The Rise of the European Emperor

As a prince who started his life by military exploits, Marin attaches great importance to the army. Whenever he was free, Marin would go to the barracks to inspect. No, when he woke up early in the morning, Marin decided to ride his horse to the barracks outside the city to inspect, to check whether the army had strictly adhered to training.

According to Marin's regulations, every morning, after the soldiers run a 5-kilometer run, they have to train battle formations and individual skills and tactics. Basically, spearmen are trained to stab, and musketeers are trained to shoot.

Marlin's musketeers, training is frequent, and often live fire training. Armies of other countries, even if they have musketeers, don't train with live ammunition as often. Because gunpowder is too expensive...

There are no saltpeter mines in Europe. If you want saltpeter, you can only go to the toilet to find it. Moreover, the number is still small. Therefore, saltpeter is very expensive in Europe. On Marin's side, it is possible to go to India to buy saltpeter, so the cost of saltpeter is much lower than that of other European countries. But the problem is that the boat to India only goes back and forth every two years.

Marin reckoned that on the Spanish side, the spices were almost sold out. Therefore, he also planned to send a ship to buy saltpeter in India.

Of course, there are now 20 new fertilizer processing plants in East Friesland, as well as in Oldenburg and Schleswig. These fertilizer processing plants no longer make manure directly into fertilizer, but add a process of extracting saltpeter.

The specific method is that after collecting the excrement, it is first introduced into a dug soil manure tank. A month later, the feces are transferred to another place to make fertilizer blocks, and the empty septic tank and the surrounding soil will be dug out, and then used to extract soil nitrate.

Recently, a craftsman who extracted soil nitrate proposed a more efficient method. Referring to Marin's method of making tofu, he used gauze to filter the feces, leaving only the urine, and the fecal solids were used as fertilizer. The urine is used to stir the yellow mud.

The specific method is to mix one hundred and fifty pounds of urine for every thousand pounds of soil. After stirring well, put it in a damp place to ferment, preferably around 26 to 28 degrees. After a month, the soil turned into nitrate. And this thousand catties of saltpeter can extract eight to nine pounds of saltpeter.

This new method of soil nitrate extraction is much more efficient than before. Before, in the pond where nitrate was extracted, only the surrounding soil could develop nitrate. And this method greatly increases the amount of soil nitrate extracted.

In the past, a large pool of feces was only able to extract several hundred pounds of saltpeter. Now, thousands of pounds of saltpeter can be extracted from a large pool of feces.

However, Marin is very clear that the amount of saltpeter extracted in this way has certainly increased. But at the same time, the nitrogen content in the feces is also reduced.

Because, in the feces, nitrogen is mainly in the urine, but the nitrogen content in the solid feces accounts for a small amount.

The new type of nitrate fermentation method can improve the extraction of saltpeter, but it also reduces the nitrogen content in the feces, which leads to the reduction of nitrogen content in the fertilizer block.

After thinking about it, Marin decided that when making nitrate, only half of the urine was extracted to produce nitrate. The rest of the urine is still used to make fertilizer blocks. After all, agriculture is a major event, and agriculture cannot be missed because of military needs.

At the same time, when making fertilizer blocks, Marin also asked the serf workers in the fertilizer factory to increase the content of feces and use the amount to make up for the lack of nitrogen content per unit amount of fertilizer.

Nonetheless, because the new method of extracting nitrates is ten times more efficient than before. Although only half of the urine was used, the amount of saltpeter extracted was four or five times as much as before.

In this way, even if you don't go to India to buy cheap saltpeter, there is enough saltpeter here in Marin. There are 20 large fertilizer processing plants, collecting manure from all over the country and processing saltpeter day and night, which is enough to supply the saltpeter needs of the Marin army.

As for other materials for configuring gunpowder - charcoal and sulfur, there are many things in Europe, and the price is not expensive...

Under such conditions, Marin naturally asked the musketeers to practice live ammunition frequently. However, not every day, but only once a week. Otherwise, Marin's financial resources are also a bit too much.

Coincidentally, when Marin came to inspect the barracks, the musketeers were training with live ammunition. So Marin rode his horse to watch with great interest.

Between the Musketeers commander shouted:

"Everyone pay attention!"

"Shoot!"

"Mix the gunpowder!"

Immediately, the musketeers began to open the copper pot they were carrying, and began to stir the gunpowder powder in the copper pot with a copper spoon.

