Although Han Du no longer has a title, there are not many people who are qualified to give Han Du such condescending orders at will. But just because Tao Chengdao was qualified to instruct Han Du.
Han Du followed his servant to Wanhu Mansion and was brought to Tao Chengdao. Suddenly seeing Tao Chengdao, Han Du was startled by his appearance.
I saw that Tao Chengdao had lost a lot of weight, and he was sitting on the chair, as if he were just a few clothes casually draped on the chair.
"Wanhu, what's wrong with you?"
Tao Chengdao had been taking a nap just now and suddenly woke up when he heard Han Du's voice. Seeing the smile on Han Du's face and seeing him looking at him with worry, Tao Chengdao glanced at himself a few times and asked in confusion, "What's wrong, old man?"
"What's wrong with Wanhu?" Han Du asked uncertainly, thinking that Tao Chengdao was sick.
When Tao Chengdao saw Han Du coming, a smile suddenly appeared on his face. Seeing Han Du's concern for him again, Tao Chengdao suddenly felt warm in his heart. He said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, I'm just old, and my legs and feet can't stand it after standing for too long. You can't let me stand waiting for you, right?"
"No, no, no, how dare I." Seeing that Tao Chengdao was fine, Han Du immediately smiled and waved his hands.
Tao Chengdao struggled to hold up the armrests with both hands, trying to stand up.
Han Du saw it and quickly reached out to help him.
After Tao Chengdao stood up, he looked at Han Du with a smile and sighed: "This man really can't bear to accept me. Originally, I was still angry that you went to ride in the hot air balloon without me. But I'm like this now. It’s hard to even stand up, but I know I shouldn’t blame you.”
"Wanhu, aren't you..." Han Du looked panicked.
At Tao Chengdao's age, if he were to fly into the sky once, Han Du would doubt that he could only stand up and come down sideways. Fortunately, Tao Chengdao gave up on his own and didn't cause any more trouble.
"Wanhu doesn't know, but what I'm doing this time is a hot air balloon show. The hot air balloons are tied by ropes and can't fly very high, only a few feet high." Han Du patiently explained to Tao Chengdao, "Wanhu I’ve already flown up to the clouds to see it, so why should I care about the height of a few feet now?”
"Is that so?" Tao Chengdao looked confused. When he heard that Han Du got into the hot air balloon, he thought Han Du had flown into the sky again. I didn't expect that people outside were ignorant, but they just saw the hot air balloon flying and started boasting wildly.
Han Du laughed and said, "Of course it is. Think about it, this performance is for the people. If it flies too high, what else can the people see?"
"That's it," Tao Chengdao nodded, and then put down his thoughts. For a person like him who has flown above the clouds, flying only a few feet high is just outside his reach and completely uninteresting to him.
"Come here." Tao Chengdao shouted toward the door.
Tao Chengdao's two apprentices walked in quickly and helped him up.
Turning to Han Du, he said, "I didn't come to you today just for the hot air balloon ride."
"If anything happens to Wanhu, just ask." Han Du quickly replied. Han Du didn't bother to tell whether Tao Chengdao's words were true or false. Anyway, as long as Tao Chengdao doesn't want to fly into the sky, everyone else's Handu will try to follow him. Tao Chengdao sighed and said, "It's not about the fire dragon coming out of the water."
As he said that, he raised his eyes and glanced at Han Du, complaining: "You have been back for so long, and you haven't even come to see me. Even if I don't show favor to you, what about Fire Dragon Izuku? Have you thrown it aside?"
Facing Tao Chengdao's complaining eyes, Han Du could only respond with embarrassment. I had no choice but to follow his words and ask: "What happened to Fire Dragon Izuku?"
As expected, Tao Chengdao was attracted by Han Du's words and sighed, "You'll know when you go and take a look."
Han Du followed Tao Chengdao to the backyard and looked at several fire dragons placed on wooden shelves. The appearance of this thing is very different from the first one. Not only does it look three to four times more familiar to Korea, it is cylindrical and has a conical tip at the front, and two fins are also installed at the tail. And there was a layer of red paint on the surface.
"Why is it painted with red paint?" Han Du reached out and touched it, and found that the paint surface was smooth and not scratchy at all.
Tao Chengdao walked up the mountain and explained: "This thing is an iron shell after all. If it is not treated, it will often rust. And if you use oil to prevent rust, it can only prevent it for a while. Fortunately, the iron shell The skin is rough and the flesh is thick, so I simply painted it with a layer of red paint. As for why red paint was used, of course red paint is cheap."
Han Du knew that Tao Chengdao had misunderstood what he meant. What he wanted to say was that the red color did not match his impression, but he understood that red paint was cheaper.
