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As Zhang Pingbo said, when the Dragon King goes out to sea, heavy snow is coming. After a storm, the day is cold around Qinghai, the cold wind is howling on the sea surface, and the wind cuts people's face like a knife. On the eighth day of the 10th lunar month, heavy snow falls like goose feathers. The first snow in the seventh year of Tianbao has arrived.

Overnight, the white world became a white world on Longju Island. The long mountains were like a giant snake with a white back, reaching towards the gray water surface. Dozens of soldiers were carefully sweeping the road up the mountain, sprinkling coarse salt to melt the snow, and laying a layer of hay.

On the top of the mountain, Yinglong City, which had begun to be built, was also covered with snow. More than a dozen soldiers were busy cleaning the snow on it, revealing a large area of ​​green stones.

Yinglong City has been built for a month, and two people have already grown taller, but now they have encountered a bottleneck in building a city, that is, insufficient stones. The granite on Longju Island is extremely strong and difficult to mine. Although there is stones in Shenwei City, the Tubo army is eyeing it and cannot transport it on a large scale. Due to insufficient stones, the construction of the city has been intermittent. It has been suspended for five days since the third day of October.

More than 100 tents at the foot of the mountain were also covered with heavy snow. The number of soldiers garrisoned on Longju Island has increased to 2,000. There are also 1,000 people who have not come here for the time being because the castle has not been built yet. However, there are two temporary stone houses on the west side of the tent. Several soldiers are in and out of the stone house. Everyone has serious faces, making the stone house even more mysterious.

At this time, the stone house was steaming hot, and a ventilation opening was opened on the left and right walls. The north wind was pouring in. Despite this, the room was still filled with a choking stench. There was a large pottery jar in the middle of the room, and there was a burning red charcoal fire under the pot. Li Qing'an, the owner of Longju Island, had turned into a chemist. He was wearing a wooden gas mask, his eyes were red, and he was stirring in the pot with a wooden stick, and he occasionally looked at the objects in the pot.

There was also a large pot of clay pot on the other end of the stone house, with charcoal fire burning below. The water in the pot was boiling, and white bubbles were slurry. Several soldiers were busy around the pot. Like Li Qing'an, they also wore wooden gas masks and endured the stench and added the nitroso soil swept from the bird droppings to 8 to 1 ratio, and then poured it into boiling water to dissolve and boil it. After about a quarter of an hour, a soldier shouted, "It's OK!"

Several other soldiers immediately opened a linen cloth and tightly pulled the corners. Under the linen was a large wooden barrel. Three big men wrapped the edge of the clay pot with cloth, lifted the clay pot, and slowly poured the boiling white slurry into the linen cloth for filtering. The residue was left in the linen cloth, and the slurry was filtered into the wooden barrel.

"Okay, come again!"

The soldiers put another pot of clay pot on the fire, poured the slag into the pot and heated it for a quarter of an hour, then filtered it again, and finally mixed the white slurry juice obtained from the two filters and sent it to Li Qing'an.

"General! This barrel is ready."

"Okay, I'm getting better here too."

The wooden stick that Li Qing'an stirred was a little difficult. The potted pot contained the white slurry juice. Most of the water had evaporated and became a syrup-like viscous liquid. At this time, Li Qing'an handed the wooden stick to the soldiers next to him to continue. He took a long-handled wooden spoon, scooped out a spoon of colorless viscous slurry from the pot and poured it into a bowl. As the temperature dropped, a ball of gelatinous substance quickly appeared in the slurry.

"Okay, filter it again!"

Immediately, several soldiers lifted the pot and cooled it down, then filtered it again in the white cloth. A bunch of jelly-like colorless micelles were left in the white cloth, and the salt water was filtered out. After several heating and dissolving and filtering, as the temperature decreased, a full bucket of purified white crystals were finally obtained.

Li Qing'an stood up, tapped his legs that were numb to the point of squatting, and his face was filled with a joyful smile. This is the potassium nitrate crystal he made with traditional methods, commonly known as earth nitrate.

"General, does this thing work?" a soldier asked curiously.

Li Qingan smiled, took a small piece of solidified crystal, twisted it into powder, and threw it into the fiery red charcoal. The charcoal suddenly crackled and sparks flew around it, and the soldiers were so scared that they jumped away.

