Three Kingdoms, at the beginning of the game, recognize the thief as the father, hit the spectacle,

"Hmm...Gunpowder...Charcoal...Sulphur...Nitre."

Subconsciously murmured, Zhang Yan was constantly thinking about what kind of topic would be the most suitable for Ma Jun's assessment.

And soon, an idea appeared in his mind.

"Nitre... saltpeter?"

As we all know, the early front-loading smoothbore guns used the instantaneous air pressure generated by the explosion of gunpowder to expel the iron-core shells from the barrel. The powerful kinetic energy will destroy the obstacles in front of you.

Like long-range projectile weapons such as bows and arrows, if you want to be effective for a long time, the artillery will also be limited by its own filling, that is, the number of shells and gunpowder equivalent to "arrow branches". It also became a large fire stick, unable to do anything.

Leaving aside the cannonball as an arrow, that thing is a solid iron ball, which is not only easy to produce, but also can be recycled after the war, which is not a big problem for Zhang Yan.What really limited him should be the production of things like black powder.

According to the memories of previous lives, the three active ingredients of black powder are purified saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal.Among these three ingredients, charcoal is very easy to obtain, and sulfur can also be purchased through mining sulfur ore, or even directly from merchants.

What really limited the production of gunpowder was the troublesome thing like saltpeter.

In China, there has always been an extreme shortage of saltpeter minerals. Whether it is potassium nitrate used to make gunpowder—that is, fire nitrate, or calcium nitrate used to make ice—that is, ice nitrate, the most important thing is The source of these products is all imported from the countries of the Western Regions located in the Turpan area in the future.

Regardless of the fact that people in the Ming Dynasty could use saltpeter to make ice and even use it as an air conditioner, but in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was really troublesome to make large-scale saltpeter.

Fortunately, in addition to natural minerals, there is another way to obtain saltpeter in batches, and this kind of raw material for obtaining saltpeter is not inexhaustible, but the acquisition channels can be said to be quite Stablize……

"Or, in the name of the assessment, let Ma Jun play with shit for a while..."

Secretly made a decision, Zhang Yan also didn't know how embarrassed or embarrassing Ma Jun would show when facing his own assessment content in the future.

But after all, the heaven will send a great responsibility to the people, and it is not so easy to take money from him without suffering.

According to Zhang Yan's plan, after he went to Lujiang, he would definitely promote the planting of soybeans and other beans on a large scale, and at the same time organize and recruit people to go south to reclaim wasteland.

Soybean can fix nitrogen well and fertilize the fields, and it is also the only food crop that Zhang Yan still has time to sow on a large scale at the end of June.

If you want beans to grow rapidly and vigorously, it is almost inevitable to add a large amount of phosphorus fertilizer and humus.

According to the principle of microbial action, rhizobia need to consume a lot of energy when they perform nitrogen fixation reaction from the air. Part of this energy is directly provided by plants to rhizobia through root hair symbiosis, and the other part needs a lot of consumption. humus in the soil.

Unlike some other food crops, soybeans are not characterized by high sugar content, but contain a large amount of protein in the seeds. The pods produced by each soybean plant consume a large amount of phosphorus minerals in the soil, which is also The reason why people need to add phosphorus fertilizer and organic fertilizer on the land where soybeans are planted.

It can be said that as long as one does not pay attention and blindly fixes nitrogen through bean plants, the soil will only become more and more poor, not more and more fertile.

The reason why in the previous life, the rotation of beans between two crops of grain can fertilize the soil is because most of the "crop corpses" such as straw are returned to the field by burning or burying, and at the same time farmers add some Phosphorus fertilizers such as bone meal can ensure the normal growth and development of crops.

In this world, or in the current period of time, the 24 solar terms song has only appeared not long ago, and the use of organic fertilizer by farmers is still at a very primitive stage.

Even many people among the common people are still raising their fields by means of fallow.

Under such circumstances, if "Batch Production and Use of Organic Phosphate Fertilizers" is used as an exam question, it may be a good choice for Zhang Yan.

As early as a few days ago, in order to be able to enrich the recipes of the people, and at the same time feed the most people with the least amount of food by rearranging the dietary structure, Zhang Yan can be said to have done a lot of homework and made a lot of efforts for this. A lot of preparation.

As far as this visit is concerned, in addition to some large livestock such as cattle and sheep, he brought a lot of seedlings as chickens and ducks as "protein manufacturing machines".

