"Get up! Have you forgotten the rules?" Fang Er said sternly.
Zhao Gang quickly stood up.
"I'll take them to try the guns. The lathe is yours. If there's anything you don't understand, write it down, and I'll teach you when I have time."
"Yes! Thank you, sir, thank you, sir. Don't worry, I'll study it carefully."
After seeing Zhao Gang off, Fang Er, clad in his plate armor, led them to an open space next to the workshop.
"What you're holding is called a Dragon Fang sniper rifle, with an effective range of two hundred paces!" Fang Er said to them calmly.
"Two hundred paces?"
"How is that possible!"
"Exactly, exactly, two hundred paces. We can't even see clearly, how can we shoot!"
"One pace is about 1.2 meters."
"Two hundred paces, that's two hundred and forty meters!"
"At this distance, a person looks no bigger than an egg!"
It was no wonder these men didn't believe him.
Fang Er picked up a Dragon Fang rifle. He took out a four-times scope from his怀.
"Yu Chi Bao Lin took away a four-times scope along with the crossbow. I gave one to Li Er. This is the last one."
He attached the four-times scope to the Dragon Fang. Fang Er lay on the ground and aimed at a large tree two hundred paces away.
"Bang!"
After firing, he stood up and addressed the crowd.
"Who wants to go and have a look?"
One of the sharpshooters stepped forward and strode towards the tree. Before long, he ran back with an astonished look on his face.
"How was it, did you hit it?"
"Hurry up, tell us."
The others inquired.
"I hit it! I really hit it! There's a two-inch deep pit in the tree where it was hit!" The man who had run back confirmed to the others.
"Now you believe it, right! The Northern Expeditionary Army is in trouble, and numbers alone won't solve it. That's why I asked the Emperor for you sharpshooters. I believe that with your skills, you can use these sniper rifles well, no problem."
"Now, pick up the guns in your hands. Due to time constraints, I can't teach you much. I'll only teach you the basics: loading, aiming, and firing!"
"Now, follow me. Open the magazine." Fang Er said, pulling the steel pin on the magazine, placing it aside, and opening the steel plate of the magazine, revealing the cartridge chamber.
"Now, load the bullets. Remember, the hard end is the bullet head. Load the bullet head inward, don't put it in backward!"
The process was simple. Fang Er walked among them, observing their actions. Despite his specific emphasis on the direction of the bullets, two still loaded them incorrectly. Fang Er berated them soundly.
The two sharpshooters looked embarrassed. They were already in their twenties or thirties, and being yelled at by a teenager for being stupid pigs – what kind of situation was this? However, they didn't dare to retort. Eunuch Deng had given them instructions when they arrived. This was a mission personally assigned by the Emperor, and anyone who dared to mess around would face consequences they couldn't bear.
The bullets were loaded.
"Open the bipod at the front of the rifle, lie down, and feel it. Remember, do not shoot while standing unless absolutely necessary!"
Fang Er stepped aside. The fifty sharpshooters all lay down on the ground.
"There's a notch above the magazine at the rear of the gun, and a protrusion at the very front of the barrel. Notch, protrusion, target. Align these three points into a single line, and only then can you hit your target!"
"You are all sharpshooters, and I believe you can do it!"
"Now, practice on your own. Don't spare the gunpowder and bullets! Whoever shoots the most accurately, I, Fang, will recommend them for commendation to the Emperor! Do you have confidence?" Fang Er asked them loudly.
"Rest assured, Commander Fang, we will definitely do our best!" The sharpshooters replied in unison.
Fang Er was very satisfied. Those who could become sharpshooters possessed mental fortitude beyond ordinary people. This should not be difficult for them.
"Call Zhu Zi over to supervise." Fang Er then entered the workshop. He needed to make glass!
Three days! It wasn't enough to just produce glass! He also needed to make a batch of scopes!
Sitting in the workshop, he took out all the books he had exchanged from the system store. He searched for methods of glass production. Finally, he found it in the "Mining Encyclopedia."
He took out the crucible that Yu Chi Bao Lin had sent him long ago. He had someone deliver a basket of clean sand. He found the remaining lodestone from before. Carefully, he extracted iron filings from the sand. This would affect the quality of the glass. If there were iron filings mixed in, the glass produced would be colorful and refract light, severely affecting the performance of the scopes.
He processed the sand with the lodestone three times. Once he was sure no more iron filings could be attracted, he took out the crucible. He started a fire. After the crucible's temperature slowly rose, he poured the sand in.
The process of sand melting was very long! He waited for a full half hour. The pot was only emitting smoke, and the sand's color had changed from yellow to red, but it still refused to melt into a liquid. Fang Er took out the book again. He carefully searched for any mistakes he might have made. After searching for a long time, he couldn't find the answer in the "Mining Encyclopedia." He then searched in other books. Finally, in "Inorganic Chemistry," he found the answer.
"Damn it! So this thing requires a high temperature of around fifteen hundred to two thousand degrees Celsius!" Charcoal fires at most only reached thirteen hundred degrees. Even with the boost of a blast furnace, it wouldn't exceed fifteen hundred degrees. Fang Er patted his forehead. "This is really… Do I have to go and make coke? I don't have time for that either."
Finally, while flipping through the pages, he saw that adding a catalyst could lower the melting point of sand. It only required around eleven hundred degrees Celsius! "Alkali!" The book only briefly mentioned it without explaining the underlying principle. Fang Er didn't understand it, nor did he need to. Baking soda was nowhere to be found. However, lime was easily obtainable. There was some at the construction site. He had someone deliver a piece of quicklime. Fang Er poured out the sand from the crucible. The sand was too hot to mix with the lime using any tools. If he used an iron rod, it would likely melt directly into it.
He mixed the new sand with lime, put it back into the crucible, and placed it over the fire. This time, it was much faster. After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the sand started to boil. Bubbles kept forming and bursting. Slowly, it turned into a viscous liquid. It was glowing red.
Once all the sand in the crucible had melted, Fang Er found a steel plate, wiped it clean, and placed it aside. He poured the melted sand – no, it wasn't sand anymore at this point – all onto the steel plate. The viscous liquid slowly spread out on the steel plate. Once it stopped flowing, Fang Er used a steel pipe to flatten it into a plate about six to seven millimeters thick. As the temperature dropped, it slowly turned into a transparent crystal.
Glass! It was done! Fang Er felt a great sense of accomplishment! This was a field he had never ventured into before! Moreover, with glass, the improvements to daily life would be enormous!