Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

"I see!"

Li Kuiniang believed it without a doubt. Li Hanxiao said a few more words to the old lady and told her to send a secret person to serve her, and not to be careless.

We need to hurry up and find Li Kui!

The old lady is easy to fool, but Li Kui still needs to send a trusted confidant.

Now that Liangshan's strength has greatly increased, Li Hanxiao also needs to deal with internal affairs in detail. After being away for so long, the first thing he needs to do is to check on Ling Zhen's ("Thunderbolt") progress in the manufacture of firearms and see how things are going.

Li Hanxiao and Ling Zhen had previously discussed the current direction of firearms development in Liangshanbo. They reached a consensus that they would not manufacture very heavy and large firearms for the time being, as it would not only consume too much time and resources, but also be inconvenient to move and slow down the research process.

Li Hanxiao had Ling Zhen build the three-eyed gun and the tiger crouching cannon in the first batch. These two firearms were suitable for individual use and their power was considerable. Li Hanxiao intended to first build a musket battalion equipped with small infantry cannons as a trump card on the battlefield.

Upon arriving at Ling Zhen's gunpowder workshop, Li Hanxiao had just entered the courtyard when he saw a small mountain of three-barreled gun barrels piled up in the corner, without the grips attached yet.

On the other side was a pile of unassembled tiger crouching cannon parts. There seemed to be more than a hundred three-eyed guns, but fewer tiger crouching cannons, with only thirty or forty parts.

It's tough on Ling Zhen, nicknamed "Thunderbolt," because he's the only one with the technical expertise in this area. Although Li Hanxiao assigned him some helpers, they could only do odd jobs for him in the short term and couldn't get involved in the rest. So Ling Zhen's efficiency really wasn't that fast.

"Ling Zhen, are you busy?"

Li Hanxiao walked into Ling Zhen's workshop and saw Ling Zhen carefully polishing parts with a file.

Upon seeing that it was Li Hanxiao, Ling Zhen immediately stood up and pulled Li Hanxiao to the desk.

"Chief, I've been thinking about this for the past couple of days. You said that if we turned the three-barreled gun into a single-shot weapon, and increased its accuracy and barrel length, I think both its power and precision would be improved..."

Ling Zhen's thoughts had already shifted from the three-barreled gun to single-barreled, single-shot firearms similar to a "bird gun".

"Logically, it should be possible, but that would significantly increase manufacturing costs..."

How could Li Hanxiao not know that compared to the three-barreled gun, its "competitor," the arquebus, had a longer range and more accurate shooting, and was very popular among the Ming army in the early and middle Ming Dynasty, who considered the arquebus to be the most ingenious firearm?

Historically, the arquebus played a significant role in the fight against Japanese pirates by the famous general Qi Jiguang. However, the arquebus also had its drawbacks, namely, it was more expensive to manufacture and maintain than the three-barreled gun. Therefore, although the arquebus was very popular, its high cost led to the development of the cheaper three-barreled gun as an auxiliary weapon.

The fact that the three-eyed musket was able to rise from a support role to an offensive role is also related to the battlefield. In the early and middle Ming Dynasty, the battlefields were mainly in some parts of the south, with anti-Japanese pirates as the main military action. Under normal circumstances, the weather had little impact on the war, and the muskets were more accurate. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, the battlefields shifted from the south to the north, and the main opponents became nomadic cavalry.

On the northern battlefield, the arquebus was no good because the north was cold and windy. The arquebus had no fuse and required the flintlock to be opened, which would blow it away by the strong wind. Compared to the sturdy three-barreled gun, the arquebus was somewhat flimsy. Once it was engaged in close combat with the enemy, the arquebus became a hindrance, while the three-barreled gun was like a big stick that could be used as a weapon to fight the enemy.

Therefore, the advantages of the three-barreled gun were more prominent on the northern battlefield. The three-barreled gun was short and compact, making it suitable for Ming cavalry. It was similar to an ancient version of a cavalry musket. Although its accuracy was not as good as that of the arquebus, the three-barreled gun was "spraying" in close combat, with a large killing range and strong killing power.

In ancient warfare, precision strikes could never compare to overwhelming firepower. Li Hanxiao wanted to mass-produce the three-eyed gun and the tiger crouching cannon because they could be used on horseback and were inexpensive to manufacture.

Moreover, if you don't add rifling to a musket, its accuracy is much less than that of a three-barreled gun. Besides, Li Hanxiao really can't solve the problem of rifling technology right now.

