Tibet

Chapter 870 A small test of one’s skills

The next morning, Helong Water Supervisor Liu Xingyuan hurried to the main tent, bowed and saluted, "See you, Your Highness!"

Liu Xingyuan was originally a ninth-grade chief clerk of the Imperial Capital Water Supervisor, and later served as the Sanmenxia Water Supervisor for a long time. Last year, more than 600 vehicles and ships passed through Sanmenxia, ​​and it was he and two veteran boatmen who led the way and safely sailed through Sanmenxia.

This time, Li Ye brought him with him on his Eastern Expedition. Of course, he hoped to improve the Sanmenxia waterway so that the fleet could transport grain directly through Sanmenxia.

"Liu Shijun is here at the right time. I want to ask you something about Sanmenxia."

"I don't dare to take it seriously. Please tell me, Your Highness!"

Li Ye came to the sand table, pointed at Sanmen Gorge and said: "I see there are four stone islands in the river, forming three waterways, called the Human Gate, the Divine Gate, and the Ghost Gate. As the name suggests, it means life at the Human Gate, danger at the Divine Gate, and death at the Ghost Gate. That's what it means. Bar!"

Liu Xingyuan nodded, "The water gate is the widest and the water flow is the gentlest. Generally, it is safer to go through the main gate."

"When I was young, I had a friend. His father sailed back and forth between Chang'an and Luoyang for many years, but he crashed into a mountain in Sanmenxia and died. They took the other way, but I don't know why I lost control?"

Liu Xingyuan thought for a moment and asked, "How big is the ship?"

Li Ye thought for a while, "The ship is not big, about three hundred or five hundred stones!"

Liu Xingyuan said slowly: "They should have a problem crossing the gorge with an empty boat. The Yellow River water will become particularly turbulent about half a mile away from Sanmen Gorge. One of the powerful currents is directed towards the Ghost Gate. Once the weight of the boat exceeds If they are light and unfamiliar with the current, they will be controlled by this current and it will be difficult to get rid of it. The ship will eventually hit the mountain. However, if they are returning with cargo and the ship is heavier, they will follow the flow of the water in advance. It will be easily carried away by the currents of the ghost gate."

"According to your theory, the bigger and heavier the ship, the more stable it will be, and the easier it will be to cross Sanmenxia, ​​right?"

"The truth is like this, but it still can't exceed three thousand stone. A three thousand stone ship is too wide and can easily hit the mountain. More importantly, there are sharp rocks underwater. If the ship is too heavy, it will hit the underwater sharp rocks, which will also destroy people. Death."

"Can I get across with a large raft?"

Liu Xingyuan shook his head, "Your Highness, the main thing is the weight. If the raft is too heavy, it will actually be more dangerous and more likely to be scratched by sharp rocks."

"How many sharp rocks are there under the water?" Li Ye asked again.

"There are many, but the ones that affect navigation the most are two sharp stones, one on the left and one on the right. We call them left and right door gods. Since the Han Dynasty, the management of Sanmenxia has tried to cut off these two sharp stone pillars and used various methods. , boats pulled, people pulled, and water ghosts dug into the water, but unfortunately they never succeeded!"

Li Ye nodded, "Maybe I have a way, let me give it a try!"

Li Ye had long considered using gunpowder to blow up Sanmenxia and using giant gunpowder bombs to blow off the pillars. Historically, Sanmenxia had troubled the Central Plains Dynasty for thousands of years. It was finally blown up during the construction of the Sanmenxia Dam, leaving only a pillar stone. As a souvenir, in front of explosives, a few boulders in Sanmenxia are just a few pieces of tofu.

Although Li Ye did not have explosives, his goal was not to blow up four boulders, but to blow up an underwater reef. Black gunpowder should be able to do that.

The reason why Li Ye decided to govern Sanmenxia this time was not for the imperial court's consideration, but to transport Luoyang's grain wealth back to Longyou.

The next morning, several cargo ships carrying more than a dozen water ghosts, firearms battalion soldiers, Liu Xingyuan and others slowly sailed in. Although Li Ye also wanted to go with the ship to have a look, the generals firmly opposed it, and Li Ye had no choice. , had to stand on the mountain and stare at Sanmenxia.

Several water ghosts tied ropes around their waists and jumped into the Yellow River. One particularly short water ghost was particularly powerful. This was a water ghost recruited in Lingzhou, called Wang Kuang. He was gifted and could dive for one stick of incense. Far more than ordinary water ghosts.

After a busy morning, the water ghosts basically figured out the situation of the underwater stone pillars.

After returning, Liu Xingyuan reported the reconnaissance information to Li Ye, "Your Highness, both stone pillars can be blown up. The north stone pillar can be blown off a foot below the water. This completely solves the hidden danger. The bottom of the south stone pillar is too It's so thick that it can only blow off about two feet at the top, but it's not bad. At least a raft loaded with grain can get across, and a two-thousand-stone cargo ship loaded with grain can also pass, but a three-thousand-stone cargo ship still can't, and its draft is at least four feet. .”

Li Ye nodded and asked Yu Fan, the firearms camp general: "Are there any difficulties in underwater blasting?"

