After Shen Qianqian left, the Qin sisters all stared at Zhang Yangquan.
Although they had just recently robbed more than 800 gold from Qingyi Village, they spent 500 gold in one go and bought saltpeter. Both women were full of confusion.
"Do you believe me?" Zhang Yangquan asked.
Qin Lingjun glanced at him, as if to say: "If I didn't believe you, how could I buy saltpeter just now?"
Qin Lingsi urged repeatedly: "What other evil ideas do you have, tell me quickly, tell me quickly!"
Zhang Yangquan smiled and said: "I will give you an explanation within ten days!"
The gunpowder workshop is located in a remote cave to the west of Houshan.
This cave is naturally formed and was originally used to store gunpowder. The cave is unusually wide and can not only shelter from wind and rain, but also prevent open flames caused by lightning strikes.
Zhang Yangquan first directed everyone to clean the cave and then grind the saltpeter into powder.
Then we found six honest and reliable old village soldiers, divided them into three groups, and arranged them in three corners of the cave.
There is a table and a large sack in front of each group. The bags contain saltpeter powder, sulfur powder and charcoal powder respectively.
The three groups of people all worked facing the wall. One of them held a small drugstore scale in his hand, and the other held a clay pot. Communication with each other was prohibited.
The first formula of gunpowder was created in the Tang Dynasty. It was not very powerful and was used as fireworks.
With the diligent research of a group of alchemists and doctors, the development of gunpowder was quickly promoted. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, its power had increased a lot.
Zhang Yangquan knows the best ratio of black powder
Once you know the formula, there is no difficulty in refining gunpowder. The only problem is to prevent the formula from being leaked.
So Zhang Yangquan asked Qin Lingjun to bring in a few of the most reliable people and let them divide the materials. Each group of people only knew how much of one of the raw materials to mix. Even if one person betrayed, the secret would not be leaked.
In this way, after three days of busy work, all the black powder was prepared.
But this is not the end yet. To maximize the power, a key step is needed - granulating the gunpowder.
When granulated gunpowder explodes, the airflow can be released from the gaps, which not only reduces the risk of explosion, but also more than doubles the power!
It is not easy to granulate gunpowder. It needs to be soaked in water, compacted, then dried in the sun, crushed, and finally screened with a mesh funnel.
Zhang Yangquan spent another three days directing six other old village soldiers to granulate all the gunpowder before he was finally done.
In the afternoon of that day, Zhang Yangquan put a bag of prepared granular black powder in a sheepskin bag, and another bag of the original gunpowder, and then ordered someone to call the Qin sisters, Guo Niansheng and Hu Guangcao.
Soon, everyone came over.
Qin Lingsi looked around the room for a while, and finally her eyes rested on the two bags of gunpowder in Zhang Yangquan's hands. She frowned and said, "Is this all the gunpowder you refined?"
Zhang Yangquan raised his left hand: "This is the new gunpowder I developed." He raised his right hand again: "This is the old gunpowder. Let's find an open area and test its power."
There is a wide stone platform directly to the north of the back mountain, with a hundred-foot cliff in front, and a peak about the same height as Longtan Mountain on the opposite side, more than two hundred feet away.
Everyone came to the stone platform with different expressions.
After listening to Zhang Yangquan's words just now, Qin Lingjun guessed that the new gunpowder must be different from the previous gunpowder, and secretly said: "The military advisor has really thought about it." He was full of expectations.
Hu Guangcao was even more excited than she was, and his wrinkled face was as red as drunk. He didn't care what Zhang Yangquan was doing, but was excited that he was called over!
The people standing here at the moment are all veterans of the village, but he is a citizen of the new village. Even centurions Li Er and Xu Baisheng are not qualified to appear here. This makes the old man very proud.
Zhang Yangquan ordered people to fight a fire gun. Hu Guangcao was shocked when he saw it. How could there be such a thing in the village?
