Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 883 - 730: Li Qianzhi Digs His Own Grave

Chapter 883: Chapter 730: Li Qianzhi Digs His Own Grave

In the south of Beijing, a large military camp was filled with the resounding blasts of guns and cannons, while white gunpowder smoke spread everywhere.

Li Xuan was inspecting the area and felt overwhelmed by the pungent smell of the thick gunpowder.

However, with his level of cultivation, he could adjust his five senses at will.

Li Xuan thought about when the smokeless gunpowder would be mass-produced and adjusted his sense of smell to the lowest setting.

The so-called ’smokeless gunpowder’ was a type of gunpowder invented in modern times. Its explosive power was generally two to three times that of black gunpowder, and it could burn rapidly with almost no smoke.

This would not only greatly enhance the power of muskets but also benefit the soldiers in their aiming and firing.

With the black gunpowder they were currently using, after a few rounds of shooting, the troops could hardly see what was in front of them.

They could only line up and fire in volleys, creating a dense barrage. Whether their shots hit the target or not, that was all up to fate.

If they switched to smokeless gunpowder, that would no longer be a problem.

Making this stuff was actually very simple,

Li Xuan had seen a science video before. You just need to soak a ball of high-quality degreased cotton in a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and sulfuric acid in a 1:2 ratio, soak it for twenty minutes, then take out the cotton and wash it until it is neutral and dry it. That reaction would produce nitrocellulose, the first generation of smokeless gunpowder.

Actually, smokeless gunpowder had already been made by Li Xuan. Whether it was due to the peculiar nature of this world, its power was extremely great, five times that of black gunpowder.

Yet, Li Xuan had not yet managed to mass-produce it because he did not know the method for mass production of concentrated nitric acid and sulfuric acid.

Leng Yurou’s specialty was mechanical devices, and she was completely ignorant in chemistry.

Li Xuan had no choice but to hire several alchemists at high salaries to research this matter, but they had still not achieved any results.

Actually, the Zhengyi Sect and Quanzhen Sect had better alchemists, but Li Xuan dared not use them.

Li Xuan trusted Xue Yunrou implicitly, yet he did not trust the entire Taoism.

Smokeless gunpowder was a very important matter, as it could be used to produce guns and cannons with longer range and greater power. Li Xuan had to firmly control the formula for smokeless gunpowder.

While Li Xuan was deep in thought, Shaofu Yu Jie stroked his beard and said, "Your Highness, what do you think?"

Li Xuan immediately came to his senses, glanced ahead, and replied with a slight smile, "The formation is tight, and the changes are effortless. Judging solely by the battle formation, it is already comparable to Shenji Camp! It’s clear, Shaofu, that you have excellent control over the troops. Next, the ten battalions should focus more on the speed of loading ammunition. If they have to form lines for field battles on the plains, their firing rate is still a bit slow.

Also, draw some cavalry from Sanqian Camp to give them a feel of a cavalry charge. Moreover, do try to strengthen their horseback riding skills. While I don’t expect them to charge on horseback, they must possess the ability to move quickly on horseback."

At this time, the camp he was inspecting was not Shenji Camp, but the Ten Battalions under Shaofu Yu Jie’s control.

Two months ago, the Shenqi Union had delivered another forty-four thousand ’Rune Flintlock Rifled Guns’ and three hundred and twenty ’Field Smooth-bore Cannons’ to The Court.

At that time, all the guns and cannons of the Shenji Camp were fully equipped, and these firearms were then allocated to the Ten Battalions by the Ministry of War.

Shaofu Yu Jie immediately outfitted four full firearm battalions and started intense drills.

He invited Li Xuan today to help identify shortcomings in these four full firearm battalions.

After all, in the present world, Li Xuan was recognized as the Great Grandmaster of military strategies and the originator of the all-firearm tactics, wielding great authority.

"Firing rate?"

Yu Jie furrowed his eyebrows, "I’ve already had them practice hard, but they’ve still not reached the standard. Is there any trick to it?"

He too felt the loading speed of the Ten Battalions was too slow, taking a hundred breaths to load nine rounds, far from meeting the standard set by Li Xuan.

After hearing this, Li Xuan burst into laughter, "What trick could there be? It’s nothing but practice makes perfect and live-fire training. When our Shenji Camp practices loading, they fire twenty rounds a day, but for the Ten Battalion, isn’t it once every five days? Shaofu, you’re just too unwilling to spend money."

Yu Jie pondered, thinking that the ammunition was indeed very expensive, and the repair costs for barrel wear were also significant.

But recently, The Court had become wealthy, very wealthy.

Yu Jie nodded slightly, unbothered; "I guess I can afford it."

He then asked with a peculiar expression, "There’s another matter I want to discuss with the County Prince of Fenyang. I heard from the Ministry of Works that the daily production of silver yuan has reached 370,000 pieces, and the Ministry of Revenue is collecting 380,000 taels of silver from the market each day, along with one million catties of Copper Coin?"

Li Xuan looked at him somewhat puzzled, "Shaofu, speak your mind directly."

Yu Jie then directly stated, "Yu thinks that The Court might consider placing additional orders to buy another two hundred thousand ’Rune Flintlock Rifled Guns,’ as well as the corresponding cannons."

This massive military procurement was definitely not something Yu Jie could handle alone. But even if he only managed to get half of it, he could transform all his ’Ten Battalions’ and ’Five Armies’ to firearms.

He thought that Li Xuan would definitely agree, but Li Xuan’s face twitched slightly, "Two hundred thousand guns? That would cost 120 million taels. Where could The Court possibly find that amount of money now?"

"How could it not?" Yu Jie looked surprised, "Just buy a couple more coin casting machines at the Neiguan Bureau and the Ministry of Works, and produce as many silver yuan as you want. The Copper collected can be used to cast guns and cannons."

In this era, the best material for casting guns and cannons was Copper.