Yu Fan bowed and said: "Your Highness, we have also trained in underwater explosions. The main purpose is to explode the ice layer. We can use gourd porcelain bottles and seal the gourd mouth with molten glue. The troublesome thing is the match rope, but there is also a way to solve it. Use a thin bamboo tube. , one end is inserted into the bottle, the edge is also sealed with melt glue, and the other end of the bamboo tube is on the water."

This is a good idea. Li Ye smiled and said, "But you need a thin bamboo tube one foot or three feet long. Can you find it?"

Liu Yuanxing next to him smiled and said: "Your Highness, Shaanxi Province is rich in bamboo, it is easy to find!"

Li Ye nodded, "Then take action! I suggest doing it at night."

At the first watch two days later, the generals gathered around Li Ye and stood on the cliff, looking at the Sanmen Gorge in the distance. They saw the ship quickly leaving, and not long after, a huge column of white water rose into the sky.

A 320-pound porcelain bottle of fire thunder is extremely powerful. The Firearms Bureau has conducted experiments. For a 320-pound firearm, the effect of a porcelain bottle is almost exactly the same as that of a double-layered wooden box, but its uses are different. The porcelain bottle of fire thunder is mainly used in water. environment, wooden box fire mines are mainly used to blow up cities.

This time Li Ye brought a total of three wooden box fire thunders and three porcelain bottle fire thunders on his eastern expedition, and he will use two tonight.

Not long after, the ship went back and began to blow up the stone pillar at the other end. Lei Wanchun asked in a low voice: "Your Highness, did they tie the fire thunder to the stone pillar?" Li Ye nodded, "The shorter stone pillar is It needs to be tied up. It is said that there is a big crack underneath the long stone pillar, and the porcelain bottle can just fit in!"

"Will it succeed?"

Li Ye smiled and said: "If one doesn't work, then use another one. The explosion of more than 600 kilograms of medicine should be enough!"

At this time, another white wave rose into the sky in the distance, but it was much smaller than the previous one. Li Ye immediately realized that this one should have exploded one foot below the water.

Soon, Lang sent Yu Fan back by boat to report, "Your Highness, one stone pillar was successfully blown up, but the other stone pillar was not successful!"

"Is it because the one-foot-deep stone pillar failed?"

Yu Fan nodded, "Exactly!"

"What's the reason?"

"Reporting to Your Highness, it's still not powerful enough. It only blew up about 30% of the stone pillars."

Li Ye said immediately: "I understand, come back first! Then consider other methods."

The next morning, Liu Xingyuan hurriedly came to see Li Ye. Li Ye asked: "Blowing up a stone pillar will have any effect on navigation?"

"I just went to see a thousand-stone cargo ship. It can travel with a full load without having to unload the grain first like before. But the two-thousand-stone ship still can't do it, and neither can the large raft."

"But I heard that 30% of it was blown up last night!"

"Exactly, if there are enough fire mines, and I use about three more, I think I can blow them up, and there is another advantage."

"What advantage?" Li Ye asked.

"Reporting back to Your Highness, Xiao Shui Gui Wang mine said that the stone pillar is empty. They can make the outside wider and then stuff the fire thunder inside. The explosion effect will definitely be better."

Li Ye nodded, "Okay, let the water ghosts dig it together and make it as wide as possible. I will discuss it with the craftsmen to see if we can build a larger fire mine."

Not long after, Hu Jiuling, the director of the Firearms Bureau, also hurried over. During this Eastern Expedition, Li Ye also brought several thousand kilograms of bulk gunpowder, mainly for temporary needs, so Hu Jiuling also brought a group of firearms craftsmen to follow him on the expedition.

"This is a humble post, Your Highness!"

Li Ye asked with a smile: "I remember you told me before that you were developing a super large gunpowder box with a capacity of one thousand kilograms of powder. Did I remember it correctly?"

Hu Jiuling nodded, "Reporting to Your Highness, after I successfully developed a 320-kilogram gunpowder box, I began to develop a 1,000-kilogram gunpowder box. The key is the burning speed of the gunpowder. The faster the burning speed, the more powerful the explosion." The bigger it is, we started developing it in February last year. With the foundation in place, the development was very fast. It was successful in November last year, but I dare not hide it. There is a big problem at the moment."

"what is the problem?"

"We only achieved empirical success. We modified the gunpowder grains to make the gaps between the gunpowder grains larger, and added some sugar. It increased the burning speed. We all thought it was successful, but we have not done a single test. "

"Why?" Li Ye asked in confusion.

Hu Jiuling sighed and said: "Because one test consumes too much gunpowder, one thousand kilograms! I'm not sure whether His Highness really needs such a large gunpowder box, so I don't want to waste it. If Your Highness needs it, we will conduct the test!"

Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "Now I will give you a chance to test. I need a 1000-pound gunpowder box, but it must explode underwater. You also saw it yesterday. The explosion on the Sanmenxia reef failed, so I need you to Once the water is done, there shouldn’t be any leakage, do you understand what I mean?”

Hu Jiuling nodded, "I understand, I understand!"

"How many days do you need?"

"About six or seven days!"

Li Ye said happily: "Then I'll give you ten days. If you need anything, just ask!"

(End of this chapter)