scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 90
Maybe Lu Fatty is born with a busy life. In Qujing, he organized people to open up wasteland and spring plowing, and fought with Li Suzu for power and profit. When he came to Kunming, Lu Fatty was still as busy as ever.On the morning of the second day after returning to Kunming, Fatty Lu first went to Kunming City to attend Lin Tianqing's ceremony of accepting the seal, and then thanked Lin Tianqing for his kind invitation to the banquet. He didn't even bother to take a sip of water, and immediately rushed back to Wuhua Mountain , and dragged Wu Yingqi who was taking a nap in the study with her beautiful concubine in her arms, out of the bed.

"Yifeng, why are you looking for me in such a hurry?" Seeing that Fatty Lu has won him a lot of glory in the past six months, Wu Yingqi, who was bleary-eyed and pulled out of the bed, didn't get angry. He just rubbed his eyes and said, "If It's about your marriage, then you go to Yang Shanzi, I remember the father told him to arrange it."

"Second prince, if you arrange such a trivial matter for your marriage, will I come to trouble you?" Fatty Lu smiled wryly, and asked again: "Second prince, I dare to ask, do you prepare the gunpowder used by the army of the palace yourself or ask the merchants?" buy?"

"Both of them." Wu Yingqi yawned and said, "You can buy it yourself or buy it from a merchant, but you have to buy more yourself. Why do you ask this?"

"Second Prince, let me ask you again, we Pingxi Palace prepares the gunpowder ourselves, where does the soil salt come from?" Fatty Lu asked: "Is it mined locally in Yunnan? Or bought from a merchant?"

"Are you stupid? South acid and north alkali, nitrate soil from Yunnan?" Wu Yingqi said angrily: "Even if there is some nitrate soil in the deep mountains and old forests, you have to dig mountains and drill holes to mine it. Who would go to such great effort? ?”—By the way, there are actually nitrate mines in Yunnan, but the technology of this era cannot be exploited in large quantities.

"So, all the soil salt in Yunnan is purchased from the north." Fatty Lu continued to ask: "Is the price expensive?"

"Why not expensive?" Wu Yingqi became angrier the more he heard it, "One tael of soil nitrate is one tael of silver, and it is more expensive to ship it from the north. Our Pingxi Palace spends 30 million taels of silver every year to buy soil nitrate! You What exactly do you want to do? I have nothing else to do, I have to go back to take a nap!"

"Second prince, if you skip this afternoon nap, you can save two or three million taels of silver every year, are you happy?" Fatty Lu asked mysteriously.

"What do you mean?" Wu Yingqi finally became interested.

"It's like this." Fatty Lu said mysteriously: "During my humble mission to Guangdong, I saw that merchants and soldiers in foreign domains in the West liked to use firearms, and the gunpowder cost a lot, so I tried to find out the source of their gunpowder. The Western army has a very magical method that can produce soil salt, regardless of season and region, as long as there are people with livestock, they can produce a large amount of soil salt, and the quality is better than that of our Qing Dynasty. I feel that this The method may be applicable to the second prince, so I spent a lot of effort studying the Western books bought from them, found out this Western method of making nitrate, and prepared to dedicate it to the second prince."

"What else?" Wu Yingqi's eyes lit up, and he asked nervously, "Really or not? Are you bragging?"

"Second prince, don't worry, I have already tried my humble job, and I will definitely be able to make soil salt." Fatty Lu pulled out a few pages from his sleeve, held them in front of Wu Yingqi with both hands, and said with a flattering face: "The methods of making soil salt in the West are all complete." Write it on it, please take a look at it, the second prince, although the raw materials are a bit stinky, they are everywhere in Yunnan and Guizhou, as long as we use this method to make soil nitrate, our Pingxi Palace will no longer have to worry about the lack of gunpowder, and buy soil nitrate for use every year I can save all the 10 taels of silver..."

