Chapter 221: Customized gunpowder

As a prince who made his fortune in war, Marin attached great importance to the army. Whenever he was free, Marin would go to the barracks to inspect. No, getting up early in the morning, Marin decided to Zema to inspect the military camp outside the city to check whether the army strictly adhered to training.

According to the regulations of Marin, every morning, after running a 5 km, soldiers are to train battle arrays and individual skills and tactics. The main thing is that the spearman is trained to poke, while the musketeer is trained to shoot.

Marlin's musketeers are trained very frequently, and often conduct live ammunition training. The military of other countries, even if they have musketeers, do not often practice live ammunition training. Because gunpowder is too expensive ...

There is no saltpetre mine in Europe. If you want saltpetre, you can only go to the toilet. Moreover, the number is still very small. Therefore, the price of European saltpeter is very expensive. Marin, it is possible to go to India to buy saltpetre, so the cost of saltpetre is much lower than other European countries. But the problem is that ships going to India only go back and forth in two years.

Marin estimated that the spices were almost sold out in Spain. So he also planned to send a boat to go to India to buy saltpetre.

Of course, now East Friesland, as well as Oldenburg and Schleswig, have built a total of 20 fertilizer processing plants. These fertilizer processing plants no longer make manure directly into fertilizer, but add a process of extracting saltpeter.

The specific method is that after collecting the feces, it is first introduced into a dug soil septic tank. A month later, the manure was transferred to another place to make fertilizer blocks, and the empty manure pond and the surrounding soil will be dug out, and then used to extract soil nitrate.

Recently, a craftsman who extracted soil nitrate proposed a more efficient method. He referred to Marin's method of making tofu, using gauze to filter the feces, leaving only urine, and the solids of the feces were used as fertilizer. The urine is used to stir the yellow mud.

The specific method is to mix 150 pounds of urine per thousand pounds of soil. After mixing well, ferment in a damp place, preferably around 26 to 28 degrees. A month later, the soil became nitrite. And this thousand pounds of nitrite can extract eight to nine pounds of saltpeter.

This new type of soil nitrate extraction method has greatly improved efficiency than before. Previously, in ponds where nitrite was extracted, only the surrounding soil could develop nitrate. This method greatly increases the amount of soil nitrate extracted.

In the past, a large pool of feces, but extracting hundreds of pounds of saltpeter. Now, a large pool of feces can extract thousands of pounds of saltpetre.

However, Marin is very clear that the amount of saltpetre extracted in this way has increased. But at the same time, it also led to a reduction in the nitrogen content of the feces.

Because, in the feces, the nitrogen element is mainly in the urine, but the nitrogen content in the **** solids is a minority. The new type of nitrate fermentation method, although it has increased the extraction of saltpeter, but also reduced the nitrogen content in the feces, resulting in a reduction in the nitrogen content of the fertilizer block.

After thinking about it from the left, Marin decided that when making nitrite, only half of the urine was used to generate nitrite. The remaining urine is still used to make fertilizer blocks. After all, agriculture is a major event, and agriculture must not be mistaken for military needs.

At the same time, when making fertilizer blocks, Marin also asked the serf workers of the fertilizer factory to increase the amount of manure and use the amount to make up for the lack of nitrogen in the unit amount of fertilizer.

Nevertheless, because the efficiency of the new type of extraction of nitrite is ten times that of the previous one. Although only half of the urine is used, the amount of saltpetre extracted is four to five times as much as before.

In this way, even if you don't go to India to buy cheap saltpeter, the saltpeter here in Marin is enough. There are 20 large-scale fertilizer processing plants, collecting manure from all over the country, and processing nitrite all day and night, which is enough to supply the demand for saltpeter in the Marin Army.

As for other materials equipped with gunpowder-charcoal and sulfur, this is a lot of things in Europe, and the price is not expensive ...

Under such conditions, Marin naturally required the musketeers to practice live ammunition. However, this is not the case every day, but only once a week. Otherwise, Marin's financial resources are too much.

It was also a coincidence that when Marin came to inspect the barracks, the musketeers were training with live ammunition. So, Marin steered the horse with interest and went to watch it.

The Musketeer commander shouted loudly:

"Attention everyone!"

"Shoot down!"

"Stir gunpowder!"

Suddenly, the musketeers all started to open the copper pot they were carrying, and with a copper spoon, began to stir the powder in the copper pot.

