Ming Dynasty: Every day, Zhu Yuanzhang is in trouble

Chapter 72 Mei Yin: What if I could make more powerful gunpowder?

Move forward a little bit in time.

Shuangshui Village, named Mingyue Gang by Mei Yin, is a barren hill full of limestone. It has become different at this time.

On the whole, it is almost the same as before, but on the east side of Mingyue Gang, a cement kiln was built in a slightly flat place against the legs of the hill.

Mei Yin can become stronger by feeding pigs, and the cement manufacturing methods he has obtained can be said to be very comprehensive.

Not only did he know how to make cement and how to choose stone.

At the same time, we also understand everything about how to build a cement kiln.

Therefore, under his personal design and on-site guidance, the cement kiln was quickly built.

Of course, the cement kilns being built now are not the kind of cement kilns that are full of modernity.

But it is a cement kiln that can be built under the current level of Ming Dynasty.

Compared with the cement kilns of later generations, it is full of original style.

But it is not easy to build such a cement kiln at this time.

Mei Yin is also confident that he can produce cement of acceptable quality based on this.

In addition to firing the cement that he needed to build his own house and making himself and Li Jinglong a lot of money, it also made Daming different!

At this time, the cement kiln was emitting smoke.

In the fire pit, some blazing fires are burning and heating up.

The crushed limestone, quartz stone, clay, etc. in the kiln must be changed into cement.

Mei Yin frowned as he looked at the firewood that was being thrown into the fire pit.

Using wood to make cement consumes too much wood.

Too much money.

It's okay now. He just fired a little less and used it to build his own house. Naturally, he didn't need to consider the cost.

But in the future, once large-scale production begins, all aspects must be considered to reduce costs.

Otherwise, this cement will become an extremely expensive building material and there will be no way to popularize it.

As far as he knew, people had already used coal as fuel in this era.

But it’s not widespread enough.

Coal is also hard to buy.

This needs to be solved in the future.

The cement production process is also quite complicated.

It's not as simple as putting limestone in a kiln and firing it.

The first step is to dig out the mountains and get the rocks.

The quarried stones are then crushed and ground.

In later generations, there were various mature large-scale machines and corresponding technological processes.

It's not difficult to do this kind of thing.

But now it's different.

Doing all of this now requires manpower.

In later generations, these two simple steps turned out to be the most labor-intensive processes.

Especially digging into mountains to extract rocks is really difficult to do.

The cement kiln currently being fired in Meiyin uses ready-made gravel as stone.

So it saves effort.

But after the gravel existing on the surface is used up, it will be difficult to obtain crushed limestone.

According to his understanding, at this time, hammers and chisels were mostly used to open mountains and extract rocks.

Or if you encounter something that is large and difficult to deal with, you can burn firewood to heat it, then pour cold water on it, and use the principle of thermal expansion and contraction to crack the stone.

Of course, some will use gunpowder to explode.

But there are not too many explosions using gunpowder.

First of all, there are too few people who can make gunpowder.

The second is the gunpowder at this time, which is not too powerful.

Although it can be used to open mountains and extract rocks, the efficiency improvement is not as much as imagined.

“Eldest nephew, what do you think of us getting some gunpowder here to mine stones?

Otherwise, it would be too difficult to open this stone.

It consumes too much manpower and material resources. It will not be so easy to bring down the price of cement in the future.

The cost is too high.

It is not conducive for us to make money by burning cement. "

Mei Yin stood here, thought for a while and looked at Li Jinglong to ask.

"Second uncle, do you want to use this gunpowder to open mountains and get rocks?" "Yes." Han Cheng nodded: "Isn't this a taboo?"

Li Jinglong thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty still attaches great importance to firearms, especially artillery.

During the Poyang Lake water battle, they directly had artillery loaded onto the warship to blast Chen Youliang.

During the Poyang Lake water battle, artillery also made a lot of contributions.

However, after conquering the world and expelling Bei Yuan, His Majesty was no longer so enthusiastic about firearms.

The artillery also suffered from indifference.

The main reason is that after regaining the world and fighting north, there will be no decent cities.

Those Tatars have no fixed abode and come and go roaring on their horses.

The artillery was too bulky and useless.

The rest of the firearms are similar.

For example, other firearms such as fire guns are quite good, but overall, except for some special circumstances, their effect is not that great.

For example, the reloading speed is too slow.

Secondly, the firecracker can explode easily.

Before knocking the enemy over, he first blew himself up and the people around him.

Therefore, although His Majesty also values ​​firearms, he does not value them that much.

Gunpowder is also a relatively important material in the military camp.

It was simply impossible to use gunpowder to blast rocks from the military camp.

Besides, in my current situation, there is no way to get gunpowder from the military camp. My grandfather and father will definitely not be sure. "

Li Jinglong thought Mei Yin wanted him to get gunpowder.

If it were a normal matter, he would have agreed, but with this gunpowder, he really had no choice now.

Mei Yin nodded understandingly and said: "Then if I don't get gunpowder from the military camp, but make my own gunpowder and use it to extract rocks from the mountains, it shouldn't be a big problem, right?"

Hearing this, Li Jinglong thought for a moment and said, "If the gunpowder you make yourself is only used for cutting mountains and extracting rocks, then that's okay.

His Majesty has not issued any relevant orders to prevent this.

Only gunpowder and firearms are not allowed to leak out from the military camp. "

Hearing what Li Jinglong said, Mei Yin felt relieved.

As long as you can make and use it yourself, it won't be a big problem.

"But...second uncle, can you still make gunpowder?"

Li Jinglong reacted and looked at Mei Yin curiously.

Mei Yin said: "I do understand some of the manufacturing process of gunpowder."

Mei Yin was not lying about this.

In later generations, he specialized in how to make gunpowder.

In the era he lived in, most families were reluctant to use bricks when building their houses.

The walls are all made of stone. Only when you get to the top, where the house is built, are you willing to spend money to buy some green bricks or red bricks.

The stones used to build houses are mined by each household themselves on the hillside.

The gunpowder used is all prepared by oneself.

At that time, the sale of ammonium nitrate fertilizer had not yet been banned.

So whenever necessary, you can prepare your own gunpowder.

Now in the Ming Dynasty, saltpeter and sulfur can be purchased directly.

Not to mention charcoal.

So he can really make gunpowder with his own hands.

"It's just...Second Uncle, even if you can really make gunpowder, it can be used to extract rocks from mountains, but the speed is not much faster than people using tools such as hammers and chisels.

It’s not like we haven’t seen the power of gunpowder before.

Although it is big, it is not as big as expected. "

As the top second-generation Xun in the Eight Classics, Li Jinglong naturally had experience with gunpowder and firearms.

To be honest, he wasn't too interested in these.

I always feel that these things are troublesome to use, not to mention unsafe, and not as powerful as imagined.

Mei Yin nodded: "This is true for ordinary gunpowder, but what if I can create more powerful gunpowder?"

Li Jinglong:? ? ?

(End of this chapter)