Lock and secure

"Master, don't worry. My disguise skills are unmatched. Aren't you very satisfied with your appearance? Don't you trust me?"

Luo Yao touched his bloated face and said, "Anyway, if you see something you want, don't approach Brother Zhou directly. We're just an ordinary family in Lumin Alley with a little money."

After eating the noodles, I returned to "home" and it was already dark. A few scattered households in Lumin Alley had lit oil lamps.

The door creaked open, and Luo Yao and Li Xian entered the yard one after another.

Lumin Street gathers a lot of ordinary laborers who work for employers with deeds of indenture or contract. Because the employers pay high wages, many people and small vendors who fled to He County due to drought and famine have settled down there and rent houses in this area with their families.

Luo Yao is a businessman from the north. His family fell into poverty due to drought and he could not work on his own, so he came here to work under the boss of the main contract. Li Xian is his family guard.

After a tiring day, Luo Yao came home, took off his work clothes, and collapsed into the chair.

Li Xian brought a basin of water into the house and said, "Master, it's time. I put the medicine here."

Luo Yao nodded, and Li Xian left the room.

After Li Xian left, Luo Yao sat in the chair for a while and slowly began to clean his face.

After moistening his face with the medicine, he took some effort to tear off the tight skin, scooped up a handful of clean water to wash his face, and Luo Yao let out a long sigh.

This face is well made, very realistic and flexible, but it is still not as comfortable and natural as my own face.

After washing up and lying on the bed, Luo Yao tossed and turned and couldn't fall asleep. He simply sorted out in his mind what had happened in the past month.

Ever since Yue Lou left, he wrote to Ye Qing asking Qingye Valley to take care of his brother and grandfather for a while, and also wrote a letter to Du Bing in Qingye Valley.

Du Bing quickly wrote back to inform his grandfather about his brother's situation in Qingye Valley, but Ye Qing did not reply.

Luo Yao didn't care about so many things. The letter Du Bing wrote to him told him that his grandfather and brother were living well in Qingye Valley, and that was enough.

As for Ye Qing not replying, it was somewhat related to Bei Zhenting. Someone was using this to express his dissatisfaction...

Luo Yao didn't know the specific reason, and he resisted thinking about anything related to Bei Zhenting.

Ever since leaving Yuelou, he has entered a state of dullness and chaos. For example, now, although he is clearly thinking about all sorts of things, his mind feels empty.

The moonlight cast a white glow on the desk. Luo Yao tilted his head and stared at the desk in a daze.

He didn't know how long he was in a daze. As he felt sleepy, Luo Yao pulled the quilt to cover his face and closed his eyes peacefully.

-

The drought became more severe in August, and the northern part of Dacheng, Daqi, and the southern part of Qi were all affected areas.

The Dacheng Kingdom was less affected by the disaster because of the diversion of water canals, and many places had sufficient water supply. In contrast, the Qi Kingdom became the country that suffered the most from the disaster.

The geographical environment of Qi State is harsh. There are vast snowfields in the north, and crops cannot grow. The south suffers from drought all year round. In addition, due to overgrazing by our livestock, the land has become desertified and no grass can grow.

The Dacheng Kingdom dug canals to divert water and solved the drought problem. The Prince of Qi State took the risk and sent several groups of spies to investigate.

When His Majesty of Qi heard that Dacheng's canal diversion not only solved the people's drinking water problem but also allowed them to grow crops in the yellow sand, he was inspired. He took the method of Dacheng's canal diversion recorded by Prince Wuxin and followed it to gather the people to dig canals.

Everything was done in an orderly manner, but there was no big river in Qi State with enough water to support the huge diversion.

A considerable portion of the water from the water diversion channels evaporated and disappeared due to high temperatures before it reached the destination. The water diverted from the water diversion channels was completely insufficient to supply water to the disaster area. The victims frantically scrambled for water, and countless people were killed and injured in the fight.

What's worse, some people violated the government's wishes and dug canals to steal water from downstream sources, resulting in water shortages in the capital area. For a time, the whole of Qi was plunged into panic about drought.

At the same time, a struggle for the throne broke out in the chaos within the State of Qi. Crown Prince Wuxin was exiled because his proposal to dig canals and divert water caused civil unrest, and the fourth prince Wulima was favored by the emperor.

The Fourth Prince Wulima is in favor of war and is now a favorite of His Majesty the King of Qi. He is extremely ambitious. Judging from the internal situation of Qi, there will definitely be a fierce battle before winter.

Although Qi is now in internal chaos due to the diversion of water, as long as someone raises the flag and marches south, the hungry and thirsty people of Qi will rush south like vicious dogs to plunder the drought-stricken states.

Hanzhou was founded by Luo Yao, and over the past six months, it has flourished and has great prospects for development. Luo Yao does not want Hanzhou to be destroyed or its people to be caught up in the war, so he decides to secretly help Bei Zhenqing.

For more than a month, with the help of Bei Zhenqing, Luo Yao mobilized silver and money from Yong'an Fule Bank in Khanzhou and searched for materials for gunpowder.

Sulphur and saltpeter are particularly difficult to procure because they have few uses and large-scale purchases are almost impossible.

After a month of searching, I got a lot of money, but only a dozen boxes of gunpowder.

When the measuring tools are not so accurate, even though we know the relationship between mass and the amount of substance, we still need to constantly experiment and adjust the ratio.

Most of the raw materials were wasted during the experiment, but fortunately, all the efforts were not in vain.

It was a success, but the new confidentiality issue made Luo Yao anxious for more than ten days.

Bei Zhenqing ordered his men to find a group of deaf, dumb, and blind people and hand them over to Luo Yao. Luo Yao was so frightened by the group of people with bleeding eyes that he had nightmares for several days in a row...

After that, Luo Yao separated each step of gunpowder production, assigning it to different people in different workshops. After ensuring the confidentiality of the technology, all work was handed over to Bei Zhenqing's people.

Directly participate in the production of gunpowder or something... Luo Yao doesn't want to die yet.

Bei Zhenqing is a traitor, and doing bad things is his job.

Now if all the work is going smoothly, Luo Yao only needs to wait for another month for Bei Zhenqing's confidant Ge Hao to come back and take over the work, and then he will be able to get out of this matter smoothly.

-

In the next few days, Li Xianluoyao worked non-stop.

The gunpowder assembly line that was officially put into operation two days ago was running into some problems, and Luo Yao and Li Xian had to go to the workshop every few days.

Every day before dawn, he would walk out of the city through the underground passage for an hour, and then walk for another two hours to enter the underground workshop. The round trip took a full six hours.

Although Luo Yao had walked many times in the past month and his body had gradually adapted to this high-intensity trek, it was still an unbearable mental torture for him.

After ten days of hard work, the workshop finally got back on track. No longer having to oversee it every day, Luo Yao had some free time, so he slept for two days, finally feeling more energetic.

Having not had a good meal for a long time, Luo Yao planned to treat himself.