Great Song Pirate

Chapter 116 Trial Production of Gunpowder
Xu Yi had just finished working on the water cat, and the island became lively again. It turned out that Qian Laoben and the others also came back from Huangyu Island, and they also brought back a lot of goods, all of which they obtained near Huangyu Island during this period of time. Things, it seems that they are not idle, Dulong Island is lucky this year, making a fortune!

"Brother Qian, tell us about the situation in your place!" Jin Huo said while drinking from a wine bowl.

Qian Laoben put down his chopsticks and said with a proud face: "There is nothing going on at Huangyu Island. At this time, there are a few small groups of newcomers who have no rules. They come to our site to fight the autumn wind, and they are met by Brother Wang Feng and persuaded to surrender. No, I wiped them all out at once. Zhao Tieshan heard about our affairs and sent someone to Huangyu Island to deliver a post. He was afraid that after we cleaned up Pu Yinjian, they would take their idea and take the initiative to show favor to us and send us a gift. A few beauties came to visit the island. I sent them back and told them that as long as they don’t move our territory, we won’t make trouble for them. During these times, ships from the Liao Kingdom frequently come and go at sea, so let us occupy A lot of cheap, these Liao people have long lost their previous prestige, so when we saw our brothers robbing the ship, they were scared to death, obediently lowered the sails, and waited for our punishment. All the gains during this period have been sent back, and the Liao people have made a lot of carpets and felts, and they are probably worth a lot of money!"

Jin Laohu is very satisfied with Zhao Tieshan's reaction. He is not a very ambitious person, and he is very satisfied with the current situation. If Jiang Desheng hadn't bullied Laohuyu so badly at the beginning, he would not have touched Jiang Desheng. With the idea of ​​winning, he nodded to Qian Laoben and said, "Brother did a good job. When you go back after the Chinese New Year, send someone to tell Zhao Tieshan that as long as he doesn't mess with us, we won't bully Zhao Tieshan either. We will have a good time when you come back." Last year, I also left you two beauties, waiting for you, an old guy, to come back and enjoy them! Haha!"

Qian Laoben hurriedly thanked Jin Huhu, and there was a burst of laughter in the hall.

Xu Yi himself couldn't stay idle, and after waiting for the affairs on the island to finish, he immediately plunged into the fire yao workshop, and started busy trying to make his fire yao!

The people arranged here are all personally selected by him, Xue Tu and others. They are absolutely loyal to the island. He dare not be sloppy here. It is not allowed to enter the firework workshop without permission, and the people in the workshop are not allowed to tell anyone about the workshop, and all fireworks are strictly prohibited here, so this workshop has also become the most heavily guarded place on Dulong Island.

Although the production of gunpowder is not complicated, the specific formula is nothing more than 75 nitrate, 10 sulfur, and 15 carbon, but this is only a theoretical thing. In actual application, the formula is different according to different uses, but this ratio is A proportion that can exert the maximum power of gunpowder. If it is used as a propellant, the proportion of nitrate should be increased. He only knew it before, but he had never made this thing before. After all, he made gunpowder privately at that time. Yao is a crime. Now that I do it, I realize that it is easy to say, but it is not easy to do it in practice.

Xu Yi carefully recalled all the knowledge about making black fire medicine in his mind, and then carefully started to make it. He first asked people to grind saltpeter, sulfur, and refined carbon into powder, and then weighed it according to the proportion with a self-made balance. Heavy, mix these raw materials together, mix evenly with bamboo radishes, and the torch sample is considered to be preliminary. Xu Yi takes these sample torches out of the workshop, puts them on a flat wooden board to ignite, these black torches The yao burst into flames, a puff of black smoke came out, and a burnt mark was left on the clean wooden board.

Xu Yi shook his head greatly. Although this kind of gunpowder is already usable and much more powerful than the current Song Dynasty's gunpowder, Xu Yi is not satisfied with it, because he knows that when a good gunpowder burns, it will burn. , It should be white smoke, there should be no large amount of black smoke, and the burning speed of the torch must be fast, and no burning marks or residues can be left. It is said that after a good torch is lit on paper, the torch burns out , but the paper cannot be burned, so it is considered a good fire medicine, and his current fire medicine must not be able to reach this level, which makes him a modern person a little ashamed, the wisdom of the ancestors is really powerful, I really don't know how they can make such fine fire medicine!
Xu Yi has this kind of temper. If he doesn't do it, he doesn't do it. If he does it, he has to do it as well as possible. After carefully recalling the knowledge of making fire yao, he started to improve his own making method again.

