Early the next morning, Liu Yan and Zhao Yu rushed back to Wangjiazhuang. In the gunpowder workshop of the Firearms Supervisory Office, Liu Yan could not take a rest, so he had people prepare a lot of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal, and began to trial-produce granules. Like black gunpowder.
The gunpowder used in later bird gun bullets is all granular gunpowder. Granular gunpowder can achieve a higher muzzle velocity after the bullet exits the chamber under the same chamber pressure. Bird guns using granular black powder will be greatly improved in power. In order to fight against the Qing army with multiple layers of armor, it is important to increase the power of the gun.
Not only that, granular gunpowder burns more fully because of the larger air strike between gunpowder particles. Granular gunpowder leaves less residue after burning, which is helpful for gunners to clean the barrel of the gun. Cleaning the bore becomes easier and the gun's rate of fire can be increased.
Liu Yan first ordered people to get ten pieces of black gunpowder for bird guns, put the gunpowder on a wooden grinding plate and crush it repeatedly until the black gunpowder was rolled into white gray. Then Liu Yan took some buckwheat noodles mixed with water, added some water to the buckwheat noodles made into puree, and mixed it thinner. Then pour all the buckwheat noodles on top of ten portions of crushed black gunpowder, and mix the black gunpowder and buckwheat noodles into one, turning into a white-gray ball.
During this period, Zhao Min was stunned. He didn't expect that the granulated gunpowder that the defense master mentioned was actually made in this way, and even water and buckwheat noodles were added!
Then Liu Yan asked the blacksmith to quickly make a porous iron plate, use the holes on the iron plate to scrape the gunpowder dough, scrape off the gunpowder particles one by one, and put them into a basin. Then use a sieve prepared in advance to screen out particles of different sizes, leaving only particles of uniform size.
After screening, half of the particles are different in size and need to be kneaded again and then scraped into particles. The remaining half of the gunpowder grains are about the same size. Liu Yan divided these granules into five parts and dried them in the sun, thus obtaining a granular gunpowder.
Liu Yan didn't know what size gunpowder particles were suitable for his gun. So he made ten kinds of black powder particles of different particle sizes, made five copies of each, and then took them to the shooting range to test them one by one.
After drying the black powder, Liu Yan used different granular gunpowders for target shooting.
Most granular gunpowders have average effects, and some are even less effective than powdered gunpowder when the particles are too large. But several types of small-grained gunpowder performed well and penetrated two layers of armor at ninety meters. One of them, in particular, penetrated two layers of armor at a distance of one hundred meters.
Zhao Min was stunned when he saw this. He originally thought that the gunpowder added to the buckwheat noodles was considered useless. Unexpectedly, after treatment, the gunpowder was not destroyed, but became more powerful. It was really incredible.
Seeing the effect, Liu Yan returned to the gunpowder workshop, used the best-performing granular gunpowder as a template, fine-tuned the particle size around the size of the template, and finally made ten kinds of granular black powder with slightly different sizes. Again Do target practice.
Liu Yan was pleasantly surprised by the results of this experiment:
The best kind of granular black powder penetrated two layers of armor at one hundred and twenty meters, and three layers of armor at eighty meters.
The performance of this new type of granular gunpowder meant that Liu Yan could launch a fire attack on the Qing cavalry before the most elite Qing troops could shoot their arrows.
Liu Yan immediately said to Zhao Hao: "Director Zhao must have seen it. From now on, the gunpowder will be processed in this way and all will be made into this granular form. This granular gunpowder will be used to make new fixed-loading ammunition. "
Seeing the performance of the new gunpowder, Zhao Hao was very excited: "Sir! I am constantly inventing new things. It is really admirable!"
Liu Yan smiled and said: "I am just reminding you on some key points. In the future, it will be up to you, the great craftsmen, to explore on your own and constantly introduce new things."
Zhao Min respectfully accepted the order.
