Three Kingdoms: I choose Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao, why are you crying, Diao Chan?

Chapter 317 Black Gunpowder! (Thanks to Song Mu and Xiao Yuanzi for their three monthly tickets)
The capital of Pei State was Xiang County.

When Liu Bei's army returned here, Zhuge Liang also received replies from Xu Shu and Mi Zhu.

Xu Shu informed in the letter that Cao Cao, under the order of Yuan Shao, led an army of 30,000 to attack Jibei State.

However, he was trapped by the Eight Formations of Stone Gate on the way and ultimately returned empty-handed.

However, the content of Mi Zhu's letter seemed quite urgent.

The letter stated that Yuan Shao ordered Yan Liang to lead an army of 50,000 to attack Langya State and won victory after victory!
Now Yan Liang has led a large army to besiege Kaiyang County, the capital of Langya County.

Zhuge Liang was not surprised when he learned this information.

Mi Zhu's wisdom was not outstanding, but his wealth and business acumen were outstanding.

Therefore, it was within his expectation that he would not be able to defend other counties in Langya County.

But as long as Mi Zhu could hold on to his seat in Kaiyang County and delay his withdrawal to provide support, that would be enough.

This was also the reason why he did not get too involved with Lu Bu's army.

Now that we have some free time, it's time to deal with these people in the north.

It is true that he cannot gain any advantage when fighting with people from later generations, but fighting with people from the same era, that is his home court!
Yuan Shao and Cao Cao seemed to be a strong alliance, but in fact their alliance was very fragile.

He only needed to use a little strategy of sowing discord and spread rumors within Yuan Shao's sphere of influence, saying that Cao Cao wanted to use the chicken to lay eggs.

By then, with Yuan Shao's suspicion and his advisers' rejection of Cao Cao's army, it would be easy to disintegrate the last of Cao Cao's army's power.

Zhuge Liang had learned the experience of dealing with Yuan Shao from Cao Cao in his previous life.

With Guo Jia's theory of ten wins and ten losses, plus his own wisdom and the current military strength of Liu Bei's army.

It would undoubtedly be easier to defeat Yuan Shao, who had not yet defeated Gongsun Zan!
Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang immediately ordered Pang Tong and Guan Yu to lead the army to support Langya State.

He and Liu Bei continued to guard Pei State...

Lujiang County, in a carpenter's shop in Wancheng.

Lu Bu looked at the two characters "呂彈" carved by a carpenter on a palm-sized piece of wood and nodded slightly.

The most commonly used font in the late Han Dynasty was Lishu.

Although many characters are much more complex than modern simplified characters, they have a kind of beauty that simplified characters do not have.

Of course, when he ordered the craftsmen to carve his name, it was certainly not for the sake of appreciating the beauty of the font.

Lu Bu dipped the prepared brush in ink and brushed the two characters "呂彈".

Then he picked up the palm-sized piece of wood and pressed it hard on the Wenhou paper spread out on the side!
In an instant, these two words were clearly printed on the paper!
Of course, the characters printed are exactly the opposite.

However, seeing this scene, Cai Yan's beautiful eyes suddenly widened, and she covered her mouth with her hands in amazement:

"In this case, then we don't need to write words by hand anymore?!
"Moreover, since these characters are neatly arranged, the chances of typos or misprints will be greatly reduced!"

Cai Yan raised her head, her beautiful eyes looking at her man with deep affection and pride:
"Fengxian's mind is really extremely smart!"

Lu Bu was filled with pride, and he smiled as he handed the block of wood to the other party:

"I am not worried that my Zhaoji will be tired from writing so many words every day.

“So I thought about it day and night, and finally came up with this idea.

"Maybe in the future there will be a chance to significantly reduce your workload."

After hearing Lu Bu's sweet words, Cai Yan's face suddenly turned red with embarrassment.

The look she gave her husband was so sweet that it was almost like drawing...

After Cai Yan tested it herself, her eyes lit up with surprise.

