Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 88 Explosives
"Thank you, Master." Zhao Shuangxi hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed to Li Jing three times and said.

"Get up and work hard, as long as you produce less waste, you will be thanking me." Li Jing smiled.

"Yes, the villain understands." Zhao Shuangxi kowtowed again before standing up.

Li Jing turned to Shen Zheng and old man Chen and said, "Uncle Shen, Uncle, I have something to trouble you two."

"Nephew, please tell me." Shen Zheng and old man Chen said.

"Gather all the women at the bottom of the mountain, let them weigh the gunpowder, and then wrap it in paper. It will look like this when it's done." Li Jing leaned over and drew a cylindrical shape with his hands while talking.

Seeing that Shen Zheng and old man Chen didn't understand, Li Jing took the gun from Zhao Shuangxi's hand, pointed to the inner diameter of the barrel and said, "Make a paper tube according to the size inside, fill it with gunpowder, and put a bullet in one end, so that it takes only [-] minutes to use." You need to tear one side and put the paper tube together, so it will be faster to use."

With Li Jing's gesture, not only Shen Zheng and old man Chen understood, but also Chen Dahu, Liu Erleng and others understood.

Everyone praised in unison: "Gao Ming, in this way, it can save a lot of time for loading medicine."

"Hehe, that's what it means." Li Jing said with a smile: "We have a lot of women on the mountain, women are careful, and they are suitable for this job. As for the wages, you can decide for yourself, Uncle Shen."

Shen Zhengwen listened, smiled and said nothing, secretly said in his heart: "All the families living on the mountain are favored by Li Jing, and they all regard Li Jing as a benefactor. Even if they let them do nothing, they will be extremely happy. This job is simple."

Once the flintlock gun was successfully produced, craftsmen began to produce it on a large scale. With successful examples, the speed of production will naturally be much faster in the future.

Shen Zhengze found a few ingenious women from the mountain through his wife, and asked them to learn how to pack gunpowder in paper first, and then taught them to other women.

There is no technical content in this job, only the weighing is accurate and the packaging is firm.

Many of these women were men who worked as bandits on the mountain. Knowing that these things were made for their own men, they were naturally more cautious, for fear of making a mistake.

The production of the Suifa gun went smoothly, and Gao Qi's training of the bandits also achieved great results.

Seeing that others were getting more military pay, the bandits who had failed in the last competition rating all worked hard to train, hoping to win the next competition rating.

Ma Wu's side is also very smooth.

Under the silver bullet offensive, the capital has successfully met several important officials of the imperial court, and it can be regarded as a firm foothold in the capital.

In Shaanxi and Shanxi, several shops have also been set up successfully.

At the same time, Ma Wu kept Li Jing's teachings in mind, took in many old people and children who had no food and clothing, and sent them to the mountains in batches, and once even sent back dozens of young women.

Li Jing asked Shen Zheng's wife to properly arrange these women, and if they were suitable, he would propose marriage to those bandits who did not have families.As for the children, they will all be sent to the school in the Taoist temple, and let them learn to read and write with Shen Ying.

With the increase of foreign population, the population of Hongshanling began to expand.

However, during this period of time, a large number of simple houses have been built in the valley of Wanbai Mountain. At the same time, under the leadership of Old Man Chen, the wasteland in the middle of the valley has also been gradually opened up.

According to statistics, if all the land is opened up, more than [-] mu of land can be obtained.

And between Laohuling and Paomaling, a large area of ​​land has been developed. If new grains are planted, it will be no problem to feed thousands of people with these lands.

After Sun Meng returned to Lin County, he followed Li Jing's words, and quickly established a relationship with the commander and others, and sent some guns and gunpowder to the mountain from time to time, and once brought back two tiger squatting cannons.

Li Jing was overjoyed when he saw it, and immediately ordered the two cannons to be placed in a valley, and then found a few clever bandits to train them to use the cannons.

But in the process of using the artillery, Li Jing discovered a problem.

That is gunpowder, and the power of gunpowder at this time is really bad.

During this period, the gunpowder used was black powder, while later generations used yellow powder.Black powder is only used to make fireworks and firecrackers.

Of course, with the current level of guns, it is enough to shoot lead pellets with black powder. Although the shooting range is shorter, the effective distance is only [-] steps, but it is useless if it is farther away. Where is it, because the guns at this time did not have rifling.

But if it is used to launch shells, the power of black powder is obviously not enough.

There are two types of artillery shells used in the Ming Dynasty, one is solid shells and the other is flowering shells.

Solid bullet refers to the use of artillery to launch large lead or iron pellets. After landing, a large hole will be smashed, and it will roll forward for a certain distance with the momentum, and a groove will appear on this path.

Solid bullets are mainly used to attack city gates and walls.

Blooming bombs are a bit like cannonballs of later generations. After the cannonball hits the ground, it will explode and kill the enemy with the fragments of the cannonball. However, due to the gunpowder, the explosion range is too small, and its power is naturally far inferior.

Li Jing knew very well that the bullets and shells of later generations actually used two kinds of gunpowder.

