Chapter 59 The gunpowder dilemma

(Ask for red tickets, please collect!)

In a few days, Xiao Tianjian arranged all kinds of affairs in Shuangfengzhai, and only waited for Zhang Chao to supervise these projects in accordance with his established plan.

And Xiao Tianjian is concerned about the new bird's bunting. After a few days of experiments, the new bird's bunting finally exploded and declared scrapping after filling an overdose. However, it also figured out the maximum charge amount of this kind of bird's bunting, and after a reduction, the standard charge was set. In this way, compared with Xiao When Tianjian tried to shoot, the power of this kind of bird gun was improved. At least after facing the officers and soldiers who also held the bird gun, the fire gun hand of Xing Tianjun could basically shoot against it without fear.

However, at this time, Xiao Tianjian began to be not very satisfied with the way of charge, because in the past, their fixed ammunition was loaded in some short bamboo tubes. Although it is okay to do this, the local bamboo resources are limited and labor-intensive, so Xiao Tianjian thinks it is necessary to improve it. Paper shell ammunition will be completely used in the future.

Paper shell ammunition is an important thing for the development of muskets. In the Western era, such a loading method has begun to appear. The principle is the same as the fixed ammunition of bamboo tubes. It is rolled into a small paper tube with wax paper, which is filled with the divided gunpowder according to the required amount, and then put in a projectile that has been uniformly made in advance. It is usually stored in the soldier's skin, and it will not get damp when it rains. When using it, the firearm takes out such a fixed paper shell ammunition, bites the head, pours the gunpowder into the gun, finally put the projectile into the gun, then beats it with a stick, and then pours the remaining little gunpowder into the medicine pool as an inflame. In this way The firearms can greatly shorten the loading time. At least during the enemy's loading time, they can load and launch twice, and there is no need to worry about repeated loading or excessive loading of gunpowder, which ensures the safety of the firearms themselves.

Wax paper is no longer difficult to find here. Although they have not established contact with Fan Yutong's family at present, they can also buy this kind of wax paper in the local Yangcheng County. Even if there is no wax paper, ordinary paper can be made into wax paper by yourself. The condition is completely It's ready.

There is no need to let Yang Changshou take care of this matter. Now Xiao Tianjian has ready-made talents, that is, Gao Cheng, who has not seen him for a long time.

Gao Cheng is now given him a nickname called Gao Da Cannon. On the side of Shuangfengzhai, there is a special workshop for him in the back mountain for him to play with some novel things.

Xiao Tianjian came to Gao Cheng's gunpowder workshop on this day. It is still the same as the old rules here. No fireworks can be put in, and no idle people are allowed to enter.

As soon as Gao Cheng saw Xiao Tianjian coming, he hurried out to salute. Xiao Tianjian patted him on the shoulder and said, "How was this period? I've been too busy these days to come to your place to have a look. Tell me about it!"

Gao Cheng scratched his head and smiled and hurriedly replied, "It's almost the same! The general came up with the kind of paper thunder, but the small one made a hundred and ten, and the small one tried many times. He found that the iron slag was mixed into the gunpowder. After blowing it up, it was not very powerful. He thought of a small way, rolled the paper shell into two layers, stuffed the iron slag in the middle of the two layers, and then put the gunpowder into the middle hole. Let's try this. After several times, the iron slag exploded was more powerful and dispersed more evenly! Unfortunately, I can't continue to do it now! It has been suspended here for many days!"

Xiao Tianjian was happy first, because the method mentioned by Gao Cheng is indeed very effective. It is basically a kind of handrail with preset fragments. This can indeed make the fragment density formed by iron slag more uniform after the explosion, and the lethality will naturally be much higher. So I admired this guy's intelligence. Just as he was about to praise him, he said that he couldn't continue to do it. So he was stunned for a moment and immediately asked, "This method is good, so why did you stop?"

Gao Cheng frowned and replied, "What else can I do? Now there is no gunpowder in the army, so naturally there is no rice in the pot! Do this, how to do it without gunpowder!"

Only then did Xiao Tianjian understand that (a great and harmonious society, even these two words can't be together!) After this period of time, they have turned to war repeatedly. After arriving here, they have fought several big battles in a row. The gunpowder originally stored and seized in the army has basically been consumed. At present, not only Gaocheng has no gunpowder here, but I'm afraid Huang Shengqiang doesn't have much available anywhere. All the gunpowder available is left to Huang Shengqiang. And the gunners in the army used it, and Gao Cheng is naturally out of stock here.

So he immediately frowned and thought for a moment to comfort Gao Cheng, "So it is. It seems that I have ignored this matter during this period! This is a big deal! It seems that we need to think of more ways to solve this problem quickly!"

Because of this matter, Xiao Tianjian didn't want to talk about his paper shell bullets. After sitting down, he asked Gao Cheng, "Let me ask you, do you know how to make earth saltpeter?"

