickly with a wooden stick, and waited for half a barrel of vegetable oil mixed with sulfur powder to show a whirlpool, stop for a while, and let it stand for a while, seeing a piece of turbidity in the vegetable oil, and a layer of sediment impurities could be faintly visible at the bottom of the barrel.

Xu Liang nodded with satisfaction, and then ordered someone to carefully pour the cloudy oil in the barrel into the pot, make a fire and heat it, stirring while heating. When the oil temperature is slightly boiling, the oil becomes brighter, and a layer of melted yellow liquid can be seen at the bottom of the pot, Xu Liang made a note on the plan when he saw this, the oil did not boil and the sulfur melted, it can be seen that the melting point of sulfur is lower than the boiling point of oil, as for how many degrees, it is unknown.

Seeing the sulfur melting, Xu Liang ordered someone to carefully pour out the hot oil pot and put it into a clean bucket, and then put the bucket into another larger bucket, add cold water to the large bucket, and accelerate the cooling through the barrel wall.

Taking advantage of the time when the oil cooled, Xu Liang ordered someone to put the prepared charcoal into another stone mill and grind it into powder for later use.

After saltpeter powder, sulfur, and charcoal have been ground into fine powder, Xu Liang took a small copper scale for weighing medicinal materials in the pharmacy, compared with the formula on the plan, weighed it in small portions for a few dollars and two pairs, weighed it well, wrote down their respective quantities, and evenly. I was excited to take it to the hospital for some experiments.

Results of the trial...... It is possible, but it is very different from the kind of bang, firelight phenomenon that Xu Liang expected, it is a small fire that burns zizi, leaving a small pool of charred black paste on the ground after burning.

Fail! According to this effect, let alone making a cannon, it is good to be able to burn all the gunpowder in the barrel. Xu Liang thought that there was a problem with the recipe, so he slightly adjusted the amount of each one one by one, and then took it out for trial burning with great interest.

After repeated trials, Xu Liang and Tietou and several others repeatedly experienced the process of falling from hope to disappointment in just one afternoon, and they were sweating profusely.

However, it was not for nothing, at least the effect of homemade gunpowder burning was gradually improving.

In the evening, Xu Liang had to stop the test. Because, there are no raw materials! The bag of nitrate and sulfur collected by Sima Qiudao was originally so small, but after Xu Liang's afternoon of tossing, it was finally gloriously sold out.

Xu Liang ordered the work to be called to a halt in disgrace, arranged for the people of the munitions department to carefully study the day's tests, wrote down their experiences, and ordered someone to inform Sima Qiudao in a moment, so as to speed up the progress of collecting saltpeter and sulfur. Xu Liang went back to bathe and change clothes, stroked his head and lamented, sure enough, it is better to have no book than to have a book, if the gunpowder is completely prepared according to the gunpowder formula sent by Lou Xian'er, let alone make gunpowder that can fire cannonballs, it is estimated that it can only be lit.

Affected by the failure of the gunpowder test, Xu Liang was not in a good mood for a few days. Until the end of September of the first year of Chongzhen, the court's will to recover Huating and Lingtai counties was issued, and Xu Liang's mood was even worse.

Emperor Chongzhen's will, Pingliang prefect Zhang Fengqi led well, successfully recovered Huating and Lingtai, the official was promoted to one level, the trilateral governor Wu Zhiwang and Shaanxi participated in the politics of Hong Chengchou and so on have been praised, the commander of the Andong Zhongwei who participated in the war was with the knowledge of Huang Ziren, the guerrilla Li Ying of Guyuan, and the Qingyang garrison He Renlong each had a reward, and as the main contributor to the recovery of Huating and Lingtai, the generals of the Liang army were not mentioned at all, Pingliang knew Xu Liang, because of his meritorious service, he was rewarded with a thousand taels of silver!

Another thousand taels of silver! Phew! Xu Liang almost scolded.

It's not interesting to have merit but not reward. Xu Liang, who felt that Chongzhen and the court were very uninteresting, immediately ordered that the cavalry of the Liang army, which had gone out to pursue the thieves who had fled to Longde and Zhuang Lang, returned to the camp.

Whoever likes to fight will fight, and the lord will not wait. Xu Liang said secretly.

Stimulated by the praise decree, Zhang Fengqi, the prefect of Pingliang who had returned to Pingliang from Huating in the first war, had recently trembled, and he had convened meetings of officials from all over Pingliang in a high-profile manner to arrange government affairs. Xu Liang watched coldly in the lobby of the prefect's mansion, and the patch of the cloud goose on the chest of the prefect Zhang dangled in front of his eyes, and he hated it tightly.

In Xu Liang's eyes, there is only one eye-catching issue, and that is the candidate for the magistrate of the recovered Huating and Lingtai counties. After the two counties were recovered, Xu Liang ordered the Liang army to garrison the two places and control the city defense, but the chief officials of the county government in the two places have been empty, and the official documents of the officials have not been issued, and they are temporarily managed by the Pingliang prefect's yamen.

One sunset full of sunset, the Pingliang magistrate led Mao Yujie, the director of the Taxation Bureau, into the gate of the Xu Mansion in Pingliang Xichengtou. (A good event for pie in the sky, cool mobile phones are waiting for you!) Pay attention to the ~ point / official account (WeChat add friends - add official account - enter qdread), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to the qdread WeChat public account! (To be continued).