4-1 Science. Performers

Although Peng Jingrong said cruelly that she was already Liu Ziguang's person, she also saved some face for the old man, at least she still lived in the boudoir of her inner house that night. Liu Ziguang went to live in the barracks, and Addison, who had not been seen for many days, came to visit him, and after expressing his condolences for the general's injuries, he began to introduce the results of the recent period.

During this period of time, Addison's achievements were very great, and in just a few months, he developed a lot of exquisite things, as long as this kind of genius has enough funds and equipment, there is almost nothing he can't do, and there is a more exciting thing is that Song Yingxing has completed the compilation of "Heavenly Creation", and found a printing shop with the silver left by Liu Ziguang, and printed tens of thousands of copies of the book and spread it widely, and then resigned and took the whole family to the iron factory to join Liu Ziguang, and when he came, Liu Ziguang was not there, Addison settled his uncle, and then handed over the management of the production workshop to Song Yingxing, and engaged in scientific research with peace of mind.

The nephew and uncle cooperate very tacitly, although Liu Ziguang's silver is generally spent, but the effect is also extremely obvious, three hundred pedal tricycles have been produced to the capital, a brand new hydrogen airship is also about to be completed, compared to the original one, this one is very much improved, not only installed an internal combustion engine that burns alcohol, but also loaded with a machine gun driven by compressed gas, the power is very amazing, and the crew has reached as many as fifteen people, each person is also equipped with a parachute made of silk, The only drawback is that the airship is still afraid of rocket attacks, and can only use altitude to ensure its own safety.

Of course, the surprise is not only these, the iron plant has a coking branch, the main task is to produce coke for ironmaking, coal is coking at the same time to produce gas, which can be used for night lighting in the iron factory, and later they now use lime and coke as raw materials to heat in the furnace to obtain a new substance, and this substance named calcium carbide can produce a new combustible gas "acetylene". In addition, they extracted a flammable liquid called "kerosene" from coal tar, a by-product of coking, and the liquid other than kerosene, the light one can be used as a solvent for paint and rubber, and the heavy one can be used to infiltrate the wood and prevent decay. In addition, these people also looked for strange ingredients in various ores, and the accumulated various substances filled a lot of clay pots, which were even better than Addison's.

Addison is mixed with these people all day long, and they actually found out soda ash and a new type of acid, originally soap factories and textile factories all over the south always buy the "mouth alkali" produced in Zhangjiakou at a high price through various channels, which is a natural soda ash mined and dried in the north, but with the progress of the war, the short-sighted Qing Dynasty actually banned this kind of trade that was beneficial to them, resulting in a great increase in the cost of the southern factories, in this case, the technicians of the iron factory extracted the alkali with ordinary salt, Speaking of this credit, there is also Addison's share, the technician is to use the sulfuric acid he provided to convert the salt into sulfate, and then with coke, iron tectic, the resulting oxide and sulfide containing sodium and iron in the air deliquescent, absorb the carbon dioxide in the air, and finally generate alkali, although the cost of this method is relatively high, the alkali is not very pure, but at least it can alleviate the urgent needs of the south, for the iron factory to earn back a lot of silver.

The acid liquid that came out of Xinming is called nitric acid, nitrate originally only existed in the laboratory of the iron factory, it is a white substance that is scraped out of the ground or wall after autumn, soaked in the tank overnight, and then removed the scum and debris, put it into the pot and boil it with water until the nitrate dissolves and the water is dry, and then it precipitates white crystals after a night in the container, everyone only knows that this kind of thing can be burned, but it is not very violent, and it can not show other effects for the time being, so it can only be put in the laboratory as a technical reserve. Addison reacted sulfuric acid with nitrate to form another acid, but this acid was not as strong as sulfuric acid, so he distilled the mixture of this acid and sulfuric acid, and finally produced a relatively violent new acid, named nitric acid according to the composition of the compound.