Furthermore, the three-barreled gun has a more obvious advantage over the musket. According to the information Li Hanxiao had read in his later years, the three-barreled gun could penetrate heavy armor within 50 meters and severely injure people without leather armor beyond 80 meters. Therefore, when two armies are facing each other, carrying a three-barreled gun to the middle of the engagement and firing three shots before engaging in close-quarters combat would definitely be much more effective than using a musket.

Relying solely on three-barreled guns is certainly not enough; firearms need continuous updates and upgrades, and smokeless gunpowder and other technologies must be developed as technology advances.

"That's true... There are too few people who can help me right now. Even if these people can help me, I'll need to study for at least another six months!"

Ling Zhen pointed to the odd jobs workers chopping firewood and grinding sulfur in the yard.

Li Hanxiao also wanted to find him some good helpers, but unfortunately, the firearms market was not popular in the Song Dynasty. Gunners of Ling Zhen's caliber were extremely rare. In Jizhou Prefecture and the surrounding prefectures, the only people who could be constantly in contact with gunpowder were probably fireworks dealers...

Li Hanxiao also began to think about this. He had nothing to do at the moment, and he also knew how to make gunpowder and explosives. It seemed that he should also put his skills to use and at least make smokeless gunpowder.

However, the prerequisite for creating smokeless gunpowder is having the ability to manufacture nitric acid and sulfuric acid. Then you need cotton, which allows you to make a primary propellant charge – nitrocellulose.

This is another huge project. We need to produce the three acids and two alkalis first. The three acids are sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and hydrochloric acid, and the two alkalis are sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide.

Currently, the best of the three acids that Li Hanxiao can produce is nitric acid, which can be obtained by calcining ferrous sulfate. Ferrous sulfate is an ancient Chinese medicine, whose main component is a mineral or chemical product containing ferrous sulfate.

This substance is widely distributed in Shandong, Hunan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang, Anhui, Zhejiang, Henan, Sichuan and other places in China. It is not difficult to obtain. As early as ancient times, people tried to obtain sulfuric acid by dissolving the gas from calcining ferrous sulfate in water.

When heated, ferrous sulfate decomposes into sulfur dioxide and sulfur trioxide. Sulfur trioxide reacts with water to form sulfuric acid. However, this method has low yield and requires the collection and treatment of harmful gases, making it highly dangerous.

Another method involves burning sulfur to produce sulfur dioxide, which is then dissolved in water to form sulfurous acid. After oxidation, this sulfurous acid becomes sulfuric acid.

With concentrated sulfuric acid, adding salt and heating will produce hydrogen chloride gas, which, when dissolved in water, becomes hydrochloric acid.

As for the manufacture of nitric acid, the main raw material is potassium nitrate, which can be made from saltpeter. Both sulfur and saltpeter are essential raw materials for making gunpowder, and Liangshan has already stored them on a large scale, so there is no shortage.

Saltpeter can produce potassium nitrite and oxygen through dry distillation. Potassium nitrite can further decompose into nitrogen oxide and potassium oxide, which then react with air to form nitrogen dioxide. When dissolved in water, it becomes nitric acid.

In addition, there are methods for producing acids using the "cylinder tower method" that were used during the war when supplies were scarce, and these methods can be implemented in this era.

However, there is still one problem to face: airtightness and container.

In this era without glass, it was difficult to solve the problems of airtightness and corrosion resistance materials.

Although there were artisans who made glass in this era, glass was a luxury item, so Li Hanxiao couldn't commission glassware from them.

We need to figure out a way to make our own glass!

In fact, making glass is a way to make money, since the main component of glass, silicon dioxide, is the main component of sand, which is inexhaustible.

Moreover, in an era when glass was being hyped up and highly profitable, if Li Hanxiao could sell glassware on a large scale, he could make so much money that his hands would cramp from counting it!

However, Li Hanxiao had never actually done the glass manufacturing process before; he only knew the principles. He could only try to manufacture it himself.

In fact, glassmaking is a very sophisticated technology. Although Li Hanxiao knew the principles, he had spent a whole day experimenting. He had mixed silicon dioxide, sodium carbonate, limestone, dolomite, and feldspar in the right proportions and put them into a furnace heated to 1500 degrees Celsius for refining, but problems kept arising. The glass would either fail to form properly or encounter various other issues.

