Warring States Survival Guide

Chapter 102 Three Hundred Living Ancestors
Saltpeter is a saltpeter obtained from the soil, the main component of which is potassium nitrate (KNO).

This is a natural mineral that can only be formed in nature through a series of complex physical and chemical processes. Generally speaking, in some places where organic matter has been decomposed for a long time and the environment is relatively dry, such as pits, manure pools, and old corners, nitric acid will be produced due to the decomposition of nitrogen-containing organic matter and the action of nitrifying bacteria. Nitric acid then reacts with potassium salt in the soil to produce soil saltpeter.

Overall, this mineral is inconspicuous and can be seen in daily life, but it has a wide range of applications.

It is an excellent potassium fertilizer and a Chinese herbal medicine that can clear away heat, purge fire, and promote diuresis and detoxification. It can also be used to make daily snacks. For example, small vendors in Bianjing during the Song Dynasty in China would use saltpeter to cool down and make ice to prepare summer drinks to sell to customers to relieve the heat.

It can even be used to make donkey meat jelly, which is the raw material for a famous dish somewhere in China.

But in medieval Japan, saltpeter had almost only one use, which was to crystallize and purify it into saltpeter, which was then used to prepare black powder.

The formula of black powder in this era is close to the classic formula. Among the three components of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal, saltpeter accounts for more than 70%, which is the absolute majority of the raw materials of black powder. However, there were no saltpeter mines in medieval Japan.

In other words, the few saltpeter mines in Japan had not been discovered in the 16th century, and mining did not begin until around the 18th century. Moreover, the reserves were extremely low and they disappeared soon after.

Therefore, Japan at that time was extremely short of the mineral saltpeter and basically relied on scraping from thatched houses, the base of walls, or occasionally finding some natural saltpeter in a cave. These methods of obtaining saltpeter were extremely slow and unstable.

As for imports, the country with the highest saltpeter production in Asia at that time was the Ming Dynasty. However, saltpeter was a strictly controlled material in the Ming Dynasty, and private sales were strictly prohibited, let alone exports. Even if North Korea, which had always been very submissive, wanted to buy it, it would be rejected nine out of ten times. As Sino-Japanese trade was almost cut off, Japan's desire to purchase it through normal channels was basically a daydream. It could only rely on small-scale smuggling, and the acquisition was extremely unstable.

Therefore, during the Warring States Period in Japan, saltpeter was very expensive. How expensive was it?

One stone of saltpeter sold for 700 guanwen, and one jin of saltpeter sold for an average of 3 guanwen, enough to feed one or two farmers for a year. This was when the price was low. When the price was high, one stone could sell for 1,000 guanwen. The average person would be dizzy just by looking at the price.

In medieval Japan, "one ounce of gold sand for one ounce of saltpeter" was no joke, it was really that expensive.

But this is not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing is that the iron cannon had just become popular at that time, and the import of saltpeter from overseas had not yet caught up. Most of the time, even if you had money and wanted to buy saltpeter at a high price, there was nowhere to buy it.

Niwa Nagahide is now facing this problem. His lord Oda Nobunaga has just formed the first iron cannon ashigaru in Owari Province, equipped with 300 large-caliber iron cannons, which have played a crucial role in the battle. As the current leader of internal affairs, he needs to ensure that these iron cannons will not become fire sticks and can fire normally.

In other words, he needed to get a large amount of saltpeter in order to prepare enough gunpowder since saltpeter was expensive and difficult to buy.

For those 1 arquebusiers, each was allocated one pound of gunpowder for each battle - this was already compressed to the limit. In this era, in order to fire a lead bullet, you needed propellant that was basically equal to the weight of the lead bullet (black gunpowder was still relatively primitive at that time, and the firing efficiency would only reach 2:37 later). Based on about 30 grams of lead bullets (including small pellets) each time, each shot would require about 40- grams of old-fashioned black gunpowder. One pound of gunpowder was enough for more than a dozen shots, which could provide about three or four minutes of long-range firepower. It was hard to say whether this amount of shooting could complete a battle. It was indeed the minimum consumption.

