Of course, artillery and gunpowder are good things! They can be called "time travel artifacts" and "best gold fingers"!

Not only is it powerful enough to change the historical process, but it is also easy to manufacture - it does not require too much chemistry and mathematics knowledge, and the level of high school students is enough to use the technical level of the ancients to create artillery and gunpowder with sufficient power in a very short time.

If you can't create it, either you don't have enough resources or you just forget what a "parabola" is? It doesn't matter if you can't remember the various equations of the parabola. Just know that this is the case. In this way, you won't always think about casting long-barreled cannons like the Red Barbarian Cannon... Don't always think about casting iron cannons. How difficult is casting iron parts! Isn't it good to cast a short, fat bronze mortar cannon like a soup pot?

In addition, don’t forget what “potassium nitrate” is! Sodium nitrate was very common in ancient times, but potassium nitrate was not easy to obtain and it needs to be processed with sodium nitrate.

As for the processing and purification methods, they are also very simple, they are nothing more than "water-soluble", "heating", "cooling", and "filtering"...

Although Zhao Kai, the second-year senior high school student, has a bit of a "second-year" knowledge, but he has never forgotten the knowledge he learned in chemistry and mathematics classes... He has to forget how to get into college? And after he got the body of Zhao Kai of the Song Dynasty, he will never forget this knowledge. That is the IQ of the top scorer in the liberal arts entrance examination in the Song Dynasty, and his memory is amazing!

Moreover, after Zhao Kai arrived in Daming Mansion, he had already recorded the chemical equations he knew about potassium nitrate in his notebook.

In fact, it was not difficult to extract potassium nitrate in the Song Dynasty, because potassium saltpeter (fire nitrate) and sodium saltpeter (Glauber's salt) were produced in Hedong, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places in the Song Dynasty, and artificial production of soil saltpeter has long appeared.

Nitr is also widely used, such as it is used to treat animal skins and hairs, to produce tofu, and people even use the characteristics of potassium nitrate that will absorb a lot of heat when dissolved in water to make ice.

However, the purity of these earth nitrates is often not high enough. Although they can be used to make gunpowder, the effect is not ideal (this is also related to the formula of gunpowder). In addition, because sodium saltpeter is a companion organism of salt ore, the yield is much greater than potassium saltpeter, and it is often used by profiteers to pretend to be potassium saltpeter.

Fortunately, the purification of potassium nitrate is not difficult. It is nothing more than using potassium in wood ash to replace sodium in soil nitrate or Glauber's salt to produce potassium nitrate.

The specific method is to soak the ground tin, Glauber's salt, and wood ash in hot water, stir and heat and filter it, then cool and filter it again... Using the different melting points of potassium nitrate and other impurities, high-purity potassium nitrate is extracted. The filtration process repeats several times to obtain high-purity potassium nitrate.

In fact, the method of boiling nitrogen with wood ash had already appeared in the Song Dynasty, but the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty did not master the method of filtering using the different melting points of potassium nitrate and other impurities. The role of wood ash in boiling nitrogen is not very clear, so the amount is used more and less, and the time to add wood ash is not very good, so it is impossible to make Glauber's salt with a high salt content into simmering nitrogen...

In addition to potassium nitrate, high-purity sulfur and carbon powder are also required to make gunpowder. Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places in the Song Dynasty also produced sulfur. If it really doesn't work, you can also import high-purity natural sulfur from Japan, where volcanoes are everywhere.

The method of purifying sulfur is a little more difficult because sulfur is insoluble in water. However, the melting point of sulfur itself is not high. Heating to about 200 degrees Celsius can melt the sulfur and then filter it with a silver wire mesh. For ancient working people who could melt copper and iron, it was almost no difficulty to melt and filter sulfur.

As for the production of charcoal powder, it is even less difficult, just burn the charcoal and then grind it.

Therefore, the difficulty of manufacturing high-performance black gunpowder in the Song Dynasty was to obtain high-quality potassium nitrate and sulfur. In the first year of Hongwu, Zhao Kai handed over these two tasks to Wu Haogu's sons Wu Yijiu and Pan Sheng'an.

They were asked to open "Sulphur Floor", "Sulphur Floor" and "Carbon Powder Floor" in Luoyang City. Now they have produced a lot of high-quality fire, sulfur, and charcoal powder. As long as they are mixed with charcoal powder in a certain proportion, they can get gunpowder.

In addition, Zhao Kai also recorded all the mathematical equations related to parabolas - in fact, it is not that complicated, because the range of the mortar cannon is only a few hundred meters, and the bombardment is also a fixed target that will not move, such as castles and camps, which can be tested slowly on the spot.

This mortar cannon is actually an enhanced trench machine with a longer range, greater power, smaller size, higher firing angle, and very convenient to carry and deploy. It can also be used to fire arson shells (no combustion, just heat the shells) to burn the fragments on the city head - before the cannon appeared, the naked "naked city" had no defense. It had to be placed with a large number of wooden equipment and protective gear, which was easily burned by the arson shells!

Once these things are destroyed, how can the city be guarded?

Moreover, the range of the mortar cannon is large enough to blast the arson bomb into the city and burn down the wooden houses in the city! For the defender, this is definitely a torture!

In addition to siege, mortar cannons are also a powerful weapon to defend the city! Because it can replace the siege cannons on the top of the city to destroy various siege equipment of the enemy - large-scale engineering equipment generally has no mobility and can be completely destroyed with light mortar cannons!

