Three Kingdoms, at the beginning of the game, recognize the thief as the father, hit the spectacle,

"In that case, then Ma Jun, just listen."

"From now on, in addition to the Civil Affairs Department, Public Security Department, and Publicity Department under the original jurisdiction, Lujiang County will set up a new department, which will be named the Science and Technology Department. It will be mainly responsible for all scientific and technological research and development work in Lujiang County."

"In addition, a chemical research institute is set up under the Science and Technology Department, and a fertilizer research team is set up in the institute. Just use your previous assistants, a total of more than ten people, as all members of this research team."

"Ma Jun, you appoint an assistant to be the person in charge of this group based on their actual capabilities, and you will temporarily serve as the head of the newly established Institute of Chemistry, leading all the research groups in this institute... Although there is only one such group now, there will be more in the future.”

After giving general instructions to Ma Jun, Zhang Yan paused for a moment, then continued:

"As for the size of the official position, your salary, or the salaries of the heads of all the first-level units under the Lujiang government office, are at the same level as the county magistrates in big counties, with four hundred shi and fifty hu in moon valley. "

"Come on, work hard. This position is just the beginning for you."

Patting the other party's shoulder, Zhang Yan confirmed Ma Jun's first position as the other party's, and at the same time gave a series of transfer orders.

Just like what he said just now, Lujiang, as Zhang Yan's current headquarters, in addition to the ten county-level units under the jurisdiction of "four counties and six countries", also has a bureaucracy directly under Zhang Yan, which is the ordinary The "prefect's mansion" under the command of the prefect.

It’s just that Zhang Yan, who knows the convenience of subdivision of positions for the centralization of power, obviously did not set up a simple county magistrate and county lieutenant in charge of civil and military affairs like ordinary prefects, but imitated the previous system of Wancheng, setting up Various county-level government departments such as civil affairs and public security have been established.

Of course, since the administrative level of the "county" of Lujiang is higher than that of "counties" like Wancheng, these government departments can no longer be named after a certain department, but Zhang Yan dubbed it "a certain department". Number.

Anyway, the present time has not yet reached the Song and Ming Dynasties, so even if Zhang Yan named these institutions a certain company, no one would jump out to trouble him.

In this way, Ma Jun became the second literati under Zhang Yan who successfully obtained the "official establishment".

"The salary is equivalent to that of the magistrate of a big county? Then, am I only half a level behind Brother Kuaiqi now?"

"My lord, don't worry, Jun will definitely go all out and live up to my lord's expectations!"

Opposite Zhang Yan, when Ma Jun heard Zhang Yan's award, the proud look on his face suddenly turned into joy.

After all, he is still a child. Although Ma Jun has just taken office, he has been thinking about how to tell his parents the good news when he sends letters home.

On the other side, Zhang Yan also nodded in satisfaction, and continued to ask the other party.

……

"Well, let's arrange this matter first. As for the fertilizer production, you don't need to put too much energy into it, Ma Jun. I will arrange other people to do it."

"So, what about the second assessment task I gave you? How is it going now?"

Asked Ma Jun with a smile, Zhang Yan still remembered what the other party said earlier.

According to what Ma Jun just said, what the other party has gained in the past month or so is not just as simple as sorting out the use of this original fertilizer.

Seeing this, Ma Jun's face was also overjoyed, but as if something embarrassing had been mentioned, his face also turned slightly red.

"My lord, this second assessment...is very difficult."

"In order to be able to complete the task you assigned, I will slightly..."

"A little tricky method was used."

Somewhat ashamed, he explained to Zhang Yan that Ma Jun no longer had the proud expression he had before, but instead became a little shy.

Seeing his appearance, Zhang Yan felt a little curious in his heart.

You know, Ma Jun is not an introverted guy. Ever since the day the other party followed Zhang Yan, Zhang Yan can feel the vitality of the thirteen, four, five or six-year-old boy in the other party all the time.

If it looks like a puppet like now, it is the first time he has seen it.

"That's all right, all right, there are no tricks, I told you earlier, as long as you do everything I tell you, then I will entrust you with the task of developing weapons for the Lujiang army."

"Come on, don't be a fool."

Zhang Yan urged the other party indifferently, but Zhang Yan didn't think that the trickery Ma Jun said was so great. For things like technological development, if you can do it, you can do it. If you can't do it, you can't do it. It has never been done. What are the so-called tricks.

Even if you have the ability to cheat, can you really use a small workshop to make a lithography machine?

That's not trickery, that's called a dream.

As for another taboo issue in the field of scientific research, that is, "plagiarism" in the process of scientific research... Zhang Yan is even less worried.

The current time is still at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in 188 A.D., the appearance of black gunpowder will have to be delayed for more than 500 years at the earliest.

Not to mention, the remaining two assessments that Zhang Yan handed over to Ma Jun were not a simple method of making black powder, but asked the other party to extract complete nitrates from the nitrate soil, that is, fire nitrate.

If Ma Jun can really plagiarize this content from some places, then Zhang Yan doesn't have to worry about how to develop productivity. It's better to negotiate with the plagiarized person directly to see if the other party is a time traveler like himself. better.

"Since the lord is like this, then I will say it."

Seeing this, Ma Jun also hesitated for a while, and then truthfully revealed his actions to Zhang Yan.

Chapter 22 Fire Nitrate, Ice Nitrate and Urea

"My lord, the second assessment you arranged for me was to extract the things that can make the crops grow better and faster from the nitrate, that is, the decomposed dung. In fact, I have never had any Good idea."

"In order to complete your task as soon as possible, I had no choice but to think in the opposite direction, which is the third goal you arranged for me before, and tried to conduct some experiments."

"It was this trial that allowed Jun to find the doorway between fire nitrate and nitrate soil in just a few days."