The gunmen of Marin used powdered gunpowder instead of granular gunpowder. The reason for this is also to keep it secret, lest the secret of granular gunpowder be learned. In addition, it is not necessary to use granular gunpowder.

The use of muskets is not popular among other armies, and no army uses muskets against its own army. Therefore, there is no need to use granular gunpowder to enhance the effective range of the shot.

At present, Marlin's army has only artillery and uses granular gunpowder. Moreover, the artillery's granular gunpowder is packed quantitatively in animal skin bags. When firing, the artillery only needs to open the leather bag and pour the gunpowder into the barrel. Normally, the gunpowder bag is not allowed to open, so as not to get wet.

Musketeers have always used copper pots for gunpowder. As for the amount of charge, the copper spoon for stirring is used to measure the charge of gunpowder.

Powdered gunpowder is different from granular gunpowder. Granular gunpowder, because they are mixed evenly before being made into granules, are then glued together, and the natural quality is good. Powdered gunpowder has different densities because of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal. During transportation, after bumps, it will stratify, the density will sink, and the density will rise.

Therefore, before each battle, the musketeers need to stir the powder in the copper pot.

Seeing that the gunmen had mixed the gunpowder, the gunmen commanders shouted:

"Charge!"

Musketeers immediately used copper spoons, dug two spoons of gunpowder powder in the copper pots, and put them into the barrels. Then, the iron rod was pulled out from under the barrel and the gunpowder in the barrel was tamped.

"Reload!" The commander continued to shout.

Skilled musketeers took the iron rods in their left hand, and immediately took out a lead shot from the purse, and at the same time, a small piece of cut leather.

Afterwards, the musketeers laid the leather across the barrel of the barrel, put the ball-shaped lead on the leather, and pressed it inwards. Then, with his right hand, he took back the copper bar from his left hand, rammed the lead bullet and leather that had been pressed into the mouth of the barrel, and rammed it to the bottom and rammed it. Then, pull out the iron rod and insert it into the holder under the barrel.

After that, the matchlock gun was lifted flat, and the musketeer dug a powder of ignition powder into the open gunpowder pool with a spoon ...

The gunpowder pool of the matchlock gun is different from the flintlock. The gunpowder pool of the flintlock is pressed by iron. Therefore, in the gunpowder pool of the flintlock gun, you can pour the gunpowder powder into the gunpowder pool in advance, and then press it with an iron piece, and then stand the gun upright and put gunpowder and lead in the barrel.

But the matchlock gun is different. The ignition mode of the matchlock gun is to use a trigger-driven clip to send the lit matchstick into the open gunpowder pool above the rear end of the barrel, to ignite the gunpowder in the gunpowder pool, and then ignite through the fire hole Gunpowder in the barrel.

Because it is an open gunpowder pool, it is naturally impossible to put gunpowder first. Otherwise, the gunpowder of the gunpowder pool will be scattered on the ground when the gun barrel is erected.

Therefore, this is one of the important differences between matchlock and flintlock. At the same time, because the gunpowder pool is open and upward. Once a rainy day is encountered, the gunpowder pool is prone to rainwater. Therefore, the matchlock gun is very afraid of rain. Once it rains, the fire rope is easily extinguished, and the gunpowder pool is also prone to water. Unlike flintlock guns, which are covered with iron sheets, they are not afraid of rain.

After all the soldiers had installed the ammunition and clipped the lit fire rope, then it was natural to enter the famous "three-stage shooting" time. This process, naturally, needless to say.

After Marin visited shooting training for a while, it suddenly came to mind-it seems that the thousand sword oil paper has not yet decided on its use.

Originally, Marin planned to make all the oil paper into oil paper bags for packaging salt and sucrose. However, nowadays, when transporting sucrose and table salt, Europeans are more accustomed to using oak barrels, and oil paper bags are not necessarily needed.

Only bulk sucrose and table salt are used to get oil paper bags. However, ordinary people in this era often buy bottles of salt and sucrose in bulk, and often bring their own bottles and cans, and you don't need to provide oil paper bags at all. The same is true of grocery shopping. The common people bring their own food baskets. Unlike the common people in later generations, no food baskets were brought to buy vegetables, and plastic bags were directly provided by merchants.

Marin also influenced the thinking of later generations, only thinking of providing guests with paper bags. However, after inspection, he found that people buy their own containers, and they don't have to worry about merchants.