The musketeers in Marin still used powdered gunpowder, not granular gunpowder. The reason for this is also to keep it secret, so that the secret of granular gunpowder will not be learned by others. In addition, there is no need to use granular gunpowder at present.

The use of muskets is not popular in other armies, and no army uses muskets to shoot at their own troops. Therefore, there is no need to use granular gunpowder to enhance the effective range of counter-fire.

At present, Marin's army consists of only artillerymen, who use granular gunpowder. Moreover, the artillery's granular gunpowder is quantitatively packed in animal skin bags. When firing, the artilleryman only needs to open the leather bag and pour the gunpowder into the barrel. Usually, gunpowder bags are not allowed to be opened, so as not to get wet.

The musketeers have always used copper pots to hold gunpowder. As for the amount of charge, the copper spoon used for stirring is used to measure the charge of gunpowder.

Powdered gunpowder is different from granular gunpowder. Granular gunpowder is of good quality because it is stirred evenly before being made into granules, and then bonded together. And powdered gunpowder, because saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal have different densities. During transportation, after bumps, it will be layered, with high density sinking and low density rising.

Therefore, before each battle, the musketeers need to stir the powder in the copper pot first.

Seeing that the gunpowder had been stirred by the Musketeers, the commanders of the Musketeers shouted:

"Pills!"

The musketeers immediately used copper spoons, dug two spoons of gunpowder powder from the copper pot and put them into the barrel of the gun, no more or less. Then, the iron rod was pulled out from under the barrel, and the gunpowder in the barrel was tamped.

"Reload!" the commander continued to shout.

The skilled musketeers took the iron rod in their left hand, and immediately took out a buckshot from their purse and, at the same time, a small piece of cut leather.

Afterwards, the musketeers placed the leather across the muzzle of the gun, placed the bead-shaped buckshot on top of the leather, and pressed it inward. Then, the right hand took the copper bar back from the left hand, and the lead bullet and leather that had been pressed into the mouth of the barrel were pounded to the bottom and pounded. Then, pull out the iron rod and insert it into the socket under the barrel.

After that, the arquebus was raised flat, and the musketeer dug up some powder with a spoon and put it into the open gunpowder pool...

The powder pool of an arquebus is different from that of a flintlock gun. The powder pool of a flintlock gun is pressed by an iron sheet. Therefore, for the gunpowder pool of the flintlock gun, powder powder can be poured into the gunpowder pool in advance, then pressed with an iron sheet, and then the gun is erected and gunpowder and lead bullets are loaded into the barrel.

But the matchlock gun is different. The ignition method of the matchlock gun is to use the trigger driven clip to send the lit matchstick into the open gunpowder pool above the rear end of the barrel, ignite the gunpowder in the gunpowder pool, and then pass the fire hole to ignite Exciter powder in the barrel.

Because it is an open gunpowder pool, naturally you can't put gunpowder first. Otherwise, the gunpowder from the gunpowder pool will be scattered on the ground when the barrel is erected.

Therefore, this point is one of the important differences between arquebus and flintlock. At the same time, because the gunpowder pool is open and upward. Once it rains, the gunpowder pool is easy to enter the rain. Therefore, arquebuses are afraid of rain. Once it rains, the match rope is easily extinguished, and the gunpowder pool is also easy to enter the water. Unlike the flintlock gun, it is covered with iron sheets and is not afraid of rain.

After all the soldiers have loaded the ammunition and clamped the lit match, it is natural to enter the famous "three-stage shooting" time. This process, of course, does not need to be said.

After Marin visited the shooting training for a while, he suddenly remembered - it seems that the thousand knife whale oil paper has not yet been decided on.

Originally, Marin planned to turn the oiled paper into oiled paper bags to pack salt and sucrose. However, when transporting sugar and salt, Europeans are more accustomed to using oak barrels and may not necessarily need oil paper bags.

Oil paper bags are used only for bulk sucrose and salt. However, when ordinary people in this era buy bulk salt and cane sugar, they often bring their own bottles and cans, and there is no need for you to provide oil paper bags. The same is true of grocery shopping, people bring their own food baskets. Unlike the common people in later generations, they no longer carry a basket when buying vegetables, and the merchants provide plastic bags directly.

Marin was also influenced by the thinking of later generations, and only thought of providing oil paper bags to guests. However, after investigation, he found that ordinary people buy things with their own containers, and there is no need for businessmen to worry about it.

In other words, those oiled papers may not necessarily be used...

