Three Kingdoms: Fusion of Entries, Change of Destiny

Chapter 196 A Shocking Weapon is Born: Gunpowder!

June of the first year of Jian'an.

Sun Ce declared independence under the pretext of "punishing the rebels," recalled Wu Jing, Sun Ben, and other elders of the Sun family, and refused to support Yuan Shu.

It's important to understand that at this time, Yuan Shu's largest base of influence was actually the Jiangdong region.

Even though he didn't value the "barren land" of Jiangdong, it's undeniable that the fragmentation of such a large territory severely damaged Yuan Shu's strength and prestige.

The defection of almost the entire Sun family group, led by Sun Ce, reduced Yuan Shu's strength by nearly half.

Yuan Shu was now feeling uncertain, so in order to stabilize Lü Bu's power, he came up with the idea of ​​a marriage alliance with Lü Bu.

He sent an envoy to Lü Bu to propose marriage, wanting to marry Lü Bu's daughter to his son and establish a familial bond.

Although Lü Bu was brave and skilled in battle, his foundation was unstable in this chaotic world.

He was surrounded by forces such as Cao Cao, Yuan Shu, and Yuan Tan, and he longed for an ally.

When Yuan Shu offered himself up, Lü Bu was overjoyed and agreed to the marriage.

Yuan Shu was overjoyed to receive Lü Bu's affirmative response and hurriedly prepared a generous betrothal gift, waiting for the wedding day to arrive.

But who could have predicted that something unexpected would happen?

Pei Xiang Chen Gui was well aware of Yuan Shu's ambitions and worried that the alliance between Yuan and Lü would greatly increase their power and endanger the world.

Therefore, he secretly advised Lü Bu: "Yuan Gonglu has now brazenly declared himself emperor and has become the target of everyone's criticism."

If the general were to marry him, he would likely be seen as an accomplice of a rebel and be condemned by the people of the world.

Moreover, Yuan Shu has often treated you with disrespect in the past; who knows if this marriage alliance won't turn out to be inviting a wolf into the house?

Upon hearing this, Lü Bu hesitated, and recalling Yuan Shu's past misdeeds, he actually changed his mind.

He immediately sent men to retrieve his daughter and also had Yuan Shu's envoy bound and escorted to the emperor in Xuchang, thus demonstrating his loyalty to the Han Dynasty and the emperor.

In Yuan Shu's view, Lü Bu's actions were undoubtedly a public humiliation, causing him to lose face.

Lu Bu's outrageous actions successfully angered Yuan Shu.

Enraged, Yuan Shu disregarded the overall situation and resolutely turned against Lü Bu, immediately launching an attack on Xuzhou!

……

at the same time,

Cao Cao, accompanied and protected by Xun You, Cheng Yu, Xu Chu, Zhang Liao and others, arrived at Fuyang County.

After Cao Yan's radical reforms, Fuyang County is no longer the lifeless and stagnant place it was when Cao Yan first arrived.

The local people can no longer mine ore on their own; they can only operate under the official organization of Cao Cao's army.

However, today's mining activities are planned and organized in an orderly manner, and are equipped with safety equipment such as helmets.

Furthermore, the rewards for mining are three times or more than those from the previous practice of privately selling ore.

Moreover, after Cao Jun replaced those unscrupulous merchants and powerful families as buyers, there were no more instances of price suppression or delayed payments.

For a time, the people of Fuyang County were deeply grateful to Cao Jun, and some even sculpted Cao Yan's likeness into a deity statue and placed it in their homes for worship.

Cao Yan naturally wanted to share his good stuff with his brother Cao Cao.

After stabilizing the situation, he immediately wrote a letter to Cao Cao, inviting him to come and inspect their mines and the biggest secret in the workshop.

Although Lao Cao knew that Dafu Mountain produced various minerals, he ultimately lacked the knowledge of later generations and did not pay much attention to it.

After all, in this era, mining ore was a very time-consuming and labor-intensive task due to limitations in tools and technology.

However, Cao Yan is a time traveler. Although he is not a professional, as a lover of historical novels, he has seen the protagonists of other people do this kind of thing more or less.

He can offer some theoretical insights, but as for the practical implementation, that's left to the professionals.

When Wei Zhen and Ma Jun arrived, they led a supply and crafts team of 1,200 men, who had been expanded from the elite Trapped Camp under Chen Dao's command.

This team carried top-secret manufacturing techniques and finished products, including gunpowder and coke.

After secretly developing this powerful weapon for so long, I finally have to tell Lao Cao the truth.