In other words, the oiled paper may not necessarily be used ...

However, combined with the shooting training in front of him, Marin suddenly remembered what the oil paper could do ...

Install ammunition! The earliest custom ammunition was made of oil paper.

At the earliest time, the officers were afraid that the soldiers would not put the correct amount of gunpowder. If they put too much, it would be easy to explode. After all, the early barrels were made of wrought iron and were not very strong.

Exactly, the papermaking technology has improved and the cost of oiled paper has been reduced. So, some experts put forward the concept of custom gunpowder. It is to pack a certain amount of oil paper with the amount of gunpowder that can be shot once. Then, send it to the soldiers.

In this way, even a stupid soldier knows that when he shoots, as long as he tears open the oil paper bag and pours the gunpowder into the barrel, it must be right. Then, wrapped in oil paper, holding a lead bullet, a copper-iron rod pierced into the bottom of the barrel and rammed it.

In this way, the oil-paper bag with a fixed amount of gunpowder not only allows soldiers to precisely charge. Moreover, the oil-paper bag can replace the previous expensive leather, as a supplement for air confinement, wrapped with lead bullets. As a result, the application of oil-paper bags can also save a lot of leather.

Of course, the medicine contained in the oil paper package is not only the stimulant in the barrel, but also a small part of the ignition powder to be poured into the gunpowder pool.

However, this is only suitable for doing this in a flintlock. Because, if the ignition powder is loaded first, the flintlock can press the gunpowder pool with iron pieces. The matchlock clearly cannot.

Moreover, because the oil-paper bag is wrapped with lead bullets and pressed into the barrel, it is impossible to finally pour an ignition powder into the gunpowder pool. Therefore, the "one-pack dual-use" method of ordering gunpowder is not suitable for matchlock guns, only for flintlock guns.

Of course, this is not a problem. Musketeers can also prepare a small copper pot, which is specially used to put the ignition powder. After the gun, lead bullets, and oil paper packs in the barrel are all filled, use a small copper pot to pour a little ignition powder into the gunpowder pool ...

In addition, the gunpowder wrapped in oil paper can only be granular gunpowder, not powdered gunpowder. Because the powdered gunpowder, after bumping in the oil paper bag, is also easy to delaminate, which affects the effect of deflagration. Therefore, in order to install ammunition, granular gunpowder must be used.

In fact, Marin had long planned to use custom gunpowder. Moreover, making granular gunpowder is not very troublesome, as long as enough labor is arranged, it can be done. It is nothing more than glue made from fish skin, binding the powdered powder that is stirred evenly, then rubbed into strips, cut into granules, and then air dried ...

It's just that it was not possible to use custom-made gunpowder without a large amount of cheap oil paper before. Moreover, the use of oil paper to load the fixed gunpowder, as long as it is sealed, can also prevent moisture, it can be said to do three things. The gun barrel plays the role of closing the air; thirdly, it is natural to make the particle gunpowder waterproof).

In fact, in fact, the use of oil-paper bags to order gunpowder also has the effect of preventing soldiers from normally seeing the particle state of gunpowder ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~ so as not to attract others' attention and imitation.

Thinking of this, Marin happily ended the inspection of the military camp. Before leaving, he praised the soldiers for a pass, making everyone feel a little inexplicable.

After returning to the palace, Marin immediately arranged manpower, preparing to expand the scale of the granule gunpowder workshop, and recruiting more people to process the granule gunpowder.

At the same time, Marin also hired a group of ingenious women to use batter to make oil paper into a fixed-size oil paper bag, which was used to hold a container of gunpowder.

After the granule gunpowder is ready, you can directly wrap it with these oil papers, and then seal the oil paper with batter. When they are in combat, the soldiers can carry these customized gunpowders in leather bags. Each time you load the ammunition, you can directly draw out an oil-paper bag from the leather bag, tear it and pour the gunpowder into the barrel. Then, wrap the lead in a barrel of oil paper and press it into the barrel. Finally, use another small copper pot and pour the ignition powder in the gunpowder pool as the ignition powder ...

In this way, when the musketeer shoots, the step of stirring the powder is saved, which can save a lot of time. Moreover, the soldiers no longer need to carefully measure the quantity of gunpowder, which saves a lot of trouble, and eliminates the danger of gun barrel explosion due to excessive charge, and saves a lot of leather pieces ...