After experimenting again and again, Xu Yi's trial production of torches gradually took shape, and the torches he produced became more and more sophisticated. Finally, after conducting experiments again, he finally decided to stabilize his method of making torches , The production of fire yao officially started.

So a group of people got busy in the workshop under Xu Yi's command, because Xu Yi told them that they would rely on this thing to sail across the sea in the future, so these people worked very hard, and Xu Yi selected again from these people. The most loyal and reliable person, this person is called Yang Laoxi, he is about 40 years old, he is the first one to go to sea with Jin Huo, and this person is loyal, he doesn't like drinking, and he is usually silent, Xu Yi has observed After spending a long time with him, seeing that he was not too young, he was not allowed to go to sea to work, and finally selected him, taught him the formula and production method of fire yao, and made him in charge of the fire yao workshop. All things, after all, he still has more things to do, and he can't stay here all the time to be responsible for the production of fire yao, so he has to find someone to take over his job.

Yang Laoxi was very grateful for Xu Yi's trust, and made a solemn oath that even if he died, he would never reveal this secret. Xu Yi was very relieved of him.

When Xu Yi designed this fire yao workshop, he had already considered the issue of confidentiality, so the initial processing of several raw materials was carried out separately, and Yang Laoxi only needed to do the ingredients alone, and he could To prevent others from knowing the ratio of the torches, when the ratio is completed, the torches will enter the next process and continue to be made until they are fully formed.

After the gunpowder is made, it cannot be simply put into jars for storage. Instead, it needs to go through a granulation process before it can be finally sealed. Because the proportion of raw materials in the gunpowder is different, it will inevitably vibrate during transportation and storage. The heavy nitrate will sink, and the light toner will float up, which will affect the future use, so it must be made into granules and then packaged, so as to avoid the above problems.

According to the ancient method, Xu Yi boiled the barley with clear water, then put the fire medicine on the bamboo radish, sprayed it with a sip of water, and then shook the bamboo radish, so that the fire medicine formed granules, and then dried the granules After drying and sieving, uniform granules are formed and finally packaged.

The gunpowder has been made, and the rest is the application. For the application of the gunpowder, Xu Yi has many ways in his mind. The first thing he thinks of is to build a few cannons, but when he thinks about making cannons The process is much more troublesome than the artillery, and it is impossible to complete the project on the island, regardless of manpower or material resources, so he put his idea on his ballista. Although the ballista is much behind the artillery, the ballista is still It has its own advantages. After the initial artillery appeared, it could only fire some solid projectiles. Explosive projectiles did not appear until the Ming Dynasty. It has also been lost. Until the late Qing Dynasty, all kinds of cannons used solid shells to attack the opponent. In fact, the kinetic energy imparted by the artillery to the projectile was used to kill the enemy, which limited the power of the artillery. At the same time, he wanted to It is impossible to manufacture body-barrel weapons such as cannons or muskets, and it is a product beyond the age. It is impossible to rely solely on Qin Huzi and his few blacksmiths on the island. This is an example of basic technology restricting advanced design capabilities, even if the engineers are more powerful , No matter how good the design is, if the manufacturer can't make it, everything is useless!So Xu Yi gave up this unrealistic idea.

But the ballista does not have this problem, its manufacturing is not a problem at all, the materials are simple, and its reliability and power have been proved by rich experience, although its range and muzzle velocity are not as powerful as artillery, but Because it can not only launch crossbow arrows, but also launch stone bullets. Since it can launch stone bullets, it can launch ignited bombs out, relying on the explosion of bombs to kill and injure the enemy. It is also the best that Xu Yi can create. Weapons, bombs can be made of iron or stone, Xu Yi temporarily chose stone as a test object, because it is simple!

As for other weapons, Xu Yi also thought of several feasible things, one is grenades, the other is rockets, and the other is zha powder kits for attacking fortifications, but things need to be done step by step, so he decided to start with explosive bombs .

Xu Yi recruited a few brothers who were stonemasons from the island, and asked them to use local materials to carve out a few round stone bullets from the island's granite, and then leave a small opening to dig out the middle of the stone bullets. Empty, it took two days. Xu Yi took advantage of these two days to trial-produce the fuse with gunpowder. He was going to try out this kind of explosive bomb. Next, he planned to trial-produce some waterproof fuses. This But it is a product beyond the times. With it, even if the explosive bomb falls into the water, there is no need to worry about the explosive being extinguished. The bomb can still explode when it falls into the water.

(End of this chapter)