I want to be a grandson

Chapter 332 Gunpowder (ask for subscription, ask for monthly pass)

Although he was exhausted all day yesterday, Zhu Yunxi did not relax, and he got up from the bed the next day, still alive and well.

After washing up and eating, he went to the household department under the protection of the guards of the Eastern Palace.

At the beginning of the new year, all kinds of work will be launched, so it will be relatively busy.

As soon as he sat down at the Ministry of Household Affairs, Qi Tai came to report that it was Qin Kui, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, who asked to see him.

"Qin Kui, Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry and Industry, pay my respects to Your Highness!"

Looking at the [-]-year-old minister of the Ministry of Industry in front of him, Zhu Yunxi sighed in his heart, it is not easy to be a courtier of Zhu Yuanzhang...

The ministers appointed by Zhu Yuanzhang are not too old, and it is not bad to say that they are young and vigorous.

In the three major cases of Hongwu that have already existed, civilian officials were targeted every time the knife was opened. Although some generals were also implicated, civilian officials are the main body after all.

Because only the young people were killed...

And now the group of people in the court are promoted very quickly!
Zhu Yunxie said politely: "Qin Shangshu, please get up, come, please Qin Butang to sit down and talk."

Qu Tao, who was guarding at the side, stretched out his hand and asked Qin Kui to sit down.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

Qin Kui is a native of Xuancheng, Anhui. He was a Jinshi in Hongwu for 18 years and once served in the Inspectorate.

Later, he was ordered to clean up the prisoners, and Zhu Yuanzhang praised him because of his lenient and severe punishment, so he was promoted to be the minister of the Ministry of Industry.

At that time, because there were so many things to do, and there was a lack of ministers in the Ministry of Industry, Qin Kui was in charge of all the things that were built.

In the 22nd year of Hongwu, he became the Shangshu of the Ministry of Industry, and was appointed as the Minister of the Ministry of War the next year, but he was soon changed to the Minister of the Ministry of Industry again.

Zhu Yunxi stretched out his hand to signal, Zhang Fu brought a cup of tea and put it on the coffee table next to Qin Kui, Qin Kui hurriedly said, "Thank you, Your Highness."

"Qin Shangshu is a very busy person. The Ministry of Industry has a lot of affairs, and every move is a big deal. Why do you have time to come to the Ministry of Households today?"

Qin Kui saluted, and said with a smile on his face: "His Highness, I received an order from His Highness, saying that from today on, all affairs of the Ministry of Industry will be decided by His Highness, so I came to report and burn incense in advance. .”

"Grandpa Huang asked me to act as an agent for the Ministry of Engineering?"

Zhu Yunxi was a little surprised. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang only said that he was in charge of the Military Weapons Bureau and didn't talk about the Ministry of Industry.

However, since Qin Kui said so, there must be no falsehood, so Zhu Yunxi had no choice but to respond:

"Qin Shangshu is too polite, then we will rely on Qin Shangshu a lot from now on."

Qin Kui is tall and tall, but his face is very thin, with sharp edges and corners, as if he had been chopped with an ax chisel or a knife.

The joints on the palms of both hands are wide and full of calluses, and they look like hard-working people!
Qin Kui asked, "I don't know how His Royal Highness will handle government affairs in the future? Will the government affairs of the Ministry of Industry be sent to the Ministry of Households or elsewhere?"

Zhu Yunxi glanced at him and understood what he meant.

To know whether to work in the Ministry of Households or the Ministry of Industry, the difference is very big!
The Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Industry are both the six ministries of the imperial court, and their status is equal. If the official documents of the Ministry of Industry are sent to the Ministry of Households for processing, then the Ministry of Industry will be placed under the Ministry of Households invisibly.

The people below will compete for taste!
If people feel dissatisfied, or feel underestimated, it is not conducive to winning people's hearts!

So Zhu Yunxi said: "Qin Shangshu, I don't know much about the Ministry of Industry, and I'm in a hurry for a while. I need to get acquainted first. You can leave me a public room in the Ministry of Industry."

"Yes! I obey!"

Qin Kui knew that he had been in the Ministry of Accounts these days, and he had also set up a special trade department, so it was obvious that he valued the Ministry of Accounts.

As long as His Highness is not so obvious, he will not have any opinions.

Zhu Yunxi asked: "Qin Shangshu, the Military Weapons Bureau is under the management of the Ministry of Industry, and will soon manufacture a large number of new firearms. I don't know how it will be produced."

Qin Kui replied: "Reporting to Your Highness, the Weapons Bureau was established in the third year of Hongwu, specializing in the production of weapons, especially firearms. Your Majesty asked the Military Weapons Bureau to make [-] copper blunderbusses every three years.
Three thousand guns in hand, nine thousand arrowheads, three thousand letter cannons, three thousand basswood horses, nine thousand sandalwood horses, and nine thousand sandalwood senders. "

Zhu Yunxi nodded, and said without knowing whether to say: "I have already told Grandpa Huang, and then in the military battle, any craftsman who is familiar with the production of fire,
All are dispatched to the Ordnance Bureau. You have to register and arrange a suitable shift so that they can participate as soon as possible. "

Qin Kui was taken aback for a moment, and called the craftsmen from the Military Bureau?
Then the Bureau of Military Weapons will definitely be improved to a higher level!
"My minister has handled this matter properly, please rest assured, Your Highness."

