Volume 1 Tigers in Southeast Asia Chapter 18 Nitroglycerin
Chen Fu was stunned and said, "Captain Lin, is what you said true?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "When have I ever lied? You can tell others about this matter. You don't have to hide it. Let me ask you again, did the merchant say when the Spanish attacked?"
Chen Fu shook his head, and Lin Fei smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. They can come anytime. I'm not afraid."
Chen Fu nodded in disbelief. Lin Fei pointed at the people who were transporting ore and said, "Tell them to quickly deliver the saltpeter to the sugar factory."
When Chen Fu heard the order, he shouted a few words to the natives, and they began to take off their clothes. Lin Fei hurriedly asked Chen Fu: "Why are they taking off their clothes?"
Chen Fu explained: "We didn't have a vehicle, so we could only wrap the saltpeter in clothes and deliver it to the sugar factory."
Lin Fei frowned and said, "Why go through so much trouble? Bring the big wine barrels, fill the saltpeter into the barrels, and roll them to the sugar factory." Chen Fu suddenly realized and did as he said. They quickly filled the saltpeter. On the way back, Chen Fu wanted to see if Lin Fei had any tricks up his sleeve, so he told many people the news of the Spaniards' attack, including Liu Daming, who was sent by Lin Fei to dig soil. Liu Daming had just dug back more than a dozen large barrels of soil. The place to dig the soil this time was different. Lin Fei called this soil "No. 2 soil", and the previously dug soil was called "No. 1 soil."
Liu Daming was so anxious when he heard the news that he even forgot to put down his shovel. He went to find Lin Fei with the shovel in hand and said anxiously, "Old Lin, have you heard? The Spanish have sent a large force! What should we do?"
Lin Fei chuckled and said, "Why are you panicking? Have you finished digging the No. 2 soil?"
When Liu Daming heard this, he stamped his feet and threw the shovel in his hand to the ground, saying angrily: "What are you still digging? The Spaniards are coming. I think I might as well dig a grave for everyone, so that they won't have nowhere to live in the underworld."
Lin Fei laughed again. He looked up at everyone and saw that everyone had a frightened look on their faces. Only Yu Xier was calm and kept muttering, "My Lord and God, please come down and radiate light from the highest heaven to save your believers in suffering. Please ask the lifelong virgin Mary to pray for me. Amen..."
Lin Fei coughed lightly, drawing everyone's attention to himself, and said with a smile: "It seems that if I don't tell you my plan, everyone will be scared to death, right?"
Everyone agreed with Lin Fei's statement with their eyes. Lin Fei smiled and said, "Gather everyone. I will tell you my plan."
Everyone quickly gathered together, and Lin Fei said loudly: "Let me tell you, what I have asked you to do these days is to make weapons, one of which is artillery!"
Everyone looked at each other in shock. Liu Daming said, "Old Lin, don't talk nonsense! Cannons must have steel! Where is our steel?"
Lin Fei said confidently, "Who said that a cannon must be made of steel? Chen Jingui, bring the stuff up." Chen Jingui came over with two natives, carrying a medium-sized iron wine barrel. Lin Fei patted the barrel and said with a smile, "This is the barrel of the cannon!"
Liu Daming laughed and said, "Wine barrels are made of iron, so they can barely be used as gun barrels. Even though we have gun barrels, where is the propellant? Where is the shell? Where is the explosive? There must be explosives in the shell! A shell without explosives is just a lump of iron. How many people can it kill?"
Lin Fei smiled, took out a paper bag from a native's pocket, handed it to Liu Daming, and said, "Look what this is?"
Liu Daming opened the paper package and saw that it was full of gray powder. He pinched a little with his fingers and smelled it. He couldn't help but exclaimed: "Nitrocellulose? This is a top-quality propellant! Much better than the black powder used in our Zhiyuan warship. At that time, Lord Deng strongly advised to change the propellant, but those corrupt officials were unwilling to pay a penny! Lao Lin, where did you get this stuff?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "Inside the bullet."
Liu Daming asked: "What about the shells? What do we use? Where is the explosive inside the shells? "
Lin Fei smiled and said, "The shells can be replaced with explosive packs. I have already figured out how to make explosives. We can make explosives using whale oil, pyrite, and saltpeter!"
Liu Daming laughed and said, "Nonsense, these three things are totally unrelated, how can they be made into explosives?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "There may be a lot of things I'm going to say that you can't understand. If you don't understand, don't ask. There are deep things in it. I'll explain it to you slowly later. Listen carefully! We can use whale oil, saltpeter and pyrite to make 'nitroglycerin'. You've heard of 'nitroglycerin', right?"
