From Chief to Ball

The only source of potassium salt in the city is plant ash potassium carbonate. The struvite on Luodao Island is a good phosphorus and nitrogen fertilizer, but unfortunately it does not contain much potassium.

Chen Jian always felt that he was lucky. If there was a large amount of potassium nitrate deposited in the salt field, it would not only solve the problem of gunpowder, but also increase the grain production in the city. Unfortunately, his luck was probably exhausted. He thought so well.

It was this trip to find brine for tofu that made him give up his fantasy and decided to conscript corvée to dig nitrate ponds to prepare for next year's gunpowder.

Since there are no mines, the dream of the gunpowder age can only be built on the toilet.

Chapter 33 Nitrogen

On the second day after the Lidong Festival, more than 100 corvees recruited from the wild villages gathered in the city to count points.

At this time, it was time for the villages to seize the time to cultivate land, and they needed to be paid for food, so the number of people recruited this time was not large.

These people in corvee stood there waiting to receive tools and distribute tasks, and looked curiously at a group of people in the city carrying some sacks, whether they would move around inside.

"What's in there?"

"Dove, caught pigeon."

"This stuff is delicious, but it's too small. Are you going to chop up so much to make dumplings or make soup?"

The person carrying the pigeons was startled, shook his head hastily and said, "It's not for food, Ji Xia said that pigeons are not allowed to be eaten in the future, these are to be raised."

When those people heard that they couldn't eat, their interest was greatly reduced, and they asked curiously: "How did you catch so many pigeons? Did the city come up with a new method?"

"It's nothing new. Jixia got some cloth sieves, and swept out a clearing on the rocky mountain in the east. The sieve was propped up with wooden sticks, and wheat grains were sprinkled under the sieve. When the pigeons went to eat, they would pull the rope, and the pigeons would be detained." Stop. There are plenty of pigeons on the rocky mountain, and last time we got a lot of pigeon dung from ox carts there, you didn’t see how well that piece of wheat grows.”

During the conversation, Chen Jian ran over and asked these people to feed the pigeons in a built wooden house first, gradually making the pigeons familiar with the existence of people.

Those people took orders to go. Chen Jian counted the people who came here to serve in corvée. After confirming the number, he broke up the tribe and separated them. One person was selected to receive today's wheat, and a few women were left to be responsible for cooking.

These people are digging the nitrate field. The nitrate field will not be able to produce nitrate until next summer, but it is impossible to wait until the stomach hurts and the legs are shaking before going to the toilet. Take advantage of the snow to deal with it before the sports meeting is held in May next year. , can give the people in those two cities a big surprise.

Because the summer is southeast wind, so Nitian can only choose the northwest side of the city, which is too smelly.

The principle of the nitrification field is to use water purification bacteria to convert organic matter, protein, etc. into ammonia, then use nitrifying bacteria to oxidize ammonia into nitrate, and finally use plant ash to provide potassium ions to purify potassium nitrate.

It sounds grand, but it's actually not amazing.Most of the empires in the previous gunpowder era were built on the toilets of the citizens. There were only a few places with large saltpeter mines, and the major saltpeter producing areas such as Chile and the banks of the Ganges were basically colonies of one country. Can ponder scraping nitrate from the toilet.

Feces, including those pigeons caught by Chen Jian before, were all strategic materials of the country in the era of gunpowder without saltpeter mines.

The digestive tract of pigeons is very short, and many nutrients cannot be fully absorbed. Pigeon droppings are excellent fertilizers and excellent raw materials for nitrate fields, and can also be used to transmit information.

Some countries in the gunpowder era had officials who raised pigeons, and officials who collected toilets. It sounds weird, but it is of great significance to the country.

Chen Jian understood the principle of the Nitrate, and had thought about how to operate it for a long time.

The weather has turned cold a few days ago, and some white salt has appeared at the bottom of the toilet wall dug last year, but the output is too low to be eaten on a large scale.

Both water purification bacteria and nitrifying bacteria are aerobic bacteria, so the environment of the toilet is not suitable for their growth, because the bottom is too viscous and it is unlikely to be ventilated.

Nitrifying bacteria are extremely afraid of light and are easily killed by strong light. Their reproduction speed is very slow, and they like oxygen and summer temperature.

After understanding these two principles, there will be comparisons and methods for specific operations.

He led these people to dig a pit one step deep, twenty steps long and three steps wide in the open space on the northwest side of the city, and tamped it down with clay to ensure that there would be no water leakage.

A large number of red bricks were transported from the city, and they were laid on the bottom. After they were all padded and compacted, a layer of sand from the river was laid on top, which did not need to be too thick.

There are gaps between the sand, which is convenient for air circulation, and the paving is not very thick. Dilute the feces with water and sprinkle them on the sand, which solves the problem of aerobic demand.

After the red bricks are laid, the sand can be easily cleaned and boiled together with tools, which solves the problem of collection.

After digging the pit, put wooden sticks around the pit, and cover the top with thatch, which can solve the problem of shading, and because the orientation is southeast, northwest, once the surroundings are covered, there will be strong drafts.

