An hour later, Ablin finally arrived in Ulan-Ude.

From afar, Ablin was shocked by the momentum of this camp that had risen from the ground, or more precisely, a "core fortress"! Although all the city defense works were not yet completed, the huge city walls of the high number of Russian zhang and the surrounding tens of Russian zhang were enough to astonishle the merchant from Bukhara.

When he walked to a verst of the city, Ablin saw the blue flag flying high at the head of the city, and also understood that this was a "star-shaped fortress"! It's a Star Fortress! Even in Russia to the west of the Ural Mountains, it is rare.

Entering the city gate, there was a busy scene - a group of Qing soldiers patrolled by, long guns and short knives, shotguns and artillery, all kinds of equipment were readily available; The barracks were neatly arranged, and unlike the Russian ones, which were only made of trees, almost all of them were made of brick and wood, and the wide gravel roads crisscrossed the castle, connecting every corner of the castle. Yes, in this Siberia, if it is a large-scale construction of adobe houses and brick houses, it is definitely the embodiment of the double superiority of numbers and technology! You must know that even in the current city of Moscow, except for the royal courtyard and several churches of the Orthodox Church, the rest are wooden houses, which are built quickly and destroyed easily, otherwise the Tatars broke into the city defense of Moscow a few years ago, and a fire burned for more than ten days, and then there was nothing but ashes, and even the ruins and broken walls were rare!

Ablin was even more interested in the fact that there were more Rus' in this castle! There were hundreds of them, and naturally they were also doing their own handicrafts in the various houses on both sides of the street, and they were also closely guarded by Bogda soldiers. It's exactly the same as the camp in Unqi, only on a larger scale! There were even two or three gunpowder workshops! Yes, judging by the chimneys that rise above the roof, the spacious houses......

Suddenly, Ablin heard a familiar sound - "crunch, crunch...... Crunch ......", heavy and long-lasting, with this one frequency from beginning to end! At this moment, Ablin could no longer care about any reserve, and he flipped off his horse, and before the Chinese soldier beside him could react, he rushed towards a small courtyard where such a noise was coming from in front of him.

"Slow!"

Wu Enqi stopped the impulse of the soldiers around him to dismount and "capture" Ablin. He also dismounted with a happy face and unhurried. Unhurriedly, he followed behind this distinguished guest, and entered the so-called "gunpowder workshop" built according to the requirements of the Rakshasa craftsmen.

Ablin rushed into the courtyard without hesitation, and followed the regular sound to find a house. With a little courage, he slammed the door open!

"Copper milling! Allah! ”

That was the only thing Ablin could say at the time. Afterwards. He stared blankly at the equipment and people in the room. Stunned.

Indeed, it was a tall and spacious room, with a large copper mill in the center. It is being pulled by two Mongolian ponies at a constant speed. Around the mill were five or six Ross craftsmen, under the command of a leader, who carefully and carefully took care of the machine, and from time to time carefully put various raw materials of different colors into the milling.

"Distinguished guest, what a vision! This is exactly the gift that the scattered Rakshasas have offered to my Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty - copper milling! Un, who had followed, added proudly behind Ablin.

"Copper milling ......" Ablin repeated the name of the machine, lost in thought.

The so-called "copper milling" he saw represented the highest level of gunpowder manufacturing technology in Europe in the first half of the seventeenth century. In terms of raw material selection, since the 16th century, major European countries have made great improvements in the refining and baking processes of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal, and have surpassed China and occupied the world's leading level. The outstanding performance lies in the crystallization and purification of saltpeter, the vapor condensation of sulfur, and the closed carbonization of charcoal. In terms of the preparation process of gunpowder, it is prominently manifested in the successive appearance of "row type pounding method", "barrel pounding method" and "grinding method". The first two methods of "pounding" were first created in France in the second half of the sixteenth century and the middle of the seventeenth century, respectively. The latter safer and more effective "milling method" was pioneered by the Netherlands and Russia, and was later adopted by Britain, France, Italy and other countries.

