Chapter 211

Jinmen Port had people coming and going, from all walks of life, with many strange people and talented individuals, but if one were to speak of the absolute best in the fireworks trade, it had to be Li Erleng of Jiusaogou.

It was said that Li Erleng was a descendant of the fireworks trade's patriarch—Li Zhusheng.

This Li Erleng also had two nicknames: one was Li Erxiang, and the other was Li Laoer.

He was called "Erxiang" (Two-Sound) because he could make a type of "two-kick" firecracker, which was said to have been tinkered with by his ancestors.

As for "Laoer" (Second), it was because Li Erleng was the second in his family, only the eldest brother had "gone to heaven" three years ago.

Gone to heaven in the physical sense.

Li Erleng said his eldest brother was sleepy at noon and fell asleep on the bags of sulfur and gunpowder in the workshop, and for some reason, those dozen bags of gunpowder suddenly exploded for no reason.

But people outside said that the eldest Li loved to smoke a dry pipe, and that was the thing the fireworks trade feared most. The eldest Li shouldn't have made such a small mistake, but the bad thing was that he was sleepy and casually lit the pipe bowl.

There was no need to mention the tragedy that followed; in short, people within a ten-mile radius heard the commotion of the eldest Li ascending to heaven.

As for whether this rumor was true or false, no one knew. After all, the eldest Li didn't even leave behind a complete corpse, so everyone could only guess wildly and treat it as a joke before or after meals.

However, joke or not, people in the Jinmen area never doubted that the fireworks patriarch was Li Zhusheng.

The reason was simple: the Li family's firecrackers were indeed powerful. Even the Firearm Battalion had once sought out the old man of the Li family to ask about the long-lost method of making iron fire-cannons.

At that time, to repay the trust of the battalion commander, the old man of the Li family shut himself away to study for two years.

One day, two years later, a heaven-shaking explosion suddenly came from Jiusaogou. When Li Erleng returned to the village, he found that his home was gone, and his father was gone too.

But the Li family's reputation resounded throughout Jinmen because of this. People said that the old man of the Li family had created a real iron fire-cannon in the moment before he died; otherwise, how could an ordinary firecracker blow up an ancestral home covering half an acre?

Li Erleng's father and brother both died because of their most proficient skill. Logically, he should have learned a lesson and completely stayed away from this trade to leave descendants for the Li family, but Li Erleng refused to do so. Instead, he became even more obsessed with studying iron fire-cannons.

During this time, there was no lack of fireworks craftsmen from other places coming to visit, but they were all turned away by Li Erleng.

Li Erleng was an arrogant person who never looked down on fireworks workshops or firecracker businesses from other places.

In his eyes, those were just things children tinkered with; in the eyes of the patriarch, the noise they made wasn't even as good as a fart!

However, what Li Erleng didn't know was that there is always someone better, and there is always a heaven beyond heaven.

Besides Jinmen, the fire-cannon trades in Liuxian, Shangping, and Lijun were no longer what they used to be.

About two years ago, in the twelfth lunar month, Li Erleng, as usual, brought his family's two-kick firecrackers and long strings of firecrackers to the port's firecracker market to sell his wares.

To prevent fireworks from hurting people, the firecracker market and the market for the New Year fair were divided into two areas: one on the port bank, and the other in a river pit that had frozen over.

That year, many peers from other places came, but Li Erleng didn't care. His family's firecrackers had always been the "first red" and "first sound" of the year-end! No matter how good others' firecrackers were, in front of him, they were like an old cow farting—loose, slack, and without any power.

But it was that year that a "Fire Immortal" came from Liuxian. This person wore a brand-new Daoist robe and had a goatee. He didn't compete with the Li family on the loudness of the firecrackers, but instead took a different path, improving the two-kick firecracker. Although the two sounds weren't earth-shattering, they exploded crisply and brightly. The most critical thing was that the second sound could explode into a seven-colored flower umbrella in mid-air!

This made the common people of Jinmen marvel. No wonder he was called the "Fire Immortal"; this seven-colored firework skill alone didn't look like the work of a mortal.

Li Erleng was truly stunned this time. When did these country bumpkins from Liuxian manage to tinker with such trendy things?

However, he wasn't panicked. Although this kind of two-kick firecracker looked beautiful, it wasn't loud enough. At the end of the year, what everyone loved to compare most was whose firecrackers were the loudest.

However, before Li Erleng could think much, the ground under his feet shook violently. When he reacted, his ears were buzzing, as if a hundred cicadas had crawled inside.

He covered his ears and turned his head, only to see a young man from Lijun lighting one two-kick firecracker after another. Without exception, those firecrackers were all as thick as a forearm, looking like large radishes with both ends trimmed.

Whose subordinate was this again?

Li Erleng didn't sell a single firecracker that day and ran home in a dejected manner. The onlookers were strange: the Li family's firecrackers, which appeared as the grand finale every year and were earth-shattering the moment they appeared, why didn't they come this year?

And it wasn't just this year that they didn't come; the second year, the Li family's firecrackers were also missing from the Jinmen firecracker market.

