"What? Talaya personally led his men to test 'explosion mining' in the copper mining area of Zicao County?"
The sky falls and the wind rises in the big tent. Shulot paused suddenly, and his heart tightened. His calm face showed surprise, and there was a hint of worry hidden in the surprise. After a few breaths, he dropped the quill in his hand and slapped it on the table angrily!
"Damn it! Using gunpowder to mine, and then testing it on site yourself? This stupid woman who is not afraid of death! Who taught her this dangerous method?!"
Upon hearing His Highness's question, the captain of the guard, Ekart, was stunned and didn't know what to say. He lowered his head and remained silent, but his mind was spinning rapidly.
He had served the high priest for many years and knew that Talaya, the director of the Divine Enlightenment, was the potter girl who the high priest ordered him to bring into the house seven years ago. But at that time, His Highness seemed to be just acting on a whim and nothing had really happened with the other party. But now, listening to His Highness's tone... Yes, since His Highness can safely hand over the Divine Enlightenment to the other party, the relationship between the two must be extraordinary! ...
Eckart's mind wandered far away, as if he had some realization. After a while, Shulot also looked stagnant and looked embarrassed.
Because, he suddenly remembered that just over half a year ago, he received a message from Talaya and discovered a new type of granular gunpowder! After receiving the letter, he was very happy for a moment, imagining the power of granular gunpowder, and wrote a long reply eloquently. The reply naturally also mentioned the new uses that can be expanded after the power of gunpowder increases, including mining, road construction, cleaning up river reefs, and building reservoirs...
"Cough! Cough!"
After a few breaths, Shulot coughed twice. His expression calmed down a bit, and he reached out to take Talaya's letter and read it directly.
"Dear Your Highness! In the past six months, I have experimented with several new uses of gunpowder that you told me. I suddenly felt that a brand new sky was unfolding in front of my eyes... I was in the Black Rock City mining area, using six thousand Jin of new gunpowder was used to test the first copper mine blast, which completely collapsed two tunnels! The situation at that time even shook the entire mountain. The miners were frightened and thousands of people ran and shouted, almost triggering a riot. ..”
"Although some ore was mined in this terrible underground blasting, the risk was too high! After much thought, I decided to blast and mine in open-pit mining areas in the future. Last month, when the rainy season passed, I took The priests of the Gunpowder Department mined the open-pit copper mine in Zicao County. Two large-scale blastings consumed seven or eight thousand kilograms of gunpowder, and the exploded copper ore was hundreds of thousands kilograms, worth two thousand kilograms. The amount of digging that many people can dig in one day!..."
"Your Highness, your divine inspiration guides me! This is indeed a mining method that is beyond everyone's imagination! However, it consumes too much gunpowder. The granular gunpowder consumed in this round of mining ranges from nitrate removal to Making nitrate, burning charcoal, mining sulfur, mixing gunpowder, and adding water to make granules take about one or two thousand people a day's work... However, I believe that as long as we make more reasonable calculations and choose a more suitable explosion point, It can effectively reduce the consumption of gunpowder and enhance the power of blasting!..."
Seeing this, Shulot rubbed his eyebrows and pondered for a long time. It was obvious that the Alliance's gunpowder production was not efficient enough, and the cost of enslaving miners was very low. Such explosive mining does not yet have obvious cost advantages, but the upper limit will be very high in the future.
"My only Highness, the application of new gunpowder is really as vast as the sky! And you are the most dazzling sun in my sky... In recent months, I have also tried blasting small hills to let The road from the mall to the mining area of Black Rock City has become smoother. I also agreed with Yin Ezipan of Apa County to bring a professional gunpowder priest to help him clear the mountain pass and build the Flower and Fruit City to Apa City. One hundred and fifty miles of county roads..."
"As for Yin Etalik of Zicao County, he hopes that the Gunpowder Department can send manpower to study the dredging of the 160-mile river from Alto City to Crow Town. It's just the blasting on the river. I'm not sure about it. I'm going to wait until the water level in the dry season. When it's the lowest, try blasting the rocks above the water again..."
Reading Talaya's letter, Shulot's brows jumped and he felt uneasy. But these new uses of gunpowder are closely related to the kingdom's grand construction plan and are very important. Thinking of this, Shulot could only sigh and whisper to himself.
"You have done well over the years, and I have always seen it. You don't have to work so hard for me! I can't trust others to leave the affairs of the Institute of Inspiration to others..."
Two steps away, the captain of the guard, Eckart, stood with his head bowed. He looked at his nose with his eyes and his heart with his nose, as if he heard nothing.
"God bless you!"
Shulot prayed softly and looked at the second half of the letter. Here, Talaya talks about the latest progress in making gunpowder in the Gunpowder Department.
The kingdom has no shortage of sulfur and charcoal, and the most important thing in the preparation of gunpowder is "nitre". In addition to the traditional methods of sweeping, leaching, and boiling nitrate from saline-alkali land, the Shenqi Institute also found a way to concentrate urine in cities and towns to produce urine nitrate. It's just that this "flavorful" method is not yet technically proficient, not efficient enough, and not pure enough.
In the past year, what has really increased the production of gunpowder has been the mining of saltpeter in the Bat Cave in the southwest mountains. The kingdom's power is expanding to the southwest mountainous area, and large-scale reclamation is also underway in Apa County. Many bat caves in the mountains were discovered by villagers who opened up wasteland, and reported them to the preaching priests in the villages, and then reported them back to the Divine Enlightenment Office.
The nitrate soil accumulated in this tropical cave has a very large amount and a high purity, which has almost increased the output of gunpowder by more than half, reaching 16,000 kilograms per month! Such an increase in gunpowder production also gave Talaya, the director of the Gunpowder Department, the confidence to conduct various blasting tests and "Boom! Boom! Boom!"!
"Your Highness, I have personally been to the bat cave to see how the craftsmen dug the saltpeter... Some craftsmen live in the cave, and they even capture the bats in the cave for food..."
The wind fell from the big tent and the sky became dark. Seeing this paragraph, Shulot was immediately shocked. He immediately picked up his pen and wrote a reply to Talaya's letter.
"Talaya, you must be careful to stay away from the explosion site and conduct command from a distance. For every explosion plan, you must designate an on-site person in charge. And you yourself must keep a distance from the site. I use the sun's The name orders you and you must never disobey it!..."
"Also, be sure to remember! Use smoke carefully to drive away bats in the cave, and minimize contact with them. They are especially inedible. The Lord God once gave me enlightenment. Bats are her favorite creatures, and they have a small and terrible curse attached to them. Believers are not allowed to hunt and eat!..."
"Finally, I leave you with a research topic...that is to cooperate with the Black Rock City mining area to study how to dig tunnels and blow up strong city walls...Remember, be careful, keep your distance, and don't have any accidents!"