Chapter 5 How can I become rich and strong without copper smelting?

As we all know, the manure of chickens and ducks is rich in phosphorus. It is not only an excellent raw material for organic fertilizer production, but also can add a large amount of mineral phosphate to the soil. It can be said to be a hero among organic fertilizers.

This time, taking the opportunity of the assessment, Zhang Yan planned to ask Ma Jun to try to sort out and summarize a whole set of production and use plans for biological phosphate fertilizer.

On the one hand, if Ma Jun figured out this method, then Zhang Yan would be able to reclaim a large amount of wasteland in the south of the Lujiang River, and complete his own construction of "nationalized large-scale farms" and "nationalized pastures".

On the other hand, he can also let Ma Jun accumulate some experience in the production of nitrate through this process, so that when he goes to mass-produce nitrate for experimenting with gunpowder in the future, his work will naturally go smoothly.

The most important thing is that "the effect of fertilizers on the growth of crops" is a long-lasting and extremely classic quantitative control experiment, which can just evaluate whether Ma Jun has thoroughly developed the habit of setting up control experimental groups and recording experimental phenomena.

If there is no problem with Zhang Yan's plan, after arriving in Lujiang this time, he will ask Ma Jun to try to figure out a complete and reliable standardized method of phosphate fertilizer production and use in the name of assessment.

At the same time, he will also let the other party determine a reasonable operation process and standardize the production method, so that when Ma Jun does other things in the future, he still has enough workers under his hands to produce fertilizers, which is convenient for him to produce fertilizers in the south of the Lujiang River. , and even a large amount of land in southern Yangzhou was reclaimed.

After all, a person like Ma Jun can't deal with cows, horses, chickens, and ducks for the rest of his life, can he?

……

In addition to the above benefits, chickens and ducks are easy to raise and grow fast. While improving the food of soldiers and common people, they can also be used as a biological control method to prevent locust plagues, and even after death, they can be used for the production of down velvet. Raw materials vigorously develop Lujiang's handicraft industry, which can be said to be full of treasures.

This time, Zhang Yan had the intention to set up some "public"...or state-owned farms after going to Lujiang, and raise these seedlings in a standardized and centralized manner according to some techniques of later generations.

Of course, these have nothing to do with the production of artillery, so what restricts Zhang Yan's production and development of artillery now is not whether chickens and ducks have produced enough manure, but another very important raw material for making firearms besides gunpowder. It is copper.

There is no doubt that the Huaxia region is short of copper, lacking a large amount of copper, lacking high-quality copper, and even lacking concentrated open-pit copper mines that are easy to mine.

Regardless of history, Chinese people used bronze cast tripods as ritual vessels thousands of years ago, but that only shows that the development of Chinese civilization is advanced enough, and it does not mean that the copper mines in Huaxia are enough for Zhang Yan to squander .

Although Lujiang, or the later Anhui Province area, really has a few small copper mines, but due to the many uses of copper, the performance factors such as low melting point and high conductivity make pure copper, in addition to making money, There are also quite a few uses...

The local copper in Lujiang may not be enough.

……

"How heavy is a bronze cannon from the Ming Dynasty?"

"I remember that the minimum cost is a few hundred pounds, right? That's a few hundred kilograms. If it's all about melting copper coins, it's estimated to cost more than tens of thousands of dollars. If the early artillery doesn't want to explode, it probably needs to be bigger and heavier."

Zhang Yan was thinking silently, and before he knew it, more than an hour passed quickly like this.

After seeing the looming city wall and the crowd in the distance, Zhang Yan quickly withdrew his spirit and roughly finalized the matter in advance.

"We still have to work hard to smelt copper..."

"Wait for Ma Jun to finish the mass production of saltpeter and gunpowder first, and then use gunpowder to open mines, which can more or less satisfy some copper consumption."

"When you free your hands, you must encourage the people to smelt copper on a large scale, to centralize copper smelting, and to standardize copper smelting. This is the top priority for a rich country and a strong army."

After the distant city wall came into view, Zhang Yan did not continue to diverge his thoughts, but first set a general direction, planning to take one step at a time in the future, and make a decision on the specific details when he encounters them.

Afterwards, he waited until the carriage gradually approached the city wall, and he could even see the shadowy heads on the city wall, before gently shaking the other two people in the carriage awake.

First, he kicked Cai Ku who was facing him with his toes. After Cai Ku woke up, Zhang Yan moved his knee lightly. Soon, Qiao Ying, who had been sleeping a little before, writhed in his arms. eyes back.

