Chapter five hundred and twentieth nine winter preparations
Today, Guo Song convened everyone not so much for discussion, but as a general mobilization. This is a change in thinking, turning the drudgery of resettling refugees into how to use so many abundant human resources.
In fact, before this, recruitment of new soldiers, regiment training and scholars began to use this resource, but after all, it was only a part. There were still a large number of people doing nothing at home. If they were fully utilized, the problem of shortage of manpower in many undertakings in Hexi could be solved.
What Guo Song wanted to do most was mining. The imperial mine supervisor had discovered the iron ore mine in Zhangye twenty years ago, and it was relatively easy to mine. However, it had been put on hold due to lack of manpower.
Without enough pig iron resources, recovering the Western Regions is an empty talk. Now that the imperial court can no longer count on it, Guo Song can only find ways to solve many strategic resources by himself, the most important of which is pig iron.
After the discussion was over, it was still early, so all the officials went back to the government offices to convene their subordinates to discuss the next step. Guo Song asked all the officials to hand over their plans within three days, so that they could find their own direction.
Guo Songze and Cang Cao's military officer Zhang Xu came to the armory. All Zhangye's warehouses are located in the north of the city, including gold, silver and copper coin warehouses, soldiers' armor warehouses, and other material warehouses, such as pig iron warehouses, saltpeter warehouses, etc.
In fact, Guo Song has decided to build a warehouse city close to the north of the city. There is no open space in Zhangye City, and he still has a large amount of supplies that have not been shipped. For example, the largest grain warehouse can only be placed in Liangzhou, and
There is a meat freezer located in Xidan County.
The armory consists of ten warehouses, which store various weapons, armor, crossbows, shields, kerosene, military flags, drums, etc. today. What Guo Song wants to see today is the scrap armory, which consists of two warehouses.
Hundreds of thousands of weapons.
Several warehouse leaders opened the big wooden door creakingly, only to find that it was filled with various weapons, swords, spears, swords and halberds. There were no wooden poles, and they were all made of iron. There was another pile next to it, but it was all kinds of scrapped pig iron.
Farm tools and cooking utensils.
Then there were dozens of large wooden boxes as tall as a person, filled with iron arrowheads.
There are as many as 200,000 to 300,000 weapons alone, piled up like a hill.
Guo Song casually picked up a spearhead. The spearhead was stained with rust, as if it had been dug out of the soil and had been buried for who knows how many years.
Zhang Xun next to him said with a smile: "You can be rewarded with ten cents for turning in this spearhead. When harvesting wheat some time ago, many people were digging for weapons on the nearby old battlefield. Arrows cost ten cents each, and swords and spearheads cost ten cents each. Some households
He turned in more than three hundred old war knives, and the government rewarded him with a one-time reward of ten taels of silver. Many people also sent him various old weapons piled on the roof, and even received a two-hundred-jin weapon.
I also rewarded the other party with a big iron rod and five taels of silver."
"A big iron rod weighing two hundred pounds?" Guo Song suddenly became interested and asked with a smile: "Where is the iron rod? Show me?"
Several soldiers brought a large black iron rod from the corner. It was about eight feet long and the mouth of a bowl. It looked like an ordinary iron rod, but it was extremely heavy when lifted. Guo Song could tell immediately that it was not
Iron, its density is higher than iron.
Guo Song pulled out a sharp dagger and slightly peeled off a layer on the surface, revealing a silvery white color.
"It's silver!" the soldiers exclaimed.
Guo Song shook his head, "It's not silver, it's white copper."
White copper is metallic nickel, which is abundant in Longyou. Its density is much higher than that of pig iron.
"This doesn't need to be used as a weapon, but it can be used to make money."
Speaking of making money, Guo Song asked again: "How much copper is there in the warehouse?"
Zhang Xu said quickly: "There are still one million catties of rough copper in the warehouse, and there is also a batch of bronze wares that were also seized from Shanzhou City. It is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of catties, but the use is a bit controversial."
"How do you say this?"
"The Ordnance Department wanted to use it to make copper shields, but Husaoji didn't agree. They thought the copper should be used to make coins. They argued endlessly, and it was very difficult for them to be humble."
Guo Song nodded, "Of course it is used to make money. Casting copper shields is too wasteful. I have already told Pan Changshi that our gold and silver are relatively precious, so try not to use them. It is more suitable to cast copper coins and wait until spring."
If you start mining, you may also produce copper ingots, so you will have the raw materials for making money."
"I understand my humble position, use it to make money!"
Guo Song inspected a few more warehouses, and then went up the city wall. The grassland outside the north city wall was covered with thick white snow, and there were traces of the foundation of a city with a circumference of about fifteen miles. This is the warehouse city to be built.
, initially decided to build a new county seat, but soon discovered that Hexi was in urgent need of a warehouse city, so they postponed the plan to build a new county seat and concentrated on building a warehouse city. However, as soon as the foundation was built, a snowstorm came.
