Chapter 94: The Capital Gazette

"Grind these into a fine powder, extremely fine. Get to it."

After hearing this, the captain sent men to the pharmacy to fetch a medicine-grinding boat, grinding bowls, pestles, mortar bowls, and the like, then roused a squad of prisoners and set them to grinding.

Lin Qian then ordered the captain to have cotton cloth made into masks for the grinding prisoners to wear.

Having given his instructions, Lin Qian sat down in a chair, took the Capital Gazette from his bosom, and began to read.

The Gazette was full of obscure characters, lacked punctuation, and was entirely in traditional script, so Lin Qian read very slowly.

It seemed his self-assessment of his literacy had been somewhat generous—the island's illiteracy rate should have risen by another 0.25 persons.

By the light of the oil lamp, Lin Qian managed to make out the first section of the Gazette.

"On the first day of the eighth month, His Majesty ascended the Central Harmony Hall, received the congratulations of the hundred officials, and issued the imperial grace edict of accession:

Our late imperial father ruled the realm for eight and forty years, his deep benevolence and abundant grace soaking into the hearts of all. Now that our imperial father has departed from Us as a guest, Our heart feels as though torn asunder. We have reverently proclaimed to Heaven and Earth, the ancestral temples, and the altars of state, and have ascended the imperial throne.

Deeply mindful of the weight of the trust placed upon Us, it is fitting that We proclaim lenient provisions. All matters requiring action are enumerated below:

This section ran to nearly several thousand characters, chiefly describing the governing measures of the newly enthroned Taichang Emperor after his accession, the contents all excerpted from the Taichang Emperor's accession grace edict.

The main policies promulgated were the abolition of the mining tax and salt tax; the reinstatement of officials dismissed for speaking out in the previous reign; the reduction and remission of accumulated tax arrears in the provinces; and the allocation of one million taels from the privy purse to reward the border troops.

Judging from the edict alone, these were all benevolent policies and good measures, remedying the various accumulated ills of the Wanli reign.

In particular, something like allocating funds from the privy purse to reward the border troops—the money-obsessed Wanli Emperor would never have done such a thing unless the flames were licking his eyebrows.

Comparing the two emperors before and after, the Taichang Emperor bore the look of an enlightened sovereign, and the governance of the Great Ming showed signs of gradually turning clear and bright.

Unfortunately, history played a joke.

Today was already the twenty-third of the eighth month, and the Taichang Emperor's illness had already grown severe. Li Kezhuo was scurrying about, preparing to present the Red Pill miracle medicine.

In less than ten more days, after the Taichang Emperor swallowed two Red Pills, he would breathe his last.

While Lin Qian was lost in reflection, the militia squad leader had already brought over the ground graphite and red lead powder.

Lin Qian took one look and frowned: "Too coarse. It must be fine as dust. Grind again, and sift it after grinding."

The militia squad leader went back, berated the prisoners loudly, and ordered them to grind it finer.

In the Gazette, the second section concerned "the departure of the imperial coffin."

In plain words, it was the funeral arrangements for the late emperor, including the date, the procession, the specifications of the tomb, and so forth.

This was utterly meaningless to Lin Qian, so he skipped over it.

The third section of the Gazette concerned personnel appointments and removals.

Fang Congzhe was to be retained as Chief Grand Secretary with added favor, Liu Yizhu and Han Kuang were to be brought into the Grand Secretariat, and forthright remonstrating officials such as Wang Dewan and Zou Yuanbiao were to be recalled.

Among these men, the only one Lin Qian knew well was Fang Congzhe; a small number he had merely heard the names of, or had never heard of at all.

But from a macro perspective, these personnel changes counted as favoring old ministers and promoting new ones, conducive to a smooth transition of power between the two reigns.

Reading to this point, Lin Qian could not help rubbing his eyes.

Reading the Gazette under the dim yellow light of the kerosene lamp was indeed rather taxing on the eyes.

But the Santa Ana was too far from here, and sending men back to the ship to fetch white insect wax would be inconvenient.

Lin Qian simply put away the Gazette and walked over to inspect the prisoners.

The prisoners were each sallow and gaunt, with the pallor of malnutrition on their faces, and only faint traces of their former ferocity could be discerned between their brows.

Drawing closer, one could also smell a distinct stench.

The militia squad leader followed behind Lin Qian, saying: "Helmsman, if you have any requirements, just give the order—don't let these prisoners' stench assail your nose."

Lin Qian asked: "Haven't these men bathed?"

The militia squad leader: "No."

When the pirate prisoners had first come out of the Santa Ana's cargo hold, many of them had been covered in filth and excrement, and they had never been washed since—no wonder the smell was so strong.

Lin Qian instructed: "Starting tomorrow, have these prisoners bathe once every month, scrubbing carefully with pumice, soap pods, and fresh water."

Nan'ao Island had streams and mountain springs, but the stream water ultimately came from rainfall, heavily affected by the seasons.

