Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 120

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The most mysterious and secret place in Shuibo Liangshan - Gunpowder Bureau.

Seeing Li Yan helping Liu Huiniang come in from the outside, Ling Zhen hurried up to greet him, saying: "Brother, sister-in-law!", and then asked someone to bring a chair for Liu Huiniang!

After Liu Huiniang sat down, Li Yan asked, "According to the ratio I mentioned, how powerful is the gunpowder?"

Ling Zhen admired him from the bottom of his heart: "Brother is really a god-man. The gunpowder prepared according to the ratio that brother said is more than ten times more powerful!"

In later generations, it is estimated that even a primary school student will know that one sulfur, two nitrates, and three charcoals can be used to make black gunpowder.

But those who really understand black powder know that the power of black powder formulated with this ratio is really average.

After hundreds of years of human experimentation and practice, it was only in modern times that the combination ratio of black powder was found to be about 15.00% for sulfur, about 70.00% for charcoal, and about [-]% for saltpeter, which is the most suitable black powder mix. Compare.

At this time, although people have mastered the main ingredients of gunpowder, they are still very immature in the ratio of ingredients. In addition to the three ingredients of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, they also mixed ten kinds of ingredients such as clear oil and asaru. INGREDIENTS - These ingredients were mainly flammable substances, which people at this time felt would increase the power of black powder.

In fact, the opposite is true, because after adding those messy things, the gunpowder becomes impure and its power decreases a lot.

As a soldier, an excellent soldier, Li Yan learned how to blast and make explosives when he was in the army.

Moreover, Li Yan not only knows how to make black powder, but also knows how to make nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin.

If it was in later generations, Li Yan could make nitrocellulose by himself in a trip to the pharmacy, or even give Li Yan a bag of chemical fertilizer, and Li Yan could tinker with powerful explosives.

It's a pity that this was in ancient times, when technology was seriously backward. At present, Li Yan couldn't even get nitric acid, so how could he make nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin?

Therefore, whether Li Yan is willing or not, at present Li Yan can only develop black powder.

Li Yan personally tested the black powder made by Ling Zhen and the others. After confirming that its power had indeed reached the limit of black powder, he said, "Bring some wine."

Ling Zhen was puzzled, "What are you doing with the wine? To celebrate?"

However, because Li Yan changed the formula of the black powder before, and increased the power of the black powder by more than ten times, Ling Zhen had already obeyed Li Yan's words.

Therefore, after reacting, Ling Zhen ran out immediately, and brought a urn of rice wine over after a while.

Li Yan looked at the rice wine, which has a lower alcohol content than beer, and thought, "It's time to teach them how to make alcohol by distillation."

The degree of rice wine is low, the effect is undoubtedly worse, but fortunately it is only worse, not unusable.

Li Yan took a shovel of gunpowder, poured rice wine on the gunpowder, poured it on the copper sieve he brought, and then shook it evenly to turn the black gunpowder into uniform rice-sized small particles.

After finishing all this, Li Yan said to Ling Zhen: "Let your people follow what I did just now, make all the black powder into this kind of granule, then dry it, and then store it in a dry place carefully."

In the field of gunpowder, moisture resistance has always been the top priority, and once the gunpowder becomes lumpy due to moisture, let alone increasing its power, it may even be difficult to ignite, so no one has ever thought of getting the gunpowder wet.

It was precisely because of this that Ling Zhen's face was full of shock and disbelief!

But Ling Zhen didn't raise any objection—for that reason, Li Yan has already proved that he is far superior to Ling Zhen in the field of gunpowder, so Ling Zhen only respects Li Yan, or even blindly obeys him, without doubt.

Li Yan didn't explain anything to Ling Zhen either.

First of all, it takes too much time to explain something, and what Li Yan lacks most now is time.

Secondly, it is meaningless to explain it or not. Granular black powder with the best ratio is already the limit of black powder, and there is no more room for development.

Again, Li Yan, who has not finished junior high school, only knows that the power of granular black powder is several times that of powdered black powder, and it is not as easy to be affected by moisture as powdered black powder, and it is more convenient to refill. , As for the principle of it, Li Yan is actually not very clear. After all, Li Yan is not engaged in research, and the old squad leader who taught Li Yan blasting did not explain the principle to Li Yan.

Again, keeping it mysterious helps Li Yan's reign.

After Li Yan finished explaining the precautions to Ling Zhen, Liu Huiniang unfolded the blueprint she brought and said, "This is the waterwheel stone mill and waterwheel copper sieve I developed. The real thing is in my studio. You can send someone later. Go and move it, with them, you should be able to save a lot of effort, but you must pay attention to moisture, the waterwheel stone mill and waterwheel copper sieve should not be far away from water, and gunpowder is afraid of water."

Ling Zhen took the blueprint and said, "Okay, sister-in-law, I will send someone to move it in a while, and produce as much gunpowder as possible."

Li Yandao: "Don't ignore quality because of quantity."

Ling Zhen said: "I have set off fireworks for the government for ten years, so I know the importance of the quality of gunpowder."

Li Yan nodded, and said again: "After the granulated black gunpowder is finished drying, let's start making the bombardment and explosive kits I told you last time. I have already told Wen Junshi that he will organize 1000 People help you make these two firearms, but those people are old, young, women and children, and they don’t understand the horror of these two things. You must pay attention to safety at that time, I don’t want people to die on our side before the war begins.”

Ling Zhen said solemnly: "Brother, don't worry, I've seen my friend blow up to death with my own eyes, and I will never let such a thing happen in front of my eyes again!"

Li Yan nodded, and then asked: "The gunner I asked you to train, how is your training going?"

Ling Zhen smiled wryly, and said, "Brother, it's not that I'm trying to shirk, we don't have guns, and we don't have gunpowder, how can I train?"

Li Yan also knew that this matter was a bit embarrassing for Ling Zhen. After all, it was nothing to ask for now, and it was indeed not easy to train.

Li Yan retreated to the next best thing, and said: "You take the time to go to the reserve and pick two clever people to build the framework of the artillery battalion first, and then teach them the precautions for gunners. I will definitely let you have artillery before the war. Then you lead them to make a surprise attack for a few days...Brother, in this battle, you and your artillery battalion will be the key to victory, and the eight or nine thousand lives of Liang Shanbo are all tied to you!"

Ling Zhen straightened his back and said, "Don't worry, brother, Ling Zhen promises to live up to his brother!"

Li Yan patted Ling Zhen on the shoulder, and said again: "When selecting people, tell them that guns are dangerous, let them join voluntarily, and tell them that their monthly salary is twice that of Ma Jun .”

The guns Li Yan made are powerful, but they are easy to blow up, especially when they are inexperienced at the beginning of the formation. Yan felt sorry for himself.

Ling Zhen said: "Isn't it dangerous to be a soldier...Brother, what kind of artillery do we have?"

It's also time for Ling Zhen to meet his closest partner in the future, so Li Yan said: "Come on, I'll take you to see our cannon."

……

(End of this chapter)