The Great Industrial Ming Dynasty Started from Beiping

Chapter 234 Overseas bases that do whatever they want

"Boom".

On the outskirts of Daxing County, there was an explosion sound, and the technicians of the Gunpowder Department started a new experiment.

attracted the attention of many people.

"Has China Heavy Industry started to involve firearms?"

"I haven't heard of it."

"This move is not appropriate, do you want to persuade the young prince?" Shen Zhanzhi suggested to Su Guan, Su Guan didn't object, and went to the Shizi's mansion the next day.

Zhu Gaochi agreed with Su Guan's statement, and stopped letting China Heavy Industry make such a big commotion.

But gunpowder is different from others. The sound of the explosion can be heard for miles, and it can’t be hidden from people, so Zhu Gaochi went to the gunpowder department.

The Gunpowder Department is a dangerous area, idlers are not allowed to enter, and open fires are not allowed.

It was a big event for the little prince to come to inspect, no one dared to neglect, for fear of accidents, he strictly ordered the craftsmen to stop working.

The warehouse is sealed to avoid all conceivable accidents.

The Gunpowder Department came from a lower-level department of the Technology R&D Department, so Xiao Jiu personally accompanied them, and the group visited the R&D base.

"The principle of firearms comes from the explosion of gunpowder. The more powerful the gunpowder explosion is, the more powerful the gun barrel needs to be, and the more powerful the ammunition fired will be."

Xiao Jiu explained.

Zhu Gaochi understood that his knowledge of firearms was no worse than Xiao Jiu's, and he even said that he was better than Xiao Jiu in some respects.

But Xiaojiu's talent for technical exploration must be the one that beat Zhu Gaochi, and Zhu Gaochi has self-knowledge.

Gunpowder, as the ancients called it, refers to a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. It was originally formulated by alchemists.

In the third year of Tang Xianzong Yuanhe (808), the "fire and brimstone method" appeared.At this time, the original gunpowder formula could not be compared with military gunpowder.

Three kinds of gunpowder formulas are recorded in the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" (1044) of the Song Dynasty, which are empirical formulas after actual combat.

The proportions of the three components also change gradually in practice.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the content of nitrate in the gunpowder of handguns was significantly higher than that of Yuan Dynasty gunpowder.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were nearly a hundred types of gunpowder for military use, and a deeper understanding of the relationship between gunpowder formula and performance was gained.

But now is the early Ming Dynasty, the direction of the gunpowder research and development department is mainly to collect the technology left by the ancestors of the Song Dynasty, summarize and experiment.

The biggest problem encountered at present is the problem of ** purification.

The ancients knew about purification very early, and they could invent more than 100 kinds of military gunpowder. In the book "Tang Materia Medica" written in 659, there is a record of purifying saltpeter.

"We've tried a lot of things with gunpowder, but still haven't had a big breakthrough."

Xiao Jiu was a little frustrated.

Zhu Gaochi could understand that the experiment is very boring, and it can kill people's confidence the most, so he comforted him a bit.

"If the birth of new technology is so easy, it will be our turn, and you don't need to be discouraged."

Hearing this, Xiao Jiu cheered up and forced a smile.

"The traditional extraction method is to put ketchup into a pot and add water to heat it to melt it, boil it over medium heat until crystals appear at the bottom of the melt, filter the mixture in the pot with a cloth, and the filtered liquid is nitric acid. gone."

"Put the filtered solution into a bowl to cool down, spray it with clean water, and then use grass ash to absorb the remaining water to get a relatively pure product."

"We have always wanted to work hard on the three materials, and the method we thought of was this, but we still couldn't find a good formula."

Zhu Gaochi understood.

In the recipe, **** is not available in large quantities in China and is of poor quality.

Then to solve this problem, you need to mention X.

This problem is not only encountered by Ming Dynasty, but also by the West. Faced with this problem, China and the West have given two solutions.

The method that Daming came up with was to add cheap carrots to purify it, which was recorded in the book "Fire Attacks and Essentials" at the end of Ming Dynasty.

The method that the West thought of was to add expensive egg whites to purify it, which was recorded in "Xifa Shenji", which recorded Western military technology in the late Ming Dynasty.

"I have a solution." Zhu Gaochi didn't hide it, and directly took out the knowledge of "Fire Attack".

Using egg white to purify, Zhu Gaochi is not so extravagant, but he also raised his mouth to Xiaojiu to expand his thinking.

"carrot?"

Xiao Jiu was unbelievable.

The carrot with a mustache is naturally a crop imported by the ancestors from abroad. According to legend, it was introduced in the Han Dynasty, and it is also said that it was introduced in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Zhu Gaochi prefers to introduce it from the Han Dynasty or the Song Dynasty. If it was introduced from the Yuan Dynasty, he should not have a Hu character.

"I read a record in an isolated book in the Song Dynasty. Carrot juice was used to raise the gun. For every ten touches, five or ten carrots were used. Depending on the quality of the gun, it is considered to be an addition or subtraction, and there is no need to stick to the number. Prepare two mouthfuls of big new iron wide pots, use one mouthful first, the amount can hold a certain amount, about half of the pot is flattened. Put carrot juice into it, rub it with your hands vigorously and mix well."

