Chapter 116: Development Always Takes Time
Bird droppings can be used to produce saltpeter. Reacting it with hydrochloric acid converts the ammonium ions in the guano into ammonium salts. These are then piled up like manure to mature. Nitrifying bacteria, under aerobic conditions, convert the nitrogen in the ammonium salts into nitrate ions. Adding potassium salts then precipitates potassium nitrate, which is saltpeter.
Yuan Ye has hydrochloric acid on hand, as the soy sauce workshop uses it constantly and there is no shortage. Potassium salts are also easy to obtain. The sea is right next to him, so he can use the technique of leaching salt flowers by repeatedly pouring water over coarse salt to obtain potassium salts. Alternatively, a more rudimentary method is to burn wild areas to obtain a large amount of plant ash. By adding brine to the plant ash solution, potassium salts can also be obtained.
However, obtaining saltpeter this way is troublesome, a lot of the guano is wasted, and the cost is extremely high, making it very uneconomical. Therefore, Yuan Ye only plans to claim this method of obtaining saltpeter externally, to prevent this business from becoming too profitable and attracting the envy of certain individuals who might want to seize it. This should buy him considerable time. Even if some people are envious, they will first try to find guano and attempt to produce saltpeter themselves, rather than immediately trying to rob him.
Of course, this is just a small deception, and also a way to stockpile natural “fertilizer” for the future, in case there isn’t enough grain to eat later. It may not actually be effective, but having an extra safeguard is always good.
As for truly obtaining large quantities of saltpeter, it still relies on the processed bird droppings that were transported back mixed with guano.
Producing saltpeter from this material is even simpler. The general principle is the same as producing saltpeter from guano, but the conditions are not as strict, and hydrochloric acid is not needed. Simply build a few large filter beds, throw these processed bird droppings and plant ash into them, add water and heat. The filtered solution is then mixed with a small amount of brine, and finally, it is allowed to cool naturally and crystallize, yielding crude saltpeter.
This step needs to be repeated until no more crude saltpeter is produced. The remaining material is not waste; it is still an excellent natural fertilizer that can be stored for later use.
Finally, the obtained crude saltpeter is dissolved in water and boiled. Impurities like sodium chloride are filtered out. After cooling and crystallization, high-quality saltpeter can be obtained.
If the quality is still not satisfactory, this step can be repeated until crystals meeting the requirements are obtained.
Yuan Ye attaches great importance to the saltpeter extraction work, as it concerns his life and livelihood. The “saltpeter workshop” prepared in advance is a separate building within his residence, not far from his private laboratory. It is the most strictly controlled area in all of Wanjin.
Now that the “saltpeter workshop” is to begin production, security is of paramount importance. Yuan Ye selected all the elderly individuals from the initial eighty-nine “old, weak, sick, and disabled” to be responsible for the saltpeter production work. In this era, the average age is just over 29, so anyone over 50 is considered elderly, and they still have some working capacity.
Once these people enter, they will not be able to leave for a long time; they might even die inside. These elderly individuals, whose lifespans are uncertain, do not mind. The work in the saltpeter workshop is not too strenuous, and the food and lodging are excellent. It is a very good retirement position in this unfortunate era, allowing them to live out their remaining years peacefully. They do not care about being able to walk around daily, and none of them have any objections.
In this era, commoners struggle just to survive. It is normal for them to seek death in the mountains when they grow old. Now, having a job where they can eat well every meal, is not dangerous, and is not too tiring, only requiring the sacrifice of some freedom, would lead to the place being swamped with applicants the next day if recruitment were opened. Young people might even rush to compete for it, and no one would have any objections.
Of course, Yuan Ye is not a harsh person. He has also made a promise: as long as they work diligently inside, ensuring smooth and stable production, he will naturally reward them. Their merits will be fully credited to their families, with promotions, rewards, and increased land allocation as appropriate. These are not issues.
One jin of saltpeter sells for three guan coins. With such a profitable industry, he will not be stingy with this small amount of money. Moreover, if something were to happen, such as him being forced to evacuate urgently again, for the sake of secrecy, none of the people inside would be allowed to live. This can be considered an advance payment for their lives.
From now on, he plans to do this. For any work that requires a certain degree of secrecy and does not require much physical exertion, he will use these elderly individuals. He even plans to assess the situation regarding the preparation of hydrochloric acid and consider moving it to the saltpeter workshop, to avoid him having to exhaust himself from time to time.
In a sense, this is a win-win situation; neither party loses.
The workshop is secure. Outside, deep trenches have been dug, and the most loyal veteran followers who survived the Battle of Takeuchi Manor are on guard. Of course, they are not allowed to enter. Their task is simply to prevent others from entering or anyone from leaving, thus completing their mission and becoming part of Yuan Ye’s internal security force, directly managed by A Qing.
In short, just as the country invited people into the deep mountains to build atomic bombs back then, he is now treating the production of saltpeter with the same solemnity. However, his territory is too small to have deep mountains to hide in, so he can only build a small bunker within his residence and dig deep trenches to confine the people inside.
This might be somewhat excessive. If he were more lenient, it’s highly probable that nothing would go wrong. However, this way, he can have peace of mind.
