"Hou Ye, this mountain is called Hulu Mountain, through our observation and measurement, the best place to change the bend and straighten is in the place of this gourd waist, the two sides are less than a hundred zhang apart, but all are rocks, non-human can dig it through, if you can blast open a two-zhang wide passage, then the road can save at least nearly two months, and the cement and labor saved are three million......" The craftsman of the Academy of Sciences who participated in the design of this bid pointed to a small valley recessed in front of him with a horsewhip and said.

"Well, that's exactly what I was thinking about, not only to save money but also to save time and effort." Chen Xu rode on his horse and nodded.

"Master Hou, don't say that this hill will be completely leveled, even if it is only lowered by half, and then our engineering team will get down the soil and rocks on the mountain and fill in the roadbed on both sides, even if it is a long slope, the length of both sides will not exceed five miles, which will save the caravan an hour and a half of time...... "The merchant who also rode next to him said cautiously.

"Hehe, the height of this mountain is only 30 zhang, the width is only 200 zhang, if it is excavated manually, as long as the number of people is enough to start work on both sides at the same time, it is estimated that it will be about the same for half a year, but the cost is too much to gain and lose, you can rest assured, since Benhou is here, he will definitely help it blow up a passage."

Chen Xu smiled and dismounted and stood in the col for a long time to observe carefully, and then personally spent twenty minutes climbing to the top of the mountain to watch the situation on both sides, and then said: "You go and gather people to clear all these trees and thorns in the narrowest part first, and at the same time gather skilled stonemasons and helpers, and prepare sledgehammers and steel drills to make holes in the rocks on both sides, the diameter of the hole is one foot, the deeper the better......"

After Chen Xu finished instructing, Shang Jia left happily to gather the construction team and prepare tools.

In the afternoon of the same day, the construction team gathered hundreds of mountain people from nearby towns and began to clear the trees and thorns with knives and axes.

The next day, Shang Jia had already returned with a sledgehammer and steel drill that had been built overnight in Luoyang, along with dozens of stonemasons and helpers.

Chen Xu also had no experience in blasting rocks, so he could only choose a few places that seemed easy to operate and construct, and let these stonemasons start to make holes in the rocks.

Because the power of black powder is limited, only the number can be used to increase the intensity of the blast, so these holes are relatively large, according to Chen Xu's idea, a hole is filled with dozens of catties of gunpowder, and there must still be a good effect under the violent explosion, which is more than a hundred times faster than splashing with cold water with fire.

In the past three days, seven large holes have been drilled on the hill that are more than one zhang deep, three on the top of the mountainside at the foot of the mountainside on both sides, and one in the middle of the mountaintop.

After another day of waiting, a guard came to report that the gunpowder delivered by the factory had arrived.

This batch of gunpowder was more than 2,000 catties, all of which were packed in sealed large wooden barrels, and in order to safely load eight carts, as well as hundreds of meters of leads, two dumb slaves who were responsible for making gunpowder and blasting also arrived with them, accompanied by the guards and forbidden troops who were responsible for the safety of the experimental factory of the Academy of Sciences.

Along with this batch of explosives were a group of craftsmen and craftsmen from the Academy of Sciences, and even Zhao Qing and Hu Kuan came with them.

"You're here just in time, just in time to see the method and effect of the blasting, and after the explosion here, you will be responsible for the remaining few places to change the bend and straighten!" Chen Xu was very happy with the arrival of Hu Kuan and a group of craftsmen.

Those who work hard govern people, and those who work hard govern people.

Blasting is a high-risk project, and this kind of thing cannot be operated by a marquis himself, and for the sake of his own life, Chen Xu cannot do it himself.

Since ancient times, there have been countless deaths and injuries in blasting work, and even if safety measures are strictly enforced, there is no guarantee that there will be no problems, so we must be as careful as possible.

"Okay, now find someone to sew some sheepskin bags that are slightly thinner than the entrance of the cave, and prepare two small flags, one red and one white, and at the same time inform the county lieutenant of Michi to arrange a team of soldiers to go to the blasting site to maintain order, so as not to let the villagers who watch the excitement get too close and be accidentally injured by Taiyi Shenlei and flying stones......"

"Yes, Master Hou!" After the salute, a group of people went about their work, and when all the arrangements were in place, a cart of gunpowder was transported to the vicinity of the construction site to be blasted, escorted by a group of soldiers.

The two dumb slaves put the gunpowder in the wooden barrel into the sheepskin pocket, a leather bag can hold about 20 catties, and after loading, insert a small thumb thick and slender lead about one zhang and two feet long and press it tightly, and after all the preparations are done, Chen Xu took the two dumb slaves and Hu Kuan, Zhao Qing and a group of craftsmen and craftsmen of the Academy of Sciences to the foot of the mountain, and instructed the two dumb slaves to carefully use a wooden stick tied to the leather bag to gently push the tightly bound explosive bag into the blasting hole, until it was poked to the bottom.

Because I heard that the Marquis of Qinghe was going to use the Taiyi God Thunder Immortal Technique to blow up the hill, many nearby villagers came to watch it in groups every day in the past few days.

But a few days ago, they were all digging holes in the mountains, so everyone was confused, but today I heard that the Marquis of Qinghe was going to officially perform immortal arts, and it ignited the passion of many well-informed people in the nearby villagers and Mianchi County, and when Chen Xu and others transported the gunpowder from Mianchi County, there were thousands of people riding horses, donkeys, riding cars, and even running over to see the excitement.

In addition to the villagers who flocked nearby, there were at least 3,000 people near the entire blasting site, and many of them climbed directly to the top of the mountain or even climbed to the nearby big trees to watch in order to see clearly.

