Technical problems can be solved by investing money, but problems in obtaining raw materials depend not only on technology, but also on location.
As a kind of mineral, if it is not available locally, it is not available. God will not reward you with food, and you can’t dig it out even if you dig three feet into the ground.
So this is indeed the problem.
If you want to develop firearms, gunpowder must be guaranteed as the basic raw material.
However, there is no stable output of saltpeter mines. The little saltpeter obtained by scraping it from latrines and pig pens cannot produce much usable fire salt.
Among the components of gunpowder, nitrate accounts for the largest proportion, has the greatest effect, and is irreplaceable. Su Yonglin remembers that the optimal proportion is over 70%.
The largest saltpeter mines that can currently be mined are located in Hanzhong and Shuzhong, which are thousands of miles away from Shandong. There is no need to consider them in the short term.
In Shandong and surrounding areas, only Caozhou and Shanzhou produce local saltpeter, which are alternatives.
But Caozhou and Shanzhou are currently not under Su Yonglin's control.
So Su Yonglin faced an embarrassing problem - there was no saltpeter mine, so he could only collect saltpeter from latrines and pig pens and boil it bit by bit.
This will definitely not last long, so Su Yonglin also has related thoughts, thinking about when the time is right to capture Caozhou and Shanzhou so that he can build a gunpowder workshop that can stably produce gunpowder.
Without a gunpowder workshop that could stably produce gunpowder, it would be difficult to develop firearms.
However, Caozhou and Shanzhou are currently under the Nanjing Road system, and Su Yonglin has to pass through Dongpingfu and Jeju to reach Caozhou and Shanzhou.
Well, that's a question worth thinking about.
Although it is worth thinking about, it is not the most important issue and can be eased further.
Lin Jingchun was a man of strong action. After Su Yonglin's instructions, he immediately took action. He collected a bucket of water and a bucket of urine in a short period of time, and ordered the soldiers in the logistics unit to start improving the gunpowder.
Add water or urine to the ready-made gunpowder and stir it into a thicker paste. Do not add too much water and urine at one time, but add it in batches.
After the sticky gunpowder paste is completed, knead them into cake-shaped objects and place them in a ventilated and cool place to air-dry. After they are completely dry and hard, grind them again.
In this way, gunpowder with more stable properties may be obtained.
Then see if it is better to add water or urine, or neither.
That's a headache.
But there are no low-cost fluids more readily available than water and urine.
The gunpowder was drying here, and the work of returning to the army was also in progress over there. In order to survive and to be appreciated, Liu Xi worked very hard, and almost cleared a usable waterway in just three days.
Therefore, all the trophies that the victory army finally captured through the battle can be dragged onto the ship and taken away, and then returned to Tai'an Prefecture to strengthen themselves.
On the ninth day of July, Su Yonglin embarked on the road back to the army, and the victorious army officially returned in triumph.
On the way back to the division, Su Yonglin personally observed the dried and reground gunpowder on the boat.
He found that after adding water and urine, the air-dried and ground gunpowder was more stable than before. Even after shaking vigorously in a bucket for a while, the gunpowder did not separate on its own.
Pinch a handful and put it in the palm of your hand and look carefully, you can find small particles of gunpowder of different sizes, which shows that the minimum granulation of gunpowder has been achieved.
It's really interesting.
But this is not enough.
"The gunpowder particles should not be too large. You can make a small net bag, keep the size of the mesh constant, and put the ground gunpowder in the net bag for screening. The particles that are too large can be kept on the net bag for further grinding until they are qualified. "
"Here!"
Lin Jingchun immediately made arrangements, and then Su Yonglin ordered to use flying fire guns to test the fire-breathing conditions of two kinds of gunpowder after being ignited, and make five of each.
In order to make a comparison, five other flying guns using traditional gunpowder were also used for experiments.
A total of fifteen flying guns ignited the fuses and then stretched out of the hull, followed by a grand fire-breathing scene.
Gunpowder processed with water and urine obviously erupts more powerfully. Not only does it erupt farther, it also erupts for a longer time.
