In a large pot of boiling hot water, Li Zhang poured the saltpeter next to him and stirred it constantly. When the water could not melt more saltpeter, he stopped, then scoop out the saltpeter solution in the pot, and filtered out the debris in water-insoluble in the water with gauze. The remaining clean solution slowly cooled down, and some crystals were slowly precipitated inside. These were relatively pure saltpeter.

The three elements of gunpowder are saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur. Natural minerals can be found in saltpeter and sulfur, but these minerals generally contain a large amount of impurities. If they are not purified, the power of the gunpowder will be greatly reduced, and it will not reach the maximum power of the gunpowder at all, which will also affect the power of the musket.

The purification of saltpeter is still very simple. It is nothing more than using it to melt different degrees in water at different temperatures to obtain purified crystals. The sulfur is a bit troublesome. It needs to be heated on the fire, and when it boils, it can get sulfur gas, and then cool it to obtain purer sulfur. This requires a distiller, and the structure is not complicated. Li Zhang asked Judge Liu to help him create one. Yesterday he purified the sulfur.

After filtering out the saltpeter crystals precipitated in the solution and then drying them, Li Zhang then mixed the saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal in a ratio of 15:2:3, then sprayed clean water to knead the gunpowder into a ball, squeezed it into small particles with a sieve and then dried, and it became particulate gunpowder. This step is very critical. Gritification of gunpowder can not only keep the proportion of various components of the gunpowder evenly, but also increase the power of the gunpowder.

The production of gunpowder was operated by Li Zhang, and no one intervened because he knew that this thing was too important. Speaking of which, gunpowder appeared in the late Tang Dynasty and was used in military affairs during the Song Dynasty, but it has never been widely used. The most important thing is that the ratio of gunpowder is wrong, and there are too many impurities in it, which makes the power of gunpowder too small. Therefore, even if the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty played the firearms, they could not exert the power of gunpowder.

However, the craftsmen of the Song Dynasty were very smart. Since gunpowder was not very powerful, they began to take a detour and simply added more impurities to the gunpowder, such as poison, iron nails, ceramic granules, etc., so that when the gunpowder exploded, they could use these things to kill the enemy, but with more gunpowder, these things, their power was smaller, and the enemies they killed were very limited.

After the gunpowder was dried and waited for a while, the flintlock rifle on Judge Zhang's side was finally built. During this period, Li Zhang often ran to him. The main reason was that the blacksmith who worked did not know the purpose of the musket, so some problems would inevitably arise during casting, and Li Zhang had to correct it from time to time to avoid creating an unusable musket.

"Brother Li, are you still satisfied with this musket made?" Judge Liu sent the musket to Li Zhang and said. The gun was about two feet long. Except for the gun handle, it was all made of fine iron. The barrel was not very long. The main reason was that the barrel was not yet manufactured. More than a dozen barrels were destroyed before. The only one who succeeded was this one, and it was only two feet long. Such a short barrel would definitely affect the power of the gun, but there was nothing to do about it for the time being.

Li Zhang took it and pulled the pounding and it stuck smoothly. Then he pulled the pounding and the pounding hit the anvil in front. The flint on it also hit a string of sparks, which made him look happy and said, "That's right, that's it. Thank you very much Brother Liu!"

"Brother Li, you have to be polite, but I really want to try the power of this musket." Judge Liu also laughed at this time. He also spent a lot of effort to create this musket, and he had personally participated in the modification of some of them, so he is now very curious about the power of this musket.

"No problem, Brother Liu, come with me, let's try it now!" Li Zhang immediately laughed. He was embarrassed to hide it because he was struggling for the musket. Moreover, through this period of time, he also found that although Judge Liu was from a low-level family, he was a person with thick outside and thin inside. In addition, he participated in the manufacturing of muskets, and he had already understood the principle of muskets. It was normal for him to see the power of muskets with his own eyes.

At that moment, Li Zhang brought Judge Liu to his yard, and then asked the wild dog to bring the pellets of gunpowder he had dried. In addition, some lead pills made by Li Zhang himself. The lead pills have a low melting point, and he had known the caliber of the musket for a long time, so it was very convenient to make a few lead pills by himself. It is said that many musketeers in later generations carried small crucibles with them to make lead pills at any time.

