The explosion on July 26, the 17th year of Xingqian, shocked the entire Ming Dynasty. After all, this was the first time that an explosion had occurred in an urban area, although the power of the explosion caused far less damage than the explosion at Wang Gongchang during the Apocalypse. But one thing is for sure, this is the first such explosion in 17 years. After all, in all gunpowder factories, there are strict safety production practices, and at most there is only the occasional news of a steam engine exploding.

For a time, Daming's newspapers were full of news related to the explosion. People are asking about the cause of the incident, and some people are worried about the arsenals in various places and the gunpowder in them.

Less than two hours after the bombing, the telegram was sent to the cabinet, and the next morning, just after 8 o'clock, the cabinet's decision had already arrived in front of Zhu Mingzhong's case.

"Move out of the Gunpowder Bureau?"

Looking at the cabinet's decision, Zhu Mingzhong's expression was a little surprised.

"Yes, Your Majesty, I have a total of four major arsenals in the Ming Dynasty, namely Zhongdu, Shenyang, Nanjing and Guangzhou, in addition to Xi'an, Hanyang two medium-sized arsenals, now each factory produces no less than 10,000 tons of gunpowder every year, because gunpowder is widely used, mining, road construction needs no less than tens of thousands of tons every year, there are more than a dozen factories in the private sector to produce gunpowder, and its quality is also superior, but these gunpowder factories, most of them are located near the edge of the city, although there are safety production regulations, but once there is an explosion, the consequences are unimaginable, therefore, The ministers thought that the gunpowder factory had to be moved, at least from the city or from the edge of the city, and that it was necessary to ensure that there were no people within two miles of it, so that the explosion could avoid injuring the people! ”

Although he didn't know the reaction of the people, Gu Yanwu didn't know that this explosion that killed more than 30 people would definitely cause a sensation in the Ming Dynasty, and it was better to make a decision early than to wait for the people to talk there and make people uneasy.

"Moreover, in the future, with the increasing demand for gunpowder in mines, railways, etc., the output of gunpowder will definitely increase.

"Now that the cabinet has decided, let's do so!"

Thinking that it was indeed inappropriate to place the gunpowder factory near a residential area, Zhu Mingzhong nodded in agreement, and then asked.

"Can the cause of the explosion be determined? Are you sure it was a gunpowder explosion? ”

"Your Majesty, it is indeed a gunpowder explosion, but there is one thing that makes Nanjing a little puzzling."

"Oh? How puzzling? ”

"Responsible for the inspection of this case, it is really not clear why the deceased placed so many explosives in the rented yard, according to the explosion power at the scene, at least 300 catties of high-quality gunpowder must be required to cause similar damage, so they really can't figure out why he stored so much gunpowder there."

Fang Yizhi replied that five years ago, he returned to Nanjing from the northeast to join the cabinet as an auxiliary minister, and he has been a cabinet assistant for five years.

"Yes, after all, gunpowder is not a contraband, you can buy it at any time, although there are restrictions on bulk purchases, but if you want to buy it, there is no difficulty, as long as you register a company, you can order it directly......

Buying gunpowder and firecrackers in Daming is even easier than buying slaves and maids, and buying slaves and maids also needs to go to the government for registration, and gunpowder and firecrackers can be purchased with household registration, of course, the only restriction is that it must be Han Chinese, in fact, this restriction is also a decoration, after all, the government has never been able to grasp it, and after those people have bought it, will they resell gunpowder and firecrackers to others. It's just a matter of quantity.

"Well, that's pretty puzzling."

Looking at the report sent to the cabinet overnight from Nanjing, when he saw that the deceased's occupation and huge source of income were unknown, Zhu Mingzhong's eyebrows raised, and then he asked rhetorically.

"This Wang Weijie is an engineer at the Nanjing Arsenal, if I remember correctly, the Nanjing Arsenal is the only company that produces fire caps except for Qinghe!"

The reason why I think of the fire hat is because until now, the production and manufacturing of the fire hat is still a secret secret, and even now the people of the Ming Dynasty will buy hundreds of thousands of fire guns every year, but the fire guns that cause them are still flint, and only the army can get the fire hats. It is the fire cap that restricts the enemies and potential enemies of the Great Ming, and cannot possess weapons with the same performance as the Great Ming.

