Crisis is the best mobilization order! The news that the Wanjiaping bandits were coming to "tax" spread like wildfire, causing the whole Liuliba to boil. Early the next morning, Ouyang Xuan was woken up by bursts of noisy sounds. He walked out and took a look and found that near the gate of the cottage, there was a bustling flow of people, and everyone was busy and busy. There are those who are making molds and carrying soil to prepare for the wall, some are carrying wood and stones, and some are chiseling and grinding stones. A new forge that the industrial team has just built nearby is also in operation. Farther away, Cao Ergou and his people are working Training the militia, because building, building walls, and mining now require a lot of labor, so the teaching team only summoned a hundred people to carry out military training.
Ouyang Xuan first walked to the entrance of the village to inspect the construction of the wall. According to Lu Dezhi, who directed the construction of the wall, there were more than 200 Minzhuang people participating in building the wall. A soldier from Cao Ergou's camp was in charge of the technology. This soldier had participated in the construction of the damaged wall of Chongqing Mansion. The newly built wall is only about 300 feet long, and is planned to be 6 feet wide and 10 feet high. It will be built with rammed loess and covered with stones. The technical requirements are not high, and there is no shortage of earth, wood, stone and other raw materials in the mountains. It is estimated that in It can be built within five days.
While they were talking, Huang Dagen led more than ten people from outside back to the entrance of the village. He was taking people to inspect the ambush site. In order to prevent the Wanjiaping bandits from raiding, Huang Dagen also placed hidden sentries along the way to provide early warning in case of an attack. Ouyang Xuan knew that as an ambush, although the bandits could be caught off guard, once the bandits reacted, they would counterattack violently. As for the close combat with bandits, the situation of Huang Dagen and others with a small number of people would be extremely dangerous. A sneak attack from behind with a grenade would be more effective. Thinking of this, Ouyang Xuan couldn't help but feel anxious, so he thought about making grenades as soon as possible to minimize the casualties of his own personnel.
He first asked about the production status of gunpowder and received the news that charcoal powder and sulfur powder were ready, but the purity of the fire salt was not up to the requirements and needed to be further purified. He came to Hu Tiejiang's house again and saw that Li San'er was the only one busy. The molds for casting grenade shells requested three days ago had been made and could be mass-produced within three days. It's just that the demand for iron has been huge recently, and the remaining iron has been used by Blacksmith Hu and his son to make spearheads. If they want to increase the production of grenades, they can only wait for the mine to produce more pig iron.
In the next two days, in addition to focusing on the raw materials of gunpowder every day, Ouyang Xuan also took time to inspect the construction of the village wall and the iron ore mining situation. After constant and repeated trials, the mining team has initially mastered the purification technology of fire saltpeter. The first batch of qualified products has been used to prepare black gunpowder, and large-scale production is no longer a problem. More than ten kilograms of trial-produced black gunpowder are currently being granulated and will be ready for use in two days. However, increasing iron ore production capacity has encountered bottlenecks, mainly because the working surface of the mine is too narrow, and mining relies entirely on manual excavation. Even when personnel are working in shifts, the increase in output is still limited. The opening of new mines will not be possible for a while. It seems that in order to achieve a large-scale increase in ore production, blasting technology must be used, but this will have to wait until black powder is mass-produced. As for the wall, the construction went extremely smoothly, and according to Rude's estimation, it would be completed on schedule. However, Lu Dezhi also told Ouyang Xuan some bad news: Liuliba sent people to contact other villages to fight against the bandits, and the Wanjiaping bandits had learned about it. Although none of the villages agreed to form an alliance with Liuliba to advance and retreat together, Liuliba's behavior had angered the bandit leader Xiong Ben, who vowed to severely punish Liuliba's "rebellious" behavior.
The day the wall was built was also the day the trial grenade was successfully produced, which was a double blessing for Ouyang Xuan. The site for the grenade test was chosen in a secluded area on the mountainside away from the stockade. In addition to Chen Hu, Hu Tiejiang and Li Saner, Ouyang Xuan also asked Huang Dagen to select a few guards with strong arms to come with them. In the first test, Ouyang Xuan did it himself without any hesitation. After all, he was the one who knew the characteristics of the grenade best. After asking everyone to retreat to a safe distance, he took a small grenade, lit the fuse and threw it forward, and quickly fell to the ground before the grenade landed. Two or three seconds later, a huge explosion sounded, and the grass within a few meters of the surrounding area was blown away in all directions, and the scattered soil fell more than ten meters away. The thunderous noise frightened Huang Dagen and others who were watching from a distance and stood there with horrified expressions. Ouyang Xuan called everyone to take a closer look. A shallow pit appeared on the hot mud, and the air was filled with the choking smell of fire and saltwater.
The explosion of this improved black powder was truly amazing. The remaining three tests were conducted. After Ouyang Xuan explained the key points in detail, he asked the guards to throw them one by one. Among them, a medium-sized grenade was thrown, and its power was even more amazing. There was a small tree near the explosion point, and a huge explosion occurred. A small tree as thick as a bowl was blown up, and other small trees were also blown up and down. The explosion's damage range reached more than ten meters. There were twenty-seven grenades in the first batch of production, excluding the four used for testing, there were still twenty-three left. Among them, there are nineteen small grenades weighing two kilograms, each containing half a kilogram of black powder and half a kilogram of broken iron; three grenades weighing four kilograms, each holding one kilogram of black powder and broken iron; the largest grenade weighs Eight pounds, one and a half pounds each of black powder and broken iron were used. This weight should be called a bomb instead of a grenade.
Due to the recent shortage of iron materials, the scraps of iron filling the inside of the grenade are all scraps from the blacksmith shop. The big ones are as big as an index finger and the small ones are as small as soybeans. Based on the test results, Ouyang Xuan told Hu Tiejiang and Li Saner to focus on improving small grenades in the next step, making them powerful enough and light and easy to carry. As for medium and large grenades, they are too heavy to carry and are suitable for throwing from high places and used for defensive purposes. It is a useful weapon for urban warfare and so on. Through this field test, it not only verified the quality of the fuze, gunpowder and shells, so as to improve the manufacturing process in the next step, but also trained the grenadiers. More importantly, it allowed everyone to see Ouyang Xuan's new skills and confirmed what he said he wanted to make. The words of powerful weapons are true and lay a good foundation for the next cooperation with Liuliba.
All the preparations for the battle went smoothly, especially the construction of the new village wall, which made everyone in the village feel at ease. The only thing that made Ouyang Xuan anxious was Yu Zhu's condition. In the past few days, Ouyang Xuan ordered people to stew the captured pheasants, rabbits and other meat until soft and feed it to Yu Zhu, but his condition only improved slightly. Although he no longer fell asleep frequently, his energy was slightly better. But he is still losing weight day by day. Yu Zhu's condition took a turn for the better when Dong Hu and others returned. They not only explored the road outside the mountain, but also brought back the Artemisia annua that cured Yu Zhu's disease.