Some said Li Erleng was afraid that making firecrackers wasn't safe, fearing he would blow himself up one day and cut off the Li family's lineage, so he washed his hands of the business, got married, and had children.

Others said Li Erleng was afraid he couldn't compete with the peers from other places and was too scared to show his face.

Still others said that when Li Erleng was making firecrackers, he, like his father and brother, wasn't careful and blew himself up!

The Li family's firecrackers had thus lost their roots, so naturally, no one came to sell them, right?

But was that really the case? If Li Erleng didn't die, then where exactly did he go during this time?

Xu Qing, who had seen Li Erleng's "lantern show" (life review), knew better than anyone.

The rumors were not credible. During this period, Li Erleng didn't run away or die as people outside said; instead, he traveled light and alone to Liuxian, and then to Shangping and Lijun.

He no longer shut himself away to build his cart, but wandered everywhere, learning advanced experience until, two years later, Li Erleng returned to Jiusaogou.

The villagers were curious and asked him where he had gone, why he hadn't been seen for two or three years...

Li Erleng, with his black skin and face soaked in gunpowder oil, said nothing. He just opened the backpack on his back, revealing a pitch-black object.

That object was the size of a head, with a round belly and a long tail, like a watermelon with a stem.

Someone asked what this was. Li Erleng laughed and said three words: "Heaven-Shaking Thunder!"

Going back a few dynasties, there was one dynasty whose firearms were the most powerful, and among those firearms, the iron fire-cannons used for defending cities were the best!

This object was shaped like a gourd with a small mouth, cast from pig iron, and two inches thick. Even the smallest iron fire-cannon contained two liters of gunpowder. When this object was ignited, the city walls would shake, and within half an acre, people and oxhide would be shattered without a trace.

And the iron fire-cannon had another name: Heaven-Shaking Thunder!

"Our ancestors played with iron lumps that killed people. Now, changing to making fireworks that please people is a waste of talent. You just watch; when I take this Heaven-Shaking Thunder and present it to the imperial court, the whole world will hear this sound from my Li family!"

The people of Jinmen were competitive and loved face; the stubbornness in their bones was something that even nine cows couldn't pull back.

Li Erleng was even more of a leader among them. He held the iron fire-cannon as if he were holding his own child, and with a heart full of blood, he excitedly came to the Firearm Battalion.

However, seven or eight years had passed since his father was alive. At this time, the Firearm Battalion was no longer under the control of Prince Changting, and the funds allocated by the imperial court to the Firearm Battalion were decreasing year by year.

By now, let alone creating new firearms, even the muskets held by the soldiers of the Firearm Battalion were old items from several years ago, some even rusted and damp.

If they really went to the battlefield, a fire poker would probably be more useful than these things!

Li Erleng didn't know these things. He arrived at the Firearm Battalion and wanted to find the battalion commander from back then, but he couldn't even enter the camp gate.

The old soldiers of the Firearm Battalion looked at him and laughed. Just an iron lump, and it's a Heaven-Shaking Thunder?

If you have the ability, light it and let everyone hear a sound for fun. Maybe we'll even clap for you, but if you want to take this thing to sell to the imperial court...

The imperial court is too lazy to even make muskets; would they be willing to spend money to buy your iron lump?

Li Erleng's face turned blue and white. He really wanted to take out a fire-starter and light the Heaven-Shaking Thunder at that time. But he couldn't do that, because he knew the power of this thing himself. Once lit, everyone present, one by one, would have to ascend to heaven!

Leaving the Firearm Battalion, Li Erleng was disheartened. However, it was at this critical moment that someone put two small gold bars in front of him.

"I heard your ancestors were the ones who made fire-cannons. Although our Cangyi Group can't give you an official position right now, we have money and people. As long as your Heaven-Shaking Thunder is as powerful as you say, we will certainly not treat you badly!"

Li Erleng didn't hear the subtext in the man's words, or perhaps he did and deliberately played dumb.

"Can you really let my Heaven-Shaking Thunder shake the world?"

"Really!"

Xu Qing, who had eyes and ears all over Linjiang County, had never heard news of the Heaven-Shaking Thunder, nor had he heard any earth-shattering explosions.

He only saw, from Li Erleng's perspective, the scene where the branch leader of the Cangyi Group planned to enter the capital to assassinate the king, but a small lackey leaked the news, they were all arrested, and finally, Li Erleng was betrayed.

When Li Erleng was about to be beheaded, he was still crazy, as if he had hysteria, shouting: "It rang, it rang! The whole world heard it, they all heard it!"

In the mortician's shop, Xu Qing returned the corpses with owners to their families, collected the ownerless corpses into the box garden, and chose an inauspicious day to bury them in the Shuimen Bridge villa.

After finishing his work, the free Xu Qing rode a fast horse all the way to Jiusaogou.

There weren't many people in Jiusaogou; those who were timid and afraid of death couldn't stay, and those who could stay in the village were all people with the guts of a bear and a leopard who weren't afraid of death!

Here, five out of ten families were in the fireworks business, and the other five had their families wiped out when making cannons, so the population of this village naturally decreased by half.

