Bright Sword: Starting from the Improved Grenade

Manas River, Xiaoguai Reclamation Area.

"Minister Zhao, how about the cotton we planted?"

Liu Zhuan, commander of the Agricultural Reclamation Corps, pointed to the three acres of cotton field in front of him and said proudly.

"Yes, Not Bad."

Zhao Tianyang was in a good mood as he looked at the green, 30-centimeter-tall cotton in front of him with lavender flowers.

"With the cotton planting experience in Xiaoguai reclamation area, I have decided to expand the trial planting area of ​​cotton in northern Xinjiang."

"From now on, you will never be short of cotton when making propellants."

Liu Zhuan pointed to the cotton field in front of him and described a beautiful scene of the future to Zhao Tianyang.

"This is a good thing!"

"Xinjiang has long sunshine hours and a climate suitable for cotton growth, so there is great potential for cotton planting."

Knowing that Xinjiang's total cotton output will account for about 87% of the domestic output in the future, Zhao Tianyang is quite supportive of Liu Zhuan's decision.

"Haha, since Minister Zhao also supports it, I wonder if you can do us a small favor?"

Hearing this, Zhao Tianyang looked at Liu Zhuan and said with a faint smile: "I knew that you asked me to come here, it couldn't be as simple as just to see the cotton."

"Tell me! What's the matter?"

“It’s not difficult.”

Liu Zhuan pointed at the cotton and gestured up and down: "When we planted cotton in Yan'an before, it was almost 40 centimeters in June."

"It's only 30 centimeters now. We guess it's due to lack of nutrition."

"So can you think of a way to build a fertilizer plant and produce fertilizer?"

“It’s not just a matter of nutrition.”

Zhao Tianyang squatted down and carefully observed the cotton plant in front of him: "There should be a problem with the seeds."

"Seed problem?"

Liu Zhuan scratched his head in confusion: "This is the best "Sizi cotton seed" in Shaanxi. How could there be a problem?"

"The 'Sizi cotton seed' was cultivated in Shaanxi. It can grow well in Shaanxi, but not necessarily in other places."

Zhao Tianyang patted the dust off his hands and said, "I will help you with the fertilizer factory matter."

"As for cotton seeds, I think you'd better invite some agricultural experts over and set up a seed farm or something to improve cotton seeds."

"good idea."

Liu Zhuan clapped his hands and said, "When we first developed Nanniwan, we invited agricultural experts from Yan'an to provide guidance. It looks like we'll have to trouble them again this time."

"Okay, then I'll go back to Ningxia to solve your fertilizer problem."

Then Zhao Tianyang got on the Taihang Type 1 all-terrain assault vehicle and left.

Ningxia, sodium carbonate factory.

"Why are you here, Minister?"

Sodium nitrate factory director Li Minghua looked at Zhao Tianyang puzzledly.

"I have something to ask, so I need to borrow your laboratory."

Zhao Tianyang said as he walked inside.

"it is good."

Li Minghua nodded, cleared the chemicals in the laboratory equipment without saying a word, and instructed the technicians to cooperate.

"Minister, the equipment has been cleaned and the technicians are here too."

"very good."

Zhao Tianyang smiled and asked, "How do we prepare ammonia water at present?"

"Report, our factory is currently using anthracite powder mixed with air, oxygen, and water vapor to react."

"Then it goes through dust removal, desulfurization, carbon monoxide shift, and removal of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide."

"After purifying the gas, it is synthesized at a ratio of 1:3 between nitrogen and hydrogen under high temperature and high pressure conditions."

"Ah."

Zhao Tianyang nodded: "Then make me some ammonia water first."

"Use water to absorb ammonia to prepare concentrated ammonia water, and then use carbon dioxide to carry out carbonization reaction to produce ammonium carbonate."

"Finally, the ammonium carbonate is placed in the carbonation tower and reacts with concentrated ammonia water again to produce ammonium bicarbonate."

"understood."

After several technicians wrote down the steps Zhao Tianyang said, they began to operate the machines in the laboratory.

Soon after several hours of experiments, a portion of white ammonium bicarbonate crystals appeared in front of Zhao Tianyang.

"Is the Minister going to make sodium carbonate?"

Looking at the white crystals in front of him, a technician asked curiously.

"No."

Zhao Tianyang shook his head: "I am going to make fertilizer, so I can stop here."

"Ammonium bicarbonate can dissolve in water to form ammonium ions and bicarbonate ions. Are these two things what plants need?"

The technician stroked his chin, thinking carefully.

"Haha, okay."

Zhao Tianyang put down the ammonium bicarbonate and said, "Give me a copy of the experimental steps and log. I can use them."

"oh oh."

The technician nodded and hurried to copy it.

"Are you using the Soxhlet process?"

While waiting, Zhao Tianyang looked at the equipment in the laboratory and asked.

"Yes."

A technician nodded and said, "Compared to the Lublanc process, the Soxhlet process is much more advanced. Most sodium carbonate plants in the world use this method."

"Haha, they are them."

Zhao Tianyang waved his hand and said, "Bring me a pen. I'll write you a more advanced one."

"it is good."

They also knew Zhao Tianyang's name, and when they saw that he was going to perform, the technicians on the scene gathered around him expectantly.

"Hey, this is similar to the Soxhlet process!"

"No, the following steps are different."

"If we do this, we can get sodium carbonate and ammonium chloride at the same time!"

"All right."

Zhao Tianyang stopped writing and handed the densely written paper to the leading technician: "From now on, you will follow this step in production."

"no problem."

The leading technician nodded and looked at the formula in front of him seriously.

The formula given by Zhao Tianyang retains the advantages of the ammonia-soda method and eliminates its disadvantages.

This method increases the utilization rate of table salt to 96%. Of course, it also has another name called Hou’s alkali production method.

"The minister has copied it all."

At this time, the technician who went to copy the experimental steps and the log came over with a dozen reports.

"Thank you."

Zhao Tianyang thanked him, returned to the Ningxia Ministry of Industry building, and called Liu Ding over.

"This is the production method of ammonium bicarbonate. Go to the Agricultural Reclamation Corps and contact Commander Liu Zhuan. Ask them to give you money to build a small fertilizer plant."

"I estimate that if we build a few small fertilizer plants in places with high grain production, we can basically meet our fertilizer needs."

"Ammonium bicarbonate?"

Liu Ding took the information and looked at it: "Okay, I'll do it right away."

"correct."

Zhao Tianyang stopped Liu Ding who was about to leave and reminded him: "Look for a place that can be used as the headquarters of our military industry department."

"It's not good to always have employees from the military department and employees from the industrial department working together."

"Okay, leave it to me!"

Liu Ding thought about it and realized that it would indeed have a bad impact. After all, many matters of the Ministry of Military Industry were kept confidential.