Therefore, even if calculated based on the minimum consumption, each battle would require at least two hundred kilograms of saltpeter, not to mention that a large amount of saltpeter is also needed to make gunpowder and fuse.

This is still a low-intensity battle. What if a war is protracted and it is difficult to determine the winner after three, five or even dozens of battles? What if the enemy is trapped in the city and refuses to come out or our side is blocked in the city by the enemy, and we need to fire guns and artillery every day for a long time... then there is no way to calculate it, and maybe even two or three thousand pounds of force will not be enough to stop it.

In addition, there are daily consumption. It is impossible for the arquebusiers to just repeat training such as reloading and aiming. They have to fire a few shots every once in a while to practice. Over time, this amount is not a small number.

What's even more terrifying is that Oda Nobunaga was not satisfied with the scale of 300 cannons. He wanted to continue to expand the number of cannon foot soldiers, and the consumption would double again.

All in all, Oda Danmasada's family's demand for saltpeter is really huge...

After three days of hard work, Niwa Nagahide was exhausted. He felt that these were not 300 cannons, but 300 living ancestors - a batch of saltpeter had been consumed in the previous battle, and he ordered the corners of the toilets in the four counties under Owari to be scraped several times, and combined with the saltpeter collected by Yuanye from the channels, he finally refined 500 to 600 kilograms of saltpeter, which was not enough to fulfill Oda Nobunaga's order to stockpile at least 3,000 kilograms of gunpowder.

Three thousand kilograms of gunpowder is nothing in modern times, but in medieval Japan, it would be a disaster. After all, in the future, Kato Kiyomasa was ordered to invade Korea, and he searched everywhere and gritted his teeth to get together ten thousand kilograms of gunpowder. Going back thirty years, it was really difficult to get three thousand kilograms with the territory of the four counties under Owari.

However, due to Oda Nobunaga's solitary character, he never cared about these troubles. He treated his close servants and retainers extremely well, so as long as he gave an order, his close servants and retainers would do everything they could to complete it. If they failed to complete it, don't blame him for turning against them and becoming bad-tempered.

So Niwa Nagahide was scolded six times in three days when he went to complete the task. He was forced to gather all the intermediate magistrates to brainstorm. In the end, no one was at a loss, and they all felt that the future was bleak - they couldn't buy much, and it was very expensive. The toilet was not a magical tool that could be scraped today and produce saltpeter tomorrow. They really couldn't figure out how to complete the task.

After several incidents, Oda Nobunaga could no longer remain patient. The stockpile and production of saltpeter were related to the safety of Oda Danjotada's family, and even more to his plan to form a larger-scale artillery force in the future. It could not be neglected at all, so he simply stepped forward to supervise it himself, gathered all the middle-level magistrates together, and forced them to come up with a feasible solution.

Everyone responded with silence, sitting in their seats and staring at the floor, fearing that he would use them as a punching bag. Yuan Ye was also among them, sitting very close to Oda Nobunaga, but he also looked at the floor, carefully studying the texture of the wood, and remained silent.

Oda Nobunaga sat at the top, waiting for a long time, tapping his palms with his fan, each time heavier than the last, his expression becoming more and more impatient. Finally, he slammed the table, unable to bear it any longer: "Speak up, are you waiting here for food?!"

Niwa Nagahide shuddered, sighed secretly, and moved out a few steps with his head held high. He whispered, "My lord, there is really no other way. We can only collect this much at the moment. Why don't we... wait for a while?"

Oda Nobunaga leaned forward with a fan and hit him on the head, cursing: "Idiot, the enemy is coming tomorrow, are you going to let them wait for a while?!"

Niwa Nagahide didn't dare to hide, so he could only knock his head against the fan and said with difficulty: "There is really no other way, my lord. There is no large amount of saltpeter in Sakai Town and Shimazu. We have asked all the wealthy merchants. We can only wait for the new ship next year."

After a pause, he added, "The teahouse staff have also promised that they will consider purchasing saltpeter from overseas in the future."

