"Boom".

On the outskirts of Daxing County, there was an explosion, and the technicians of the Gunpowder Division began a new experiment.

It has attracted the attention of many people.

"Has China Heavy Industries started to involve firearms?"

"I haven't heard of it."

"This move is not appropriate, do you want to persuade the little prince?" Shen Zhanzhi proposed to Su Guan, but Su Guan did not object, and went to the prince's mansion on the second day.

Zhu Gaochi agreed with Su Guan's statement and no longer let China Heavy Industries make such a big move.

But gunpowder is different from others, the sound of the explosion can be heard far away, and it can be heard for several miles, so Zhu Gaochi went to the gunpowder department.

The Gunpowder Division is a dangerous area, and idlers are not allowed to enter, and no open flames are allowed.

It is a big deal that the little prince wants to come to inspect, and no one dares to slack off, for fear of accidents, and strictly orders the craftsmen to stop working.

The warehouse is sealed to avoid all the surprises imaginable.

The Gunpowder Division came from the subordinate departments of the Technology R&D Department, so Xiao Jiu personally accompanied the group and visited the R&D base.

"The principle of firearms comes from the explosion of gunpowder, and the more powerful the explosion of gunpowder, the more powerful the ammunition fired by the gun tube that requires better materials."

Xiao Jiu explained.

Zhu Gao knew that his cognition of firearms was no worse than Xiao Jiu, and he even said that he was better than Xiao Jiu in some aspects.

But Xiao Jiu's talent for exploration in technology must have beaten Zhu Gaochi, and Zhu Gaochi was self-aware.

The gunpowder as the ancients called it refers to a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. It was originally formulated by an alchemist.

In the third year of Emperor Yuanhe of Tang Xian (808), there was already a "fire sulfur method". At this time, the original gunpowder formula could not be compared with military gunpowder.

The Song Dynasty's "Wujing General Essentials" (1044) recorded three gunpowder formulas, which were already empirical formulas after actual combat.

The proportions of the three components also gradually change in practice.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the gunpowder fired by the handcuffs was significantly higher than that fired by the gunpowder of the Yuan Dynasty.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were nearly 100 types of military gunpowder, and there was a deeper understanding of the relationship between gunpowder formula and performance.

Now it is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and the direction of the Gunpowder R&D Department is mainly to collect the technology left by the ancestors of the Song Dynasty, summarize and experiment.

At present, the biggest problem encountered is the problem of purification.

The ancients had a very early understanding of purification, and could invent more than 100 kinds of military gunpowder, and there was a record of purifying saltpeter in the book "Tang Materia Medica" written in 659.

"We tried many ways of gunpowder, but there was still no big breakthrough."

Xiao Jiu was a little frustrated.

Zhu Gaochi can understand that experiments are very boring, and they can most erode people's confidence, so he comforted him.

"If the birth of new technology is so easy, you don't need to be discouraged when it is still our turn."

Hearing this, Xiao Jiu cheered up and smiled reluctantly.

"The traditional method of lifting is ****, put ** into the pot and add water to heat it to melt, boil it over medium heat and wait for crystals to appear at the bottom of the melt, filter the mixture in the pot with a cloth, and the filtered liquid is nitrate."

"Put the filtered solution into a bowl to cool, spray it with clean water, and then use grass ash to absorb the remaining water, and then get a relatively pure finished product."

"We've always wanted to work on the three materials, and the way we came up with it was that we couldn't find a good solution."

Zhu Gaochi understood.

In the formula, ****** savings in China are not high and of poor quality.

Then to solve this problem, we need to mention X.

This problem is not only encountered by the Ming Dynasty, but also encountered by the West, and in the face of this problem, China and the West have given two solutions.

The method that Da Ming thought of was to add cheap carrots to purify, which was recorded in the book "Fire Attack Essentials" at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The method that the West came up with was to add expensive egg whites to purify, which was recorded in the "Western Law Divine Machine", which recorded Western military technology at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

"I have a way." Zhu Gaochi didn't hide it, and directly took out the knowledge of "Fire Attack".

Using egg whites to purify, Zhu Gaochi was not so extravagant, but he also mentioned it to Xiao Jiu and expanded his thinking.

"Carrots?"

Xiao Jiu is incredible.

Carrots with a Hu character, naturally the ancestors introduced crops from abroad, according to legend, it was introduced by the Han Dynasty, and it is also said that it was introduced by the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Zhu Gaochi prefers to be introduced by the Han Dynasty, or the Song Dynasty, if it is introduced by the Yuan Dynasty, it should not bring a Hu character.

"I saw a record in a lone book in the Song Dynasty that carrot juice was used for mentioning, and five or ten carrots were used for every ten touches of nitrate. Depending on the quality of the scale, it is thought that the addition and subtraction do not need to be restricted. Prepare two large new iron pots with ears, use one bite first, the amount can hold ** several, about half a pot of tiling as a degree. Add the carrot juice to it and mix well with your hands. ”

"Gradually add water, pour it into the other pot, and take the water floating ** side as a punch. Then boil on fire and stir well with a large wooden spoon Changchuan. Roll a few times to boil, the dirt foam floats, use a fine bamboo fence to fish, and then stir and fry, not too old, not too tender, with a straw stick dipped in nitrate water, dripping on the nails, that is, into a protruding bead, is the fire. With a glazed new magnetic cylinder, with two layers of summer cloth, the mouth of the cylinder is fixed, poured into the pot with nitrate, filtered, after three or five days, the nitrate has become a tooth. The floating water is waved in the magnetic cylinder, the nitrate is dried, ground finely, and sieved with fine silk, waiting for cooperation. Its water ......"

