Inheriting a Taoist temple, the story begins with Wu Zetian offering incense.

Chapter 415 Li Qingzhao's New Type of Explosives! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

Li Qingzhao, while eating congee with preserved egg and lean pork, was so engrossed in her dream of becoming a scientist that she could not extricate herself from it:

"History says I am a scholar who only knows poetry and songs, but this definition is one-sided. I am a talented woman, so I should have developed in science and engineering. I did not make any inventions in history, so it must be because the Song Dynasty dragged me down."

At this moment, Zhou Yi and Wu Meiniang were busy at the construction site, Xi Shi went to deliver food to Confucius, and only the Zhao sisters, Zhao Yan and Zhao Rui, accompanied Li Qingzhao to have breakfast.

Seeing that she was enjoying her meal, Zhao Rui also served herself half a bowl of porridge, and while eating, she echoed the words of the talented woman:
"Yes, yes, it's all the fault of that era. Sister Zhao'er has no problem at all... As for the disclaimer, I've seen it in many videos, I'm used to it."

Li Qingzhao glanced sideways at the chubby little girl:
"I have a set of third-grade test papers here, would you like to try them?"

Zhao Rui quickly begged for mercy, saying what Li Qingzhao wanted to hear:
"My sister and I are going to school soon, and I heard there are lots of test papers to do, so please don't torture me... By the way, Sister Zhao'er, I dreamt last night that you and the Immortal Master had a baby."

Li Qingzhao blushed and reached out to pinch the chubby little girl's cheek:
"Can we talk about this at the dinner table? Don't mention it again, or Sister Meiniang will kick you out. You won't even have a household registration, and you'll have to go to jail, where you'll only get one meal every three days."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Rui was so frightened that she drank a large mouthful of preserved egg and lean pork congee, fearing that she would not be able to drink it again.

Before she could even swallow the porridge in her mouth, Li Qingzhao pulled her aside and whispered:
"Did you dream of... a boy or a girl?"

Zhao Rui: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Isn't it said that these kinds of things shouldn't be discussed at the dinner table?

The chubby girl made up a story with a straight face:
"Twins, the boy is as handsome as an immortal, and the girl is as beautiful as you... Sister Zhao'er, it's getting cold, I want to buy a pair of boots."

Li Qingzhao was overjoyed and waved her hand dismissively:
"Buy, buy, buy! I'll tell Sister Meiniang later to buy two pairs of cotton boots for each of you sisters, so you can stay warm all winter... I'll use my master's calligraphy to offset the cost of the boots."

After breakfast, Li Qingzhao, still thinking about making bitter and sour dishes, told Zhou Yi and Wu Meiniang, and then took some sealed bags and woven bags back home.

Woven bags were used in flour mills, and sealed bags were used to store explosives; both were necessities in Bianliang City.

Inside the construction site, Zhou Yi felt that in another ten days, the new house would be almost finished with renovations, but he would have to wait a while before moving in and let the smell dissipate.

As for the roof, we'll waterproof the whole thing later, then install solar panels and household energy storage devices, and the new house will be self-sufficient in electricity.

Just then, the blind man called:

"Next Wednesday is your chance to earn merit in the provincial capital."

The Book of Changes asks:

"Was this date calculated or divined? Is it reliable?"

The blind man's tone was relaxed:

“It’s very reliable, because it was found through the civil aviation system… That bastard booked the tickets, and his eldest apprentice can drive, so they came to the provincial capital by car… The two of them even split up, which is quite cautious.”

Before we even set off, you've already stripped me naked. What kind of caution is that...? Zhou Yi said:
"I will arrive in the provincial capital early next Wednesday and contact you in advance."

The blind man had already made the arrangements:
"Just get to the arboretum in the southwest corner of Zhengzhou before dark. I've made some arrangements there. The other party will sense it as soon as he gets off the plane. I'll be responsible for trapping him, and you'll be responsible for reaping the rewards. You don't need to worry about the rest; I'll take care of the rest."

It's so comfortable dealing with professionals; they can arrange everything perfectly.

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yi checked the date. There were still a few days until next Wednesday. He wondered if Aunt Gongsun could make it in time... He couldn't go back on his promise to kill the shaman.

On the other side, in the world of Emperor Zhezong of the Northern Song Dynasty.

After Li Qingzhao returned, she had someone deliver the woven bags to the mill. Then, she rode her electric scooter to the palace to visit Zhao Mao and brought him some milk powder and other infant nutrition products. Afterward, she went to the gunpowder workshop and began her day of creation and invention.

The indigo dye for tax deduction has arrived, but due to too many impurities, her previous experiment was unsuccessful. This time, she plans to purify the indigo dye first, and then carry out the chemical reaction.

Picric acid was indeed a shining star as the first synthetic explosive to be used on a large scale, but it soon revealed its problems, as it could not be used in humid environments.

In humid environments, picric acid reacts with metals to form picrate salts, which are extremely prone to spontaneous explosion. During the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Japanese artillery shells were filled with picric acid, resulting in severe spontaneous explosions and secondary explosions. Although a solution was later found, the advent of TNT led to the rapid obsolescence of picric acid.

When purifying indigo dye, Li Qingzhao took out her tablet computer, found the downloaded information, and carefully studied the TNT process. As she read, she discovered that the raw materials used in TNT were very similar to picric acid.