Then Liu Yan ordered people to get pens, inks, paper and inkstones, and wrote down the optimal ratio of gunpowder for gunpowder: 75% saltpeter, 10% sulfur, and 15% charcoal.
After Liu Yan finished writing, he handed the piece of paper to Zhao Hao and told him: "Mr. Zhao, this formula must be kept secret and must not be known to outsiders. Moreover, the women and craftsmen in the gunpowder workshop must not know this." For the proportion, they can only be responsible for the production and purification of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal, and you must personally lead the team to make the final preparation."
"This new ratio of gunpowder can greatly increase the power of gunpowder. In the future, the fixed-loading ammunition produced by the gunpowder factory must be reformed from the source, using a new formula to produce granulated gunpowder, and then using kraft paper to make new fixed-loading ammunition. , in order to maximize the power of the gun!"
Zhao Yan was very excited. How much trust it showed that Liu Yan could directly teach him such an important technique.
"Don't worry, sir. Within fifteen days, my subordinates will definitely let all the chief gunmen use enough new fixed ammunition!"
"Ah, very good."
In fact, Liu Yan also knew the optimal ratio of gunpowder for cannons. The ratios of nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal were roughly 78%, 80%, and 14%.
But now that the new army in Xiahezhai has a new type of cannon, it can run rampant in all directions, so Liu Yan has no plans to cast artillery yet, and he does not have the professional talents to cast artillery. After all, making bird cannons and making artillery are not the same thing at all.
Moreover, at this time, Liu Yan had already inspected the various artillery pieces on top of the Qianhu Station in front of Xiahe Village.
There are quite a few of these artillery pieces. All together, there are more than 30 artillery pieces of various sizes and sizes.
However, Liu Yan checked and found that all of the more than thirty artillery pieces were no longer usable.
These artillery pieces were either rusty and corroded, or were originally manufactured with flaws. It was obvious at first glance that they were "big artillery pieces" that could explode. Liu Yan even saw two mountain-splitting cannons that were rusty and deformed because they had not been moved for a long time. The body has been turned into stone with the bricks at the top of the city. It is estimated that it will need to be cut with a chisel before it can be moved!
Therefore, Liu Yan had better prepare to replace the new fixed-load ammunition as soon as possible, so he did not propose the formula of the new gunpowder.
Then Liu Yan asked: "Director Zhao has a heavy burden now. If you have any requests, you can put them forward now and I will try my best to solve them."
Zhao Hao thought for a while and said: "Everything else is fine here. Whether it is sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal or kraft paper, the supply of materials is not a problem. The biggest problem now is the lack of manpower."
Liu Yan nodded and said: "In this case, I will talk to Mr. Chen Bai later. If it doesn't work, first mobilize some New Army soldiers to come over for emergency response."
Zhao Yu was overjoyed and said: "This is the best. I would like to thank you for your support."
After the matter at the Gunpowder Factory was over, Liu Yan explained to Chen Xun and asked him to fully support Zhao Xun's production tasks, and then hurriedly returned to Qianhusuo City in front of Xiahe Village.
According to the development of history, if there are not too many deviations, there is not much time left for Liu Yan, but Liu Yan still has a lot to do to arm the new army.
After returning to the Qianhu Government Hall, Liu Yan found Baihu Yueming and Baihu Song Gongming, and then asked Song Gongming to find all the leather merchants, grocers, and cloth merchants in the city, and opened a " meeting".
Song Gongming worked very quickly. It only took more than half an hour to find more than a dozen merchants, all of whom were dealers in leather, cloth and groceries in Qianhusuo City.
Liu Yan looked at the nervous people, smiled and chatted with them for a while. When everyone relaxed, he took out a few drawings and handed them to everyone for circulation.
"Everyone, please take a look at this first piece. This thing is called a belt. It is tied horizontally around the waist by soldiers. It should be evenly punched and inlaid with iron rings. Take a look and give me a price now. I am Four thousand of these belts need to be purchased.”
