Chapter 49

Please collect, please recommend.

When Hans Schmidt, the German plant manager of Hero Pharmaceutical Factory, and Will Heming, the security director of Jishi Holdings, rushed to Zhu Jishi's office, they saw him bent over his desk, writing something. Zhu Jishi was neatly dressed, his brows furrowed tightly, his mind completely focused on the papers in front of him, filled with English words and square characters.

The two men did not dare to disturb him and were also curious. This renowned European scientist, Sir Zhu Jishi, was undoubtedly working on some important scientific paper. Seeing Zhu Jishi writing with great concentration, and even pounding the table in excitement at times, both men were startled. Zhu Jishi then noticed their arrival and smiled awkwardly, saying, "Gentlemen, please sit."

Hans Schmidt was an older German engineer with a deep knowledge of chemistry. He was extremely impressed by Zhu Jishi's methods for synthesizing morphine hydrochloride, diacetylmorphine, and berberine hydrochloride, and thus held the Chinese scientist, who was over a decade younger than him, in high regard. Upon hearing Zhu Jishi's instruction, he bowed slightly before sitting down. Will Heming, who had long been on familiar terms with Zhu Jishi, sat down with a smile and pointed to the pile of papers on the desk, asking, "Jason, are you preparing another masterpiece?"

"Nothing grand, just translating the manuscript Friedrich sent over, which introduces European military and political affairs. By the way, Will, when will you send over your manuscript?"

Hans Schmidt, who had been listening to their conversation, became interested and interjected, "Sir, what manuscript are you talking about? Do you need my help?"

"Right, Hans, I almost forgot. You are an expert in military technology. Why don't you write a book introducing the development of European weapons and gunpowder production?"

"Sir, such books can be bought from bookstores..." Hans Schmidt reminded him softly.

"No, no, I'm not looking for technical books, but a book that can introduce European weapons to the people of the East." He then looked at Will Heming, "Will, why don't you and Hans divide the work? You can handle the sections on the use of land weapons and the drill manuals for different branches of the military."

Zhu Jishi picked up a fountain pen and wrote "Western Sharp Tools" and "Western Military Training Records" in nine traditional Chinese characters on the paper. His skills in traditional Chinese characters were not very good, but his cook, Bai Siwen, who was literate and had once taken the imperial examinations, though without success, often helped him. As a result, Zhu Jishi had recently become proficient in writing traditional Chinese characters.

"Alright, I'm familiar with the use of land weapons and the drill manuals for different branches of the military, so I'll take care of it." Will Heming said, "Jason, did you call Hans and me here just for this?"

"Of course not." Zhu Jishi shook his head, tidied up the manuscript on his desk, and took out a brown paper package from the office drawer. The package was labeled in English with "Mercury Fulminate" and "Ammonium Nitrate."

Hans Schmidt and Will Heming exchanged glances, and Hans Schmidt asked, "Sir... Can these chemicals be used to make medicine?"

Zhu Jishi waved his hand and said, "Hans, just call me Jason." He paused and pointed to the two packages, "These can be used to make explosives."

"Explosives?" Hans Schmidt was taken aback and shook his head, "Jason, what do you plan to do? As far as I know, mercury fulminate is extremely unstable and very easy to detonate... It is used to make percussion caps for firing muskets, but using it to make explosives is probably impossible. As for ammonium nitrate, I've never heard of it exploding."

Zhu Jishi smiled and looked at Hans Schmidt, "Hans, but I have a way to make ammonium nitrate explode. Its explosive power is roughly ten times that of black powder!"

"Ten times the power of black powder!" Hans Schmidt didn't react much, but Will Heming jumped up, exclaiming, "Oh God, Jason, are you kidding? Ten times the power of black powder? This will change the way wars are fought! If used to fill explosive shells..."

Hans Schmidt, however, shook his head and raised a very professional question, "But how do we detonate picric acid and ammonium nitrate? These chemicals may explode under certain conditions, but if those conditions are too difficult to achieve, they cannot be used militarily."

Zhu Jishi nodded in approval, "Hans, you're right. Picric acid is not easy to detonate, and I don't know how to do it... Using it to produce explosive shells is probably not practical, unless we have more advanced cannons. Current explosive shells are not very safe. If the explosive power is ten times greater, it would be too dangerous for our own troops."

In fact, he knew of two even more powerful explosives: one was picric acid, which had already been invented as a dye, but no one had discovered its explosive properties; the other was trinitrotoluene (TNT), which had not yet been invented. Zhu Jishi was planning to "invent" it, but not for military use, rather to make it into a tablet for treating angina pectoris.

As for the idea of using these two "high explosives" to make weapons, Zhu Jishi definitely had no such plans. First, he considered himself a pacifist and did not want to create weapons for imperialist wars... Second, with ammonium nitrate explosives, he could make money without the need to introduce even more powerful explosives. This was similar to his plan to use berberine to treat cholera and tuberculosis.

"Jason, how do you plan to detonate them?" Hans Schmidt asked with interest.

"By heating them. The explosion point of ammonium nitrate is 300 degrees Celsius. If mixed with a small amount of kerosene, it will be easier to detonate. I plan to use mercury fulminate to create a specialized detonator for ammonium nitrate explosives. Hans, Will, you know more about weapons than I do. Can you help me design this detonator?"

"Is it a detonator made from mercury fulminate?" Hans Schmidt thought for a moment and said, "This shouldn't be too difficult, but the question is, how do we detonate this... detonator?"

"Can we use a fuse to ignite it?" Will Heming suggested.

"Mercury fulminate is very sensitive and can explode easily when dry, even from a slight impact or vibration. It can also be detonated by sparks or flames, with an explosion point of only 170 degrees Celsius." Hans Schmidt knew the properties of mercury fulminate well. After some thought, he continued, "I think we can use ammonium nitrate to make hand grenades, detonated by mercury fulminate... Such hand grenades would definitely be smaller than those filled with black powder, and the tenfold explosive power should be sufficient to cause significant casualties among densely packed infantry. If ammonium nitrate can indeed be detonated by mercury fulminate, we should start a specialized bomb factory!"

Zhu Jishi nodded vigorously, "That's exactly what I had in mind. Hans, Will, if this deal goes through, you will be responsible for managing the bomb factory, and each of you will receive 5% of the factory's shares and a one-time bonus of 800 pounds."

The emperor does not let his soldiers go hungry, and although Zhu Jishi was not an emperor but a baronet, he certainly did not want his subordinates to work for nothing. Not to mention the 5% shares in the bomb factory, even 800 pounds was a significant sum in this era. With such generous incentives, within three weeks, Hans Schmidt and Will Heming had placed a very primitive and extremely unsafe detonator, ignited by a fuse, on Zhu Jishi's desk.

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