Yang Zhen needed to prepare a large amount of more powerful black powder, and the core raw material was potassium nitrate.

But he had no idea how to obtain potassium nitrate more efficiently.

After arriving in this era unexpectedly, he could only collect saltpeter, boil fire saltpeter, and produce as high-purity saltpeter as possible according to the native methods of this era.

In this way, for ten days, twenty people from the left wing of the advance battalion musketeers divided into two groups, one directly led by Zhang Chen, and the other led by Li Shouzhong, the shed chief under Zhang Chen, first in Songshan City, and then in Songshan

Outside the city, I looked around for qualified saltpeter.

Their footprints have been to almost every dilapidated and dilapidated Tunbao pier within a dozen miles outside Songshan City, every old courtyard house that has become a broken wall, and every building has long been abandoned.

Empty house in front and back.

While Zhang Chen led the left wing of the musketeers and searched for qualified saltpeter, Zhang Guogan's right wing of the musketeers was not idle either.

Of the original twenty men on the right wing of the musketeers, there are now only thirteen men left, four of whom were killed and three wounded.

After the three injured soldiers entered Songshan City and their injuries improved, they were transferred to Pan Wenmao's men and went to the ammunition depot to boil saltpeter and grind medicine with Pan Wenmao.

During this period of time, Yang Zhen had some free time and could finally concentrate on sorting out some of the common sense he had learned in later generations for later use.

Among them are some memories of granular black powder.

The proportion of black powder in the Ming Dynasty was similar to that in the West at that time, because the proportion of black powder used by Qi Jiguang and others was first introduced back to China from the West by missionaries.

The actual power of black gunpowder in the Ming Dynasty varied. In addition to the ratio, it had a lot to do with the purity of the raw materials, the entire preparation process, and the compression and sealing conditions.

The problem of proportioning is no longer a problem for the advance battalion, especially as a propellant for firearms. It is already very good to prepare it according to the proportions in Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Jixiao".

If you want to continue to increase the explosive power of black gunpowder, you have to continue to increase the weight and proportion of saltpeter, which Yang Zhen cannot do.

Because in the western Liaoning region, the resources of willow carbon and sulfur are relatively sufficient, but the supply of saltpeter is a big problem.

Now we can still rely on the imperial court to collect it from inside the pass, and then transfer it to outside Shanhaiguan to supplement the troops on the Songjin front line.

However, in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, when the Manchu Tatar army went south again to attack Songjin, the court's supplies became unstable.

At that time, Jinzhou, Songshan, Xingshan, Tashan, and even the outskirts of Ningyuan will be occupied by Tatar troops, and all supply channels on land will be cut off.

If Songshan City is surrounded like an iron barrel by the Tatar army this time, like in history, then the sea supply channel planned by Yang Zhen will also be cut off because Songshan City is besieged.

Cutting off the source of fire and saltpeter also cuts off the source of gunpowder. If the source of gunpowder is cut off, how much role can Yang Zhen's advance battalion play?

Isn’t this history of peace and space about to return to its original path?

Therefore, until Yang Zhen has solved the problem of large-scale effective supply of fire saltpeter, he has no way to increase the proportion of saltpeter in the preparation of black gunpowder to enhance the explosive power of black gunpowder.

In addition, he has already arranged for people to increase the purity of the fire salt.

Moreover, Pan Wenmao knew better than him the methods he could think of, such as adding a certain amount of plant ash to the nitrate settling tank before filtering the nitrate water to increase the proportion of nitrate produced.

For another example, during the process of boiling saltpeter in a large stove, a certain concentration of leather glue is added to further absorb impurities, improve purity, etc.

Of course Pan Wenmao didn't know the chemical principles involved, but his experience told him that only by doing this could he make high-quality saltpeter.

Regarding boiling salt, Pan Wenmao, who is now in high regard, is much more concerned about it than Yang Zhen, so Yang Zhen is also relieved. In addition to sending him more manpower, he rarely interferes with Pan Wenmao in boiling salt, making saltpeter and preparing gunpowder.

of autonomy.

But regarding the final product of black powder, Yang Zhen approached Pan Wenmao and told him all his thoughts.

"Old Pan! I know that in the advance camp, you are the old leader and No. 1 in making saltpeter and medicine! Now the gunpowder used in our advance camp is not as powerful as it used to be, which already shows this! Your ability, I

I'm convinced!

