At the end of an era, there will always be some visions.

It is said to be so.

So in the depths of Daze, west of Peiyi in Songdi, a thunderclap suddenly sounded one day.

There are no clouds in the sky, not thunder.

The flocks of wild ducks inhabiting Daze were the first to hear this thunder, and they flapped their wings and quacked, causing the rest of the birds to fly up with the trend and form a mess.

Mozi, Yu Huali, Gao Sun Tzu and other important figures among the ink artists let go of the fingers covering their ears and looked at the straw man that had been blown up in the distance in surprise.

Shi Zheng was holding a torch, and a bad smell wafted through the air, and if anyone smelled it, they would definitely think of the smell when Shi did ink and pretended to be a ghost and made a scene of stepping out of the clouds.

The smell of a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter and charcoal after a deflagration is really unpleasant.

But Mozi couldn't wait to snatch the torch from Shi's hand, and personally walked to the front and lit another thing called "Thunder".

It's very easy to make.

The shell dug out by the stonemason, filled with black, fitted powder, with a long thread exposed.

After another loud bang, Gong Zaoye did not block his ears this time, and shouted in a very loud voice: "Sir! It seems that the means of defending the city and preparing the city are going to increase again! ”

Mozi also shouted: "Yes! This thing is thrown down from the city wall, and it can break the method of 'ant attachment'. Yes, the formula for this thing can never be obtained! According to the order of the Ink Maker, only a few people can know! ”

Be prepared early, plug your ears early, and keep your mouth half-open, so your ears don't make a buzzing sound.

Listening to the howling voices of these high-level ink masters, he knew that his voice was too small for these people to hear, so he waited for a while.

The "thunder" just now, filled with about one and a half pounds of perfectly proportioned black powder, is a large firecracker, and its power is far better than those artillery battles with a very small charge.

The stone is too heavy, and the bronze can be used as a shell, and there is no difficulty in technology, that is, the bronze shell is too expensive, and a shell is worth about 100 catties of grain.

Before there is no great development in agriculture, the price of five grams of copper per catty of grain will be maintained for a long time, and this 100 catties of grain is equivalent to the surplus grain income of a farmer under the farming system of nine households for a year, which is really not enough.

It is appropriate to call this thing thunder, and everyone has no refutation.

When it burns, it is a purple flame, produces smoke like a cloud, and when it explodes, it makes a thunderous sound, so it is best used to defend the castle for the time being.

In fact, it has already been done a long time ago, but before the ink master was busy with the rest of the things, and it was impossible to demonstrate in Peiyi, where there were many ears and eyes and easy to leak the news, so he chose to be in this inaccessible Daze.

For a long time, these ink men whose ears were buzzing with vibrations all eased up, gathered together and sat down, playing with the remaining stone thunder.

Shi said: "Sir, this thing is the most suitable thing for defending the city. Before, weren't you still worried that the Chu people surrounded the Song Dynasty and the Three Jin Dynasty fought for hegemony, which would cause innocent small countries to be affected? With this thing, the ink is more deterrent, but whenever you attack a city, you must always consider our existence. ”

"Do you remember when I said the sword of the world? In fact, it means the same thing, if it wasn't for the eldest brother to lead people in Shangqiu, could Wang Yan of Chu be persuaded by you in a few words and not attack the Song Dynasty? It is necessary to ensure that punishment can be enforced in order to ensure that the law can be enforced. ”

Mozi snorted, remembered the matter of the Nine Paradises, and asked, "According to what you said, this thing should appear in the next Paradise." Get it out in advance, and I also know that it is advantageous to defend the city. But the sword has two edges, which can save or hurt people. ”

"Those rebels who followed me to learn the art of defending the city can defend the city and attack it. It's the same as the gunpowder you said, you can defend the city and attack it. The configuration is so simple, as long as the formula leaks out and the means of raising nitrate in the dung heap are transmitted, wouldn't it be possible for all countries to use it? What if it is used to blow up the city wall? ”

At this time, the city walls were all rammed earth, if there was really a three or five thousand catties of gunpowder, let alone Shangqiu, even the ancient capital of Luoyi, it was enough to explode in three days.

