CHAPTER 470: CHAPTER 464 GUNPOWDER

Zhao Hanzhang took the spring plowing very seriously and repeatedly instructed, "The land has been prepared for you, do not delay the spring plowing."

Ping Xun agreed and saw Zhao Hanzhang mounting a horse and was momentarily stunned, "Are you leaving already, Governor?"

"I’m just passing by and dropped in to take a look. Go ahead with your work."

Ping Xun could only watch regretfully as they rode away, thinking he wanted Zhao Hanzhang to visit Yushan Hall.

But time is abundant, Yushan Hall has only been built for a few days, and results are yet to be seen. Once the fields are tended and the school is set up, when the children achieve success, the Governor can come and see the accomplishments then.

Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan came out today to experiment with gunpowder.

The group went into the mountains, to a stone mountain. The stones for building in Lu Yang City were mostly sourced from here, but now it’s difficult to quarry, so they’ve switched to another mountain.

This mountain was left neglected, and Zhao Hanzhang had it enclosed, prohibiting idle people from approaching, before bringing Fu Tinghan over for experimentation.

Qiu Wu carried up two wooden barrels, put them down, and saluted, "Mistress, Young Master, the things have been brought."

Fu Tinghan opened the lid of the wooden barrel, revealing bamboo segments as thick as a child’s arm inside.

He carefully took them out, signaling Zhao Hanzhang to look, "I just filled them with gunpowder. I’ve never tried this before, so today let’s see the effect and then adjust the formula."

He took a box from the bottom of the barrel and opened it, revealing a roll of line.

Upon seeing the line, Qiu Wu felt his fingers ache. He had twisted this line himself, using paper, not large strips of paper, wrapping a little saltpeter powder, then rolling it up finely, and finally brushing it with rice paste for drying.

This long roll of line was all twisted by him. Qiu Wu couldn’t understand why, as a guard chief, he had to do such a task.

Fu Tinghan’s hands were deft as he carefully placed the line inside the bamboo segments and then wrapped the bamboo segments together.

Qiu Wu counted, a total of twelve bamboo segments were wrapped.

Fu Tinghan looked at the mountain, finally selecting a spot below a large rock to place the bamboo segments, and then began pulling the line outward.

Pulling it out to a distant place, he then cut the line.

Seeing he was prepared, Zhao Hanzhang instructed, "Have everyone retreat, stay away from the mountain, and watch crouched down."

Qiu Wu: "Ah?"

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him.

Qiu Wu immediately responded, "Yes."

He promptly had the soldiers and guards retreat.

After seeing them all retreat to a safe distance, Fu Tinghan finally took out a fire starter, blew on it to ignite a flame, and squatted down to light the fuse.

The fuse sizzled and quickly burned all the way forward...

Zhao Hanzhang pulled Fu Tinghan and jogged outward, covering her ears and crouching on the ground after running a distance.

Qiu Wu and several guards watched, hesitated to cover their ears or not, and suddenly a loud explosion occurred. Everyone’s hearts skipped a beat. Qiu Wu instinctively drew his sword, his heart nearly leaping out when he looked up and was shocked to see the dust and smoke rising from the distant stone mountain.

"This..."

The guards and soldiers panicked for a moment, then stared wide-eyed with Qiu Wu at the stone mountain that produced the loud bang.

When the smoke and dust settled, the originally hard-to-quarry stone mountain had a corner collapsed, and the exploded stones scattered all over the ground.

Zhao Hanzhang was very excited, pulling Fu Tinghan to rush up to inspect.

Seeing the exploded area was not small, filled with fallen stone, she nodded with satisfaction, "This power is not small, is it because of the good formula or the large amount used?"

Fu Tinghan also looked at the stone on the ground and felt the power was too much, "Let’s try again, this time with only six bamboo segments to see."

Zhao Hanzhang nodded.

They chose a new blasting site.

Qiu Wu couldn’t recover from the shock for a long time, not to mention the other guards and soldiers. This... seems a bit formidable.

Qiu Wu started to follow closely behind Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan, saw Fu Tinghan binding the line again, and couldn’t help but lower his voice to ask, "Young... Young Master, did you create this thing?"

Fu Tinghan tied the line well and handed it to him, "You already saw how to light it just now, you can try it now."

Qiu Wu took it nervously, and Fu Tinghan patted his shoulder, "Don’t be afraid. As long as this thing is not severely collided or exposed to fire, it won’t explode."

Qiu Wu became even more nervous.

No wonder when they left early in the morning, the Young Master told them to carefully escort the things in the barrels, and that indeed required cautious escorting.

Qiu Wu carefully cradled the gunpowder up the mountain to the spot Fu Tinghan selected, then left the line and walked down.

Of course, the line couldn’t be pulled down the mountain, as the remaining path was rugged and not easy to run.

So Zhao Hanzhang didn’t let Fu Tinghan go forward, she went up herself to light the fuse.

Seeing the fuse burning rapidly upward, Zhao Hanzhang turned and leaped down the mountain with Qiu Wu, their movements agile, jumping down the mountain in a few steps, then sprinting far and diving into a previously dug trench.

As soon as she and Qiu Wu landed, there was a loud bang from the mountain, and Fu Tinghan, who had been calculating the time in his mind, covered her ears as she landed.

He knew her hearing was sensitive, and the loud noise was uncomfortable for them, let alone for her.

Qiu Wu, constantly on guard, saw the Young Master embrace their mistress, covering her ears while frowning, obediently leaned in the trench waiting for the explosion sound to pass.

This time the explosion’s power was much smaller, but quite a few stones were blasted out.

Zhao Hanzhang was very satisfied, "It seems this formula is very successful. Only the first test, no need to modify it at all."

She curiously asked Fu Tinghan, "Do you usually research this?"

Seeing Fu Tinghan frown slightly, she asked, "Why, is it something that can’t be spoken of?"

Fu Tinghan’s brow relaxed, and he shook his head, "In the past, this had to be kept secret and indeed couldn’t be discussed, but there’s no problem now."

He explained, "I used to participate in military research, mainly helping them calculate some parameters. Some laboratories held early ordnance factory documents. Since it was a confidential project, sometimes once inside it would take months to come out, so out of boredom, I read whatever materials I could in the lab."

Those could be considered historical documents by now, as weapons have been upgraded many times over, serving only as testimony to the struggles of predecessors, without hindrance to borrowing in the lab.

"I have good memory, so I picked out a formula from there, only tried it preliminarily, and didn’t expect it to be so successful."

Zhao Hanzhang said, "After all, it’s a mature formula."

Fu Tinghan nodded, this research was quite labor-saving, because everything needed was available this era, without much effort.

Qiu Wu excitedly ran over, "Mistress, Young Master, shall we blast the remaining six tubes?"

After some thought, Fu Tinghan said, "Let’s try blasting one tube, two tubes, and three tubes, just to test their power."

Qiu Wu was eager to try, "Mistress, this is too dangerous, let me light the fuse for the rest."

Zhao Hanzhang nodded, waving her hand, "Go on, be careful."

Qiu Wu responded excitedly.