The rise of the prince

Chapter 153 Gunpowder Preparation
Things didn't end after that, and unexpected people also came, Tang Zhouwei's No. 13 son Tang Ping, and his beautiful fourteen-year-old daughter.

Li Ye was really surprised. When Fatty Tang begged him, what he said was so beautiful and moving. Even he was deceived by him, thinking that he was a real mathematician instead of a politician, but he disappeared as soon as he finished his work. I haven't seen anyone else, but now let his son come to pay New Year's greetings.

But soon Li Ye realized that something was wrong. This Tang Ping was here to promote his daughter rather than a New Year greeting. How could he not leave his daughter in three words? She is only fourteen or fifteen years old, you scum!But if you think about it carefully, it is not uncommon for girls to get married in the [-]th or [-]th year of this age.
Li Ye understood that Fatty Tang came here with the idea of ​​marrying their palace, and he had to feel that Tang Zhou, as a second-rank official of the imperial court, was a dignified household envoy, and he had no idea how to marry. Yes, looking for the declining Prince Xiao's Mansion?

Finding that Qiuer Yueer's eyes were not right, she hurriedly responded with a few words and sent them away with a bottle of general wine. Just as De Gong said, Tang Zhouwei looked like a nice guy, but in fact he was very treacherous and cunning, so I didn't want to deal with him any more .

After seeing off Tang Ping, no New Year's greetings came to the door until the afternoon. I fasted on the first day of the new year, and I had an oil-free lunch with Qiuer Yueer, and I was free. Li Ye and Qiuer Yueer ground a crock of toner, and Filter the plum blossom perfume again, and replace the plum blossoms soaked in it.

The Wei family and his party were also very busy today. Chaoren took Wei Yuyu and his brother to visit the officials who had spoken for him one by one, and then offered thanks. He spoke, and this is a large group of people, and they have to work.

However, the first person to come to pay New Year's greetings in the afternoon was the most unexpected, and it was actually someone from the General's Mansion!
Wei Chuan, the fourth-rank general of the dynasty, even gave a bountiful gift. The bounty he said was not self-conceited, it was really thin, but only a dozen catties of fresh mutton, which he said was slaughtered by the general himself this morning. Give him a taste.

Li Ye is full of black lines, why are there few normal people who come to pay New Year's greetings today, and this general is not unusual. According to the custom of fasting on the first day of the new year, one can only eat fast and not kill, but the current general and privy envoy Zhong Daoyu don't care at all. Well, think about it too, he doesn't even know how many people he has killed, will it depend on the future if he kills a sheep?

Forget it, I'm too lazy to care about it, Li Ye took the mutton and gave it back to the general as usual, but he was very strange, he had nothing to do with Zhong Daoyu, even if he had never met him, he didn't know what the general of the dynasty looked like, the general Why did the government come to pay New Year's greetings?But it's useless to think too much, because I can't figure it out at all, maybe the old general just thought of it on a whim.

Then the head-scratching He Qian also came, changed from the usual casual, the little girl was wearing a formal dress with jade around her waist, her leather boots were brand new and shiny, her whole life was full of vigor and heroism.

Others would pay New Year's greetings first, say something nice, and then the host would give the New Year's money or a gift in return. She was fine, and asked for the New Year's money directly when she came up.

Li Ye had nothing to do with her, so he took a gold ingot and prepared to give it to her.

"I don't want it. I'm not short of money. I want other things." The little girl didn't appreciate it: "Tell me what are you doing?"

"Make firecrackers." Li Ye said truthfully.

As soon as he finished speaking, He Qian immediately became interested, "Firecrackers! I want to see how it was done."

"Aren't you going to pay New Year's greetings?" Li Ye asked: "Besides the palace, there must be other places to go. You must have many relatives in Hefu."

"I got up early in the morning and ran to all the relatives' houses. I came to you last on purpose. What do I want to do in the afternoon." The little girl said proudly.