Just like the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they may have built an arsenal in Shengjing by smuggling steam engines and machine tools, where they imitated all kinds of firecrackers and artillery, but because they did not have fire caps, they could only use flintlock guns, and only a small number of elites could only use firecrackers, and as for fire caps, they could only rely on smuggling.

However, their rifled guns are pitiful, because the caliber of the guns they make can not meet the requirements of firing Minie bullets, although they bought the machine through various channels, but the deep-hole drilling machine and the corresponding drill bits are unique to the Royal Arsenal, especially the latter, the drill bits made of high-quality tool steel made of graphite tong pots ensure that the caliber of the firing guns is 0.46 inches, which is a prerequisite for the use of Mini bullets, but the equipment obtained by the Manchu Qing Dynasty cannot guarantee the accuracy of the guns.

The leading industrial technology allows the Ming Dynasty to form an overwhelming advantage over the enemy in military technology, but some industrial technologies need to be kept secret, such as the manufacture of raw materials such as thunder mercury and potassium chlorate for the manufacture of fire caps.

It was precisely because he knew how important the fire hat was to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, so Zhu Mingzhong immediately thought of another possibility from the identity and income of the deceased.

"Your Majesty, do you mean that this Wang Weijie sold the formula for the fire hat to the Manchu Qing?"

When they heard that the formula for the fire cap was sold, everyone was surprised. They all knew how important that thing was to Da Ming.

"Selling formulas? If that's the case, he won't die, I guess, that place should be the place where he made the fire cap, he should have made the fire cap there, and then sold it to the Manchus, the explosion may have been an accident in the manufacturing process, so the explosion is naturally not an explosion of ordinary gunpowder......"

Thundermercury, its power is far more than ordinary high explosives!

"Your Majesty, as soon as you say this, everything has been figured out, this person is very likely to have been killed by a spy of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it is possible that they found out that the other party has a recipe for making fire cap medicine, so ......"

Before he could say anything, Gu Yanwu said excitedly and loudly.

"Your Majesty, Nanjing must be allowed to solve the case at any cost, otherwise once the fire cap formula flows out, it will be a great disadvantage to my Ming Dynasty!"

Danger is everywhere!

Zhu Mingzhong sighed, then nodded.

"Well, the plan is to give an order to Nanjing and the Ministry of War, and order the military department to cooperate with the local inspection, and this case must be seized at all costs, if I am not wrong, maybe, they may have already obtained the formula!"

Even if they get the recipe, what if!

Zhu Mingzhong sneered, from the 21st century, he knew that the secret of thunder mercury could not be kept for a long time, and now it can be kept for ten years, because the Manchu Qing Dynasty itself did not have a few chemical experts, although in the early years, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had sent people to infiltrate the academy of the Ming Dynasty, but with several spies who infiltrated the academy to study and took the initiative to surrender, as early as ten years ago, the possibility of the Manchu spies to study in the Ming Dynasty had been completely cut off.

The backwardness of science led to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, who retreated to the Western Regions for ten years, and could not pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty at all, of course, they also rejected science within themselves - the Manchus themselves were rejected, and they were repulsed by progress, especially under the premise that they continued to attack cities and land in the Western Regions and win victory after victory.

However, they have not given up stealing things that will help them improve their military power, and the widely used thundermercury is one of them.

"Your Majesty, if they have already obtained the formula, they must order the whole province of Shaanxi to strictly investigate, and if they do not have household registration certificates, they will be arrested and interrogated first, and every suspect must strictly check their identity, and they would rather be arrested and borrowed, and they should not be let go!"

Without hesitation, upon learning that the recipe for mercury might have been stolen by the Manchus, the ministers immediately made a decision, which, although extremely disturbing, seemed to them to be a national treasure that had been stolen and must be strictly investigated.

"And Nanjing, it must also be strictly investigated!"

Seeing that several pavilion assistants were incarnated as inspectors and discussing how to check and how to ensure that the formula was not sent out, Zhu Mingzhong did not speak, it was no big deal.

The Manchus could get thunder mercury, but they couldn't make rifled guns, and even if they made rifled guns, the Ming would make rear-loading guns, and even metal bullet shells. Even if the Manchus wanted to chase after them, they might not be able to catch up, because they couldn't reach it technically.