Once all this is prepared, he will also confine himself for a few days. Together with these “elderly suicide soldiers”—they should be considered suicide soldiers, as he has upgraded these individuals from ordinary family retainers to “suicide soldiers”—he will personally process the first batch of processed bird droppings, confirm the process flow, calculate the yield, and finally determine that for every stone of processed bird droppings, he can obtain about fifteen jin of high-quality saltpeter, yielding over two hundred jin.
This far exceeds his expectations. After all, if the saltpeter field method were used, with human feces mixed with livestock manure, the yield would be about three to four jin of saltpeter per hundred jin. He did not expect processed bird droppings to be more effective, yielding about seven jin of saltpeter per hundred jin. This is likely due to the higher nitrogen content in processed bird droppings, which is far greater than that in cow, horse, or human feces, and the addition of brine, which provided more potassium, allowing for the crystallization of more and better saltpeter.
This is indeed good news. The “Number One Ship” this time transported over three hundred and fifty stones of guano and processed bird droppings. He had privately instructed Yu Da beforehand to mix soil and stone when loading, with as much soil as possible. This shipment alone is enough for him to fulfill his obligation to Oda Nobunaga—three thousand jin of gunpowder requires just over two thousand jin of saltpeter. This single trip is enough for his annual quota, with even some surplus, which is quite good.
The saltpeter issue is finally resolved, which completely reassures him. At least this territory is stable and will not be taken back halfway through construction. He is not in a hurry to present the saltpeter to Oda Nobunaga to complete the task, as the agreement was for results within six months and delivery within a year. It has only been a little over three months, so there is no rush. He will present a few hundred or a thousand jin in half a year to satisfy the requirement, and secretly sell the rest to organize a larger fleet, transport more raw materials in one go, and let the snowball roll.
When completing tasks, it’s fine to finish just in time. He will make up the rest by the end of the year.
…………
After Yuan Ye figured everything out, he went to prepare the gunpowder workshop, intending to slowly produce gunpowder to fool the two Warrior Officials sent by Oda Nobunaga. “Don’t worry, I am working hard to complete the task. As for why it’s so slow, it’s because producing saltpeter is very difficult, and I am still improving the process!”
Privately, he will hide some saltpeter and have A Man secretly transport it out to sell, further increasing the speed of capital acquisition. Meanwhile, through previous connections, he will see if he can purchase a few more better Kan-sen ships.
As for the black powder formula, there is nothing much to keep secret about it. It was already common knowledge in the 16th century; even A Man, that wild child, could figure it out. It’s no longer rare. At most, the technology for wet-granulated gunpowder has not yet been developed, making gunpowder prone to stratification when packed in bags, affecting its ignition rate. However, this is not his concern for now. He will first produce the original version of black powder. In fact, because the saltpeter quality is too good, he has slightly reduced the saltpeter content.
He has directly delegated these trivial matters to Endo Chiyo to manage. How many people to mobilize, who to select as foreman, and how to ensure production yield are all up to her to decide. He will just review the report and sign off on it.
As for other things that can be done with sufficient saltpeter…
With sufficient saltpeter, nitric acid will not be a problem. Guano can also decompose into ammonium salts. It seems he can try to manufacture an early version of ammonium nitrate explosives or TNT. However, after pondering in his office for a while, he temporarily abandoned this idea. Ammonium nitrate is explosive, and with his current laboratory conditions, the possibility of blowing off his own hands is higher. As for toluene in TNT, it’s difficult to obtain. Without a large amount of coal in Owari for coking, it’s hard to acquire sufficient coal tar, making large-scale TNT production difficult for the time being.
As for nitroglycerin and similar substances, they are also very dangerous. He cannot teach his modern knowledge to others, nor can he have others do it for him. For now, he has to give up. Otherwise, if he messes with explosives and accidentally blows himself up or gets injured, he will truly become a disgrace to transmigration.
He abandoned dangerous substances and then considered less dangerous explosives, such as “a handful of gunpowder and a handful of sugar, nicknamed ‘Big Ivan’,” which are very potent. However, sugar is also difficult to obtain, and there is currently no need for large-scale demolition. These are also temporarily abandoned. It’s not too late to deal with them when the need arises in the future.
Finally, there are the matchlock guns. With gunpowder production beginning, matchlock guns should also start being manufactured to be equipped with troops at any time. However, the raw materials for matchlock guns are difficult to procure; their manufacturing itself is not difficult, as they are simply old-fashioned matchlock guns with no technical complexity.
Furthermore, this primitive weapon does not require process secrecy. Once he visits the blacksmith workshop a few more times and teaches the craftsmen there, it will not be a major undertaking. Currently, the iron material he has on hand is only enough to manufacture over twenty matchlock guns. If it weren’t for cultivating talent and establishing a production system, he could have done this job himself.
Manufacturing matchlock guns is actually simpler and easier than making bows; it’s a job that anyone with hands can do.
He pondered for a long time in his office, then pulled out the territory resource “menu” and reviewed it from beginning to end. He finally determined that he lacked no supplies; what he lacked now was population.
To obtain a large population all at once, he needs an army. However, the future soldiers are still working in the workshop and are not yet ready for selection. At the same time, he has not accumulated enough iron material to arm them on a large scale. He needs to wait a bit longer.
Yuan Ye looked around and realized that after all his frantic efforts, he had reached a point where he had nothing to do but wait for the population and supplies to accumulate slowly.
This is probably an unavoidable part of the development process; it always takes some time for accumulation.
