Chapter 1034 Harvest Autumn
Before resigning, Li Gan mentioned that the remaining fire crystals were not enough to make weapons for all the soldiers trapped in the camp. For this reason, he More fire crystals are needed.
Zhou Xu was well aware of this situation.
In fact, the first batch of fire crystals sent here were all dug from the walls of Chilian's lair. Rounding them off, they are all ready-made and are very difficult to obtain.
After digging out all the fire crystals, if they want to get the fire crystals, they will have to dig slowly by themselves.
Under this premise, considering the distance from the volcanic island to Black Moon City, even if we do not consider the mining efficiency and only consider the transportation efficiency, it would be good to be able to send a batch in half a year.
When it comes to weapons, we have to mention sulfur, another important resource he discovered on the volcanic island.
With Zhang Xuemei in charge of the whole process, the sulfur mining work was already going smoothly before he left the volcanic island.
At the same time, potassium nitrate was also collected across the country after receiving his order.
He has basically finished the raw material aspect. The subsequent research and development of gunpowder is, to put it bluntly, a process of constant trial and error of material proportions. It requires manpower, energy, and time. It is essentially the same as forging. The situation is similar when the Ministry of Commerce attempts to smelt new alloys and conduct various proportional experiments.
Due to the shortage of manpower in various departments, there are not many manpower transferred to the gunpowder department. In addition, in the process of developing gunpowder, once the raw materials are lost, they are gone.
As for sulfur, it can only be obtained from volcanic islands for the time being, which undoubtedly further increases the time required.
This also allowed Zhou Xu, who knew this, to give them more research and development time.
It was not until late autumn this year that the gunpowder department gave him good news.
“Boom!!”
There was a loud noise and the earth shook. Even Zhou Xu, who had been mentally prepared for a long time, could not control his heart twitching at this moment.
With the detonation of the explosive barrel, a large area of rock was blown apart!
At this moment, they are in the desert area on the other side of Black Moon City.
They have a copper mine here, and this is also their largest quarry in this area.
Due to its special nature and considerable danger, the research and development of gunpowder cannot be placed in the city. Therefore, when this department was originally established, Zhou Xu specially arranged for them to be located in the city. Gobi region.
While testing the gunpowder, you can also blow up the stone wall to improve the work efficiency of the quarry here.
Looking at their research results, everyone in the gunpowder department couldn’t help but dance and cheer!
Zhou Xu was not surprised by this, but looked happy.
He is researching gunpowder now, not to develop muskets, but to make explosives!
In Zhou Xu's opinion, the performance of the early fire gate guns was too poor and could not replace the individual crossbow on the battlefield.
This musket must at least be developed to the stage of matchlock and flintlock before it can show its value.
Of course, if it doesn’t work, it won’t work, and what needs to be developed must still be developed.
For things like muskets, they have to do it step by step. The experience of the relevant R&D departments also has to be slowly accumulated through this process. Basically, there are no shortcuts.
But the problem now is that he is an upright and good citizen living in China!
How can a good citizen like him have the opportunity to come into contact with firearms?
At most, he occasionally glances at the Internet, but only a few glances. He is not a fan of firearms, and he will not idlely stare at those videos and pictures and study them over and over again.
This makes his design of these firearms really insignificant. However, there is a person within their Great Zhou who may know something.
With this thought in mind, Zhou Xu turned around and went to find Qin Fen.
"A gun? Have you played with it."
Qin Fen nodded generously and admitted.
After all, he has studied abroad for so many years. Firearms are strictly prohibited in China, but they are legal abroad. People have already left the country, so there is no reason not to have fun, even to try something new. ?
“I have gone to a shooting club and done some gun building. I have a general understanding of the various parts of the pistol, but I don’t know the specifics.”
“It’s okay. You should draw down what you know first and let the department study it slowly."
Zhou Xu couldn't be anxious about this matter even if he wanted to.
Without the help of relevant professionals, even if there is a rough design, it will probably take a lot of time to develop it.
Fortunately, Zhou Xu was very calm about this matter.
As I said before, what he wants is explosives. As for firearms, take your time, he is not in a hurry.
After finishing his busy work, Zhou Xu went directly back to Qinzheng Hall. It was still two o'clock in the afternoon.
Because of the important event of autumn harvest in autumn, quite a lot of documents have been sent to Qinzheng Hall every day recently. Even at this time, some documents are still being sent one after another.
"Your Majesty, the report has just been sent from the volcanic island."
After receiving the report, Zhou Xu quickly looked through it.
To put it simply, this report briefly reports on the current status of various departments on the volcanic island.
During the period, the Ministry of Agriculture over there also reported on the results of this year's autumn harvest.
In order to allow the population on the volcanic island to be completely self-sufficient in food, and also to save their internal transportation costs, Zhou Xu had already set aside for them as early as last winter A piece of land is used as a farm, and then the land is cultivated in preparation for farming in the coming spring.
However, since the most important work on the volcanic island at this stage is to mine fire crystals and sulfur, as well as carry out some internal construction on the island, the manpower that can be allocated to the Agriculture Department is really limited.
In this way, although the soil there is fertile, and the crops planted in the spring will yield good harvests in the autumn, due to limited manpower, the area of cultivated fields is also limited. In the end, the food produced will naturally be limited. Also limited.
This amount of food is not enough to feed the entire island, and it still has to be shipped by sea from the south.
Zhou Xu was naturally aware of this situation, but there was nothing he could do about it.
The manpower is limited, and mining fire crystal and sulfur on the island has the highest priority. At this stage, it is impossible for him to reduce this part of the manpower and let them farm.
In comparison, they have a surplus of internal food in Dazhou, which at most will increase transportation costs.
This can't help but make Zhou Xu feel lucky that he established a southern farm a few years ago. The distance from the volcanic island is relatively not that far, and the transportation cost is not unacceptable.
But in the future, if this cost can be completely eliminated, it will definitely be better.
With this thought in mind, after reading this report, Zhou Xu planned to send a few more cattle to the agriculture department of the volcanic island.
Manpower is gone, but adding a few more cattle can also effectively improve farming efficiency.
(End of this chapter)