Zhao Hanzhang took spring plowing very seriously, repeatedly instructing, “This land has all been opened for you. You absolutely cannot delay spring plowing.”

Ping Xun agreed. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang mount her horse, he was startled. “Is the Excellency leaving already?”

“I was just passing by and came to look. You all carry on with your work.”

Ping Xun could only regretfully watch them ride away. He had wanted Zhao Hanzhang to enter Charitable Hall for a look.

However, there would be time in the future. Charitable Hall had just been built a few days ago, and right now, there were no results to show. Once they got the farmland in order and the school set up, and the children achieved success in their studies, then when the Excellency came again, she could see his accomplishments.

Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan went out today to test explosives.

The group entered the mountains—a stone mountain. The stones for building houses in Luyang city were mostly collected from here, but mining wasn’t good now, so they’d switched to another mountain.

This mountain was abandoned. Zhao Hanzhang had people surround the mountain, not letting idle people approach, before bringing Fu Tinghan over to test.

Qiu Wu carried two wooden buckets up, set them down, and bowed. “Miss, Young Master, everything has been brought.”

Fu Tinghan opened the bucket lid. Inside were sections of bamboo tubes as thick as a small child’s arm.

He carefully took them out and gestured for Zhao Hanzhang to look. “I’ve just filled them with gunpowder. I haven’t tested them. Today we’ll look at the effects and then adjust the formula.”

He took out a box from the bottom of the bucket and opened it. Inside was a roll of cord.

When Qiu Wu saw this roll of cord, his fingers hurt. He had twisted this cord using paper—not very large strips of paper wrapped with a tiny bit of saltpeter powder, then carefully rolled up, and brushed with rice paste before drying.

He had twisted this entire long roll of cord. Qiu Wu didn’t understand why he, a guard captain, had to do this kind of work.

Fu Tinghan’s hands were quite deft. He nimbly placed the cord into the bamboo tube, then wound the bamboo tubes together.

Qiu Wu counted—twelve bamboo tubes wound together total.

Fu Tinghan looked at this mountain and finally chose to place the bamboo tubes at the lower side of a large boulder, then began pulling the cord outward.

He pulled it very far before cutting the cord.

Seeing him ready, Zhao Hanzhang ordered, “Have everyone retreat, stay far from this mountain, crouch down and watch carefully.”

Qiu Wu said, “Ah?”

Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him.

Qiu Wu immediately responded, “Yes.”

He quickly had the soldiers and guards retreat.

Seeing everyone retreat to a safe area, Fu Tinghan took out a fire starter, blew on it to produce flame, then crouched down to light the fuse.

The fuse made a sizzling sound, then rapidly burned along its length…

Zhao Hanzhang pulled Fu Tinghan up and ran outward, running very far before covering her ears and crouching on the ground.

Several guards including Qiu Wu saw this and hesitantly touched their ears, debating whether to cover them or not. Suddenly, a huge explosion rang out. Everyone’s hearts jumped violently. Qiu Wu instinctively drew his sword, his heart nearly leaping out. He looked up in shock at the distant stone mountain with smoke rising to the sky.

“This…”

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

After the smoke and dust dispersed, the originally difficult-to-mine stone mountain had collapsed in one corner, with blasted stones scattered all over the ground.

Zhao Hanzhang was very excited, pulling Fu Tinghan as she rushed up to look.

Seeing the blasted area wasn’t small, filled with fallen rocks, she nodded with satisfaction. “This power isn’t small. Is it because you used a good formula or because you used a large amount?”

Fu Tinghan also looked at the stones on the ground and felt the power was excessive. “Let’s test again. Next time, use only six bamboo tubes to try.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded.

They selected a new blasting location.

Qiu Wu took a long time to recover, not to mention the other guards and soldiers. This… seemed rather formidable.

Qiu Wu began following closely behind Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan. Seeing Fu Tinghan binding the cord again, he couldn’t help but lower his voice to ask, “Young… Young Master, you made this thing?”

Fu Tinghan finished binding the cord and handed it to him. “You’ve already seen how to light it just now. You can try now.”

Qiu Wu nervously accepted it. Fu Tinghan patted his shoulder. “Don’t be afraid. This thing won’t explode unless violently impacted or exposed to fire.”

Qiu Wu became even more nervous.

No wonder the Young Master had them carefully escort what was in the buckets this morning—they really did need to escort it carefully.

Qiu Wu carefully cradled the gunpowder as he climbed the mountain, placed it in the position Fu Tinghan had selected, then descended while releasing the cord.

The cord naturally couldn’t be pulled all the way down the mountain. The remaining mountain path was rugged and not easy to run on.

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

Seeing the fuse rapidly burning upward, Zhao Hanzhang turned and leaped down the mountain with Qiu Wu. Both were agile, jumping down the mountain in three to five steps, then running far away before leaping into a previously dug trench.

She and Qiu Wu had just landed when the mountain produced a huge boom. Fu Tinghan had been calculating the time in his mind. When she landed, he raised his hands to cover her ears.

He knew that with her acute hearing, the huge sound was uncomfortable for them, let alone for her.

Qiu Wu had been staying alert to protect them. Seeing the Young Master embrace their Miss entirely, covering her ears while he himself frowned, Qiu Wu obediently leaned against the trench wall, waiting for the explosion sound to pass.

This explosion’s power was much smaller, but the blasted stones were still quite numerous.

Zhao Hanzhang looked very satisfied. “Seems this formula is very successful—completely no need for modification on the first test.”

She curiously asked Fu Tinghan, “You usually research this too?”

Seeing Fu Tinghan frown slightly, she asked, “What, you can’t say?”

Fu Tinghan’s brow relaxed as he shook his head. “If it were before, this would need to be kept secret and truly couldn’t be discussed. Now it doesn’t matter.”

He said, “I previously participated in military industry research, mainly helping them calculate some parameters. Some laboratories kept early munitions factory materials. Because it was a classified project, sometimes once you went in, you couldn’t come out for several months. When I was bored, I read through all the materials in the laboratory that could be viewed.”

Those things counted as historical materials—weapons and equipment had been improved many times over, so they only served to understand predecessors’ arduous struggles and didn’t prevent people in the laboratory from borrowing them.

“I have a good memory, so I selected a formula from there. I just did a preliminary test and didn’t expect such success.”

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

Fu Tinghan nodded. This research was quite effortless because everything needed for this era already existed and didn’t require much effort.

Qiu Wu ran over excitedly. “Miss, Young Master, should we blast the remaining six tubes?”

Fu Tinghan pondered briefly, then said, “One tube, two tubes, three tubes—blast them all to test their power.”

Qiu Wu eagerly volunteered, “Miss, this is too dangerous. Let this subordinate light the fuses for the rest.”

Zhao Hanzhang nodded and waved. “Go ahead, be careful.”

Qiu Wu excitedly agreed.

—