"Sir! You are back!" As soon as Fang Chen arrived at the Internal Affairs Office, Qiu Nian put down the work at hand and greeted him with a compliment.
As the head of internal affairs, he also has to deal with some trivial matters in the palace every day.
However, Fang Chen basically put all the power in the hands of the people below, and he mainly dealt with some matters that had to be handled.
The affairs that the internal officials are responsible for include: palm trees, stones, tiles, soil, building materials, eastbound and westbound, painting, weddings, and rice and salt warehouses, construction warehouses, imperial altar warehouses, and all national construction palaces, mausoleums, and copper
Tin dowry, utensils, ice and other things.
In fact, the Internal Affairs Supervisor is similar to the Ministry of Works in the outer court, and is only responsible for matters within the palace.
"Qiu Nian, how are you doing with the sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal I asked you to purchase two days ago?"
Qiunian replied: "Sir, these three things, sulfur and saltpeter, are all medicinal materials. They are available at Tai Hospital. We said hello, and Tai Hospital sent a lot of them. These things are not valuable. They have not been available for a long time.
For human use.”
"We have plenty of charcoal in the house. Every year as winter approaches, the palace needs a lot of charcoal for heating."
In ancient times, sulfur was a traditional Chinese medicine. It was natural sulfur collected in Sulfur Kuang. It contained arsenic, a poison, and was used to prevent and control pests. Some alchemists liked to use sulfur to refine special medicines.
Saltpeter is also a traditional Chinese medicinal material. It is a natural crystal that has the functions of breaking through accumulation, detoxifying and reducing swelling.
Charcoal can be made from wood everywhere, as much as you want.
Fang Chen was very satisfied: "Bring the thing here, let's study something together."
Qiunian sent someone to bring the three large bags of things he had prepared to the room.
Fang Chen opened it himself and inspected the contents inside.
Fang Chen only knew that gunpowder was prepared by grinding these three things into powder, but Fang Chen didn't know what proportion and the power of the explosion after successful production.
People from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Great Yan Dynasty must not have known about it either, because when Hu Yanzhuo took out black gunpowder before, no one in the civil and military dynasties could recognize it.
And the black gunpowder Hu Yanzhuo took out was the most common black gunpowder, something refined by some alchemists. It was out of proportion and had extremely low explosive efficiency, not even as good as ordinary firecrackers!
Qiu Nian was very curious and asked: "Sir, what do you want these three things for? Do you want to make medicine?"
"Yes." Fang Chen said, "We make a special medicine."
"Now, I give you a task. Grind all these three bags into powder. Remember, there shouldn't be too many impurities in them."
"When you're done, call me."
Fang Chen wanted to take a good rest and squint for a while, but he didn't expect that in ten minutes, Qiu Nian had already finished the matter.
Because it was something Fang Chen had personally explained, Qiunian brought a large number of eunuchs over to help.
It's done in minutes.
Moreover, after grinding the three things into powder, all the impurities are carefully filtered.
After Fang Chen checked it, everything was as delicate as flour.
"Everyone has worked hard. Okay, everyone else can go down. Qiu Nian will stay."
Next, Fang Chen and Qiu Nian began to study the production of black gunpowder.
Fang Chen asked Qiu Nian to bring some tools, a steelyard, some glass products, etc., and study the three powders in proportion.
Researching explosives is not that simple. Fang Chen only vaguely remembers the materials and methods of making them.
Therefore, we need to verify it step by step.
First, separate a little of the three materials and blend them together, then take out the fire stick and light them.
Whoa whoosh!
There were just some sparks but no burning, so the proportions were obviously wrong.
Next, Fang Chen used a steel scale to divide each of the three materials in half, fused them together, stirred them evenly, then put them in a sealed ceramic jar, and used a simple cloth strip to make a lead.
Not long after, the whole room was filled with smoke, and the two people choked and coughed non-stop!
"Sir, what are you studying? It's such a big smoke!"
"Ah, sir, there's a fire over there..."
As the two people studied, they could no longer stay in the room.
They can only move their work place to the yard and let others avoid it.
More than half an hour later, there was a small explosion.
"Cough cough cough!" Fang Chen's face was covered with black ash and he kept coughing. However, he finally achieved some small results.
"My lord, how are you? My lord, what exactly is this thing you are studying?"
Qiu Nian was frightened, and the two of them kept studying. At the beginning, the gunpowder was ignited, just a little spark.
Then, the gunpowder was put into a small closed bamboo tube, a fuse was provided, and after it was ignited, there was a sudden explosion, and the entire bamboo tube was blown into pieces.
Fang Chen was also affected.
Fang Chen chuckled, his face covered with gray and gray, and his mouth revealed a row of white teeth, which was very funny.
"Our research has achieved preliminary success. If we continue to research, we will definitely be able to create what we want!"
As the two of them researched, Qiu Nian already knew that they were not studying the preparation of medicinal materials.
This black powder can produce an explosion. Just a small amount of it can blow a bamboo pipe into pieces!
If there is a large amount of black powder, produced through some methods, a house will be blown up.
Qiu Nian was very smart, so he didn't ask any more questions.
He knows that these things made by the adults are very important, and the adults allow him to stay, which shows that they have great trust in him.
Qiu Nian must not betray the trust placed in him.
Fang Chen continued to tinker with it, becoming more and more excited. Maybe men like these things.
Just like when Fang Chen was a child, he loved setting off firecrackers and fireworks every day during holidays.
Fang Chen also knows a little about forgiving gunpowder explosions.
Gunpowder burns very easily. During the combustion process, it will release high heat and produce a large amount of gas.
If gunpowder is wrapped in paper, cloth, leather or stuffed in clay pots, stone holes, etc., the volume will suddenly expand to thousands of times during combustion, and an explosion will occur!
This is how black powder explodes.
And no one in this world understands these principles.
Fang Chen and Qiu Nian studied until midnight, but the results were not great.
But Fang Chen believed that as long as he was given three days, he would be able to research it!
At night, Fang Chen rested for five or six hours. At dawn the next day, Fang Chen woke Qiu Nian up. After dinner, they studied black powder together.
Failure again and again equals success again and again!
The proportion of the three needs to be eliminated and re-adjusted again and again.
very tired!
But Fang Chen never gets tired of it!
Night falls.
Lu Caihuang asked Zhao Qian to invite Fang Chen to come over. However, after arriving at the Internal Affairs Prison, the eunuch told Zhao Qian that Fang Chen had something to do and could not go.
Zhao Qian had a dark face: "What are you talking about? Xiao Chenzi can't go. This is the Queen's order to let Xiao Chenzi go. How dare he disobey?"