After the explosives were installed, looking at the lead that was only left outside, Chen Xu looked up and looked around, and then his face turned black.

Because in addition to the group of craftsmen and craftsmen around him, there were countless people gathered around, and even the county lieutenant and county magistrate of Michi County, everyone was full of interest and expectation.

"Wave the red flag, blow the whistle, let everyone leave the construction site, no one is allowed within a hundred zhang, otherwise Benhou will not be polite!" Chen Xu said with a stern face.

"Di Di ~~~"

With the sound of several sharp and rapid bamboo whistles, the craftsman in charge of blasting vigorously waved small red flags to the crowd around him, but the crowd was still unmoved.

"County Lieutenant Zhao, immediately arrange for the soldiers to disperse the surrounding spectators, and if they do not retreat, they will be arrested and flogged!"

"Yes, Master Hou!" Looking at Chen Xu's angry face, the county lieutenant of Mianchi County didn't dare to look too much at the excitement, and blew the bamboo whistle to command the soldiers to disperse the surrounding crowd.

It took nearly half an hour to make a fuss and shout, and under all kinds of scolding and scolding, the onlookers finally retreated sixty or seventy zhang, and then the crowd dispersed and there were not enough soldiers, and the crowd of onlookers was unwilling to continue to retreat, completely a pair of savages who were not afraid of death.

Chen Xu can't help it, thinking that according to the power of black powder, the gravel is estimated to fly a hundred meters away at most, if they are smashed or even killed, these fools can only ask for more blessings.

"Later, when I saw the red flag waving again, I lit a fire and quickly fled out of the col, did you hear that?" Chen Xu instructed the two dumb slaves.

"Woo~~" The two dumb slaves quickly nodded together.

"Let's go~" Chen Xu waved his hand and quickly left with a group of people from Zhao Qing, Hu Kuan and other Academy of Sciences, and retreated to the position of the mountain pass, which was two hundred meters away from the blasting place before stopping.

"Banner of Order~"

"Yes~" The craftsman raised the small red flag in his hand and waved it a few times in a row, and the two dumb slaves who were responsible for lighting the fire helped one to hold the lead, and the other took out a match and lit the lead.

It was too far away to see, and the onlookers didn't know why the two dumb slaves fled so quickly, so they could only stand on tiptoe and stretch their necks to watch, and wondered.

"What's going on? Didn't it say that the Marquis of Qinghe released the Taiyi Divine Thunder? What's going on with these two dumb people? A second man muttered.

"Hey, these two are Qinghehou's immortal slaves, they must be preparing magic weapons, Qinghehou only needs to release mana from afar!" A disdainful answer from a seemingly knowledgeable two-man force.

"Hey, it seems that what you said is right, look at what Hou Ye took out?"

A sharp-eyed second man saw Chen Xu take out a monocular and hold it up in front of him to watch, and immediately shouted.

"Wait until you see it, the divine thunder is an immortal technique, how can you use common sense, what the Hou Ye is holding in his hand must be a magic weapon that triggers the arrival of the immortal thunder!" The knowledgeable two forced said triumphantly.

In the speculation and commotion of the onlookers, time passed minute by minute, and a full three minutes passed in the long tormented waiting, and the two dumb slaves had already run to Chen Xu's side and squatted on the ground to cover their ears.

"It seems that it is really immortal art, and it even takes such a long time for the Hou Ye to prepare, I am looking forward to what the scene will be when the fairy thunder comes!"

Onlookers are still talking.

"Look, Master Hou put away the magic weapon, it seems that the divine thunder is about to come!"

"Hey, why did Master Hou cover his ears!" It's the sharp-eyed second creature again.

"Shenlei is naturally loud, I'd better cover my ears!" The knowledgeable second forced turned his head to look at Chen Xu, and found that it was not only Chen Xu who covered his ears, but also a group of people around Chen Xu who covered their ears, so he quickly reached out and covered his two ears and eyes.

And the onlookers elsewhere didn't have any ideas and measures at all, and they were still arguing and discussing why the Taiyi Divine Thunder hadn't fallen yet.

"Why didn't it explode?"

Another more than a minute passed, and the gunpowder still did not explode, and even Chen Xu himself began to wonder if the lead was extinguished, because he looked at it with his glasses for three minutes, until he couldn't see the green smoke coming out, guessing that the time should be almost up, he put away his glasses and began to block his ears, but his hands were sore and didn't explode, and he began to doubt his life.

And seeing Chen Xu put down his hand blocking his ears, Zhao Qing, Hu Kuan and others also slowly put their hands down, but they let go in less than five seconds.

"Boom~~~"

Suddenly, the explosion shook like thunder at the foot of the mountain.

The whole ground trembled, the nearby trees shook with it, and a thick cloud of smoke rose into the air in the col, followed by a rain of debris shot out in all directions like hailstones, and hit a radius of hundreds of meters.

Many small trees and thorns near the entrance of the blasting hole were sprayed out of the cave by the rubble and the branches and leaves of the air wave impact, and accompanied by the sound of the rubble falling to the ground, countless screams of fear came and went, countless onlookers were hit by the flying gravel and screamed like killing pigs, thousands of onlookers were in a mess in the panic, some were frightened and lay on the ground and shouted for mercy, some pouted their butts and drilled into the thorns and weeds, and some rolled on the ground and cried, and more people sat on the ground as if they had been struck by lightning and their faces were dull, I really looked at the smoke and dust rising from the valley and the falling gravel around my body like a fool, and my face was so stunned and frightened that my soul flew away.