However, Lu Bu suddenly sighed:

“There are so many words, and I want to carve them all out, plus there are the subsequent issues of typesetting, printing, sewing the book, and so on.

"If we want to promote education for the common people, we still need a long development process..."

Seeing Lü Bu's expression, Cai Yan immediately reached out her small hand, held Lü Bu's big hand, and comforted him tenderly:
"Any invention takes time to promote and develop." My husband has solved the biggest problem by coming up with these things.

"There will be others who will study your husband's invention in more depth.

"At that time, you may not need to think too much about the following matters. It will naturally develop into what you need~"

Hearing Cai Yan's thoughtful answer, Lu Bu suddenly felt a sense of satisfaction and comfort in his heart.

Having such a considerate woman by my side is a rare happiness in my previous life.

Lu Bu pinched Cai Yan's soft, boneless little hand.

Then he handed the Wenhou paper in front of him to the craftsman, pointed to the reversed characters on it and said to the craftsman:

"Then I will carve according to the reverse font. There will be more words that will require your help.

“You don’t have to take on any other business for the next few months.

"As for the price, I will satisfy you."

Hearing Lu Bu's words, the craftsmen were overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly!
Lu Bu took Cai Yan's hand and walked out of the carpenter's shop, ready to take her to buy some pretty dresses.

At this moment, he suddenly saw Zhang Liao, whom he had not seen for a long time, walking towards him hurriedly.

Lu Bu was stunned for a moment, but was not surprised.

After all, Zhang Liao had been the governor of Jingzhou for a long time, although his wife Fan had been brought to live in Jingzhou a long time ago.

But I haven't seen my lord for several months, so it's time for him to come back and get together with me.

"Mr. Chu!"

Zhang Liao excitedly bowed to Lu Bu with his hands clasped together, his face full of reverence, and he almost kowtowed to him.

Lu Bu held Zhang Liao's wrists with both hands, then patted his shoulder with one free hand and said with a smile:
"He's thinner, but also stronger. It seems that having a wife hasn't made Wenyuan's strength decline!"

Zhang Liao heard the sarcasm in Lu Bu's words and shook his head with a wry smile:
“After having a family, there are still some constraints.

"But I can have hot soup and hot food every day when I go home, and the quilt is warm when I go to bed... It's not bad, right?"

Seeing the flash of happiness on Zhang Liao's face, Lu Bu smiled and nodded, then asked:
"By the way, Gu Tuo, did you bring back the saltpeter from Hanzhong?"

Zhang Liao nodded immediately:

"Liao naturally dares not neglect the Lord's order. We have brought back 200 stones of saltpeter and stored them all in a dry and cool place in the warehouse."

When Lu Bu heard this, he was immediately surprised.

The largest natural saltpeter mining site in the Han Dynasty was in Hanzhong County!
There are almost not many in the Central Plains.

Of course, this is not to say that it does not exist in the Central Plains, it’s just that it has not been discovered yet.

Although saltpeter can also be extracted by other methods.

But if it can be mined directly, there is no need to use more complicated methods to refine it.

Moreover, saltpeter during this period was mainly used for medical purposes.

No one knew at that time that this thing would have a terrible effect that would shock the whole world in the future!
"Saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal... the basic raw materials for black powder. Now the only thing missing is sulfur."

As Lu Bu murmured, a hint of helplessness appeared in his eyes.

There is no need to say much about common things like charcoal, but sulfur is not very common.

During this period, natural sulfur could only be found near volcanic craters.

Most of China's volcanoes are located in border areas.

The only two famous inland volcanoes are the Dabie Mountains in Yangzhou and the Taihang Mountains in Yuzhou.

Lu Bu has ordered Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, who are closer to the Dabie Mountains, to lead their troops to the Dabie Mountains to collect natural sulfur monomer minerals.

But Lu Bu knew very well that if he wanted to mass-produce black gunpowder, this little sulfur alone would definitely not be enough.

The only reliable method at the moment is to extract it independently from coal-containing pyrite!
(End of this chapter)