Before Fatty Lu finished speaking, Wu Yingqi snatched those pages, and what was written on them was actually the method of making nitrate from the toilet soil that Fatty Lu taught Chen Jinnan at the beginning, using the toilet soil rich in calcium nitrate Its characteristics are that calcium nitrate is dissolved in water, then plant ash rich in potassium carbonate is added, heated to make water nitrate, and then boiled into soil nitrate.The only difference is that Fatty Lu has added a method to further purify soil nitrate into high-purity potassium nitrate in these pages. Fatty Lu is not partial to the old traitor Wu, the key is that the Taiwanese army controlled by Zheng Jing and the Japanese There are too many contacts, Fatty Lu doesn't want to spread this method to the Japanese pirates.

"Is it really useful?" Wu Yingqi was both delighted and amazed, "Doesn't it mean that a lot of nitrate can be boiled out in my small yard?"

"It's absolutely true." Fatty Lu patted his chest and said: "The humble officer has already tested it with his own hands. If the second prince wants to see it with his own eyes, he can immediately find a few gunpowder craftsmen in the army. The humble officer will teach them this method and let them Act according to the law, and then at night at most, the first batch of good soil nitrate will be produced."

"What else do you want to teach?" Wu Yingqi yelled extremely heartlessly: "I'll send someone to prepare tools and materials right away, and I'll find a few craftsmen to help you. I will give you a lot of rewards for the best soil nitrate."

"It's over, that ghost girl Wanyan will never allow me to sleep in her bed again tonight." Fatty Lu groaned in his heart, but he couldn't help Fatty Lu to refuse when he was under the eaves, so Fatty Lu had no choice but to remind: "That's good." Well, but Second Prince, don't blame the humble job for being wordy, the craftsmen you transfer must be reliable, otherwise, if this method spreads, it will be a big problem."

"Of course." Wu Yingqi snorted and said, "If such a good idea is passed on for nothing, won't our Pingxi Palace suffer a lot?"

So, under Wu Yingqi's personal command and arrangement, soon, the Pingxi Palace began to fly away, and the servants of the Pingxi Palace took hoes, dustpans and willow baskets, and got into the toilet and stables cursing. Excavated and scraped the old toilet soil, put them in baskets and moved them to the open area on the west side of Pingxi Palace for accumulation, making most of the Pingxi Palace full of stench and scolding, but Wu Yingqi hid in the incense room to avoid the smell It's a shame, but poor Fatty Lu still has to be on the scene, directing the poorer servants to select the toilet soil, which caused countless eyes and curses.

Of course, this kind of movement alarmed Wu Sangui, and when he asked the guards that Wu Yingqi and Fatty Lu were responsible, Wu Sangui immediately became furious and called Wu Yingqi and Fatty Lu to scold them.And when he heard that this was for the production of soil nitrate, Wu Sangui, who had always been troubled by the scarcity of gunpowder production in Yunnan, was overjoyed at first, and then scolded Fatty Lu and Wu Yingqi, "You two idiots, it's not good to do this kind of thing. Will you go to the barracks? Why do you want to experiment in the palace? Now it’s all right, I can’t even eat dinner tonight!”

Both Fatty Lu and Wu Yingqi were speechless, and only then did they realize that the Pingxi Palace is really not a good place to conduct gunpowder experiments.Fortunately, Wu Sangui is obviously more concerned about whether this method can produce more unearthed nitrate, and said: "Forget it, anyway, the whole palace has been ruined by you two idiots, so you can continue to do it today. When it comes out, come and report it, and I want to see it with my own eyes. Also, only this time, next time I mess around in the palace like this, I'll get out and live!"

After collecting enough toilet soil and stable soil, he found a large amount of cotton stalks and buckwheat stalks with the highest potassium content and burned them to ashes. Fatty Lu held his nose and instructed the craftsmen to mix these things in a ratio of eight to one, submerge them in water and heat them again. , Stir for fifteen minutes, stop heating, let it sit for clarification, then filter out the nitric water and discard the slag, then heat and stir the nitric water, boil it into water nitric acid and filter it again, heat it again to evaporate the water, and take the thickest brine to cool , The crystallization was analyzed, and potassium nitrate, the most important raw material for making gunpowder, rolled out.

