Start Being a Vassal King Today - Chapter 626

[Chapter 626 Double Happiness]

“Uh…” In the

meeting hall, the officials were dumbfounded.

Although they are full of confidence in the royal family’s soldiers, the crisis they are facing now is not small.

Just as Liu Fu said, the Lucheng League should be treated with caution.

But they didn’t expect that King Yan didn’t care about it, and he looked like he wanted to kill the Quartet.

Yang Feng felt a little inappropriate, so he reminded: “Your Highness is in charge of Yanzhou. Although he has won many battles and never failed, the current situation is worse than ever. Don’t be careless, Your Highness, so as not to hold grudges for life.”

“Hahaha…” Seeing the tense faces of Yang Feng and others, Zhao Xu couldn’t help laughing.

Before he got the news from the ore prospecting department, the Lucheng League really gave him some headaches.

But now, the threat of this alliance has plummeted to him.

The discovery of diatomite mines will allow Yanzhou to have all the conditions to manufacture yellow gunpowder.

Next, the power of various types of firearms in Yanzhou will be greatly improved.

In this way, the army under his command is fully capable of coping with this crisis.

“Don’t worry, this king has his own calculations, and never fights unprepared battles.” Zhao Xu said.

Liu Fu, Yang Feng and other ministers stopped talking, out of trust in King Yan.

They believed that King Yan would not mess around in this matter.

Only a minister who fled from Jinling to Yancheng was terrified and said to himself: “Why is no one party willing to form an alliance with us?”

“Because we are breaking an old order and building a new world.” Zhao Xu The tone is decisive.

After a pause, he continued: “Our most reliable ally will always be ourselves.” The

ministers were shocked when they heard this, and looked at Zhao Xu with burning eyes.

At this moment, Zhao Xu waved the crowd to disperse, and ordered Feng’er to bring Chen Ce to the meeting hall.

After a while, Chen Ce walked in with a bag.

He bowed to Zhao Xu and said in his mouth: “Chen Ce, the head of the Mining Department, sees His Highness.”

Zhao Xu looked at Chen Ce, and couldn’t help being startled.

Unlike other well-dressed ministers, Chen Ce’s hair was messy at this time, and there were many holes in his clothes, and his big toes were exposed from his shoes.

Obviously just came back from out of town.

However, he looked full of energy, and there seemed to be light shining in his eyes.

Seeing that Zhao Xu didn’t speak, Chen Ce opened the bag in his hand, “Your Highness, if what I found is correct, this should be diatomaceous earth.”

Only then did Zhao Xu come to his senses, and glanced into the bag.

Then, he stepped forward and grabbed the dark yellow soil like flour in the bag.

After careful screening, diatomaceous earth is obviously much lighter than ordinary soil, which is a difference between diatomite and ordinary soil.

Diatomaceous earth can even float if you place it on top of water.

So he weighed it and sprinkled the diatomaceous earth in the tea in the teacup. The diatomaceous earth did not sink.

“That’s right, it’s real diatomaceous earth.” Zhao Xu smiled, “Chen Ce, you have done a great job for the first time, and this diatomite came at just the right time.”

Chen Ce showed a shy smile, and he said: “I’ve always been in fear, for fear of delaying His Highness’ important affairs, so I can feel at ease.”

Zhao Xu nodded, “Looking for mines is hard work, but its importance is not inferior to that of government affairs and the army. It is related to Yanzhou’s industry. development, so I will let you continue to suffer.”

“This little hardship is nothing at all. If there is no Your Highness, why would I be here today? I am afraid that I will suffer even more.” Chen Ce’s shy expression was more A point of perseverance.

They came from the dark age when Yanzhou was ruled by the Hao family, so they cherish today.

Thinking of something else, he escaped a booklet from his arms and handed it to Zhao Xu, “Your Highness, this is another discovered mineral deposit.”

Diatomaceous earth is the mineral that King Yan is looking for.

