It's funny to say that Han Zhen's enlightenment on explosives came from a military education film "Mine Warfare" he watched as a child.
The so-called nitrate, disulfide, and charcoal formula was learned from this movie.
At that time, I lived in a rural area. My family was poor and we had no toys.
Therefore, making homemade explosives and landmines became his childhood fun.
As soon as the holidays came, he would run around the village with a broken bowl, scrape the soil and saltpeter off the walls, and then go home to purify it.
This hobby lasted until the third year of junior high school.
Until one time, his kitchen exploded due to an operating error, and he was ruthlessly curbed.
At this moment, making explosives again, bits and pieces of childhood memories from my previous life suddenly came to my mind.
Hehe, now no one can stop himself from making explosives.
The sun sets in the west and darkness covers the sky.
Liu Qi was very curious and wanted to come over to take a look over and over again, but Nie Dong stopped him every time.
After working back and forth for more than an hour, I finally purified the saltpeter and sulfur.
Han Zhen held a wooden pestle and gently ground the three materials into powder.
This step is very important and dangerous.
The finer the grind, the better.
After grinding, Han Zhen poured the prepared egg white into the gunpowder.
This is to prevent dust from rising and causing an explosion when exposed to open flames.
In the 13th and 14th centuries, when Europeans were making gunpowder, in order to prevent dust from causing explosions, they would mix water or urine into the gunpowder.
Egg white can also have the same effect, and the viscosity of egg white can turn powdered gunpowder into granular gunpowder.
In fact, granular gunpowder is not more powerful than powder. The advantage of granular gunpowder is that it is relatively safe during transportation and will not delaminate.
Because gunpowder is a mixture of three material powders with different densities, the vibration during transportation will cause the three powders to gradually stratify, thereby reducing the power.
It's okay if the war is not tight, you can stir it up again before use.
But if the war is urgent, there will be no time for you to slowly stir the gunpowder...
Han Zhen held a sieve and kept moving it back and forth.
Soon, black particles appeared in the sieve, and with continuous shaking, the gunpowder particles gradually became compact.
The small particles fall into the tub along the holes of the screen, leaving only the large particles in the end.
There is no way, if it is purely manual, it is impossible to ensure uniform particle size.
The remaining large particles are not unusable and can be kept to make explosive packets.
If you have white sugar, add some to the gunpowder to increase the power of the explosion.
But that must be the white sugar of later generations. The white sugar he makes now is too rough and has strong water absorption. If it is mixed into gunpowder, in a humid environment, the effect of gunpowder will be greatly reduced.
Until the moon was at the top of the sky, Han Zhen made three large barrels of gunpowder.
The other ingredients are okay, but a lot of eggs are used.
Looking at the eggshells on the ground, Han Zhen couldn't help but frown.
I have to think of a way to use something else to replace the egg white as a binder.
The cost of eggs is too high. The key is to expand the scale of production in the future, and I am afraid that thousands of kilograms of eggs will be consumed every month.
There were so many eggs for him to waste right now.
It seems that urine was used in Europe, while wine was used in the Ming Dynasty. In comparison, the cost of urine is obviously lower.
Go back and try using urine as a binder.
After lifting the three barrels of granular gunpowder to Baihu Hall and letting them dry slowly, Han Zhen returned to the barracks to sleep.
The next day.
Early in the morning, after breakfast, Han Zhen walked into the White Tiger Hall.
After checking and finding that all the gunpowder had dried, he picked up the bamboo tube prepared yesterday and started filling it.
After the granular gunpowder is compacted, the lead is inserted, and then sealed with yellow mud glue.
Han Zhen thought for a while, took a piece of iron armor and put it on his body, and then took the five prepared explosives to the open space behind the military camp.
When he came to the clearing, he picked up the fire stick at his waist, lit the fuse, and immediately threw it into the woods from a distance.
boom!
There was a deafening loud noise.
Immediately afterwards, a thick plume of white smoke floated up.
The loud noise was so sudden that it startled the soldiers who were practicing on the school field.
The cattle and horses in the military camp were also frightened, especially the war horses. They rushed out of the stables neighing one by one and ran around in the military camp.
For a moment, people shouted and horses neighed, and the scene was extremely chaotic.
"Why panic!"
Nie Dong roared.
Soon, with the response of Wei Da and others, the military camp returned to calm.
Not long after, Nie Dong and Liu Qi walked over quickly following the sound.
Nie Dong asked: "County Magistrate, what happened just now?"
"Try the new firearm!"
Han Zhen raised the explosive in his hand.
Hearing this, Nie Dong was stunned and said in disbelief: "The sound just now was a firearm?"
He knows best the virtues of firearms.
Besides, I personally lit one yesterday, and the sound when it exploded was not that loud.
Han Zhen didn't answer and walked towards the explosion point. Nie Dong followed immediately.
Near the explosion point, there was a strong and pungent smell of gunpowder, and the smoke and dust had not completely dissipated.
This is the disadvantage of black powder. The smoke is too much, so don't think about flintlock guns unless you can make smokeless gunpowder.
However, smokeless gunpowder is much more complicated than black powder. Under current conditions, it is as difficult as penicillin.
The forest was in a mess. A small pit with a diameter of half a meter was blasted out of the ground. The charred soil was still emitting bursts of smoke.
There are many pieces of bamboo stuck in the surrounding trees.
Seeing this scene, Han Zhen couldn't help but nodded with satisfaction. Judging from the power displayed so far, it had met his expectations.