When the first batch of about twenty catties of soil was nitrated, the old traitor Wu Sangui really came to visit, holding his nose. Along with him were Liu Xuanchu, Wang Shirong, Fang Guangchen and Hu Guozhu, the four brains of the Pingxi Palace, financial expert Liu Yi, Wu Sangui's son-in-law Xia Guoxiang, other generals Ma Bao, Gao Dejie and Wu Guogui—these people were also smoked here.And when Fatty Lu sprinkled a handful of potassium nitrate powder on the burning charcoal, a large group of bright sparks burst out immediately on the charcoal, showing the excellent combustion-supporting properties of high-purity potassium nitrate. Wu Sangui, Hu Guozhu, Ma Bao, etc. The previous anger of the person is immediately swept away.

"Good stuff!" Liu Yi was the first to exclaim, "The soil nitrate we bought from the north at a big price has not yet caught up with this kind of soil nitrate. It is conceivable that if we use this kind of soil The gunpowder is mixed with the nitrate, and the quality of the gunpowder must be better than before! If this method can produce a large amount of nitrate, then we can save all the 25 taels of silver we plan to use to buy nitrate this year!"

"Lord Liu, this method can definitely produce a large amount of soil salt." Fatty Lu covered his nose and said with a sad face: "I heard from Western businessmen that in England thousands of miles away, the 10,000+ troops all use firearms. The gunpowder used for utensils is also made in this way. In order to ensure the source of gunpowder, the king of England specially appointed a toilet official who is responsible for collecting toilet soil and stable soil to make soil salt. Spread the soil."

After all, Fatty Lu added: "The population of the English country is actually about the same as that of Yunnan and Guizhou combined, so the officials think that as long as the prince follows the example of the Western prince and appoints a toilet officer, he will collect it in various big cities in Yunnan. Toilet soil, the soil nitrate produced is enough for our Pingxi Palace. If we can collect the toilet soil from Yunnan and Guizhou, then even if we arm all the troops of our Pingxi Palace with gunpowder, there will be more than enough gunpowder.”

"My lord, this is a good idea." Gao Dejie said excitedly: "With such a cheap source of gunpowder, the saved money can be used to manufacture countless firearms, and the number of our firearms soldiers can be increased several times."

Wu Sangui covered his nose and mouth while listening, and nodded desperately, but refused to open his mouth to speak—this area is really stinky.On the other hand, Liu Xuanchu, Wang Shirong, Hu Guozhu and others didn't think it smelled bad, and they couldn't wait to snatch the white potassium nitrate produced first to fight for it, and even threw it into the fire for experimentation.At the end, Hu Guozhu said again: "Father-in-law, this method is good, but in this way, it is impossible for our big move not to be noticed by the court. If the news leaks and the court finds out, it will be a big trouble."

"Master Hu, I have already figured out a solution." Fatty Lu covered his nose with one hand, pointed to the dregs in the distance with the other and said, "My lord, Mr. Hu, please read, I read Western books and said that these After toilet soil and horse stable soil are used to make soil nitrate, the remaining waste residue can be used as fertilizer to make the land more fertile and grow more food. The prince can use this as an excuse to make this fertilizer for military use, or Selling it to the common people will not only quietly create soil nitrate, which will not arouse the suspicion of the court, but also increase the grain production in Yunnan and Guizhou, killing two birds with one stone."

"Good idea." Liu Yi, who is good at financial management, was the first to agree, and echoed: "My lord, use the leftover slag as fertilizer for the people, and we can save a lot of labor costs. In addition, we can also Build more toilets in Yunnan and Guizhou for the common people, which is convenient for the common people, and can also be justifiably collected soil nitrate. Ha, Mr. Lu, I didn’t expect you to be so proficient in Western culture. This time, you have set up a geist for us in Yunnan and Guizhou It worked."

"Go back, let's talk about it when we go back." Wu Sangui finally spoke, and said with a mournful face: "Go back first, wait until you take a shower and change your clothes. Also, send someone to remove all these things quickly, or I won't be able to eat tomorrow went!"