Shi felt that this was an unsolvable question, and shook his head and did not answer.

Mozi asked again: "Let's not talk about this first, the other thing you said, take it out and take a look." ”

Shi took out another bamboo pipe, the outside of the bamboo pipe was covered with a layer of cowhide, and the inside was filled with gunpowder, and a very light cotton ball was placed in front of it to plug it.

This time there was no danger, the cotton ball was not very tightly stuffed, and after it was ignited, a burst of gunpowder smoke was emitted, and the cotton ball spewed forward about a dozen steps, very slowly.

Shi Dao: "The problem that Mr. just said is actually not as simple as blowing up the city wall. As soon as this thing came out, the city gate was useless. ”

He pointed to the simple bamboo tube, which had already understood the meaning of the past.

Many of the ink people have been smelters, and the ink people must also have leather bellows to defend the city, so there are often too many forces that cause the leather bellows to be difficult to withstand the air pressure and burst open, and later replaced the wooden bellows to solve this problem.

Since it is only made of bamboo, the public casting understands the meaning of the suitable, if this thing is replaced with copper, I am afraid that it is not just as simple as playing cotton balls, and flying out of a lead shot can not hurt people? If we had made it bigger, wouldn't we have been able to fly out the stone and smash the gates?

In this way, the defense of the city gate such as a gate latch is indeed useless.

Mozi also understood the meaning of suitability, and asked Gongzao Zhudao: "You have learned to cast bells, in your opinion, it should not be difficult to make something like a bamboo pipe, right?" ”

Of course, it's not difficult, when the artillery musket first appeared, there was still a leak in the back, not to mention those strange appearances of all kinds, whether it is practical or not, but if you call the thing that relies on gunpowder to propel lead bullets into guns, it is really not difficult to make a technical verification thing now.

Gongzao Zhu nodded and said, "It's not difficult, I don't need to ask others for help, I can make such a copper pipe." ”

Mozi said hesitantly: "I originally thought that in the next few years, I would make a strong crossbow for defending the city, but as soon as this thing came out, it seemed useless for me to make this crossbow." Crossbow arrows are expensive, sharpened and sticky, and it is said that this thing only needs to be turned into pills to be used......"

"If there are three or five thousand ink people, holding this thing, and carrying the previous thunder, I am afraid that the three Jin Dynasty and Chu will not be able to capture a city."

At this time, Mozi still wanted to make a neutral intervention force to help the weak country defend the city, which was another form of the sword he understood as the sword of the world.

Shi's thoughts are different from Mozi's, but at this time, it is difficult to say, only said: "What Mr. said is extremely true." Didn't you say that where there is light, there must be shadow? There is always a contradiction, and it's not good not to make it because this thing can be used for siege. ”

Mozi smiled: "I'm not so pedantic yet. But for the time being, this matter must be kept strictly secret and prepared in advance to prevent chaos in the world and the destruction of human beings. When the time comes, we may have to go everywhere to help the weak defend the city, so that the strong will be tired and attack the city. ”

Shi hurriedly said yes, but he was thinking about how to increase his strength without making Mozi feel a little ambitious in the case of Mozi's lifetime.

The inkmen said a few more words, and sat down on the grass one after another, discussing the future.

The matter of gunpowder is temporarily decided like this, first secretly prepare saltpeter and sulfur, the secret recipe for the configuration of gunpowder is only known to Qiwu Harm, Juzi and Shi, how to configure it in the future, and when the autumn matter is solved, it will be started.

Some cattle and horses in the north have been driven back, and the previous spirits have also been sold at a good price among the court nobles of Qilu, a good price that far exceeds the cost, and it can be regarded as alleviating the financial problems of the ink man.

Although the grandson did not agree with this matter, he did not say it for the time being, and he would not mention this matter until the matter was concluded in the autumn and when the ink scholars gathered.

A while ago, he went around the various villages and communities as the chief inspector, and on the whole, the development of the ink in the periphery of Peidi was quite good.