This method was first made of fine stone produced in Namai [Dutch place name] in the Netherlands and installed in a gunpowder workshop. When making medicine, the medicine is first concentrated under the grinding stone, and then the stone mill is rotated to grind and mix the medicine. At this time, the basic use of storage power in Europe was developed, and later developed into the use of hydraulic rotation of stone mills, and finally developed to the use of steam engines, and its output and quality gradually increased with the improvement of power. But that's all for later.

Ablin carefully observed the set of machines that the Rus had "enshrined" to the Emperor of Bogda. I saw that the huge copper chassis was shaped like a bowl, but the bottom was very flat. In the center of the "copper bowl", there is a copper-clad cylinder, and a thick iron pillar stretches out from the left and right ends of the top, driving the two copper mills that are vertically connected to the base and rolling back and forth in the circumference at both ends. Underneath the milling is the medicinal material that is constantly being crushed and stirred. The bottom of the bowl is wrapped in copper skin, like a huge tree stump, and the structure inside is unknown, but not far away two horses are moving around a turntable, which means that between the mill and the turntable, there is a set of mechanical gear sets, which can keep the grinding rhythm and strength fixed, so as to avoid accidents!

Oh my God, this set of equipment, which was put into use in Moscow a few years ago, how could it fall into the hands of the Chinese! Ablin was puzzled.

It is no wonder that Ablin was puzzled that the "most advanced" "processing machinery" of that time came to the Baikal region in Siberia was originally a historical coincidence!

A year ago, the Overseer of the Tomsk Governor's Office, Afanasy? In order to expand his military strength, Pashkov spent hundreds of rubles to introduce equipment and engineers from the local "Okhchinsky Gunpowder Factory" [the most famous gunpowder factory in the Russian Tsarist era, the engineers of the factory, and later developed nitrocellulose gunpowder at almost the same time as engineers from other European countries, thus marking the emergence of smokeless gunpowder, and finding a new way for the further development of gunpowder and the study of new formulas of medicines] A full set of equipment and engineers were introduced, and the engineers followed their advice. The plant was installed in a barracks on the shores of Lake Baikal, where water resources are abundant.

This engineer saw the huge advantages of water power, but did not know that he would become the first European technician captured by the Chinese! The Qing army swept through the Baikal region, and naturally brought back this strange set of equipment and the "Rakshasa craftsmen" who swore to defend their machines back to Ulan-Ude.

The engineer, named Vasily? Petrov, in order to defend his efforts for more than a year, agreed to Jidu's condition and volunteered to make gunpowder for the Qing army, on the condition that he be allowed to continue research on the use of water to drive machinery. Jidu agreed to his request, but then put forward the condition of starting work with accumulation first. However, he also added that Ulan-Ude was built on the riverside, and in time he would definitely find a place by the river with sufficient water for him to carry out his own research.

Vasily was eventually able to succumb. This is one of the reasons why Jidu and the other three generals made it clear that they would not give all their captives to the imperial court.

"Let's go, my guest. Our destination is not far ahead. ”

After letting Ablinzai carefully observe for a long time, Wu Enqi urged. In fact, when he received the order this time, Jidu explained that whatever Ablin wanted to watch in Ulan-Ude, he would do it without hindrance. Especially this "gunpowder workshop"! The purpose of this is that only the general Jidu knows the reason in his heart, and although Wu Enqi is puzzled, he faithfully carries out the commander's order.

Ablin took one last look at the mechanism, shook his head helplessly, and followed Unqi out of the courtyard, leaving behind the few Roses who only knew how to bury their heads in work.

As he continued to walk, Ablin became more and more convinced of his initial judgment - the Chinese had indeed completely controlled the Baikal region! These captive, or "conscripted" Rus', judging by their numbers, should be the sum of several castles! There is only one possibility that they can be gathered together: all the walled cities that the Tsar has just built have been swept away by the Qing army!

(Chapter to be continued)

"A limerick poem? Hidden Head

Reading literature and reading history is only a long breath

I was saying that there was an opportunity back then

The layout is a long-cherished wish

It's hard to come and go

Get up and spend a hundred years

Point out the suffering and diseases of the world

The edge of the town was razed to the sea

Wen'an Wuding happy teardrops (to be continued......)