After leaving the aftermath work to the servants, a large group of sperm flies from the Pingxi Palace hurriedly left the scene, went back to their rooms to take a bath and change clothes, smoked incense for a while, and then rushed to Yin'an Hall to meet Wu Sangui, After Mr. Wu took a bath and changed his clothes, he felt much refreshed.As soon as we met, Wu Sangui pointed to Fatty Lu and said, "Yifeng, I don't see that you are so proficient in Western knowledge, and you are willing to put in such a lot of hard work to study it. Don’t worry about the lack of gunpowder anymore.—Of course, the smell is really too smelly.”

"Hahahahaha..." Everyone roared with laughter.Fatty Lu also smirked, and said with a little embarrassment: "My lord, I'm really sorry. I didn't expect it to be so stinky before I was humbled. Maybe it's because I prepared too many materials."

"Forget it, forget it, let's forget about the past." Wu Sangui waved his hand and said loudly: "No matter what you say, you have made great contributions to this king, and this king will reward you heavily! Well, you are not acting for this king. Did you save 10,000+ taels of silver, this king will reward you with a tattoo of ten thousand taels of silver, in recognition of your loyalty to this king!"

"It would be great if I could be rewarded by Wu Xiaotu." Fatty Lu muttered in his heart, saluted and said, "Thank you, my lord, for rewarding me, but I am so humble that I don't want this reward."

"What? You think it's too little?" Wu Sangui was taken aback.Over there, Wu Yingqi hurried over and kicked Fatty Lu on the heel, and said in a low voice, "Don't be stupid, what my father said has never been taken back."

"Second prince, my lord, you all misunderstood." Fatty Lu explained: "I don't want this reward because of my humble position, I want to ask my lord to give me another favor."

"Oh, then what grace do you want?" Wu Sangui asked.

"Going back to my lord, there is a mountain called Nule Peak fifty miles west of Qujing." Fatty Lu said, "I heard that the area with a radius of tens of miles was all the vassal land that your lord encircled back then, but the place is remote. , The land is barren and has not been reclaimed and planted, and I want to ask the prince to lend that piece of land to me for a period of time, it doesn't take long, three to five years will do."

"Does my king still have a piece of feudal land there?" Wu Sangui was a little surprised, and said: "If there is, let alone lent you for a few years, this king can reward you with that mountain and that piece of land, but if you want What are you doing?"

"My lord must have heard about it. I am very interested in Western knowledge." Fatty Lu said in a deep voice: "I study Western culture and am fascinated by their screw machines. I want to try and imitate them but I can't find a place. Therefore, I am bold and want to ask the prince to lend this place to him, and then lend him some craftsmen and an army of hundreds of people, and set up a small military camp there, so that he can build some for the prince without being disturbed. Western Machinery."

"What Western machinery? It's so troublesome?" Wu Sangui didn't wake up for a while, and asked a little confused.

"It's very common Western machinery, and there are some ingenious skills." Fatty Lu replied respectfully: "For example, more transparent and beautiful Western glass, more powerful gunpowder, lighter and thinner but tougher swords, and more powerful weapons than bird guns." Western firecrackers that can shoot farther and more accurately, and new Western salutes that are lighter and more flexible than Hongyi cannons, but can shoot farther and more accurately than Hongyi cannons. With these things, the prince wants to go up the mountain to shoot only Bird, it’s more convenient and more dignified than before to greet that distinguished guest with a salute.”

There was no sound in Yin'an Hall, and Wu Sangui's confidantes present all looked at each other, but they didn't speak. Although Wu Sangui was very moved, he also saw Lu Fatty's attainments in Western culture, and knew that Lu Fatty would never dare to use himself against him. I believe bragging is a joke, but making these things is definitely not a joke. No matter how high and powerful Wu Sangui is, he dare not make up his mind casually.

After a long time, Liu Xuanchu suddenly scolded: "Bold boy, what nonsense are you talking about? Privately forging firearms is not allowed in this dynasty. Do you want to have your family ransacked?"

