The Three Spirit Stones

In March, the ice and snow melted, the riverbed thawed, and the mountains and forests were full of vitality.

A long mule convoy appeared on the official road from Henan to Qinzhou, with at least several hundred mules.

There were a large group of guards in front and behind the convoy, about several hundred people. Each of them was strong and sturdy. They controlled the horses and kept a vigilant eye on the surrounding environment.

At the front of the convoy, there was a burly man in the middle, and he was Li Sanleng, the general agent of Zhongtong Freight.

This batch of cargo is very important. In addition to sugar, potatoes, and corn seeds, it also contains a batch of weapons and armor, and most importantly, a batch of explosives.

After receiving the task assigned by Cheng Yu, Li Sanleng selected all the most elite personnel in his fleet and personally escorted them.

The goods were first transported via the Grand Canal, and when they reached roads that were impassable via waterways, they were pulled by mules. These vehicles were later improved and became more durable and flexible than before.

The journey from Bian Jing to Qinzhou was about a thousand miles, and it took them more than a month, but this speed was already very fast in ancient times.

Ten miles away from Qinzhou City, a general led a group of soldiers and was already waiting eagerly. This general was a lieutenant named Zhang under Cao Wei.

"Captain, they are coming,"

A soldier pointed at the convoy appearing in the distance, and he quickly led his men to ride towards them.

The two sides met and checked each other's seals. After that, Captain Zhang led the convoy into Qinzhou City.

After settling the convoy, Li Sanleng was taken to see Cao Wei.

Inside the tent, a great general stood there, emitting a sense of majesty and murderous aura.

Li Sanleng could not help but feel a chill down his spine. He took a deep breath, calmed himself, knelt on his knees, and kowtowed, saying, "I, Li Sanleng, greet the Governor Cao, Lord Cao."

"Get up,"

"Thank you, sir,"

He stood up, took out a letter from his bosom, handed it to Cao Wei respectfully, and said, "Master Cao, this is what the Marquis asked me to give you."

Cao Wei took it and opened it. The content of the letter roughly stated that the potatoes and corn shipped could be arranged for farmers to plant in April and May. There was also a detailed planting instruction for these two crops. Then, it said that there were 2,000 sets of armor shipped this time, and more would be arranged to be shipped later.

Finally, it was mentioned that two gunpowder craftsmen had been arranged to accompany the truck carrying the explosives, and in the letter, Cao Wei was reminded to remember to use the explosives according to the opinions of these two people.

In fact, in order to resist the brutal attacks of Liao, Xixia and Jin, the Northern Song Dynasty attached great importance to the testing and production of gunpowder and gunpowder weapons.

In the third and fifth years of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty's Xianping reign, Tang Fu, captain of the Shenwei navy, and Shi Pu, the commander of the Jizhou militia, respectively made new gunpowder weapons such as rockets and fireballs in the imperial palace, for which they were commended by Emperor Zhenzong. From then on, gunpowder became an essential equipment for the Song army.

Later, the Northern Song government established a gunpowder workshop in the capital Bianliang, which was an official handicraft workshop specializing in the manufacture of gunpowder and firearms.

However, early gunpowder weapons had poor explosive performance and were mainly used for arson.

When Cao Wei saw the explosives, he felt a little disapproving. He thought that these were only auxiliary means after all, and the most important thing in a war was people!

But he was surprised by two thousand sets of armor!

The armor production process is extremely complicated. Each piece of armor must be repeatedly hammered into thin sheets and then punched. A set of armor has more than a thousand parts, and it takes at least more than a month to complete a set.

How much manpower and material resources would be needed to produce these two thousand sets of armor?

And they will continue to be delivered!

He put away the letter and immediately asked Li Sanleng to take him to see the armor.

When we arrived at the warehouse, the soldiers were carrying the goods one by one.

Captain Zhang excitedly stepped forward and said to Cao Wei, "Your Excellency, there are many new armors."

"Let me see,"

Captain Zhang presented a set of infantry armor. Cao Wei took it in both hands and took a closer look. It was indeed brand new.

The most incredible thing is that each piece of armor is exactly the same, even the position of the holes is exactly the same, and the thickness of the armor is half that of ordinary armor, so the weight of the whole set of armor can be reduced by half.

Normally, the weight of infantry armor is about 60 kilograms. With weapons, a soldier has to carry 80 to 90 kilograms, which requires a lot of physical fitness.

Nowadays, this kind of armor can reduce its weight by half, which greatly improves the soldiers' endurance and flexibility.

I just don't know how good is the defensive performance of such a thin armor plate? What's the point if it breaks into pieces after a few cuts?

