"I want to ask Auntie, does she know about green vitriol oil?"
Li Ye asked Qiao Bin, who was in charge of the supplies, this morning. Qiao Bin had never heard of green vitriol oil. He asked Liu Yan again, and Liu Yan didn't know either. They didn't even have such supplies. This made Li Ye very depressed. Did he remember it wrong?
Already.
Li Tengfei was a little surprised and said: "Why does Your Highness ask this?"
Li Ye's eyes lit up and he quickly said: "I just want to ask if this thing exists?"
Li Tengfei nodded, "This is a reagent used by alchemists to make alchemy. It is very effective, but it is also very dangerous and highly corrosive, so most pharmacies do not sell it, and ordinary people will not know its existence."
It's highly corrosive, that's right. Li Ye asked again: "Does Auntie have one?"
Li Tengfei smiled and said: "During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, the alchemist Gu Gangzi wrote a book called "The Yellow Emperor's Nine Cauldrons Divine Pill Sutra", which contains the method of refining green vitriol oil. I refined it during the Tianbao period, and later refined the gunpowder.
I've done it a few times, it's not too difficult, but it's quite dangerous. You need to use a special curved-neck steamer. If you need it, I can prepare some for you."
"Is it okay if I ask the craftsmen to learn the refining method from you?"
"This is not a secret, of course, but I don't have time now. It's the Chinese New Year, probably early January, so just arrange for someone to come to Taiqing Palace to find me and ask them to bring more green vitriol, which is usually sold in pharmacies.
"
"Auntie, I want the most concentrated kind!"
"It's not a big problem. Just send someone to find me when the time comes. I'll take my leave now!"
Li Tengfei stood up, bowed, and walked away.
Li Ye sent Li Tengfei away and sat down to think for a moment. The next step is to make glycerin. Glycerin is very simple. Elementary school students can do it. Mix baking soda and beef and mutton oil, and it will naturally decompose into soap and glycerin. The glycerin can be further distilled and purified.
Very pure glycerin is obtained. As for baking soda, the grass growing on the saline-alkali soil is burned into ashes to obtain baking soda.
Li Ye wants to make explosives not just for war, he also wants to use them in mines, which can greatly improve mining efficiency. Using explosives to make iron fire mines is dozens of times more powerful than black powder iron fire mines. It can completely destroy the huge rocks in Sanmenxia.
It was completely blown up, and food transportation will be unimpeded from now on.
In the afternoon, another heavy snowfall fell, and there was laughter everywhere in Chang'an City. The New Year was coming again.
On the twenty-seventh day of the first lunar month, Li Ye led a group of officials to the Firearms and Gunpowder Department again. After adding cotton wool, and after repeated trials, the iron fire thunder finally succeeded. The cotton wool burned extremely fast, produced hundreds of thousands of times the gas, and expanded violently.
, making the gunpowder more than ten times more potent.
This is not nitrocellulose. If nitrocellulose soaked in nitric acid is used, the explosion power will be even greater.
Logically speaking, Li Ye should have brought military generals to the site to observe the demonstration, but in order to get the civilian officials to support his military technology, he brought the civilian officials to visit.
Hu Jiuling and the craftsmen were very excited and led Li Ye and the officials to the testing site. The testing site was a sandy land with thirty puppets standing on it, all about the same size as human beings, arranged in a formation.
Master craftsman Zhang Huan sent an iron fire mine as big as a blue ball, which looked like a landmine.
"How many pounds?" Li Ye asked with a smile.
"Reporting to Your Highness, a full thirty kilograms!"
Li Ye nodded, "Go ahead! Let's see what happens?"
The two soldiers rushed away with the iron fire thunder in their arms. Hu Jiuling sent earmuffs to the senior officials and explained: "The sound is like thunder, it is very shocking. Please wear earmuffs to avoid damaging your hearing."
"How far will the explosive iron fragments fly?" Li Ye asked again.
"Your Majesty, the furthest distance is about a hundred steps. We are two hundred steps apart, so there is no need to worry!"
Everyone stood on the high platform and leaned forward to look at the wooden formation in the distance. The soldiers had already entered the wooden formation and placed the iron fire thunder in the formation. Suddenly, two soldiers ran out of the formation and took dozens of steps.
