Chapter 1065
She is doing chemistry in Dawei
Chapter 1065 She is doing chemistry in Dawei
However, before making a powerful tool, a series of preparations must be made.
"Bai Ying, prepare fifty doses of medicine according to these two prescriptions... the decoction for internal use and the soap solution for external use." Qin Xiaomi handed the two prescriptions to Xiao Bai Ying.
Xiao Baiying took the papers and saw one titled "Detoxifying and Clearing Lungs and Awakening the Brain Soup" and the other simply read "Soap Liquid".
After a moment, Xiao Baiying finished looking at the herbs needed and said with a smile, "Coptis rhizome, licorice, knotweed, scutellaria baicalensis, phellodendron amurense... these are all herbs we have in our herbal medicine shop. I will go and prepare the medicine right away."
Qin Xiaomi then instructed Madam Yao: "Get some mulberry wood and burn the mulberry wood ashes."
"Hey." Madam Yao immediately took Xu Azheng and other female servants to move the mulberry wood.
After loads of mulberry wood were brought in, Qin Xiaomi pointed to a row of open-air stoves in the courtyard and said, "Mother Shen Lu, take your doctor and burn the mulberry wood to ashes. Then use the fire to refine the sheep fat."
"Yes." Shen Lu Niang immediately took ten female doctors to burn mulberry wood and refine sheep oil.
"Manager Yao, please make sure to purchase enough white radishes, eggs, and firewood. There should be no shortage." Qin Xiaomi said.
Madam Yao looked through the shopping list and replied, "Boss, we've already purchased an additional 1,000 catties of white radish, 1,000 catties of firewood, and 1,000 eggs."
Only Madam Yao was puzzled as to why the boss bought so many food and daily necessities.
But she is a qualified manager who just does her job and doesn't ask too many questions.
"Yeah." Qin Xiaomi nodded, then went into the small greenhouse and began to write down the steps for making a sharp weapon.
She didn't close the door to write, simply because no one except herself could understand what she wrote... To what extent was it incomprehensible?
There were a lot of weird scribbles on the notebook, such as the conversion of NaNO to KNO.
Madam Yao came in to report the matter. She took a quick glance and was stunned. What the hell? What the hell? For a moment, Madam Yao thought her boss was possessed by something.
Qin Xiaomi said, I am not possessed, I am just doing chemistry.
Fortunately, Madam Yao fulfilled her duties as a servant and did not ask any more questions. She went to work after reporting the matter.
The materials needed to make the weapon are numerous, and these materials need to be refined before they can be used. So, all day long, this remote hospital specializing in the processing of poisonous medicinal materials was busy burning mulberry wood ash and refining mutton fat to prepare the materials.
The aroma of refined oil drifted far away, even making Aunt Qin dizzy.
In the evening, when Qin Xiaomi finally left the yard and gathered to go home, Aunt Qin couldn't help but ask, "Niece, what are you doing hiding in that yard, making delicious food? Why did you send Ye Xifen to guard it and not let us in?"
Qin Xiaomi glanced at her and said seriously, "Make poison."
Aunt Qin didn't believe it: "You're kidding me, the fragrance has spread out of the yard, we can smell it, how could it be poison?"
Qin Xiaomi naturally wouldn't tell her the truth, and only said, "Work regulations stipulate that no one can enter the yard where poisonous herbs are prepared without my order. Otherwise, you will be responsible for your own life and death, and I will also deduct 100 taels of silver as punishment... Second Aunt, do you want to die or do you want the money to be deducted?"
"Qin Xiaomi, apologize." Grandma Qin was angry.
"I'm sorry, Second Aunt. I was too blunt." Qin Xiaomi apologized but didn't think she was wrong. She said to Grandma Qin, "Grandma, that yard is really poisonous. Don't go in there casually. It's dangerous."
"Then why do you go there every day and stay all day?" Grandma Qin said angrily, "I really want to open your head and see what you think about all day long."
Qin Xiaomi smiled: "Besides making money, I think about how to enjoy life and how to be filial to my grandparents."
Oh my god, Aunt Qin despised her. This girl was even more disgusting than her when it came to flattery.
Grandma Qin couldn't hide her joy: "Hmph, all you know is how to make an old woman happy... You should go to that hospital that processes poisonous herbs less often. The herbal medicine shop has new deworming medicine, and we have Wuze Pharmacy as a buyer to cover our costs. There's no need to get those poisonous herbs like aconite. Our family doesn't need them."