Thinking of this, Cao Wei asked two soldiers to put on armor and fight each other.

The two men picked up their swords and fought for a while, with sparks flying as the swords chopped on the armor.

After the fight, everyone checked the armor and found that it was not damaged at all, but the blade of the sword was slightly curled.

Tests have proven that this armor looks thin but is actually of very high quality.

Everyone gave thumbs up and praised!

But at the same time, I am also wondering how such large quantities of such good armor were made?

In fact, after the coke was smelted, Cheng Yu's iron smelting plant had been experimenting with smelting various steels. The armor was made from a new type of steel that was harder and tougher than farm tools.

There was a river near the ironworks, and he had a dam built upstream and a hydraulic press built there.

These nail plates are all punched out by this large punch press, so each piece is exactly the same.

As for the stamping die, it cost a lot of money. Just making the steel for the die wasted a lot of iron.

After this group of smelting masters racked their brains, and with the guidance of A Cai, they finally produced mold steel suitable for stamping. Finally, they filed the mold out bit by bit by hand.

I really have to admire the perseverance of the ancient craftsmen, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to make so many exquisite objects that have been passed down through the ages!

When the craftsmen saw the formed nail pieces falling out under the "bang bang bang" of the big punch press,

Everyone cried with excitement!

Countless days and nights of sleepless efforts finally paid off.

For this, Cheng Yu gave them a generous reward, but they did not forget the person who guided them. They asked the Marquis to introduce this expert to them and offered half of the bonus.

What a group of simple people!

But Cheng Yu couldn't let them see Ah Cai, firstly to protect her, and secondly because men were superior to women in ancient times.

If these grown men knew that their master was such a little girl, I wonder if their faith would collapse?

……

Cao Wei happily put the armor into the warehouse and was about to arrange for Li Sanleng and his men to rest. Li Sanleng reminded him, "Sir, you haven't met the two men in charge of gunpowder yet. Before the Marquis left, he told me to tell you that you must listen to the opinions of the two men when using gunpowder."

Cao Wei was indeed so happy that he forgot about the gunpowder. He only remembered it when Li Sanleng mentioned it. He was not very interested in gunpowder at first, but he knew that Cheng Yu was always rigorous. Since he mentioned it once in the letter and asked Li Sanleng to mention it again, he instinctively took it seriously.

He had the two men brought to him. After seeing him, the two men bowed respectfully and introduced themselves to each other. One was called Tang Youfu and the other was called Sun Bin.

The two men were subordinates of Tang Fu, the captain of the Shenwei Navy. Their families used to make gunpowder puppets, fireworks and firecrackers for a living. They had been exposed to gunpowder since childhood and had a strong interest in it.

Ever since Ah Cai tested out the formula for sugar explosives, Cheng Yu no longer allowed her to touch explosives.

Ah Cai has always been out of tune. Insignificant hobbies can coax her, but explosives are not a joke. If you mess up once in ten thousand times, people will die.

He went through so much trouble to return to the Northern Song Dynasty to save her life, not to let her die.

He found the gunpowder workshop in the Bian Jing Arsenal [Guangbei Siege Works] at that time and selected these two people to learn how to make sugar explosives.

When Tang Youfu and Sun Bin first knew that they were going to meet Ah Cai with Cheng Yu, they felt very aggrieved.

Two masters who have been working in the gunpowder industry for decades have now fallen to the point of learning how to make gunpowder from a little girl. This is laughable even when you tell them about it, not to mention that the girl is a notorious bitch in the capital.

But he dared not disobey when the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery personally called him, for he was now a popular figure in the eyes of the emperor.

How dare a small craftsman go against his wishes?

Unless you don’t want to live anymore!

But after seeing Acai, their views quickly changed, and what followed was shock!

It was hard for them to imagine that a teenage girl could control the proportion of gunpowder so accurately, and the measuring instrument was more advanced than anything they had ever seen.

They were involved in an explosives test and were nearly frightened to death.

The two had never seen such fierce gunpowder!

A large pit several dozen feet in diameter was blown out of the ground, and the trees within a radius of several dozen feet were blown to pieces.

Imagine if someone was there, there would be no one left.

It took the two of them a long time to recover, and they were even despised by A Cai for this. From then on, they all respectfully called her Teacher Cai.

Cheng Yu signed a confidentiality agreement with the two men, not allowing them to disclose the fact that A Cai could make explosives to anyone else. He also took the two men's families to Cheng Industry, under the pretext of solving their family's employment needs, but in reality, they were used as hostages.

Although the method is not very glorious, it is necessary to do so in order to protect her.