However, Guo Song's eyes were looking into the distance. He has now been appointed by the imperial court as the Great Protector of Anxi. After the beginning of spring, his army will march westward.
At this moment, a muffled sound of 'Bang!' came from the distance, like thunder on the ground.
Zhang Xu looked confused. The sky was blue and white clouds were above his head. The weather was so sunny. How could there be thunder?
Guo Song laughed, these guys are really working hard!
...........
The noise outside the North City yesterday was of course a gunpowder test. The gunpowder test site was not in Zhangye City, but fifteen miles southwest of Zhangye. There was a military city built the year before last, called Heigang Shouzhuo, located on a mountain.
The post is actually the North Early Warning Tower of Zhangye City.
The military city is not big, covering an area of only fifty acres, and is stationed with fifty soldiers. But starting last month, this military city is not only an early warning tower, but also a firearms bureau under the Ordnance Department. In addition to the production of nitrate powder,
Except for Zhangye, the rest of the gunpowder preparation and firearms testing were conducted in Heigang City.
At dawn, the north city gate opened, and a camel team left the city and headed for Heigang City, fifteen miles away. The snow was too deep and it was difficult for the horses to move, but the camels could move through the snow.
The camel team consisted of more than 300 camels. In addition to the camels transporting supplies and gunpowder raw materials, there were more than 50 camels carrying Guo Song and his entourage.
More than half an hour later, the camel team arrived at the foot of the black hill. The camels could not go up the mountain, so they had to use manpower to carry the materials up the mountain. Fortunately, the hill was not high, otherwise it would have been too strenuous.
At this time, a group of soldiers were already waiting at the foot of the mountain. Yang Jun suddenly saw Guo Song. He was startled and hurriedly came forward to greet him.
Guo Song smiled slightly and said, "I heard the explosion yesterday and wanted to come over and have a look."
Yang Jun said with shame: "Yesterday's explosion was actually the result of a failure."
"How do you say this?"
Yang Jun sighed, "You will know after you go up the mountain and take a look."
Guo Song carried a bag of flour weighing a hundred pounds and went up the mountain with everyone.
The mountain is surrounded by big trees, and the scenery is good. Directly north of the military city is a very open place, and below is the endless grassland, only covered with white snow, making it a completely crystal clear white world.
The military city is divided into four parts. One part is the testing ground, which is about twenty acres of land, then is the gunpowder distribution place, then the warehouse, and the last part is the living area. The four areas are separated by large blue brick walls.
The living area has a separate door for entry and exit, which is completely separated from the other three areas. There are no connecting doors. This is mainly because the living area can be heated by a fire and make a fire for cooking, but the other three areas are not allowed except for the test site.
Fire exists.
Entering the testing site, Yang Jun took an iron can from a table and handed it to Guo Song. The iron can was like an oblate pumpkin and was quite heavy, weighing at least seven or eight kilograms.
"You want to make iron shell fire thunder?" Guo Song suddenly understood what he meant.
Yang Jun nodded, "The envoy said that the iron shell fire thunder is the highest level of fire thunder. Our porcelain bottle fire thunder has been completely successful, so we want to try the iron shell challenge."
"What's the result?" Guo Song asked with a smile.
Yang Jun was very frustrated and said with a wry smile: "Yesterday, we lit the fire three times but failed to explode. Later, we suspected that there was something wrong with the gunpowder. We poured the gunpowder out and put it into a porcelain bottle. It exploded at one point. This is what Shijun heard yesterday.
There was no problem with the explosion, but there was something wrong with the gunpowder, or something was wrong with the iron shell."
Guo Song looked at the iron shell in his hand. It was made of two halves of the iron shell fused together. It was of moderate thickness. If it was thinner, it would be just an iron sheet. It had a small lid with a notch on the edge. If you put the lid in and twist it, it would not open.
, it must be opened along the gap, and the sealing is very good. It should be said that this is the most suitable iron shell. There is only one reason why it cannot be exploded. The intensity of the black powder is still a little bit worse.
Guo Song thought for a while and said to Yang Jun: "Try again, improve the formula, slightly increase the amount of fire salt and reduce the amount of sulfur. Another way is to make it bigger and make it into a large iron can of thirty to forty pounds, fill it with
With enough gunpowder, I think the explosion will be much more powerful..."
Yang Jun slapped his forehead fiercely, "Why didn't we expect that the iron shell can withstand the same explosive force no matter how big or small it is, but if there are more explosives, the explosive force will increase more than ten times."
This is the principle of firecrackers. The power of large firecrackers is much greater than that of small firecrackers. The reason is that the amount of gunpowder is large, but the paper wrapping is about the same.
It sounds simple to say, but it is extremely difficult to do. If you don't have a few years to develop it, Guo Song does not throw cold water on it, but encourages them to experiment.
In fact, Guo Song also hopes that they will succeed as soon as possible. The powerful iron shell mine can be used not only in the military, but also in mining.