But after all, the mortar cannon is not a field weapon and cannot be used to strike mobile targets, so it is impossible to use the mortar cannon to restrain the cavalry...

......

Luoyang, Baibo Town, Fucai Supervision shooting range.

Zhao Kai, Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, Huang Wuji, Li Fuchen, Dong Jingang, He Guan, Ma Kuo, Liu Ziyu, Ma Zhi, Yelu Yuji and others, who had been rushing for 600 miles, finally arrived at this black technology arsenal affiliated to the Ministry of Revenue today!

Zhao Kai, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, led a group of copper smiths, as well as Wu Yijiu, Pan Sheng'an and others who were responsible for providing potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal powder, were already waiting in the newly built shooting range outside Baibo Town.

Ten "cannons" that are large and small, similar to soup pots, are already there for people to visit.

To be honest, these cannons are not powerful at all, and they look a little fun... They are all Wu Dalang among cannons!

The generals who followed Zhao Kai were now frowning around these "short and fat cannons" - so short, so fat... and so small, what's the use of this thing? After watching for a while, these generals began to discuss.

"This...is a cannon? It's not big!"

"What is this made of? Is it copper? Why does it look like a big pot?"

"Yes, why is it called a cannon? Brother, this doesn't look like a cannon, it looks like a pot... or you might as well change the name to hot pot!"

hot pot?

Zhao Kai was also squatting in front of a mortar to inspect the goods - he was a little expert, so he could read the trick, but he was still amused when he heard the name "hot pot".

He followed the voice and found that the person who made the suggestion was actually Yue Fei!

Yue Fei said seriously: "Brother, this thing is like a pot, and it is more suitable to fill it with gunpowder to release bullets, which is called hot pot!"

Well, in the future, 406mm hot pot will be installed on those battleships with displacement of tens of thousands of tons...

"Why call it a hot pot?" Zhao Kai held back his laughter, "It's just that... Let's take a look at the power!"

Zhao Kai paused and shouted: "Wu Dalang! Pan Wulang!"

Wu Dalang is Wu Yijiu - the surname is Wu and the eldest son, isn't he Wu Dalang?

Pan Wulang is Pan Sheng'an, with four brothers on him, namely Pan Shengyu, Pan Shengfei, Pan Shengzhi, and Pan Shengxiu. They are all celebrities in the brothel world of Kaifeng Prefecture, but they don’t know where they are going. Only Pan Wulang came to Luoyang.

Now Wu Dalang and Pan Wulang are dressed as if selling sesame cakes, and they are carrying a pair of loads. There are a camphor wood box on both sides of the loads. After one of the boxes is opened, there are two grids, one grid is placed with charcoal and the other grid is sulfur. The other grid is a single grid, with potassium nitrate in both places - Zhao Kai's hot pot "seasoning" is very simple, these three types.

In addition to the two boxes, there are wooden racks, spoons, scales, copper bowls, wooden shovels, and pockets hanging on the shoulder pole... It looks like snacks.

Seeing two "food vendors" coming to the front, Zhao Kai ordered again: "Get two kilograms first!"

Two pounds of gunpowder!

Because the barrel of the mortar cannon is thick and short and the chamber pressure is naturally very low, it requires a lot of launching medicine. Zhao Kai didn't know the ratio of the shells and launching medicines of the mortar cannon, so he had to just say a few - fill two kilograms of medicine with ten kilograms of projectiles, try it first, and then change it if it doesn't work.

The two "street vendors" immediately started moving the materials, opened the box, arranged the wooden rack, then placed the copper bowl on the wooden rack, and then started using potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal. Zhao Kai had told them the ratio, which was 7.5 to 1 to 1.5... After weighing the materials, they poured them into the copper bowl, and then used a wooden shovel to stir-fry them constantly, knowing that the three were completely mixed.

Both dealers brought disciples, among which Wu Yijiu was a very smart "big boy", and Pan Shengan was a pure middle-aged man.

Both apprentices took out a silk-sewn pocket, cooperated with the two dealers to pour the "seasoning" into the pocket, then tied it with a rope, and held it in front of Zhao Kai.

Zhao Kai personally took a pocket and put it into a "ten kilogram hot pot" - the wall of this "ten kilogram hot pot" is very thick, as if a hole was dug in the middle of a copper column. However, because it is "short", it weighs very light, and a solid wooden shelf (it looks similar to a wooden box) is less than 150 kilograms.

Then Zhao Kai took a round iron ball from a personal soldier next to him - this ball is customized. Because the diameter of each bite of "hot pot" is different, the size of the projectile is also different. It is said to be ten kilograms, but it is actually an approximate number.

Zhao Kai stuffed the iron ball into the "pot" and then found a hole at the bottom of the "pot". He took a long iron needle and pierced it into the hole, pierced the pocket where the "seasoning" was placed. Finally, he took a lead (cotton thread soaked in nitro water) and stuffed it in.

Then... I dare not light the fire, what if it explodes?

So Zhao Kai asked, "Who do you want to light the fire?"

"Official family, slave...I'll do it!"

The one who volunteered was the one who followed Wu Yijiu to the "big boy". Zhao Kai saw that he was very likable and smiled and said, "Okay, that's all for you... This is a famous one, and the candles that were lit for him!"
Chapter completed!