"Your Majesty, I found that the gunpowder in the arsenal seems to be more powerful after it is wet and then dried again. I have never thought of the reason behind this, so I specifically asked your Majesty for advice!" Ge Hong said.
When Liu Yu heard this, he immediately became energetic.
Ge Hong is a great and powerful man whose name has been recorded in history. If you just want to force him into an official position, you would be looking down on this man who meant to refine elixirs and practice Taoism.
After Liu Yu summoned Ge Hong, he quickly shocked Ge Hong with a series of chemical knowledge.
Ge Hong, who was shocked at the time, once thought that the current emperor was also a fellow Taoist and was extremely obsessed with Taoist cultivation.
However, after Liu Yu whetted his appetite, he got him to work as an errand in the Department of Salt, Iron and Military Preparation.
For a period of time, whenever Ge Hong encountered some difficult questions, Liu Yu could always give him answers from an angle that surprised him.
In this way, Ge Hong admired and worshiped Liu Yu even more.
Every time Liu Yu answered questions, he gained a further win over Ge Hong.
"These gunpowders are originally made by mixing three kinds of chemicals. However, no matter how you stir them, the three powders always do not blend well with each other. If it encounters moisture, part of the fire salt inside will dissolve into the charcoal and sulfur. .”
Liu Yu began to answer patiently.
Ge Hong listened very carefully and saw Liu Yu continue to speak.
"When the gunpowder becomes moist, it will fuse more closely. After it is dried again, the gunpowder will naturally explode more quickly and fully, which means it will naturally be more powerful!"
The chemistry knowledge that Liu Yu once mastered has begun to slowly fade away as time goes by.
Therefore, after getting Ge Hong, a good student with a thirst for knowledge, it can be said that he wanted to teach him everything he could.
In order to better subdue Ge Hong and prevent him from running away from the world after learning, Liu Yu wished he could write a textbook for him.
"Oh, that's it. Your Majesty is indeed a god who came to this world, and he knows everything!" Ge Hong admired from the bottom of his heart.
"Nothing in the world has rules to follow. Not only this gunpowder, but also all other material changes have rules to follow!"
As Liu Yu spoke, he took out a brand new book from his arms.
"Your Majesty, what is this?" Ge Hong took it and asked in confusion.
"The secret of the method of all things in the world that I just mentioned is hidden in this book. If you can learn it thoroughly, you can create things out of thin air and turn stone into gold!"
Liu Yu said in an exaggerated tone.
"What? Your Majesty said it, but is it true?" When Ge Hong heard this, he was immediately overjoyed.
He has been practicing Taoism for nearly twenty years. He is not just pursuing the way to immortality, but also wants to understand the way of change in the world.
However, with that kind of simple hard thinking, even if you want to break the sky, you can't come up with anything.
Now that Liu Yu had answered his questions many times, Ge Hong was already convinced of Liu Yu's level of 'cultivation'.
Now that Liu Yu personally gave him the treasure book, he was even more happy.
Ge Hong couldn't wait to open the book.
However, after just reading the first three sentences, I was completely fooled.
"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus,,,,"
"Oxysilica aluminum iron calcium sodium potassium,,,"
Because the characters here seem familiar, but I don’t even recognize them, let alone what they mean.
"Your Majesty, what are these words? I am so stupid that I don't understand them at all."
Ge Hong said to Liu Yu with a sad face.
Liu Yu patted his shoulder and comforted Ge Hong.
"Don't be anxious. This book of mine can be said to have been learned by all living beings from all the great masters in the world. It cannot be understood so quickly."
"Even if there are words you don't understand, don't worry. There are explanations at the end. With your intelligence, you will definitely be able to understand."
"If you really don't understand something, just write it down and ask me again."
For his "good student" Ge Hong, Liu Yu could say that he wanted to give him everything he could.
This knowledge is more useful to Liu Yu than conquering cities and territories.
However, in this day and age, it is difficult for Liu Yu to even find someone who understands the crudest meaning.
What's more, the vast majority of people today are illiterate, and it is even rarer to find interested people among a group of literate people from high families and poor families.
The most reliable person now is Ge Hong.
"Your Majesty, I understand. I will treasure it and study this book carefully to repay Your Majesty's favor!"
