As a supervising soldier, Ni Yuanlu naturally knew that he needed to mingle with ordinary soldiers, and only when soldiers backed themselves as their own people could they complete the task given by the emperor, which was to weaken the absolute authority of the military commander. In the Ming Dynasty, there can only be one owner of absolute authority, the emperor, and the role of the supervising army is to make all soldiers understand this and not be questioned, only in this way can the leading generals not have different hearts.

The supervising army supervises the leading generals on behalf of the emperor, and the distrust of the supervising army means that the imperial power extended to the army is weakened, and if this is done for a long time, Ni Yuanlu himself is embarrassed to continue to be in office. He was not trusted because of rumors, and the rumors said that the explosion was caused by Ni Yuanlu's own bad luck, and if he found the real cause of the explosion, he could refute the rumors, and maybe he could enhance his prestige, so Ni Yuanlu was very eager to find the truth of the explosion.

Ni Yuanlu knew that if the gunpowder in the gunpowder box was tightly filled, it might not be possible to blow up the gunpowder box if it was smashed or squeezed violently at this time, but he knew that the gunpowder box was loosely packed and there were shock-absorbing measures such as cotton cloth. But when he heard Wu Sangui talk about stone-throwing and iron bow twisting, he suddenly remembered that if the iron horn hit the stone at the moment when the gunpowder box was broken, then the splashed sparks could cause an explosion.

Wu Sangui saw Ni Yuanlu's happy appearance and asked softly, "Uncle Ni, what is the truth about the explosion?" ”

Ni Yuanlu wanted to explain it to Wu Sangui, but after thinking about it, he felt that it was inappropriate, so he turned his head and said to the guard: "Go and call that Wei Liu, who is the soldier who is recuperating in front of him and is sometimes called by me to play chess." ”

After the guards left, Ni Yuanlu said to Wu Sangui: "I thought of a possibility, but I want to verify it, this Wei Liu was injured in the explosion that day, and I want him to help me remember it." ”

Wu Sangui said: "It turns out that this is the case, I thought that Uncle Ni's chess addiction was guilty and he wanted to ask someone to play chess with you, but if he is really addicted, his little nephew can accompany you to play." ”

Ni Yuanlu asked: "How is your chess skills better than your father?" ”

Wu Sangui said: "It used to be about the same, but now I estimate that my chances of winning are bigger." ”

Ni Yuanlu shook his head and said: "Then forget it, I can't even play your father, so I won't be abused in your hands, if you really want to play chess, call Wei Liulai, his level is about the same as mine but slightly weaker, this kind of person is particularly interesting to slaughter." ”

Wu Sangui smiled and said, "It's okay, Uncle Ni really wants to win the little nephew, he can deliberately lose to you." ”

While the two were talking, Wei Liu arrived, Wei Liu was thin and long, with a square head, very big eyes, a big mouth, teeth cracked at any time, and a smile attracted people. He just fell on his head at the mouth of the two rivers and put some medicine on it, but later he was often dizzy, maybe he had a concussion and needed to recuperate, it just so happened that he was Ni Yuanlu's little fellow countryman, and Ni Yuanlu also needed to ask him, and after knowing his situation, he sent someone to pick him up.

Seeing him coming, Ni Yuanlu asked, "Are you still dizzy these days?" ”

Wei Liu said: "I used to be dizzy, but after taking some medicine, I gradually got better, and it seems that those young doctors are really good." ”

Wu Sangui asked, "Why don't I know what young doctor?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Your body is like a cow, how can you know if you don't find someone to treat your illness?" There were a few young people living at the bottom of the hill who were studying medicine in medical school, and they asked Wei Liushao to shake his head but he couldn't sleep often, saying that occasionally using his brain was also good for his body, so I sometimes called Wei Liushao to come over and play chess. ”

Wei Liu said: "It turns out that the adult played chess with me to heal my illness, and I really want to thank the adult." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "You're welcome, folks, you said that you moved a gunpowder box on the city wall when it exploded that day, and later someone left the gunpowder box under the city wall and caused an explosion. ”

Wei Liu thought for a while and said: "There is a small courtyard by the city wall, and there are several houses in the small courtyard that are stacked with gunpowder boxes. Zhang Qianhu said that this was a place where the military of Ni Jian was not allowed to put confidential items, and a new general said that if he could not enter, he would enter the horses, and said that he would temporarily put dozens of horses in the courtyard and pull them out after the camp was set up outside in two days. We thought it would be better for people to listen to the greetings after all, this animal could not understand human words, maybe it would gnaw and kick a few hooves, so we decided to put those powder boxes in the enemy tower on the city wall for two days, and then put them back when they were gone, who knew that something would happen on the way. ”

Ni Yuanlu asked, "Do you mainly recall whether the gunpowder box hit the stone that day?" ”

Wei Liu said: "I was very busy running up and down that day, and suddenly it exploded, and I fainted at the time, and I can't remember whether I hit the stones, but the materials used to build the city wall are either hard bricks or stones, and it is very possible to hit the powder box that fell down." ”

Ni Yuanlu saw that he didn't ask the result, and after thinking about it, he asked the guards to move some stones and put them under the steep ridge, especially emphasizing that it was best to find some black stones, and after the guards covered the steep ridge with stones, Ni Yuanlu asked Wei Liu to hold a box of gunpowder and throw it under the steep ridge. Wei Liu, who had experienced an explosion and knew the danger, threw it forward a certain distance away from the steep ridge, and hurriedly lay on the ground with his head in his hands before waiting for the box to end, who knew that he only heard a muffled sound and did not react.