One is ordinary gunpowder, which is used as propellant, and the other is explosive, which is contained in the warhead and explodes after being fired.

Li Jing knew that in order to increase the power of artillery, more advanced gunpowder must be used.

Li Jing couldn't be more difficult about how to kill him, but how to preserve it.

We must know that later generations have strict storage methods and strict storage locations when storing these dangerous goods.

The explosive that Li Jing wanted to make was gunpowder. This kind of explosive was extremely powerful. If an accident happened, the entire Hongshanling might be destroyed.Therefore, before buying, the preserved utensils must be prepared first, and then find a safe storage place.

The biggest reason why Li Jing decided to make nitrate gunpowder was that he could get the raw materials.

Saltpeter, sulfur, these things can be obtained through Sun Meng and others.

With these two things, nitric acid and sulfuric acid can be obtained to make nitric acid.

As for glycerin, it is much simpler. Animal fat is the material for making glycerin.

But this is just a bomb, one step away from safe explosives. The next step is to absorb it with sawdust, then add saltpeter and calcium carbonate, and mix well according to a certain ratio. Only then can it become a safe explosive.

Because the process of making this kind of explosives is very dangerous, so Li Jing can only do it himself, and others can only help at most.

Li Jing ordered people to collect all the saltpeter and sulfur on the mountain, and asked people to buy dozens of wine jars and some glass containers, and found an empty corner to start researching explosives.

A few days later, Li Jing made a cannonball with the newly developed explosive. With the fuze of the gunpowder ignited, the cannonball ejected, and then only heard a loud noise, and the target was razed to the ground. So far, Li Jing's new explosive development success.

But Li Jing immediately discovered another problem.

It is simple to put the explosives into the shells, and it is not difficult to send them out to detonate. You only need to add a fuse. However, since the gunpowder will leave a lot of residue when it burns, it is necessary to clean the barrel after each shot.

When every second counts in a war, where is the time to clean the barrel?

Li Jing told Zhao Shuangxi and others about this problem, and Zhao Shuangxi and others quickly came up with a solution.

In fact, this method was not thought up by Zhao Shuangxi.

In fact, the army of the Ming Dynasty also discovered this problem when using artillery, and thought of a solution. They added another layer of barrel inside the barrel, which is equivalent to having two layers of barrel for artillery.

When cleaning is required, take out the barrel inside and replace it with a new one.

After hearing Zhao Shuangxi's description, Li Jing was greatly impressed. It seems that the brains of the ancients were not in vain.

Li Jing even guessed that the shell casings of later generations were probably developed based on this.

Just when Li Jing, Zhao Shuangxi and others were intensively making suifa guns and producing explosives, Zhang Ao and Shen Liu'er came back.

Hearing that Zhang Ao was back, Li Jing was overjoyed, put down his work and ran back.

It was already the end of March at this time, the spring was warm and the flowers were blooming, and the wasteland from the Red Mountain Ridge had begun to be turned over.

If Zhang Ao and others don't come back, the farmers on the mountain will have to plant other crops.

The main crop in Henan is generally wheat, but the wasteland in Hongshanling is newly opened, and the wheat planting season has long been missed.

However, although wheat cannot be grown, other crops can still be grown.

If other crops were planted, once Zhang Ao came back with the seeds, it would be difficult to destroy the original crops.

Chinese people have always been timid, always cautious about new things, dare not believe easily, and only dare to try after seeing others succeed.

But Li Jing knew that there were severe droughts in the late Ming Dynasty for several years, otherwise the common people would not rebel.Although there is a river next to the wasteland, Li Jing will never and dare not take risks on the food issue.

It can be said that it is the right time for Zhang Ao to come back.

But Li Jing didn't see Zhang Ao on the mountain, and the reporter said that Zhang Ao and the others couldn't get up the mountain after driving more than 20 carts, and needed help to move things.

Hearing that Zhang Ao and the others drove back with more than 20 carts, Li Jing was taken aback. This place is thousands of miles away from the south, and they actually drove back with more than 20 carts?
Is this buying seeds, or buying grain?
Li Jing hurriedly called Shen Zheng, old man Chen and others down the mountain.

When Li Jing, Shen Zheng and others saw Zhang Ao's battle, they were a little dazed.

I saw that more than 20 carts were packed to the brim, and they were piled up like hills.

Is this battle too big?

Zhang Ao and Shen Liu'er brought more than 20 people with them when they left, but they didn't expect to drive a large cart each when they came back.

Seeing Li Jing leading people to welcome him, Zhang Ao hurriedly knelt down, and then said excitedly. "Master, I'm back, and I bought all the seeds."

"These are all seeds?" Li Jing asked, pointing to the cart.

Zhang Ao smiled and said, "Yes, these are all seeds."

"Does it take so many carts to bring the seeds back? Open it and let me see?" Li Jing questioned.

In fact, not only Li Jing was surprised, but even Shen Zheng and the others were also full of doubts, and they all came together at this time.

(End of this chapter)