The difficulty of temperature control is too high, and there is no rush. Since nitrifying bacteria like the temperature in summer, let them work only in summer.

The basic principle is that the diluted feces, live dead fish and rotten shrimp are thrown into the sand in the nitrification field, and the water purification bacteria decompose into ammonia under humid conditions. However, under the conditions of shading, suitable temperature and sufficient oxygen, the nitrifying bacteria convert ammonia Oxidized to nitrate, adhered to the sand.

Because there are flat red bricks under the sand, they can be quickly collected and reused, so as to achieve the effect of boiling nitrate once every 20 days.

In order to achieve what Chen Jian wanted, several qualified masons in the city were also called here. In addition to laying red bricks underneath, they also needed to build a few large houses here as a future building. Gunpowder Workshop and Boil Workshop.

These people probably knew that this place would become a collection and distribution center for excrement in the future, so they sniffled and said, "Ji Xia, it must be very smelly here in summer, and the flies are here. I think it's better to put the workshop in the city."

Chen Jian shook his head without even thinking about it. It would definitely not work to put the gunpowder workshop in the city. If something happened one day, the whole city would be hurt.

"How about this, leave a distance of fifty steps between the nitrate field and the workshop, and plant some trees in the middle, and the pigsty in the city will also be moved to this place in the future."

"What about the sheep pen and the horse pen?"

"No, sheep dung is small balls. Horse dung and cow dung can be dried naturally and are easy to collect. Let's get the pigsty near here, and then get some wood or build a fence between the nitrate field and the workshop. From now on, this place will be the same as the barracks of the new army, and outsiders will not be able to enter without the permission of me or more than half of the council.”

As soon as the masons heard this, they knew how important this thing was. Even workshops like tofu grinding and wine making vinegar were not so strictly managed. Except for the rules, Ji Xia rarely took such strict measures in their eyes. It seems that this thing can make the city undergo earth-shaking changes again.

Chen Jian took out the bark charcoal drawings that he had prepared, and he tried his best to teach these masons to read the drawings. Even if it was a simple job like building a house, he would not let go of the opportunity to quietly change the habits of the tribe.

A few masons had already gotten used to it, squatting on the ground and unfolding the birch bark, while Chen Jian pointed at it with a charcoal pencil.

"Dig six of them in the nitrate field for the time being, and try to line them up side by side. Dig the walls or wooden fences in a rectangle with a length of [-] steps and a width of [-] steps. I will bring a few children to you and draw them out on the ground with white ash. The creek was blocked and cut off, and a small canal was dug to flow near the nitrate field, and water will be used here in the future. The pigsty is built on top of the nitrate field, and bricks can also be used underneath..."

The mason murmured: "Our houses are not built on brick floors, but these pigs lived there first."

Everyone laughed, and Chen Jian said helplessly: "People know how to go to the toilet, but pigs don't. A slope is paved with red bricks, and the swineherd flushes it with water every day, so that the pig manure can be left directly into the nitrate field along the dug ditch. It saves a lot of things. It is a person who can save one person."

He pointed to the picture and said: "In the middle here are some gourds, creepers and other things. The workshop area is in the southeast of the nitrate field. It also needs a wall. The house needs to be large, and the open space outside also needs to be large. The open space needs three A roller or a stone mill, this is the business of the stonemason, you just leave a place for the donkey to circle around."

"Then how many people are needed here? Do you need a place to eat and cook?"

"No need, no fire is allowed, and everyone who cooks and eats goes back to the city. It's not far away anyway. I guess we need [-] people here, and we can't use slaves."

Several masons looked at the picture for a long time, pointed to a circle of small houses next to it and asked, "What is this for?"

"Pigeons. Pigeons don't fly south in winter, and there's little food. It's the most suitable season for domestication. A total of six or seven hundred pigeons were caught a few days ago, and they will all be raised here in the future."

Pigeons’ houses are very small, with a lot of small windows made of bricks as their nests, with planks and hay covered inside, and a circle of red bricks on the outside to collect pigeon droppings.

Pigeon meat tastes good, but now is not the time to eat it.Pigeons are easy to domesticate and get close to their owners who often feed them. The disadvantage is that they are too small, their eggs are smaller, and their food value is not high.

Feather Chen Jian tried to make the tail feathers of arrow shafts, and the effect was just enough. Now there are many birds in the mountains, and they will not be used for the time being, but they can still be used when the scale of war expands or protracted in the future. It is better than bare rods.

In addition to the pigeon house, Chen Jian also drew several fermentation tanks for manure nearby.

Pouring manure directly on the field not only has no effect but also causes seedling burn, it must be fermented before it can be used, and the fermentation tank is nothing more than tamping the ground and covering it with a straw shed.

The people and livestock in the city can produce a total of about one ton of manure every day. According to the current population and number of soldiers in the city, the production of saltpeter may consume two to three thousand catties a year, which is more than [-] tons of manure raw materials.

In addition to the consumption of saltpeter, there is still 60 catties left over each year, and with some rotten grass mixed in, the natural fertilizer that can be retting every year can cover a few catties per mu of land. Using plant ash to work carefully, the grain production can be greatly improved.