Chapter 449 New products sold to Russian businessmen and new firearms for frying Tartars
After safely delivering the 50,000 taels of silver to Daning Town, Zheng Haizhu stayed for a month to investigate three things in Daning.
The first one is vinegar.
"Is this stuffed with sweet potatoes?"
In the brewery in the west of Daning City, Zheng Haizhu took a sip of vinegar from a spoon and asked Zhu Tinghua in surprise.
Zhu Tinghua read the approval in Shangguan's eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
This son of a clan who grew up in Dai County, when his family was still well off, he ate the best rice vinegar in Datong City.
Shanxi old vinegar involves steaming, fermenting, smoking, rinsing and aging. It is no longer a secret recipe, but to have a mellow taste, the raw materials must be either sorghum or yellow sticky rice.
Last year, when Zheng Haizhu brought Zhu Tinghua from Mangui's troops to Daning Fucheng and asked him to move from an artillery team leader to a more suitable research and development position, the order given to him was that the grain and rice needed to support the march should not be used.
Instead, we need to use sweet potatoes that have been successfully introduced in the bitter cold areas outside the Great Wall to make vinegar.
The principles of making vinegar are similar regardless of the grains used in the fermentation process. However, Zhu Tinghua discovered that the "smoking" process that originally made rice vinegar more fragrant made the finished sweet potato vinegar smell bitter.
He had to give up this step. Although the sweet potato vinegar he got was not so bitter, it tasted light and sweet to him.
Zheng Haizhu saw the deep meaning in Zhu Tinghua's expression and encouraged him: "It's really good, Mr. Zhu, I won't trick you. Rakshasa people will like this kind of jealousy."
"Uh, what's the point? Vinegar shouldn't be the same as wine. The more mellow and fragrant, the better?"
Zheng Haizhu smiled and took another spoonful of sweet potato vinegar, walked to the door, faced the sun, and admired the red liquid that was reflected more like agate.
She explained to Zhu Tinghua: "When I came back to the Great Wall last time, among the Ming Dynasty specialties I brought, in addition to tea silk cloth and porcelain, there were also Shanxi mature vinegar and Zhejiang vinegar from our Susong area. I found that the Rakshasa messenger liked black tea better than green tea.
, because they need the richness of black tea to relieve the greasiness of meat. But for vinegar, they prefer light and sweet vinegar, because they want to dip it in bread."
"Bread?" Zhu Tinghua heard the name of this food for the first time.
"Yes, bread is a kind of dry food fermented from wheat. It is softer than our steamed buns. Those Rakshasa people dropped olive oil into Zhejiang vinegar and ate it full of praise. But Zhejiang vinegar is made from rice from Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Brewing, like black tea, has to travel thousands of miles to Chahanhot. The cost is too high. The Rakshasa people find it expensive, and we can’t make much money. It’s better to use local materials and grow more here.
Sweet potatoes are used to make vinegar, which tastes very similar to Zhejiang vinegar, and the gross profit per liter is higher."
Zhu Tinghua understood, and after solving his doubts, his heart was filled with a real sense of accomplishment.
In Datong, what he experienced was poverty, humiliation, frame-up, and the physical disability that came with it. Only after arriving in this important military town outside the Great Wall did he feel that his dignity as a human being had returned.
Although the foreign female general with whom he had a secret crush, He Zhuo, did not seem to have any affection for him, but after being relocated to Daning City, Zhu Tinghua gradually forgot about the beauty while he was busy with craftsmanship.
He later thought carefully that it might be because he didn't really have deep love.
At this moment, with sincere recognition, Zhu Tinghua became more active.
"Mrs. Zheng, you can also make wine from sweet potatoes. However, sweet potato wine is not very tasty and a bit astringent compared to sorghum wine."
Zheng Haizhu asked with great interest: "So, is this sweet potato wine spicy? I mean, will it burn if you drink it?"
Zhu Tinghua nodded: "Burn, as if there was a ball of fire in my stomach."