The diameter of the lead ball is a little smaller than that of the musket. After Li Zhang poured the particulate gunpowder into the muzzle, he wrapped the lead balls in linen, then stuffed them into the barrel, and used a push rod to push the lead balls into it, compacting them with the gunpowder to lay the gun flat. Judge Liu next to him saw that the gunpowder Li Zhang took out was a bit special, but he didn't care. After all, the gunpowder formulas in the Song Dynasty were all kinds of, and the gunpowder they made were all kinds of.

However, Li Zhang didn't dare to test with a musket in his hand. After all, this was the first musket made. God knows what would be wrong. If the chamber exploded, he might have to be left here. He didn't want to really devote himself to the development of gunpowder weapons.

Of course, Li Zhang would not let others test for him, so he fixed the gun on a tree in the yard with a rope. However, when Judge Liu saw his actions, he smiled and said, "Brother Li, you can't hold much gunpowder even if you have enough gunpowder. Do you need to be so careful?"

"Haha, be careful, there is no big mistake." Li Zhang also smiled and did not try to explain the different powers of his gunpowder. After all, Judge Liu will see it with his own eyes later.

After fixing the musket, Li Zhang poured the gunpowder into the fire door, then tied a thin rope to the trigger, and then pulled the thrust on it, so he carefully retreated for more than ten meters. After all, he hid behind a large wooden shield held by the wild dog, and he borrowed this shield from Hu Yan Shouxin in advance.

Judge Zhang was unwilling to hide behind the shield, but Li Zhang was forced to pull the shield. At this time, Li Zhang pulled the string and then pulled the trigger hard. There was a loud "bang" sound, and Judge Liu next to him was also shocked, because he didn't expect the sound of the musket to be so loud.

"Success?" Li Zhang immediately poked his head out from behind the shield when he heard the sound, but found that the musket was blocked by black smoke. This is the case with the black gunpowder. The smoke released after the explosion was too large. If too many muskets were used together, the smoke emitted would even block the gunner's view. This was also one of the reasons for the rise of smokeless gunpowder later.

At that moment, Li Zhang quickly walked to the tree, but was surprised to find that the gun was intact, but there was a trace of hitting on the wall opposite the muzzle. Li Zhang quickly walked over and searched for a long time before he found a deformed lead pill in the corner of the wall.

"One, two, three..." Judge Liu walked from the muzzle to the corner of the wall with a serious expression. He found that the muzzle was about twenty steps away from the corner of the wall. Although this distance was not far, the traces of the lead ball hitting the wall were very deep, which shows that the lead ball shot from the musket was extremely powerful, and this distance could even penetrate the armor, which made him start to look at the musket for the first time.

Although the first shot was successful, Li Zhang was not too happy about it. Instead, he cleaned the barrel and loaded the bullet and fired again, and he still pulled it with a rope. As a result, he shot thirteen times in a row. On the 14th time, there was a loud "bang" sound, which was obviously different from before. When they walked over, they found that the barrel of the fire gate had exploded.

"This... why is this kind of gunpowder so powerful?" Judge Liu said in shock when he looked at the blasted barrel. At first, he only noticed that Li Zhang's gunpowder was different. Later, he found that Li Zhang did not add a lot of gunpowder to the barrel. Such a little gunpowder could shoot the lead balls for more than twenty steps, and even made a pit on the blue brick wall. This power was beyond his understanding of gunpowder.

"The power of gunpowder is on the one hand, and on the other hand, this musket can also exert the power of gunpowder. Unfortunately, the material of the barrel is not yet up, so it exploded after only a dozen shots." Li Zhang took the gun down and checked it, and found that all the parts inside were destroyed, so he had to go back to the furnace and refine it again.

"The iron material used for muskets is already quite good. If you want to use better iron material, you can only use the kind of fine iron that is only used to make weapons." Judge Liu also spoke at this time. His craftsmen were only making some iron tools for the imperial tomb, mainly some tools, and the quality of the iron material used was not as good as the iron material used to make weapons.

"Brother Liu, can you get some fine iron? Let's make another one?" Li Zhang immediately asked. The first gun could fire more than a dozen guns, which means there should be no major problem in the structure. If better materials can be used, a truly practical gun could be created.

"Yes, it's okay, but...but...but Brother Li, why did you create such a killing weapon?" Judge Liu nodded first, then hesitated for a moment before asking. Li Zhang's musket is almost comparable to crossbow arrows in terms of power, and the Song Dynasty's control of weapons is very strict. For example, it is strictly forbidden for the people to hold crossbow arrows. In the past, he didn't know that the power of muskets was so strong. Now that he knows, he naturally has some concerns about muskets. If Li Zhang uses it for illegal things, he may also be implicated.
Chapter completed!