Chapter 260: Big Wedding (Part 1)

If you want a high temperature, it is best to use coke. Li Wei does not understand the complex coking technology. But he knows the simple principle and can also be achieved by using a rough method. Put bituminous coal in a sealed environment and blow it into the high temperature. The principle is similar to that of Zhu Qucheng. Let it dry, pyrolyze, melt, bond, solidify, shrink, and then cool down in this sealed space, and then become coke.

I don’t remember much about where there is coal. I only know the super-large coal mines of Datong, Zhunbei and Xuzhou. Even if I remember it, it is buried underground. With the current technology, it is unlikely to find it. If I have this ability, I have coal, copper, iron, and even point to the Luzon Islands. There are many coppers in the place, which will be of great help to the Tang Dynasty. Unfortunately, even if I remember the accurate terrain, the landform and later generations have changed a lot, it still cannot be realized. However, there are probably many open-pit coal mines now, and no one has noticed them. They are all primitive mineral sources.

If you find anthracite, you can also be used as honeycomb coal. Unlike now, charcoal is used, especially in winter, when there is less cotton, most of you stay at home and use charcoal to grill fire, the same is true for the imperial palace. So a large number of trees were cut down. Why did Shaanxi become a high-soil slope later? It was caused by excessive development. Not only did the land become a loess slope, but the rivers were damaged. For example, now Jing, Wei, Wu, Bai, Feng, Feng, Shan, Ba, and Wu Ba River surround Chang'an. Will there be any future generations? No more, it is only recorded in history!

Thinking of this, there are more things.

While pondering, Zhu Qucheng asked carefully: "Your Highness, what do you think of this?"

If the prince said it was okay, he would still be unable to make any gains.

"This is a very good discussion," Li Wei replied. It was not considered an invention, but also an improvement. Especially the method of burning stones with tic toe will save a lot of charcoal or coke. Therefore, he immediately ordered the guards to give out two thousand coins for a reward.

However, Dai Zhide whispered to him: "Your Highness, although the milk candy comes from the Eastern Palace, it has been trampled among the people and cannot be exploited and harsh."

I don’t know much about Li Wei’s background, but the prince is very generous and the money is definitely not from the Eastern Palace.

Li Wei laughed and immediately called out the prime ministers again. This time, he forced out his potential. The new canal had not yet begun. All kinds of things that were beneficial to the country and military appeared one after another. I briefly talked about the matter of coke. I dare not think about the blast furnace steelmaking, but the higher the temperature, the better the quality of the steel or iron will be. Not only steel, but also porcelain, no matter how charcoal is burned, high-temperature porcelain cannot be burned. With high temperatures, porcelain will truly deform. When sailing out, the Tang Dynasty always had more things to do. The porcelain passed by, and I didn't dare to say much, mainly about steelmaking.

Liu Rengui became cautious when he heard this. He was not only cautious about coal but also gunpowder. He even sent some guards to be the helper of Taoist Qingxu to help him develop formula ratios.

Send someone down to investigate immediately.

Then we discussed the matter of planting trees. At first, everyone was very strange. Li Wei briefly said that the roots of the tree were solidified and the Wei River had a quick sand, which lacked persuasion. However, everyone agreed with Li Wei's suggestion. The suggestion was very simple. All the barren mountains and rivers were encouraged to lead the people to plant trees. Twenty years later, the trees were made of timber and belonged to the tree planters. There was only one regulation that one must be replanted if cut down. There was no compulsory method. The people planted if they were willing, and they would not be guilty of not being willing. The presumption was that they did not worry about the people.

Li Wei is not sure whether it has any effect, but it is definitely better to plant it than not. If coal is officially mined, reducing the deforestation of forests by burning charcoal, combining the two will be of some help to soil erosion.

