As the end of the year approaches, there are not so many people in the county town at this time. Dengxiang, Jingou and other places have diverted some people. Where have their fields been granted? The county government has also built enough houses in those townships. These people are very happy and go there with their longing for next year and their enthusiasm for owning their own land.

In today's county towns, in addition to the army, there are nearly 20,000 people, including the craftsman and the female camp. The craftsman is a new camp that Liu He had just established. As long as he was a craftsman or a skill like craftsman, he could enter the craftsman and receive much higher salary than the sergeants every month. The sergeants are women who have not yet married or are unwilling to marry, as well as the elderly and weak. Their main task is to bear two meals a day for the sergeants, and there are also meagre but meager salary and food for food every month.

The county town has built a kang, and a simple road leading to the coal mine in Laowa Township was also built. Every day, the civilians and young men mined the coal from there and transported it back to the county town. Now the carbide has lost its original mysterious color in the white sandalwood. Everyone has become accustomed to and accepted this fresh thing. To be honest, after adopting the kang, it is not so cold this winter.

Today is the end of the year. Liu He is concerned about the people. Every family in the county has received reward supplies, one pound of rice, one pound of white flour, two pounds of meat, and one pound of wine. All women and children have even received enough fabrics to make a new outfit. The whole county is full of joy and the aroma of meat is everywhere.

The military camp was also empty, and now there are basically no bachelors in the anti-barrier camp. Because of Liu He's strategy of giving land, almost all the soldiers found their wives. Except for the troops that needed to be on duty and maintain enough vigilance, Liu He waved his pen and put them all back to celebrate the New Year with his wife.

"Young Master, I still have never heard of your way of leading troops!" Looking at the empty military camp, Ju Su smiled bitterly: "Is this true?"

Liu He smiled and said, "One of the tension and the relaxation is the right way! These soldiers were locked in the military camp for many years. They not only had to train hard, but also had to take on heavy military tasks. Their strings were too tight. Now our soldiers all have wives and fields. Are they locked in the camp like other troops? It must not work, they will miss home."

After a pause, he continued: "Let them go back, let them feel the warmth of home, and let them feel their desire for a good life in the future. Then they will have more passion to protect their hard-earned happiness, and such an army will have more combat power."

Ju Shu said: "Young Master, although I dare not agree with your opinions, I have to admit that you infected me and you have successfully convinced me. If this really works, then I believe that our camp of destiny will become a unique force."

Liu He laughed: "Of course, when everyone protects their own interests, they will burst out with power that you can't imagine, and this is what I pursue. Sir, I will restore the military service system in the early Han Dynasty next year, but I have made some modifications."

He immediately handed Ju Shu a bamboo slip.

In the early Han Dynasty, the Qin system was adopted and the conscription system was implemented. The civilians at the age of 17 (registered) became a service personnel with military service obligations, which was called "zheng". "zheng" started service at the age of 20 or 2.

He took turns to apply for the conscription and served for two years until he was 60 or 56 years old. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, land annexation became increasingly serious, and a large number of small peasants went bankrupt and exile. Most of the Haogong Houses had the privilege of exempting military service. They also had frequent wars and large amounts of soldiers. The effective conscription system in the past could not be carried out normally and could not meet the needs of war. Therefore, the recruitment system was also implemented. In addition, such as exiled soldiers, slave soldiers, and ethnic minority soldiers were also widely used. In the early Eastern Han Dynasty, Liu Xiu reformed the military system and abolished the system of taking turns to the county and county soldiers, and recruited the soldiers.

During the Eastern Han Dynasty, recruiting soldiers became the main method of gathering troops. Although the conscription system was not abolished, the result of the prevalence of the recruiting system was that the state used money to recruit soldiers, which increased the financial burden; a group of farmers left the land for a long time, which affected the development of agricultural production; the recruiter's personal dependence on the generals evolved into a private sector, causing local power to expand and providing convenience for the formation of warlords.

"Is this? Conscripts and volunteers?" Ju Su had a headache about this young master who was emerging one after another.

"Sir, go back and think about it slowly. After you understand it thoroughly, you will check for the missing points and improve this policy."

"promise!"

"There is also a sir, follow me to the craftsman camp. If I have something, I will definitely open my eyes again!" Liu He said.

"Oh? But see the details! Young Master, please!" Ju Su said.

