Chapter 73 The Trouble of Saltpeter

After hearing this, Lei Blacksmith was shocked, pinched his fingers and said, "Master, isn't the new cannon you're talking about too heavy? If this cannon is cast, the gun body alone will be at least 1,000 catties, and if you add the gun rack, it will cost at least 1,500 catties. I'm afraid we can't use it on our ship!"

Yu Xiaotian rolled his eyes and said, "I know this better than you. We can't use much on these ships at present, but it doesn't mean that we won't use it in the future!" I'm going to take this gun to the turret on the shore. It doesn't matter if it's heavier! Anyway, you can do it for me as soon as possible. If you can't do it, come and see me, and I'll replace it for you!"

Lei blacksmith was so scared that he shrank his neck and quickly bowed down and agreed repeatedly. He turned his head and looked at Li Gouzi with a trace of resentment, as if he was complaining that Li Gouzi had harmed him this time.

At present, because of the method of casting an iron model cannon, his craftsmanship is not so valuable. After mastering the method of casting an iron model cannon, many people can take his place to take charge of this cannon. Now Yu Xiaotian gives him ten taels of silver a month, which is on land. It's a high pay.

If Yu Xiaotian is unhappy to take him down, he can only be an ordinary craftsman, with a maximum of two taels of silver a month. Although for a craftsman, such a salary is already very high, it is much less than his monthly salary of ten taels of silver next month.

At present, after getting his monthly wages, he can comfortably go to the brothel on the island to find a beautiful bitch to sleep for many days. It is enough for him to go to the casino when he is free. He is comfortable and has a good face. If he is taken away by Yu Xiaotian, his good life will come to an end, so No wonder he is not nervous.

I didn't see the new cannon, which made Yu Xiaotian very unhappy, and the cannon was not interested in continuing to inspect. He turned around and went straight to the gunpowder workshop in the back of the mountain.

Now the gunpowder workshop is also the most important workshop for sea wolves, which is the basis for ensuring that sea wolves will not cut off food, so it is highly valued by filial piety.

However, the gunpowder workshop is not more dangerous than ordinary workshops, so it is not placed in the workshop area, but in a mountain pass away from people. In the event of an accident, the loss can also be smaller.

Moreover, the raw material warehouse that produces gunpowder and the finished warehouse of gunpowder are also separated from the workshop. In an accident, all the gunpowder reserves were destroyed, so that the sea wolf immediately stopped.

At present, the number of workers in the gunpowder workshop has increased to 30 or 40. The division of labor is more refined and the tools are better than when it was first started on Treasure Island. Therefore, Yu Xiaotian did not hesitate to take out a large amount of silver and copper to make copper and silver tools for the gunpowder workshop to prevent crushing raw materials. Iron or stone tools collide with Mars, causing an explosion or fire.

However, the increase in production requires the guarantee of raw materials. Sulfur is relatively easy to get, but the supply of saltpeter has always been a problem, and the sea wolf has never been able to find a stable supply channel of saltpetre.

What is known now is that the Spaniards have sufficient saltpeter resources, because the Spaniards occupied the colony of Chile, which is the largest saltpeter reserves in the world. Historically, it once occupied 70% of the world's saltpeter production, so the Spaniards have the most indispensable is saltpeter.

However, so far, the sea wolf has not established contact with the Spaniards. It can only be purchased through other means, not to mention the high cost, and the quantity cannot be satisfied and guaranteed.

So a few years ago, Yu Xiaotian had asked Mao Shengyuan to come forward and send ships to carry goods to Manila for transactions, and asked the personnel sent by Maoshengyuan to go to Manila to negotiate with the Spaniards. Maoshengyuan could provide him with all kinds of goods they needed, but asked the Spaniards to provide sufficient saltpeter supply to Maoshengyuan. Yes, even barter trade can be done.