However, combined with the shooting training in front of him, Marin suddenly remembered what those oil papers can do...

Fixed ammo! The earliest fixed ammunition used oil paper.

In the earliest days, the officers were afraid that the soldiers would not be able to put enough gunpowder in. If they put too much gunpowder, it would easily explode. After all, the early barrels were wrought iron and not very strong.

It is just that, with the advancement of papermaking technology, the cost of oiled paper has been reduced. As a result, some experts put forward the concept of fixed gunpowder. It is to use a fixed-size oil paper package and pack the amount of gunpowder required for one shot. Then, to the soldiers.

In this way, no matter how stupid a soldier is, he knows that when shooting, as long as he tears open the oil-paper package and pours the gunpowder inside into the barrel, it must be right. Then, wrapped in oiled paper, holding lead bullets, copper and iron rods were stabbed into the bottom of the barrel and tamped.

In this way, the oil-paper package containing the quantitative gunpowder not only allows the soldiers to accurately charge the powder. Moreover, the oil paper bag can replace the previous expensive leather, as an aid for air-tightness, wrapped with lead bullets. In this way, the application of oil paper bags can also save a lot of leather.

Of course, the charge in the oil-paper bag is not only the activator in the barrel, but a small part of it is the ignition powder to be poured into the gunpowder pool.

However, this is only suitable for doing this in a flintlock. Because, if the ignition powder is loaded first, the flintlock gun can press the gunpowder pool with the iron sheet. And the arquebus obviously can't.

Moreover, because the oil-paper bag has to be wrapped with lead bullets and pressed into the barrel, it is impossible to pour a little gunpowder into the gunpowder pool at the end. Therefore, the "two-purpose" method of setting gunpowder is not suitable for arquebuses, but only for flintlock guns.

Of course, this is not a problem. The musketeers can completely prepare a small copper pot, which is specially used to put the gunpowder. After the activator charge, lead bullets and oil paper packs in the barrel are all filled, use a small copper pot to pour a little ignition powder into the gunpowder pool...

In addition, the gunpowder wrapped in oil paper can only be granular gunpowder, not powdered gunpowder. Because powdered gunpowder, after being bumped in the oil-paper bag, is also easy to delaminate, which affects the effect of deflagration. Therefore, fixed-loading ammunition must use granular gunpowder.

In fact, Marin had long planned to use fixed powder. Moreover, making granular gunpowder is not very troublesome, as long as enough labor is arranged, it can be done. It is nothing more than a glue made from fish skin, which binds the evenly stirred gunpowder powder, and then kneads it into strips, cut into granules, and then air-dried...

It's just that before there was not a lot of cheap oil paper, it was impossible to use custom gunpowder. Moreover, the use of oil paper to load fixed gunpowder, as long as it is sealed well, can also be moisture-proof, which can be said to kill three birds with one stone (the first is to accurately measure the amount of gunpowder, so as to prevent soldiers from making mistakes; the second is to replace the leather sheet and wrap the lead bullet and press it in. The barrel plays the role of air-holding; the third is to make the granular gunpowder waterproof).

In fact, in fact, the use of oil paper to package gunpowder has another effect, which is to prevent soldiers from seeing the granular state of gunpowder, so as not to attract others' attention and imitation.

Thinking of this, Marin ended the inspection of the barracks happily. Before leaving, he praised the soldiers well, which made everyone feel a little baffled.

After returning to the palace, Marin immediately arranged manpower to expand the scale of the granular gunpowder workshop and recruit more people to process the granular gunpowder.

At the same time, Marin also hired a group of skilled women to use batter to make oil-paper packets of fixed size, which are used to hold gunpowder containers.

After the granular gunpowder is ready, it can be directly wrapped with these oiled paper, and then the oiled paper can be wrapped and sealed with batter. When it comes time to fight, the soldiers can carry the gunpowder in leather packs. Every time you reload, take out an oiled paper bag directly from the leather bag, tear it apart, and pour the gunpowder into the barrel. Then, the lead bullet is wrapped in oil paper and pressed into the barrel. Finally, use another small copper pot and pour the spark powder into the powder pool as spark powder...

In this way, when the musketeer shoots, the step of stirring the gunpowder powder is saved, which can save a lot of time. Moreover, the soldiers do not have to carefully measure the amount of gunpowder, which saves a lot of trouble, and also eliminates the danger of the barrel exploding due to excessive charge, and also saves a lot of leather pieces...