He jumped into a large pit dug in advance, covered his ears with his hands, and held his head. For a moment, he only heard a violent explosion with a sound like thunder and thick smoke rising.
Looking at the wooden man formation again, there is no wooden man standing, all of them have been blown over.
Everyone went to see the effect, and saw that dozens of puppets had their limbs broken by the explosion, and their bodies were covered with iron pieces. But everyone was confused and didn't know where the breakthrough was.
Hu Jiuling introduced to everyone: "Dear envoys, we use porcelain jars to make porcelain fire thunder. It can only blow up five or six wooden figures at most, and it is just blown over. There is not much damage to the body. Now it is thirty wooden figures."
All the people were blown over, and their heads and torsos were blown off. If it were loaded with iron sand and exploded in a crowd, there would definitely be heavy casualties."
"Has it been tested on sheep?"
Hu Jiuling nodded, "More than 70 sheep died, more than 30 were killed directly by the explosion, and the others were shocked to death."
Li Mi asked: "What do you plan to do with this iron fire thunder?"
Li Ye pondered for a while and said: "The first is to attack the city, the second is to defend the city, the third is to deal with the cavalry, and the fourth is naval battle. For cavalry and naval battles, trebuchets can be used."
Liu Yan smiled and said: "Have you never thought about civilian use? For example, mining in the mountains and so on."
Li Ye smiled slightly and said: "This kind of iron fire thunder can only deal with city walls and flesh and blood. It is not enough to open mountains and mines. I am now considering a more powerful iron fire thunder, which is dozens of times more powerful. It can blast mountains and mines."
It’s easy to use stone.”
Hu Jiuling's eyes lit up next to him, "Does your Highness have any better firearms?"
"I am considering that after the New Year, you can arrange for a dozen reliable gunpowder makers to go to the Taiqing Palace to learn how to make green vitriol oil on the sixth day of the first lunar month. On the fifth day of the first lunar month, I will send arrangers to come to you."
Hu Jiuling nodded, "I have seen green vitriol oil before. It is very powerful and can corrode all kinds of items."
Li Ye nodded, "It is the key to making stronger fire weapons, so the person you find must be reliable!"
Returning to Chang'an from the Firearms and Powder Department, the carriages everyone rode entered the city through Anhua Gate. To the west of Anhua Street are Da'anfang and Zhaohangfang.
This place was originally a place for refugees. In the past, it was filled with various shacks and countless shady people lived there. Some were thieves and some were treasure hunters at night.
Pei Sanniang was once forced by life to work as a treasure hunter at night for several months, specifically looking for uninhabited dilapidated houses, wandering on the edge of stealing.
However, since Li Ye implemented the rule of keeping city gates and square gates open at night, the people of Da'anfang and Zhaoxingfang have moved to Han Chang'an City, leaving these two squares empty. For these two large pieces of land, Li Ye decided
Used to create a college area.
All the seven schools were moved here, as well as the Yanwu Hall, which is a military school, a school dedicated to training generals. There are also more than a dozen schools such as agriculture, weapons, engineering, etc.
The land has been leveled, and officials are measuring the area, dividing the two squares into thirty plots, and then allocating land to each school. Construction will begin next spring.
First, the five schools of Taixue, Yanwutang, Military Science, Arithmetic and Agriculture were started.
Li Mi pointed to a piece of land to the east and said: "What His Highness said that day touched us deeply. We discussed it and decided to start with ships and build a specialized ship school to cultivate high-level talents. But there are
A big problem."
"What's the big problem?"
Li Mi smiled bitterly and said: "That's the teaching professors. We only have craftsmen who are good at shipbuilding here. They can't teach students. There are more than 20 officials who are proficient in shipbuilding in the Ministry of Industry and Water Department of the imperial court and the Boating Department of the Capital Water Supervision."
Officials and principals, Your Highness, we must find a way to poach them."
Li Ye nodded, "Leave this matter to Yang Shaohua. Not only the Ministry of Water and the Zhouji Department, but also other officials and directors who know technology should be hired for me. The generals are all professors of my school. Give them additional training."
Fifty percent of the salary and guaranteed housing."
Li Mi said happily: "In this case, the Engineering School can also start preparations for its establishment."