Li Ye raised his forehead, and he said why this girl didn't come until noon, it turned out that she had planned it long ago
A carriage staggered out of the Meridian Gate. The driver was Wei Li, the commander of Shangzhi's personal guards. Fu An sat sideways in the carriage. The old man was sitting in the carriage. Meng Zhiye pointed fingers again, which made the emperor very annoyed, but it was hard for him to say anything because he was the emperor's teacher.

As soon as the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven was over, the emperor left in anger.

Behind the carriage followed several similar carriages, all of which were Jinwu Guards in casual clothes with knives.

"Your Majesty, are we going to the minister's house or?"

The emperor said impatiently: "Which minister's house has I never been to? I won't go if I am out of the palace. What are the famous restaurants and teahouses in the capital? Go sit and see my people."

"Yes, the servant will ask now."

"Don't go, it's easy to be recognized, let Wei leave." The emperor stopped, and Fu An lowered his head knowing why, as a eunuch, if he asked, he might reveal his truth.
Wei Li took the order, and returned after a short while: "Your Majesty, there is a famous restaurant in Beijing, Wangjiang Tower, as well as the Yongyue Pavilion of Master Chen Yu, a scholar of the Hanlin University, and the most famous Xiaowang Mansion Tingyu recently. There are Fumenglou and Zuichunxuan in brothels."

He reported a lot at one go, and the emperor felt unhappy at this moment, and waved his hand casually: "You drive the car, you can go wherever you want."

"Yes!" Wei Li said as he got into the carriage and drove the horse.

"What is this, salt? But it doesn't look like it." He Qian was so curious that he almost stuffed his little head into the jar.

Li Ye grabbed her and told her to stay away: "This is saltpeter."

After weighing the saltpeter, he poured out some of the sulfur powder from the jar, and was distracted to stop He Qian, a curious baby. Saltpeter is not poisonous, but sulfur is poisonous. Fortunately, Qiu'er Yueer helped to weigh the toner.

Li Ye used a small scale for weighing medicinal materials. The weighing ratio of saltpeter, sulfur, and carbon powder was about 7.5:1:1.5. After weighing, the three powders were mixed thoroughly in a wooden bowl.

The whole process uses wooden utensils, and iron utensils that are too hard may generate sparks, which is very unsafe.

"Can firecrackers be made in this way?" The little girl was still very curious. In her heart, Li Ye seemed to be omnipotent.

"Hahaha, this is much more powerful than firecrackers." Li Ye smiled proudly, shaking the mixture carefully while talking, then tilted the wooden bowl, poured it carefully on oiled paper, and wrapped it well with oiled paper. This is the original black Gunpowder gone.

Weighing the weight, Li Ye estimated that it was about a catty. He spread out the paper and baked it under the warm sun for a while to remove moisture, then carefully put it away.

"Okay, now we can start making firecrackers." Li Ye shook the things in his hand.

The little girl couldn't wait a long time ago, with an excited expression on her face.

Li Ye took them to the barren hill in the backyard of the palace, wrapped cotton thread with gunpowder as a lead wire, then used a dry bamboo tube as a shell, and finally sealed it with clay.

Clay is an important material for firing bricks, tiles and cement. It has strong plasticity and high hardness. It is a good material for sealing. In this way, a large amount of gas and heat generated by the burning of black powder will be sealed in a small space for a short time, and it will burst out at once, which is very powerful. enhanced.

However, wet clay can also cause the fuse to go out, so after Li Ye stuffed the gunpowder and clay forcefully, he had to let the sun bake for a while to let the clay dry and not prevent the fuse from burning.

While everyone was waiting excitedly, Yan Shen came to him sweating profusely. Someone from the Prime Minister's mansion came to pay New Year's greetings!
At the prime minister's mansion, Li Ye wondered whether Daode Gong had come. It would be a good time if he came, after all, the gunpowder was prepared for him.

"How many people are here?" Li Ye asked.

"Several of them, I didn't see clearly when I came here, and my son, the gifts they gave were all in boxes. What did the manager Yan Yan say? What is a whole set of Ru kiln porcelain? Anyway, it's very expensive. Go back and look at it, my lord." Let's see." Yan Shen hurriedly said.

(End of this chapter)