In addition, there is a gadget that Addison made in his spare time, which has been put into mass production by the owner of Peng, which is a wooden bowl-shaped microphone with a pig intestine film at the bottom end, and a small piece of metal attached to the film is attached to the wire, and there is a metal tip near the metal sheet, which is connected to another wire, and when a person speaks into the microphone, it will cause the metal sheet on the film to vibrate, and also make the current flow between the metal piece and the other tip intermittent. The two wires of the microphone are connected to the microphone after passing through the battery, and the sounder is a box covered with paper, which can produce sound according to the flutter of the current, although it is somewhat distorted and the transmission distance is not very ideal, but it is still very valuable to use in the internal intercom equipment of the fortress or large ships. Although Addison and the others used the resources of the iron factory to help Liu Ziguang do things, they spent Liu Ziguang's money after all, and also brought a lot of benefits to the iron factory by the way, so the owner of the Peng factory has always been strongly supportive, and the newly built city walls of the iron factory and the newly bought steam ships have installed this kind of telephone.

"The situation is generally like this, my uncle is busy leading the workers to work overtime, and he eats three meals a day in the workshop, and he doesn't even have time to come to see the general, saying that he will come to see him again when this batch of work is rushed out tomorrow, and please don't blame the general." Addison spoke for half an hour before he finished talking about such a thing.

"It's okay, Mr. Song is conscientious and deserves to be praised, how can I blame it." After listening to Addison's report, Liu Ziguang's heart was surging, saltpeter was there, nitric acid was there, and wired telephones were available, but he didn't expect the people's scientific and technological reserves to be so deep, it seems that gunpowder weapons are still inevitable. ”

"Xiao Ai, have you ever heard of such a thing as sulfur?" Liu Ziguang asked.

"Of course, I have heard that when I was a child in Yunnan, there was sulfur spring water everywhere, and the locals used it as an insecticide to control powdery mildew and leaf mites of various crops, and the effective period could last for about half a month." Addison said.

"Is there any solid sulfur?" Liu Ziguang continued to ask, a little excited in his heart.

"I don't think I've seen it yet, but I can refine it if you want, it's simple." Addison thought to himself, isn't it a piece of cake? But with a slight doubt in his heart, General Liu suddenly cared about this, what was he doing?

Liu Ziguang seemed to see his inner thoughts, and explained: "After the sulfur powder is refined, it is mixed with saltpeter and charcoal in the proportion of one, seventy, and twenty percent respectively, and ignited with fire to see the effect, but you must be careful, if you don't get it right, it will kill people, this thing will explode with amazing power." ”

Preparing messy chemicals is also one of Addison's hobbies, since Liu Ziguang proposed to develop explosive substances, then it might as well make some more kinds of mixtures, in scientific issues, Addison has always drawn inferences from one another, and will not stick to one way.

"Don't worry, General, I'll get what you need as soon as possible." Addison said confidently.

Liu Ziguang knows that these Ming are not built on the air pavilion, it is a large number of scientists who love science for many years of accumulation to create Addison's achievements, although the Ming Dynasty does not have a real sense of national academic institutions, but almost all factories have a group of senior technicians, these people often take their life's work as heirlooms to their children and grandchildren, as their capital to eat, so for different chemicals, even different gases, ores, metals, all over the country are called different, If the academic circles of the Ming Dynasty can be unified, it is definitely a good thing for the country and the people, and it is also beneficial to the innovation exhibition of science and technology. It seems that this work will not be carried out until he has gained some power.

The two have been talking about late at night, in addition to technical problems, they also talked about the things in the capital, handed over to Sun Gang to open a taxi line has been officially operating for two months, the effect is very good, the pedal tricycle is safe and fast, lower than the cost of mule carriages, cheaper, faster and more comfortable than the sedan chair, become the best tool for ordinary people to travel, according to the report sent back by Ding Libin, the cost of opening has been recovered in a short period of time, and the initial benefits, other cities also have people come to buy tricycles, The business of joining Nanjing Automobile Dealership was in short supply for a while, and it made a lot of money every day, which really made a lot of money for Liu Ziguang and made a lot of fame for the iron factory.

The little emperor also had two letters, briefly inquiring about Liu Ziguang's army training, and telling him that in order to garrison soldiers, the emperor secretly bought a Zhuangzi in **, and he could temporarily be stationed there when he led the troops into Beijing. Since Liu Ziguang was on the front line, he had not had time to reply to the letter, and now that the three-month appointment period has expired, the promise of another meeting in the capital is about to be fulfilled.