The belt Liu Yan wants to purchase is to allow soldiers to easily hang ration belts, water bags, ammunition bags, medicine bags and other small items. The style is the same as the belts of later generations, except that there are many small rings on it for hanging items.
One of the merchants surnamed Zhao said respectfully: "The belts you drew are actually similar to the leather belts popular in the Tang and Song Dynasties. They are not difficult to make and don't use much materials. I quote you one hundred and thirty-five cents a piece. I don't know." What do you think, sir?"
After calculating this price, four thousand belts are 540 taels of silver.
Liu Yan smiled and said: "The fixed price is five hundred taels. At this time tomorrow, you can send me a sample first. If the quality is up to standard, I will pay you half of the silver tomorrow and deliver the goods within ten days. How about ?”
The merchant thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "Okay, just five hundred taels! The villain will come to deliver samples tomorrow."
"good!"
"Then everyone will look at the second drawing."
"What did you draw, sir? Shoes?"
Liu Yan said: "They are shoes, but they are different shoes. These shoes have to use hardwood as the sole, the inside is wrapped in thick cotton, and the outside is made of leather."
A businessman who specializes in the grocery business said: "Sir, these shoes are much stronger than ordinary shoes at first glance, and I can see that there are many textures on the hardwood soles, which should be anti-slip. Then use thick Cotton and leather are not only beautiful but also comfortable to wear.”
Liu Yan smiled and said, "You are an expert and you are right."
"I wonder how many pairs you are planning to order?"
"It's still four thousand. I wonder if you can do it? What's the price?"
The merchant said: "This villain can do it, but the price is higher, three hundred coins per pair!"
If a pair of three hundred coins is worth one thousand two hundred taels of silver.
"One thousand taels. If possible, how about you come over tomorrow to deliver samples and deliver the goods within ten days?"
The merchant said with a grimace: "Sir, don't bargain too hard. A person with a thousand taels will lose money."
Liu Yan smiled and said: "Really? How much does it cost to have hardwood soles and thick cotton cloth? How many pairs of shoes can one piece of cloth make? The main cost is leather, but how much leather is used for one pair of shoes? Three hundred yuan a pair, The price is already high, you can still earn a thousand taels of silver."
The merchant didn't expect Liu Yan to be so good at settling accounts. He smiled coquettishly and said, "Okay, as you said, I will go back and make samples overnight and come back tomorrow."
"good!"
Liu Yan said: "Please take a look at the last picture. It is actually a long cloth belt. It needs to be made of very strong cloth. One end is flat, and the other end is fixed with a cloth belt rope. The width and length are shown in the picture. This kind of I also want to order four thousand pairs of long cloth belts.”
In fact, the kind of cloth belt Liu Yan wanted was leggings, which could effectively help soldiers march long distances. It was of great significance in the new army that lacked war horses.
It can be said that from ancient times to the present, and even to the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, the main force of the Chinese army has been infantry, and the way of marching is on foot. During the long march, the legs swing back and forth, and the blood will sink to When walking, it is easy to feel muscle fatigue, soreness and swelling.
After wearing leggings, this situation will be reduced or even avoided. Soldiers will feel lighter during long marches, which can effectively extend the march distance and time, which is of great significance for war.
In addition, gaiters can also effectively prevent mosquitoes and leech bites. Once a soldier is injured, gaiters can also be used as first aid. Generally speaking, gaiters have a wide range of functions.
A cloth merchant said: "This long cloth belt that you want to make can be supplied by me. The price is fifteen cents a pair. How about it?"
"A pair of ten coins."
"Ouch! Sir, these ten cents per pair are too low. Sir, please give me some more."
Liu Yan said with a smile: "You can also bring samples tomorrow. If the fabric used is strong and durable, I will give you a price of twelve cents per pair. How about that?"
The cloth merchant smiled and said, "I obey, little man!"
Some people died, but not completely...
