The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 490

"The rubber factory has started?" Zhu Linmi was very surprised. She didn't expect Yao Qisheng and these young people to be so efficient. "How much is the daily output?"

Yao Qisheng hurriedly waved his hands and said, "The craft of vulcanized rubber requires precision, and now only a dozen or so students and classmates can master it. As for the other craftsmen, it took two days just to teach them how to count with a clock.

"Therefore, even though the houses, grounds, and many mixing, heating, and measuring equipment have been sold, most of them are idle. At most five or six hundred catties of vulcanized rubber products can be produced every day, but some wheels can already be made. , shoe soles, etc.”

It turned out that it was only in the laboratory production stage.Zhu Linming knows that rubber is very dense, and five or six hundred catties may sound like a lot, but it is actually nothing if it is used to make thirty or forty wheels, and more than a dozen outstanding scholars are required to keep an eye on it.

He murmured in his heart that Daming had never had any craftsmen in chemical production before, so it was no wonder that such a situation occurred.It seems that in order to mass-produce rubber on a large scale, one must ensure a stable supply of natural rubber, and the other must train a large number of qualified industrial workers as soon as possible.

He then said to Yao Qisheng: "Right now, there is no rush to produce rubber products, and the cannon seals don't need too much. Let everyone focus on training craftsmen first, just a few of you will not be enough to use even if you are exhausted.

"By the way, add [-]% to the wages of the rubber craftsmen. Tell them, if they learn how to make vulcanized rubber within one month, they will get [-]% more wages, and every five days they learn later will get [-]% less."

"Students, remember." Yao Qisheng bowed in response, and asked again, "Your Highness just said that you are going to call the students here, what is your order?"

"This is a big event, and there are not small risks." Zhu Linmi pointed to Nanjing City to the west of the big tent, and said solemnly, "Dorgon has sent Wu Sangui to lead the Guanning Army to the south, and dispatched a large number of warships to help. Everything There is only a thousand days to be a thief, but there is no thousand days to defend against a thief. In addition, our army is small, so it is difficult to guarantee that the bandits will not sneak into Nanjing for reinforcements.

"Therefore, the safest way is to take Nanjing City as soon as possible!

"However, Taizu built the city of Nanjing too strong. Yesterday I ordered Deng Shan to blow up the city with [-] catties of gunpowder, but only a small gap was left."

Yao Qisheng was also taken aback when he heard the words, "Seven hundred catties of gunpowder is not enough?!"

"Yes, the base of Nanjing City is built with thousands of catties of bluestone slabs, so it is impossible to bury the gunpowder directly under the city wall. Instead, the gunpowder is only placed on the side of the wall, and most of the explosive power is emitted outward."

Zhu Linmei looked at Yao Qisheng, "If you want to blow up the city of Nanjing now, you can't use ordinary gunpowder. I know a powerful explosive, but I don't know the specific process and configuration ratio. Therefore, you need to go through trial and error. Explore to find out the most powerful raw material ratio and manufacturing process.

"Once this kind of explosive is made, put it in the six or seven-foot-deep pit that has been blown out under the city of Nanjing, and it will definitely blow up the city wall in one fell swoop!"

Yao Qisheng swallowed the smear, and said to himself, darling, seven hundred catties of gunpowder can only scratch the itch of Nanjing City, but this thing called "dynamite" can blow up the city. This power is too scary.

However, this also aroused his curiosity, and it was his duty to contribute to the restoration of Yingtian Mansion.

In fact, he had other thoughts.According to the regulations of the Patent Department of the Ministry of Industry, if he can find out the production process of explosives, he can obtain a "process patent", which is an objective income.

Previously, the technology patent of vulcanized rubber was in the name of him, more than a dozen classmates and the co-registrant king. From now on, no matter who made the rubber, he would have to pay him a "patent fee" of two cents per hundred catties.

Two words doesn't sound like much, but this is just sitting at home and collecting money. When the rubber production increases in the future, the money will be incredible!
So he immediately cupped his hands and said: "Student, but according to His Highness's instructions, he will do his best!"

"Okay!" Zhu Linmi nodded in satisfaction, "You go and prepare the experimental equipment first. By the way, making nitrocellulose requires a lot of sulfuric acid, nitric acid and fine cotton, so you need to prepare more raw materials. In addition, making this thing is extremely dangerous. A place where there is little personal smoke.”

Nitrocellulose?Yao Qisheng memorized the name and said again, "Students, let's prepare."

Sulfuric acid and nitric acid had been successfully produced in the Fujing laboratory before. As a "high-achieving student" in chemistry, he knew the preparation process and raw materials well, and then he led a few classmates to turn around and leave the big tent.

Song Yingxing had just been listening by the side, and now he also interjected: "Your Highness, if the power of this 'nitrocellulose' is so amazing, can it be used on guns and cannons instead of ordinary gunpowder?"

Zhu Linmi shook her head, "The nitrocellulose is powerful, but it has a fatal shortcoming, that is, it is unstable, it will explode when it is hit with a little force, and it will spontaneously ignite if the temperature is higher.

"The reason why I asked Yao Qisheng and the others to make it near Nanjing is to make it ready for use nearby, so as to avoid accidents during long-distance transportation."

He asked Song Yingxing again: "Mr. Song, how are those warships being built now? The navy is already waiting to see through."

"Returning to Your Highness, Yongbeili and Nan'an have each launched a large ship three days ago." Song Yingxing said, "When the students took the boat to the north, the sails of the two boats had already been set up, and the artillery equipped with them had already been transported to the shore."

Zhu Linmei has learned about the sailboat construction process with the shipbuilder before. Generally speaking, hanging sails and installing artillery are the last steps. In addition, there are painting work such as decks and cabins.However, if you need it urgently, it’s okay not to paint it, but it will slightly reduce the life of the warship.

"So, these two boats will be able to go north in the near future?"

"As His Highness said."

"By the way, how big are the two boats?"

"Returning to Your Highness, one is a [-]-ton warship built by Yongbeili Shipyard, which is identical to the Navy Shaowu. The other is a [-]-ton warship built by Nan'an Shipyard, which is the same type as Fuzhou and Guangsignal."

To be honest, although there were two more main warships, Zhu Linmi was a little disappointed.He has been looking forward to the commissioning of the 800-ton Tier [-] battleship in Yongbeili, which is the trump card that can dominate the entire East Asia.

However, even if this giant ship has not been completed yet, just adding the two warships that will be listed soon, the Daming Navy already has two 320-ton Galen warships and four 300-ton Galen warships.In addition to the original eleven small Galen ships, if the tactics are appropriate, they should be able to deal with the more than [-] Qing army warships that are coming to Nanjing with certainty.

You know, "three hundred warships" sounds scary, but more than two hundred of them are small boats such as boats and sentry boats.According to the situation of Zheng Zhilong's fleet described by Zheng Chenggong, among the 30 warships, there are at most more than [-] large boats and boats with more than [-] tons.

(End of this chapter)