Starting with choosing a wife, creating the most powerful Xia

After the village chief left, he quickly conveyed Chu Xuan's message to the villagers.

This immediately drove everyone crazy.

One hundred coins a day for each person! This was an enormous sum of money for them.

When the school was first being built, many people were envious of the wages paid to the participants. However, since it was only a school, it didn't require so many people, so the others could only secretly envy them. Unexpectedly, this day actually came.

Let alone simply moving some sand, gravel, and excrement, under such a huge temptation, some people even felt embarrassed to keep the money and wished they could kowtow to Chu Xuan twice.

In an instant, all the able-bodied young men in the village were mobilized.

Apart from the initial group assigned to patrol the mountain, almost everyone else participated in the transportation of sand, gravel, and excrement.

More than two hundred people participated.

Fortunately, the village chief was good at directing the work. He assigned tasks to different categories, so that even with so many people working together, things didn't seem chaotic. Instead, everything was in good order, and for a time, the rudiments of an assembly line were formed.

The villagers were just poor, but there were a few clever ones among them.

They quickly realized that the sand and excrement were probably related to the explosion that came from Chu Xuan's house.

But no one could figure out the deeper reasons. They could only recall the earth-shaking tremor and feel even more awe for Chu Xuan.

Through word of mouth, Chu Xuan has almost been portrayed as a god-like figure.

After working for three days straight, Chu Xuan's hand injury had almost fully recovered. He went up the mountain to take a look and saw everyone working enthusiastically. He nodded in satisfaction, waved his hand, and immediately distributed the wages for the three days.

Upon receiving their wages, the villagers were energized and overjoyed, working even more frantically.

Putting everything else aside, our lord is truly a man of action. He said he would improve people's lives, and then he immediately started paying them to start work.

After offering them a few words of encouragement, Chu Xuan returned to the courtyard.

At this point, there were already five or six cartloads of sulfur in front of them, three buckets of excrement, and countless amounts of firewood.

Chu Ling'er and the other two girls had offered to help him in the past few days, but Chu Xuan refused without hesitation.

Although everyone could roughly guess the formula for black powder, Chu Xuan did not want the specific process to be revealed.

This is the best protection for myself and for the three women.

The reason I wouldn't tell them wasn't a matter of trust.

After some work, Chu Xuan prepared another batch of gunpowder, intending to put it in a bamboo tube, connect a fuse, and use it as a makeshift cannon mount.

But it was only later that I realized the instantaneous temperature of the explosion caused by the black powder being ignited was over a thousand degrees.

Bamboo might withstand the first and second explosions, but under the influence of high temperatures, it's only a matter of time before it explodes.

However, apart from that, Chu Xuan's hands-on skills simply did not support him in creating other load-bearing objects on his own.

Chu Xuan rubbed his chin and thought for a while. In the end, he went back to his study, drew a blueprint, and handed it to A Leng.

Ah Leng looked at the strange-looking things above and asked Chu Xuan with some confusion, "What is this?"

Chu Xuan smiled and said, "I don't know how to explain this to you right now. Ah Leng, take this blueprint to the market down the mountain and find a blacksmith to see if he can make this thing."

"have to."

Ah Leng naturally wouldn't refuse, but she still complained a little: "I'm practically a personal errand girl now."

After receiving the blueprints, A Leng immediately went down the mountain, found the nearest market, and had the craftsmen there expedite the creation. She then rushed back to hand them over to Chu Xuan.

During the handover, Ah Leng was puzzled by the strangely shaped object that resembled a pipe but had an extra handle. She wondered what Chu Xuan wanted it for.

Chu Xuan didn't offer much explanation. He immediately turned around, removed the flint from the tinderbox, put it into the tube, poured in some gunpowder, and compacted it.

After doing all that, he finally looked at the thing with satisfaction.

Although it's somewhat abstract and nitpicky, you can still vaguely see that this is the prototype of a gun.

After gesturing for Ah Leng to step back a little, Chu Xuan aimed at a wall in front of him and covered his ears with his other hand.

Only then did A Leng realize that Chu Xuan had come up with some even better weapon, so she immediately obeyed and hid to the side, watching with great interest.

Chu Xuan pulled the trigger, and the flint was struck, igniting the gunpowder.

"boom!"

A muffled thud erupted, and sparks flew from the muzzle of the gun, a fiery snake striking the distant earthen wall with pinpoint accuracy.

Several dark holes were left on it, and what was once a perfectly good wall now looked like it was riddled with holes.

Blowing away the smoke from the gun muzzle and dissipating the not-so-large recoil in his wrist, Chu Xuan nodded in satisfaction.

Although its power is somewhat reduced, it can still cause considerable damage to people without affecting the user.

The ensuing battle of outmaneuvering the bandits will naturally not be smooth sailing. Chu Xuan must first consider the worst-case scenario; even with A Leng by his side, there is no guarantee of complete safety.

Now that he had this pistol in hand, Chu Xuan felt much more at ease. At least if something happened, or if A Leng wasn't around, he would have the ability to protect himself.

Footsteps came from inside the house. Chu Ling'er pushed open the courtyard gate, looked at Chu Xuan whose face was blackened by smoke, and smiled helplessly: "Husband, you've come again."

"Hehe, I just had an idea. I can't rest easy until I come up with it."

"What are the results?"

Chen Xuening followed up with a question.

Chu Xuan didn't speak, but just chuckled and pointed to the earthen wall.

The three women stepped forward to investigate and immediately gasped in shock.

The earthen wall, which was about a foot thick, was now riddled with holes, with several holes even piercing through it completely. The three women could roughly imagine the terrible consequences that would have been if this blow had hit a person.

Chen Xuening stared in astonishment at the still-smoking pistol in Chu Xuan's hand. Although its power was far less impressive than the last time, it was still hard to believe that something only ten centimeters long could do such a feat.

It was another huge shock. In the past few days, Chen Xuening had lost count of how many times Chu Xuan had amazed her.

It seemed that every now and then, this guy could come up with something that would broaden her horizons. For a moment, Chen Xuening was a little confused about whether she was a scholar or Chu Xuan was.

Undoubtedly, Chen Xuening had completely submitted to Chu Xuan. Her usually aloof face now softened, revealing a hint of allure, and her gaze towards Chu Xuan was full of affection.