A few days later, Peter ran into Catherine by chance in the hallway.

"Your Highness, I haven't found you for the past few days, I want to know what's going on?"

Catherine bowed her knees respectfully.

"Are you looking for me, or are you looking for Saltykov?"

"Your Highness!"

Catherine raised her voice excitedly.

"I am your wife, of course a wife should care about her husband!"

"Well, that's good"

Peter pouted.

"However, Saltykov has been sent to Berlin by me, and even if you want to see it, you won't be able to see it for a while."

"What do you mean by that? Why was the Duke sent to Berlin? What the hell is going on? ”

Catherine asked in surprise.

"It doesn't hurt to tell you, my aunt is sick, seriously ill, bedridden, so now, I am the regent of the All-Russian Empire"

"So... The duke was sent to Berlin to ease relations with Prussia? ”

"Well, so to speak"

"That's... Wouldn't King Frederick take advantage of this opportunity to attack other nations? ”

Catherine's beautiful eyes flashed, and she asked worriedly.

"Who knows, but I don't care, do I? They love to fight."

"However, Russia and Austria are allies, and if Prussia attacks Austria at this time..."

"Ha, you are a princess of Germany, and your uncle is Frederick the Great, if there is a real war, which side will you be on?"

Peter asked, the corners of his mouth turned up.

"Your Highness..."

Catherine knew that this was a pitfall, and a bad answer would likely affect her status.

"Your Highness, no matter what you do, I will be on your side!"

"Hey, okay, whatever you want"

Peter said noncommittally and went on.

"Your Highness, when will I see you again?"

Catherine frowned, and hurriedly turned around to ask.

"Wait a while, I've been busy lately."

"Understood, Your Highness"

The woman's eyes flashed with melancholy.

It was already the beginning of March, and although Empress Elizabeth I had already woken up, she did not appear in public for a while, so the embassy staff of various countries in St. Petersburg tried their best to inquire about the empress's physical condition from various channels.

Diplomatically, through the efforts of Bestuzhev and others, Sweden, Poland, Austria, and the Caucasus countries all expressed their desire to establish a defensive alliance with the Russian Empire.

Prussia also did not make any movement for the time being, there was no sign of a large-scale transfer of troops in the country, and it did not pay attention to the small actions of its neighbors.

And the Ottoman Empire, after the vassal state of Crimean Tatar crossed the border several times and was driven back, also immediately died down, I don't know whether it was really cowardly, or was preparing for a bigger move.

The British agreed to Bestuzhev's proposal to build ships, but in the preliminary initialed contract, the first batch of plans was only 4 ships, and Peter did not care when he found out.

On the whole, the situation in Europe has not changed in particular, and everything is as calm as winter.

Poof-

Burst!

In a huge room with cabinets full of bottles and cans and large tables, several men with 'elephant masks' are observing the effects of two different substances burning on two metal plates of the same size on the table.

"Mihai, it seems that the effect of brown particles is better, haha"

Peter's voice came from one of the elephant masks.

"Your Highness, that's true, but I think the brown particles still burn too fast, and it's better to make them into lumps"

"That's going to have to wait until the actual cannon is seen to see the effect, but at present, I think the proportion of this amount is okay."

Peter takes off the elephant mask, which is actually a gas mask of the time, but it is very rudimentary, with a long filter like an elephant's trunk.

What they had just experimented with was a new type of gunpowder that was going to be used in artillery packets.

Although Peter is not a professional military enthusiast, he knows a thing or two. It is known that there is a more powerful gunpowder than black powder, but it is certainly not the yellow explosive that Nobel invented a hundred years later. In order to enhance the explosion effect, some passivating agents will be added to some explosives, and reducing the sensitivity of the explosives will double the power. So, while urging Marshal Apleksin Jr. to develop a new cannon, he also approached the president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Mihai Brown. Romanosov participated in the study.

According to Peter's 'idea', Romanosov first tried to change the ratio of charcoal, saltpeter and sulfur in gunpowder, but the effect was not obvious.

Later, Peter raised the question of charcoal. So they experimented with hundreds of different species of trees, and finally found a tree called white willow. The twigs are taken from the core, distilled and peeled, then baked in a sealed iron container until they are turned into brown charcoal.

Gunpowder made from brown charcoal mixed with saltpeter and sulfur burns slightly slower than black powder, but the effect is more violent, and it has the potential to become a powerful new type of gunpowder.

"I think we can bake the coals in the same way, maybe it will have a magical effect!"

"Does Your Highness mean that the coal blocks are baked at high temperatures? I can give it a try."

Peter's words inadvertently led to the right method of making coke. If coke is used for smelting, the furnace temperature will be higher, and there will be an unexpected huge jump in iron smelting and steel making.