The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 18 Field Scientist

Near the east gate, a temporary felt shed was Zhu Xiu's base camp for researching new firearms.

For this era, its importance is no less than that of a nuclear weapons research institute.

Zhu Xiu felt that Chai Rong had been hasty in throwing him under a tattered felt tent, so he proposed to Zhang Yongde that he would move to a large open courtyard with a courtyard for living alone.

Zhang Yongde ruthlessly refused.

Zhu Xiu also made a series of requirements for living security, such as bathing, changing clothes, eating three meals a day with meat, sleeping in a mosquito-free house at night, and preferably giving him an assistant, with priority given to young women.
After Zhang Yongde turned pale and couldn't bear it anymore, and showed off his iron palm to break bricks, Zhu Xiu had no choice but to succumb to the power and obediently began research on the preparation of new gunpowder.

As a result, on the first night, he accidentally knocked over the candlestick, ignited three fire pots, and the flames burned off half of Zhu Xiu's eyebrows.

The first task of the fifty civilian workers who had just been allocated was to put out the fire in an emergency.

In the middle of the night, Zhu Xiu was tired both physically and mentally, so he arranged for the peasants to prepare saltpeter powder, sulfur powder and charcoal powder in different shifts. He himself wrapped himself in a smelly old sheepskin and fell into a haystack to sleep soundly.

Zhang Yongde resisted the urge to drag him up and beat him up, and went to the tower to report Zhu Xiu's work that night.

"Chai Shuai, this kid is deliberately causing trouble and doesn't tell the truth. In my opinion, it's better to throw him back to prison."

Zhang Yongde put forward his suggestions seriously.

Chai Rong was at his desk, transcribing the song "Song of Lime", and after finishing it, he looked at the few lines of his own words and said with a smile: "Don't worry, I'll take a look at it in two days. Anyone who can write such a masterpiece must be an extraordinary person. ah!"

Zhang Yongde clasped his fists and said: "Tomorrow the Khitan army will definitely regain its strength and attack the city in a big way. I don't want to waste time by staying with that kid. Please choose Chai Shuai to choose someone else!"

Chai Rong glanced at him and said with a smile: "I know you don't like the sour scholar who writes and writes, but I don't think Zhu Xiu is such a person! This guy dared to break into the army to meet me, and he also attracted my attention in the name of new firearms, which shows that he I have already thought about how to save my life, and I am quite quick-witted and courageous!
Previously, Liu Chengyou was angry with him because of the defeat in Shenzhou. Thanks to Madam Fu, the maid next to her sacrificed her life to save him.He knew that Liu Chengyou had a distinguished status and Madam Fu couldn't protect him, so he turned his attention to me. Haha, this guy is smarter than you think!
Smart people don't put themselves in danger!Since he dares to speak out wildly, let’s see what kind of surprise he can bring us in two days!

Liu Chengyou is narrow-minded and will not let him go easily. I can rest assured that you are here to take care of me. "

Zhang Yongde said helplessly: "Since Chai Shuai values ​​​​him, I must protect him in my humble position!"

Chai Rong patted Zhang Yongde on the shoulder and said with a smile: "I have told you before that you and I have known each other since childhood. We are not brothers but brothers. Although you are my subordinate now, there is no need to be so formal and solemn. Just be more casual!"

Zhang Yongde smiled, then immediately restrained himself and said solemnly: "Chai Shuai has a good rest, I resign from my humble position!"

Chai Rong watched him bow and retreat meticulously, smiling helplessly and shaking his head.

Shi Kuangwei was lying next to the female wall, watching Zhang Yongde quickly descending the road to the city, and looking towards the burning felt shed not far away.

"Zhu Xiu is interesting!"

Shi Kuangwei grinned, with a dark face. Under the night, he could only vaguely see a pair of yellow teeth and two rolling eyes.

The next morning, while Zhu Xiu was still sleeping soundly, Zhang Yongde took off the sheepskin mattress from his body.

Zhu Xiu woke up with a start and was about to get angry when Zhang Yongde handed over a large bowl of hot, thick vegetable porridge with a cold face, with some oil on the surface.