Though it was more than enough to support three thousand people, anyone who had lived at sea knew fresh water was hard to come by, so they were very frugal with it.

But bathing too infrequently bred disease easily—prisoners dying of illness was a small matter, but if it spread to the islanders, that would be a big one.

Lin Qian made a round of inspection and noticed the mortar bowls were set aside, unused, so he asked why.

The militia squad leader answered: "Those are for fine grinding."

"Fine grinding is exactly what I want. Use them all, grind hard—don't stop until a full two hours has passed."

What Lin Qian intended to do was use stone coal as the oxidizer to reduce the red lead and release heat, thereby melting through the iron grating of the Lin family estate's water gate.

The reaction equation was: PbO + 4C = 3Pb + 4CO↑

To put it in an apt analogy, this was the Great Ming version of thermite.

It was just that this era lacked the capability to produce aluminum metal through electrolysis, so he had to settle for the second-best option of a "carbon-thermite."

And to make the carbon-thermite reach sufficient temperature, the materials had to be ground extremely fine.

This was why Lin Qian had to personally come to the grinding site—this extreme requirement for material fineness was something others simply could not understand.

Fortunately, though the militia squad leader could not understand, he was absolutely obedient. He merely acknowledged the order and then had the prisoners grind more meticulously.

Lin Qian made another round of inspection, then sat back down in his chair and took out the Gazette.

The next item of news was a report from Xiong Tingbi, the Military Commissioner of Liaodong, on military operations against the Later Jin.

Overall, during this period of power transition in the Great Ming, Nurhaci had been very quiet, with no large-scale military movements.

Finally, Xiong Tingbi also made his customary request for the court to allocate military funds.

After that, there was nothing of importance—just routine promotions, transfers, and removals of officials.

Lin Qian set down the Gazette with a knowing smile.

In the entire Gazette, not half a word mentioned Consort Zheng, yet among the official appointments and removals, several Zheng-surnamed officials appeared on the dismissal list.

It seemed that with Wanli's death, the fall of the Zheng clan's consort kin was already an inevitability.

If things were allowed to develop as they were, Consort Zheng being purged was only a matter of time.

No wonder Consort Zheng had both presented beautiful women to the Taichang Emperor and colluded with his favored consort, Lady Li.

Lin Qian put away the Capital Gazette, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes to rest.

After who knows how long, he was roused by someone.

Lin Qian looked into the distance and saw the sky faintly pale at the horizon, dawn light emerging.

"Helmsman, look—ground this fine, will it do?" the militia squad leader said.

Lin Qian looked over and saw two small piles of powder on the table; even shielding them with a hand, a fair amount was blown away by the wind.

Having ground all night, the prisoners' hands were already swollen and red.

Lin Qian said, "Let's try with this for now." With that, he called Bailangzai over to wrap up the materials and head back to the dock.

After arriving at the dock, Lin Qian did not board the ship. Instead, he had people set up a shed on the shore, arrange tables and chairs, and surround it with curtains to block the wind.

The reaction of reducing red lead with charcoal at high temperature can release heat exceeding a thousand degrees.

Operating on a galleon, one misstep would mean a great fire.

Moreover, the reaction also produces large amounts of carbon monoxide; if one doesn't stand in a ventilated spot, there's a risk of poisoning.

Therefore, Lin Qian deliberately chose an open space on the beach as the experiment site, with people standing upwind.

He also had people bring over gunpowder barrels, discarded weapons, brushes, grease, sugar water, and various jars and bottles.

Once everything was properly prepared—

Lin Qian grabbed a handful of black powder from the gunpowder barrel, mixed it with charcoal powder and red lead powder in a certain ratio, and placed it in a closed gourd to shake until evenly blended.

This step was also laborious work—not something you could accomplish with a couple of casual shakes like mixing a drink.

Lin Qian shook until both arms lost their strength, then had the crew continue shaking. They shook for a full two hours before Lin called a stop.

Afterwards, Lin Qian dismissed the crew, leaving only himself and Bailangzai inside the shed.

Lin Qian placed a wild goose saber on the table, padded the blade tip with cloth, and weighed it down with a stone to keep the blade steady and level.

Then Lin Qian carefully opened the mouth of the gourd and poured the mixture onto the blade.

Estimating he had poured about four liang, Lin Qian withdrew the gourd, sealed its mouth tightly, and used a tree branch to slowly level out the powder pile that had been poured out.

Then, beside the powder pile, he separately poured a bit of black powder to serve as the ignition.

"Match cord." Lin Qian extended a hand.

Bailangzai handed over the wooden pole that had been prepared in advance—a match cord tied to its end. Lin Qian blew the tip of the match cord until it glowed red.

Then he signaled Bailangzai to stand back, raised the pole with one arm, and lightly touched the glowing tip to the ignition powder.

(End of chapter)

Yahei

Fenyuan

Pen