"The thieves set up underwater stakes around the island in the middle of the lake. My big ship cannot get close to the shelling of the thieves' mountain village. If you land on a small boat, you may suffer losses." Zheng Zhibao said worriedly. Each of the 250 personal soldiers of the Zheng family's navy were elite. If there were too many losses, it would be difficult for Zheng Zhibao to explain when he returned.

Li Guodong also knew this. After all, it was a borrowed soldier, and it was an elite soldier. It would be reasonable to give some pensions if it was too much loss. If it was too much loss, it would be difficult for him to explain to the Zheng family army.

However, Li Guodong must seize the Wutong Mountain Village in front. There are two benefits to taking the thief mountain village. One is that the new base established by Wang Quan will no longer be harassed by the thief, and can engage in production with peace of mind; the second advantage is that he has the safest and most hidden base, where he can develop various new commodities and weapons, and it is not easy to be infiltrated by spies. Moreover, this place is located on a major water transportation route between east, west, south and north, and can be regarded as his future naval base.

However, this underwater stake is not easy to pull out. If the water ghost goes down to cut down, there will be great resistance in the water. I don’t know how long it will take to cut it to clear the underwater stake in this area of ​​water.

Li Guodong came up with a solution: "Create a few underwater thunders and blow up the underwater stakes!"

The Ming Dynasty's mines were not rare. The water mines such as the Dragon King under the Water and the Hunjiang Dragon have been published. The methods of manufacturing mines were introduced in "Wu Beizhi" and "The Art of Heavenly Works" and "The Art of Heaven" were introduced. Even the Fang Yizhi of Tongcheng knew how to create water mines. But when they were anxious, where would they get water mines?

"General Li, there are also mines in the Fujian army, but the journey is long." Zheng Zhibao sighed.

Li Guodong smiled slightly: "Zheng Family Army, how much gunpowder do you have to bring?"

"There are more than a thousand kilograms."

"Enough! You guys are here watching the thieves, just in case they escape, give me two hundred kilograms of gunpowder and a large bundle of fuses. I'll go back and I'll bring the underwater thunder to explode the underwater stakes tomorrow night."

"Can mines be created in one day?" Zheng Zhibao was a little disbelieved.

"May be OK!" Li Guodong replied confidently.

The Ming Dynasty mines were made of iron shells and placed in wooden boxes. The iron shell alone could not be made in one day, but Li Guodong boasted that it could create mines in one day.

Zheng Zhibao gave Li Guodong two hundred kilograms of gunpowder and a large bundle of fuses, put them on a small boat, and asked him to go back to make a water mine first.

Li Guodong took a small boat back to the Toutu City Village. He walked all day and returned to the city Village in the evening and began to make the simplest mines. In fact, even mines are not considered as. At best, it is just a drug bag for underwater blasting. The drug bag is the simplest to make. It is not difficult to create twenty drug bags with ten kilograms of medicine in one night.

But this is a medicine bag placed underwater to blast. It not only needs to be sealed, but also waterproof, and how to detonate. It must not be ignited with a fuse like the kind of medicine bag they threw on the battlefield, but it must be used to initiate the explosion.

However, to create a mine with a flint-locked detonation method, it is impossible to complete it in one day. To create a flint-locked machine, craftsmen and materials are required.

Therefore, Li Guodong decided to use the method of creating an underwater fuse to detonate the underwater thunder. He was an engineer in his previous life, so it is not difficult to create an underwater fuse. There is gunpowder in the fuse itself, and the gunpowder can burn without oxygen. The key is waterproofing. As long as the gunpowder is not wet, the fuse can burn underwater.

Li Guodong asked someone to take the paper, melt the wax, soak the cowhide in the molten wax, and then take it out, which is the cowhide that can be separated from water. First wrap the fuse with cowhide, wrap the paper soaked in tung oil on the outside of the cowhide, and then seal it with molten wax to complete the sealing of the fuse.

The simple underwater thunder is also used to make gunpowder bags. As long as you seal heavily, pour the gunpowder into the paper, wrap it up, cover it with multiple papers on the outside, and then bandage it in cowhide, and tie it up. More than ten layers of paper with cowhide, the sealing is enough. Then I cut some cloth, soaked in tung oil, and wrapped it outside, and reserve a small hole for the gunpowder bag to penetrate. Finally, let the carpenter nail a few wooden boxes, put the waterproof gunpowder bag into the wooden box, and put sand in the wooden box, so that its specific gravity is greater than water.

Finally, a bamboo tube is inserted into the hole of the wooden box, penetrate the waterproof fuse, insert it into the small hole of the gunpowder bag, and finally seal the bamboo tube with wax.

Li Guodong first used a pound of gunpowder to create a small simple underwater thunder, which made people erect a wooden stake in the water by the lake, and then tied the simple underwater thunder to the underwater wooden stake.

The fuse was pulled to the shore, and Li Guodong lit the fuse, but the fuse was exposed to Mars and quickly shortened into the water. Mars burned into the water and continued to burn.

"It's so amazing!"

"It can actually burn in the water!"

The caravan guards and farmers on the side saw this magical scene and they all clamored.

After a while, the fuse shortened into the mine, and only a dull explosion was heard. A column of water suddenly rose from the water surface, and a huge splash of water flew to the shore with a broken wooden stake. When the waves on the lake calmed down, countless pieces of broken wood and fish and shrimps floating on the lake surface were floating.

"Success! You can create ten mines with a charge of about twenty kilograms of medicine according to this method." Li Guodong called the craftsmen and asked them to make mines with him.

Among the refugees Wang Quan rescued, four of them were originally craftsmen who made fireworks and firecrackers. The principle of making this mine was almost the same as that of firecrackers. They were all sealed with paper, which was an extra waterproof step. Eight carpenters began to make wooden boxes based on the size provided by Li Guodong.

Everyone worked overnight and only took one night to make ten gunpowder bags with a load of 20 kilograms. Li Guodong asked someone to put the gunpowder bag into the wooden box, attach the fuse, pour the sand in, and finally nail the lid and seal it firmly.

The next morning, Li Guodong, who had not slept for a night, took ten mines down the river on a boat.

The ship sailed all day long, and in the evening, Li Guodong appeared in front of Zheng Zhibao with mines.

"It's so fast! It's delivered." Zheng Zhibao was overjoyed.

"We will attack the village tomorrow morning, and send people to explode underwater stakes before dawn. Just as the big ship can approach the shore to shell the thieves' village." Li Guodong suggested.

Zheng Zhibao ordered the navy officers and soldiers and fishermen who came to assist the battle to camp by the lake and rest for a night of peace. Except for leaving a few people to watch, the rest of the people were sleeping on the boat.

At the hour of Yin, before dawn, the team got up to cook first. At the hour of Mao, everyone had breakfast. The fleet took advantage of the opportunity before dawn and slowly sailed towards the island in the middle of the lake. When it arrived at the lake near Wutong Mountain Village, it was still dark.

——
Chapter completed!