"You're finally willing to come back?" Just when Wang Xiaolai was thinking wildly, the empress asked.

Wang Xiaolai lowered his head and smiled wryly: "Then Your Majesty, I haven't seen you for a long time." ”

The empress snorted: "It's true that I haven't seen you for a long time, Xiao Laizi, you really have the ability, in order to escape, you didn't hesitate to burn 500,000 stone grain and grass in the Wengcheng military camp, when did you become so bold?" Yes? Tell me about it. ”

At this time, Wang Xiaolai was coerced, weak, pitiful and helpless, sitting on his feet, burying his head low, and not speaking.

's cowardly and innocent appearance made the empress have no way to take him.

Originally, the empress didn't plan to be angry with Wang Xiaolai, besides, this bastard pretended to be pitiful and powerful.

was going to give Wang Xiaolai a dismount to scare and scare his empress, but his heart instantly softened, and he waved his hand and said: "Okay, you get up and answer, don't pretend to cry there, who doesn't know what your temperament is?" ”

Wang Xiaolai stood up with a smile when he heard this: "Your Majesty is still hurting." ”

The empress immediately stretched out her hand: "Stop, stop, don't pour ecstasy soup on me, I let you out for two months and don't let Narcissus catch you, that is in the case of Shu Jiuchai's serious injury, and now, Shu Jiuchai's injury is also healed, come on, let's talk carefully, how did you escape from the urn city military camp that day, and how dare you set the fire, I can also give you a charge." ”

Wang Xiaolai sighed: "Your Majesty, I have a reason for that." ”

The empress ignored Wang Xiaolai's quibbles, and turned to look at Lu Gongyou: "Duke Lu, tell me about the losses of the Wangcheng guards that night." ”

Lu Gongyou clenched his fists and got up: "Back to Your Majesty, there are zero casualties among the guards of the royal city." ”

Wang Xiaolai breathed a sigh of relief.

"But more than half of the 3,000 war horses newly purchased from Yongliang Prefecture were burned to death, and 100 of them are missing, and they have not been recovered."

The empress nodded: "Those are all good horses bought with silver, and each horse must cost fifty taels of silver." ”

Lu Gongyou hugged his fists and said, "Your Majesty Mingjian." ”

The empress counted there: "Half of the three thousand horses were burned, and one hundred were lost, that is 1,600 horses, Xiao Laizi, you calculate it yourself, how much silver is this?" ”

"Eight, eighty thousand taels of silver."

The empress said: "I haven't calculated the cost of horse harness for you, to put it mildly, at least 112,000 taels." ”

Wang Xiaolai whined and cried: "You said Your Majesty, I took this silver." ”

"It's up to you."

"And Your Majesty, the 500,000 stones of grain and grass that were burned burned more than 300,000 stones, and the rest all have the smell of fireworks and cannot be eaten." Lu Gong said.

The empress calculated by herself there: "One stone of grain, according to the current market price, that is, half a penny, counting silver, there are also half taels, these 500,000 stone grain are inedible, which is equivalent to saying that I have lost 250,000 taels of silver in vain." ”

"I'll take it, I'll take the money."

The empress smiled, and seemed to make fun of Wang Xiaolai, making her feel very comfortable: "In addition, the construction of the military camp, the physical strength and spirit wasted by the soldiers when fighting the fire, there are all kinds of things, count you a million taels of silver is not much, right?" ”

The empress is clearly slandering, and now she doesn't know if she has a million taels of liquid money in her hand.

Not to mention the 10 million taels that the empress gave at the beginning, wasn't it all used to go to Qing, Henan, and, Hebei Sizhou to open a branch.

wanted to cry without tears, Wang Xiaolai said in his heart that he had known this, so it was better to accept the punishment.

This white silver, when you say that you will take it out, it hurts people.

Fortunately, the empress had enough fun, pursed her lips and said, "However, if you tell me something, I don't want the million taels of silver." ”

As soon as he said this, Wang Xiaolai's eyes widened: "Your Majesty, what are you talking about?" ”

The empress stood up with her hands on the table and came down to the hall: "I'm curious, what happened to those noises on the night of the fire in the city of Wengcheng? ”

Wang Xiaolai: "Uh..."

"Why is it that every time there is a sound, it will be accompanied by a fire, not only I, Uncle Huang, Lao Xiangguo, and Lu Gong are also very curious."

Wang Xiaolai took a look at the three of them, and sure enough, the three of them were staring at him.

