Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 2833 Big Firecrackers

“A little less!”

"Toluene, toluene, my chairman," Qi Chuqin waved his arms exaggeratedly, "In the past, we relied on coal coking to supply that pitiful little bit. Now we have the light oil from the Seria No. 2 well, and we can get toluene by direct heating and distillation. But such good crude oil cannot be used. I have talked to the Planning Institute several times, and Wu De said that there is oil but no shipping."

How to transport the oil from Seria back to China became a difficult problem for the Planning Agency. The Senate did not have oil tankers, so the method of transporting oil was still the old method: putting it in wooden barrels and then transporting it back by cargo ship. The unit of oil in the old time and space, "barrel", was actually a relic of this wooden barrel transportation.

As you can imagine, this mode of transportation is extremely inefficient and the losses on the road are also huge. On the one hand, the oil in the oil pool cannot be transported out, and on the other hand, there is no raw material in the factory.

"The light components of light oil will evaporate in the oil storage tank within a few months, and only a little asphalt will be left to pave roads and paint roofs? It's like turning diamonds into glass. If the oil can arrive in time, we will lead the Fu Bo Army to blow up the Forbidden City tomorrow and tie Zhu Youjian to Linggao for an exhibition." When he said this, he looked heartbroken, as if accusing Wu De of being a "bald traitor" who was sabotaging production.

Wang Luobin suddenly remembered something and asked, "The Planning Institute has a plan to build an oil refinery in Seria to process oil products on site. What do you think of the Chemical Industry Department?"

"Of course we support it with both hands." Qi Chuqin said, "The problem is that distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. Our Danzhou Chemical Industry has been under construction for several years and can only be considered to be of a preliminary scale. We are short of food and clothing. If we build an oil refinery thousands of miles away, even if we have the equipment, the workers and technicians cannot solve the problem." He saw that Wang Luobin seemed to be a little unsatisfied, and immediately added, "Relatively speaking, transporting crude oil is relatively safe. With our current technical conditions, shipping chemicals by sea is probably more dangerous."

Chairman Wang turned to a naturalized young man who looked like a secretary and said, "Write this down. Prioritize the transportation of Seria light oil! Use controlled vessels when necessary."

The so-called controlled ships are nothing more than modern ships that the elders treat as treasures and maintain.

Qi Chuqin was so excited because he had received the latest composition report from the exploration team at the Siriya Oilfield: the composition of the newly extracted oil had changed significantly.

Although the crude oil of Seria is famous for its aromatic components, according to the analysis of the exploration team, most of the newly mined crude oil is a fraction of the kerosene range; while benzene, that is, the light naphtha range, is very rare. Based on an annual output of 500 tons of crude oil, the annual output of benzene may be less than 2000 tons, and toluene less than tons, which is limited compared to the output of coal chemical industry. However, the proportion of gasoline is not low at all, which is good news for the engine industry of the Senate.

As a result, the aromatic light oil, which is mainly light naphtha, currently produced by Well No. 2 is extremely valuable. Although the well is currently in a high-yield and stable production stage, the production of oil wells is quite mysterious, and it is difficult to say how long Well No. 2 can continue to produce at a high rate.

Wouldn't it be heartbreaking for him if the oil he had extracted was wasted? Especially benzene and toluene are the main raw materials for producing explosives, disinfectants and pesticides. Once there is a supply gap, the current equipment production schedule will inevitably be affected. This is why he desperately requested to give priority to transporting the crude oil from the Shilia No. 2 well.

"Although controlled ships have advantages in speed and transportation volume, the transfer process requires two steps: loading and emptying barrels. Not only is it labor-intensive, but it also causes great losses. Can we put the construction of oil tankers on the agenda?" "Build oil tankers?" Wang Luobin hesitated. The shipbuilding industry of the Senate has made significant progress, but the largest ship so far is only a 3000-ton iron-framed wooden-hulled hybrid ship. Building oil tankers seems to be a big step.

"Your chemical department should submit a proposal to the Planning Institute and I will take care of this matter," said Wang Luobin.

"So this is Commander Qi's 'firecracker'." Mai Ruibao thought, he recalled the fireworks workshops he had seen in the countryside of Guangdong when he was young, and finally he could understand what those machines were doing when he entered the specialized black powder branch - the belt-driven drum and ball mill grind saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur respectively, and the most eye-catching thing is the wheel mill: two huge black iron wheels are suspended in the air and rotate, barrels of saltpeter, sulfur and carbon powder are poured into the material plate under the wheel, and the rotating iron wheel rolls the powder mixed with a little water, grinding and kneading it, and gradually compacting it into a large piece of gunpowder cake - he estimated that it was hundreds of pounds. How to use this large piece of gunpowder? If it was made into a firework, it would probably blow up the whole yard. Mai Ruibao was just speculating randomly, but he saw the workers lifting it from the material tray to a set of wooden hammer machines. The wooden hammers were driven up and down by the connecting rod to break the huge medicine cake into small pieces, and then the workers poured it into several step-like machines. "Note that this is the granulation process." The bronze rollers of the granulator made a rolling sound, and the pieces of medicine cake were further crushed, ground, and sieved in it. According to the size of the mesh of the installed screen, the finished products that meet different needs were spit out. Hearing Qi Kelong introduce that the finished black medicine is divided into rifle medicine, fuse delay medicine, and mining blasting medicine according to the particle size, as well as propellant pressed into a special prism shape for artillery, Mai Ruibao remembered the photos he saw from the newspaper database: let alone the workshops in the countryside of Guangdong, even the official workshops of the imperial court in Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian were just stone grinding materials, wooden mortars, and bamboo baskets to sieve medicine, which were completely different from what he saw.