The more Ge Hong couldn't understand the book, the more profound he felt the book contained.
Otherwise, if he could see it clearly at a glance, it would definitely be a lie.
"Treasure? No, no, no, I don't mean that." Liu Yu shook his head and said.
"Ah? Then I will return it to Your Majesty immediately after reading it!?" Ge Hong said with some reluctance.
"Hahaha, you misunderstood, and that's not what I meant. What I mean is that if you want to study this book first, if you don't understand anything, you can ask me. Once you understand it thoroughly, you can explain it to me. Recruit smart people to carry forward this knowledge and make it even better!" Liu Yu said.
In fact, this book written by Liu Yu is an introductory material for basic chemistry.
Some basic common elements are summarized, along with some common responses.
For the knowledge of chemistry, it is just a shabby stepping stone.
However, even such a simple stepping stone must be verified and promoted by elites like Ge Hong.
After all, Liu Yu was the emperor, so he couldn't abandon military and political affairs and lead a group of chemists to conduct crazy experiments every day.
"Your Majesty, do you want to make this kind of sky-stealing technique public?" Ge Hong was so surprised that he could hardly close his mouth.
In his view, every sect's monastic skills are absolute secrets, and they are often kept secret.
But what Liu Yu meant was that he should learn it himself first and then teach it to more students.
And it seems that the more people you teach, the better.
"Well, yes, that's what I mean. The road reaches the sky and the sky is huge, but there will never be room for others just because one person knows the secrets and reaches the top."
Liu Yu said, took out another scroll, and then said to Ge Hong.
"There are so many mysteries in this world that one person can never fully understand or study them all. There must be more people to build the tower of this knowledge higher and higher. Knowing You can touch the real sky!" Liu Yu said.
Ge Hong felt confused and doubtful about Liu Yu's insights.
For a moment, he even forgot to ask what the scroll that was just handed to him was. After listening to Liu Yu's words, Ge Hong seemed to have opened a door to a new world in his heart, and he could not calm down for a long time.
It wasn't until Liu Yu left that Ge Hong remembered the scroll he had just held.
However, there are many people in the iron yard, and Ge Hong is still unwilling to show such treasures to others easily.
Ge Hong immediately gave up his work in the iron field and returned home.
As soon as he entered the home, he couldn't wait to open the scroll.
"Ah? This is it?"
As soon as the scroll was opened, Ge Hong was shocked by the sight in front of him.
What appeared before him was a huge map.
The map not only marks the place names, rivers and lakes of states and counties in the Central Plains, but also the very far away areas of the Western Regions, Tianzhu, Donghu, Dongying and Nanzhong.
However, what interests Ge Hong the most is that the specific locations of a large number of copper and iron mines are marked on the map.
It is not known who discovered the location of these copper-iron deposits.
"Your Majesty, what is the purpose of giving this picture to me?"
Ge Hong was confused for a while.
However, as the scroll was opened, Ge Hong gradually understood the purpose of this scroll.
On the back of the scroll map, the specific locations of various gold, silver, copper and iron deposits are marked, as well as their approximate reserves.
The contrast between copper ore and iron ore is very strong.
There are also instructions left by Liu Yu himself.
Ge Hong finally understood when he saw this.
"It turns out that His Majesty gave me this map to tell me that I should improve the art of iron smelting to replace copper mines."
Ordinary officials or idlers would not have such thoughts after reading this map.
However, Ge Hong is no ordinary person.
He is now in charge of the manufacturing of weapons and equipment, and knows that the next step in the development of the Han Dynasty is to use a large number of gunpowder weapons.
After the great improvement in the preparation and storage of gunpowder, the manufacturing output of gunpowder weapons will increase on a large scale.
However, in the current imperial weapons manufacturing, almost all gunpowder weapons are made of copper.
Although there are some Japanese silver coins, large-scale copper coins are still the mainstream currency.
In other words, gunpowder weapons are made of money, so you can imagine how expensive they are.
If Ge Hong could use smelting iron instead of casting copper, it would be a huge achievement.
"Oh, it's a pity. If you want to melt cast iron weapons, I'm afraid it won't be effective without ten years of effort."
Ge Hong shook his head and sighed.