Zhu Yunxi thought of something, so he asked: "Qin Shangshu, when I was developing fire with several master craftsmen, they said that there was arsenic in the gunpowder, so I didn't let me touch it. I don't know how it was made?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, the formula for gunpowder is one catty of Glauber's salt, five taels of sulfur, four taels of charcoal, one tael of arsenic, three taels of cinnabar, and two taels of realgar. I also need to add two or three ounces of mercury and half a catty of pig iron sand."

"When making it, the sulfur is first ground into powder, then Glauber's salt is added, and then the fine powder of charcoal is added. These have to be dried and ground very finely."

The reason for adding arsenic, mercury, croton, cinnabar and other things, these things are inhaled by the enemy soldiers, or attached to the wound, it is difficult to treat, so as to increase the killing power. "

Zhu Yunxi nodded and said, "I think you can try the formula of one sulfur, two nitrates and three charcoals, and don't add anything else."

You must know that many people are familiar with this formula, and it has been mentioned many times in various books, so it is not a secret.

According to the records of "Fan Zi Ji Ran", it has been used in folk livelihood applications in China during the Spring and Autumn Period. -Fan Zi Jiran said "Saltpeter comes out of the Long Road". This is the first book we have seen that records the formula of gunpowder, and it was written in the eighth or ninth century.

It is said in the book that "burn it with sulfur, realgar and saltpeter, and honey", and the phenomenon of "flame rising, burning hands and burning the house" will occur.

The "secret" here should be the "honey" of honey.Honey can be turned into charcoal when heated.Sulfur, saltpeter mixed with charcoal, this is the recipe for gunpowder.

But Qin Kui frowned, thought for a while and said, "Your Highness, if it is such a formula, even if it is burned, it will only produce some sparks. Even if it is made of gunpowder, what is the use?"

Zhu Yunxi did not explain, but asked: "How much is the reserve of sulfur and thenardite?"

Qin Kui's face froze, and he said immediately, "Your Highness, the reserves of saltpeter and sulfur are [-] catties each..."

Zhu Yunxi asked puzzledly, "Dare to ask Qin Shangshu, why are there so few?!"

Qin Kui explained: "Your Highness, saltpeter still needs to be boiled after mining. The saltpeter consumed by a cannonball needs to be boiled for a long time, and the output is indeed very low."

"Besides, the imperial court has been using troops continuously over the years, and the thenardite produced is quickly consumed, so there is no surplus at all, so there are not many reserves."

What Qin Kui said was the truth, because boiling saltpeter is indeed a hard job.

The Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty specially set up a salt-boiling battalion, specializing in boiling and leaching nitrate.

However, it takes a long time to boil the Glauber's salt that is consumed by easy-to-fire shells, so there is a saying that "a thousand days of boiling salt is not worth a general's cannon".

But it's not really that exaggerated. It takes one person two or three years to boil a shell of thenardite, but it takes a long time.

"Sulfur is now mainly extracted from iron ore. Because the purity is not high, it needs to be refined repeatedly to remove impurities. In addition, the consumption is huge, so the reserve is not high... Your Highness please punish!"

There is another point that Qin Kui didn't say, that is, sulfur is very harmful to people during the production process. Generally, the government will let captives or serious criminals make and grind it.

In just a few days, people's eyes will be swollen and swollen, and the production time is too long, and there is even the possibility of blindness.

To make charcoal, it must be ground into a fine powder, and after careful grinding, it must pass through a fine mesh sieve to become an extremely fine powder before it can be used.

Therefore, the production of gunpowder was very difficult in that era of low productivity.

Therefore, Zhu Yunxi did not criticize too much, but ordered: "A large amount of gunpowder will be used in the future, and the Ministry of Industry must be prepared for this.

If there is not enough manpower, pull out the prisoners from the Criminal Department and all over the place. In short, make sure that there are things available. "

"Wei Chen understands, please rest assured, His Highness, you will not delay using it."

After seeing off Qin Kui, Zhu Yunxi ordered Zhang Fu to bring some gunpowder.

Then he came to the backyard of the household department, found a secluded yard with no one there, and started his experiment.

Zhang Fu put the sulfur, sulfur and charcoal on the stone table, and said worriedly: "Your Highness, do you want to make gunpowder?"

"You just watch from the sidelines, don't disturb, I will call you if something happens."

Zhu Yunxi unwrapped the three oil-paper bags, revealing three different colors.

Qu Tao looked at the raw materials, then at Zhu Yun, and summoned up his courage to say: "Your Highness, this gunpowder is extremely dangerous when it is prepared, and it will explode if you don't pay attention. Your Highness is a body of gold, so don't take any risks. "

Zhu Yunxi shook his head and said, "I'm just mixing them together. I don't put them in the cannon. At most, it's just a fire. It doesn't matter."

The explosion of gunpowder also needs to be in a confined space, otherwise only a little spark will come out.

Qu Tao still said: "If Your Highness insists on this, this subordinate is willing to do it for you! Please tell Your Highness how to make it."

Zhang Fu also said: "Yes, Your Highness, even if something happens, this subordinate's head is not enough to chop off. Please don't get involved, Your Highness, this subordinate is willing to help!"

Not to be outdone as he spoke, he rolled up his sleeves and started to work.

"Okay, then let you come!"

Since you don't have to do it yourself, why not do it?

Besides, if something happens, it will damage the majesty of the crown prince!

Furthermore, it is still in the experimental stage, even if it is not successful, it is still the responsibility of the "assistant"!

His Highness is always famous, but his subordinates are always blamed.

Otherwise what do you want to do?
(End of this chapter)