As soon as he heard that he could work for the lord, Rona was worried that such a good thing would be snatched away by others, so he quickly agreed.

He also patted his chest and said that he had many years of experience in raising cattle and was one of the old farmers in Bianshu Town, so he was the most suitable to take on this task.

It would be nice to have more income, not to mention the salary provided by the lord is not bad.

Therefore, Rona left all the cattle at home to his wife and son to take care of. His son had to work when he came home from school, and then he happily followed the people sent by Owen to report.

In a simple breeding house in the corner of the courtyard, Rona was stunned when he saw the two acid slimes he was going to breed in the future.

He knew that the lord was recruiting people with breeding experience, so he thought he was going to raise some kind of livestock, but he didn't expect that it was a monster, and it happened to be a low-level monster like slime.

God knows what the Lord wants to do with the slime.

It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know the purpose, what’s more important is that Rona doesn’t know how to raise him! What if he dies after raising him?

The lord entrusted the Chamber of Commerce to get this all the way from the Star Flame Kingdom, and he absolutely cannot afford to pay for it.

Thinking of this, Rona couldn't help but retreat.

"Don't worry, I have summarized a set of breeding experience and will teach you all about it."

Owen naturally saw Rona's worries and gave him a reassurance.

Since there was no need to explore slime breeding experience on his own, Rona felt a little relieved.

But after thinking about it carefully, he suddenly realized something and said with a shocked expression: "Lord, are you planning to teach me personally?"

"That's right." Owen nodded, "I am the only one in the entire Border Guard Town who has experience in this area."

Hearing this, Rona said with fear: "Lord, please rest assured, I will study wholeheartedly and raise the slime well!"

Everyone can see that the lord attaches great importance to cultivating slimes, so he must work harder.

Next, Owen explained to Rona in detail his future daily work.

For example, when to feed food? After establishing a good relationship with slime, how to obtain acid? How many times a day? etc.

Rona was desperately trying to remember the work contents in his mind.

Since the construction of the slime farm has just been negotiated with Veru, Rona needs to go in and out of the castle courtyard every day.

Regarding this matter, Irving will make an agreement with the gatekeeper in advance and let Rona go directly.

Anyway, there are only two strong acid slimes at present, and the breeding house in the courtyard can still be maintained.

After Owen finished explaining the work arrangements, Rona was still repeating the work content to himself in a low voice, for fear of accidentally forgetting any important steps.

Seeing this, Owen handed the stack of paper to Rona's hand.

Holding this stack of paper, Rona asked doubtfully: "Lord, what is this?"

"I have summarized good breeding experience and daily work arrangements."

"But..." Rona scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Lord, I don't understand the words."

"Oh? In that case, then you still have to go to school to take the night literacy course I prepared for adults." Owen said.

"ah?!"

Hearing this, Rona's mouth opened wide.

After a while, he closed his mouth and nodded mechanically: "I understand, I will go to class."

"Don't worry." Owen added, "Before Slime accepts you, I will be there every day to teach you what to do. You will definitely remember the work content."

"Then why..."

Before he finished speaking, Owen raised his hand to interrupt and explained: "I want you to become literate to prepare for the future."

"Oh I see."

Since the lord has said so, Rona will not say anything more.

Just learn, he just didn't expect that when he reached middle age, he would still have to learn to read. He thought he would never be able to touch words in his life.

The reason why Irving made such a request was because in the future, when Rona manages the slime farm, he will need to record the amount of acid obtained every day, and write reports every once in a while to report the status of the farm.

While handing over the slime breeding task to Rona, Owen was also preparing for another thing, which was to make nitrocellulose.

As mentioned before, Owen plans to manufacture breech-loading rifled guns to gradually replace the current front-loading smoothbore guns.

Gita has already built two breech-loading rifled guns as test muskets, one of which Owen gave to Viscount Jarvis as agreed.

Corresponding machines for manufacturing cartridge cases and warheads are also ready.

Copper is relatively soft and has good ductility, so it is not difficult to process it into the shape of cartridge cases and warheads.

Only the primers for the bullets did not yet have suitable materials, so Irving was slow to let Gita and others start mass production of breech-loading rifles.

Viscount Jarvis once tried to use paper-cased bullets for shooting, but because the end of the barrel of the breech-loading gun was not sealed, it was impossible to ensure that the gunpowder gas was blocked. The speed and power of the fired lead shot were greatly reduced, and the effect was unsatisfactory.

Seeing such a result, Viscount Jarvis was also disappointed and could only wait for the metal-cased fixed-loading bullets to be manufactured before conducting shooting tests.

Nitrocellulose can solve this primer problem very well. It is more sensitive to sparks than black powder and can ensure the firing rate of bullets.

Of course, there are also materials that are more suitable as primers than nitrocellulose, such as mercury fulminate.

However, the preparation process of mercury fulminate is much more complicated than that of nitrocellulose, and the raw materials are difficult to obtain, making it impossible to produce in large quantities.

Even if it is produced, it still needs a safe storage warehouse.

Mercury fulminate is extremely unstable and may explode with a slight collision.

If a big explosion occurs due to improper storage, the consequences will be disastrous.

In comparison, the production process of nitrocellulose is easier and the storage conditions are simpler.

In addition, nitrocellulose, or nitrocellulose, is an important component of smokeless gunpowder.

In the future, when Owen plans to use smokeless gunpowder to completely replace black powder, he will also need to produce nitrocellulose in large quantities to meet demand.

This can be regarded as preparation in advance.

All in all, take it step by step and take your time. Don't be anxious, wait until the conditions are met, and then upgrade in all aspects.

It was precisely because he planned to use nitrocellulose as a bullet primer that Owen asked Gita to make a flintlock breech-loading gun.

Making nitrocellulose requires materials such as absorbent cotton, concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid.

But there is no absorbent cotton in this world! Irving had no choice but to make it himself.

After preparing the required materials, he immediately went through the process of making nitrocellulose in the temporary laboratory.

First, caustic soda is needed to degrease the cotton purchased from outside.

Owen used the method of electrolyzing saturated salt water to prepare sodium hydroxide, put cotton into caustic soda solution, heated and boiled for a period of time, then cooled, rinsed, and dried to obtain absorbent cotton.

Next, mix the concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid obtained from the strong acid slime in the correct ratio, completely immerse the absorbent cotton in it, and soak for a sufficient time. This process is nitrification.

Then take it out, rinse it repeatedly, and then boil it in dilute sodium hydroxide solution to react off the excess acid.

Finally, these wet finished products are dried in the sun, and what you get is nitrocellulose.
Chapter completed!