And with the technology of the Ming Industrial Revolution, the advantage of the Ming Dynasty over the Manchu Qing is not only in weapons, but in the system, on the other hand, what does the Manchu Qing have? It seems to be strong, but in fact it is just a Turkey in Central Asia!

"It's just a bunch of wild tartars out of the woods, even if they are given another thirty or a hundred years, they will be Turkish ......."

Muttering in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but think of Turkey, which had shrouded Central Europe in fear, Egypt, and Suez.

Now that steamboats have begun to spread on inland waterways, and there are steamboats along the coast, perhaps the Suez Canal can be excavated!

Now the Manchu Qing Dynasty is not important at all in Zhu Mingzhong's eyes. As long as the railway is repaired to Jiayu Pass and Guazhou, the army of the Ming Dynasty can drive straight into it at any time and directly take the Western Regions into existence, as for the Manchu Qing Dynasty...... They are no match for the Ming at all!

However, it is true that the Manchus need to be thanked, they have long been accustomed to slaughter, and in the process of their conquest of the Western Regions, they not only ensured their rule in the local area through massacres, but also learned the lessons of the year, and cut down the grass and eradicate the roots by killing men and snatching women.

This was a good thing for the Ming Dynasty, at least under their butcher's knife, where it turned from green to yellow - the Manchus believed in Tibetan Buddhism, and Buddhism was once again introduced to the Western Regions, hundreds of years after it was erased by the green with a butcher's knife.

If you drive them all the way west to the Arabian Peninsula to eat sand, I don't know what the effect will be?

When this thought flashed in his heart, Gu Yanwu's voice brought Zhu Mingzhong back to his senses.

"This matter, let's handle it according to the arrangement of the Qing!"

After the words fell, Zhu Mingzhong emphasized again.

"It's important to find the recipe, and it's equally important to appease the local people, they are all my people, and we must do a good job of appeasing the aftermath!"

Despite the holy decree, for Nanjing, after they realized that something was missing, recovering the formula and catching the spy became the top priority, and as for the aftermath, it was just a normal aftermath to appease.

For a time, the whole Nanjing was full of patrols, they checked passers-by at intersections, and even joined the army to cooperate with patrols inside and outside the city.

In the eyes of the people of Nanjing, this kind of search and investigation is just to catch the real culprit of the bombing, at least to the outside world, and only the people concerned know the reason for such a tight guard.

"Damn, I don't know how long I'm going to stay in this cell......

In a basement in Nanjing, a middle-aged man couldn't help but complain, this basement was filled with the smell of feces and urine, mixed with the smell of tobacco, which only made people feel a little disgusting, maybe because they stayed for a long time, the people in this room got used to the smell here.

"Hey, don't mention it, as long as we don't let it go outside for a day, we won't be able to go out for a day!"

Another man spoke.

"You said how bad we poured, and we finally got the recipe in our hands, but it exploded over there, blocking us all here, and still said, we should have taken it here at that time, and left there......"

"But no, if we left at that time, it is estimated that all the trains will arrive in Henan, and this Nanjing will be bombed again, what does it have to do with us?"

"Alright, you guys, don't complain!"

The man who was obviously the leader looked at them and said.

As long as we take the formula back, will the master's reward be less? In addition to a lot of silver, the clothed slaves are also indispensable to you, and you will wait to enjoy the blessings one by one! ”

As soon as he said this, the other three people in the room stopped complaining, and then they all fantasized about a good life after returning to Shengjing, but everyone has fantasies, and for them, the biggest dream is to become the master.

"Oh, I'm finally going back, what the hell, I'm worried about my life all day long, and when I return to Shengjing, I can always sleep soundly......"

At this moment, the door of the basement over there opened, and a middle-aged man walked in, his face was cold, completely unaffected by the stench in the basement, and as soon as he entered, he said with a cold face.

"It's a big deal, now the patrol and the army are searching door to door, if nothing else, we can be found here in the next two days!

When everyone heard this, they all showed a panicked look, and they were still there looking forward to the dream of becoming the master, and they said in horror.

"What can I do? How do we get out? ”