"Gradually add water, pour it into the other pot, and punch it with the water floating on the surface. Then boil it on fire, and stir it evenly with a large wooden spoon. Stir again and fry again, neither too old nor too tender, dip a straw stick in nitrate water, drop it on the nails, and it will form a protruding round bead, which is the heat. Use a new glazed magnetic jar, and use a second layer of linen. I set the mouth of the vat, pour the nitrate water in the pot, and filter it. After three to five days, the nitrate has become teeth. Put the floating water in another magnetic vat, take the nitrate and dry it, grind it finely, and sieve it with fine silk Sieve, wait for cooperation. The water..."

"Where is this book?" Xiao Jiu asked excitedly.

Zhu Gaochi shrugged, "I've seen it before. There are so many books in the palace. I didn't pay attention at the time, and I can't find them anymore."

"It's a pity." Xiao Jiu complained, but did not doubt Zhu Gaochi's statement.

"That book also talked about how to purify sulfur."

It is still the content of "Fire Attack and Essentials". Sulfur is a non-metallic element used in ancient China very early. Natural sulfur contains impurities. The impurities in sulfur must be removed to make gunpowder.

That is to mention the content of various methods of using charcoal to raise sulfur.

The book not only introduces the method, but also gives explanations and principles.

Unlike China, the early history of the use of sulfur in the West is relatively vague, lacking written records, and no traces can be found.

And because the purification method was mentioned in "Xi Fa Shen Ji", some people in later generations said that the purification method was taught by Matteo Ricci and Tang Ruowang.

This theory has been proved to be false, because China has unearthed physical objects and technical books, and China is the first country to purify sulfur, which has been recognized by the academic circles.

Finally, after the debate between Chinese and Western modern scholars, the final compromise statement is: whether the different methods of sulfur purification in China and the West have been exchanged, or whether they have developed similar methods, remains to be further studied.

That is to say, we do not deny that China was the first to use the purification method, but we also do not deny the claim that the West invented the purification method. Although the two purification methods are similar, it is obvious that they come from a technique, anyway, it is a koan without a head.

Xiao Jiu and the rest of the craftsmen listened carefully, for fear of missing a single word, while Zhu Gaochi recounted all the knowledge he remembered in one breath.

Including "Fire Attack" and "Xifa Shenji", each has more than 20 unique recipes, ingredients, grinding methods, charcoal selection methods, etc.

These are the crystallization of the wisdom of the ancient ancestors. Some have their own, and some have learned from the West. They are not behind closed doors.

It's just that the eastern region is relatively closed, and before the Western Renaissance, there were really not many technologies worthy of China's learning.

On the contrary, before the Industrial Revolution, Eastern technologies were mostly spread in Arabia and the West.

Then there is the production method of granular gunpowder.

During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, "***" stated that "the thick ones on the top are not used, and the ones that are thin on the bottom are not used. Just take the ones that are like corn. The big and small ones can be made in the same way."

It shows that there were strict requirements on the fine particles at that time.By the end of the Ming Dynasty, "*****" not only recorded that the sizes of gunpowder particles were different for different firearms, but also explained why the gunpowder had to be sieved into granules.

If it is not granular but fine flour, the gunpowder will be bumped and vibrated during transportation, and the three components will be mixed unevenly, resulting in stratification: the carbon is light and floating on the top, and the * is heavy on the bottom. Easy to bomb.

In addition, if the gun barrel is very long, fine-surface gunpowder is easy to stick to the gun barrel when charging, and the gunpowder is not fully loaded into the powder chamber, which will also affect the firing power.

"**Sieve it into beads, or use fine mats or bamboo baskets to spread medicine on it. Use the shade of a tree for a while, and the sun will shine, but don't use it in the sun in the summer, for fear of a fire in the sun, it will be difficult to save your ears. In 'Little Fantasy', after the above several processes, the [-]th is made. "

After Zhu Gaochi finished speaking, the next step is to see how far Xiaojiu and the others can produce in the end.

As Xiao Jiu said.

With more powerful gunpowder, it will naturally require higher standard gun barrels. As long as new gunpowder is born, then the advent of bird guns, that is, matchlock guns, will not be far away.

After all, the five steelmaking and nine steelmaking technologies that came out during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty have already been produced in the iron factory.

As for the more advanced self-generated firecrackers, they are limited by the low-quality flint raw materials in China, and with Zhu Gaochi's current strength, he is unable to obtain them overseas.

So it has not been placed in his short-term plan.

However, Fan Suguan's remonstrance that China Heavy Industry is not suitable to touch the military industry will easily lead to impeachment by officials.

So soon.

The Gunpowder Department moved to Jinzhou and went to sea by sea ship.

In Lushun across the sea, Jinzhou hijacked the traffic and made Lushun a closed area. The outside world did not know what to do here.

The guardhouse itself is a military base, outsiders are not allowed to trespass, plus it is isolated overseas, it really does whatever it wants.

Do whatever you want.

The bodies of several slave workers were carried by slave workers wearing white armbands and buried in the mass grave.

For eunuchs from Japan, the management of the forest farm has become increasingly loose.

It's really that these people are so easy to use, with a resigned attitude, without the slightest spirit of resistance.

After a long time, it is inevitable to relax a little.

"Don't be careless." The manager of the forest farm couldn't help telling Wang Zhen.

Wang Zhen just came back from seeing the prince in Beizhen.

The prince established a town in Beizhen, and he is likely to make a big effort in the northeast, which greatly encourages Wang Zhen and Sun Yan.

(End of this chapter)