Daqin Engineers

If there is any way to protect the supply line under the current conditions, it is to add two thousand cavalry with one thousand infantry as before.

But in this way, the cost of protecting the supply line would be too great. Each team had 3,000 people, the infantry speed was 50 miles per day, and the 200-kilometer supply line had to set up at least seven teams to ensure that they could reach the target for reinforcements within a day.

Each team has three thousand, and the seventh team has more than twenty thousand people.

Shen Bing placed a total of more than 10,000 troops...that is to say, he couldn't even protect the supply line, let alone attack.

The cavalry can travel hundreds of miles a day, and a 200-kilometer distance needs to be rushed to the target for reinforcements within a day. It only needs to set up three protection points in the middle, which can save a lot of troops.

Therefore, there is no problem for the cavalry to complete this task, and it must be completed by the cavalry.

The problem is that the cavalry cannot compete with the Huns.

If Yingzheng’s order to attack Jiuyuan has any advantage, it is that it can provide Shen Bing with the various ores he needs...

Jiuyuan is the modern Baotou. It is called the "Prairie Steel City" and is rich in various metal and non-metal mineral deposits.

There has been no news about the prospecting at Bo, I'm afraid the mine was not found.

If you can win Jiuyuan... Knowing that there is a mine there, it would be much easier for Bo and others to find it.

At that time, Shen Bing would not need to rely on ores outside the Northland. This would be self-sufficient just like food, which was the basis for dealing with Zhao Gao and Li Si.

After thinking about it for a long time, Shen Bing finally made up his mind and said to Ren:

"Passing the book to Mengliang, let him buy saltpeter and sulfur from everywhere, the more the better!"

To be more precise, it should be to eliminate stone... In ancient times, "saltpeter" was called "elimination stone", and the folk used it as a medicinal material to cure more than ten kinds of diseases.

Cheng responded and sent the order.

Fusu was dumbfounded when she listened and asked:

"Eliminate stones? What is the use of the general to eliminate stones?"

Did Shen You elaborate, but he just replied:

"At that time, the son will know!"

This cannot be explained, because there is no such thing as gunpowder in this world, and the explanation cannot be explained. Only by seeing it with your own eyes can you understand.

In fact, it cannot be said that there is no gunpowder at this time. In fact, during the Spring and Autumn Period, our country's alchemists discovered gunpowder, but alchemists generally think that the gunpowder fryer is a failure of alchemy...They will only be disappointed and frustrated with the by-products of this failure , I didn’t realize that this by-product was actually much more precious and practical than what they called the elixir.

Therefore, although gunpowder is there, it has not been paid attention to, and it will not be recorded until the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

Shen Bing has been cautious about this.

The reason is like the careful invention of the saddle and stirrup.

Saddles and stirrups are more beneficial to the Huns cavalry, but the development of gunpowder is in the West.

Counting from the Spring and Autumn Period, gunpowder appeared in China and spread to the West at least seven or eight hundred years earlier, but the use of gunpowder in China has remained at a very primitive stage, while the West is already standard guns, artillery... …

If gunpowder is introduced too soon, does it mean that the West has also risen earlier?

Shen Bing did not dare to easily invent something that had a major impact on history and the world and even turned a cold weapon into a hot weapon war.

At this time, the Northern Army was unable to deal with the Xiongnu cavalry, and in desperation, Shen Bing had to consider making them out.

The production of gunpowder is actually very simple. Its main body is eliminator, supplemented by sulfur and charcoal powder.

The power is determined by the best ratio and purity of the stone.

This is like the ratio of copper to tin in bronzes. If you don't know the exact ratio, you can only try repeatedly.

The modern black powder is basically the elimination of stone occupies three quarters.

In order to cover people's eyes or eyes, or say "gradual upgrades" to maintain technological superiority, Shen Bing deliberately reduced the proportion of elixirs and set it to half.

Even Shen Bing pretended to formulate three formulas:

One is more than ten kinds of raw materials such as sulfur, wohuang, Xiaoshi, Maru, Zhuru, and clear oil, some of which are combustibles added by Shen Bing.

The reason is that, on the one hand, there is no need for too powerful gunpowder at this time, on the other hand, it is trying to stun the person who steals the knowledge, so that it cannot determine which is the most important and most powerful ingredient.

The second is to add dry paint, tung oil, and turpentine.

The third type is to add scallops and turtles.

Needless to say what their function is, the first is mainly explosion, the second is combustion, and the third is poisonous smoke.

Of course, Shen Bing consciously did not use deadly poisons, otherwise he would add arsenic in.

But it doesn't seem to be any different whether to use deadly poison...There is a big difference between killing an enemy after being stunned and poisoning it directly?

After the gunpowder was made, Shen Bing tried it again. He took a handful of it and took a little open flame... it burned violently with a "chuck" and then turned into blue smoke.

This shocked Fusu, Wang Ben and others.

Fu Su said in surprise:

"General, what is this?"

Shen Bing replied:

"gunpowder."

Fusu, Wang Ben and the others looked at each other. It seemed that Shen Bing had known gunpowder a long time ago, but they had never seen it before.

After a long while, Wei Wei asked:

"General, what's the use of this thing?"

Shen Bing stood up and clapped his hands to answer:

"Make weapons, restrain the weapons of the Huns cavalry!"

Wang Ben and the others were even more confused when they heard it. Can this thing make weapons?

The first thing Shen Bing made with gunpowder was the "Thunderbolt Fireball."

This thing appeared in the Song Dynasty, and there is a record in the "Wu Jing Zong Yao":

The bamboo tube is about an inch and a half thick, and the outside is wrapped with gunpowder, broken porcelain pieces, iron pieces, etc. to make it into a spherical shape.Each end of the ball is about an inch long tube head, one end is used as a handle, and the other end is filled with pyrotechnic powder and powder twist.The sound is like a thunderbolt when it is cast, and it is also called a "thunderbolt fireball".

What Shen Bing put inside was iron tribulus... Yunzhong County can already produce iron in large quantities, and iron tribulus can also be produced in large quantities. If iron or broken porcelain pieces are used, it is not only more troublesome, but also has the problem of insufficient lethality.

Another improvement is that the "Thunderbolt Fireball" is double-headed while Shen Bing's system is single-headed.

Simply put, Shen Bing made more like modern "hand grenade"... The handle of the "Thunderbolt Fireball" and the fuze are on different sides, so the space is larger, the ignition is inconvenient, and the throw is not far away.

The production is also very simple. First hold the fuse, then mix a dozen iron tribulus with gunpowder and wrap the handle of the bamboo tube with burlap and tie it tightly. An original grenade is made.

Shen Bing tried to use it, and the fuze was thrown out at one point. With only a "boom", the two grassmen were blown up into the sky in an instant, and there was also the exploded iron brier "swooshing" flying around. .

The scene was so scared that Fusu and the others were pale but excited, and it took a long time for them to cheer.