The black powder factory implemented strict fire prevention measures, and even installed electric lights in the outdoor corridors to illuminate the interior through glass windows. In order to take pictures, Mai Ruibao had to go in and out of the workshop room constantly. It seemed that if he was not careful and caused a spark, it would cause a disaster that would flatten the entire factory. He couldn't help but think of the bold words of the leader Qi: "Capture Zhu Youjian alive and blow up the Forbidden City!"

"If we really want to blow up the Forbidden City, we don't even care about black powder," said Qi Kronlon in his shrill voice. "Its status as a propellant for guns and cannons will soon be completely replaced by smokeless gunpowder."

Mai Ruibao had seen the term smokeless gunpowder in class and in the Lingao Times, but he knew very little about it. So when he saw the workers in the workshop immersing the soft cotton balls that had been degreased into a ceramic reaction dish filled with strong acid, he was shocked - this gunpowder is made of cotton? Miss Sun was so out of control that she muttered to herself: "This... How many kilograms of yarn can be spun from these many jibei, and how many feet of shuttle cloth can be woven..." However, Chairman Wang was as dissatisfied as ever: "How can a hundred kilograms of smokeless gunpowder produced per day be enough? I see that the main product of the factory is Balistai double-base powder, which is good. But nearly one-third is Schultz gunpowder, which burns too fast and can only be used for smoothbore guns. Is there any need to produce it? Are we going to use it to shoot birds for the elders?"

"The pump-action shotguns made by the Bopu Factory that imitate Remington use Schultz propellant. The Special Investigation Team and the Lingao Guard Battalion are equipped with them." The person who took over the conversation was Ji Tuisi, who was supervising the production of nitrocellulose. "This type of loose smokeless powder is easy to process and can also be used to load grenades, saving other high explosives."

"The little cotton we currently use to produce nitrocellulose is waste cotton from the Lingao Textile Factory. We mainly use cotton linters, which are the fluff remaining on the surface of cotton seeds after ginning. They will not take away the raw materials of the textile industry. However, the consumption of chemical products is indispensable, especially the ethanol consumed by the water-dripping of nitrocellulose. The Planning Institute uses the excuse of tight food raw materials to reduce our quota every few days. Damn it, why didn't they say this when the Ministry of Light Industry was selling wine? They only care about making money. Where does the Senate's great cause of moving south and north be placed!" Qi Chuqin angrily chopped his hand down.

Wang Luobin continued to smile and nodded, without commenting.

"To be honest, the production of nitrocellulose and smokeless powder is very labor-intensive and dangerous. I dare not let the workers go to work without adequate training. Safety in production is of paramount importance, and it cannot be solved by simply increasing the supply of raw materials," Ji Tui Si added, "Let alone completely replacing black powder, even if we can ensure the full deployment of smokeless powder in the army and navy, it will take at least two years. At present, we can solve the training of the special investigation team and the smokeless powder for the veterans to reload their own weapons. This is the limit of what our factory can do."

"In 1638, the greatest achievement that Tehua can achieve is not to eliminate black powder in propellants, but to eliminate it in artillery shells - or to be more precise, in grenade charges!" Mai Ruibao still felt dizzy after walking out of the gun and ammunition assembly workshop. The sun shone through the gaps in the clouds, making it almost impossible to open one's eyes, and cast a halo on Chief Qi who was looking at him with great emotion: "The shame that the grenades fired by the Fu Bo Army artillery could only explode into 20 pieces at most has come to an end. The era of high-explosive bombs has arrived!"

The factory area under his feet was not far from Tehua, and could be reached directly by a small freight train, but it had a sign that read "The Second Branch of Bopu Arsenal". Mai Ruibao remembered that the gun and ammunition workshop he had just walked through was divided into two parts: one was still manufacturing paper-wrapped ammunition for the army's standard first-year Mini rifle, Nanyang-style smoothbore rifle and Hall rifle; the other was assembling metal fixed ammunition for the 1637-style rifle and 1634-style pistol. Especially the latter, the bright brass shells simply made his eyes unable to move. Even though he had read books, Mai Ruibao doubted whether the shells were plated with gold. Using cotton to make gunpowder and gold to make bullets, this was in line with the style of the leader! In comparison, the artillery shell workshop did not seem so eye-catching. In every corner of the workshop and between the machines and equipment, there were wooden barrels, and the barrel covers were covered with small holes. Ruibao asked Qi Kelong what these equipment were. They looked inconspicuous and seemed to be a bit redundant and in the way.