The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 488: Bitter Acid and Confucius

The power of the 48-pound mortar is still terrifying, especially when firing explosive bombs.

Of course, this giant explosive bomb is also exclusive to the Chinese Empire and is entirely made by senior craftsmen.

It is filled with potassium chlorate, sugar, finely sifted flour and black powder, and relies entirely on the shock wave generated by the explosion to injure people.

With a loud bang, dozens of kilograms of explosives suddenly exploded in the air. A golden light flashed, and the sound was so loud that it seemed like a muffled thunder had exploded on the top of Macun.

The soldiers around were terrified and didn't dare to think about what would happen if such a large bomb exploded above their heads.

However, Huang Jue, who was awarded the title of Zhenren of Hongdao Dinghui Ganying of the Chanjiao Sect and actually controlled the Dayu Gunpowder Manufacturing Bureau, curled his lips, somewhat dissatisfied.

"Your Majesty, it seems that the road of black powder has reached its end. No matter how much you improve it, its power will only be so-so.

It looks good, but in reality, the explosion range is very limited, and it is loaded with 40 kilograms of explosives, which is enough for half a company of soldiers to fight a medium-sized battle."

The generals and officers around all looked at this Master Huang with envy. He was only in his thirties but was already conferred the title of Master by the imperial court. You should know that the descendants of Zhang Tianshi of Longhu Mountain are still trying to find ways to be conferred the title of Master Huang.

Of course, the generals were not very envious of this title outside the mortal world, but Master Huang's son was an earl at a young age, and was raised in the palace since childhood, attending school with the princes and princesses, which made many people envious.

However, Master Huang Jue retracted his left hand into his sleeve. His left hand had lost two fingers and was now wrapped in white cotton cloth and covered with golden wound medicine.

Thinking of the violent explosion, Master Huang's face, which was pitted by gunpowder smoke, showed a hint of fear.

Fourteen days ago, an experimental accident occurred at the No. 4 Factory of the Gunpowder Manufacturing Department in Yingtian Prefecture, killing one Deputy Director of the Ministry of War, one Director of the Ministry of Works, three students from the Danhua Department of the Tiangong Academy of the Jiading Imperial College, and injuring more than forty officials and students.

Even the person in charge, Huang Jue, was blown out of the door by the air wave, and then a flying tile fragment cut off two halves of his fingers.

All of this is for the secret weapon that will be tested directly on the battlefield today.

Huang Jue looked at Emperor Mo Da who was looking expectant, and took out his bandaged left hand from his sleeve, then bowed to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, your body is worth a million gold, please stay away from this place."

The imperial guards from the Palace Front Division who were around were also well aware of the situation. Without waiting for Mo Zibu to say whether he agreed or not, they directly carried Mo Zibu away from Huang Jue.

If you are the emperor's bodyguard, you must have this awareness. Unless the emperor shouts and says he will never leave, then at this time, don't wait for the emperor to say anything, just carry the person away.

In this way, if something happened, it would not be because the emperor was afraid of death, but because his subordinates were loyal and would carry the emperor away.

After watching the emperor walk away, Huang Jue waved his hand and asked the officials from the Ministry of Works to bring the huge bomb over.

The officials from the Ministry of Works looked pale, their hands trembling slightly, and Huang Jue's cheeks twitched, his expression solemn.

This explosive bomb is not filled with black powder mixed with potassium chlorate and refined sugar, but picric acid!
Yes, it is the famous picric acid explosive in history. This thing was invented by the British Peter Wolfe as early as 1771, but it has always been used as a dye. No one discovered that it can be used as an explosive.

Historically, it would take another seventy years, until 1852, for people to fully realize the explosive power of picric acid.

But who is Emperor Mo? He is a chemistry student. Although he spent four years in college playing World of Warcraft, he still knows a little about the origin of picric acid.

Of course, in this time and space, the emperor's identity greatly restricted Mo Zibu's work in the chemical industry.

Because at that time, it is no exaggeration to say that chemistry is the most dangerous job in the world. Every chemist has experienced being almost killed by a bomb.

Therefore, Mo Zibu could only engage in the chemical industry through agents like Huang Jue. Although this indirect approach would be much less efficient, it was also the only solution.

At least after knowing about the big explosion more than ten days ago, Mo Zibu would not allow himself to do chemical research personally.

Watching the huge explosive bomb being loaded into the mortar, Huang Jue felt his face go numb.

Huang Jue still didn't fully understand the properties of the explosive yellow dye discovered by the emperor.