He wrote another letter to ask Liang Jinzhu to return to Beijing quietly. It was about firecrackers. Black gunpowder appeared. With the wisdom of the Chinese people, I think firecrackers will appear soon. It is difficult to collect taxes for other merchants, otherwise it would be "competing for profit with the people". It would be better to let Liang Jinzhu dig the first pot of gold. As for whether it would be expensive after paying the tax, Li Wei didn't care much. Apart from making a fuss and adding some festive atmosphere, this thing has no other effect. On the contrary, some troubles will arise. It is just honeycomb coal, and it is planned to let the people make it themselves.

So a few days later, the Tang Dynasty was looking for coal.

If it is a personal search, it is not easy. Even if there is one, it will be negligent. However, when the country searches, a few days later, news kept coming. An open-pit coal mine was found in Zhongnan Mountain. At this time, the reward list was exposed again. Another craftsman, a fire craftsman in the Weapons Supervisor, named Kang Yin, and the nine surnames of Ban Zhaowu and half-Han people.

The most common weapons in the Tang Dynasty were bows and arrows, squids, or Modao, horizontal swords, and more people were used than Modao, as well as big lances, guns, spears, and other ones. For example, the weapons used by Xue Rengui were the combination of spears and guns, halberds, and hammers. The gourd used in court ceremonies also belonged to a type of hammer. They were not necessarily round, and they were all in all shapes, as well as whips like pagodas, maces and sticks used for short-soldiers in infantry wars. They were mostly used by the people. They were rarely used on the battlefield, and even rarer were hooks, borings, pestles and other weapons. In ancient times, the spears used were rarely used by warriors, either swords, not Tubo's straight swords. The swords in the Central Plains were often worn, and they were also rarely practical on the battlefield.

Some generals designed some strange weapons and some equipment for themselves, so they involved spiral patterns. If the two threads matched the sizes, they would go up and down by themselves by rotating. Without Li Wei's reward, it was just a curious discovery. After hearing the reward, they started thinking and designed a kind of equipment.

To create a steel column, the steel tip must be made of 100 steel steel, and then a tight hoop can be replaced after the steel tip is flattened. The steel column is behind it, and the outside is threaded. Then create an iron ring with the inner ring size, and the inner side of the iron ring is also threaded, but the thread of the steel column must be consistent. There are three legs below the iron ring, standing on the ground, and four holes on the periphery. A long iron rod is inserted, and several or dozens of great men push the iron ring to rotate and squeeze the steel column downward.

When Li Wei heard this, he said, "Damn!"

This is the original version of the drilling rig. It is used for water conservancy. Although a hole is made, gunpowder can be placed in with it. If improved, holes on the cliff can also be made on the plank road. It will be useful for civil use and even slightly improved when digging water wells. It can be used. Only surprise the wisdom of the people.

But this is the only surprise. After these things were invented, no one else came up with any good methods. However, it was far beyond Li Wei's expectations. With these things, it would be less difficult to mine stones at least half.

At the end of September, because of the large amount of manpower and financial resources, the experiment was quickly done. However, because of the appearance of Li Wei, the historical process was greatly changed. The early gunpowder was used for military purposes shortly after it was released. However, because the proportion was incorrect, the ratio of nitrate to sulfur was almost one to one, arson and explosion power was low, so the application was not very common. By the Song Dynasty, multiple formulas appeared, and gunpowder weapons gradually improved. It was not until the Qing Dynasty that the formula of gunpowder was truly standardized.

But because Li Wei asked for explosive power, he emphasized the different proportions of the test, and the progress was accelerated by a thousand years at once. Finally, it was determined that the ratio of three types of nitrification and sulfur carbon was 71 to 154, which was very close to the best standard for black gunpowder explosions of 74:8 to 11:8, and 11:3. Besides, sulfur and saltpeter are not purified, and there is no way to truly standard. It has changed from powder to granular, at least to some extent to comparable to the advanced gunpowder in the late Ming Dynasty. And it is also truly regarded as civilian materials, not as a toy for fireworks or weapons of war.

At this point, everything is ready, only the east wind is missing!

