Daqin Engineering Corps

"I want to get the technology of the Northland, so I will send you to the Northland to learn."

"If you succeed and bring the technology back, you and your family will be rewarded and freed from slavery forever, and I will treat you like Huns!"

"But if it fails, then your family members will be beheaded."

Then, these people were sent to the Central Plains.

In order to avoid being suspected, they even made a detour in the Central Plains and entered the Northland from another direction.

Because they are craftsmen themselves and have no problem with household registration, they are easily selected to work in various workshops.

This is actually one of the flaws in the development of industry in the Northland.

Because they have to work, there must be many people who know the secret.

The more people who know a secret, the less likely it is to keep it.

Among them, the most stringent control is actually the new iron smelting. This is because there are strict measures and no accidents... In fact, it is not the reason for the strict measures, but the production scale of new iron has not been expanded.

If it is expanded to a certain extent, it is almost impossible to keep it secret.

This is the case with gunpowder.

The Qin army needs a large number of "thunderbolt fireballs" in a short period of time, and it is inevitable to rapidly expand the production scale, so there is no possibility of keeping secrets.

Fortunately, Shen Bing was well prepared, and "Thunderbolt Fireball" still has a lot of room for improvement.

Chapter 366 Raw Materials

Shen Bing had already thought about the diffusion of technology.

From ancient times to the present, any mass-applied technology cannot be strictly kept secret, even modern high-tech is the same, and it will always be learned by others after a long time.

Of course, there are also countries that can never learn.

His ability to learn is not because he is not smart enough or has no conditions, but because of the general characteristics of the entire nation who are ambitious and ambitious:

They wanted to produce fifth-generation machines before they knew how to make rifles, and they were busy producing tanks and aircraft carriers before they understood basic industries.

The result is to buy advanced parts and technologies from other countries and put them together into one thing. After 30 years of hard work, it is found that it is already behind.

There is actually a rule in this thing, the more modern things are, the more they pay attention to the industrial foundation and technology accumulation.

Without an industrial foundation, when producing certain products, it will be found that the screws are substandard, and the power is not strong enough, so they can only be bought.

It is similar without technology accumulation. If you find that there will be no problems with that, you can only ask foreign experts for help.

As a result, no matter what is made, it is ridiculously expensive, and because the parts of various countries are integrated together, there are problems all over the body.

Having a strong industrial base and technical reserves are two different things. No matter what kind of thing, you can knock it down and you can copy it in a short time. It is cheap and easy to use, and it has more functions than the original product.

Shen Bing was enlightened when he invented things in this era.

That is to say, we can only prolong the time of technology diffusion as much as possible without stopping it.

What Shen Bing didn't expect was...

Originally, he thought that textile technology and the like should spread to the Central Plains faster.

The reason is very simple, the Central Plains is their own people, if anyone wants to come to the Northland to steal technology, he doesn't need to use his family as a hostage like the Xiongnu.

Even if the Qin people were caught as spies, they would not be punished... At this time, the Qin law did not have any "Anti-Unfair Competition Law" to protect commercial secrets.

On the other hand, these craftsmen working in the Northland are all free craftsmen. They can quit or leave the Northland at any time, and then they will bring their technology to the Central Plains and spread it.

This is not the case.

On the way to Mount Tai this time, Shen Bing found that there were many waterwheels, but most of them were still in the primitive stage of pounding rice.

There are almost no textile workshops, let alone gunpowder.

Shen Bing guessed that the weaving workshops may be due to the resistance of handicraftsmen: if large-scale weaving workshops appear, it means that all handicraftsmen who make a living by weaving will lose their jobs, so a process is required in the process.

Gunpowder is because there is no need for war in the Central Plains.

What is the development of gunpowder without the need for war?

Maybe it's made into firecrackers and exploded to make a symphony.

At the same time, Yingzheng did not want the production of gunpowder to spread among the people on a large scale.

Even if the people had metal and money, he was worried that they would rebel. If he wanted to gather all the metal and rich people in Xianyang, he would not allow the people to make gunpowder.

The Northland needs to make gunpowder because it is used for war against the Huns.

However, facing the Qin army equipped with "thunderbolt fireballs", the Xiongnu had the pressure of life and death, and they had an urgent motivation to steal lessons.

Then there is this weird scene:

The technology of the Northland spread not to the Central Plains but to the Xiongnu.

Shen Bing could only order Wang Benche to investigate the spies, especially the gunpowder workshop, and rush back with Fusu on the other hand...

Originally, Shen Bing planned to "attract investment" in various parts of the Central Plains.

After all, the Northland at this time needs a group of experienced businessmen who can take the lead.

Yun Tian needs to coordinate the overall situation in the Northland, and it is impossible to personally take the caravan to the Western Regions to do business.

But since time is so tight, let's talk about it, and it's not a big deal.

Because the businessman's sense of smell is always the most sensitive, one day the business in the Northland will make dozens of times the profit, Shen Bing believes that if he doesn't need to "attract investment", businessmen from all over the world will swarm into the Northland consciously.

He traveled day and night for more than ten days and rushed back to Jiuyuan.

As mentioned before, Nine Reasons is rich in minerals and located in the middle of the country. It is the center of military production in the Northland. Gunpowder and new iron workshops are concentrated here.

Wang Ben frowned and reported to Shen Bing:

"General, the method of making gunpowder may have been leaked and the Huns know about it."

"The Xiongnu's tricks are amazing, and several spies have escaped before we can investigate."

"And these spies have been working in the gunpowder workshop for some time."