Nie Dong pulled out a piece of bamboo from the trunk and took a breath of cold air.
Although there are some thunder bombs in the army that can shoot out iron caltrops when they explode, these are bamboo splinters at the moment.
It can nail broken pieces of bamboo to the tree trunk, so you can imagine how powerful the explosion is.
After Liu Qi observed it for a moment, he then turned his attention to the explosive in Han Zhen's hand and said eagerly: "County Magistrate, is this the firearm just now? Can you let me try it too?"
Han Zhen ordered: "Go and get some clay pots and caltrops, and also a pair of heavy armor."
"Got the order!"
The two of them immediately clasped their fists in response and turned around to leave happily.
Soon, the two came back carrying heavy armor and two cans of caltrops.
Han Zhen greeted: "Let's go to the mountains to try."
The three of them went all the way to the depths of the forest. Under Han Zhen's command, Nie Dong cut down several wooden sticks and stuck them firmly on the ground, then put heavy armor on the wooden sticks.
Han Zhen stuffed two sticks of dynamite into the clay pot, leaving only the leads outside the mouth of the pot.
"County magistrate, let me have some."
Liu Qi looked expectantly.
Glancing at the armor on his body, Han Zhen warned with a serious expression: "Light the fuse and run immediately. Don't stop."
"Don't worry, Magistrate, I'm not an idiot." Liu Qi assured him, patting his chest.
Han Zhen and Nie Dong hid behind a big rock ten meters away, with only half of their heads sticking out.
Liu Qi was quite excited at first, but when he saw the two of them being so cautious, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty.
But then he thought about it, it was not like he had never seen firearms in the military before.
Plus he was wearing iron armor, so he thought he would be fine.
Thinking of this, Liu Qi took the courage to light the fuse with a fire stick.
"Run!"
Han Zhen, who was not far away, reminded.
Liu Qi turned around and ran away without saying a word.
After running seven or eight meters away, the guy stopped and turned around to admire it.
Han Zhen was startled and was about to shout.
boom! ! !
A deafening explosion rang in my ears.
Boom boom boom!
"ah!"
A series of metal collision sounds, mixed with Liu Qi's screams, sounded in the forest.
When the explosion ended, Han Zhen and Nie Dong immediately ran out.
At this moment, Liu Qi was lying on his back with five or six iron caltrops tied on his armor.
Han Zhen knelt down and inspected it carefully. He found that although the caltrops had pierced the armor, it had not penetrated. He could not help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
If Liu Qi died, he would not be able to explain to Xie Ding and Liu Zhongwu.
Let alone taking advantage of the situation, I'm afraid there will be two more life-and-death enemies.
However, although the caltrops did not penetrate deeply, the force of the blast was not light at all. Liu Qi felt as if he had been hit by five or six copper hammers, and there was a burst of pain all over his body.
Han Zhen said sternly: "I asked you to run faster, why did you stop?"
"I...I didn't expect it to be so powerful."
Liu Qi shrank his neck and chuckled.
This firearm was completely different from what he had seen in the border army.
Han Zhen ordered: "Take off your armor quickly and check it out."
These caltrops are basically rusty. If there is a puncture wound, the blood must be squeezed out quickly, otherwise there is a certain probability that you will be infected with tetanus.
"oh."
Liu Qi responded, got up and took off his armor.
When he took off his clothes, he saw several red, swollen and bruised masses on his body, which showed how powerful the caltrop was.
Seeing that there were no wounds on his body, Han Zhen didn't bother to care and walked towards the explosion point.
There was still a small pit on the ground, and smoke was rising from the charred soil.
The wooden frame supporting the heavy armor has fallen. There are seven or eight caltrops tied on the heavy armor. Each caltrop penetrates deeply into the armor leaf and the sharp thorns are embedded in it.
"hiss!"
Nie Dong took a breath of cold air and looked horrified.
Liu Qi, who came over, looked in disbelief and murmured to himself: "It's... so powerful!"
This is heavy armor!
The heavy armor cannot be penetrated by powerful crossbows, but at this moment, it is as fragile as paper in front of firearms.
If the two armies were fighting and throwing hundreds of firearms into the enemy formation, hundreds of lives would be lost in an instant.
Thinking of this, Nie Dong felt short of breath and his hands trembled slightly with excitement.
Han Zhen asked: "What do you think of this thing?"
Liu Qi swallowed his saliva and said solemnly: "It's as powerful as a magical weapon. If I, the Song Dynasty, had this firearm, I'm afraid I would have recovered the Sixteenth State of Yanyun long ago."
"This thing is too overbearing, like a divine punishment from the power of God."
Nie Dong had a vague premonition in his heart that future wars might be drastically changed by the appearance of this object.
Just as the popularity of heavy armor led to the decline of horse racing.
This kind of firearm will definitely change the pattern of war.
Suppressing the surging thoughts in his heart, he hurriedly asked: "County Magistrate, can this thing be manufactured in large quantities?"
"Of course you can."
Han Zhen smiled slightly.
"hiss!"
Nie Dong took a deep breath again, and an uncontrollable ecstasy surged in his heart. He said excitedly: "County Chief, if the army can install a large number of these firearms, it will be easy to sweep the world!"
"That's right!"
Liu Qi nodded and agreed excitedly: "With this thing, whether it is Xixia or Jin, it can be broken with a snap of the finger. We will take advantage of the situation and Xi..."
As he spoke, Liu Qi's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally fell into silence.
etc.
Xi... sweeping the world?
(End of chapter)
