Qi Hong and the others turned around to look, and saw a team of heavily armed men and horses, guarding a five-meter-square, semi-open luxury sedan chair decorated with gold, silver and jade, rushing towards the palace.

The obese middle-aged man sitting on the sedan chair is none other than Haining Hou - Qi Chengfei.

He glanced at Qi Hong, and said with a smile: "Where did you come from, you dare to approach this king's palace without permission, don't you want to steal?" Come on, take down these two thieves! ”

Upon hearing this, Yang Heng panicked and was about to step forward to explain, but was stopped by Qi Hong.

Qi Hong said patiently: "Marquis Haining, knowing that it was the king who arrived, you still deliberately put on a score and pretended not to know, should I say that you are a noble person who forgets things, or does a dog look down on people?" ”

"Oh! It turned out to be His Royal Highness King Yongwang, disrespectful and disrespectful. It's been months since the last time you said goodbye, how could you suddenly find it? You can't be looking for me to raise military funds, right? Qi Chengfei said pretentiously.

Looking at his lofty posture, Qi Hong felt inexplicably annoyed.

In fact, he knew very well in his heart that Qi Chengfei was not brainless and arrogant, but relied on.

Qi Chengfei is not only a relative of the emperor, but also a supporter of the prince, or the prince's money bag, with the prince's support, he can't look down on ordinary people at all.

Including Qi Hong.

"There are other arrangements for the war against the State of Wu, so I won't bother Uncle Huang." Qi Hong said kindly.

Qi Chengfei fiddled with the jade wrench, "Since you don't want military funds, what are you doing here with me?" "This guy is not a good stubble, he wears a pair of pants with the crown prince, which is equivalent to standing on the opposite side of other princes, with this hostile relationship, he will definitely not agree to let me mine iron ore." Since the light is not good, I can only come to the dark. ”

Qi Hong muttered in his heart, and said: "This king happened to pass by, just to take a look, nothing else, say goodbye." ”

With that, he rode back.

Seeing that he left so simply, Yang Heng was a little confused, and even Qi Chengfei felt confused.

When he saw Qi Hong coming, he had already decided that Qi Hong had a plan, and he had figured out how to arrange Qi Hong, but he didn't expect to say a few words, and the person just left.

"His Royal Highness King Yong, please send it from far away."

Qi Chengfei said with pity.

After walking back for some distance, Qi Hong suddenly turned around and followed a path to the back mountain.

In a short period of time, he roughly figured out the environment on the mountain, as well as the area and layout of Haining Palace, and determined the core location of the iron mine according to the guidance of the system.

"Your Highness, are you sure there is iron ore here?" Yang Heng couldn't help but be curious and asked.

Qi Hong nodded, "Of course it's certain, the problem is that the center of the vein is under the Haining Palace, and if you want to mine it, you have to demolish the entire Haining Palace, and this project is not small." ”

Yang Heng was stunned and said: "As soon as you and Haining Hou met, they would be on the needle for Mai Mang, and he would definitely not agree with you mining." ”

"It doesn't matter if he agrees or not, because I didn't think to talk to him." Qi Hong smiled meaningfully, "Anyway, he doesn't look down on me, and I don't need to be polite to him, let's go, let's go back." ”

"Oh."

Yang Henghu scratched the back of his head suspiciously.

When dealing with the people of Wu before, Qi Hong suddenly became decisive in killing, and everyone thought that he had no choice but to resist.

But now, Yang Heng always feels that Qi Hong's transformation from the inside out is like two people before.

Back at the military mansion, it was already afternoon.

Qi Hong plunged into the study and wrote a list and handed it to Yang Heng.

"I'll give you five hundred taels of silver, and you take someone to purchase the things on the list, remember, you must do it in secret, don't show off." Qi Hong admonished.

"Saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur, did Your Highness buy these things to burn the fire?" Yang Heng was puzzled.

Qi Hong couldn't cry or laugh, "What kind of fire to burn, you go quickly." ”

These three things are not new to the world, they have long been popularized, but no one knows that saltpeter, charcoal, and sulfur can combine a new product - gunpowder!

In addition to mixing gunpowder, you also have to find craftsmen to make a fire-leaving gun.

The second is to solve the problem of iron ore mining.

……

At night, Yang Heng led people to escort three truckloads of supplies back to the military government.

Qi Hong ordered people to vacate a large room, provide accurate gunpowder formulas, and let ten henchmen be responsible for the development of gunpowder.

"Your Highness!"

At this moment, Li Huijun and several generals hurriedly came over and knelt down in unison.

Li Huijun persuaded bitterly: "Your Highness, you are about to face the sanctions of the imperial court, and the war with the Wu State is also about to break out, you haven't been stable for two days, why are you messing with these irrelevant things again!" ”

"Yes, Your Highness, you should focus on the overall situation." The senator echoed the sermon.

"Please Your Highness focus on the overall situation!"

“……”

The generals of the ministry exhorted in unison.

"You ......" Qi Hong was a little helpless.

In fact, he understands that his performance of severely inflicting damage on Wu Guojun is not enough to make up for his previous mistakes, let alone completely improve his image of mediocrity and incompetence.

At most, it made everyone's opinion of him change.

Especially Li Huijun, no matter whether Qi Hong is good or bad, she has no choice, she just doesn't want Qi Hong to be wrong again and again.

After all, the crisis is imminent, and Li Huijun can see that once Qi Hong is sanctioned by the imperial court, there is almost no hope for him to turn over in the future.

It's a pity that she and them can't understand Qi Hong's good intentions.

"Your Royal Highness, loyalty is better than deeds, and now that the situation is worrying, don't act recklessly, while there is still time, it is better to find a way to make up for the merits, maybe your father will let you go." Li Huijun continued to persuade.

Qi Hong smiled bitterly: "Can't you see it? I'm already doing my best to fix it, but it's a long story, and you'll understand. ”

Li Huijun asked, "What do you want us to understand?" ”

"Trust me."

Patting her slender shoulder, Qi Hong didn't say anything more, turned around and left, letting them continue to kneel.

"Your Highness, why don't you listen to persuasion!" Yu Xuan was a little anxious, rushed over to stop Qi Hong, and said with a calm face: "His Royal Highness King Yong, if you don't listen to the advice and insist on going your own way, don't blame the last general for being disrespectful to you!" ”

Li Huijun leaned over and said, "Your Highness, when it comes to this, haven't you woken up?" ”

Listening to their confusion about the situation, but again and again, and again and again to dissuade them, Qi Hong couldn't help but feel that his head was big, and he also understood that he couldn't explain it to them.

"Don't say it, they will question it, say it, they don't understand, the origin of gunpowder is too complicated, it's better not to say it, talk less and do more, and when the results come out, it will naturally dispel their doubts." Qi Hong thought secretly.

Half an hour later.

After a hectic process, the first batch of gunpowder for testing was completed.

Immediately afterwards, Qi Hong took out the porcelain jar prepared in advance, and personally smeared a layer of lime on the inner wall of the porcelain jar the size of the sea bowl, brushed a layer of fire oil, and pasted it with oil paper.