"Is it true that we can't find saltpeter in Owari?" Oda Nobunaga didn't want to be controlled by others, so he wanted to produce it for his own use. At the same time, he had never taken a geography class, so he didn't believe that there was no saltpeter in Owari. He knocked Niwa Nagahide on the head again, "Asshole, have you really looked for it seriously?"

"I have really searched carefully, my lord. All the saltpeter that can be collected has been collected." Niwa Nagahide fell to the ground, and was beaten so hard that he had no way to react. "I have failed to do my job well, please punish me, my lord."

Oda Nobunaga was still reasonable now. Seeing that Niwa Nagahide was ready to accept the punishment, he knew that he had really tried his best and there was really no other way. But he was very unwilling to accept it. The little saltpeter he got now was not enough to fight a big battle in a year, not to mention that he wanted to expand the iron cannon team.

He looked at the officials present one by one, and finally his eyes fell on Yuanye, who was like a crane sitting among chickens. The more he looked at him, the more he disliked him. He raised his hand and was about to fan him twice to vent his anger, but suddenly he remembered that Yuanye was here to help, not a nobody who could be beaten or scolded at will, so he said unhappily, "You, yes, you! The guy who doesn't even dare to drink, don't you always come up with new tricks? Don't you have any good ideas?"

"No, Your Highness, I don't have any solution in the short term." Yuan Ye replied directly, but the word "short term" was pronounced a little heavily.

"No way in the short term?" Oda Nobunaga was stunned. "Can you think of a way to take a longer time? How long will it take?"

"One year! Maybe I can give it a try in one year!" Yuanye said calmly. Seeing that he was about to get angry again, he quickly added, "It's not about waiting for the new ship next year, it's about producing saltpeter in Owari."

Oda Nobunaga was stunned again, but as long as the problem could be solved, his attitude immediately improved. He put away the fan directly, but still cursed: "Why didn't you say so earlier? Didn't I already pay you for your work?"

Yuanye glanced at Niwa Nagahide, not wanting to offend him, and explained: "I can only try, but I am not sure that it will succeed, so... it's hard to say."

Oda Nobunaga became interested and asked seriously, "How are you going to try?"

"It's just a rough idea. Maybe there is saltpeter in Owari, but it's mixed with other rocks and soil. Maybe I can try to separate them." Yuanye didn't intend to honestly explain the technology of growing saltpeter, and he was not sure whether it was feasible at the moment, so he left a lot of room for discussion. "Of course, this idea is a bit... too novel, and there is no precedent at all. Maybe I'm just daydreaming, so I can't guarantee anything. It's really hard to say."

"It's nothing new." Oda Nobunaga was not an old-fashioned person. He didn't care whether there was a precedent or not. He was also rich and generous. He agreed after a little thought. "Go ahead and try. It's just a small amount of money. Let Manchiyo (Niwa) pay you."

"I don't need much money." Yuanye didn't intend to cheat him, he just wanted something by the way, so he said directly, "But if I really want to try it, I need a piece of land, a very large piece of land, at least a few hundred towns, and it would be better if there are some people on it."

"Land? How many cho? Manpower?"

All the magistrates present raised their heads instantly and began to look at him with cautious, suspicious and subtle eyes. Oda Nobunaga also hesitated and lost his previous heroic spirit.

Yuanye was not his retainer and had not pledged allegiance to him, so it would be inappropriate to directly make him the village head official. That was a lucrative job, equivalent to being the lord of a place, and was of greater importance.

As for giving it to him directly, that would be even worse. His close attendants and retainers are still receiving annual salaries, and none of them owns the Zhixing territory. If Yuanye gets it first, he has not done anything extraordinary or great, so he will not be able to convince the public and will cause a lot of trouble.

There was a moment of silence in the room, and the atmosphere became awkward. Yuanye was not surprised. After all, it was a matter of life and death, and the land was not that easy to get. He was mentally prepared and was just waiting for Oda Nobunaga's retainers to start a battle with him.

(End of this chapter)