After hearing what Yang Xiucai said, Chen Hu also cast a doubtful look. Ouyang Xuan took the pen and paper in Yang Xiucai's hand and drew the shape of the grenade. While drawing, he explained the production requirements in detail to Li Saner and Hu Tiejiang and his son.
After listening to Ouyang Xuan's explanation, Yang Xiucai said: "Brother Xuan, this one is more compact and easier to carry than Hong Tianlei. The shell is made into a turtle-back shape and is easy to hold. It's just that the size is much smaller than Hong Tianlei. The shell is broken." It is much thinner, how powerful is it? As far as I know, Hongtian Lei consumes a lot of iron and is heavy, and its power is slightly insufficient. Therefore, among the Song Dynasty army, only the Jinghu, Huaixi and other troops on the front line used throwing weapons when defending the city. The stone machine was used for throwing. Because it was not powerful enough and cost money, Pan Tongzhi of Chongqing Prefecture did not use the thunder."
Ouyang Xuan knew that since the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin and Song armies had used firearms in warfare. However, as a new thing, firearms were bulky and weak in lethality due to backward design and production technology. They mainly relied on smoke to frighten the enemy. However, the effect of killing people and horses was not good, so the Sichuan Gorge Fourth Army, including Chongqing Mansion, rarely used it.
After listening to Yang Xiucai's words, Ouyang Xuan smiled and said: "This is an improved version of Hongtian Lei. Although it is small, it can still kill enemies. You will know its power when I make it."
He chose to use grenades as a breakthrough for experimental firearms. In addition to the fact that grenades are relatively simple to make, they do not require high quality iron, they are easy to mass-produce, and they are also convenient to use.
Although grenades require high quality gunpowder, this is not a problem for him as a chemical engineering major.
As long as there are raw materials, not to mention black powder, even powerful explosives such as nitrocellulose, he will find a way to make them.
So his next stop was to go to the mining team and settle the matter of fire, saltpeter and sulfur. Then Ouyang Xuan took Yang Xiucai to the mining team.
Before the symposium was held, Ouyang Xuan asked Li Zhong and mountain residents who were familiar with the mine to take them to inspect the mine on the spot.
The villagers mainly mined iron ore. Since the demand for saltpeter, coal, and sulfur was very small, there were only shallow pits.
Iron ore and coal are abundant around Liuliba, and the quality is medium enough, but the sulfur content is high.
The quality of saltpeter is quite good, but there are a lot of impurities during collection and needs further purification. The symposium with the mining team members was held on the flat ground in front of the iron mine cave. Ouyang Xuan sat on the ground like everyone else.
Li Zhong, the leader of the mining team, said that in addition to the 10 people in the mining team, there are now 34 villagers in the mining team, all of whom were originally mining in addition to farming.
Everyone was very motivated and spoke very actively, but there were not many ways to improve production and quality, and most of the suggestions they made were just to fill in the gaps.
Ouyang Xuan is not surprised. After all, this is due to the limitations of the times. He has more than a thousand years of knowledge than them, and his opinions will definitely exceed everyone's imagination.
Ouyang Xuan made four points to the mining team: first, mainly iron ore and coal mines, but also saltpeter, limestone, and sulfur.
Nitre is the main raw material for making black powder, and its importance is self-evident. In addition to being used for refining steel, limestone can also be used in construction and is also an important raw material for making cement in the next step.
The second is to increase the number of iron-making furnaces and immediately build a steel-making blast furnace. When Ouyang Xuan was a librarian, he once read about the introduction of indigenous steelmaking. At that time, he wanted to
"To surpass Britain and catch up with the United States", we should implement large-scale steel smelting in every household. The indigenous blast furnace that Ouyang Xuan wanted to make had a simple structure. He immediately dictated the shape, construction, and usage requirements. Yang Xiucai recorded and drew the diagram and gave it to Li Zhong.
The third is to build mining camps and warehouses nearby. He specifically ordered the storage of fire and salt to be kept away from crowds and pay attention to fire and moisture prevention.
The method of purifying fire salt was also recorded by Yang Xiucai and handed over to Team Li Zhong. Before leaving, Ouyang Xuan specifically asked Li Zhong to purify a few kilograms of fire salt as soon as possible. He needed it urgently.
Arriving at the teaching team was Ouyang Xuan's third stop. Apart from Cao Ergou's original fire personnel, only a few village villagers attended the discussion. One of them was Ouyang Xuan and Zhu Tiaozi who met at the gate of the village when they first arrived at Liuliba. The two negotiated with Shi Zhongshu, who was also the person in charge of Shanzhai Minzhuang recommended by Lu Dezhi.
Since Ouyang Xuan was not very proficient in military matters, most matters of the training team were determined by Ouyang Xuan after discussion with Cao Ergou and others.
Ouyang Xuan only emphasized the need to strengthen the concept of discipline and the training of orders and prohibitions. Although he did not understand marching and fighting in the cold weapon era, he understood that the combat effectiveness of the army came from organizational discipline.
Ouyang Xuan considered that Liuliba will develop industry and mining in the next step, which will require a lot of labor. Even if the people train in their spare time, it should not be too frequent.
Therefore, it was proposed that among the nearly 200 households with more than 800 people in the village, each household would select a militia member to carry out short-term military training. The 200-person militia would be divided into 10 platoons of 20 people each.
In order to facilitate coordination, when Cao Ergou was already the teaching captain, Shi Zhongshu served as the deputy captain, and the firemen led by Cao Ergou served as the leaders of each platoon.
As for the weapons needed for militia military training, Ouyang Xuan has asked the industrial team to build spears and folding shields first.
The spear is powerful and consumes little iron. It is the main weapon of the troops in the cold weapon era. As for the foldable shield, because the mountain road was narrow, several fire chiefs complained many times that the large shield was inconvenient to carry and unfold. Ouyang Xuan thought about making a large shield composed of three parts, connected by an iron hinge in the middle, and folded for storage at ordinary times. , it unfolds when encountering an enemy and is locked by an iron latch.
This folding shield is taller and wider than the original large shield, with a larger covering area and stronger ability to protect against arrows. As for the protection in close combat, it is slightly reduced, but in Ouyang Xuan's thinking, there is no plan for future combat. In close combat, the only way to win against the Mongols is to use firearms. As for the bandits, they are not a concern.
After the teaching team finished their discussion, it was already dark, so Ouyang Xuan took Yang Xiucai to visit Yu Zhu. Compared with the previous two days, Yu Zhu's condition has not improved, but he is no longer lethargic for a long time.
While Yu Zhu was awake, Ouyang Xuan explained the recent situation in detail. Yu Zhu was very pleased after hearing this, but Yu Zhu fell asleep again half an hour later.
After instructing the caregivers to take herbs regularly and eat carefully, Ouyang Xuan returned to his residence and lay down.
He has to get up early tomorrow and go to the trade team and the guard team for discussions.
