"The rubber factory is open?" Zhu Linmiao was very surprised, she didn't expect Yao Qisheng and these young people to be so efficient, "How much output is there every day?" ”

Yao Qisheng hurriedly waved his hand and said: "The vulcanized rubber process is fine, and now only more than ten students and classmates can master it, as for the craftsmen next to them, it took two days to teach them to keep clocks.

"At present, although there are buildings, grounds, and many mixing, heating, measuring and other equipment, most of them are idle. It can produce up to five or six hundred catties of vulcanized rubber products per day, but it can already make some wheels, soles and other materials. ”

It turned out that it was just in the laboratory production stage. Zhu Linmiao knew that rubber was very dense, and five or six hundred catties sounded like a lot, but in fact, it was used to make thirty or forty wheels, and it had to be stared at by more than a dozen outstanding Gezhi scholars.

He said silently in his heart, in terms of chemical production, Daming had no craftsmen at all, and it was no wonder that such a situation occurred. It seems that if you want to produce rubber on a large scale, one is to ensure a stable supply of natural rubber, and the other is to train a large number of qualified industrial workers as soon as possible.

He then said to Yao Qisheng: "At the moment, I am not in a hurry to produce finished rubber products, and the artillery seals are not used too much." Let's focus on training craftsmen first, just a few of you are tired and not enough.

"By the way, add 30% of the wages to the rubber craftsmen. Tell them that if they learn to produce vulcanized rubber within one month, they will be paid 50 percent, and they will be paid less than 10 percent for every five days they learn late. ”

"Remember, students." Yao Qisheng bowed in response, and asked, "His Highness just said that he wanted to summon students, I don't know what to order?" ”

"It's a big deal, and it's a lot of risk." Zhu Linmiao pointed to Nanjing City to the west of the big tent and said solemnly, "Dolgon has sent Wu Sangui to lead the Guanning army south, and has transferred a large number of warships to help. There are only a thousand days to be a thief in everything, there is no thousand days to prevent thieves, and our army is already small in number, so it is difficult to guarantee that the thieves will not slip into Nanjing for reinforcements.

"Therefore, the safest way is to take Nanjing City as soon as possible!

"However, Taizu built the city of Nanjing too strongly. Yesterday, I ordered Deng Shan to blow up the city with 700 catties of gunpowder, but only a small gap was blown up. ”

Yao Qisheng was also taken aback when he heard this, "Seven hundred catties of gunpowder is not enough?!" ”

"Yes, the city of Nanjing is built with thousands of pounds of bluestone slabs, so it is impossible to bury gunpowder directly under the city wall. Only the gunpowder was placed on the side of the wall, and most of the explosion was emitted outward. ”

Zhu Linmiao looked at Yao Qisheng, "If you want to blow up Nanjing City now, you can't use ordinary gunpowder." I do know of a very powerful explosive, but I don't know exactly how it works or how it is disposed. Therefore, you need to go through trial and error to find out the most powerful raw material ratio and manufacturing process.

"Once this explosive is made, it will be able to blow up the city wall in one fell swoop if it is placed in the pit six or seven feet deep that has been blown out under the city of Nanjing!"

Yao Qisheng swallowed and smeared, and said in his heart, obediently, 700 catties of gunpowder can only scratch the itch of Nanjing City, but this thing called "explosives" can blow up the city, and this power is too scary.

However, this also aroused his curiosity, and it was even more incumbent on him to contribute to the restoration of Tianfu.

In fact, he has other thoughts. According to the regulations of the Patent Department of the Ministry of Industry, if he can figure out the production process of explosives, he can obtain a "process patent", which is an objective income.

Previously, the process patent of vulcanized rubber fell under the name of him and more than a dozen classmates and auxiliary political kings, and no matter who made the rubber in the future, he would have to pay him a "patent fee" of two cents per 100 catties.

Two articles don't sound like much, but this is sitting at home to collect money, and when the rubber production goes up in the future, this money is unbelievable!

So he immediately arched his hand and said, "The student will do his best according to His Highness's orders!" ”

"Good!" Zhu Linmiao nodded with satisfaction and said, "You go and prepare the experimental tools first." By the way, the manufacture of nitrocellulose requires a large amount of sulfuric acid, nitric acid and fine cotton, and more raw materials must be prepared. In addition, it is extremely dangerous to make this thing, and it is necessary to find a place where there is a sparse population. ”

Nitrocellulose? Yao Qisheng wrote down the name and said again, "The student will go and prepare." ”

Previously, sulfuric acid and nitric acid had been successfully produced in the Fujing laboratory, and as a "top student" in chemistry, he knew the process and raw materials well, and then turned around and walked out of the big tent with a few classmates.

Song Yingxing had been listening to it all the time, and at this time he also interjected: "Your Highness, if this 'nitrocellulose' is so powerful, can it still be used on guns and cannons to replace ordinary gunpowder?" ”

Zhu Linmiao shook her head, "Nitrocellulose is powerful, but it has a fatal shortcoming, that is, it is unstable, it will explode if it collides with a little force, and it will spontaneously combust when the temperature is a little higher."

"The reason why I asked Yao Qisheng to manufacture them near Nanjing is to be able to make them and use them nearby immediately, so as to avoid accidents during long-distance transportation."

He asked Song Yingxing again: "Mr. Song, how are those warships being built now?" The sailor is already looking forward to it. ”

"Back to Your Highness, Yongbeili and Nan'an each had a big ship go to sea three days ago." Song Yingxing said, "When the students went north by boat, the two boats had already hung their sails and the artillery they were equipped with had been transported to the shore. ”

Zhu Linmiao had already learned about the sailboat construction process with the shipwright, and usually the final steps were to hang the sails and install the guns, in addition to the painting of the decks and cabins. However, if you use it urgently, it doesn't hurt if you don't paint it, but it will reduce the life of the warship a little.

"So, these two ships will be able to go north in the near future?"

"As Your Highness said."

"By the way, how big are two ships?"

"Back to His Highness, one is a 500-ton warship built by Yongbeili Shipyard, which is no different from the sailor Shao Wu. The other is a 300-ton warship from Nan'an Shipyard, which is similar to Fuzhou and Guang Signal. ”

To be honest, although there were two more main warships, Zhu Linmiao was a little disappointed. He has been looking forward to the entry into service of the 800-ton third-class battleship in Yongbeili, which is a trump card that can dominate the whole of East Asia.

However, even if this giant ship has not yet been built, just with the addition of the two warships that will be listed immediately, the Daming Naval Division already has two 500-ton and four Galen warships of more than 320 tons. In addition to the original 11 small Galen ships, if the tactics are appropriate, there should be a certain certainty in dealing with the more than 300 Qing warships that are rushing to Nanjing.

You know, "300 warships" sounds scary, but more than 200 of them are small boats such as warships and sentinel ships. According to the situation of Zheng Zhilong's fleet described by Zheng Chenggong, among the 300 warships, there were only more than 30 ships of more than 300 tons.