Liu Haichan thought for a moment and arched his hand: "Which book is the Metropolitan Governor talking about?" Could it be the "Sun Zhenren Dan Sutra" of the 'King of Medicine'? Lao Yu has also read this paragraph, the 'medicine king' Sun Zhenren three hundred years ago, that is the leader of my generation! It's a pity that the book has been lost, and all that is in circulation today is a forgery......

It doesn't matter, although there is no recipe for refining gunpowder now, the old man believes that Sun Zhenren must have unintentionally obtained it at the beginning, rather than deliberately refining gunpowder. After all, what alchemists like us want to refine is the elixir, not what the Metropolitan Governor needs, so the direction of development is somewhat deviated.

But after a whole month of busy work, the old decay can be regarded as enlightened, and seems to know what the problem is. ”

"Did you find the problem? Hurry up and hear about it. Li Yuan said in surprise.

Liu Haichan said solemnly: "The old man is not completely sure, but he is not far from ten. These hundreds of failures have finally made the old man see the crux of some problems. The old man thought that the reason for the repeated failures should be due to the raw materials used. ”

"Raw materials?" Li Yuan frowned and said, "How do you say this?" ”

Liu Haichan arched his hand and said: "The Governor has mentioned before that the fire recipe required for refining should be the main three raw materials: saltpeter, sulfur or realgar, and charcoal. The old decay thinks so. In dozens of Dan scriptures written by predecessors, there are records that these three things will have a violent effect when mixed together, such as "The Secret of the Golden Pill of the Taishang Holy Ancestor" written by Qing Xuzi.

Therefore, the direction we followed was also in accordance with what the Metropolitan said. Dadudu, although the two bowls of refined medicine you just saw were not effective, they were all refined with the formula of these three raw materials. ”

(Note: In 808 AD, in order to refine the elixir with the effect of "immortality and ascension on the ground", Qing Xuzi, an alchemy master of the Tang Dynasty, wrote the "Secret of the Taishang Shengzu Jindan", but in the end did not succeed in refining the so-called "Taishang Shengzu Jindan", but made the world's earliest gunpowder, that is, the "Fuhuo Alum Method": sulfur, saltpeter and carbonized aristolochia are mixed together and burned with fire, which can produce a certain amount of explosive force.) Therefore, it is necessary to identify the inventor of gunpowder, in fact, Qingxuzi is the most suitable, but it is not included in later textbooks)

Li Yuan said: "Needless to say, these three raw materials are mixed with other raw materials to refine into the Fuhuo Fang, this is certain. What Pontus is concerned about is, what do you mean by the question of raw materials? ”

Liu Haichan said in a deep voice: "The old man is about to explain to the Metropolitan Governor, sometimes although the raw materials are exactly the same, the elixir refined is completely different, which is also doubted by many alchemy alchemists. As far as raw materials are concerned, alchemy raw materials are commonly used saltpeter and sulfur, which are actually unique names in the mouths of our soldiers.

For example, saltpeter is called 'Yin Jun', and sulfur is called 'Yang Hou'. When the two things meet in the furnace, it is the trend of yin and yang helping each other. As for the occurrence of fried tripods recorded in the Dan Sutra, most of them are caused by the addition of other raw materials, or the quality is not pure. ”

Liu Haichan shook his head when he spoke, but Li Yuan was confused.

"What does Liu Zhenren mean is that this saltpeter, sulfur and quality are different?" Li Yuandao.

"Exactly! Governor, please see, the old decay will make a comparison for you. Part of the saltpeter in this jar arrived from Jinling, and part of it was purchased from the nitrate people of Chudi, but these two kinds of saltpeter are completely different. ”

Liu Hai Toad scooped a small spoonful of crushed saltpeter powder with a small spoon, and ordered Dao Tong to take a piece of firewood to sprinkle the powder in the medicine spoon on the red charcoal, and after a while, he saw that the saltpeter powder burned violently, emitting a bright flame, and the fire was fleeting, and the air was filled with a pungent smell.

"See?" Bangs toad said.