"That's it, the Rakshasa people will also like it," Zheng Haizhu said confidently, "Their place is further north and colder, and they need this kind of wine that looks like a burning knife to give them the illusion of warmth, and they will buy it.
.You can start brewing too. If you don’t have enough manpower, I’ll ask Mr. Huang to find some common people for you. I will also tell Mr. Huang that in addition to setting up a new financial department in Daning Town, you will be in charge of your Shanxi fellow Mr. Chang.
In addition to the ticket number, a new commerce department will be established, with tea, horse, silk cloth, wine and vinegar bureaus, etc. Naturally, you are the head of the wine and vinegar bureau."
Zhu Tinghua was even more happy and asked boldly: "Then, can ordinary people have official positions?"
Zhu Tinghua never realized that this was the prototype of the state-owned light industry. His first thought was still to ask for an official robe with patches on the chest.
Zheng Haizhu said seriously: "Of course, just like the Military War Bureau under the Ministry of Industry, the chiefs also have grades."
After injecting Zhu Tinghua's chicken blood, Zheng Haizhu changed places again and was led by Ma Xianglin to test Song Yingxing's hand grenade-making results.
Song Yingxing looks more energetic than Zhu Tinghua.
"Madam, this whale oil is really good. In the deep winter in Saibei, even if you breathe into ice, the oil will not freeze. You can refine it with caustic soda."
"Well, the red-haired stuff is so expensive that it makes sense. Well, before I left last time, I was worried that the strong water and oil would explode as soon as I touched it, like throwing a cannon. Have you tried it?"
Song Yingxing showed a hint of lingering fear: "Thanks to my wife's reminder, I took the gunpowder maker and followed Xu Hanlin's "Method of Making Strong Water" to create strong water, mixed it with refined oil, tried a few drops on the pottery pieces, and used
I picked up the long pole and smashed the rocks down. Nothing happened the first two times, but the third time, the pottery pieces were suddenly blown to pieces like porcelain thunder."
"Then, how to solve it? Is it mixed with the soil ash I mentioned?"
"To Madam, use rice bran or rotten cotton wadding," Song Yingxing took a hollow iron ball from the craftsman's hand and demonstrated, "Take the rice bran or cotton wadding soaked in strong water and oil, and add a little fire salt powder.
, fill it under the iron ball, compact the loess on top, but leave a hole in the middle, and insert a salt bran wooden pole. We tried it and threw it several times, but it would not explode unless the salt bran wooden pole was lit.
throw it out."
With that said, Song Yingxing personally picked up two "hand grenades", threw one on the empty soil slope, lit the salt bran wood of the other one, and then threw it out.
Sure enough, the former was like an ordinary iron lump, while the latter exploded violently when it hit the ground.
Zheng Haizhu went over and took a closer look. The iron piece could be blown up to a distance of two feet, which is six or seven meters in modern times.
She thought for a while and said to Ma Xianglin: "Xianglin, this kind of grenade is more powerful than porcelain mines. In field battles, we mainly deal with cavalry and infantry who rush past the bombardment distance of artillery and matchlock guns. The infantry is slow, and
The distance between each other is close, and it is easier for the sergeant to throw the grenade to calculate the timing. The cavalry is more troublesome. You have had a confrontation with Huang Taiji's white flag. You know the Tatar's cavalry formation and speed, so you
We need to give Mr. Song an estimate of the speed and distance between the cavalry when they charge into the formation, so that Mr. Song can make the grenade more accurate."
Ma Xianglin has practical experience, and Song Yingxing has the thinking of a science and engineering man. Both of them understood it immediately.
What Zheng Haizhu is talking about is actually the "delay time" and "killing radius" elements in the grenade principle.
At present, the safety and original detonator of the grenade made by Song Yingxing have been taken into consideration. What still needs to be improved is the timing of the explosion. It cannot explode when it is thrown in mid-air, or it cannot explode after a while after being thrown into the enemy camp.
Also, when exploding, the effective killing distance of the iron piece must be balanced between as far as possible and the weight of the grenade itself. If the iron piece is made too large, the sergeants will definitely not be able to carry it much.