Bright Sword: I built Italian cannons for Li Yunlong

"I understand, Director Zhou!" Zhao Dajiang carefully folded the list and put it into the innermost pocket of his body. "I'll take care of it right away."

The principles of synthesizing mercury fulminate were clearly in Zhou Zhen's mind, but every step of the experiment was accompanied by various dangers.

Both mercury and the generated mercury fulminate are extremely dangerous to experimenters; any mistake could lead to tragedy.

Therefore, even Zhou Zhen had to make thorough preparations before the experiment.

Any wishful thinking may come at an unbearable price.

So Zhou Zhen dialed the Independent Regiment's number.

After a while, a familiar loud voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Old Zhou, you've been gone for so long and only now you remember to call me."

"Sigh! There are so many things to do here, I really haven't had the time."

"Haha, you, Advisor Zhou, are quite busy these days."

"Old Li, please stop making fun of me."

"Alright, alright... Are you getting used to life at the arsenal? Nobody's bullying you, is they? If anyone dares to give you a hard time, just tell me, and I'll personally lead a group to deal with them."

Hearing Li Yunlong's rapid-fire greetings, Zhou Zhen felt a warmth in his heart.

"Old Li, I'm fine. My comrades are very supportive of my work."

Li Yunlong laughed, "So, Director Zhou, when are you going to get some good stuff for our Independent Regiment?"

"If there's anything good, you, Lao Li, will definitely get your share. I'm calling today because I need your help with something."

"Help? Why are you being so polite with me?" Li Yunlong's tone became serious. "Speak! As long as it's something I, Old Li, can do, I won't hesitate."

"Didn't we get a batch of Japanese gas masks in Wanjia Town? I urgently need them. Could you arrange for someone to send all the gas masks from the regiment over to me?"

"Gas masks?" Li Yunlong was stunned for a moment, then realized that there were indeed such things among the supplies in Wanjia Town.

"No problem, I'll have Zhang Dabiao personally bring it to you right away."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Zhen continued his preparations for synthesizing mercury fulminate.

Gas masks solve the problem of respiratory protection, but physical protection is equally important.

Concentrated nitric acid and mercury are both highly corrosive or toxic, and are equally dangerous if splashed on the body.

To this end, he mixed tung oil with castor oil and made a simple protective suit.

Just as Zhou Zhen was making preparations, Zhao Dajiang also brought good news.

The headquarters attached great importance to Zhou Zhen's plan to independently produce primers and establish a sulfuric acid production system. Although they believed that synthesizing mercury fulminate was too dangerous, they still gave him their full support based on their trust in Zhou Zhen.

After much effort, the headquarters managed to gather enough supplies and raw materials to deliver to the Huangyadong Arsenal.

"Director Zhou, the raw materials have arrived." Zhao Dajiang ran over, panting.

Zhou Zhen immediately put down the protective suit he was working on and followed Zhao Dajiang to the temporary raw material warehouse.

Several tightly sealed earthenware jars, each labeled with a different name, were carefully placed on a wooden board covered with hay.

Zhou Zhen put on coarse cloth gloves and opened each package to inspect them.

"The purity is not high enough." After checking the raw materials again, Zhou Zhen straightened up. "Using them for experiments, the success rate is probably not high."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dajiang's excitement faded, replaced by apprehension: "How could this happen? This... this was something headquarters went through a lot of trouble to get."

"I understand," Zhou Zhen interrupted him, without blaming him. "Under the current conditions, it's already extremely difficult to obtain these."

"But experiments can't be done carelessly, especially with dangerous substances like mercury fulminate. Even the slightest deviation can cause great casualties."

"Moreover, for large-scale production, raw materials must have uniform standards."

To ensure the effectiveness of the experiment, he had to purify the materials first.

Conditions in the border region were rudimentary, lacking modern precision instruments, so he could only adapt to local conditions and use basic chemical principles for purification.

He found several clean earthenware jars and pots, and spent two days refining the raw materials sent from headquarters.

With everything ready, the most tense moment is about to begin.

Zhou Zhen placed the laboratory for synthesizing mercury fulminate in one of the most remote factory buildings. To avoid static electricity, Zhou Zhen had someone sprinkle water inside the room early on.

He himself was barefoot when he conducted the experiments.

Donning his homemade protective gear and gas mask, Zhou Zhen prepared to begin synthesizing mercury fulminate.

To maintain ventilation, Zhou Zhen simply left the factory doors and windows open.

Outside the room, all the workers from the arsenal watched with a mixture of tension and curiosity.

Everyone craned their necks to look inside. If Zhou Zhen hadn't explicitly forbidden it, these people probably would have loved to get right up to him to see.

Zhou Zhen took a deep breath, his gaze calm and serene.

He first used a long-handled ceramic spoon to slowly add the measured mercury into the ceramic jar containing concentrated nitric acid. He carefully controlled the temperature and stirred it slowly with a long ceramic stick...

Because of his rich experimental experience, he carried out the entire experiment in an orderly manner.

Time ticked by, and Zhao Dajiang and the other workers outside the factory had sweaty palms, their hearts pounding in their throats, barely daring to breathe.

As he completed the final step, grayish-white sediment gradually formed inside the pottery jar.

It worked!

Zhou Zhen didn't cheer immediately, nor did he show the slightest excitement, as if it were all just an ordinary thing.

He diluted, washed, and filtered the reaction mixture, eventually obtaining a small amount of moist white powder—mercuric fulminate.

After drying it initially, Zhou Zhen sealed it in a pre-prepared container.

Only then did he slowly remove his protective gear, which was already soaked with sweat, and walk out of the factory.

Zhao Dajiang proactively handed Zhou Zhen a clean towel and asked cautiously, "How are you?"

At this moment, everyone else also looked over nervously.

Zhou Zhen wiped the sweat off his body with a towel. Looking at everyone's tense and expectant expressions, he felt as if he had returned to a past life, and was looking forward to the college entrance examination results with his parents.

"It's a success! The experiment was a great success."

Zhou Zhen's voice was not loud, and even carried a hint of fatigue from the end of the experiment, but in the silent factory, those three words were like a spark falling into the long-dormant firewood.

Everyone had been waiting for this moment for far too long, and the news completely ignited their long-suppressed enthusiasm.

"oh!!!"

The first to cheer was Xiao Chen, a young worker who was closest to the crowd. He jumped up suddenly, his cheeks flushed red with excitement.

"It's done, it's done, the factory manager said it's done!" Another soldier on guard duty also forgot his discipline and shouted along, almost dropping his rifle.

At this moment, everyone's emotions erupted like a burst dam.

"Good heavens! It actually worked! We made it ourselves!"

The crowd erupted in cheers.

The workers, regardless of age or gender, whether they were skilled technicians or ordinary laborers, all crowded around.

Their faces beamed with unspeakable ecstasy.