At this time, the stone house in Jiangying was steaming hot, and a ventilation opening was opened on the left and right walls, and the north wind was pouring in. Despite this, the room was still filled with a choking stench. A large pottery jar was placed in the middle of the jar. A fiery red charcoal fire was burning under the jar. Liu He has now turned into a chemist. He wore a homemade gas mask and his eyes were red. He was stirring in the jar with a wooden stick, and he occasionally looked at the objects in the jar.

There was also a large pot of clay pot on the other end of the stone house, and charcoal fire was burning below. The water in the pot was boiling, and white bubbles were slurry. Several soldiers and craftsmen were busy around the pot. Like Liu He, they also brought the gas mask to endure the stench. They used the nitroso soil swept from bird droppings and the ash in the white grass zodiac, and the wheat stems and wood ash in a ratio of 8 to 1, and then poured them into boiling water to dissolve and boil. After about a quarter of an hour, a soldier shouted, "It's OK!"

The other soldiers immediately opened a linen cloth and tightly held the corners. Under the linen was a large wooden barrel. Three great men wrapped the edge of the clay pot with cloth, lifted the clay pot, and slowly poured the boiling white slurry water into the linen cloth for filtering. The residue was left in the linen cloth, and the slurry water was filtered into the wooden barrel.

"Okay, come again."

The soldiers put another clay pot on the fire, poured the slag into the clay pot and heated it for a quarter of an hour. Then they filtered again. Finally, the white slurry juice obtained by the two filters was mixed and sent to Liu He.

"Master! This bucket is ready."

"Okay. I'm getting better here too."

The wooden stick that Liu He stirred was a little difficult. The potted pot contained the white slurry juice. Most of the water had been evaporated and became a syrup-like dry liquid. At this time, Liu He handed the wooden stick to the sergeant next to him to continue. He took a long-handled wooden spoon, scooped out a spoon of colorless viscous slurry from the pot and poured it into a bowl. As the temperature dropped, a ball of gelatinous substance quickly appeared in the slurry.

"Okay, filter it again."

Immediately, several soldiers came up to lift the pot and cooled it a little, then filtered it again in the white cloth. A bunch of jelly-like colorless micelles were left in the white cloth, and the brine was filtered off, and it was dissolved after several heating and dissolving. As the temperature decreased, a full bucket of purified white crystals were finally obtained.

Liu He stood up, tapped his legs that were numb to the point of squatting, and his face was filled with a joyful smile. This is the potassium nitrate crystal he made with traditional methods, commonly known as earth nitrate.

"Young Master, is this thing effective?" Ju Su asked curiously.

Liu He smiled, took a small piece of solidified crystal, twisted it into powder, and threw it into the fiery red charcoal. The charcoal suddenly crackled and sparks flew around it. The soldiers and Ju Su were so scared that they jumped away.

Liu He smiled proudly and said, "Did you see, this is a good thing."

Several soldiers and Ju Su sighed at the same time, and this thing was so popular.

"Okay! Carry it next door and everyone continue."

The soldiers carried the purified soil and salt to another stone house.

Liu He looked at the pottery jar and thought that he was preparing for the future siege, and such strategic materials should be prepared in advance; and secondly, to solve the difficulties of coal mine mining, he thought of black gunpowder. Black gunpowder was found in the pre-Qin period, but it has always been used in elixirs and pharmaceuticals, and no one thought of its other function.

But Liu He knew very well the role of gunpowder. He had just had no time to calm down and think about it. This time, coal mining and quarrying encountered obstacles, reminded him that perhaps gunpowder could help him solve this problem...

The formula of gunpowder is not very difficult. Liu He said in his middle school chemistry class in his previous life: "Nitr 75±1, sulfur 10±1, charcoal 15±1. This ratio can obtain the best combustion efficiency and explosion force. Among them, saltpeter is an oxidizing agent, which can decompose and produce a large amount of oxygen to burn in a confined space, producing the energy to explode or push the projectile."

Liu He was just not sure, so he first tried 60% saltpeter, 25% sulfur, and 15% charcoal. He ground them into powder, and then mixed them together and turned into black gunpowder.

There is bird droppings accumulated over hundreds of years on the white grass marsh, and all kinds of nitrite soil are available, and charcoal powder is easily available, while sulfur is purchased from Zhang Shiping.