"My lord, this old man is incapable of teaching, and the students I teach are talking nonsense, which offends my lord, please forgive my sin." Liu Xuanchu turned to Wu Sangui and cupped his hands, and said, "However, this student likes to delve into Western knowledge, which is a good thing. Old man I think that the prince can borrow some of his manpower to set up some western glass workshops in the area of ​​Nule Peak, as well as a firecracker and firecracker workshop and several blacksmith workshops, so as to make some firecrackers for the people of Yunnan and Guizhou for Chinese New Year and plowing. The farm tools are still completely feasible.”

"Master Lu, can the Western salute you mentioned really be made?" Gao Dejie asked Fatty Lu calmly.

"I'm [-]% to [-]% sure." Fatty Lu replied seriously.

"Then it's okay to build one or two doors." Gao Dejie smiled, then turned to Wu Sangui and said, "My lord, since Master Lu likes to study Western knowledge so much, let him try it. The general will listen to General Wu Guogui." He said that Master Lu’s glazed workshop in Qujing has already produced some high-quality glazed glazes. Such good things cannot be stolen by outsiders, which will cut off the wealth of our Yunnan, Guizhou, army and civilians. Therefore, the last general suggested The lord can send three to five hundred troops to build a small barracks near Nule Peak, and set aside a special area for Master Lu to make colored glaze, so as to prevent others from stealing our Yunnan-Guizhou technology."

"Also, Mr. Liu." Hu Guozhu also turned to Liu Yi and asked, "I heard from you last time that there seems to be some mine in the Nule Peak area. Why don't we send someone to look for it?"

"That's right, I heard that there seems to be coal mines in that area." Liu Yi understood, cupped his hands to Wu Sangui and said, "My lord, it's time to explore the minerals in the Nule Peak area carefully. Since Lord Lu likes to study Western culture so much, How about sending him to investigate?"

"Yes, yes, yes." Ma Bao was not stupid, turned to Fatty Lu and said, "Yifeng, if you can find high-quality refined iron in the area around Nule Peak, why don't you give me a good saber? Can you give me the bird gun you mentioned just now?"

"General Ma, don't worry, as long as you give me time, manpower and space, I will never let you down." Fatty Lu replied respectfully.

"That's good." Ma Bao nodded in satisfaction, turned to Wu Sangui and said, "My lord, why not just lend Nule Peak to Master Lu, since it's empty anyway."

"That's right, my lord, just lend Nule Peak to Master Lu." Fang Guangchen, Wu Guogui and the others agreed one after another, "It's also a good thing to make some glazed agricultural tools."

"I object." The only one who objected was Wang Shirong, but Wang Shirong did not object to Fatty Lu's making farm tools and finding coal mines. He said: "Qujing is always a little far away from Kunming. Once he knows how to make new agricultural tools and colored glaze, it will be a big trouble. According to the students, these workshops can be moved to the edge of Dianchi Lake, and Mr. Lu will go back and forth a few more times, so that nothing will go wrong. "

"Mr. Wang, it's not that I'm afraid of running around." Fatty Lu said in a deep voice, "It's just that casting new agricultural tools is no more than studying how to make soil nitrate. It takes countless time and countless experiments, not the few times of running back and forth. It can be done. Moreover, the area around Dianchi Lake has a large population, which is far less safe than Nule Peak, which is vast and sparsely populated."

"But where is Li Suzu?" Wang Shirong asked worriedly.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wang, and please don't worry, my lord." Fatty Lu said in a deep voice, "That's what I think. When I first imitate the Western glazed mirror and sell it for a big price, then you can justify this, my lord. After receiving this technology, they used the excuse of keeping the technology secret and set up a military camp in the vicinity of Nule Peak to make glazed mirrors. The humble job then slowly led the craftsmen of the Pingxi Palace to produce colored glazes in exchange for capital, while making new farm tools and new tools for the prince. Firecrackers. And by then, Beizhi and Lin Tianqing should be able to work together to drive Li Suzu out of Qujing."

"That's how it is." Wu Sangui finally nodded, and said: "When you successfully make the western glazed mirror and Li Suzu gets out of Qujing, this king will lend you Nule Peak and provide you with it. Enough troops and manpower, let you make colored glaze and other things there. ——Of course, only new farm tools, Western bird guns and Western salutes are allowed. Absolutely not!"

(End of this chapter)