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The candlelight flickered in the bedchamber, and outside, the night was pitch black.
Xiao Ming pondered for a long time and then said, “I have a plan in mind. However, since someone in the women’s academy brought it up, you should guide them appropriately. Absolutely do not allow irresponsible remarks to spread openly among the students.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Fei Yuer said softly.
Xiao Ming nodded. Disturbing internal affairs had always been a Western specialty. He did not want the Great Yu Empire to fall into civil strife before it was revitalized. It would not be too late to attempt political reform when he had built the Great Yu Empire to be strong and wealthy enough.
Moreover, even if such ideas spread among the students now, most common people still wouldn’t understand. If political reform were to happen at this time, the beneficiaries would still be these students and merchants, and the common people would gain nothing. Since that was the case, why should he be anxious? After all, for him, the foundation of his rule was the common people.
The two chatted for a while and then went to sleep fully clothed. The next day, Xiao Ming went to the government office. Li Kaiyuan had delivered the sweet potatoes yesterday, but because it was too late, Pang Yukun and Fiji hadn’t seen them.
When he arrived, Pang Yukun and Fiji were eating roasted sweet potatoes, and the room was filled with the smell of them.
“Your Highness, these sweet potatoes taste really good,” Pang Yukun said, his mouth full of sweet potatoes. Fiji was also eating nonstop.
Xiao Ming smiled, “You’ve eaten these sweet potatoes. Next is the cultivation of sweet potato seedlings. For this matter, you should go to Kui Wu. Having studied at Bowen Academy for so long, he knows how to cultivate sweet potato seedlings.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Pang Yukun swallowed the last bit of sweet potato.
After a pause, Xiao Ming continued, “By the way, it’s almost autumn harvest. You must instruct the government offices in each prefecture to organize militias to strengthen patrols in the fields to prevent the enemy from taking the opportunity to burn the grain.”
Pang Yukun’s expression became serious. The events of three years ago seemed vivid in his memory. At that time, the powerful families burned wheat fields to sabotage the Battle of Cangzhou, and Xiao Ming himself was almost killed.
Now that there was direct confrontation between Qi and Wei, similar incidents might well recur, which was why Xiao Ming was giving this reminder.
Pang Yukun nodded, “This subordinate will send people to inform the government offices in each prefecture later. Now that every village has militias, it should be better this time.”
Fiji had always had mixed feelings about the village militias. In his opinion, the government should be confiscating private weapons, but Qingzhou was actually organizing the common people’s own armed forces.
However, after gradually understanding, he slowly realized that this was all based on the common people’s support for Xiao Ming and their identification with the state.
The three were discussing sweet potatoes and the autumn harvest when a series of explosions suddenly came from the direction of Bowen Academy.
Pang Yukun said, “It’s been a long time since there was a laboratory explosion at Bowen Academy. What went wrong this time?”
Xiao Ming was also a little puzzled. Lu Tong didn’t seem to have been doing any dangerous experiments recently, but since there was commotion again, he couldn’t just ignore it. So, he said, “You two handle the government affairs, I’ll go take a look.”
With that, he took Zhao Long and Zhao Hu to Bowen Academy. As soon as he entered the academy gate, he saw plumes of smoke rising from the direction of the chemical laboratory.
He quickened his pace and immediately rushed over.
“What happened?”
Lu Tong was also outside the laboratory, and Xiao Ming asked directly.
Seeing Xiao Ming approach, Lu Tong’s face was filled with bitterness. He said, “Your Highness, a student knocked over bottles of sulfuric acid and nitric acid. The boy panicked and took off his clothes to wipe it, then he used fire to dry his clothes. Unexpectedly, the clothes instantly burned to ashes and ignited the laboratory, causing an explosion.”
Xiao Ming’s expression was strange. He asked, “Didn’t he know that clothes soaked in a mixture of sulfuric acid and nitric acid had become smokeless gunpowder?”
Lu Tong said, “This boy is a newly enrolled student, just helping out in the laboratory. He doesn’t understand what smokeless gunpowder is at all.”
Speaking of smokeless gunpowder, Lu Tong suddenly remembered something. He said, “Your Highness, the laboratory has been developing smokeless gunpowder these days, but it is very unstable, and this problem has not been overcome, so I did not report it to Your Highness.”
“That’s nothing. How is that student?” Xiao Ming asked.
Lu Tong felt relieved. He said, “He was burned, but it’s not a major issue.”
Xiao Ming nodded. Actually, the principle of smokeless gunpowder was very simple: just soak cotton in a mixture of concentrated sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid for ten minutes, then take it out and air-dry it.
However, the gun cotton, or smokeless gunpowder, produced in this way was very unstable. It needed to be treated with camphor, graphite, and an alcohol-ether mixed solvent and then pressed into shape; otherwise, this gunpowder could easily explode before being fired.
The problem Lu Tong was facing now was the alcohol-ether mixed solvent. If this problem was solved, smokeless gunpowder would become an upgraded version of black gunpowder, serving as a propellant for guns and cannons, and this would increase the range of both bullets and cannonballs.
Originally, Xiao Ming had paid little attention to the development of guncotton, but now that this incident occurred, he had to inquire. As he suspected, the problem Lu Tong faced was indeed the stability of guncotton.
Xiao Ming currently had no solution for this problem and could only let the laboratory try to synthesize it. After all, guncotton was something that not only surpassed Great Yu Empire’s technology by many years but even surpassed that of the West by over a hundred years, so it wasn’t something easily produced.
However, the fact that Lu Tong dared to develop guncotton showed that he had confidence in smokeless gunpowder. After all, as long as ethylene glycol and propylene glycol were synthesized, the alcohol-ether solvent would basically not be a problem.
Of course, Xiao Ming would also try to find solutions for Lu Tong on this matter. After all, no matter how much Lu Tong and his team learned, they couldn’t have as many ideas as he did. However, Lu Tong was still a bit too impatient in this matter. The technical level of guncotton surpassed the West by a century, so it wasn’t something that could be achieved in one step so easily.
“Don’t be too eager for quick success in this matter. Even if you synthesize ethylene glycol and propylene glycol, with the current output of sulfuric acid and nitric acid, you won’t be able to produce guncotton in large quantities. Therefore, your most important task now is to achieve industrial production capable of synthesizing chemical substances. The three acids and two alkalis should also be industrialized for mass production, otherwise, the chemical industry will remain stagnant at an awkward level,” Xiao Ming said seriously.
Lu Tong felt ashamed upon hearing this. He admitted that he had been aiming too high recently, all because the steam engine in the physics academy stimulated him.
“Your Highness, I know my mistake,” Lu Tong said, looking embarrassed.
Smiling, Xiao Ming said, “To pursue scholarship and engage in production, you must be down-to-earth. You must proceed step by step.”