Both use phenyl as a raw material for chemical reaction. The difference is that picric acid requires nitration followed by acidification, while TNT requires continuous nitration.

As for the raw materials, they are all phenol, the same as the components of indigo dye. However, industrial production cannot extract them bit by bit from plants, as that would be too slow and inefficient. They are mainly obtained from petroleum or coal tar. And the source of coal tar can now be found in the Song Dynasty... The oily substance produced by the dry distillation of coke is coal tar, which contains a variety of trace elements and is a raw material for many chemical production processes.

Li Qingzhao felt that she was getting closer and closer to the temple of knowledge of modern science and technology. The chemical knowledge that she used to find obscure and difficult to understand, she now found very interesting.

Especially when she thought about how the shells she made could blast away alien races, she became even more enthusiastic about studying.

After learning about coal tar, Li Qingzhao asked the Director of the Military Equipment Bureau:
Did Emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji) instruct you to prepare coal tar?

The Military Equipment Bureau quickly replied:

"It was mentioned, but the coking plant replied that the refined oil was flowing out along the coke kiln. Prince Duan planned to improve the dry distillation kiln, but then the Emperor personally led an expedition and took him with him."

In ancient times, coking was similar to brick making. Coal was directly piled into a kiln for dry distillation, with a chimney inserted on top. All the coke gas and coal tar were wasted, causing pollution and a great waste of raw materials.

Li Qingzhao thought for a moment and said:

"Next time I'll ask the immortal master if I can buy a set of tar collection equipment to install on the kiln... Coal tar is very useful, it's such a waste to just throw it away."

One ton of coal can produce hundreds of kilograms of coal tar. Based on the coke production capacity of the Song Dynasty, a single kiln could produce tens of tons of coal tar per year. This versatile chemical material should be collected and not wasted.

With raw material supplies blocked, Li Qingzhao decided to research nitroglycerin:
"Have you found diatomaceous earth?"

"We found it, but the purity is not high. We are still searching in various places. If we find it, we will send it here as soon as possible."

Diatomaceous earth can passivate nitroglycerin, which, when loaded into artillery shells, produces tremendous power.

Gunpowder production has now become a large department, which is further subdivided into nitric acid department, sulfuric acid department, anaerobic reaction department, etc. Each department only does one thing. This division of labor, with each department performing its own task, can greatly increase the speed of chemical raw material production.

In addition, there is a department that specializes in testing explosions. They not only test various explosives, but also try dust explosions. For example, they build a small house that is more than one meter high, blow flour and starch into it with an air pump, and then ignite it with an open flame to test the explosion intensity and find suitable explosive materials.

At noon, while the indigo dye was still being purified, Li Qingzhao planned to take a short walk before going home for lunch. At that moment, the acid mixing department had just finished a batch of nitrocellulose and was preparing to wash away the excess acid.

This time, the ratio wasn't right; there was too much acid and too little cotton, so there was still a lot of acid in the reactor.

After Li Qingzhao discovered this, in the spirit of scientific research like Shennong tasting hundreds of herbs, she grabbed a handful of starch and threw it in, wanting to see if a chemical reaction could occur.

And it actually happened! The mixed acid started to boil vigorously, gradually forming a viscous powder that slowly settled to the bottom.

She put on gloves and carefully removed the resulting substance, which felt somewhat like nitrocellulose.
"Haha, I, Li Zhaozhao, haven't invented a new kind of explosive, have I?"

The girl didn't even go home for dinner. She strictly followed the standard procedures to dry the substance, resulting in a small pile of powdery material that felt a bit oily to the touch.

She took a grenade casing, filled it with the powder, inserted a detonating device made of mercuric pyrolysis, connected a fuse, and handed it to the Military Equipment Bureau.

The Military Equipment Supervision Bureau also had a strong research spirit. They first recorded the entire process in its entirety before letting the Explosives Department conduct the experiment.

Soon, a grenadier lit a grenade and threw it far into a stone-built test chamber.

"boom--"

After a loud bang, the roof of the stone house was suddenly ripped off, and exaggerated cracks appeared in the stone walls. The scarecrow inside the house was blown away immediately, and flames shot into the sky, turning the entire house into a living hell.

Li Qingzhao gaped, completely surprised that her haphazard attempts had actually led to the discovery of a powerful explosive.

She picked up her tablet and browsed through the files she had downloaded, eventually finding a relatively obscure explosive compared to picric acid, nitrocellulose, and TNT—nitro starch.

Nitro starch was a common explosive in the early stages of World War II. It was extremely powerful and was generally used to fill hand grenades. If combined with aluminum powder and iron oxide powder, it could also damage tank armor.

However, the power of nitro starch is closely related to its nitrogen content. The higher the content, the better the explosive effect, and vice versa. This characteristic makes the quality of nitro starch products vary greatly. When it is powerful, it can be far superior to TNT, while when it is poor, it is comparable to black powder.

Like picric acid, this explosive was ultimately defeated by TNT, which is the most stable substance and cannot be detonated by bullets.

However, Li Qingzhao didn't care about this. Since the gap in science couldn't be bridged, she resorted to metaphysical methods:
"I wonder which deity is in charge of explosives. Next time I go to Hunyuan Palace, I must ask them and then pray to them, so that I can make high-nitrogen nitrated starch as soon as possible and bring good news to the alien races of various worlds!"

(End of this chapter)