"Where's the book?" Xiao Jiu asked excitedly.

Zhu Gaochi shrugged his shoulders, "I've seen it before, there are so many books in the palace, I didn't pay attention to it at the time, and I can't find it anymore." ”

"It's a shame." Xiao Jiu complained a little, but did not doubt Zhu Gaochi's statement.

"That book also talks about how to purify sulfur."

Sulfur is a non-metallic element used very early in ancient China, and natural sulfur contains impurities, and the impurities in sulfur must be removed in order to make gunpowder.

That is, the content of the methods of using charcoal for sulfur.

The book not only introduces the methodology, but also gives explanations and principles.

Unlike the Chinese side, the early history of the use of sulphur in the West is vague and lacks written records.

And because the purification method is mentioned in "The Divine Machine of Western Law", some people in later generations say that the purification method was taught by Matteo Ricci and John Tong.

This theory has been proven to be false, as physical objects and technical books have been unearthed in China, which was the first country to purify sulfur and has gained academic recognition.

Finally, after the debate between Chinese and Western modern scholars, the final compromise is that the different methods of purifying sulfur in China and the West have been exchanged, or whether they have developed similar methods, still needs to be studied in depth.

That is to say, it is not denied that China was the first to use the purification method, but it is not denied that the West invented the purification method, although the purification methods of the two are similar, obviously from the same method, anyway, it is a headless public case.

Xiao Jiu and the rest of the craftsmen listened carefully, for fear of missing a word, but Zhu Gaochi told all the knowledge he remembered in one go.

Including more than 20 ** recipes, ingredients, grinding methods, charcoal selection methods, etc.

This is the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient ancestors, some of them have their own, and some of them learn from the West, and they are not made behind closed doors.

It's just that the territory of the East is relatively closed, and before the Renaissance in the West, there really wasn't much technology worth learning from China.

On the contrary, before the Industrial Revolution, the technology of the East was mostly spread in Arabia and the West.

Then there is the method of making granular gunpowder.

During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, there was "***" that "the coarse ones don't need to be used, the thin ones don't need to be used, and those who are like corn are stopped." The big and the small are made in the same way."

It shows that there were strict requirements for the particles of ** at that time. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, "****" not only recorded that the gunpowder particles of different firearms were of different sizes, but also explained the reasons why gunpowder was sieved into granules.

If it is not granular but fine-faced, the three components will be mixed unevenly after bumps and vibrations during the transportation of gunpowder, and the phenomenon of delamination will appear: the charcoal is lightly floating on the top, and the * weight is heavy below, and the power is weakened when fired, and it is easy to explode.

In addition, if the barrel is very long, the fine-sided gunpowder tends to stick to the barrel when charging, and the powder is not fully loaded into the chamber, which will also affect the firing power.

"**Sift into beads, or use a thin mat or bamboo basket. Spread the medicine on top. Slightly use the shade of the tree to shine thousands of suns, never use the sun, summer sun, fear of fire in the sun, sudden difficulty to save the ear. In the "Little Fantasy", twenty after the above processes, ** is made. ”

After Zhu Gaochi finished speaking, let's see how far Xiao Jiu's exploration ability can be made in the end.

As Xiao Jiu said.

With more powerful gunpowder, it is natural that higher standards will be required, and as long as new gunpowder is born, then the advent of bird guns, that is, arquebuses, will not be far off.

After all, the five steel-making and nine-steelmaking technologies that came out during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty have been produced in the iron factory.

As for the higher-grade self-generated firebolts, they are limited by the limitations of inferior flint raw materials in China, and with Zhu Gaochi's current strength, he cannot afford to obtain them overseas.

So it's not on the list of his short-term plans.

However, Su Guan's advice earlier that China Heavy Industry is not suitable for touching the military industry, and it is easy to cause impeachment by officials.

So not long after.

The Gunpowder Division moved to Golden State and went to sea on a sea ship.

In Lushun, which is across the sea, the traffic is hijacked by Jinzhou, making Lushun a closed area, and the outside world does not know what to do here.

The guard itself is a military base, and outsiders are not allowed to trespass, and with the isolation overseas, it is really free to do whatever you want.

It's really doing whatever you want.

The bodies of several slave workers were carried by slave workers with white armbands and buried in mass graves.

For the casters from Japan, the management of the forest farm is becoming more and more lax.

It's really easy for these people to use, and they are obedient and don't have the slightest spirit of resistance.

After a long time, it is inevitable that I will relax a little.

"Don't be careless." The steward of the forest farm couldn't help but tell Wang Zhen.

Wang Zhen just came back from Beizhen to see the prince.

Wang Ye established a town in Beizhen, and there was a great trend of doing a big job in the Northeast, which made Wang Zhen and Sun Yan very encouraged.

(End of chapter)