"Huh?" Li Yuan wondered, could this see anything?

Hu Gui on the side couldn't help it, and asked directly: "Liu Zhenren, what is this asking the Metropolitan Governor to see?" ”

"Look at the fire." Zhang Zhengyi frowned and said, with a bit of helplessness in his expression for Niu playing the piano.

"The color of the fire is different, don't you notice the color of the flame?"

"I don't see it clearly." Hu Guidao. Liu Haichan hurriedly looked at Li Yuan, and Li Yuan also shook his head.

Liu Haichan said patiently: "Okay, then the old man will try again." ”

After that, he scooped a pinch of powder with a small spoon, leaned on top of the sparkling charcoal, and said, "Look at it." While gently sprinkling the powder.

The charcoal once again emitted a bright flame, and the flame was fleeting, and then died down in an instant.

"See?" Liu Haichan asked.

"This flame is like yellow with purple in the middle of it...... There are indeed some differences. Li Yuan was surprised.

"It's still the Metropolitan Governor's good eyesight, that's exactly the case. This shows that the quality of this saltpeter powder is not pure, the real saltpeter is purple when it burns when it is burned, and the flame in this saltpeter powder is purple and yellow, and the old man suspects that this saltpeter is mixed with a large amount of miscanthus salt. The miscanthus salts are yellow and flame when they are fired, and there is white powder after burning. Lo and behold, the charcoal was covered with white powder, which must have been caused by miscanthus. Liu Hai Toad said.

Li Yuan suddenly recalled some knowledge that had long been discarded in his mind, which was the memory of some mold lakes in chemistry experiments in middle school, for example, under the flame color reaction, potassium ions were purple, and sodium ions were yellow. The composition of saltpeter is potassium nitrate, so it is a purple flame when it encounters fire, but miscanthus nitrate is sodium nitrate, and it is yellow when it encounters fire, so it is very good to distinguish potassium ions and sodium ions through the flame color reaction.

But now it's five generations and ten countries, where does the chemical knowledge come from? Witnessing an old Taoist priest identify two substances in front of him in this way similar to a "chemical experiment", Li Yuan secretly admired it in his heart, if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, it would have been incredible.

"Therefore, the old man thinks that this is the problem that has always plagued the effectiveness of alchemy in my generation. Alchemy is used in saltpeter, once mixed with miscanthus salt, it can not play the effect of yin and yang, which is why some monks can practice the golden pill, but some can't, presumably because of the confusion between the two things. Liu Hai Toad said eloquently.

"I see!" Suddenly there was a surprised shout outside the house: "Oh, it can solve the confusion in my heart, Liu Zhenren, Liu Zhenren, there are really some doorways." ”

Everyone was stunned and looked at the door, but saw a thin old man in a long robe and a square scarf walking into the door, his beard and eyebrows tangled together, and he was very sloppy.

"It turned out to be Du Zhenren. What are you doing here? Liu Haichan smiled.

Na Du Zhenren was also one of the invited alchemists, and at this time he strode in and said loudly: "I heard that the Metropolitan Governor came in person, and the old man came to join in the fun." The Metropolitan Governor, the old Du Yulin is polite. ”

Li Yuan naturally knew this alchemist as well, after all, his sloppy appearance was extremely outstanding among the twenty warlocks, which was extremely impressive. So he smiled and replied: "Du Zhenren, it's polite." ”

Du Zhenren leaned over to Liu Haichan and praised him: "You are worthy of being the junior brother of Fuyaozi, you really have some real skills!" I also suspect that saltpeter is not pure. What you just said woke me up. Do you remember the furnace in the afternoon seven days ago? Only a small part of the potion burned violently, but most of it did not react, and I suspected that the raw material was impure.

Now that you're saying that, I kind of get it. It turned out that we had been busy for a month, but our energy was wasted by this impure saltpeter. ”

Liu Haichan smiled kindly: "Du Zhenren, you can't be completely so arbitrary, the old decay is just speculation." ”

"What's there to speculate about? That's because of this saltpeter. The ones shipped from Jinling are all defective, and these cans that Xu Changshi collected from the local area are the real saltpeter. Let's mix it up, but it's counterproductive. I thought that all the goods shipped from the capital were good, but in fact, most of them were miscanthus salt. Du Zhenren said loudly.