Li Qingan smiled proudly and said, "Did you see, this is a good thing."

Several soldiers sighed at the same time, and this thing was so popular.

"Okay! Carry it next door and everyone continue."

The soldiers carried the purified earth and nitrate to another stone house. Li Qing'an returned to his tent with a small bucket of earth and nitrate crystals. In order to solve the difficulties of quarrying, he thought of black gunpowder. Black gunpowder was invented as early as the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but it has always been used in elixirs to make medicine. No one thought of its other function.

But Li Qingan knew the effect of gunpowder very well, but he had no time to calm down and think about it. This time Caishi encountered obstacles and reminded him that perhaps gunpowder could help him solve this problem.

It was not very difficult to get the formula of gunpowder. When Li Qing'an was in Kucha, he got it from a alchemist. He had 60% saltpeter, 25% sulfur, and 15% charcoal. He ground them into powder and mixed them together and turned into black gunpowder.

There is bird droppings accumulated over hundreds of years on Longju Island, and there is all kinds of nitro earth, and charcoal powder can be easily obtained. The key now is sulfur. There is no sulfur on Longju Island, so he still found two kilograms of items carried by a soldier.

How many stones could a black gunpowder made of two kilograms of sulfur cause him to collapse? This made Li Qingan very worried. He sighed softly, put down the paper bag he had just mixed in his hand, and paced back and forth in the tent with his back, but the problem now is that there is no sulfur, which makes it difficult for him to cook without rice.

Li Qing'an lifted the curtain and suddenly a large area of ​​white and bright snow came in. The north wind was extremely cold, and snowflakes were covered with snow. From him, you could see the sea in the distance. There was a vast sea surface and no ships arrived. Li Qing'an felt a little anxious. Half a month ago, he heard from the monk Fahai in the temple that sulfur was abundant in the middle of Datong Mountain, and it was natural sulfur, which was very easy to mine. He ordered He Yan Ming to lead more than 100 people to take two ships to find mines. Half a month ago, but there was no news. Li Qing'an was worried that they would encounter the Tubo army, so if it really didn't work, he sent people to Shanzhou to buy it.

He returned to the tent and carefully poured several packets of black gunpowder into a small clay pot. This was the only pound of sulfur he made into black gunpowder. Although he got the formula from the alchemist, he did not know the intensity of the explosion. For this reason, he configured several types of gunpowder to gradually increase the content of the nitrate and labeled it on the clay pot.

At this time, a personal guard came from outside, "General! The venue has been cleaned up."

"I'll go now."

Li Qing'an picked up a few small cans of black gunpowder and walked out of the tent quickly. The snow had stopped completely. The island had become a white world, like wearing a thick white coat. Li Qing'an and several soldiers rode their horses toward the south of the island.

There are three huge valleys south of Longju Island, two of which are used to store horses, and the other smaller valley is useless and is just for testing gunpowder. When Li Qing'an arrived at the valley, several Tang soldiers were already waiting there. The valley was not big, twenty meters long and five meters wide, with dark granite on both sides. The snow inside had been cleaned up. Although the north wind was howling, the valley was very quiet and there was no cold wind, which was very beneficial to the gunpowder test.

There were a total of twenty Tang soldiers who participated in the experiment with Li Qing'an, all of whom were confidants selected by Li Qing'an from Jiangdu Camp and He'anxi Army. This gunpowder test is of great significance. Li Qing'an confirmed it to be a top military secret. Except for a few generals, ordinary soldiers knew nothing.

The test platform is located in the innermost corner of the valley. It is a piece of bluestone five feet square. Li Qing'an personally put the clay pot on the clay pot. The clay pot is about the size of a grapefruit, and then used a long rope soaked in tinder to be used as a twist, drag it out one meter long, and inserted the other end into the clay pot.

"General, will you start?" asked a ignition soldier in a low voice.

"Wait a moment!"

Li Qingan took a small wooden box and carefully covered it on the clay pot, then looked left and right, then nodded and said, "Okay, let's start!"

