Traveler Major League

Chapter 113
War is logistics, especially for troops that rely on gunpowder, but the problem now is that there are no saltpeter mines nearby at all, only the sulfur mines on the island can be used, which leads to a serious shortage of gunpowder. The only solution is to build a salt field and wait for a stable output of saltpeter before a large-scale attack.

It was the same situation in history. Limited by climate conditions and geological structure problems, Europe has lacked natural saltpeter mines since ancient times, and basically had to import saltpeter from other places, and artificially cultivated saltpeter to extract saltpeter was Liu Ze's choice. solution.

Liu Ze supported the chopping board in class and explained: "It is necessary to understand that the source of nitrate is natural nitrate and artificially cultivated nitrate."

"What's the difference between natural nitrate and artificially cultivated nitrate?" A student raised his hand and asked. The notebook in front of him was full of memories, and it seemed that he was a good seed who studied hard.

But this question caused a burst of laughter, "Natural nitrate is naturally formed."

Liu Ze nodded and said, "There is a layer of white frost-like crystals on the surface of natural nitrate, and the nitrate content can be judged intuitively through the flame reaction."

"The artificial cultivation method refers to first mixing the broken bricks and soil that have been nitrated into soil with manure or pig hair water at a ratio of 10:1, and then pile the mixture on a dry and ventilated flat ground, with a thickness of about one to two feet. Then put a hayloft on top of the mixture to protect it from rain, but keep it well ventilated and exposed to sunlight, and let it stack for 20 days.”

"The nitrate yield of artificially cultivated nitrate soils tends to be higher."

"When it's time to harvest, some more delicate operations are needed. First, the wheat straw is burned into ashes and mixed into the nitrate soil. A small hole is opened at the bottom of the water tank, plugged with a wooden plug, and a layer is spread. Straw, put a water basin under the hole to make a filter. Fill the filter with nitrate mixed with ash in layers, and then continue to fill with nitrate until it is three inches from the top of the filter.

"You can use the circulation soaking method of hot water and cold water multiple times: add boiling hot water to the filter and soak for 15-30 minutes, open the small hole to get solution 1, then pour cold water and soak for 3-5 hours to get solution 2, Pour cold water again for soaking to obtain solution 3. Boil solution 2 and pour it into a filter to soak for 15-30 minutes to obtain the next set of solution 1, then pour into solution 3 and soak for 3-5 hours to obtain the next set of solution 2, Pour in clean water and soak to obtain the next set of solution 3. By analogy, boil the previous set of solution 2 and then soak to obtain the next set of solution 1, soak the previous set of solution 3 to obtain the next set of solution 2, and finally soak in clean water to obtain Solution 3. Mix multiple groups of Solution 1 to obtain nitric water."

"Pour nitrate water into a pot and bring to a boil. Remove the impurities attached to the surface at any time, soak the liquid with bamboo chopsticks, drop it on ironware, and when it can quickly solidify and form crystals, stop heating."

"After sieving the boiled solution, cool it down and let it stand for a day. A large number of needle-shaped crystals will precipitate out, which is the nitrate. Dissolve the nitrate in hot water, evaporate it again, filter out the precipitated impurities such as sodium chloride, and crystallize after cooling. Out of the nitrate."

A row of assistants and students below the classroom were carefully recording Liu Ze's explanations. When the tip of the pen touched the paper, there was a constant "rustling" sound. Gunpowder is a very important combat weapon for the People's Army, and saltpeter is used to make gunpowder. Indispensable raw materials, so everyone attaches great importance to them, especially the student assistants of the officers who follow Liu Ze.

In this war, only half of the student assistants will follow Liu Ze to the battlefield, and the rest will stay at the base to complete the construction of the nitrate field and other projects.

According to Wang Youyuan's report from time to time, more than 3000 red-haired man are marching towards the base, followed by a large number of but not large-scale red-haired man, old and weak, who even took livestock And some sundries are brought, just like moving, very lively.

Wang Youyuan even found some cavalry, but these cavalry can only be called mounted infantry, because there are no stirrups and horseshoes, their combat effectiveness is extremely poor, and the cavalry of the People's Army can basically attack without damage.

Although he has various advantages, Liu Ze still plans to send people to the front line to negotiate, because according to the plan, the best state is to gradually encroach on the territory of the red-haired man, one small tribe after another.

It's not like it is now. For such a large-scale battle, it is basically equivalent to a decisive battle. If it is a clean victory, it would be fine. If it is a stalemate, then the construction of the base will be impossible to talk about.

What Liu Ze is worried about is that although the people's army is strong and their weapons and armor are much higher than those of the red hair, there is still a big gap in numbers. The current base construction is not perfect enough. The most important thing is the lack of iron and coal, basically everything is lacking, and the generation gap has not yet formed. This may not be so advantageous in a war.

Of course, in Liu Ze's mind, the most ideal state is to fight a "bloodless war". If you can persuade them to surrender without using swords or guns, and just rely on words, and use it for the people's army, that would be the best up.

After all, there are only more than 600 people in the core of the People's Army, and it would be a great loss to die.

There was a sound of horseshoes, and Tao Dayuan, who was teaching, turned his head and looked into the distance. The little red-haired man followed Tao Dayuan to look at the source of the smoke and dust, so when Wang Youyuan rode his horse and stopped at Tao Dayuan's open-air classroom, he found that Hundreds of faces were looking at him with wide-eyed eyes.

He laughed, trying not to be so embarrassed, Tao Dayuan also put down his book and came out to meet him. Tao Dayuan felt very strange about the brother Wang Youyuan who had gone and came again.

"Brother Dayuan, don't teach anymore, make arrangements, and the commander has orders." Wang Youyuan said as he got off his horse.

"What's the situation? Can you still use me?" Tao Dayuan scratched his head, puzzled.

"That's right, the commander said that we'd better settle it peacefully, so he sent us to negotiate together first, and check out the reality of those red-haired barbarians by the way."

"By the way, bring those young red-haired savages along, the commander said it would be useful at that time."

Tao Dayuan's mind is still a little confused, he was sent to teach these little red-haired barbarians not long ago, he did not expect to assign himself a new task so soon, and this time he went to fight with the enemy red-haired barbarians Negotiating peace talks, being the messenger of peace between the two sides, this span is really a bit big, and the difficulty of the task has also increased a lot.

But since the headmaster made such an arrangement, there must be a reason for him, so he didn't have to think too much about it.

The morning sun had just emerged, and a group of soldiers came out of the fortress in a long snake formation. This time, Liu Ze personally led two infantry companies, artillery platoons, archer platoons, gunners, and cavalry, totaling more than 300 people. The regular army and 100 young naturalized red-haired barbarians served as servants, while the red-haired barbarians over 20 years old all stayed in the fortress to continue building fortifications.

The pace of war is getting closer.

(End of this chapter)