So on the second day of October, the Guangtong Canal was officially started, but the plan changed slightly. It was originally planned to start with the unblocking of Guangtong Canal, but now it has become a new canal that opens Fengshui to Guangtong Canal. Because there is a section in the middle, with soil on top and rock formations below. However, unlike the stubborn stones like the Renmen Peninsula, the rocks are mostly limestone and are easier to mine.

There are also many people, with a salary of fifty cents a day. Although it includes food expenses, it also brings tents and food, and brings some tools. For the people who have the means or are capable, the benefits are lower. However, for the poor and helpless people, there is no other thing to do, and they can earn some allowances. It is very humane. Every seven days "paid leave" day, and there are two meals every seven days. The court added some meat to comfort the people and the people also stipulated that three people would choose to cook for themselves. Three people could also enjoy the allowance. This measure once again eliminated the officials' greed. How much they wanted to eat and do it themselves. The officials could not greed for their pockets even if they wanted to. Therefore, more than 38,000 people were quickly gathered. If they were not afraid of wasting people's and financial resources, there might be more.

Of course, this is working on the plain. When it comes to Danshui Canal or the newly opened river on Renmen Peninsula, the allowance does not increase, and it is estimated that not many people are so enthusiastic. But the officials all smiled bitterly. The prince did this and the public outrage would definitely be gone. However, the subsidy alone would be more than 60,000 yuan. In addition to other expenses, the loss of 100,000 yuan per month was also caused. There is also the subsidy for demolition of houses, and the 200,000 yuan allocated by the court could not last for a winter. Although the weather in the twelfth lunar month was too cold, the civilians had to rest, but the winter month had to start construction, otherwise the spring water will come tomorrow and the Guangtong Canal will not be completed. It will be delayed until the end of next autumn to re-dumping water and flooding again, which is another huge expense.

However, opening the Guangtong Canal is also a major event. It is just a Guangtong Canal. If Sanmen is newly opened and the Danshui Canal is added, such a major water conservancy project will have a significance to the country no less than the expedition. It is just that one is the border work and the other is the water conservancy work of canal transportation.

Therefore, after more than a month of recuperation, Li Zhi finally issued an edict to lead the ministers to watch it himself.

The disease is cured.

But Li Wei was speculating that he had solved all the troubles. Seeing that the two channels were possible, even because the merchants started to move and had the funds raised, his father came to grab the credit. Could it be that this was his son who had a tree to take advantage of the situation? How could he not grab it? Hearing the conversation between the court and the country, Li Zhi felt that most of the chairs under his butt were gone in the Daming Palace.

On the second day of October, there were crowds of people between Fengshui and Guangtong Canal, and tens of thousands of people gathered together, which was very spectacular. Even Yan Liben was supported by someone to come to the construction site.

Wei Hongji asked the soldiers to beat the drums, and the project began to be constructed. Tens of thousands of people worked together, and soon the mud layer on the riverbed was lifted up and the stone layer below. A few new things began to appear in public. First, they would drill a stone layer with a hundred drilling rigs improved by the supervision. This is also the power of the state machine. Otherwise, there would be no idea that so many drilling rigs and gun hammers would have been done well in that year. Of course, it also cost a lot of money.

After drilling out the stone hole, put it in the ** and explode. Even the improved black gunpowder cannot explode deep pits, but shallow pits are blown out, and some stones are broken and flew into the sky. Li Wei disagreed. The people and the kings and ministers who could watch their faces turned pale when they saw this power. Cracked on the stone layer also appeared on the stone layer. Next, they started to tamp with gun hammers. It was impossible to tamp the entire riverbed, but they were just digging tic toe ditches.

Continuously slashing the holes, blasting, and tick-toe trenches appeared.

Because it was not over yet, Li Zhi led his ministers to have a simple lunch at the construction site. He continued to watch in the afternoon. From time to time, some civilians smashed the remaining stones with sledgehammers. Other civilians immediately picked up the gravel aside, which was just used to make the canal embankment.