Early the next morning, Liu Ziguang dressed up and went to the capital, this time the pomp and circumstance of entering Beijing was obviously much larger than the last time, a thousand red shirt regiments were divided into two teams, one team pretended to be a merchant and rode a horse to walk 6 roads, and the other team followed Liu Ziguang to take a boat through the canal.

Although the owner of Peng's factory clamored to sever the father-daughter relationship with Peng Jingrong, he still couldn't stand it at the critical moment, and heard that his daughter was going to take Liu Ziguang to Beijing to see a doctor, and secretly sent Hu Xianjue to transfer the newly bought clipper from Wuchang Shipyard to them to use, the original paddle steamer of the iron factory has been modified with an underwater propeller, and then delegated to the freight department to pull the machine, the new traffic ship is not much smaller than the iron salamander of Rishengchang, and the paddle wheels on both sides have also been replaced with underwater propellers, which is not only faster, but also saves a lot of space. The captain who sent them to Beijing last time was still the captain this time, smiling happily at the helm wheel, dragging a long line of boats along the canal south, loaded with heavy technical weapons, decomposed airships, power parasols, hot air balloons, ballistas, steam cannons, etc., and of course hundreds of soldiers of the Red Shirt Regiment.

In order to cover half of his ugly face, Liu Ziguang asked people to design a high-necked windbreaker, the fabric is slightly hard ramie, which has good breathability, and the collar is leather, which can not only protect the burned face from being easily seen, but also not be too hot in the early summer weather. Since the last ambush incident, his personal guard has expanded to as many as thirty people, and when on duty, they all wear a black ramie windbreaker similar to Liu Ziguang, lined with soft armor, a black iron rank badge pinned to his chest, a short crossbow saber hanging from his waist, and dark crystal glasses stuck on his nose, all of them are handsome and cool.

The journey was smooth, Liu Ziguang sat on the bow of the boat all day to blow the wind, and when he opened his eyes, he always saw that he saw a white expanse, and there was a itchy feeling, maybe his own repair function was activating, he didn't dare to rub it, or wait until he arrived in the capital, let the Western Lang who spread the gods take a look.

Of course, the Gyeonggi Heavy Land can not be so blatantly led troops in, so the Red Shirt Regiment first came to ** County to live temporarily, the Zhuangzi bought by the emperor covers an area of 100 acres, and there is a five-entry mansion, but it is still a little difficult to accommodate a thousand people, the soldiers have to set up tents in the fields to live, those large weapons are moved to the yard at night and covered with tarpaulin, Liu Ziguang did not get off the boat halfway, and went directly to Shuiximen Wharf by boat, and a luxury carriage sent by Sun Gang came to pick it up, Liu Ziguang got into the carriage with the support of Peng Jingrong, Sun Gang, the boss of the Ziguang Automobile Company, personally raised the whip and drove towards the city, two guards stood on the pedals on both sides of the carriage, holding the chariot with one hand and pressing the saber with the other hand to make a warning, and the rest of the guards followed behind in the manpower tricycle of the Ziguang Automobile Company.

This section of the road from the wharf into the city is a bluestone paved carriage and horse avenue, there are many carriages and horses on the road, the eunuchs and wealthy merchants are still mainly horse-drawn carriages, ordinary merchants take most of the tricycles of the purple light car dealership, which can pull goods and carry people, the price is fair, this section from the wharf to the city is the golden road section, in addition to the tricycle of the purple light car dealership, there are other car dealers' carriages, donkey carts, and manpower wheelbarrows in the four places to solicit business, Liu Ziguang's luxury carriage was soon noticed by a long-faced guy on the side of the road, on the body" "The four delicate copper characters shimmered in the sun and fell into his thief's eyes, "There is a distinguished guest from the purple light car dealership, notify the nearby brothers to come and get him!" The guy commanded to one of the people behind him.

"Just look at it, I'm sure they'll make a mistake today." The man in the back sneered, jumped on a mule cart and drove away.

Due to the large number of cars, Liu Ziguang's carriage and the guards behind gradually widened the distance, I don't know when, more than a dozen two-wheeled mule carts were gradually surrounded around, and the luxury carriages were sandwiched in the front and back, and a small red flag was inserted on the simple mule carts, and there was a "horse six cart line" four black characters on it.