The next morning, when Li Yuan got up early, the first thing he did was to take people to the northeast of the city where the elixirs were refined, to take a good look at how the gunpowder refining was going on under Hu Gui's leadership.
This is a residential area in the northeast corner of Langzhou. It is not a prosperous place. It is precisely because of the remoteness and tranquility that Hu Gui chose to place the alchemy furnace for refining gunpowder here in order to minimize the harm to the people. disturb.
But even so, the smoke and pungent smell produced during refining still disturbed the few dozen households in this area. So Hu Gui decided to ask Xu Kuangheng to clear out the area, and moved dozens of households to the densely populated area in the south of the city. He erected a tall wall to encircle the entire area within a radius of a few miles into a restricted area, making this place become a An area dedicated to refining gunpowder.
Li Yuan led the crowd to the northeast of the city. They could smell some pungent smell in the air from a long distance, and when they arrived near the wall, the smell became even stronger.
Now I understand. It makes sense to spend money to move the people here. Who can stand the people living under such a smell all day long? Obviously inappropriate. Of course, this cost a lot of money, but the money obviously had to be spent.
After entering the gate of the wall, Hu Gui, who had been staying here for a long time to supervise the progress, heard the news and hurriedly came out to greet him. Hu Gui was very depressed, his hair was messy, his eyes were bloodshot, and his robe was full of dirt. The whole person exudes a strange smell, and there is a state official who looks like a weapons supervisor. He is obviously under a lot of pressure.
"Oh my, Grand Governor, you are here! The smell here is pungent and unpleasant. How can the Grand Governor come in person? You can just send someone to ask your subordinates to ask questions." Hu Gui hurriedly bowed and cupped his hands.
Li Yuan got off the horse with a smile, stepped forward and patted Hu Gui on the shoulder and said: "Why bother you to make a trip? It's not like I don't have long legs. Why do you look like this? You don't clean yourself up, you are Why am I, the weapons supervisor of Wuping Town, acting like a servant?"
Hu Gui leaned forward and said, "Last night, I spent the whole night refining the batch. I stared at it all night without sleeping a wink."
Li Yuan smiled and said: "Refining is the business of those warlocks, why are you accompanying me?"
Hu Gui said with an apologetic look on his face: "The low-ranking official is incompetent and has spent tens of thousands of money on the governor. After a whole month, there has been no results at all. It is really shameful. If we don't step up the supervision, we will let down the governor."
Li Yuan chuckled and said, "Did you hear what others were talking about?"
Hu Gui quickly waved his hand and said: "I don't dare, I don't dare. It's appropriate to discuss it. I have indeed spent a lot of money on the governor, but there is no result. The money is indeed spent in vain, and I have failed to live up to the expectations of the governor!"
Li Yuan sighed and said, "Don't think so. This is what I ordered you to do. Just do your best and don't feel any psychological burden."
Hu Gui's eyes turned red and he said solemnly: "Thank you, Commander-in-Chief. Thank you, Commander-in-Chief."
Li Yuan chuckled and said, "Let's go and take a look. When the site was selected, I only came here once. I think I was a little irresponsible."
Hu Gui responded repeatedly and led Li Yuan and his party towards the depths of the courtyard. They walked through a gravel-paved avenue. In front of them was a row of houses. After passing the houses, there was a row of trees. There is another wall as high as one person under the trees. On the other side of the wall, smoke of various colors, yellow, white, and black, floats in the air for a long time. At the same time, the smell in the nose becomes even stronger.
"Please, Commander-in-Chief, the alchemy furnace is in the courtyard." Hu Gui extended his hand to guide.
Li Yuan nodded, stepped into the vertical arch door, passed through a densely planted tree, and suddenly a large open space appeared in front of him. There are two rows of courtyards arranged neatly from east to west in the open space. In the courtyard of each courtyard, you can see a tall tower-like thing emitting smoke, which is about ten feet tall and has a hexagonal shape.
"Great Governor, these are the alchemy furnaces and alchemy rooms. There are twenty seats in four rows. Each furnace is in charge of a real person. Behind it is the monastery and medicine room where they live." Hu Guidao.
Li Yuan quickly walked into a courtyard. After entering the courtyard door, a wave of heat hit him. But around the alchemy furnace, several Taoist boys were sweating like rain. Two were cracking firewood, one was adding firewood, and the other was fanning. They were all very busy. There are six hexagonal alchemy furnaces
Each furnace door was spraying red flames outwards, and the heat wave was rolling around, making even breathing almost suffocating.
Hu Gui reached out and summoned a Taoist boy who was playing firewood and asked, "Where is Zhenren Liu?"
The Taoist boy pointed to the monastery ten steps away and said, "Hu Jiancheng, the master is resting in the monastery. Do you want to call him?"
Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "Let's go see this Master Liu and see what they are doing."
So everyone escaped from the burning of the alchemy furnace and walked to the two monasteries at the back. When they came to the door, a Taoist boy was doing laundry in the corridor. When he saw a group of people coming, he stood up and looked around. Hu Guidao said, "Go and tell Zhenren Liu that the Governor is coming in person and ask him to come out to greet you."