After this failure, Li Hanxiao realized that the possibility of making transparent, flawless glass in just a few years after traveling to ancient times was practically zero, even if he knew the principle behind it...

Moreover, even if the glass is manufactured, without rubber, the airtightness issue remains significant...

Without glass, the manufacture of acids and alkalis would have to stop, and the development of firearms would be put on hold for the foreseeable future...

Li Hanxiao felt a sense of frustration welling up inside him, but then he thought again that it was really nothing. Even the three-barreled gun and the tiger crouching cannon were products of a new era of firearms, which were enough to crush most of the military branches of the same era.

Even if Li Hanxiao couldn't create more modern firearms in a short time, if he could recreate the firearms of the Ming Dynasty, it would be tantamount to a dimensional reduction attack in the Song Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Li Hanxiao regained some confidence. In the original history, the development of these things had gone through hundreds of years of experimentation. It was indeed impossible for him to achieve this overnight from scratch at Liangshan Marsh.

As for the glassmaking, it would be best to bring a few glass-making masters up the mountain to give them some pointers. They are skilled workers, which is much better than Li Hanxiao, a novice, trying to do it all by himself!

There is a sequence to learning, and each profession has its own expertise. That's all there is to it. Professional matters should be left to professionals. Li Hanxiao then ordered his men to assemble all the completed three-eyed guns and tiger-squatting cannons and take them to the training ground to find "Leopard Head" Lin Chong.

He's going to form a firearms unit; no one else can do it but him.

"Instructor Lin, quickly select two hundred loyal and strong soldiers from the army. I have a new unit to form."

Upon hearing Li Hanxiao's words and noticing the three-barreled gun and the tiger-squatting cannon over there, Lin Chong, who had personally witnessed the power of the tiger-squatting cannon during the attack on Liangshan, hurriedly asked Li Hanxiao, "Does the chieftain have any requests?"

"Strong and robust, able to carry heavy loads, with good stamina, and excellent eyesight is absolutely essential. In addition, if there are any brothers who have worked as carpenters, they will be given priority in the selection."

Why did Li Hanxiao choose someone with a carpentry background? Because when a carpenter is working with a single plumb line, it's actually quite similar to aiming a gun; there's a certain commonality, and it's relatively easy to learn.

"A carpenter? Good, I'll send someone to choose one right away!"

Li Hanxiao waited for about an hour before Lin Chong arrived with two hundred men.

"Chief, these people are all strong and healthy, with good stamina and good eyesight. It's just that few of them have experience as carpenters; there are only about a dozen of them."

"Bring over those who used to be carpenters first, I'll teach them!"

Instructing two hundred people at once is too much work. Even if Li Hanxiao taught them, they probably wouldn't learn. It would be better to call back the dozen or so people who used to be carpenters and might learn faster first, and then let the dozen or so people who have already learned become leaders, each leading a dozen or twenty apprentices, eye to eye, person to person, level to level. This way, the teaching efficiency can be fast and effective.

Li Hanxiao started by teaching them the three-barreled gun, beginning with how to hold the gun, load the gunpowder, bullets, fuse, and fire. Then he taught them how to operate the Tiger Crouching Cannon.

Afterwards, they needed to actually operate the guns to truly learn how to use them. Lin Chong watched as more than a dozen three-eyed guns fired simultaneously, "crackling" and smashing half of a mud wall that was being used as a target.

Lin Chong was terrified. This thing was so powerful, and its attack range was no less than that of a bow and crossbow. If a hundred or eighty of them were fired at once, even a bronze or iron-cast Arhat would not be able to withstand it and would be riddled with holes.

When that day really comes, these experts will probably be of little use.

If the scene of practicing with three-barreled guns was already astonishing enough, then the salvo firing training of tiger-squatting cannons shocked the entire Liangshan community.

Because it was inconvenient to fire the cannons from the back mountain, Li Hanxiao ordered his men to drag the Tiger Crouching Cannons to the edge of the lake to fire them. More than twenty Tiger Crouching Cannons fired their shells at the same time, creating countless splashes on the lake surface.

Many fish were also caught in the crossfire, dying and floating to the surface... Even those that weren't hit were stunned by the shockwaves. As a result, the lake was covered with fish, making it much more efficient than using fishing nets!

The three Nguyen brothers had never seen such a scene before and watched with great curiosity. In the end, however, they were horrified. If someone were in the water, they would probably be smashed to pieces!