Yu Xier rushed to answer: "I heard this name when I was in the UK. This thing was invented by a man named 'Nobel'. It is a very powerful explosive, much more powerful than black powder!"
Lin Fei said: "Strictly speaking, Nobel did not invent nitroglycerin. Nobel only invented a method to stabilize it and made it into explosives. Nobel mixed nitroglycerin with diatomaceous earth to make nitroglycerin stable. The No. 1 soil I asked everyone to dig is diatomaceous earth."
Liu Daming really didn't understand Lin Fei's explanation, so he didn't ask any more questions. He continued, "What is the No. 2 soil used for?"
Lin Fei smiled and said, "The No. 2 soil is even more useful! Everyone will know its function once the nitroglycerin explosives are developed!"
Although everyone did not understand Lin Fei's explanation, seeing that he spoke so convincingly, they stopped talking and did as Lin Fei instructed. Lin Fei used the chemical reaction equipment from the sugar factory and winery to quickly produce the first batch of nitroglycerin, and mixed glycerin with diatomaceous earth to make nitroglycerin explosives.
During the manufacturing process, Lin Fei had extremely strict requirements on the weight ratio. In addition, Lin Fei unified the weights and measures, so the power of the explosives was guaranteed.
Lin Fei also asked the natives to twist the hemp ropes on their clothes into ropes to make fuses. When firing, the heat from the propellant could ignite the fuse and cause the nitroglycerin explosive pack to explode.
After the first batch of nitroglycerin explosives were ready, Lin Fei asked people to take them to the mountains by the sea. Liu Daming asked, "What are we going to do now?"
Lin Fei pointed at the mountain and said, "See those rocks? They are all limestone. We can use explosives to blow them down and make cement! The No. 2 soil I asked you to prepare is clay, which is used to make cement."
Liu Daming asked: "Cement? What is cement?"
Lin Fei replied: "A kind of material used for building fortifications. It's very hard."
Liu Daming nodded, not quite understanding, and asked, "What do we need cement for?"
Lin Fei said: "Ibayat Island is surrounded by the sea. It has neither favorable terrain nor defensive depth. If the Spaniards attack, they will certainly adopt a siege strategy on all sides. The sugarcane plantation has no strategic location to defend. It is a dead end in military terms. If we want to survive, we must build fortifications. Cement is the best choice. With cement and mixed with stones, we can make concrete. Concrete is also a very hard material."
Liu Daming said: "But this island is so big, and there are only a few of us. Can we surround the entire island with a concrete wall?"
Lin Fei said: "It's impossible! I calculated that with our current production capacity, we can only surround the ammunition depot first. Let's defend the ammunition depot to the death."
Liu Daming exclaimed: "If we only guard the ammunition depot, the sugar factory and the winery will be left outside. Are we going to ignore them?"
Lin Fei shook his head and said, "The sugar mill and the winery were built by Spanish merchants at a cost of a lot of pesos. They will never destroy them, so we don't have to worry about them. As long as we can beat back the Spaniards, the sugar mill and the winery will still be ours!"
As the two were talking, they heard explosions coming from the mountain wall. Pieces of rubble had already fallen down. They loaded the rubble into large barrels and transported them back to the sugar factory. They calcined them into cement, and then used the cement to make concrete. They began to build a wall more than two meters high and one meter thick with shooting holes outside the ammunition depot. They worked non-stop for three days and finally built the concrete wall. They also made a lot of nitroglycerin explosives and wrapped them in cloth to make explosive packages.
During these days, Lin Fei had the whaling ship Pangu cruise south of the island and report any Spanish ships he spotted. The whaling ship looked like a fishing boat and the Spanish would not pay any attention to it. Lin Fei also selected a hundred natives and taught them how to shoot and aim, waiting to be used as a "fixed artillery" when the Spanish attacked.
That morning, a sailor suddenly came to report: "Captain Lin, the Spanish fleet is coming! A destroyer and ten troop transports! They are heading to the southern dock."
Lin Fei nodded and said to Li Mingbai: "Old Li, immediately get the brothers and the natives into the ammunition depot and prepare for defense! Sniper team, follow me!"
The "sniper team" is composed of five soldiers carefully selected by Lin Fei from the infantry. They have the highest shooting talent, and Lin Fei decided to take them with him to delay, harass and consume the Spaniards before they attack the ammunition depot.
The soldiers of the sniper team stood up one after another. Lin Fei took out six Gillette camouflage jackets and distributed them to everyone one by one. Gillette camouflage jackets are a kind of camouflage clothing with extremely strong camouflage effects. They are a must-have for snipers. There are many drooping strips of cloth on this kind of clothes. When people wear it and hide in the woods, they are no different from a bush.