At this time, several village soldiers came over with a wooden box, which contained several stone bullets. They were all round, smooth in appearance, and thick in color, giving people a feeling of being as hard as iron.
Qin Lingjun recognized that this was some kind of hard and strange stone in the west of the village. There were many such stones there, making it impossible to open up wasteland.
"Those masons are really good at craftsmanship, and they can turn these strange rocks into stone bullets!" She praised sincerely.
Qin Lingsi, Guo Niansheng and others also had a little more respect for the masons. Hu Guangcao twisted his beard and smiled. He could also polish this kind of stone smoothly.
Zhang Yangquan ordered someone to put a stone bullet into the firecracker and put old gunpowder into the medicine chamber. With a "bang" sound, the stone bullet crossed a parabola and fell to the bottom of the cliff.
Qin Lingsi had sharp eyes and said with a smile: "It seems to have hit farther than before. The gun just now should have hit at least a hundred feet!"
"Minus the distance due to gravity, the range should be seventy or eighty feet!" Zhang Yangquan touched his chin and analyzed.
Hu Guangcao laughed and said: "The military advisor is really smart. The range of this "Iron Wolf" musket is about seventy feet!"
Everyone was surprised. Zhang Yangquan said: "Mr. Hu, do you know this kind of fire gun?"
Hu Guangcao laughed and said: "When the old man was at the Ministry of Industry, he led the craftsmen to build this kind of 'Iron Wolf' fire blunderbuss. It was made through the forging method. Although it is still strong, its service life is not long!"
Zhang Yangquan was overjoyed and held Hu Guangcao's hand and said, "Mr. Hu, can you make a fire blunderbuss?"
The Qin sisters also looked at him with wide eyes.
Hu Guangcao's face turned red and he said: "The old man was just temporarily helping a colleague to supervise the making of fire guns. The specific process... I have forgotten..."
After a pause, he quickly added: "The old man was responsible for making handguns back then, and he clearly remembers the nineteen processes. If the military advisor needs handguns, the old man is sure that he can make them!"
Zhang Yangquan clapped his hands and said: "Okay, great. We will study hand guns in the future, but let's talk about fire guns first. How long do Mr. Hu think the two fire guns in our village can be used?"
Hu Guangcao carefully inspected the fire gun, then asked Qin Lingjun and others about the number of times the fire gun had been used in the past. He pondered for a long time and said: "It should be possible to shoot about three hundred guns!"
Zhang Yangquan reached out and touched the fire blunderbuss, nodded and said: "That's enough. As long as we can withstand Brother Wang Meng's battle, we will try to get other fire blunderbuss in the future! Let's try new gunpowder!"
There was a loud "bang" sound, and the firecracker fired stone bullets.
Just by listening to the sound, everyone found that the new gunpowder was much louder than the old gunpowder.
Qin Lingsi stared with wide eyes and found that she could no longer see the trajectory of the stone bullets. She could only see a gray shadow. The gray shadow was no longer a parabola, but a slightly curved straight line.
There was a "bang", and a cloud of dust rose up from somewhere on the opposite mountain wall. Everyone changed their colors. The fire cannon actually hit the opposite mountain peak. Isn't the range more than two hundred feet?
Qin Lingsi jumped up in surprise and shouted: "Oh my God, this new gunpowder is too powerful, military advisor, how did you do it?"
Qin Lingjun's eyes flashed with joy.
The steep narrow road in Longtan Village is also more than 200 feet away, which means that if the enemy emerges from the mountain road turning point, it can be directly killed from a distance.
Guo Niansheng and several other villagers were all stunned.
Hu Guangcao is dumber than them!
This old man had been the director of the Ministry of Industry and was quite familiar with gunpowder. He originally didn't believe that a copycat military advisor could produce better gunpowder, so the expectation on his face just now was just fake.
Are all the masters really hidden among the people?
Qin Lingjun suddenly smiled and said loudly: "I am really looking forward to Brother Wang Meng coming over quickly and giving us a try!"