But Han Du didn't say anything else. He couldn't be forced to paint the fire dragon green, right? The name is Fire Dragon, and the red paint is truly worthy of the name and complements each other perfectly. If it must be painted green, wouldn't it mean that the old cucumber should be painted green?
Han Du looked at the decent-looking fire dragon, touched his chin and asked, "It looks good, what's the problem?"
Tao Chengdao reached out and touched the fire dragon, he was even more careful than touching the girl's skin.
After a moment, he looked back at Han Du and sighed: "Your suggestion last time was very good. The problem of flying around was actually solved after pretending so many arrow feathers under your suggestion. Now it's As long as it flies out, it will fly out in a straight line and will not roll around randomly. However, it still has problems. "
"What's the problem?" Han Du then asked.
Tao Chengdao continued to explain: "This thing is indeed very powerful, but there is a problem. That is, it sometimes explodes in the sky, and sometimes it falls into the soil before exploding. Do you have any way to solve this problem and let it explode? Did it explode as soon as it hit the ground?”
Han Du immediately understood what Tao Chengdao meant, but regarding this thing, although Han Du knew how it happened, it just didn't have a firing device. But Han Du himself didn't know how to make this thing. He just knew that such a device should be needed to make the fire dragon explode the moment it touched the ground.
After thinking for a moment, Han Du took out a bullet from his waist and handed it to Tao Chengdao, "Does Wanhu know this?"
Tao Chengdao nodded.
Han Du continued: "You see, this thing is perfectly fine when it is left on normal days, but as long as something hits it violently, it will be ignited and explode instantly. I'm wondering, should this fire dragon be the same? "
Tao Chengdao stretched out his hand in confusion, took the bullet from Han Du's hand, and looked at it in confusion. Both the bullet and the revolver were invented by Han Du, which was a big blow to Tao Chengdao, who had always been the number one master of Ming Dynasty firearms. Although Tao Chengdao did not deliberately embarrass Han Du, he still had a grudge against it in his heart. It was precisely because of this that he had always subconsciously ignored the bullets and revolvers invented by Han Du.
After a moment, Tao Chengdao nodded slowly and sighed: "What a good idea."
Then he pointed at the fire dragon and said, "Actually, isn't this fire dragon just a bigger bullet?"
Han Du laughed, shook his head and said: "This is completely different, but the ignition and explosion should be similar. As for how to do it, I don't know. We still need Wanhu to find a way."
Tao Chengdao nodded, "It will be easier once we have a solution. The rest is just a matter of trying one by one. This old man is good at it. However, I would like to thank you again this time."
The reason why he thanked Han Du was because Tao Chengdao thought that since Han Du had thought of this, he might actually have a way to solve this problem. But Han Du deliberately didn't say anything now, because he wanted to leave the opportunity to him.
Tao Chengdao has studied firearms all his life, but when he started studying fire dragons, he was deeply fascinated by them. If he could create the fire dragon, it would be easy for him to become famous in history. You know, there are countless people in this world who have worked hard all their lives, but can't even leave a word in the history books.
So Tao Chengdao vowed that he would create the fire dragon even if it cost him his life.
At the same time, he was also very grateful to Han Du who deliberately gave him this opportunity.
"There is another question." Tao Chengdao continued.
Han Du smiled and nodded, "Wanhu, please tell me."
"I tried several times and found that this thing didn't fly very far, about four miles." Tao Chengdao was obviously very troubled by this problem, and his face was full of frustration when he spoke.
Han Du also felt something was wrong. How could it be only four miles away? You know, in the past, the fire dragons made by Tao Chengdao could fly two or three miles away.
Of course, the fire dragon's water is made of paper, so it is naturally much lighter in weight. However, although this fire dragon is heavier, it also contains more gunpowder. Logically speaking, it can't be more than four miles away.
"Is there too little gunpowder?" This was the answer that Han Du could think of in an instant.
Tao Chengdao couldn't make up his mind whether this was the problem. Just tentatively said: "I don't know, but I also thought at first that there was not enough gunpowder, but I asked people to put as much gunpowder as possible, and even pressed the gunpowder tightly with a wooden pestle, and the result was similar."
That is how the matter? Han Du couldn't figure it out for a moment, so he simply said: "How about you open one and let me have a look?"
Tao Chengdao nodded, immediately waved his hand and pointed at a fire dragon and said: "Open it!"
Several apprentices came over, lifted a fire dragon off the wooden frame, and placed it on the long table. Then several people took wooden knives and opened the fire dragon's tail bit by bit.
After opening it quickly, Han Du took a closer look. The gunpowder was very dry, with no sign of moisture at all, and it was pressed so tightly that you had to use a nail clip to pull it off.