You should know that the Ming Dynasty is the world's largest silver absorber. Westerners love Chinese porcelain, silk, tea and other handicrafts, so they need to continuously purchase from the Ming Dynasty.

And they can sell Daming, but there are not many things. Glass is probably one kind. In addition, there are some spices produced by the colonies they control, and the rest can be sold to the Chinese.

In this way, the Ming Dynasty has basically been in a state of export surplus, and Western countries can only buy Chinese goods with a large amount of cash.

Now Yu Xiaotian has agreed to barter to exchange saltpeter from the Spaniards, which is a great good news for the Spaniards. In this way, they will no longer need to use white money to buy goods, and Yu Xiaotian can basically solve the demand for saltpeter.

However, so far, this matter has not been completed, so Yu Xiaotian made two preparations before. On the one hand, he sent Mao Shengyuan to contact the Spaniards and negotiate the purchase of saltpetre.

On the other hand, in order to be safe, he decided to buy a large amount of nitrate from the north. Because it is rainy in the south, it is not easy to use the nitrate method to obtain nitrate, while the climate in the north is dry, and it is easy to produce nitrate in saline and alkaline land. There are both fronts and houses in rural areas. The best time to collect earth nitrate is spring, and it is very worthless.

Therefore, Yu Xiaotian asked some merchants to go to the north to find a way to help him buy a large number of this kind of earth saltpeter. After pulling it back, he will boil it in Nanri Island to purify the high purity of saltpeter soil to alleviate the demand for saltpeter.

After the Spring Festival, two merchants really bought a large amount of earth saltpeter in the northern Shandong area in the spring, and loaded four ships and pulled them to Nanri Island. Now the gunpowder workshop uses this kind of earth saltpeter to purify and obtain saltpeter to produce gunpowder.

And this kind of saltpeter purified by earthxiao boiling nitrate is of average quality, slightly less powerful than the gunpowder prepared with pure saltpeter.

But this is also a way. At present, he can't purify better saltpeter. He can only use this method for the time being. The gunpowder is slightly less powerful, and it can also be used. After solving the problem of saltpeter supply in the future, this method can be stopped and used as a reserve.

The workers of the gunpowder workshop are busy in the workshop. They are no better than other places. They can only start work during the day. In order to prevent accidents at night, they are not allowed to light up and produce here, so they have to operate at full speed throughout the day to meet the needs of sea wolves.

Some workers are responsible for boiling earth nitrate and purifying the earth, some workers are responsible for crushing saltpetre, sulfur and charcoal, and some workers need to constantly sift through the sieve to sift out enough raw materials for preparation.

Gunpowder is prepared according to different needs, and the powder of saltpetre sulfur and charcoal is prepared in different proportions. Some induced drugs do not need to be made into granules of gunpowder, so they are stored directly.

However, as a gunpowder and explosive, it needs to be made into granular gunpowder to give full play to the power of gunpowder, and ensure that the gunpowder components will not be layered again due to different proportions during transportation, resulting in imbalance and reducing power.

All these processes have basically matured after a long period of exploration and production tests, so the quality of gunpowder produced by the gunpowder workshop is relatively stable and the power can be guaranteed.

Yu Xiaotian just briefly asked about the production of gunpowder and the reserve of raw materials, as well as the reserve of finished gunpowder. When Li Gouzi told Yu Xiaotian that they had stored more than 5,000 catties of all kinds of gunpowder, Yu Xiaotian shook his head to express his dissatisfaction.

More than 5,000 catties is more than two tons at most. Although the number is not small, if there is a big battle, this reserve is not enough at all, so he requires to continue to expand gunpowder workshops, increase gunpowder production, and ensure that the reserve of gunpowder is basically enough to increase at least 20,000 catties.

Li Gouzi nodded and agreed while writing down the matter, but his face had become not very good, and he looked like he was dying of pain.

(The 23rd day of low fever, I feel a little better after getting up this morning, and try to update another chapter in the afternoon! As long as you are alive, you will not stop typing!)