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Xu Liang entered the cave, which had already been cleaned by the soldiers of the artillery battalion. More than a dozen blacksmiths with experience in ironwork who were specially selected from the army were carefully studying the two cannons.

"I think this cannon should be dismantled from below, please see, use an awl to knock it along this slit, and you can basically remove most of it." One of them, the white-bearded old blacksmith, looked at the Franc machine cannon on the ground and groaned.

"Otherwise," another dark-skinned sturdy man shook his head and said, "Old Chen, please see, the lines are gone here, and the above nozzle department is cast in one piece, and there is nowhere to start when you knock it with an awl." ”

"This ......" The old blacksmith surnamed Chen frowned when he heard this, and he lost his mind for a while.

Later, the other blacksmiths came up with several ways to dismantle the cannon, but without exception, they all encountered problems.

Xu Liang coughed lightly, attracting the attention of more than a dozen blacksmiths.

"Meet your lord!" When all the blacksmiths saw that Xu Liang had arrived, they all bowed their hands to salute.

"You don't have to be polite." Xu Liang said with a friendly smile, he came to the statue of the Francophone cannon, and asked with a smile: "You are all experienced blacksmiths in my Liang army, can you study the method of dismantling this cannon?" ”

The blacksmiths looked at each other and invariably looked at the old blacksmith surnamed Chen. Old Blacksmith Chen thought for a while, and arched his hand to Xu Liang in embarrassment: "Your Excellency." The old man and his colleagues pondered for a long time, if they wanted to completely disassemble the two guns according to the wishes of the adults, they would inevitably damage the cannon bodies more or less, so it would be difficult to restore them again after disintegration. ”

Xu Liang waved his hand with a smile and said, "You still misunderstood what this official meant. Xu Liang pointed to the Franc machine cannon and another Tianzi No. 135 general cannon beside him. Said: "Since the official wants you to find a way to dismantle these two cannons, I don't think about restoring them. Rest assured that it will be dismantled boldly. ”

The blacksmiths breathed a sigh of relief. Old Blacksmith Chen said in a relaxed tone: "If your lord thinks like this, it will be much easier for us to do things." Rest assured, in just three days, the old man and your colleagues will be able to dismantle all these two guns. ”

Xu Liang nodded with satisfaction. asked, "This old master has a big name?" ”

Old Blacksmith Chen looked flattered, bent down and arched his hand: "Old man Chen Yu." ”

Xu Liang nodded and said, "It turned out to be Master Chen Yu, disrespectful." Then he asked the swarthy and middle-aged man who had argued with Chen Yu before, "What about you?" ”

The strong man arched his hand crampedly: "The little king is strong." ”

Xu Liang smiled: "Wang Dazhuang? When I heard it, it was a good seedling for striking iron. ”

Wang Dazhuang scratched his head and smiled: "Don't tell the adult, the little one has been helping in the blacksmith shop since he was twelve years old." It's been more than 20 years since he worked in iron. ”

Xu Liang was very satisfied when he heard this, turned his head to Sima and said, "These blacksmith masters found by General Sima are still very good. These masters are all treasures in my Liang army, and General Sima must do his best to protect their safety, and the treatment should be double that of ordinary sergeants. In addition, the official saw that Chen Yu and Wang Dazhuang were a little older and more experienced, so Chen Yu and Wang Dazhuang should be in charge of these blacksmiths. ”

Sima begged and nodded in promise, and a dozen or so blacksmith masters heard that they could get double wages. All of them were smiling. Wang Dazhuang patted his strong chest and said to Xu Liang: "Don't worry, my lord, the work you arranged for us will be completed successfully." ”

Xu Liang nodded. Said: "This official naturally has no doubt about your ability. For the time being, you can work hard here, if you have any difficulties, you can find General Sima, if General Sima can't solve them, you can go to Pingliang Xu Mansion to find this official. ”

The blacksmiths thanked them again and again, and said with gratitude that Xu Liang was like the reborn parents of these people, which made Xu Liang blush a little when he heard it.

Xu Liang encouraged. He pointed to the two cannons on the ground and said, "This official still has to explain a little bit about how you dismantle these two cannons." I don't care, but. You have to document the dismantling process in detail. Even if you find a few cracks in the barrel, don't let it go, write it down, this officer is of great use. ”

"Yes." The blacksmiths answered.

Xu Liang promised to greatly mobilize the enthusiasm of the work of the dozen or so blacksmiths, and watched them have a heated discussion on the dismantling method of these two cannons, and after listening to the meeting, he pulled Sima Qiudao aside and asked quietly: "How are the things that the official asked you to prepare?" ”

"What's that?" Sima Qiudao asked blankly.