The first time he made gunpowder himself, but he didn't know the intensity of the explosion. For this reason, he configured several types of gunpowder to gradually increase the content of the nitrate and labeled it on the clay pot.

At this time, a personal guard's report came from outside: "Lord! The venue has been cleaned up."

"Sir, go with me." Liu He invited Ju Shu.

"promise."

Liu He and Ju Su picked up a few small cans of black gunpowder and walked out of the craftsman camp. They rode a few soldiers and rode toward the experimental base. When they arrived at the valley, the soldiers were already waiting there. The valley was not big. They were twenty meters long and five meters wide. There were dark granite in front of them. The snow inside had been cleaned up. Although the north wind was howling, the valley was very quiet and there was no cold wind. This was very beneficial to the gunpowder test.

There were a total of twenty soldiers who participated in the experiment with Liu He, all of whom were confidants selected by Liu He from Yinyuan Wuwei. This gunpowder test is of great significance and Liu He confirmed it as a top secret in military affairs. Except for Ju Su and Dou Qing, no one else knew anything.

The test platform is located in the innermost corner of the valley. Liu He put the pottery jar on the bluestone with his own hands. The pottery jar is about the size of a grapefruit and is made of a twisted cord soaked in tinder. It drags it out one zhang long and the other end is inserted into the pottery jar.

"Master, will you start?" asked a ignited sergeant in a low voice.

"Wait a moment!"

Liu He took a small wooden box and carefully covered it on the clay pot, then looked left and right, then nodded and said, "It's OK, let's start!"

Everyone quickly retreated ten feet away, curiously waiting for the miracle that Liu He said. Liu He was a little uneasy. The pottery jar was 60% gunpowder. The intuition told him that the effect might not be too good. The ignition soldier ignited the oil rope, and the fire started to burn with a loud bang. The fire was extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, he arrived next to the box. The ignition soldier was so scared that he ran away. But he was tripped to the ground. He hugged his head tightly and did not dare to move. The sudden accident caused Liu He's heart to hang up. At this moment, there was a dull "bang" sound, and the wooden box was shaken up one foot high, and a stream of black smoke rose into the sky.

Everyone exclaimed in surprise, ran forward, talking in a slight manner. The first time they saw gunpowder, although it was not as thrilling as Liu He described, they still shocked them.

Half of the clay pot had been blown into pieces, but the other half had not moved. The bluestone slab was covered with black gunpowder that was not burned. This was obviously because the gunpowder was compacted too tightly and it was not able to burn fully. Most of the exploded clay pieces were embedded in the inner wall of the wooden box. However, several pieces of debris were also shot out, one of which was shot on the legs of the ignition soldiers, cutting out a bloody hole. Moreover, the wooden box was also loosened, but it did not fall apart.

"Young Master, is this gunpowder?" Ju Su asked curiously.

"Yes! This is gunpowder, how does it feel?" Liu He asked with a smile.

Ju Su curled his lips and said, "It doesn't feel good, you can scare the horse."

"I'll do it again." Liu He took another can of black gunpowder, and the ingredients on it were 70% nitrate, 20% sulfur and 10% charcoal.

"Come on! Try this can again."

The gunpowder was stuffed too strong just now, and this time he poured out part of it. He shook the pot again and then placed it on the bluestone and covered the wooden box. This time, Liu He did not use anyone to ignite the fire, but used the rocket. They stood fifteen feet away and slowly pulled the bow. A ball of fire burned on the arrow. When the strings were loose, the rocket shot out high, drawing a small parabola, accurately nailed it to the oil rope. The oil rope burned and burned quickly towards the wooden box, like a fire snake, "whispering" disappearing in the wooden box. Before everyone could react, they heard a shocking explosion. The gunpowder exploded violently, and a stream of black smoke rose into the sky, and the wooden box was blown into pieces. The debris of the wooden box flew high.

Liu He knelt down slowly, his eyes full of excitement. He suddenly punched the soil hard, and 70% of the salt to 80%! 70% of the salt is the formula of gunpowder. It took a long time for the people next to him to react from the shock. Ju Su widened his eyes.

He said to himself: "This is Thor who descends to earth!"

Liu He nodded and smiled at everyone, "This kind of gunpowder needs to be gradually improved to become a weapon, but now I am only considering how to blow up the rocks for the time being."
Chapter completed!