For a while, Wang Xiaolai didn't know what to say, so he couldn't just tell them that Lao Tzu used explosives to blow up the barracks.

Besides, these people don't know what explosives are.

The empress clapped her hands, and Narcissus took out a burned, blackened, sealed porcelain bottle.

Wang Xiaolai's eyes tightened when he saw it.

It's broken, the explosives made that time are not used up, and there are still some left, so I put them in this porcelain bottle, and I knew that this was the case, so I used them all.

The empress grabbed the porcelain vase full of ash, pulled it out and sealed it, glanced at the gray powder inside, and asked Wang Xiaolai: "This was found in your residence of the Wangcheng Guard, what is this thing?" ”

"That, that, it's just ordinary ashes." Wang Xiaolai said embarrassedly.

The empress sighed: "Really? But I showed the people at the hospital, and they said that there were mainly flammable materials such as nitrate powder and sulfur, not ashes. ”

At this moment, Wang Xiaolai is completely unable to hide.

"Now, are you going to say nothing?" The Empress asked.

Wang Xiaolai said in his heart that it was a blessing or a curse, but a disaster that could not be avoided, he took a deep breath and said, "Okay, since Your Majesty asked, then I will say it." ”

The empress handed the porcelain vase to Narcissus, picked up a handkerchief from the dragon book case behind her, and wiped the ashes on her hands: "Let's talk, I and Uncle Huang are listening." ”

Wang Xiaolai shrugged his shoulders: "This thing is actually the explosives I made, and it all depends on this thing to escape from the barracks." ”

"What medicine?" The empress asked.

"Dynamite."

"What's that for?" The Empress said.

Wang Xiaolai thought for a long time, and then said: "It's something that can explode, have range lethality, and can catch fire." ”

The empress glanced at the Eight Sages and the King, and saw that the three of them were all at a loss, and she didn't figure out what the explosives Wang Xiao said was.

The empress lowered her head and thought about it, then said to Wang Xiaolai: "You come and give me a try." ”

Wang Xiaolai looked down at the present: "In this imperial study?" ”

The Empress nodded.

Wang Xiaolai scratched his scalp: "Then Your Majesty, it's not that I don't agree, here, it's a little inappropriate." ”

"If there is anything inappropriate, I will let you do it, you do it quickly, Hugh will get the ink."

Wang Xiaolai had no choice but to say: "That's okay, something will happen in a while, Your Majesty, don't blame me." ”

The Empress nodded.

Wang Xiao came to Narcissus to ask for the porcelain bottle that still contained explosives, and asked the empress for some paper and some cotton rope.

Then, he threw the cotton rope into the explosives first, then spread out the paper that was coming, wrapped the brush, pushed it tightly for more than ten layers, sealed the bottom, poured the explosives on another piece of clean paper, folded it in half and poured it into the rolled up paper, poked it in with the brush, pressed it firmly, and then stuffed the cotton rope with explosive powder into it, and sealed the head.

After only more than ten minutes of hard work, Wang Xiaolai had an extra cannon more than ten centimeters long and the thickness of a little thumb in his hand.

The empress looked curiously: "That night, it was such a little thing that made a sound like thunder?" ”

Wang Xiaolai sighed, waved his hand and said: "No, I deliberately reduced the weight, otherwise, I am afraid that I will hurt Your Majesty, how bad, even if it is not hurt, it is not right to be scared." ”

Seeing that the empress had an expression of disbelief on her face, Wang Xiaolai didn't explain much nonsense, but stopped the explosive, went outside to find the guards to ask for a shield, stopped in front of him, and looked for the empress to come over again with a fire fold to light the cannonball.

Seeing Wang Xiaolai's appearance as if he was facing a great enemy, the empress couldn't help laughing, and said in her heart, Can this thing have such great power.

In fact, the empress knew that the cotton rope that Wang Xiaolai used as a lead was too fast, and when the barracks were bombed that day, it exploded several times as soon as it was thrown out, so could he not be guarded.

Lighting the fuse, Wang Xiaolai ran to the dragon book case with the shield, protected the empress with the shield, and said: "Your Majesty, don't stretch your neck to look at it, it's dangerous." ”

The empress just wanted to say a few words about what could be dangerous, and she was unguarded, when the imperial study suddenly exploded with thunder, that feeling, as if you were walking on the road during the New Year, and there was a bear child throwing a cannon at you in the dark, which scared people and couldn't help but fall.

Boom!!!

The loud noise caused the Guards standing guard outside to rush in.