Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry

"Brother Ren, I've found the people for you. They are all well-known scholars from the surrounding villages. They will report to our clothing factory tomorrow. Now, tell me, how are we going to make this propellant?" Li Yunlong said excitedly while still outside the door.

"What do you think? Your Old Li still has some influence at headquarters, right? I managed to find four literate gentlemen for you."

"Hey, Old Li, come in and let's talk," Ren Zhong welcomed Li Yunlong in. "You're pretty fast. But besides scholars, you also need to find skilled bricklayers and potters. We need to build a small earthen kiln to fire special large vats to establish a sulfuric acid and nitric acid production line."

Ren Zhong began to enthusiastically explain the basic process of propellant production to Li Yunlong. Relatively speaking, it wasn't complicated. Even without Ren Zhong's participation, relying on the base area's local chemists, they would have figured out this indigenous production process in about a year, and achieved large-scale mass production, becoming the main source of ammunition for the base area.

What the pioneers had painstakingly developed, Ren Zhong copied in just a few hours.

The most important and difficult part was the large-scale production of qualified concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid. With these two things, after drying high-quality cotton, soaking it in concentrated sulfuric acid, redrying it, and then soaking it in concentrated nitric acid, the cotton would undergo an esterification reaction. After a certain treatment, a compound called nitrocellulose could be obtained, which is commonly known as guncotton, the modern smokeless gunpowder.

If it were in Ren Zhong's original time and space, the production of concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid would be a very mature and conventional chemical process. The sulfur used for acid production mainly came from the recovered sulfur from industries such as crude oil, natural gas, and raw coal, which was a byproduct of petrochemicals.

However, modern refining technology and equipment were obviously impossible to implement in the *Bright Sword* world. Therefore, the process method Ren Zhong found was still the method of using natural sulfur mines in this era to manufacture sulfuric acid.

The complete set of equipment for this indigenous sulfuric acid production method was, in the end, shockingly simple, mainly derived from variations of the large ceramic jars used by the common people for storing grain or water! But figuring this out was really not easy. It was iterated for three generations before completing the truly practical manufacturing process data that Ren Zhong had searched for. This method also had a resounding name called the 'Jar Tower Method' for preparing sulfuric acid.

Ren Zhong brought a thick stack of materials, describing in detail the entire indigenous production process of concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid, and also included simple illustrations for easy understanding.

However, Ren Zhong babbled on to Li Yunlong for a long time, and found that Li Yunlong was staring at him blankly, not understanding anything at all.

"Brother Ren, although your Old Li doesn't understand these things you're saying, I think they're very impressive. As expected of a gentleman who has returned from overseas, you know a lot," Li Yunlong said without the slightest embarrassment. Moreover, not understanding these things didn't prevent him from doing things. He squinted his small eyes and said.

"Brother Ren, don't give me all these bottles and jars and reactions. Besides fighting, your Old Li's brain really can't figure out many things.

Just tell your Old Li what to do, how many people you need, what kind of people you need. Just write a note, and I'll ask around. Even if I have to search all the base areas here at headquarters, I'll find the people for you."

"Okay, it was my recklessness. I had a lapse in judgment to talk about these things to you, Old Li," Ren Zhong knew that he had been foolish to talk science to Li Yunlong.

This was completely casting pearls before swine, winking at a blind man, a complete waste.

To expect the semi-literate Li Yunlong to understand this matter was simply a pipe dream.

I'm afraid that in the base area, there are very few people who can understand my introduction and read the materials I brought.

"First of all, we need to build an earthen kiln. We have to produce the main production equipment ourselves. To put it simply, we need a batch of bottles and jars, and also some large water vats for boiling," Ren Zhong directly wrote down what he needed for Li Yunlong.

"Second, we need to buy some sulfur ore and saltpeter. You don't have to worry about the money. I'll give you 500 silver dollars first. Buy as much as you can. We need to start collecting these raw materials from now on."

"Third, we need a group of kiln workers and potters who make pottery. I can't make those bottles and jars myself. We must find experienced masters. Otherwise, if they can't make qualified pottery according to my drawings, our factory will be delayed."

Giving these instructions to Li Yunlong, and using Old Li as a laborer, Ren Zhong felt a strange sense of satisfaction in his heart, but after giving half of the silver dollars he had earned to Li Yunlong all at once, Ren Zhong felt a strange heartache again.

If he could live to be seventy or eighty in this world, Ren Zhong could brag to his descendants that he was once a famous figure who commanded Li Yunlong.

But thinking about it, that's too far in the future. I don't even know if I can live that long.

Regarding the factory, Ren Zhong still has to personally lead the people to set it up from scratch. Even the educated young people won't learn it unless they follow him and study, absorb, and digest it carefully.

This thing is easier said than done. Ren Zhong doesn't even know how long it will take to get this done with the people.

After sending Li Yunlong to find bricklayers and potters to purchase raw materials.

Next to this semi-open cliff cave, there are also several smaller, more enclosed cliff caves ranging from dozens to more than a hundred square meters. Although the place is not large, it is barely enough to be used as the small chemical factory planned by Ren Zhong in the future to produce sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and nitrocellulose.

This scale of daily production of dozens of kilograms of sulfuric acid and nitric acid can already support the production of propellant for a not-small bullet reloading factory.

Begging for follow-up reading, collection, and recommendation!