Everyone quickly retreated ten feet away, curiously waiting for the miracle that Li Qing'an said to happen. Li Qing'an felt a little uneasy. The pottery jar was 60% gunpowder. The intuition told him that the effect might not be too good. The ignition soldier ignited the oil rope, and the fire started to burn with a loud bang. The fire was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, he arrived next to the box. The ignition soldier was so scared that he ran away, but was tripped to the ground. He hugged his head tightly and did not dare to move. The sudden accident made Li Qing'an's heart hang up. At this moment, there was a muffled sound of "bang!", and the wooden box was shaken up one foot high, and a stream of black smoke rose into the sky.

Everyone exclaimed in surprise, ran forward, talking in a slight manner. The first time they saw gunpowder, although it was not as thrilling as Li Qing'an described, they still shocked them.

Half of the clay pot had been blown into pieces, but the other half had not moved. The bluestone slab was covered with black gunpowder that was not burning. This was obviously because the gunpowder was compacted too tightly and it was not able to burn fully. Most of the exploded clay pieces were embedded in the inner wall of the wooden box, but several pieces of debris were also shot out, one of which was shot on the legs of the ignition soldiers, making a bloody hole. Moreover, the wooden box was also loosened, but it did not fall apart.

"Qilang, is this gunpowder?" Li Fei Shouyu asked curiously.

"Yes! This is gunpowder, how does it feel?" Li Qingan asked with a smile.

Li Fei Yuanli next to him curled his lips and said, "It doesn't feel good. You can scare Ma, I'm old Li! I just twitched my eyelids."

"I'll do it again."

Li Qingan took another can of black gunpowder, and the ingredients on the mark were 70% nitrogen, 20% sulfur and 10% charcoal. He could not remember the ingredients of black gunpowder in later generations, but he vaguely remembered that the ingredients of the nitrate were 70%.

"Come on! Try this can again."

The gunpowder was stuffed too strong just now. This time he poured out part of it and loosened the pottery jar. Then he placed it on the bluestone and covered the wooden box. This time Li Qingan did not use anyone to ignite it, but used the rocket. They stood fifteen feet away and slowly pulled the bow. A ball of fire burned on the arrow. When the strings were loose, the rocket shot out high, drawing a parabola, accurately nailed it to the oil rope. The oil rope burned and quickly burned towards the wooden box, like a fire snake, disappeared into the wooden box. Before everyone could react, they heard a shocking explosion. The gunpowder exploded violently, and a stream of black smoke rose into the sky. The wooden box was blown into pieces, and the debris of the wooden box flew high.

Li Qingan slowly knelt down, his eyes full of excitement. He suddenly punched the soil hard, 70% of the salt! 70% of the salt is the formula of gunpowder. It took a long time for the people next to him to react from the shock. Li Fei Yuanli widened his eyes and said to himself: "My mother, this is simply the power of Thunder God!"

"Qiro, let's do it!"

Li Fei Shouyu, who had always been quiet, could not resist the excitement in his heart. He punched his two fists and said in a deep voice: "With this kind of thunder weapon, why worry about the immortality of the Tubo army? It's time for our Anxi army to make contributions."

Li Qing'an nodded and smiled at everyone, "This kind of gunpowder needs to be gradually improved to become a weapon, but now I am only considering how to blow up the rocks for the time being."

At this moment, a fierce sound of horse hooves came from outside the valley, and someone shouted: "General! General!"

Li Qing'an walked out of the valley quickly and saw a soldier riding on a horse, pulling the war horse back and forth.

"What's the matter?"

"General, Captain He is back!"

He Yanming did not disappoint him. Under the guidance of a local Qiang man, they found a high-quality natural sulfur mine in the middle of Datong Mountain, and they obtained thousands of kilograms of natural sulfur.

When Li Qing'an arrived at the beach, the soldiers were carrying baskets of sulfur from the boat. When He Yanming saw Li Qing'an arrive, he quickly took two steps and stepped forward and half kneeled to salute, "I am lucky to have fulfilled my fate and found the sulfur mine."

"Didn't encounter the Tubo army?"

"No, the local Qiang people were guided by the Beishi, and they avoided the Tubo patrol team."

"Well done, I will remember your great achievements this time."

He Yanming was overjoyed. He hurriedly brought a basket of sulfur and smiled: "I heard from the Qiang people that there is more sulfur in the Qilian Mountains. If the general is not enough, I can go there again and get his mother tens of thousands of kilograms of sulfur back."