So during this period of time, their ore hunters almost broke their legs, and finally found diatomite mines in the cols west of Dai County.

But apart from that, they are looking for other mineral deposits at the same time.

This booklet is the location of the mineral deposits discovered by the ore prospecting company.

Zhao Xu took it and looked through it carefully.

It records the newly discovered iron ore, copper ore, lead ore, tin ore, lime ore, kaolin ore and other mineral deposits.

On the last page of the brochure, he also saw tungsten ore.

“Great.” Zhao Xu said.

With the steam engine put into use, Wang Ying often reported a problem to him during this period, that is, the consumption of lathe tools was greatly accelerated.

Ordinary high-carbon steel used as knives is gradually unable to withstand the high-speed wear caused by the steam engine.

Furthermore, once the converter steelmaking production line is put into use, the quality of steel in Yanzhou will be improved.

Processing this type of steel requires a harder tool.

So, it’s time to smelt tungsten steel and make tungsten steel knives.

At the same time, he got diatomaceous earth and tungsten ore, which greatly lifted Zhao Xu’s spirit.

Diatomite will bid farewell to the era of black powder in Yanzhou, and tungsten steel will bid farewell to the era of high-carbon steel knives in Yanzhou.

One of them will promote the development of firearms, and the other will promote the development of industry, both of which are very important.

Feeling refreshed, he said to Chen Ce: “Go to the government office and get five thousand taels of silver as a reward for your search for a mine manager.”

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Chen Ce was overjoyed.

After a few words of praise for Chen Ce, Zhao Xu ordered Xu Lie to send the diatomaceous earth to the science and technology school, and asked Qu Sheng and the others to make yellow gunpowder and establish a yellow gunpowder workshop as soon as possible.

But just after Xu Lie left, he realized a problem.

The power of yellow gunpowder is great.

But the next question now is whether the firearms currently equipped by the royal family can withstand yellow gunpowder.

According to the knowledge in his mind, in the history of firearms development, flintlock guns were equipped with black powder.

After the appearance of yellow gunpowder, the barrel of the gun immediately became steel.

Therefore, he is very grateful that he decided to use steel for the barrel and gun from the beginning.

Otherwise, all the rifled guns currently equipped by the royal family’s troops will be scrapped.

It’s just that even so, how much yellow gunpowder the currently equipped rifled guns and artillery can withstand is also a question.

Specific experiments are needed to verify.

So, he sent another order to Qu Sheng, asking him to speed up the production of a batch of yellow gunpowder.

After all, this process is not difficult, just use diatomaceous earth to absorb nitroglycerin.

In less than five days, Qu Sheng prepared a hundred catties of yellow gunpowder.

Zhao Xu immediately took the yellow gunpowder to the school grounds of the Military Division.

Replace the black powder of the rifled gun with yellow powder to test the gun.

One afternoon, he stayed in the school grounds, and in the evening, he roughly got the result.

“Your Highness, this yellow gunpowder is really powerful. Three guns exploded, and the remaining nine guns were also deformed. Only four guns with reduced gunpowder are normal.” Wang Ying said, “And these four guns will have an effective range. It has been raised to 350 meters.” In the

afternoon, he accompanied Zhao Xu to participate in the gun test.

Zhao Xu rubbed his face, he was both satisfied and dissatisfied with the result.

The rifled gun he built was modeled after the contemporary Minie rifle.

If the barrel is strong enough, the maximum range can reach 900 meters, and the effective range can reach 500 meters.

But because of the problem with the barrel, the power was obviously compromised.

However, the rifle guns currently equipped by the royal family’s army can reach the potential of 350 meters, which seems to be good.

So he said: “That’s it, change the gunpowder for the royal family’s troops, and the guns will not be changed.”

He decided to wait until the first batch of steel was produced by the converter, and then gradually replace the army’s muskets.

Thinking of something, he said to Wang Ying: “Try the cannon and the mortar too, and if the results come out, tell the king. There is also a firearm that needs to be recast by you.”

(End of this chapter)