In July of the third year of Chongzhen, half of the year had passed, and Hongmen continued to hide in overseas places and quietly develop.

Thanks to the previous crazy convergence of population dividends, in the past six months or so, all parts of Hongmen have developed well, especially Jingpu, which Li Tianyang is now paying attention to.

Shizuura has good news that the rubber tree seeds sown in February this spring have sprouted and grown, and although nearly two or three percent of the seeds planted have not germinated, there are still more than 3,000 saplings that have sprouted and grown, and now they are more than a foot high, and it is said that the forensic doctor is not bad.

This shows that at least the climate here in Jingpu is still suitable for the growth of rubber trees, which is also a problem that Li Tianyang has been worried about.

Even crops such as corn and potatoes, when they were first introduced to the Ming Dynasty, had varying degrees of discomfort in terms of income and growth, and then stabilized after several generations.

Therefore, even if the rubber tree will die one after another at this time, as long as it can grow more than 30% in the end, it can be said that the rubber tree is suitable for growing in Jingpu Town.

Of course, planting rubber trees is a long-term development, and now Hongmen has also sent a large number of intentions to the Portuguese in Macau to purchase a large number of finished rubber products, and gave a reasonable price.

For Westerners, the Ming Dynasty has always been a strong existence of trade deficits, which means that every time Westerners transport a large number of spices, porcelain, raw silk, cotton cloth and other goods from the East to the world to earn silver money, when they return to the Far East Ming Dynasty, because of the Ming Dynasty itself, except for a few luxury goods, there will rarely be other needs, so Westerners can only take real money and silver back to the Ming Dynasty to purchase materials.

This is also an important reason why since the Song Dynasty, although the Chinese mainland lacks gold and silver veins, there are more and more private silver reserves, and Huaxia commerce is developing in the direction of silver standard, without worrying about the shortage of silver.

Now Hongmen has offered to purchase finished rubber products, but in the eyes of the Portuguese, it has opened an important channel to make money again, rather than stupidly transporting large quantities of silver back to the East to trade.

As for why Hongmen needs to purchase this kind of goods, which is just interesting in the eyes of the Portuguese and Spaniards, but the actual use effect is not too great, even if it attracts the attention of Westerners, but before Westerners think of using vulcanization methods to change the properties of natural rubber, they may not be too interested in it.

Li Tianyang originally thought that the use of rubber in the direction of tires should be the biggest use of rubber products, but the facts told him that he had always felt that the ordinary waterproofness of the use was the greatest use value of rubber products in Hongmen.

Hongmen now uses a blast furnace (remind again, this blast furnace is not the other blast furnace, because Li Tianyang has his own confused and vague memory, and the steelmaking method that is closer to the effect of the open hearth and converter is called the blast furnace, and will not be reminded in the future.) The fuel used in steelmaking is coal mined from the Yushan tribe.

The research results of the R&D Institute are really good, the steel made directly from coal, and the steel made from the coal is reprocessed again and smelted into coking coal, between the two kinds of steel, the latter is much higher than the former in terms of hardness, toughness and ductility.

At this time, the knowledge of chemistry in Hongmen, still belongs to a mysterious discipline, although Li Tianyang's shallow memory about chemistry, gave Hongmen children an enlightenment, but they still can't understand that sulfur-containing coal steelmaking has a great impact on steel.

In the previous research of the R&D Institute on coal tar, the simplest way to use it is to use it as a daily fuel, or as a paint instead of tung oil, etc., and use it in the ship-making process.

At the same time, there is another derivative of coal tar, that is, asphalt, which is one of the few things that Li Tianyang can find on Dayuan Island today that can replace cement in some aspects.

Especially in the construction of roads and squares, as well as in the construction of buildings to waterproof, the effect of asphalt is much more powerful than cement.

The cement is too hard, the previous carriages, ox carts and other means of transport, as well as horses running on the cement road, the friction between the horseshoe, the wooden roller and the hard cement road is relatively insufficient, so that people dare not run happily on the road, otherwise it is inevitable that there will be a rollover or insufficient brakes.

The asphalt-paved pavement, the ground is softer, and the friction is stronger, so that the horseshoe, wheels rub against it, it is easier to grasp the speed, the only defect is that the asphalt from the coal tar extraction production has been insufficient, it is impossible to meet the busy horse routes around Bengang.

Now it is good that the R&D Institute has discovered a way to use coal tar, which once discovered, whether it is for the life of ordinary people in Hongmen or for the daily life of Hongmen, it has an extremely powerful effect.

Unexpectedly, the rubber can be dissolved in coal tar, and then through conversion and other methods, the rubber is replaced from the coal tar and attached to the cloth and other things, which can form a completely waterproof raincoat, tent and other objects.

It may seem simple not to look at this thing, but for this era, its role should not be underestimated.

One of the biggest factors why gunpowder weapons have always been difficult to surpass cold weapons in this era is that gunpowder is easy to get damp and not easy to preserve, and cannons cast of steel and copper are easy to oxidize with water.

Hongmen is okay now, because they don't need too much land combat, in the sailor team, because of the design and principle, most of the guns in the Hongmen fleet are located on the deck close to the horizon, and rarely placed on the deck in the open air.

However, Hongmen is now vigorously developing the flintlock pistol team, so there is no such good luck as artillery, in this era only oiled paper, hats and other rain tools, Hongmen has been using the whole animal skin to wrap, protect gunpowder and flintlock pistols, etc., is already an extremely luxurious thing.

However, as the Hongmen team gradually grew, and the Musket Manufacturing Bureau was also in full swing to produce and arm the entire team, then it would be impossible for Li Tianyang and them to use waterproof tools such as complete animal skins as they had done before.

Therefore, at this time, the excellent waterproofness of rubber products is about to be transformed into a hot weapon team for Hongmen, which is simply like someone sending a pillow when sleepy, so that Hongmen's transformation progress has made great progress.

(End of chapter)