CHAPTER 336: CHAPTER 153: THE GRAND PLAN FOR FARMING

The gun issue is basically resolved, and the next step, Chen Jian plans to focus on bullets.

But of course, "bullets" serve the "guns," so "producing bullets" is not as tightly bound as "producing guns."

The reason for taking this step is that what Chen Jian values most is the various chemical industries required in bullet production.

The most crucial raw materials in bullets are mercury fulminate and smokeless powder, and what both require is nitric acid.

If the entire chemical industry system of three acids and two bases can be established using bullets as a catalyst, it would definitely aid the future industrial development of the Huaxia Army.

However, how to build this system and along what path to develop is not an easy decision to make.

According to Fu Xi’s planned development path, the Huaxia Army should first establish a complete set of steel production equipment systems, including mining, transportation, steelmaking, and various rolling mills, machine tools, etc., then gradually piece together the equipment needed for chemical industry.

This plan is steady and conservative, but clearly, it is not necessarily safe.

The reason is simple: the Huaxia Army may not have enough time.

The Beast Tide is imminent, and the secrets of Mountain City and the mastermind behind the scenes have not yet surfaced, so Chen Jian really doesn’t want to waste too much time on overly comprehensive yet moderately effective industrial modules.

Therefore, after introducing his own decision-making suggestions, Fu Xi finally produced a simplified yet slightly opportunistic development plan that could absolutely generate maximum effect in the shortest time.

"....So, our next goal is to point towards enamel manufacturing first?"

"Is this thing difficult to make?"

Shen Yue asked.

"Not difficult at all."

Lei Jie shook his head and answered:

"The process is actually very simple; it’s just glazing, drying, and firing these three steps."

"But the composition of the glaze..."

"What we need to make is acid-resistant enamel, used for manufacturing reaction vessels; its formula is quite complex."

"Aluminum oxide, titanium dioxide, potassium carbonate, nickel oxide, cobalt oxide, zirconium oxide..."

"If we strictly adhere to the formula and replicate it one-to-one, just finding these raw materials is a challenge."

"So my suggestion is that it’s more or less good enough."

"Nickel and cobalt ore can be found near Jinling, and there’s no need to mine for zirconium oxide; the aircraft that fell in Tongling, dismantling their reactor cores will yield zirconium metal used for wrapping nuclear fuel."

"Find what you can, and let go of what you can’t."

"Anyway, simplicity is key; performance can be slightly compromised as long as it works."

"Our philosophy is to make do where possible, resolving the issue of existence before considering the issue of quality."

"Agreed."

Chen Jian nodded and then said:

"What about lead? We need a large amount of lead metal to manufacture lead chambers and various lead-lined equipment. Where do we get this stuff?"

"Buy it."

In the headset came He Shuo’s voice.

"The Mechanical God Sect has a fairly clear concept of lead; they have even manufactured lead bullets. Currently, the metal lead circulating in Jinling City’s market can be about one to two tons each month."

"The reserves should be quite high and should be sufficient for initial equipment use, right?"

"Yes, that’s certainly enough."

Chen Jian nodded with satisfaction.

With the raw materials for these two precursor equipment resolved, moving further, they can consider whether to synthesize ammonia for nitric acid first or to use a roasting furnace for sulfuric acid first.

There’s no fixed order for these two, but considering the production capacity of workshop 011, Chen Jian still prefers to make nitric acid first.

After all, once nitric acid is available, they can directly start trying primitive production of nitrocellulose.

Of course, more importantly, the tech tree for this route will be relatively smooth.

The coking plant is already in place; methane is the second most abundant gas produced during coking, which can be collected and used to make nitric acid directly via the ammonia oxide method.

If that doesn’t work, they can take another step and use the atmospheric pressure method with a catalyst bed to make nitric acid.

Chen Jian plans to simply leave the details to Fu Xi, making minor adjustments based on the route Fu Xi plans.

Thinking of this, Chen Jian breathed a long sigh of relief and then said:

"The industrial part will basically follow this route, what about agriculture?"

"Agroforestry, fishery, livestock, how should we develop?"

"Ignore everything else first, start by slash-and-burn farming."

Shen Yue spoke up:

"My suggestion is to burn the entirety of the Jinling Ruins."

"The large amount of fungal humus brought by the previous level-two monster is also excellent waste material, seize the moment now that the temperature is warming up, set everything on fire, and after a simple reclamation, we can directly cultivate the land."

"Don’t worry about precise management for now, plant whatever is available."

"Potatoes, corn, peanuts, rice....."

"As long as this large piece of land is filled, feeding thousands should not be a big problem."

"Potatoes don’t need to be detoxified?"

Lei Jie curiously asked.

"Detox my ass."

Shen Yue shook his head and replied:

"Detoxification technology was invented in the 1950s; before detoxification technology existed, did people not eat potatoes then?"

"Actually, reduced potato yield is not the biggest issue; the single biggest problem is monoculture."

"If monoculture coincides with potato late blight, a single wave could take down farmers without grain reserves."

"However, we clearly don’t need to worry about this issue."