The Taoist boy hurriedly opened the curtain and entered the room. A moment later, an old man with gray hair hurried out and saluted Li Yuan and Hu Gui quickly when he saw them.
"This is Liu Haichan Liu Zhenren." Hu Gui introduced to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan nodded and said, "I recognize them. We met them when they came to Langzhou. Mr. Liu, please be polite."
"Your Majesty, please come in and sit down. Tong'er, go and pour some tea." Liu Zhen said.
Everyone entered the house, but saw that there was nothing in the house. Dozens of open clay pots were placed on a long table in the corner. There were various powders in the pots, which mixed together with a pungent smell. Li Yuan couldn't help but cough a few times.
"I'm sorry, Commander-in-Chief. I was grinding and brewing the powder, so I didn't have time to put it away. My child, quickly take the lid and cover the powder."
Li Yuan waved his hand and said, "No need, I'm just here to take a look at these things."
After speaking, Li Yuan stepped closer and frowned at the contents of the pots, not recognizing any of them. Master Liu pointed at the side: "This is realgar, this is soil frost, this is purple saltpeter, this is nirvana, this is arsenic..."
Li Yuan frowned. He didn't know the names of many things, which sounded very strange.
But this is natural. Li Yuan was from a liberal arts background in his previous life. Even though everyone knew about gunpowder in later generations, he had little knowledge of gunpowder. The names of things like yellow gunpowder, black powder and explosives may seem familiar at first glance, but in the end, the exact ratio of the drugs and the specific methods of making them are completely unknown.
Therefore, Li Yuan, who traveled here, could only rely on Taoist priests' recipes for refining gunpowder. If he hadn't exhausted all his trump cards in the Yiyang battle, Li Yuan wouldn't even have thought of refining gunpowder.
However, Li Yuan still knew the basic knowledge of gunpowder, which was nothing more than a mixture of three substances: saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal in proportion. But how to mix, how to proportion, and how to make it explode within a controllable range, Li Yuan was at a loss.
But it was precisely because of this concept that Li Yuan felt that this matter was not difficult from the beginning. These Taoist priests who pursued elixirs for immortality day and night would definitely have a way to refine the gunpowder they needed. However, what I didn't expect was that after spending so much money on this matter for a month, there was still no result.
Li Yuan was also helpless. He expected that this was due to the limitations of the times of technology, raw materials and other issues, and he actually couldn't change it. Li Yuan didn't know any more about this aspect of knowledge than these alchemists.
"Zhenren Liu, I don't know if there has been any progress in refining Fuhuo Fang. The governor said bluntly. I thought this matter was not difficult, but the progress was unexpected." Li Yuan said solemnly.
Liu Haichan said with a guilty look on his face: "Grand Governor, I am ashamed of myself. If we don't do our best, we are really far from the Grand Governor's requirements. The fire-making recipe you need can both ignite quickly and explode." Quickly, the old man and others have refined more than 400 prescriptions in the past month, but none of them meet the requirements of the Grand Governor. The old man is also introspecting what is the reason."
Li Yuandao: "Among the more than four hundred prescriptions, none of them are effective?"
Liu Haichan brushed his beard and said hesitantly: "It's not that there is nothing... but I know that it is far from what the Governor requires. There are two formulas that can barely be regarded as making some progress, but the effect is very poor. The governor will definitely not be satisfied."
Li Yuan quickly said: "No problem, take it and show it to the governor."
Liu Haichan nodded in agreement, turned around and trembled
Wei took out two paper packages from the drawer of the corner cabinet and held them in his hands. Li Yuan opened the paper bag one by one, looked at the granular black and yellow powder inside, and smelled it, which seemed to smell like gunpowder.
"Try the effect and the Governor will know."
As he spoke, Liu Haichan poured a pinch of medicinal powder into two bowls, picked up a fire stick and blew it on, and leaned over the powder in one of the bowls. The fire was bright red, but it took a long time for the medicinal powder to burn, but it was like burning rat droppings. A handful of medicinal powder burned for dozens of seconds, emitting pungent yellow and white smoke, and even It's hard to see the fire...
Obviously it is not the kind of rapid ignition and instant explosion effect that Li Yuan imagined.
The medicinal powder in the other bowl was also ineffective. Although it ignited faster, the fire was like an oil lamp, with a yellow flame. This is naturally not the kind of violent explosion effect.
Li Yuan secretly felt bitter in his heart. After spending so much money, he only got this kind of thing that was used for magic tricks. It was pungent even for making fire. This kind of gunpowder couldn't be called gunpowder at all. It was better to just use oil-rich gunpowder. Pine wood ignites easily, so what good can it do?
Seeing Li Yuan's ugly face, everyone lowered their heads silently. Liu Haichan waved his hand and ordered the Taoist boy to tidy up, then stood aside speechless.
Li Yuan held his chin in his hands and thought: "According to Mr. Liu, what is the problem? I remember reading in a book that a Taoist priest who made alchemy once made a medicine that burned quickly, and even more so. The house and the alchemy furnace were burned down, but the records are unclear and it seems that they have not been handed down."
