Chapter 197: Making Gunpowder

The moment Baifeng obtained the sulfur, he began to rush about in a flurry to prepare for making Gunpowder, but he had to choose the location carefully; otherwise, it would be very dangerous if an explosion occurred.

However, it was impossible for him to make guns or cannons right now; their tribe simply lacked the industrial conditions for that level of technology, so at most, he could make a few large firecrackers.

Even a seamless tube was not something Baifeng could produce; he didn't even know how to make one. Perhaps those sand-cast primitive guns wouldn't need a seamless barrel, but he couldn't manage the propellant either. The greatest possibility was that in his lifetime, he might be able to create matchlock or flintlock guns.

There were no spare rooms in the tribe for Baifeng to make Gunpowder, as the place was already packed with people. After thinking for a long time, Baifeng could only find a room used for air-drying pottery blanks that was currently unoccupied.

Even though a portion of the tribe's Pottery had been distributed to the Slaves, there was still a large inventory left, so pottery production had long since stopped. Moreover, the ground was now frozen, so they couldn't dig up soil, and they couldn't burn Tiles or Bricks; they would have to wait until spring when the ground thawed. Baifeng thought that he must build a dedicated room for making Gunpowder in the future, but for now, he would just have to make do.

For the Saltpeter, he used the white powder scraped from the walls and soil, which was dissolved in water and then recrystallized to obtain higher purity. He ground the Saltpeter and Charcoal into fine powders and mixed them together in a ratio of one part Saltpeter, two parts Sulfur, and three parts Charcoal.

Actually, making Gunpowder wasn't that troublesome, but Baifeng was being so careful just to be safe. If he were to be honest, the times he took apart firecrackers as a child to get the silver powder to make his own large firecrackers were much more dangerous than this.

However, doing it this way had another benefit: it could be kept secret. After all, the formula for this thing still needed to be well-hidden; this was his greatest reliance in this era, and if he had children in the future, this was a treasure to be passed down to them.

He easily mixed everything together, then stirred it with a small wooden stick. Once it was uniform, the Gunpowder was ready. Baifeng remembered that it could be made into granules using egg whites, which would make it more effective.

But the Baifeng tribe currently had no eggs at all. Although their chickens laid eggs a few more times than wild ones, there were still no eggs for him to use because the quantity was small, and they were all fertilized eggs meant for hatching chicks, so he had to make do with this for now and improve it later when they were more prosperous.

After the Gunpowder was made, Baifeng first took a small pinch and put fire to it to test if it worked. As soon as the fire touched it, the Gunpowder hissed and instantly flashed as it burned out, but it did not explode because the conditions for an explosion had not been met.

The Gunpowder was clearly usable, and the burning speed was quite fast. Baifeng now wanted to manufacture practical Weapons. The first thing he thought of was to make a large firecracker to see if it would explode; the simplest way was to use a Bamboo Tube.

He sawed off a section of bamboo, which could be found everywhere, keeping the bottom node intact. He added a great deal of Gunpowder inside, but when Baifeng went to seal it, he realized he didn't seem to have a fuse. If he wanted to make a fuse, he would have to make paper first; otherwise, a fuse couldn't be made.

Sure enough, no matter what he did, he always thought it would be simple, but when it came to actual implementation, all sorts of troubles would arise. With no other choice, Baifeng had to find a Pottery Jar to store the Gunpowder he had finished, cover it tightly, and seal the opening with mud to avoid moisture as much as possible.

At the same time, he placed it in a conspicuous position and told the Workers of the pottery team never to touch the contents, as it was very dangerous. After repeated warnings, Baifeng still felt uneasy and could only hope they wouldn't forget and wouldn't be too curious. This time, Baifeng hadn't made much Gunpowder, and there were still two jars of Sulfur left, so there were materials to make more later.

Previously, Baifeng felt there was no need to make paper because they didn't have a use for it yet. Now that he was pushed to the brink, Baifeng had to rush to prepare for papermaking. Fortunately, it was winter, and the tribespeople were relatively idle, providing enough capable labor to help Baifeng with these tasks; it would probably be difficult for the Slaves to understand Baifeng's requirements.

Baifeng didn't know which Grass or trees would make better paper, so he just randomly chose various weeds and put them together to use, deciding to try them out first. It didn't matter what kind of paper he could make, as long as it was paper. The specific best material would naturally reveal itself in practice, and he could improve it slowly. Anyway, they had plenty of time, and there was no Emperor to cut off their heads if they couldn't make it.

Baifeng first had the tribespeople find various types of wood and Grass, asking them to find some of each kind. It was best to find those that looked tall and slender. They had a type of barnyard grass here that grew very long and was extremely abundant; Baifeng vaguely felt it might be a good material for making paper, as the fibers were long enough.

Baifeng knew that bamboo could definitely be used to make paper, so he also cut down a lot of old bamboo. However, to turn this into paper, it might need to be soaked for a period of time. They split the bamboo first and threw it into Lime water to soak. A portion of the various grasses and wood collected was treated the same way, while Baifeng had them boil the other portion directly in a pot to see which method worked.

The tribespeople all thought the Tribal Chief had found something else to eat, or had found a way to make these things edible, so they were all high-spirited and very enthusiastic.

To beat the wood pulp, other tools were needed. Their Carpenters were still busy building Boats and Weapons. Even in Winter, they didn't have a moment of leisure. Seeing that most of the other tribespeople no longer had work while they were still busy, they felt more or less depressed deep down.

However, they were given generous rewards this year, which provided them with some comfort. The tribe also provided a constant supply of various foods; it could be said that they were the group of people who ate the best in the tribe during Winter, and even Xiong and his group didn't necessarily eat better than them.

Baifeng found the Carpenter and asked him to use the giant wood they had collected to make a huge wooden barrel, preferably several of them. Although wooden planks could be used to hoop a barrel, it wasn't cost-effective for them; it was too much of a waste of Iron.

Then he found the Stonemason and asked him to make a Stone Pestle to use for beating the wood pulp. Although a wooden one could be used, it was much less efficient than a Stone Pestle.

Getting all these things done would take a long time. Baifeng felt that his inner drive might be worn away bit by bit like this. He had come here from that fast-paced era, and everything forced him to slow down. Everything he wanted had to be started from scratch and done slowly, unlike before, when at most he only had to wait a few days for a delivery.