Old Cao hadn't realized the seriousness of what he was about to witness, and remained as carefree and silly as ever.

When Cao Cao saw Cao Yan, he immediately gave him a bear hug, somewhat like when he was a child. Cao Yan pushed Cao Cao away with a look of disgust and said, "Brother, you're so slow. Gong Zhen and the others have already arrived from Chenliu, and you're only just getting here now."

"Well, we had to appease Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu, which caused the delay of two days..." Cao Cao explained with a smile. "Just do what you need to do. You don't need to report to me about everything, and you didn't make me come all the way to this remote mountain forest..."

Cao Yan silently shook his head, thinking to himself that when you see those things, you probably won't think the same way now.

After Cao Yan finished speaking with Cao Cao, Xun You and Cheng Yu stepped forward to greet Cao Yan.

Wei Zhen and Ma Jun then bowed to Lao Cao.

"Greetings, Situ!" Wei Zhen said respectfully, bowing.

“I…I have met…Situ…” Ma Jun stammered due to nervousness.

Cao Cao did not look down on Ma Jun because of his stutter. Instead, he patted Ma Jun on the shoulder and said, "Don't be nervous, speak slowly."

"Thank you, Minister!" Ma Jun was so excited that his body trembled slightly, but fortunately, he managed to say the words quite clearly.

"Zi'an, what exactly do you want me to see when you summoned me to Fuyang County?" Cao Cao asked, full of curiosity.

Cao Yan turned to Wei Zhen and asked, "Gongzhen, is everything arranged?"

“It’s all arranged! We can demonstrate at any time!” Wei Zhen replied, bowing to Cao Yan and Cao Cao.

Cao Yan nodded and said, "Take us there!"

On his way to the demonstration valley, Cao Cao saw six or seven checkpoints in succession.

The final checkpoint was guarded by Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan!
Zhao Yun is Cao Cao's number one general at present, and Xiahou Lan can also be ranked among the top ten generals in Cao Cao's army!

Although it's only at the bottom of the list, it's still among them.

The fact that Cao Yan sent these two men to guard the checkpoint shows just how important what's behind it is.

"Greetings, my lord!" Zhao Yun and Xiahou Lan hurriedly stepped forward to pay their respects upon seeing Cao Cao.

Cao Cao helped the two men up and said with a smile, "I'm sorry to have troubled you by having Zian assigned you to guard this place."

Xiahou Lan, quick-witted and articulate, was the first to reply: "The Lord has his own reasons for doing things. We only need to faithfully carry out the tasks assigned to us."

"Excellent," Cao Cao nodded in praise, "As expected of someone Zian values. Keep up the good work, and you'll be promoted to a high-ranking position soon."

"Thank you, Lord!"

Cao Yan led Lao Cao and the others into the valley behind the checkpoint.

The valley was extremely spacious, even more so than the large military camp outside.

In the center of the valley, there are several tall and thick walls, all made of bluestone bricks, which look no different from city walls.

When the craftsmen in the valley saw Cao Yan and Ma Jun's group, they all stopped what they were doing and stepped forward to pay their respects.

Then, Wei Zhen said to one of the craftsmen, "Afu, go and demonstrate the newly developed explosive charge to Situ and General Hou."

"Alright!" The young man called Afu bowed, picked up a newly developed explosive pack, and walked towards a blue stone wall in the distance.

Ma Jun signaled everyone to retreat, and they only stopped when they were more than two hundred paces away.

Afu placed the explosive charge under a wall, then lit the fuse, which was over ten feet long, before quickly running to a cover and hiding behind it.

The fuse burned for only about twenty seconds, but it felt like an eternity to everyone.

"You'd better cover your ears!" Wei Zhen kindly reminded him, but no one paid him any attention, except for Cao Yan and Ma Jun...

at last,

Under the watchful eyes of Cao Cao and others, the fuse finally burned out.

"Boom!!!!"

Suddenly, a deafening roar was heard, followed by a flash of intense light.
Then came rising smoke and flying debris everywhere!

Cao Yan waved his hand to knock down several stones that were flying towards him and Cao Cao, and was quite satisfied with the power of this improved explosive charge.

Moreover, this explosive pack is the right size, easy to carry, and has considerable power, making it a perfect weapon for killing, arson, breaching strongholds, and destroying cities!
The only drawback is that it is not easy to store, especially in rainy and humid weather, as it is very susceptible to moisture.

To solve the problems of storing and transporting explosive charges, the craftsmen still need to do more research.

(End of this chapter)