It obviously cannot be ignited directly with a flame, but it explodes inexplicably from time to time, like a lunatic.

Huang Jue and some junior chemists who participated in the research were trembling with fear, but the artillerymen below who were unaware of the situation were not afraid at all. They lit the fuse under the slightly frightened eyes of a large number of officials from the Gunpowder Manufacturing Department.

With a bang, the explosive bomb, which was loaded with more than a pound of ignition powder and other combustion accelerators as well as dozens of pounds of picric acid, was launched into the air above the top of Macun.

Mo Zibu watched from a distance and saw a small flame burst out in the air. Then, as if gathering power, it was silent for a second, and then suddenly exploded.

Amidst the huge explosion, yellow-green flames appeared out of thin air as if from hell, illuminating the gloomy sky and earth with a dismal green.

A huge shock wave could be seen radiating outward from the center of the explosion. Almost all the surrounding trees were broken, dust was flying on the ground, and countless fragments of various kinds were mixed in the shock wave and scattered in all directions.

The yellow-green mushroom cloud rose so high that Mo Zibu, hundreds of meters away, could even taste a bitter taste, which was the extreme sour and bitter taste of picric acid.

"Protect the emperor, protect the emperor!" A young eunuch from the Imperial Household Department ran towards Mo Zibu crying, apparently wanting to knock Mo Zibu down to protect his safety.

Emperor Mo Da didn't want to endure the feeling of being pressed down by the eunuch, so he raised his dragon thigh and kicked the young eunuch to the ground, cursing under his breath.

"Why are you howling? We're still far away!" Mo Zibu said as he took the lead and walked forward.

This shot really shocked the generals and officers around. They had never imagined that an explosive bomb could have such terrifying power.

If this exploded over a company formed in a square formation, all of them would be destroyed.

Huang Jue was coughing continuously due to the smell of the picric acid explosion. Seeing Mo Zibu coming over, he hurried forward to report:

"Your Majesty, I have fulfilled my mission. The explosion appears to be quite powerful, but its nature is unclear. It seems to be related to a violent collision, and its flammability is difficult to determine at this time."

Mo Zibu was quite happy. At least this firing proved that picric acid could be used as an explosive without having to wait until the mid-nineteenth century.

What we need to figure out now is the medicinal properties that Huang Jue mentioned, that is, the chemical properties, which are crucial to whether or not a stable explosive can be invented.

"Stop the attack. The Qing troops on the mountain should come down and surrender." Mo Zibu said to Reinstein with a smile, and then patted Huang Jue on the shoulder.

"If the Qing army surrenders, you should first go up and check the location of the Qing army personnel, the damage caused, and the explosive and flammable items.

Notify the Imperial Hospital to closely monitor the physical condition of the injured Qing soldiers, focusing on whether the picric acid explosion is toxic and how much damage it can cause to the human body. "As he spoke, Emperor Mo sniffed. The bitter smell of the picric acid explosion was really nauseating. He couldn't inhale it, lest it really be poisonous.

After giving the order, Mo Zibu left quickly. This was the most direct manifestation of the emperor's inability to participate in chemical research.

Mo Zibu's guess was also very accurate. This picric acid bomb, which was considered a super bomb at that time, directly destroyed the morale of the Qing army on the top of Macun.

Considering the hot air balloons that have been flying around these days, many superstitious Banner people believe that the Han people must be able to communicate with gods.

In particular, Baosheng, a bannerman who had surrendered earlier, firmly believed that the Han people were backed by ghosts and gods in the underworld and must not resist.

So not long after, the Qing army commander Iletu's Goshaha came down and knelt down to beg for surrender. Mo Zibu laughed and asked Chen Guangzu to go up and negotiate.

"Tell Yiletu that if you want to survive, kill all the people with yellow and red belts above, and then I will consider it."

Mo Zibu was not lying. He was indeed willing to accept the surrender of these bannermen because they were of use.

If Mo Zibu wanted to go to the northwest to deal with those crazy Muslims, and rely solely on the White Lotus Sect, he would have to consider the risk of being controlled by them after they became powerful, so it would be better to add a bannerman.

Find a way to collect these bannermen and treat them as dogs, and then throw them to the northwest.

Although these bannermen are not as good as the Xing Tang Army in regular combat, their combat effectiveness should be acceptable in a small-scale semi-thermal weapon environment.

Moreover, Mo Zibu needs to be gentler towards them now, because after the issues in Shaanxi and Gansu are resolved, they will immediately face the problems in the Western Regions.