Following Li Erleng's memory, Xu Qing twisted and turned until he arrived at an abandoned cow shed.

He pushed aside the straw pile, lifted the thin wooden board sprinkled with white lime, and underneath were hidden bags full of gunpowder.

Xu Qing collected those bags into the Mountain and River Map, then went to Li Erleng's house, where he found some hidden firecrackers and gunpowder in the cellar.

A wily rabbit has three burrows. Those in the fireworks trade feared "exploding the nest" most. As the "First Sound of Jinmen," the amount of gunpowder Li Erleng's ancestors had accumulated over three generations was far more than what the government office had confiscated!

After searching several times, Xu Qing found quite a lot of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal in several old houses.

Afterward, Xu Qing roughly estimated that there were no less than ten thousand catties of ready-made gunpowder alone!

He didn't even dare to think that if this were accidentally detonated one day, the whole of Jiusaogou would probably be ready for a funeral feast.

When leaving Jiusaogou, Xu Qing also took the opportunity to go to the Li family's ancestral grave, lit a stick of incense for Li Erleng's father, and set off two firecrackers.

At the end, Xu Qing took out an iron shovel and dug into the ground, unearthing an object wrapped in oilcloth.

Lifting the layers of oilcloth, an iron fire-cannon larger than a winter melon appeared before Xu Qing's eyes.

Even Xu Qing, who was well-informed in the funeral trade, was greatly shocked!

He had seen people burning paper figures and horses for their ancestors, offering three types of livestock and fruits, and had seen people cut off their enemies' heads and place them in front of tombstones as offerings, but he had never seen anyone show filial piety by offering explosives and cannons as sacrifices to their ancestors.

If heaven's thunder hit earth's fire one day and it accidentally exploded, wouldn't the Li family's ancestors all have to ascend to heaven a second time?

Xu Qing held the "large firecracker" in his hand, eager to try it.

Others might not know, but Xu Qing knew clearly what the thing in his hand meant.

This iron fire-cannon, which absorbed the strengths of many, had power far beyond that of the ancient iron fire-cannons!

Xu Qing felt that this thing might even be the most powerful "mortal weapon" in the Great Yong Dynasty so far.

It was just that he didn't know if this thing would pose a threat to him now.

Xu Qing didn't dare to try it and decided to wait a couple of days to control a paper figure to go to the Yinhe Ancient Path, place this thing in the Ghost King's Mausoleum, and test the effect.

Well, this was treating the Ghost King's Mausoleum like an ant nest!

Returning to Linjiang County, Xu Qing didn't stop. He opened the twin coffins in the shop and instantly arrived at the Yinhe Ancient Path.

The two coffins were connected; Xu Qing opened the other twin coffin hidden in the Yinhe Ancient Path and stepped out from it.

In front of him was still the gray, sunless doomsday scene, with gusts of gloomy wind on the ground kicking up fine, gray-white dust.

Xu Qing knew that wasn't sand, but bone powder that had weathered for who knows how many years, swirling around.

Although it wasn't his first time here, his heart was still very shocked when he walked on the "Burial Road."

The gray-white riverbed under his feet, of unknown depth and breadth, was entirely piled up with skeletons. If the corpses buried in his villa were placed here, they wouldn't even count as a drop in the ocean.

The skeletons of the weak turned into dust and sand, while the skeletons of the strong were buried deep underground. Occasionally, one or two strangely shaped skeletons were exposed, left to be eroded by the gloomy wind.

Xu Qing groped his way along and found a desolate grave about fifty miles away from the entrance of the twin coffins.

He transferred all the gunpowder and saltpeter from the Mountain and River Map into the desolate grave, and only then did Xu Qing feel a little more at ease.

If this gunpowder were accidentally detonated in the Mountain and River Map, who would he go to to reason with?

After handling the gunpowder, Xu Qing took the Heaven-Shaking Thunder in his hand and wandered to the outskirts of the Ghost King's Mausoleum.

The Ghost King of the Ghost King's Mausoleum had a thousand years of cultivation and had survived two disasters without dying. When the Ghost King's Mausoleum was burned by heavenly fire for the second time, Liu Youdao took advantage of the situation and had witnessed the scene of the Ghost King avoiding the heavenly fire.

Now that Xu Qing had come here again, he still didn't choose to explore deep inside personally. He controlled the paper figures, and just as he sent the iron fire-cannon to a position close to the inner circle, ghost generals led ghost soldiers to surround the paper figures.

Xu Qing had nothing to say. The straw paper figures were no match for the ghost generals. Under the ghost generals' broadswords, those paper figures couldn't last more than a few rounds before turning into fragments all over the sky.

Seeing that only two of the twelve paper figures that entered the Ghost King's Mausoleum to explore remained, Xu Qing calmly took out a fire-starter, then controlled one of the paper figures to pull out the fire-starter plug and light the fuse of the iron fire-cannon.

"Nothing to do today, just right to burn some different funeral offerings for you."

In the distance, Xu Qing said as much.

(End of chapter)