Have you thought of a solution?
Su Xun was stunned, looked at Li Ke in disbelief, and said in surprise: "Your Highness, are you sure you have a way to solve the problem of opening the mountain? You... you have never even been to the construction site..."
Obviously, Su Xun didn't believe a single punctuation mark in Li Ke's words.
You, a person who knows how to live a debauched life without paying attention to political affairs when you arrive in the fiefdom, and has never even left the gate of the state government office, can you solve a problem that thousands of manpower cannot solve?
However, Li Ke just smiled slightly, then thought for a moment, wrote a few lines of text on a piece of rice paper, and handed the paper to Su Xun.
"Mr. Su, now you immediately send someone to collect these things for me. The more, the better, and the sooner, the better. The sooner you collect all the things, the sooner the Lanhe River canal can be dug!"
Su Xun took the rice paper and took a look, his face full of confusion.
"Sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal, clay pots..." Su Xun whispered and read out the items listed on the paper one by one. There were seven or eight items in total, plus dozens of craftsmen.
Can these things help dig through the canal?
Su Xun was about to ask, but he heard Li Ke say with a smile: "Mr. Su, there is no need to ask any more questions. Just go and prepare. Mr. Su will know what I am going to do when he arrives."
Hearing this, Su Xun reluctantly nodded and retreated quickly.
Looking at Su Xun's back, Li Ke looked confident.
That's right, what he asked Su Xun to prepare were the raw materials for making explosives.
He wants to make explosives!
Since manpower can no longer successfully open the canal, it is natural to use chemical power.
Moreover, making explosives is almost not difficult for him, a doctor of science and engineering in the 21st century, and what he wants to make is also the simplest earth-explosive. Whether it is the difficulty of obtaining raw materials, technical difficulty, or the cost, it is very low. , can almost be mass-produced in a short time.
And this was the reason why he dared to swear to Su Xun that he could solve the problem of opening the large canal.
Soon, most of the day passed, and when Su Xun appeared again in the backyard of Prince Yong's Mansion where Li Ke was, he was followed by more than 20 people carrying burdens and craftsmen.
Running around for most of the day was obviously too much for this old man who was already over 60 years old. Not only was his official uniform soaked with sweat, but he also looked exhausted.
But Su Xun was gratified that the first moment he saw him, Li Ke stood up from his seat and walked towards him quickly with excitement on his face.
Knowing that he was tired, His Highness must be considerate and comfort him.
Su Xun was flattered and shed tears...
Then he saw His Royal Highness Prince Yong skipping him and walking straight towards the dozen or so people carrying the burdens behind him.
Su Xun: "(ｷ｀ﾟДﾟ´)!!"
Su Xun stood blankly on the spot.
I have sacrificed half my life for this little thing, and you...you don't even have a polite word?
Not to mention more, those few baskets of saltpeter alone have taken him to almost all the dry toilets in Kunyang City, so much so that now the people in Kunyang City are pointing at him behind his back when they see him.
However, no matter how excited Su Xun was at this time, Li Ke's attention did not fall on him, and his mind was entirely on the dozen loads of things.
Sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal...are indeed all the things I need, and I got them together in half a day. It seems that I can start making explosives right away!
Immediately, Li Ke was about to praise Su Xun, but when he turned around, he saw Su Xun hunched his neck and turned his back to him, with a face like the Hulk.
Li Ke frowned slightly, then shook his head and smiled, and said quickly: "Su Laozhen is such a capable minister. He actually collected all these things in just half a day. Li Ke admires him!"
Su Xun: "(`へ´*)ノ"
Li Ke: "..."
"Haha, I just wanted those things. I did neglect Mr. Su. Please forgive me." Then Li Ke picked up a cup of tea and handed it to Su Xun. "Mr. Su has been working hard for a long time and it's been very hard. Hey, Mr. Su, please forgive me." Use tea.”
Su Xun was still angry, but his expression had softened a bit, and he said: "I just did my job, it's not hard work."
After saying that, he turned to look at Li Ke seriously and said, "Now that everything has been gathered, can Your Highness dig the Nalan River canal?"
However, Li Ke just shook his head when he heard this, and then called the dozen craftsmen, and after telling everyone in detail what they needed to do, he let them work on the spot in the backyard of the palace.
What Li Ke asked these craftsmen to do was to process and purify these dozen baskets of raw materials.
Most of the materials Su Xun collected were coarse materials, and they could only be processed and purified if they wanted to make explosives.
Among several raw materials, sulfur is a finished product, while charcoal only needs simple processing.
Only the nitrate soil needs to be purified, but the process is not complicated. You only need to add water to the nitrate soil and heat it to dissolve it, and then wait for it to cool and crystallize to extract nitric acid.
After all three materials are gathered, they are mixed according to a certain proportion and put into a container, and a simple explosive bomb is ready.
The method is not difficult, and the only thing Li Ke is worried about now is insufficient materials.
After all, what needs to be blasted is a mountain of more than ten feet, let alone dozens of cubic meters of rock. Even the highly potent TNT explosives of later generations require at least ten kilograms of explosives.
Naturally, the homemade explosives he made were far less powerful than the TNT of later generations, so Li Ke estimated that he would need at least more than a hundred kilograms of explosives to completely blow open the mountain of more than ten feet.
Therefore, while Li Ke asked the craftsmen to prepare the explosives, he also asked Su Xun to continue collecting the raw materials for preparing the explosives, at least to be prepared.
Soon, all the processed and purified materials were prepared, and Li Ke ordered the craftsmen to mix all the materials one by one according to the proportion, put them into sealed earthenware jars, and finally placed the fuses.
At this point, a simple explosive bomb is ready.
Just looking at the clay pots lying on the ground like watermelons in front of him, Su Xun's expression was extremely complicated.
"Your Highness, can these dozens of small clay pots really cut through the mountain of more than ten feet?"
Li Ke raised his head and glanced at Su Xun, but smiled mysteriously and said, "Okay, you'll know later!"
After that, Li Ke ordered a dozen civilians on the side to load dozens of pottery pots on the ground into burdens, and then said to Su Xun: "Mr. Su, let's go, let's go to the construction site of the large canal!"