Gao Cheng immediately nodded and patted his chest and said, "Of course I know. When I was a child, I followed my father and boiled the gunpowder by myself!" How can you not know? As long as the general brings me enough gunpowder, I can boil it out! As for the sulfur, I have no choice but to go to the pharmacy to buy it. In addition, get me some willow carbon. With these three things, I can naturally match the gunpowder!"

After hearing this, Xiao Tianjian immediately patted his buttocks and left. He returned to his temporary residence in Shuangfengzhai without delay for a moment and said to Tietou, "Tietou, you send someone to go to Mr. Fu immediately and ask him to inform his people. In our local village, there are a large number of pig house manure piles in front and back for me. The price of the surrounding earth and gunpowder can be wider. In short, this matter is combined with their division of fields. If you want to do it together, the more the better!"

The iron head was stunned. He didn't know what earth was. Xiao Tianjian immediately led the iron head and a few guards and ran to the original pigsty, next to a pile of dung mound, pointed to a layer of pale yellow soil on the ground, scraped some down, put it on a tile, and folded it with fire. The yellow soil immediately emitted some small sparks.

"Do you see it? This thing is earth and gunpowder. What I want is this thing. Ask Fu Deming to arrange someone to collect it quickly. The more you collect, the better. But remember, no one is allowed to imperate it. Otherwise, don't let us collect their earthenware in the future!" Xiao Tianjian clapped his hands and stood up and said to these guys.

Tietou immediately understood what this was. He quickly clicked the two guards and asked them to go out of Shuangfengzhai to do this. Originally, it was more appropriate for them to compost and scrape the earth and saltpeter by themselves, but now they are here for the first time. In addition, this season is just scraping the earth and saltpeter. The best time is that once the spring rain is over, it is not easy to scrape the earth saltpeter again. Counting the surrounding villages, it is estimated that after mobilizing the villagers, a large amount of earth saltpeter can be obtained in a short time, at least it can solve the problem of saltpeter at present.

As for the matter of sulfur, there is no way. I can only send people to take risks to Yangcheng County, or buy it from the big pharmacy in Zezhou City. This area does not produce sulfur, and Xiao Tianjian has no way.

Fortunately, Xing Tianjun has plenty of money now. He can still solve this problem by spending some money locally. After the amount of needs in the future is large, he can only hope to find another way. Fan Yutong's father seems to be their hope.

As for willow carbon, that's simpler. There are many willow trees here. Find some people to burn willow carbon, and then crush it and give it to Gao Cheng. As for how to make gunpowder, Xiao Tianjian doesn't have to show off Gao Cheng.

In fact, the formula of gunpowder has been quite mature in the Ming Dynasty, basically reaching the most reasonable formula level. The reason why the quality of gunpowder in the hands of officers and soldiers is unstable is that the manufacturer is not careful, the supervision is not good, and the craftsmen did not fully follow the reasonable formula, and the second reason is that the raw materials are not Thoroughly purified or completely crushed, especially the impurities in the saltpeter. Of course, you don't have to think that the power of gunpowder will be maximized!

In addition, a lot of gunpowder has not been made into granular gunpowder. After long-term storage or transportation, the heavy raw material powder in the gunpowder barrel sinks, and the light raw material powder floats on it. Even the good ratio of gunpowder has become unevenly formulated gunpowder. In this way, the quality of gunpowder can naturally be imagined. .

And granular gunpowder is not the invention of Xiao Tianjian in this era. Some people in the Ming Dynasty have wet the gunpowder with soju and then rub it into granules, but this process has not been used in many places, so that the quality of gunpowder in the hands of the Ming army is quite unstable.

And there will be no such problem on the side of Xing Tianjun. All departments of the craftsman's camp have formulated detailed crafts. All craftsmen must make it according to the established process. Gao Cheng is also a very serious person. The quality of the gunpowder produced is compared with the quality of the captured gunpowder they used in emergency before. It has been improved by more than one level, so even if the Xing Tianjun uses the previously-shaped bird guns and artillery, after equipping them with their own gunpowder, the power will rise to a higher level.

Since there is a shortage of gunpowder at present, the paper shell fixed ammunition can only be put on hold for the time being. Xiao Tianjian has arranged what should be arranged. When the gunpowder can be produced in batches, at least until sulfur is bought back and the earth nitrate is purified. In terms of time, I'm afraid it's too late before the New Year. Well, we can only wait until after the Spring Festival to talk about this matter.

And Xiao Tianjian knows that his time is very tight, and the beginning of spring will come quickly. After the beginning of spring, if Feng Xi can't complete what he ordered, then when spring comes, Zezhou is likely to send an army to suppress them. In that case, there will be less than two hours left for them. It's been a month.

There are too many things to do in the past two months, so Xiao Tianjian does not stay in Shuangfengzhai. He will leave the things here to Zhang Chao to continue to supervise, and if he is not enough manpower, he will boldly use some smart people among the craftsmen as assistants for him. In short, he has to move forward quickly.

And he immediately led a team of guards, went out of Shuangfengzhai and went to Dongye Town. At present, the ironmaking furnaces in this area are basically concentrated inside and outside Dongye Town, which is also the foundation of his foothold here, so he can't help but be careless.