With a million soldiers, the empress begged me not to rebel

Chen Qingwan sneered:

"Are we, the Yulin Army, solely dependent on external resources? If Shannan refuses to sell, are we simply going to surrender?"

The scholar turned pale with fear and quickly knelt down to apologize:

"Please forgive me, sir. That was not my intention..."

Chen Qingwan waved her hand, motioning him to stand up, and continued:

"No matter how good the musket is, it is not produced by our Yulin Army. No matter how powerful the thunder bomb is, it is also a foreign product. Only by cracking the secret of gunpowder can our Yulin Army become truly powerful!"

She glanced at everyone with a sharp gaze and said in a deep voice:

"I've made up my mind. Immediately establish a dedicated research team to crack the gunpowder formula. Also, intensify intelligence gathering and make sure to uncover the movements of Zhou's army!"

Chen Qingwan looked around at the generals, and finally set her sights on Li Mu:

"General Li, the important task of gunpowder research is now entrusted to you. The treasury has allocated 200,000 taels of silver as research funds. You must crack it as soon as possible!"

Two hundred thousand taels of silver is no small sum.

The heavy silver boxes filled the entire room, demonstrating Chen Qingwan's determination to develop gunpowder.

After everyone finished their discussion and filed out, the hall gradually returned to calm.

Chen Qingwan deliberately left Li Mu alone, dismissed his attendants, and quietly instructed the guards:

"No one is allowed to approach. Anyone who disobeys the order will be executed!"

Then, she walked up to Li Mu with a serious expression and asked in a low voice:

"How's the gunpowder research going?"

Li Mu bowed and replied respectfully:

"Your Excellency, I have been researching gunpowder for a long time and have made some progress so far."

"We have successfully cracked the two key ingredients in gunpowder: carbon powder and sulfur powder."

He paused and added.

"It's just that the remaining ingredients have special properties and complex proportions, so we're still trying to decipher them."

"Beixiang and Java must also be secretly researching the gunpowder formula."

There was worry in Chen Qingwan's tone.

"The reason why Shannan Prefecture was able to rise so quickly is not only because of Lu Yan's talent in commanding the army, but more importantly, it is the power of gunpowder."

"If our Datong Dynasty could master the secret formula of gunpowder, why would we not be able to unify the world?"

"Your Excellency is absolutely right."

Li Mu echoed.

"Shannan Prefecture possesses advanced technologies far superior to those of other countries in iron and steelmaking, as well as weapon manufacturing. This is also the reason why the prices of Shannan weapons sold abroad remain high."

"Therefore, I suggest that we concentrate all available resources on developing the gunpowder formula."

There was a determined light in his eyes, and his tone became more forceful:

"Only by mastering the independent production capabilities of muskets and thunder bombs can our Yulin Army truly become powerful, ultimately invincible to Datong, and achieve hegemony!"

After hearing this, Chen Qingwan pondered for a moment and took out a broken gun from her sleeve.

The words "Made in Shannan" are clearly engraved on it.

She handed the broken gun to Li Mu and asked in a serious tone:

"The muskets captured by General Xiong's troops are crudely made and clearly not the elite weapons of Shannan Prefecture."

"In your opinion, where did the Zhou family army get this batch of gunpowder weapons?"

Li Mu took the broken gun, looked at it carefully, and smiled bitterly.

He secretly sighed that Lu Yan shouldn't have sold weapons to Zhou Chen just to make money.

This has resulted in a tiger being raised as a threat, posing such a huge threat to Your Majesty.

"I can guess a little bit about Lu Yan's thoughts,"

Li Mu considered his words carefully and spoke cautiously.

"He just wants to take this opportunity to make a fortune from the war."

“The muskets used by the Zhou family army are indeed not very powerful, and are even inferior to the muskets currently equipped by our Yulin Army.

However, Zhou Chen held in his hand a powerful weapon, the Sky-shaking Thunder, which was extremely powerful.

Any solid city wall is like paper in front of it and cannot withstand a single blow.

If Zhou Chen had enough thunder bombs, he might be able to bring down the city wall, with disastrous consequences."

Chen Qingwan said with gritted teeth.

Upon hearing this, Li Mu fell silent, not daring to say another word, for fear that something he said would be wrong and displease Chen Qingwan.

He knew that in this situation, whatever he said would be wrong.

Chen Qingwan waved her hand impatiently, and the broken gun barrel turned half a circle in her hand, making a crisp sound.

"Let's put this aside for now. The gunpowder issue is the key."

"Li Mu, tell me the truth, how confident are you in cracking this formula?"

Li Mu bowed and spoke cautiously:

"Reporting to the Lord, I have already deciphered some of the ingredients, but the gunpowder is a delicate mixture, so I need more samples for comparison tests..."

He paused, looked up to observe Chen Qingwan's expression, and added cautiously

"I would like to seize some more gunpowder weapons from Shannan Prefecture for research."

Chen Qingwan frowned slightly, obviously not satisfied with this answer.

She stared at Li Mu coldly, until his back was covered in sweat, and then she slowly said:

"As soon as possible. Datong's future depends on this gunpowder."

"I will do my best!"

Li Mu responded quickly as if he had been pardoned.

Chen Qingwan gave a few more instructions on keeping the matter confidential, then waved her hand to let Li Mu leave.

She stood alone in the empty hall, stroking the broken gun barrel in her hand.

His eyes were deep, and I don't know what he was thinking.

……

At the same time, the setting sun was blood-red, illuminating the defeated Zhou army.

They staggered back to Xuzhou City in a panic like a stray dog.

The shadow of failure hung over every soldier's heart.

Zhou Chen's face turned ashen and terribly gloomy.

He kicked over the table in front of him, and the teacups on the table clinked.

The tea splashed everywhere, reflecting the anger surging in his heart.

"Trash! A bunch of trash!"

Zhou Chen's roar echoed in the hall.

"Nearly 10,000 elite soldiers, equipped with the latest muskets, couldn't even reach the walls of Jingzhou Prefecture!"

"Not to mention we still have the Sky Thunder, how come it's mute?! Where's the Sky Thunder? Is it mute?!"

The deputy general standing aside lowered his head and dared not breathe, fearing that a single breath would anger Zhou Chen and bring down his wrath.

He felt his back was soaked with cold sweat, his palms were sticky, and he was so nervous that he could hardly breathe.

"Sir, please calm down..."

The deputy general spoke cautiously, his voice trembling and as weak as a mosquito.

"The firearms of Shannan Prefecture are indeed powerful. Although our army has muskets, they are far inferior to them in terms of range and power."

"Moreover, they have a huge number of muskets, almost every person has one..."

The deputy general's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally almost inaudible.

"The firearms manufactured in Shannan are even more sophisticated than we expected."

The deputy continued, his voice trembling slightly.

"Their muskets fired at an extremely high rate and with astonishing accuracy. Our soldiers were often hit before they could even take aim."

"Furthermore, their muskets appear to have been specially modified, capable of continuous firing, providing extremely strong suppressive firepower..."