Li Qingan looked at the pieces of red and yellow sulfur crystals that he had been waiting for for a long time, and suddenly felt very happy. With them, his black gunpowder could emerge.

He nodded, turned around and smiled at everyone, "With these thousands of kilograms of sulfur, our Yinglong City will be repaired soon."

With sulfur, Li Qing'an's black gunpowder was successfully released, but how to turn them into powerful generals of the mountain was exhausted by Li Qing'an. Black gunpowder is not like explosives, and can exert great power in a little bit. It requires a large dose of use. After thinking for a long time, Li Qing'an decided to make a simple and effective child-like thing. When he was a child, he was injured by a firecracker, which left him with a deep memory.

Firecrackers are to wrap gunpowder tightly with paper, wrap it into a cylinder, and finally wrap it with iron. When it explodes, the impact gas it produces is enough to crack the hard granite.

It took only half a day to get three big firecrackers one person tall and two feet thick, just like the plastic firecracker model hanging at the entrance of the mall during festivals, but it was a real guy.

This time, Li Qing'an did not do it secretly. Under the gaze of hundreds of Tang soldiers, three soldiers hung a large firecracker weighing nearly 100 kilograms with ropes and carefully placed it in a huge rock crack on the hillside. The rocks in this area were broken and easier to mine.

After laying the firecracker, the soldiers dragged it five feet long and the fuse that distinguished the thickness of the skull out of the crack, and fixed the ignition end on a wooden board. Everything was ready. All the soldiers retreated four hundred steps away, blocked their ears with their fingers as Li Qing'an told him, and left the rest to Li Qing'an to complete.

Li Qing'an stood a hundred steps away from the horse and slowly pulled the bow away. A ball of flame jumped in front of his eyes. He took a deep breath. When the string was loosened, the rocket shot out on a parabola track and flew towards the fuse with the open flame.

‘Crack!’ The rocket was nailed to the wooden board accurately, and the flames ignited the fuse fixed on it. Li Qing'an turned his horse's head and ran back. He only ran for more than two hundred steps, and only heard a shocking explosion. The entire island seemed to be shaken. His war horse was frightened, and a long neighing sound was raised, and the front hooves were raised, overturning him to the ground.

Li Qingan hugged his head, and dense small stones flew over the sky and hit him with crackling sounds. Slowly, he looked backwards and saw a stream of black smoke rising into the sky, forming a cloud of mushrooms. The huge impact force cracked the cliff and the large rocks collapsed. Looking at the soldiers, almost all became sculptures, standing or kneeling, everyone's mouth was wide open, and their eyes were filled with horror.

With the help of gunpowder, stones for building the city came continuously, and the soldiers were in high spirits. They worked together to build the city. Just twenty days later, the prototype of Yinglong City, which was three feet high, appeared.

That afternoon, Li Qing'an inspected the progress of the construction of the city in Yinglong City as usual. Yinglong City covers an area of ​​more than 20 acres, tall and sturdy, and can accommodate 2,000 soldiers.

More than a thousand soldiers were busy in the city. They used lime and flour to make mortar, and made pieces of polished granite stone, leaving no gap. When the mortar was dry, the city wall became extremely solid. The entire city wall was about one and a half meters wide, and was compacted with loess in the middle.

Li Qingan walked up to several soldiers and asked with a smile: "How long will it take to build a city?"

The soldiers hurriedly saluted, and the soldier led by the Hannu leader Luo Han who was rescued in Haixi. His injuries had completely recovered and he joined the Tang army again. He had rich experience in building a city and was currently the commander-in-chief of Yinglong City.

He bowed and said, "General, in half a month, the main body of Yinglong City can complete it. The rest are some finishing work, at most one month."

Li Qing'an nodded, "The progress should not only be fast, but more importantly, it is to ensure that the castle is strong and can withstand the impact of the storm."

"Don't worry, General, there is absolutely no problem!"

Just then, someone suddenly shouted, "Look at General, beacon!"

Li Qingan rushed to the city wall and saw a thin wisp of black smoke rising at the end of the vast sea. It was the three reef beacon towers thirty miles away in the south. Li Qingan's heart suddenly tightened.
Chapter completed!