"And these are strictly controlled. How many kilograms are collected, how many kilograms are processed, how many kilograms are sold, and where they are sold? All of this must be reported to the government office."
Although the Qin family's medicinal material workshop had the support of Emperor Wuxing, the government still had strict control over poisonous medicinal materials.
Otherwise, what if the whereabouts of poisonous medicinal materials are unknown and someone dies? Qin Xiaomi: "Okay, after a year or two, the medicinal material processing workshop will stop accepting highly poisonous medicinal materials and only process those with low risk."
However, this is almost impossible.
Because the technology of preparing poisonous medicinal materials is very valuable. If you don’t have this technology, what’s the point of running a herbal medicine shop?
But Qin Xiaomi was happy to coax Grandma Qin and let her have a good New Year.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Grandma Qin was satisfied. She took her granddaughter and daughter-in-law home and had a sumptuous dinner.
The next day, he went to the herbal medicine shop to work again.
Qin Xiaomi still stayed in the "Specialized Institute for the Preparation of Toxic Medicinal Materials", preparing to make sharp weapons.
After three days of continuous preparation, three days of training for Xiao Baiying and others, and taking all kinds of protective measures, Qin Xiaomi brought his confidants to start work on the fourth day!
"The first step is to add wood ash and refine saltpeter." Qin Xiaomi taught Xiao Baiying and the others how to do it step by step.
Although her words were short, this step was the key step in converting NaNO into KNO, which is the key step in completing the ion exchange of nitrate and turning it into military nitrate.
As for wood ash, not all wood ash can be used. It must be mulberry wood ash or jujube wood ash.
This is because these two types of trees are special. They have the ability to store large amounts of potassium oxalate while growing.
Only when there is a sufficient reserve of potassium oxalate can potassium carbonate be obtained after burning.
Adding wood ash containing potassium carbonate to saltpeter allows the saltpeter to undergo ion exchange, transforming into KNO, which can be used as a weapon.
However, KNO cannot be considered military saltpeter because it contains impurities.
It also has to go through the nine-refining method of purification, and be purified nine times before you can get usable military saltpeter with a purity of up to 99%.
Therefore, the idea that you can hand-make a firearm just by knowing one part saltpeter, two parts sulfur and three parts charcoal is totally wrong.
The so-called saltpeter is divided into many kinds of raw materials, including brine saltpeter, saline-alkali land frost saltpeter, salt lake saltpeter, salt pond saltpeter... There are many kinds of saltpeter, but only two kinds of saltpeter can be used.
These two types of saltpeter need to be purified and converted by adding mulberry wood ash to remove arsenic, sodium, magnesium, and calcium before the saltpeter used in firearms can be obtained.
Disulfide and sulfur must also be de-arsenicized before they can be used.
So even if we are all modern people and know about the ingredients of nitre, sulfur and charcoal, not everyone can make firearms.
"Remove the firewood, bury the soil to extinguish the fire, and lower the temperature. When boiling saltpeter, the temperature cannot be too high!" Qin Xiaomi ordered.
Shen Lu Niang and other female doctors immediately did as they were told.
Throughout the entire day, everyone in the hospital that specializes in preparing poisonous medicinal materials was on high alert.
Fortunately, before they started, Qin Xiaomi had trained them, and there were decoctions to detoxify the saltpeter, protective measures were taken, and Qin Xiaomi, a veteran, was there to teach them. The first time they refined the saltpeter, it was safe and successful.
However, this is only the first step. After the saltpeter crystallizes, it has to go through the second and third steps. Only after the ninth step will the purity of the saltpeter crystals reach the standard of military saltpeter, and the saltpeter refining is considered complete.
This time span is about twenty-eight days.
Fortunately, the herbal medicine shop’s annual holiday is on the 20th day of the first lunar month, which is enough time.
In the past few days, Ye Xifen has been patrolling outside the courtyard with a female martial artist.
Fearing that they would be poisoned by inhaling nitrate gas, Qin Xiaomi also asked them to wear masks and drink anti-nitrate medicine.
When she got the potion, even Ye Xifen, who had undergone rigorous training, couldn't help but tremble slightly in her hands.