The sunflower seeds used to pretend to be ghosts have grown and are about to bloom.

The grandson heard that this kind of flower is facing the sun, and it looks like the sun from a distance, so the proverb that pretends to be a ghost must have a golden crow perched on it does not need to be explained, and once it blooms, the people will definitely understand what it means.

With the last usurpation of the right to sacrifice to witches, and the foundation of the people's belief in witchcraft and obscenity, the Moshi used this trust to easily carry out the things that were suitable for the village community without stagnation.

Some of the fugitive hermits were also organized into Shiwu in advance because of the salt issue, nominally just to prevent people from buying salt at a low price and then selling it, but in fact the ink people are spending money to control the grassroots.

In addition, Lu Hua took some ink practitioners who knew some medical skills to go deep into the village community to treat some diseases, and in some places it has replaced the existence of Wu Zhu.

Witch, history, and medicine were originally one family, but now the old country of the Central Plains has been separated, but the villages and communities here have not been divided, so it is also very smooth to walk in the countryside for righteousness.

Now that the trust of the people is almost the same, when the crops that are used for the samples are harvested and the sunflowers bloom to expose the hoax of Wu Zhu, the next step can be carried out.

The Moji also deliberately sent people to talk to the local clans in order to stabilize them. Mozi has been in and out of the courts of various countries all the year round, and some Mozi are very familiar with the etiquette of the upper class, and for the time being, they have not shown the intention of preparing to "check Tian Xun", and even basically the taxes are the same as before, and there is a great sense of letting go and ignoring that we are just here to do good deeds.

The biggest reaction is those witch blessings, although it is suitable for fooling in every way, but people always rot when they die. Even if Mozi's coffin is well made, the smell can still be transmitted, and some Wuzhu's followers have already become suspicious, and they have not yet made a difficulty, and they dare not completely disbelieve it.

After all, after that day, after bringing back those poisoned witches, it was true that the things that vomited out at night fluoresced, which was really a miracle at this time, so it could only be doubted.

Shi also said that when Jin Wuqi arrived, he would give these people an explanation, and the Wuzhu believers also thought that these people might really have the means, so they were only suspicious.

Thinking of this, the eldest grandson asked: "Sui, you have quietly poisoned dozens of people, and when you arrive at Jin Wuqi, I am afraid that a chaos is inevitable." ”

Shi smiled: "The chaos can be seen, but it is just the opportunity to kill people." The people now believe in us, in witches and ghosts. As long as the people don't oppose it, just rely on those witches, I think we can still deal with it, right? This time, I will kill more, so that no one will have such a desire to accumulate wealth again. Taking advantage of the surging public opinion to scare those township elders who colluded with Wuzhu, we had no popular support a few months ago, but now it is different. ”

Mozi looked at his grandson and said with a smile: "You, you still don't understand why you didn't kill people in public at that time, and you have to wait a few months before killing people." There is no way for us to gather the people now, but it is easy for the sacrifice to gather the people...... If there is no obscenity, or if the murder is exposed at that time, how can the people easily gather to listen to our righteousness? ”

Ji Chengzi also said: "Looking at this thunder fire today, I remembered what Zichuan said in the past. The trend of obscenity here is very serious, and if you want to completely curb it, you must use heavy punishment. Appropriate means can scare those witches, but they are not enough to shock people's hearts. ”

After speaking, he pointed to the stone mine left behind and said, "At that time, kill the Wuzhu henchmen with this thing." If it fails, it will be punished by heaven; If it can be done, it can be intimidating. The gentleman defends the city, and he wants to make up a group of soldiers to sit, but in order to keep the city from breaking, and the means are fierce; Now using this thunder to kill people is also so that there will be no more obscenity in the future, and the means must be fierce. ”

Mozi smiled indifferently and said, "Those who kill will die, and those who injure others will be punished." Those witches burned women, they deserved to die, and the ink man killed them, which was also a righteous act. I thought the same way, and it was the most shocking to kill like this when the time came. ”