Chapter 1034 Harvest in Autumn
Before leaving, Li Gan mentioned that the remaining fire crystals were not enough to forge weapons for all the soldiers in the Xianzhen Camp. For this, he needed more fire crystals.
Zhou Xu had an idea about this situation.
In fact, the first batch of fire crystals delivered here were all dug from the walls of the Red Snake's lair. To be exact, they were all ready-made and very easy to obtain.
After they had dug up all of this fire crystal, if they wanted to get more fire crystal, they would have to rely on themselves to dig slowly.
Under this premise, considering the distance from Volcano Island to Black Moon City, even if we don’t consider mining efficiency and only consider transportation efficiency, it would be good if a batch could be delivered in half a year.
Speaking of weapons, we have to mention another important resource he discovered on the volcanic island: sulfur.
With Zhang Xuemei in charge of the entire process, the sulfur mining work had been proceeding smoothly long before he left the volcanic island.
At the same time, potassium nitrate was collected in large quantities across the country after receiving his order.
He has basically already figured out the raw materials. To put it bluntly, the subsequent research and development of gunpowder is a process of trial and error in the material proportions, which requires manpower, energy, and time. It is essentially the same as the forging department trying to smelt new alloys and conduct various proportion tests.
Due to the shortage of staff in various departments, not many people were transferred to the gunpowder department. In addition, in the process of developing gunpowder, once the raw materials were consumed, they would be gone.
As for sulfur, it can only be obtained from volcanic islands for the time being, which undoubtedly further increases the time consumption.
This also allowed Zhou Xu, who was aware of this, to give them more time for research and development.
It was not until late autumn this year that he received good news from the gunpowder department.
"boom!!"
There was a loud bang, the earth shook, and even Zhou Xu, who had been mentally prepared, couldn't control his heart from beating.
With the detonation of the explosive barrel, large pieces of rock were blown away directly!
At this moment, they were in the Gobi area on the other side of Black Moon City.
They have a copper mine here, and this is also the largest quarry in their Great Zhou in this area.
Due to the special nature and considerable danger of the research and development of gunpowder, it naturally could not be carried out in the city. Therefore, when Zhou Xu set up this department, he specifically placed them in the Gobi area.
While testing the gunpowder, we can also blast the stone walls to improve the work efficiency of the quarry.
Looking at their research results, the people in the gunpowder department couldn't help but dance and cheer! Zhou Xu was not surprised by this, but showed a happy expression.
He is now researching gunpowder, not for the purpose of developing muskets, but for making explosives!
In Zhou Xu's opinion, the performance of early matchlock muskets was too poor and could not replace the position of individual crossbows on the battlefield.
This musket must at least be developed to the stage of a matchlock or flintlock before its value can be demonstrated.
Of course, no matter how impossible it is, we still have to develop what needs to be developed.
For something like a musket, they have to do it step by step, and the experience of the relevant R&D departments has to be accumulated slowly through this process. There are basically no shortcuts.
But the problem now is that he is a decent citizen living in China!
How could a good citizen like him have the chance to come into contact with guns?
At most, he would occasionally take a few glances on the Internet, but that was just a few glances. He was not a gun enthusiast, and he would not sit around staring at those videos and pictures to study them over and over again.
This meant that he had no idea about the design of these firearms.
However, there is someone within their Great Zhou who may know something.
With this thought in mind, Zhou Xu turned around and went to find Qin Fen.
"Guns? I've played with them."
Qin Fen nodded in acknowledgement.
After all, he has been studying abroad for so many years. Firearms are strictly prohibited in China, but they are legal abroad. Since he has already gone abroad, there is no reason not to try them out, even if it is just to try something new. "I have been to a shooting club and have assembled guns. I have a general understanding of the various parts of a pistol, but I don't know more specific details."
"It's okay. Just draw what you know first, and then 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 professional talents, even if there is a rough design, it will probably take a lot of time to develop it.
Fortunately, Zhou Xu was calm about this matter.
Like he said before, what he wants is explosives. As for guns and the like, he can take his time. He is not in a hurry.
After finishing his work, Zhou Xu went straight back to the Qinzheng Hall. It was still two o'clock in the afternoon.
Because of the important event of autumn harvest, there are quite a lot of documents delivered to the Qinzheng Hall every day recently. Even at this time, some documents are still being delivered.
"Your Majesty, a report has just been sent from Volcano Island."
After taking the report, Zhou Xu flipped through it quickly.
To put it simply, this report roughly reports the current situation of various departments on the volcanic island.
During this period, the Ministry of Agriculture there also reported on this year's autumn harvest results.
In order to make the population on the volcanic island completely self-sufficient in food, and also to save transportation costs within their Great Zhou, Zhou Xu had already allocated a piece of land for them as a farm as early as last winter, and then reclaimed the land in preparation for farming in the spring of the following year.
However, at this stage, the most important work on the volcanic island is the mining of fire crystals and sulfur, as well as some internal construction on the island, so the manpower that can be allocated to the Ministry of Agriculture is really limited.
As a result, although the soil there is fertile and the crops planted in the spring have a good harvest in the autumn, due to limited manpower, the area of reclaimed land is also limited, which naturally leads to limited grain output.
This amount of food is not enough for everyone on the island to eat, so it still has to be shipped by sea from the southern border.
Zhou Xu naturally knew about this situation, but there was nothing he could do.
There are limited manpower, and mining of fire crystal and sulfur on the island has the highest priority. At this stage, he cannot cut this part of the manpower and let them farm.
In comparison, they have a surplus of food within the Great Zhou, and the most that would be added is some transportation costs.
This made Zhou Xu feel fortunate that he had established the South Border Farm a few years ago. The distance to the volcanic island was relatively not far, and the transportation cost was not unacceptable.
But it would definitely be better if this cost could be completely saved in the future.
With this idea in mind, after reading the report, Zhou Xu planned to transfer a few more oxen to the agricultural department of the volcanic island.
Although there is a shortage of manpower, adding a few more oxen can also effectively improve farming efficiency.
(End of this chapter)
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