In the study, Sun Yue and Sun Chunming looked at Xue Juzheng's letter, cooked tea and retreated, and started a serious conversation.

The content of the letter is very simple, basically Xue Juzheng has settled the affairs of Langzhou, especially the Shimen side, the preliminary mineral exploration has been completed, as long as Sun Chunming needs, the entire mineral deposit can be granted to him at any time, but correspondingly, he wants to set up an industry in Langzhou to drive the economic development of Langzhou, and the excavated mines must also pay taxes to the imperial court.

This was Sun Yue's request, wanting to improve the living standards of the people of Langzhou and make up for his guilt through this mine.

When he told Xue Juzheng about this, he didn't discuss it with Sun Chunming at all, although he mentioned it to Sun Chunming after returning to Beijing, Sun Chunming didn't take it seriously at first, mainly because he didn't have a clear concept of Shimen Xionghuang, in fact, if Sun Yue hadn't gone in person, he wouldn't have this concept.

But after reading Xue Juzheng's letter, he was really a little surprised, the high-density sulfur mining area alone is more than 200 acres, which is too big.

"Isn't this scale a bit big, with our family's current financial resources, if we want to eat such a large mining area, it's still a bit overwhelming, I understand if you want to do something for the people of Langzhou, but isn't this step a bit big?"

"What, afraid of losing money? Isn't that just a mine for you, aren't you just about to study gunpowder? ”

"Do you think this is the 21st century? What is realgar used for? You've also fought with the army, your new army has been fighting for four months, and you tell me how many pounds of gunpowder you used? Besides, since this place is one of the five worst affected areas of the 20th century, how much do you think I will have to spend to prevent pollution? Not to mention anything else, the gloves and masks that are changed for the miners every day are not a small amount of money, if you don't care, the whole side is full of cancer villages and it is not in line with your original intention, plus the transportation and water transportation in Langzhou is not very developed, and it is not very convenient to ship, what is this business I want? Besides, I originally planned to build some of our family's properties in Yangzhou, and such a large-scale investment in Langzhou, do you know how much you have to delay me? ”

Sun Yue frowned and said: "To put it bluntly, it is less gunpowder, Dad, I didn't say you, it's been so long, why haven't you made any progress in improving gunpowder?" If you can improve the gunpowder and use it, won't everything be solved? ”

Sun Chunming smiled bitterly: "Do you really think that I haven't researched anything in the past two years?" Alas, in fact, my gunpowder has long been improved, although it cannot reach the level of explosives, but basically it will not be worse than that of the Ming Dynasty, but what is the use of gunpowder? The role of this thing in the war is actually not that big, how heroic is the current Great Song Dynasty army, can you use this thing? If this thing is less equipped, it is useless, and if it is more equipped, the tactics of the entire army will be changed accordingly, how will the army react? Will they accept it? Even if you accept it, will gunpowder really be better than gunpowder? Gunpowder arrows and divine fire flying crows were available in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and in the late Northern Song Dynasty, even thunderbolts and earth-shaking thunderbolts were available, what was the result? As soon as the Jin army came, the 800,000 forbidden army was like paper. To be honest, I don't think it's really useful to the military, at least for now. ”

"Besides, we can make this gunpowder, and others can do it, if I really hand over things and assemble them on a large scale, will it be the Great Song Dynasty that will benefit the most? Hehe, most of China's saltpeter is in the Southern Tang Dynasty, on the population and economy, the Great Song Dynasty and the Southern Tang Dynasty have no advantage, and even a little worse, the new gunpowder and the old gunpowder are worse than the proportion of sulfur in the gunpowder is doubled, if you can get the finished product, do you think the Southern Tang Dynasty will not be able to study it? Say, "What is the use of this gunpowder that I have made?" ”

Sun Yue was also shocked, because in his impression, most of the traversals he watched only needed to get gunpowder out, as if he could be invincible in the world, so he didn't think so deeply at all.

"In other words, gunpowder is useless for Da Song at all? The realgar mine in Nalang Prefecture is also useless? No, if gunpowder really doesn't work, then why are you bothering so much to study this thing? ”

Sun Chunming said with a smile: "So I am researching explosives, if I can study explosives, it will be of great use, if it is pure black powder, unless the rifled flintlock pistol is studied, it is really not very useful for the Song army, and even does more harm than good, but that realgar ore can't be said to be completely useless, at least it's good to use it as a firecracker, you see how expensive the firecrackers on the market are now, a few people can afford it, the most expensive firecracker is sulfur, I plan to open a larger firecracker fireworks factory in Shimen, It should be able to ensure that I can make ends meet, so that my family can afford to set off cannons during the New Year, which is also a merit, and after the Great Song Dynasty unifies the south, this thing will still play a role in the Khitan. ”

"Uh...... Okay, so what? ”

"So, I'm going to move the explosives research to the firecracker factory, anyway, I don't study science and engineering, the project has progressed to this stage and can't help, if you want to make a detonator, the only way is to try, the blind cat can still meet a dead mouse, try his mother 10,000 times, 100,000 times, 100,000 times, 100,000 times, I don't believe I can't make a detonator, Nobel was not also Xia Jiba's test back then, but I have to make it clear to you, this test is tried with human life, The reason why I want to move the laboratory is also because the restrictions on Kaifeng are too great, so when the time comes, these experiments will be handed over to those villagers in Langzhou, and they will definitely die, and I estimate that 180 dead people may not be enough, so I have to make it clear to you, you are so full of virgin hearts, don't blame me when the time comes.

Sun Yue frowned, thought for a while, and said: "Okay, you didn't see it, so I don't know, how poor that place is in Langzhou, no, you should say Kaifeng City, it's not good, they all say that life is priceless, but this person, when you are poor to a certain extent, life is not worth much, but when you hire someone, tell them all about the danger, and the salary is higher." ”

"This is definitely no problem, but what you said to Xue Juzheng before is too far away, this business to do, it is not as simple as the two of you think, and in business, no matter how much you want to compensate the people of Langzhou, you can't do a money-losing business, no, the climate in that place is good, if you grow sugarcane and open a sugar factory and a rum distillery, it should still be good, but these things have to be discussed with Xue Ju."

"Well, I see, maybe I'm taking it for granted, and I don't know much about business, you can decide it."

"So the question now is, who is going to discuss with Xue Juzheng? I am an official of the imperial court, busy, I can't leave, and when Cao Nier is born, I will let Lao Cao go, after all, Lu Mengzheng is not around, and he is not at ease when he is on a business trip, I will write a letter to Xue Juzheng to explain it in a while, and let him wait for two more days. ”

"No, you are not free, I can go, I am familiar with that place, you show me the plan and teach me, am I not as good as Uncle Cao?"

"You? How can you go? Brother Murong's coffin will return to Beijing in two days, so don't you take advantage of this time to meet your future daughter-in-law and cultivate your feelings? ”

“……………… When you say that, I want to leave even more. ”