At this time, there were still a large number of bannermen officers and soldiers in the Western Regions who were holding on, and these people had to be recruited.

In any case, compared with the Muslim-inspired Turks in the Western Regions and Central Asia, the Bannermen became a relatively acceptable ethnic group to Mozibu.

On the top of Macun, most of the people surrounded here are bannermen, because they have fought many battles from south to north and know that the other side has thousands of cavalry. If you break out rashly, you will be seeking death.

Of course, they understood better that compared to those messy divine weapons, they were the ones that Dayu wanted to hunt down with the highest priority, and they couldn't even run away.

But luck finally came to these bannermen. When Iletu heard Goshaha's report, he was overjoyed and drew out his sword with a sound.

He looked at the yellow and red belts in the commander's barracks and whispered:

"Have a safe journey, gentlemen. Don't worry, every year during the Lantern Festival and the Ghost Festival, we who are still alive will give you a blood meal."

Upon hearing what Iletu said, Yongkun, the younger brother of Qianlong and the son of Hongzhou, the fifth son of Yongzheng, who was not even an eighth-rate auxiliary prince, turned pale and trembled for a few times before he stood up steadily. As soon as he opened his mouth, tears came down before he could say a word.

"Alas!" Yiletu sighed deeply, "Duke Fuguo, don't blame me. It's your Juelu family's fault for being so ruthless.

Prince Zhu San was already over seventy years old, and his entire family was murdered. It's no wonder that Emperor Guangzhong didn't spare you today."

This was a very nice statement, immediately distinguishing himself from the Aisin Gioro family.

Before Yongkun could speak, the bannermen including Yiletu and Dong Guo rushed forward and hacked him to death with their swords.

Afterwards, they searched around with knives and killed all the yellow and red belts in Macun.

These guys are very smart. Everyone understands that killing the Aisin Gioro family and the people of the Gioro family is equivalent to paying a token of allegiance, and they will be stable in the future.

. . . .

Mo Zibu did not wait in Macun to surrender, nor did he personally arrange for the pursuit of the defeated Hebei Divine Soldiers. Instead, he went straight to Qufu and came to the Yanshenggong Mansion.

Mo Zibu came here to offer sacrifices to Confucius.

Mo Zibu could deal with the Kong family and abolish the title of Duke Yansheng, but he could never directly deny Confucianism or Confucius.

If that were really the case, it would be no different from cutting oneself off from the cultural world.

Therefore, before completely destroying the Yanshenggong Mansion, Mo Zibu still had to come to worship Confucius and express his attitude.

And this also has practical significance. Take Huang Jue for example. He is currently an indispensable assistant to Mo Zibu in his research on chemistry.

Mo Zibu also spent a lot of effort and gave him many rewards to guide him onto the desired track.

But Huang Jue unknowingly walked onto the path of cultivating immortals. The research on picric acid progressed so slowly because Huang Jue kept going astray.

This is really speechless, and makes Mo Zibu very depressed.

Because the biggest motivation for research is interest. People like Lavoisier will feel uncomfortable if you don't let them do research.

Europe also has an academic atmosphere accumulated over hundreds of years, which can continuously discover interested people like Lavoisier.

But Huang Jue was born into a religion and alchemy background. Chemistry was not his interest; cultivation was. China did not have the kind of atmosphere that existed in Europe.

With all this going back and forth, the initiative has been greatly reduced. Now Mo Zibu can only wait for the three batches of new students who have been sent to Europe to come back and let them take the lead in improving the domestic research environment.

At the same time, this also has a lot to do with Mo Zibu's intention to depose Duke Yansheng.

The atmosphere of scientific research in China has been distorted by the Confucian philosophical system, which makes people fond of empty talk, nostalgia, emphasis on ethics and morality, and personal cultivation.

But when they encounter new things, they criticize them as strange and lewd techniques, and when they relate them to reality, they misinterpret the words of saints and use them as excuses.

It is true that philosophy is important, but you cannot let all the smart people in the country engage in abstract philosophy. You must have a way to transform philosophy into science.

This is also the main reason why Confucianism has reached a dead end today.

To make a crude analogy, philosophy is the mother of science, but Confucianism, the philosophy that summarizes China, has not ovulated in the past few hundred years.

So what Mo Zibu needs to do is to open up the fallopian tube and allow philosophy and science, the mother and son, to interact with each other.

Deposing the Duke of Yansheng's Mansion and overthrowing the Kong family of Qufu, which symbolized the extreme conservatism and corruption of Confucianism, was the most important step for Mo Zibu to establish New Confucianism.

(End of this chapter)