"But! I have a way to continue to increase the power of gunpowder! I have heard it said before, but I have never done an experiment! I will tell you today and see if it makes sense! Go back and try it!

"My idea is to classify the gunpowder currently distributed in our camp! Tinder powder is tinder powder, used to ignite the fusillade of the musketeers, and used to make powder twisters for the grenadiers and artillery teams!

"In addition, propellant is propellant, and explosive is explosive! Propellant is used for guns to launch projectiles, and explosive is used by grenadiers and ironworks to create tens of thousands of enemies and grenades!

"And the propellant can also be divided into two types - one is the propellant used by the musketeers! The other is the propellant used by the general cannon, the Franco machine and the tiger crouching cannon!

"As for the difference between ignition powder, propellant powder and blasting powder, there is actually no difference in the ratio of raw materials, just follow the ratio of Grandpa Qi Shuai back then! The only difference between them is that the size of the gunpowder particles is different...

…”

Yang Zhen's idea is very simple. One is to specialize the use of black powder, and the other is to granulate the preparation of black powder.

First of all, it is to distinguish the types of finished black powder, and to distinguish igniting powder, propellant and blasting powder, which must be divided into at least three types:

One is the igniting powder. The black gunpowder used as igniting powder can be appropriately increased in the proportion of fire salt and continue to take the form of a powdered finished product.

Moreover, the raw materials such as fire salt, sulfur, and willow carbon should be ground as finely as possible to further increase the probability of successful ignition and the burning speed of the fusilier.

The second is the propellant. The black gunpowder used as the propellant continues to maintain the previously improved ratio of fire nitrate, sulfur and willow carbon, but the powdered gunpowder product after being fully mixed must be reprocessed into granular form.

of finished black powder.

The propellant particles used in muskets should be smaller, similar to the size of sesame seeds or millet grains.

The particles of propellant used in artillery should be slightly larger, the size of rice grains or even larger will do.

The third is explosive powder. It is specially used to make hand grenades, tens of thousands of enemies, or other types of explosive firearms. As long as a certain proportion of powdered gunpowder is mixed in, it doesn't matter how big the remaining black powder particles are.

Yang Zhen himself is not very clear about the principle behind why black powder becomes more powerful after being granulated.

But he was a descendant after all, and he knew that the granulation of black powder was an important means for future generations to improve the combustion and explosive power of black powder.

For him, it was the only way he could significantly increase the power of black powder in a short period of time under the current conditions.

Yang Zhen originally thought that Pan Wenmao didn't understand these things, but after he finished speaking with great effort, Pan Wenmao looked very calm, as if he had known these things for a long time.

"What you are talking about, I actually knew something about it before I started working! In the past, it was difficult to store gunpowder in the army, and there were cases where it became hardened due to moisture! When gunpowder was needed urgently, we had to carefully crush the hardened gunpowder, and then select the finer ones after passing through a sieve.

particles to use!

"So the military has also discovered that gathering gunpowder particles together and loading them into cannons is more powerful than loading them directly after mixing the powders! However - this is also more labor-intensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive!

"Not to mention that the production is complicated, the crushing and grinding process is also full of risks! If you are not careful, something will happen! So this method is not used easily in the military!

"Actually, when charcoal powder, sulfur powder, and saltpeter powder are mixed together, if they are stirred and mixed and then loaded and used immediately, its power will not necessarily be that small!

"The reason why it is not as good as the gunpowder particles mentioned by your Excellency, in my humble opinion, is mainly because the nature of wood is light and the nature of stone is heavy. After the gunpowder is mixed, if it is kept but not used, over time, the willow carbon will float up and the saltpeter will sink, and the medicine will become bad.

Got it!"

Yang Zhen vaguely seemed to understand what Pan Wenmao said about "the gunpowder is broken", but this could not change his determination to granulate the black powder and use it.

Although Pan Wenmao was a little dissatisfied with what Yang Zhen said, he did not object to Yang Zhen's arrangements: "However, if you are determined to do this, I will do it! It happens that there is no war at the moment, and we have plenty of time.

Take it easy!"

In this way, Yang Zhen and Pan Wenmao discussed together and formulated the basic process steps for granulating black powder: dispensing, mixing, moisturizing, tableting, drying, crushing, screening, and classification.

This process of granulating the finished black powder has added six additional processes to the original process of boiling salt, drying, grinding, dispensing, and mixing, making the entire process as many as eleven.
Chapter completed!