"Saltpeter and brimstone!" Xu Liang said.

"Oh!" Sima Qiudao suddenly realized, turned around and walked to a dark corner in the cave, brought two cloth bags over, and presented them to Xu Liangdao: "My subordinates have already let people collect them." ”

Xu Liang carried the cloth bag in his hand, felt that the weight was a little light, and asked, "That's it?" ”

Sima Qiudao said with a bitter face: "These things are too difficult to find, those nitrate soil according to your construction, according to your lordship, are all scraped by the brothers of the artillery battalion with bamboo chips on the roots of the stables and thatched houses in various places, and this sulfur is even more difficult to find, it was taken back from the volcanic cave by his subordinates who ran to the Yansui area." That's all there is to it. ”

Xu Liang was a little regretful, and ordered: "These things have to be collected continuously, the artillery battalion basically has no task before the new batch of gunpowder is delivered by the military department, and the focus in the future is to disassemble the two guns, and the second is to vigorously collect saltpeter and sulfur." ”

"Yes, the Admiral understands." Sima Qiudao nodded in response, then looked at Xu Liang expectantly, and said, "My lord, when are you going to test gunpowder?" Sue sù the last general, the last will give you a hand! ”

Xu Liang threw two bags of hard-won things to the Tsing Yi Wei beside him, and said with a smile: "You disassemble the artillery first, and then talk about it, the matter of gunpowder, if you have eyebrows, it will naturally call you." ”

"Huh." Sima Qiu responded happily, and said uneasily: "Then you can't forget." ”

"Don't forget, don't forget." Xu Liang repeatedly assured.

Xu Liang took the two bags of things back to Xu's mansion on the edge of the Pingliang West City Gate, and as soon as he entered the door, he ordered someone to find the iron head.

Tietou quickly rushed to Xu Liang and asked, "Young Master, are you looking for me?" ”

"Hmm." Xu Liang looked at the iron head and said, "I plan to add another place in the Tsing Yi Guard, called the Arms Department, which specializes in manufacturing gunpowder artillery." In the past few days, you have selected a group of loyal and reliable sergeants who can do arithmetic, can read and write, and enter the munitions department. ”

"Huh." The iron head replied, "I'll arrange it." "After that, I have to go down and implement this matter.

Xu Liang stopped him and said, "This is not in a hurry in advance. Now you have someone in a secluded house in the backyard with an iron pot, two stone mills, well, some charcoal. ”

"Yes." The iron head responded, didn't ask much, turned around and arranged for the next person to prepare.

Xu Liang returned to the study, took out the gunpowder formula stolen by Lou Xian'er from the Han Wangfu from the drawer, wrote down the ratio on it, looked at the purification method of saltpeter and sulfur recorded on it again, compared it with the chemical knowledge he had learned in his previous life, took out the paper and pen, recorded the main steps, and then carefully put the formula back in the drawer and locked it.

The Xu family has a big business, and there are many people who are easy to do. An hour later, the iron head had already prepared the iron pot, stone grinder, charcoal and other things that should be prepared according to Xu Liang's requirements.

Xu Liang ordered the Tsing Yi guard to guard outside the door, not letting anyone in, pulling the iron head, and mysteriously entered the house.

Tietou was also a little excited, staring at the two bags of things in Xu Liang's hand, and asked nervously, "Young Master, let's start?" Uh, what's the first thing to do? ”

Xu Liang pointed to the iron pot stacked on the simple stove and said, "Make a fire and boil water." ”

Iron Head immediately began to make a fire and boil water.

Xu Liang put a small half pot of water in the pot, and when the water temperature came up, he poured the saltpeter collected from the bag in his hand into the water, stirred it with a spatula, and the saltpeter in the pot gradually melted, and there were some gravel and soil residues left at the bottom of the pot, so he found a thicker cloth, filtered the water in the pot through the cloth, and then poured the filtered water into the pot, and then boiled the water to boil salt.

Tietou stared nervously at the boiling water in the pot, and he did whatever Xu Liang said. After about half an hour, under the surprised gaze of the iron head, white potassium nitrate crystals began to precipitate from the bottom of the pot, and the iron head was so excited that he added another firewood.

Another hour later, Xu Liang watched as Tietou carefully put all the precipitated white crystals in a large bamboo sieve and brought them to the sun to dry.

Xu Liang wiped the sweat on his face, saw that the palms of his hands were black and gray, and then looked at the iron head, the whole face seemed to have just pasted the bottom of the pot, and only two rows of large teeth were white, and he couldn't help but laugh and scolded: "Ming'er has to open a chimney in the house if he says anything, otherwise it will be too choking!" (A pie-in-the-sky event, cool 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).