Chapter 846 The Power of the Bomb

Minister of War Zhu has not slept well for many days.

I was busy with conscription all night, and only managed to lie down on the couch for a while just before dawn. As soon as I woke up, my subordinate came to report that Lord Cheng from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices was requesting an audience.

He thought for a long time but still couldn't figure out who Lord Cheng was, until his subordinates told him that he was Lady Sui's own nephew.

He hurriedly ordered someone to invite Lord Cheng in. Accompanying him were Lord Shen from the Ministry of Personnel, Lord Zhao from the Hanlin Academy, and Commander Zhao from the Beijing garrison.

"Greetings, Lord Zhu!"

The four of them bowed together.

"You are all children of Lady Sui's family, no need for formalities." Lord Zhu gestured for them to sit down. "You came so early this morning to ask me about the imperial conscription, right? Don't worry, this battle must be fought. His Majesty is determined to win, and our Ministry of War and the military will find a way to ensure victory. The Western Rong have 200,000 iron cavalry, so this time we'll conscript 300,000. First, we'll overwhelm them with numbers. Besides, the imperial court has already invested hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in forging weapons. This time, we must show the Western Rong the might of the Great Yu Kingdom..."

Lord Zhu clearly hated the Western Rong people, and he spoke each word with gritted teeth.

“We naturally trust the Emperor and the court; we have other important matters to discuss with you,” Cheng Zhao said. “Could we ask Lord Zhu to accompany us to the outskirts of the capital?”

Lord Zhu looked troubled: "I have to go to the palace for a meeting in half an hour. Could we postpone it until tonight...?"

“My lord, this matter is very important. Knowing this will give you more confidence when you enter the palace.” Zhao Sidan smiled. “The weapons that the court spends hundreds of thousands of taels of silver to make are not as powerful as ours.”

"What do you mean?" Lord Zhu asked hesitantly. "Stop keeping me in suspense and tell me quickly."

Shen Zheng coughed and said, "It's not that we're keeping you in suspense, but this place isn't suitable for a demonstration, as we're afraid it might cause unnecessary trouble. We can only ask you, sir, to condescend to make the trip."

Lord Zhu glanced at the four people in front of him. They were all the nephews and nieces of Lady Sui. They had entered the court as officials at a young age. Officials would not speak falsehoods.

Furthermore, with Lady Sui currently in the Western Rong Kingdom, the children are unlikely to joke about her at this critical juncture.

He turned to his attendants and said, "Go to General Ruan's residence and tell him that I have some business to attend to and that I will be going to the palace to discuss matters half an hour later."

Later, their Ministry of War and the Army will meet to discuss the operational strategy, so going later won't make much difference.

The group rode their horses to the depths of the low mountains on the outskirts of Beijing.

For the past few days, Zhao Sidan and his three companions have been conducting experiments here. They have paid off the surrounding farmers and sent them away, so there is no one here now.

Lord Zhu stood to the side, watching Zhao Sanniu take out three or four black, round things with a strange smell from his bundle and bury them in the ground. Then a grayish-brown line stretched from the small mound where the things were buried all the way to the mound.

Zhao Sanniu took out a tinderbox, blew on it, and was about to light it.

"Wait a minute." Shen Zheng raised his hand. "Blowing up the mound of earth is nothing. We need to show Lord Zhu the destructive power of the bomb. Wait for me for a quarter of an hour."

He rode away quickly on horseback, and after a short while, he returned leading five large, fat pigs, which he then tied to tree stumps next to a mound of earth.

The five fat pigs didn't understand what was happening and squealed loudly.

Lord Zhu frowned, wondering what these people were up to.

Zhao Sanniu lit the fire, and sparks flew quickly along the gray fuse toward the small mound.

The fat pigs seemed to sense the threat and became even more agitated.

Just then, the bombs buried in the ground were ignited by fire, and three or four bombs exploded at the same time.

"Bang bang bang!"

Three or four loud explosions followed, blowing the mound of earth away and turning the soil charred black. Several trees nearby were also affected, with one broken. The worst off were the five large fat pigs. The two in front were blown beyond recognition, the two behind them were covered in blood and dead, and the last one, though not dead, was charred black and clearly wouldn't live much longer.

Lord Zhu was filled with disbelief. Those three or four small, black things could actually kill five big fat pigs?

It's important to understand that it takes at least three or four adults to capture a healthy adult pig alive, and killing a pig isn't as simple as just hacking it with a knife...

But now, five pigs have died instantly.

"What...what is this?"

Zhao Sanniu shook the dirt off his hair, grinned, and said, "This is called a bomb. It's made from the stuff inside fireworks. The specifics of how to make it are all recorded in this booklet."

Shen Zheng presented the booklet.

Lord Zhu's hands were covered in mud, so he quickly wiped them off on his clothes and then opened the booklet.

It explains very clearly how to extract raw materials from fireworks, where these raw materials can be obtained, the raw material ratio data, the production process, precautions... everything is written in great detail.

Furthermore, a cost estimate was provided.

The three most important ingredients for making this are saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal.

Charcoal is the cheapest material, and sulfur is also readily available. Only saltpeter is relatively expensive, which is the main reason why fireworks are so expensive.

However, the high price of saltpeter was not due to fireworks, but because wealthy families used saltpeter to make ice. Making a single piece of ice required a large amount of saltpeter, which led to the high price of saltpeter.

In addition, saltpeter was also used for medicinal purposes...

It is estimated that the cost of a fist-sized bomb is about five hundred coins, or half a tael of silver.

Seeing such a high price, Lord Zhu felt a sharp pain in his heart... Every year during major festivals such as the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival, as well as weddings and funerals, a large number of fireworks and firecrackers are used. If these things were used for military campaigns, how could the Great Yu Kingdom not defeat the Western Rong...

"You lot have done a great service!" Lord Zhu closed the booklet. "I'll go to the palace to report to the Emperor now. Let's wait for good news!"

After he finished speaking, he mounted his horse and hurriedly headed towards the imperial city.

The five large, fat pigs that were killed in the explosion were taken back by Cheng Zhao and distributed to the neighbors in De'an Lane for consumption...

Next, Shen Zheng kept a close eye on the movements of the fireworks workshops in the capital. Soon, all of these workshops were taken over by the imperial court, which secretly recruited a large number of workers. In order to produce a large number of bombs as soon as possible, they even recruited old men and women to work in the workshops...

At the same time, the Empress gave a speech at the girls' school and donated countless gold and silver treasures, worth 60,000 taels of silver. Under the Empress's call, women all over the capital followed suit and donated silver. The amount of silver donated by women alone reached 280,000 taels.

Some men also advocated donating silver, and wealthy merchants and officials generously contributed, raising a total of 310,000 taels.

With the addition of 200,000 taels allocated by the imperial court, the total military pay was over 700,000 taels.

This sum of money sounds like a lot, but it's actually not that much.

The average monthly salary for a new recruit is about 800 cash. The monthly salary alone costs 240,000 taels of silver. Not to mention, there are many other expenses. The money simply doesn't last long!

Fortunately, the food and supplies problem was solved.

The common people of the capital and the villagers in the surrounding countryside contributed 50 jin here and 80 jin there, and some wealthy merchants even bought 5,000 jin at a time... In this way, more than 4 million jin of grain were collected from the people... and none of this grain had to be repaid.

As the entire Great Yu Dynasty prepared to fight against the Western Rong, several large ships anchored at the docks on the outskirts of the capital.