He hesitated and said to Zhang Yan, Ma Jun was also secretly looking at him from the corner of his eye at the moment.

After seeing that Zhang Yan didn't change his expression, he continued:

……

"You told me at the beginning that the part of this nitrate soil that can make crops grow better is a mixture of many different substances, and one of the ingredients is very similar to the fire nitrate produced from saltpeter."

"In the past few days, I really didn't know how to deal with the nitrate soil, so I simply bought some nitrate mines from the market in Wancheng, hoping to see if I could bring some ideas and inspiration to myself."

"Don't tell me, after crushing those saltpeter mines, I found something quite different."

"After dissolving the fire nitrate in water, the debris of the fire nitrate was significantly reduced, and the slag was filtered out, and the remaining nitrate water was poured on the crops, which actually caused two well-grown wheat seedlings to be burned. died."

"This is a phenomenon that only appeared after the excessive application of nitrate!"

As soon as he talked about the strange situation he discovered, Ma Jun's eyes began to flicker, and at the same time, he became eloquent.

……

"It is this situation that makes me wonder if the thing in the nitrate soil that accelerates the growth of crops can be dissolved in water just like the fire nitrate produced by the nitrate mine."

"So I just soaked the decomposed nitrate soil with a lot of water, and then filtered the nitrate soil with sackcloth. The nitrate water obtained is very similar to the nitrate water made from nitrate ore, and it can even be said to be exactly the same."

"Finally, I slowly dried the nitrate water I made with nitrate, and got these three completely different white powders..."

After telling all his experience in one breath, Ma Jun then took a deep breath, as if waiting for Zhang Yan's judgment on his unreasonable behavior.

After all, he didn't know whether his somewhat unusual behavior had passed the test Zhang Yan set for him.

Judging from the results, he has completed all three goals entrusted to him by Zhang Yan, which obviously should be counted as having passed Zhang Yan's assessment...

But in the final analysis, Ma Jun didn't quite know what Zhang Yan's assessment criteria were.

If the purpose of the remaining two assessment points is the same as the first point, which is to test his familiarity with some basic test operations, then his behavior obviously did not allow Zhang Yan to achieve his purpose of testing him.

Lowering his head tightly in front of Zhang Yan, Ma Jun only felt that his chest was a little nervous and throbbing after he had fully narrated the whole experience.

On the other side of him, Zhang Yan's expression changed from curiosity to hesitation, and then to surprise, and finally, there was a strong approval in the voice of Ma Jun's words.

"Hiss——Deheng, what you said is really..."

"You did well, well done!"

Unable to resist clicking his tongue, Zhang Yan looked at the young boy with his head bowed in front of him, his eyes filled with incredible incredulity.

No matter how well-informed he was, he never imagined that Ma Jun could use this method to easily make fire nitrate, that is, potassium nitrate, from the very common cow dung in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

He opened his mouth subconsciously, and for a moment he didn't know what to say.

"Is this how the fire is produced?"

"Will the next step of purifying the sulfur mine be done so quickly?"

"Purified sulfur and fire nitrate are available, so for Ma Jun, making black powder according to the standard ratio is like pinching a snail with ten fingers, and it is as stable as ten fingers?"

Surprised by the wisdom of the ancients again, Zhang Yan pursed his lips before completely digesting the shocking news.

That's it?That's it?That's it?

According to this progress, I am afraid that it will take another month at most. Just before September this year, the first batch of complete black powder will be released from Lujiang!

You must know that sulfur is different from saltpeter. Although there are not many sulfur reserves in the Huaxia region, most of them are open pit veins that are very easy to mine.

In other words, not far from Wancheng, there is a small-scale sulfur mine, which is said to have been mined for more than ten years.

No matter how bad it is, Zhang Yan can also obtain sufficient sulfur raw materials by purchasing large quantities across the country.

As long as the source of fire nitrate is stable enough, the mass production of black gunpowder can be said to have no problems for Zhang Yan.

Considering that the purification of sulfur only needs to be slowly melted and filtered, and then the evaporated sulfur gas is recovered...

Zhang Yan even felt that the birth of black powder in the hands of Ma Jun, he gave a month's time to expect a bit too much.

It is foreseeable that since the fire nitrate and sulfur that Zhang Yan intends to produce are all purified products, such black powder will even be more than one level stronger than the gunpowder originally used in the Tang and Song Dynasties.

At this moment, the three small paper packages placed in front of him by Ma Jun are the beginning of all this future.

……

"Look, my lord, the white powder in the first paper bag is fire nitrate, which is the kind of thing in the saltpeter mine."

"In addition, the transparent ice powder in this smaller paper bag is a substance different from fire nitrate. It is very easy to absorb water and moisture, and it will emit bursts of chill during the process of absorbing water. The output is higher than that of fire. The nitrate is much lower."

"Jun believes that this is probably the ice salt produced in saltpeter mines. It is similar to fire salt, but completely different."

"As for the third powder... there is no progress yet."

"However, the yield of this powder is lower than that of the first two types, and it can also have the effect of fertilizing the field."

Showing his achievements to Zhang Yan, Ma Jun slowly introduced a series of purified and crystallized white substances in front of him.

And for Zhang Yan, these things are extremely familiar.

"Isn't this just potassium nitrate, and calcium nitrate?"

"As for this one, which is like flour, it is probably some residual impurities mainly composed of urea."

After murmuring a few words in a low voice, Zhang Yan was looking at the three opened paper packages in front of him with great interest.

On it, the product that has gone through a series of purifications no longer has the stench of nitrate, but looks crystal clear.

On the opposite side of him, Ma Jun slapped his thigh when he heard the words, obviously Zhang Yan's words just now had a lot of inspiration for him.

"Urea?"