Li Yuan frowned and said, "What's the matter?" ”

Hu Gui hurriedly said in a low voice: "When these real people came from Jiangnan, your father-in-law, Lord Zhou, purchased a batch of saltpeter sulfur and other raw materials for them to bring over, and I was worried that we didn't have these things in Langzhou. ”

Li Yuan nodded and said, "Yes, could it be that my father-in-law bought the wrong one?" ”

"It's not that I bought it wrong, but no one can tell the truth of saltpeter, it's exactly the same in my hand, who can tell the difference? so that I can't make out the discernment. Hearing Liu Zhenren say this just now, I was like an initiation. It's no wonder that several furnaces with good results are all locally purchased saltpeter, and the saltpeter from the capital used in front of it has been refined into a big black lump, I don't know what it is. Du Zhenren smacked his lips.

Li Yuan still didn't understand, and Hu Gui further explained: "That's the case, Metropolitan Governor. Saltpeter sulfur was consumed very quickly, so he entrusted Xu Changshi to buy some in the private sector. From this point of view, the saltpeter of the people is the real saltpeter! ”

Li Yuan nodded and said, "Then what are you waiting for?" Replace it all with saltpeter purchased from the people, and it is better to ask them again where they mined it, and the governor of Pontus immediately ordered them to go directly to it. ”

Hu Gui smiled awkwardly and said, "Metropolitan Governor, I'm afraid this is not easy...... Throughout the world, there are only a few places where saltpeter is actually mined. For example, Guanzhong, for example, Anxi, those places are not thousands of miles away, and at this time they are in other countries, how can we mine? ”

Li Yuan frowned and said, "Didn't you just say that you can buy it locally?" Where did the people come from? ”

Liu Haichan interjected with a smile: "Most of the governors don't know, the folk saltpeter is collected from the edge of the corner house where livestock are kept, such as the pigsty stable, or around the thatched house where the toilet is used, and the nitrate will be born in those places, oh, the people call it 'ground frost', which is generally used for medicine, bitter and cold, non-toxic, and can cure headaches and abdominal diseases......

As for why frost grows in those pickled places, the old decay also does not understand. The people swept the frosty soil, put it in a wooden barrel, added water, filtered out the dust, and then boiled or dried the water to obtain saltpeter powder. It takes too much effort and produces a pitiful amount of money, so the price is very high, and if you rely on this method alone, it will not work. ”

Li Yuan can be regarded as a long knowledge, it turns out that the place where pigs are raised, and even the side of the toilet can actually get saltpeter?! I've never heard of this. But listen to this meaning, this saltpeter should be the purest saltpeter, is the required raw material, although the quantity is not much, but for a while there is no good way, can only use this seemingly clumsy method to get the first test.

In case the refining of these "ground frosts" is successful, the second step of large-scale refining can be considered, and the source of pure saltpeter can only be slowly thought of in the future.

Li Yuan ordered in a deep voice: "Hu Gui, go and inform Mr. Xu, continue to buy a large amount of frost, and mobilize the people to sweep the frost soil to boil saltpeter, just say that it is the meaning of the governor of Pontus." My Wuping Town, plus Wu'an Town, should be able to get a lot of it.

In addition, in order to save raw materials, the twenty furnaces should not be burned together, headed by Liu Zhenren and Du Zhenren, each led several warlocks to open a furnace, and must be given to the governor of the city to refine the fire party!

Whoever was the first to refine it, Pontus built the largest Dan furnace for him in Chu Land for him to refine the pills. I have covered all the expenses Wu Ping, so that he can concentrate on alchemy and refine the golden pill of immortality that you have always dreamed of. ”

"Good!" Du Zhenren said excitedly: "But that must be my success first." Liu Zhenren, I won't let you do this. ”

Liu Hai toad said: "That may not be you, this matter should not be allowed to be decrepit." ”