"Yinger?"

"Ying'er, wake up, we're home."

Squeezing the other person's cheek, Zhang Yan never expected that time would pass so fast when he was in a daze. After a while, his carriage drove to the city of Wancheng, and the driver also cooperated and parked the vehicle on the side of the road. on a field.

Afterwards, Zhang Yancai put his new wife down, and at the same time set his sights on the gate of Wancheng not far away.

"Well……"

With a soft moan in a daze, after Qiaoying got down from Zhang Yan's arms, she didn't seem to be able to react for a while, seeing the behavior of the other party staring out the window obsessively, subconsciously felt a little dazed.

But it was very messy, so she jumped out of the carriage in a panic all over her body.

"We have arrived?"

……

"Well, here we are."

Getting out of the car with Qiao Ying behind, Zhang Yan's mood at this time is also very complicated.

At the very beginning, when he set off from Luoyang City, he could be said to be full of ambitions. He fantasized all day long that he would shine after he went to Lujiang and vigorously build the appearance of his county.

But it didn't take long, the exhaustion of the journey quickly wiped out Zhang Yan's will, and also changed the content of his daily fantasies from scolding Fang Qiu to when he can take a good bath and hug his wife comfortably Get some sleep.

And now, for some reason, Zhang Yan just looked at the not-too-tall city wall in the distance, feeling inexplicably hot in his heart.

After all, no matter how you say Zhang Yan is a man, he is still at the age when a man is most ambitious, facing a city or even a "province" that allows him to do what he wants, if he is not excited, he is impossible.

At least now standing near this nominally own city——Wancheng, Zhang Yan felt his heart beat a little faster, and at the same time subconsciously began to think wildly in his mind.

"More than half a year..."

"I've been thinking about this place since the day I arrived in Eastern Han Dynasty."

"Lujiang, Wancheng, I'm finally here."

Chapter 6 First Arrival in Wancheng

"Hey, which big shot's car is this...?"

……

Lujiang, June [-], afternoon.

A luxurious carriage pulled by four white horses was driving on the main road of Wancheng in Lujiang County, and the lightly raising hoofs of the horses would occasionally stir up light dust on the ground.

On both sides of the road, those who enjoyed the cool and rested as usual, or gathered people to chat with each other, watched the vehicle passing in front of them curiously, guessing that the person sitting in the carriage did not know. It was a big man who came from somewhere to visit Wancheng, and he actually came to Wancheng at this time when the wind was raging.

There is no doubt that the city is moving slowly.It was the carriage of Zhang Yan and his party.

The people along the road looked at the white horse in front of the carriage with some envy. In Lujiang, a standard province in the south of the Central Plains, it can be said that the horse itself is a relatively rare item. Generally, only those aristocratic families can be rich. It is used in captivity, and even some small local families still use ox carts as their own travel tools.

Such a tall and majestic horse with a body as white as snow is naturally not something these common people can easily see in ordinary times.

……

"Is it the carriage of the Qiao family in the city?"

An old man in a loose dress thought to himself, and then he took the initiative to overthrow his point of view.

"Probably not. Although the Qiao family also has white horses, they usually go out with a tall horse-drawn cart. They never like to be too ostentatious, let alone four horses side by side, occupying more than half of the entire road."

……

"Is that a dignitary from another place?"

A middle-aged beautiful woman secretly guessed that she seemed to be more knowledgeable than the previous old man, but obviously, after not finding any familiar marks on the carriage, the beautiful woman also looked away helplessly.

"I'm not sure, this carriage looks elegant and luxurious, and it doesn't look cheap at first glance, but the patterns on this carriage...I have never seen it before."

……

"As far as I can tell, this is probably the car of some marquis."

"The Book of Rites says that there are six horses for the son of heaven, four horses for princes, and two horses for scholar-bureaucrats. There are four white horses in this carriage. If you want me to see that the one in the carriage is clearly a famous prince."

A scholar who seemed to have read some books was bragging loudly to his friends beside him about his knowledge, as if in Wancheng at this moment, he was the one who replaced the prince in the carriage and appeared in the sight of everyone Shining Nova in .

"I just don't know whether this carriage is from the Marquis of Anfeng Kingdom to visit my relatives in Wancheng, or the Marquis of Juchao from the Marquis of Juchao Kingdom came to Wancheng to take a concubine."

……

"Your Nest Marquis..."