Shen Bing nodded helplessly. He was most concerned about gunpowder.

Because the Xiongnu had no foundation for smelting iron, and they had no conditions for weaving... Especially for weaving, they had to learn how to grow ramie.

If the Huns learned how to grow things, could they still be called nomads?

Wouldn't it be tied to one place by the field?

And are light, heat, water, soil, and land suitable for planting?

But gunpowder is different. This thing can be directly used on the battlefield to increase combat effectiveness in series. The Huns have been trying to do this, and of course they will overcome difficulties to achieve it.

What Shen Bing didn't know was that Mao Dun was worrying about making gunpowder at this time.

He got the method and formula of gunpowder, yes, even the spies brought some raw materials to show in front of Mao Dun.

However, Mao Dun was dazzled by those raw materials.

What about saltpeter, sulfur, tung oil, dry lacquer, asaru...

Mao Dun has never even heard of these things, how would he know how to obtain them?

It’s not just that Maodun doesn’t know how to look at the entire Xiongnu. Few people understand it... Nomads don’t need to know the law of crop growth to make a living by grazing, and of course they don’t need to understand soil and minerals, let alone study climate and astronomy. In terms of knowledge and discovery, they are much less than farming peoples.

At this time, suddenly faced with these saltpeter and other things, in the eyes of Mao Dun, aren't these just dirt?

Saltpeter is white soil.

Sulfur is yellow soil.

Charcoal is black soil.

Can these soils be mixed together to make gunpowder?

Come dig some soil under my tent and try...

After explaining it for a long time, Modu realized that these "soils" are not simply a combination of colors, but need to be dug out by mining.

But where to find these mines in this endless grassland?

In fact, the Mongolian plateau is a place rich in mineral resources, and the proven reserves of many mines rank first in Asia.

But that was the situation when advanced prospecting equipment was available in modern times. At this time, the Xiongnu's understanding of the land under their feet was probably blank except that it would grow grass and trees to feed cattle and sheep.

Mouton said to himself:

"How should this be?"

"If you only know the method but don't have the raw materials, isn't it still subject to the Central Plains?"

After thinking about it, he gritted his teeth and ordered:

"First use cow wool fur in exchange for raw materials."

"If you order people to explore the mines, you can find as much as you can!"

Needless to say who is used for this prospecting, it is naturally the captured Qin people.

Even Mouton decided to send people to secretly go south into the Central Plains, and then spend a lot of money to invite mining craftsmen to go north to the grassland to prospect for ore.

Chapter 367 Mine

It is no problem for Maodun Shanyu to spend a lot of money to hire mining craftsmen from the Central Plains.

After all, the Great Wall between the Central Plains and the Xiongnu has not been connected at this time, and there is still a long gap... The Great Wall built by Meng Tian after recovering Hetao started from Lintao in Longxi in the west, and reached Liaodong in the east. The Great Wall is connected as a whole, with a total length of about [-] miles.

It is impossible to seal the border without the Great Wall for more than three thousand miles, and there are not so many troops to seal it.

So the Huns could easily send people south to find miners.

On the miners side, it is a matter of giving more money and less money.

Mao Dun also heard some Qin laws from the slaves, and knew that the Qin State had a continuous sitting system, so he was more inclined to find craftsmen who were alone and had no family.

This is not to say that Bodhisattva Maodun worried that the craftsmen's families would be imprisoned after they fled to the Huns.

But Modu knows that only this kind of craftsman is easier to persuade and can stay in the Huns for a long time with peace of mind.

It is easier to persuade because there is no family member who is sitting together, so there is no concern.

The reason why he can stay in the Xiongnu with peace of mind for a long time is because there is no one to rely on and nothing to miss in the Central Plains. Mao Dun Shanyu can even arrange a family for him to help him start a family...

At the same time, there were not a few such helpless craftsmen in the war-torn era of the Qin Dynasty, so Maodun could easily find a few.

The problem is that prospecting on the grasslands is not easy.

As I said before, prospecting in ancient times was usually to explore natural mines in places with mountains. The grassland is flat, and you have to dig three feet to explore mines. This is almost an impossible task.

After much deliberation, Maodun could only take the risk of letting him go to Yinshan and Yangshan to prospect for ore.

At this time, the Hetao area recovered by Shen Bing was in the south of Yinshan Mountain and Yangshan Mountain, and the Huns were in the north of Yinshan Mountain and Yangshan Mountain.

As a result, Mao Dun really found saltpeter and sulfur... The Yinshan Mountains and the Yangshan Mountains are each about 2000 miles long, with an average altitude of [-] meters and rich mineral resources.

It is not surprising to find saltpeter and sulfur in such a long range of mountains and mountains.

This made Mao Dun overjoyed, and immediately organized slave mining, and asked Qin craftsmen to build gunpowder workshops according to the formula.

However, happiness is happiness. After returning to the tent, Mao Dun sighed and was still restless.

Zuo Xian Wang Ji Porridge couldn't help but wonder:

"Chan Yu, we have obtained the formula for gunpowder."

"Now that we have found the mine needed for gunpowder, we will be able to make 'Sky Thunder' right away. What are you not satisfied with?"

Mao Dun Shanyu shook his head and said:

"Do you know why the Qin army didn't cross the wolf's mouth and go north to attack us?"

(Note: Langkou refers to the gap between Yinshan Mountain and Yangshan Mountain. Because it resembles the upper and lower jaws of a wolf, the gap in the middle is called Langkou by the Huns)

Ji Porridge replied without thinking:

"Because the wolf's mouth is dangerous, the Qin army cannot pass through!"