He was originally a cultivator of alchemy and immortality, and he also had a certain understanding of smelting. After all, many alchemy furnaces had to be made and improved by himself.
However, it was precisely because of this understanding that Ge Hong knew how difficult it was.
Iron has been known as the evil metal since ancient times, and its properties are extremely difficult to control. Iron coming from the same furnace often has different properties, which is extremely difficult to figure out.
Ge Hong knew that those gunpowder weapons that could burst out flames and make loud noises were so powerful that ordinary cast iron would simply not be able to withstand them. Once their chambers exploded, it would be a disaster.
"Put it aside and let me take a look at this book."
Ge Hong had a headache thinking about it, so he simply put the matter aside and picked up the book Liu Yu gave him and started reading.
The book was beautifully bound and the words in it were simple. Although many of the names were unknown, with the last annotation, Ge Hong actually understood it quite a bit.
When he just read the first two pages, Ge Hong shook his head while reading.
"Hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, and all these elements make up nothing in the world."
"Your Majesty heard the rumors from nowhere. Time and all things are obviously related to the five elements. Where do these weird words come from?"
Although Ge Hong disagreed in his heart, over the past few days, Liu Yu had answered some questions that had puzzled him for a long time, so Ge Hong couldn't help but continue to read patiently.
"Oxidation and reduction, what is oxidation?"
"There is air between heaven and earth, in which more than 20% of the oxygen that can survive is nitrogen,,,,"
When Ge Hong saw this, he already felt that although Liu Yu's nonsense in the book was weird, it was coherent and self-consistent.
When he continued to look down, he discovered several pictures drawn with pens.
The pictures included in the text show how a burning glass bottle was used to test the oxygen content in the air.
After reading it, Ge Hong suddenly felt interested.
He happened to have a few transparent glass bottles at home, so he went to get them.
After another busy day.
Ge Hong looked at the transparent glass bottle in his hand and was stunned.
"It's actually true!"
"So, the qi in the fields is actually not one kind at all, but is composed of many different qi."
When Ge Hong thought of this, he immediately fell into ecstasy.
This is not because of how high his scientific awareness is now, but because he thinks of it from the perspective of cultivation.
"No wonder I always felt like I couldn't make progress when I was practicing huffing and puffing. It turns out that there are too many impurities in the air, and only 20% of the essence of the temperament is absorbed in just one breath!"
"If this essence and this oxygen can be increased to 100%, then when practicing breathing, wouldn't it be able to achieve several times the effect?"
After Ge Hong was taught by Liu Yu about the poisonous effects of cinnabar refining elixirs, he turned to studying breathing and breathing.
Now that I see the composition of Qi in this book, I am even more convinced about this cultivation method.
"Haha, no wonder Your Majesty doesn't let me continue to practice alchemy. It turns out that it's not just the cinnabar that's poisonous, it's also the right way to practice qi."
"No, I have to take a closer look at how to make this energy purer!"
For most of the day.
Ge Hong held the book in his hand and studied it repeatedly in his room. When he encountered a word he didn't understand, he would first read the annotations at the back. If he still couldn't understand it, he would write it down for now.
The book in his hand became thinner and thinner as he looked at it, but Ge Hong became more and more melancholy as he looked at it.
Not only is he shaking his head back and forth, but sometimes he is even mumbling something.
In such an abnormal state of mind, when dinner time came, Mrs. Ge Hong couldn't help but feel very worried, and wanted to go into the house to dissuade her husband from resting more.
Who would have thought that Ge Hong would be very irritable and scolded this loving wife in the past.
Mrs. Ge thought that her husband had been deceived by evil spirits and heretics, and she couldn't help being frightened and frightened.
If I hadn't seen Ge Hong's neatly dressed clothes, I would have thought that Ge Hong had eaten five stone powder.
This wasn't the end yet, Ge Hong didn't sleep a wink the whole night.
By the next morning, Ge Hong was already looking disheveled.
At this time, Ge Hong was no longer reading in the study. Instead, he found a pile of copper furnaces, crystal stones, sulfur, cinnabar and other weird things from home that were used for alchemy in the past.
Under the big autumn pear tree of my house, I was cooking and roasting, and all kinds of water basins were placed all over the floor.
Sometimes he frowned and shook his head, and sometimes he clapped his hands and laughed.