Then, in front of the three horizontal grooves, a giant square furnace was placed, and the civilians put some of the coke extracted in the past few days in the furnace, and there were more than a dozen large bellows, which were blown and burned. Smoke and fire immediately emerged from two temporarily raised chimneys at the other end.

After nearly an hour of burning, all the white heat came out of the stone. Finally, all the water was evaporated. The stone began to evaporate red, and then sprayed white vinegar on it with a bamboo tube. This was a bit wasteful, but the first battle was to sacrifice the flag, and it was reasonable to waste some. The white vinegar sprinkled on the hot stone, and thick mist appeared again, emitting a sour smell, which quickly evaporated. Li Wei could not know whether there was a chemical reaction or how much it affected the stone. The soldiers continued to sprinkle it continuously. After more than half an hour, the stone began to evaporate red. Wei Hongji ordered again: "Stop."

I stopped burning, lifted the square furnace away, opened the water flow valve on it, rushed into the trench, and many people outside watered the surface of the stone. The riverbed immediately made a loud banging sound, and cracks appeared at the speed visible to the inner eye. But before I stopped, the stone cooled down, the water immediately took away dozens of new water trucks, pried open the soil that was almost burned into bricks, and stuffed it into it. This time, the amount was very large, and in order to better develop the power of the **, I pressed the mud bag on the **, and then ignited it. The amount was large and the power was even greater. Even if it was far away, the eardrums were shaking and painful.

Then countless huge stones were bombarded into the sky. Some of them stood tenaciously and were hit by gun hammers again. Tens of thousands of civilians also began to come over, some used baskets to pick them up, some used crowbars to pry them, and some used bars to lift them to both sides of the riverbed. It was not hard work, but to allowances. The people's motivation was very high. In just one day, this riverbed that was more than 30 meters long and more than ten meters wide was basically formed. In fact, the stones in this area were not hard, and the speed was incomparable to the speed of opening mountains and splitting rivers in later generations. But in this era, the monarch, ministers and the people were dazzled, and they were all amazed.

Yan Liben said twice: "New canals can be formed, new canals can be formed."

Of course, this is the riverbed in this area. Like the riverbed of Xinkai River, the width must reach at least twenty meters, and the depth may reach twenty meters on average. In addition to the hardness of the stone, mining is still not easy. There is another problem that Li Wei still did not solve, how to build a dike in the deep water of rapids. These two difficulties are not only encountered in Xinkai River, but also in Danshui Canal. It only reduces the danger of the river. However, it is much simpler than the original rough mining method and saves a lot of manpower and material resources. As for the difficulty later, since the prince can come up with a solution in just one month, it should not be difficult.

Yan Liben was very confident in Li Wei. The old man had already exhausted his energy, but he just wanted to see the new law to open the stone, so he supported him to this day. He returned home that night and passed away with a smile. Of course, it may be a problem of talent, or personality. As a prime minister, he is not a good prime minister, but Yan Liben was not a treacherous minister, so he did his best for the court.

Li Zhi was overjoyed and said, "Reward."

He rewarded Taoist Master Qingxu, Xiong Jiaoyan, Zhu Qucheng, Kang Yin, each of them with 500 pieces of silk and 300,000 yuan. This was the second time that Zhu Xiongkang and the other two had rewarded him, but this was a formal reward from the court. Li Wei had no objection to this. Even Qingxu also made contributions. If it weren't for the Taoist Masters' attempt to refine the immortal pill, they would not have invented or refined pure sulfur and saltpeter. Let Li Wei do it himself, and there would be no way to invent gunpowder. Even if there was gunpowder, it was just black gunpowder, and without the supplements of Xiong and Zhu, it would be difficult to blow up stones.

Li Zhi looked at Li Wei again, and Li Wei attached himself to his ear and said, "Father, when the new channel is opened, it is for the sake of our Li family. My sons should do it, and my father doesn't need to be rewarded."

Li Zhi smiled and said, "But it is also good news. It happens that your wedding is about to come, and this is a good omen."
Chapter completed!