Ni Yuanlu asked Wei Liu to throw another box, and the second box reacted as soon as it went, only to hear a loud bang and the gunpowder exploded, and everyone was still startled even though they were prepared. Immediately afterwards, a large cloud of black and white smoke rose from under the steep ridge, accompanied by some dirt and gravel, which crackled like rain when it blew up. The most frightening thing is that half of the gunpowder box was thrown up, just smashed on Wei Liu's leg, fortunately, half of the gunpowder box was not heavy and did not hurt people, Wei Liu was also shocked and said that it was fortunate that it was not a stone that smashed his leg, otherwise the smashed leg would be useless, and maybe his life would not be there.

Ni Yuanlu said: "Today should be similar to the situation that day, first one box was broken to reveal gunpowder, and then the iron-clad edge of another box hit a stone or hard brick and sparked gunpowder to ignite gunpowder. There were a lot of gunpowder boxes piled up under the city wall that day, waiting to be moved upwards, and after an explosion, the city wall was blown up, and some of the powder boxes were thrown onto the city wall when they exploded, resulting in dozens of people being injured by the gunpowder boxes on the city wall. ”

Wei Liu was so frightened that his face did not recover, and when he saw Ni Yuanlu asking and only nodded again and again, Wu Sangui blinked and asked, "I know that Uncle Ni wants to prove to everyone that the rumors are wrong, but even if Uncle Ni is right, who will believe you by making these preparations?" Do you call all the soldiers at the mouth of the two rivers to see it, or do you go to the mouth of the two rivers and do it again? ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "It may not be realistic to ask people to come and see and do it again, but I can ask the ministers of the DPRK and China to help me prove it, and you can also help me prove it." ”

Wu Sangui shook his head and said: "Of course, the two nephews can prove it to you, but I'm afraid that others won't believe that you have bought us off, even if you find two ministers of the DPRK and China to test it again, others can still say that you are officials and officials protect each other and don't count." ”

Ni Yuanlu thought for a while and said: "I can ask the emperor to prove it to me, as long as the emperor decrees to prove my innocence, no one will dare to make irresponsible remarks!" ”

Wu Sangui looked at Ni Yuanlu exaggeratedly, and then said with a wry smile: "Uncle Ni, didn't you drink too much?" It's not enough for your old man to be in danger here, but you have to call the emperor to accompany you to play with your life, as long as the emperor is here, you dare to call Wei Liu to come so twice, if you don't blow up some small stones, you will hurt the emperor's dragon body. At that time, even if the emperor favors you again, I'm afraid that the three of us will be arrested and the whole family will be beheaded, right? Maybe before his head was cut off, he would be tortured by the internal guards and asked who supported him. ”

Wei Liu also recovered his strength at this time, and said softly: "Lord Ni, this Wu Gongzi is right, it is indeed not what we should do to blow up the powder box in front of the emperor, and when the time comes, it will be convenient for your whole family to be cut up in Beijing when the time comes, and my parents in my hometown will have to be escorted all the way to Beijing, and they will have to suffer more sins all the way." ”

Ni Yuanlu asked depressedly, "Then what do you say you should do?" ”

Wu Sangui said: "Uncle Ni, you asked me to read more at the beginning, and the little nephew saw that you just read too many books and admitted that you were a little dead, saying that you were unlucky, those words were all rumors, what do you care about it?" Rumors are like smoke at the beginning, and after a while some wind blows and then they disappear. The little nephew thinks that as long as you write the story to the emperor, as long as the emperor trusts you, is it still called an opinion? In a few months, I will go back and continue to be your supervisor, who in the army from top to bottom dares not to give you three points of face, I am really unhappy, I don't think what kind of supervisor is here to do research, and there is no responsibility and danger to earn a lot of money when you come out, where is it uncomfortable? ”

Ni Yuanlu nodded slowly and said: "You have a point, it seems that you kid is still an official, and you know that you must win the emperor's trust This secret to being an official." ”

Wu Sangui said: "What is this, as long as you are not an official and a fool, you know this secret, but the little nephew thinks that you start this experiment as if it can be used in other places, for example, the special cannonballs made of peppers, lime, dog shit and other things that the little nephew said at the beginning can use your method to blow up and smoke the enemy." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Your idea has been said at the beginning, but what does this have to do with my experiment? Did you know what I was doing in the first place? And the prophet knows what the outcome will be? ”

Wu Sangui said: "The little nephew's initial idea was to make a hollow cannonball skin, which was filled with chili pepper flour, lime powder, stinky dog poop and other things to become special cannonballs. But now after watching Uncle Ni's test, the little nephew thinks that adding some gunpowder to it and adding some black flint for the fire sickle will blow up more and the effect is better? ”