Being an emperor is not something he can do, so he can only rely on his connections.

On the main road of Jia Village, two horse-drawn carriages entered the village one after another. Everyone in the village came out to watch, and Jia Renyi and his wife also waited at the entrance of the village for a long time.

The two old men had red and swollen eyes. Someone had already announced the list of survivors in Jia Village. More than a hundred people were captured in Jia Village, but only a few survived.

After repeatedly confirming that Sanlang was not on the list, the old couple burst into tears, and the whole village was filled with grief.

After Zhang Jingwei got off the carriage, a group of people surrounded him. Some of the survivors' families asked when their men would return home, and some of the victims' families asked when they could take the bodies back.

Zhang Jingwei comforted them one by one, "Don't worry, you will be able to go home after the government investigates the case."

When he saw Jia Renyi, he lowered his head unconsciously and felt a little guilty, but he had to face it all.

"Uncle Jia, I brought back the third brother..." Zhang Jingwei brought the two elders to Jia Sanlang. Jia Renyi slowly opened the straw mat, his hands trembling and tears streaming down his face.

Seeing Sanlang's swollen and deformed face, the two elders could no longer restrain themselves and fell to the ground crying.

"Sanwa... you're so cruel! How could you just abandon me like that? You damned evil villain..."

Li cried and shouted, beating her chest with her hands.

Xiao Cui was also crying, trying her best to prevent her mother-in-law from hurting her.

All the families of the victims present were crying. Zhang Jingwei was not a heartless man. He also shed tears when he saw this scene, but he also had to persuade everyone.

"The dead cannot be resurrected, so prepare for your funeral first. The living must continue to live, so don't be too sad and harm your health."

Jia Renyi looked dazed. He first gave the soldier who was carrying the body a dozen copper coins, and then said, "Sir, please take my son home. I will reward you handsomely."

The soldier waved his hands quickly and said, "Old sir, you are too polite. This is just my job. This gift... is not acceptable..."

Zhang Jingwei patted the soldier on the shoulder and said, "Take it and do your job well!"

"Yes! Thank you very much, old man."

Watching the family walk away, Zhang Jingwei didn't know what he could do. He asked Gao, "Brother Gao, is there any pension system in the army?"

Gao Fei took out a notebook and wrote, "Pensions vary according to rank. Generally, the families of ordinary soldiers receive one ounce of silver and two liters of rice each."

Zhang Jingwei exclaimed: "It's just this little..."

Gao Fei also wrote: "It's great to be able to get the full amount."

Zhang Jingwei now fully understood the viciousness of those officials, but he still cursed angrily: "What... sons of bitches!"

They did not stay in Jia Village for long and returned to the Water Defense Camp. As soon as they arrived at the Water Defense Camp, Zhang Jingwei immediately mentioned his idea to Liu Yanzhi.

Liu Yanzhi flatly rejected the idea: "The number of casualties among the coolies is not something that can be dealt with with just a few hundred taels of silver! The Yunzhou treasury can't allocate that much silver!"

Zhang Jingwei extended his finger, gestured, and said, "Han Ye's embezzled funds over the years are conservatively estimated to be several million taels. We only need a little bit..."

Liu Yanzhi shouted angrily, "Nonsense! No one can take a single grain of sand away without the approval of the Ministry of Justice to confiscate the property!" Feeling his tone was a bit harsh, he softened his tone and soothed Zhang Jingwei, "Jingwei, I know you care about the people, but everything must be done according to the rules! It won't be long. I'll write a memorial to your proposal, and then we'll see what the court decides."

Zhang Jingwei felt a little disappointed and returned to the tent unwillingly.

After coming to this world, Zhang Jingwei had hardly had a good night's sleep. Even if he was physically exhausted, he couldn't fall asleep. Whenever he couldn't sleep, he would start to have wild thoughts. Sometimes he would think about what he could do to make a fortune in this world, and sometimes he would wonder if he would be able to travel back to the afterlife. However, the risk was too great, so he didn't dare to try it easily.

Mu Tou then brought a bowl of hot noodles, and Zhang Jingwei realized that he had not eaten anything today. Is this what they call "forgetting food and sleep"?

Mu Tou advised, "Master, you've been vomiting a lot today. I asked the kitchen to make you a bowl of noodles. Please eat a little. You're weak. If anything happens to you, Sixth Master will skin me alive when he gets home!"

If Mu Tou hadn't said it, Zhang Jingwei wouldn't have paid much attention to Zhang Liu. After Liu Yanzhi came back, Zhang Liu didn't follow him.

Zhang Jingwei took the noodles, slurped them twice, and then asked, "Why is there no news from Sixth Uncle? Is he still in Yunzhou?"

Mu Tou was puzzled at first, but then explained, "Didn't the Tongzhi say that? Sixth Master is injured. It seems something is going to happen in the village... There was an explosion, and many people were killed or injured!"

Previously, Zhang Liu and Liu Yanzhi went to Yaozhuang together to ask for help, but the carriage overturned due to the explosion. Liu Yanzhi was lucky and only suffered minor skin injuries, but Zhang Liu broke his leg. The doctor at the clinic took him back, applied medicine, and fixed it tightly with a splint, making him unable to move.

Explosion? Yes! Zhang Jingwei had some idea in his mind.

After the capture of Yaoying, those caves became "morgues". Zhang Jingwei never went in to check whether it was as he thought, that Yaoying was a huge saltpeter kiln.

After finishing the noodles with soup, Zhang Jingwei decided to go to the cave camp to check it out. He walked into the cave with wood.

There was a pungent smell in the air, and the ground was littered with corpses and ownerless debris.

Zhang Jingwei didn't move forward because he was feeling nauseous. After so many days of torture, he still wasn't used to the bloodiness.

So he asked Mu Mu to dig up a basket of stones and brought back a full basket. Fortunately, it was made of wood, otherwise the others could not have carried it.

Some crystals had already precipitated on the stones in the limestone kiln. Zhang Jingwei carefully scraped off the crystals one by one, and Mu Mu also followed suit. After a while, they had collected a small handful.

Zhang Jingwei held up a torch and tried to ignite the crystals, but the explosion he had imagined did not occur.

"It looks like saltpeter, why is there no reaction? It's strange..." Zhang Jingwei muttered to himself, and Mu Tou didn't understand, so he just hung his head and looked at him.

The saltpeter was even melted but didn't burn. Zhang Jingwei shrugged and pursed his lips.

"Chemistry and the like are the most annoying! Throw it away before someone picks it up and uses it as salt!"

After saying that, he turned around and left. Mu Tou also did as he was told, but he threw him into a brazier full of red charcoal.

"Bang!" The moment it was thrown in, sparks flew all over the brazier and thick smoke rose up. Mu Tou was so scared that he quickly stepped back, and the brazier was even broken with a hole in it.

Fortunately, Mu Tou reacted quickly, otherwise the "mouth" would have been opened on him.

Zhang Jingwei was startled by the noise before he had walked far. After the smoke cleared, he hurried forward to check if the wood was damaged.

Mu Tou was still in shock and asked Zhang Jingwei: "I'm so scared... I'm so scared, Master, what's going on?"

After confirming that Mu Tou was fine, Zhang Jingwei explained to Mu Tou seriously, "This is an explosion!"