The original eruption of traditional gunpowder was not so powerful, and there was even a misfire.
And none of the ten flying guns used to process gunpowder misfired.
Comparing the eruptions of gunpowder with water and urine, the difference is not very big. The one with urine seems to erupt more powerfully, but there is no obvious difference.
Then, Su Yonglin asked the soldiers to conduct an eruption test with the processed gunpowder, and used up both barrels of gunpowder, which further proved that the performance of the processed gunpowder was more stable.
Lin Jingchun and others looked surprised, feeling that this was an incredible achievement.
In the end, Su Yonglin decided to use urine as the best choice for gunpowder processing.
The reason is simple.
You can still drink water, but no one would drink urine under normal circumstances. The human body itself is a natural urine-producing machine. As long as there is water to drink, urine can be produced continuously and continuously.
Therefore, it is really cheap to use urine to process gunpowder. Shengjie Army will bear at most one transportation cost.
Although this solution is indeed a bit heavy-handed, there is nothing wrong with it.
The key is that it is simple, cheap, and can quickly form a production scale. This is the most important thing.
Shengjiejun, who has little money now, is in great need of this low-cost solution to the problem. Only when the cost is low enough can it really come in handy at this time.
At this time, the pursuit of loftiness is simply a bad idea. No matter how powerful the weapon is, as long as it cannot be mass-produced and installed, it will not be essentially helpful to the army.
At the end of the day, it's still a question of money.
As for the craftsmen’s complaints about the poor working environment and the tendency to get dizzy, we could only ask them to open windows for ventilation, take turns to work in shifts, and persevere with their perseverance and perseverance...
Compared with production costs, issues such as the working environment are really trivial and not worth mentioning.
After making up his mind, Su Yonglin and Lin Jingchun and others settled on many details of gunpowder processing and made some regulations.
For example, gunpowder must be air-dried in a cool and ventilated place instead of drying it in the sun.
For example, when storing gunpowder, it is necessary to prevent moisture. It must not be placed in large gatherings, but should be placed in multiple places.
There are also some details that he can think of and are written on paper, so that the craftsmen can remember them and abide by the relevant rules.
After thinking about it, Su Yonglin added another rule.
No information about gunpowder can be mentioned to the outside world. Everyone who knows must keep it secret. If the information is discovered to be leaked, it will be regarded as a violation of military law and the consequences will be at their own risk.
Su Yonglin also formulated a very strict "sitting together" method specifically for this purpose, which was specially used for staff related to gunpowder.
Lin Jingchun was surprised, but since Su Yonglin showed his harsh side for the first time, it only meant that he was particularly concerned about the gunpowder issue.
Lin Jingchun did not object and chose to support it.
As for the subsequent problem of relatively large smoke generated by the gunpowder eruption, Su Yonglin felt that there was no way to solve it for the time being.
Before the birth of smokeless gunpowder, there was no solution to this problem, and smokeless gunpowder was already a product of the Industrial Revolution era.
I can only let it go.
After everything that needed to be done was done, Su Yonglin maintained a considerable scale of intelligence exploration and collection work, while returning to Tai'an Prefecture to begin the work of digesting prisoners and promoting military power.
The prisoners must be digested and the military power must be publicized. He still has a lot of work to do.
But the end of the war on one battlefield does not mean the end of the war on other battlefields.
In a major war, the outcome cannot be determined by one or two local battles.
Su Yonglin's victory does not mean that the Liberation Army won.
At the same time as the Battle of Wenshui ended, the main force of the Jin Army, more than 30,000 people, was marching towards Yizhou. The leader was Shuhu Siji himself.
After Shuhusiji sent military documents to Jiagu Asu, he couldn't wait to send out troops. The troops and horses dispatched were not 20,000 as he said, but 30,000.
Because on the eve of the dispatch of troops, the 10,000 supporting troops that Tu Danjing had managed to collect from Damingfu Road finally arrived.
Shuhu Siji was ecstatic and immediately incorporated these ten thousand people into the crusade and announced the march.