Zhu Xiu immediately changed her face to a flattering smile, picked up the big bowl and ate happily.

To his surprise, there were a few shreds of pork in the thick white rice porridge.Zhu Xiu chewed and tasted it carefully, but he didn't know what kind of meat it was, as long as it wasn't human flesh.

After finishing eating, Zhu Xiu put down her bowls and chopsticks and was about to lie down and take a nap when she was lifted up by Zhang Yongde's ruthless iron hand.

Out of grief and helplessness, in the 40th century AD, the great scientific pioneer Zhu Xiu was forced to start business.

In the messy firearms research base that resembled a junkyard, Zhu Xiu officially began his first epoch-making scientific research work since time travel.

Zhu Xiu's confidence comes from understanding, not from his incredible chemical abilities.

More than 40 years ago, fire powder for making incendiary weapons was born. In addition to saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal, this fire powder also contained other impurities.

The alchemists and firearms craftsmen in the late Tang Dynasty obviously did not find the fire powder ratio with the best combustion efficiency. The addition of other impurities was also improved by different alchemists and firearms craftsmen based on their own experience.

The most important thing is that the purity of the two main raw materials, saltpeter and sulfur, is far from being comparable to that of later generations.

Therefore, historically, it would be nearly 100 years later, during the reign of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, that the first explosive firearm in history, the Thunderbolt Fireball, would be born.

During this period, the craftsmen have been groping and summarizing, and they have found the ratio to transform the fire powder from an incendiary weapon into an explosive weapon.

What Zhu Xiu has to do now is to advance this process by nearly 100 years.

According to his tests, the purity of the saltpeter and sulfur powder used to prepare the cupping pot was enough to allow the Thunderbolt Fireball to come out in advance, and even be more powerful.

Under the felt shed, Zhu Xiu busily directed the workers to put the ground powders of the three main raw materials into different jars for later use.

He asked Zhang Yongde to find a piece of yellowed tissue paper, spread it on the table, take a small amount of nitrate powder, sulfur powder, and charcoal powder respectively, mix them in a ratio of 7.5:1.0:1.5, and carefully ignite them with an open flame.
With a bang, the gunpowder pile ignited, and a puff of black smoke came out, choking Zhu Xiu and running away quickly.

The whole piece of paper was burned to ashes. Zhu Xiu fanned her nose and shook her head in disappointment: "Failure!"

The gunpowder of Ming Dynasty gunpowder has a clear inspection method: "Just put two qian of medicine in the palm of the hand, burn it and the palm is not hot, and then you can put it into the gun. But if there are black stars and white spots, and the palm of the hand is hot, it is not good. .”

It can be seen that the preparation of gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty was quite mature.

The nitrate powder and sulfur these days have many impurities and insufficient purity, so they naturally cannot meet the combustion requirements of later generations.

But what Zhu Xiu wants to do is not a firecracker after all, but an explosive pot, so the requirements in terms of burning rate and reaction don't need to be too high.

Zhu Xiu thought that if two qian's worth of medicine were burned on the paper and the paper would be smoked yellow without burning through, he should be able to reach the limit of what he could do so far.

"Come again!"

Zhu Xiu muttered, and asked Zhang Yongde to get some paper, and cheered up to start a new round of matching experiments.

Zhang Yongde was very impatient at first, but when he saw Zhu Xiu concentrated on the table, tinkering with the small pile of fire powder, it burned and smoked again and again, making himself disgraced.

He didn't know what Zhu Xiu was doing. It was just fire powder. He put it in an earthen jar, ignited it and threw it out from a throwing cart. This was just a very conventional combat firearm. What was the point of reinventing it?
Zhang Yongde shook his head and decided not to interfere anymore. He stood outside the felt shed with his knife in hand, and his cold eyes swept across the distance to see a few sneaky left guard soldiers.

He hoped that if the rats came closer, it would be better if they had some plans for Zhu Xiu, so that he could take advantage of the situation and not be too bored.
　am~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)