The Black Sails of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 95 Heading Towards Huangyan

"hiss."

A very short bang of gunpowder igniting rang out, and in an instant, the powder on the knife was completely ignited, bursting into a blinding white light in the shack.

Lin Qian gestured for Bai Langzai to look away and not to look directly at the light, and heard a hissing sound in her ears.

After a moment, Lin Qian noticed out of the corner of her eye that the light was weakening and turning into an orange-red glow.

After a while, Lin Qian looked back and saw that the blade was still stuck between the stone and the rags, while the handle was sitting perfectly fine on the table.

The blade was glowing red-hot, as if it had just been taken out of the forge.

Molten lead had been collected at the blade and slowly dripped onto the table, making a hissing sound. The point where the molten lead came into contact with the table was then ignited.

As more and more molten lead dripped, the table was burned through, and the molten lead fell directly onto the sand, melting the surrounding gravel until it glowed red-hot.

The fire on the table grew larger and larger, gradually igniting the surrounding curtains.

In no time, the entire shack was engulfed in flames.

Although the power was greater than expected, Lin Qian was prepared and kept the gunpowder barrels and other items far away, so they were not affected.

There were no other flammable materials around the beach, and the fire gradually died down after burning down the shack.

At this moment, many pedestrians on the dock were looking at this place with surprise.

Even Bai Langzai's icy face showed a rare look of shock, and he stood there motionless.

Lin Qian said to Bai Langzai, "Go ask the people at the dock what they saw."

Upon hearing this, Bai Langzai came to his senses, ran towards the pier, talked with several people, and then returned.

"Everyone says they saw a fire."

"Didn't see a white light, didn't hear a sound?"

Bai Langzai shook his head.

Lin Qian felt much more at ease; so this method could work.

The next problem to solve is how to fix the powder to the water gate.

Lin Qian led Bai Langzai back to the St. Anna. On the nautical table in the captain's cabin, she took out a set of blueprints from among many and handed it to Bai Langzai.

When Bai Langzai opened it, he saw a picture of a cylindrical pottery jar, about the size of a forearm, with three holes on it: one at the top, one at the bottom, and one on the side.

The pottery jar was split in two from top to bottom, with grooves connecting the broken edges.

This is Lin Qian's method of fixing the medicinal powder.

"Once you arrive at the Lin residence, find an opportunity to approach the water gate, take a sample of clay on the spot and shape it, then find a potter to make this jar. For every iron railing, you need to make that many jars, understand?"

"clear."

Next, Lin Qian asked Bai Langzai to move a chair and sit down, and then carefully explained to him the design intent of the pottery jar, the function of each part of the design, how to assemble it, how to use it, and other related questions.

It was also emphasized that high-quality, heat-resistant clay should be used in its production.

After a long while, Bai Langzai put away the blueprints: "Helmsman, I understand."

"Okay, you and your sister are going to Huangyan this afternoon. Since you still have some time, go and rest for a bit. Call Lü Zhou over for me."

Bai Langzai should step down.

A moment later, Lü Zhou knocked on the door and entered with great excitement: "Master, you wanted to see me?"

Lin Qian was writing at her desk when she heard this and looked up: "Are your injuries healed?"

Lu Zhou laughed and said, "Thanks to the captain, I'm completely healed."

Lin Qian said, "Let me see the injury on your leg."

Lu Zhou responded, stepped forward, rolled up his trousers, revealing the scar.

The scar was reddish-brown, protruding from the skin, and surrounded by tiny depressions resembling centipede legs.

It looks grotesque, but it has indeed healed to one point.

"Haven't you had the stitches removed?"

"No, just like Dr. Su said, the stitches will dissolve on their own as the wound heals."

Lin Qian truly admired Su Kang's medical skills, which included the ability to suture wounds with absorbable sutures and administer anesthesia. It was a brilliant idea to kidnap him from Guangzhou in the first place.

Lin Qian gestured for Lü Zhou to put his pants down and said, "Bai Huozhang has to go out for a while. You'll be here to relay my orders for the next few days."

Upon hearing this, Lü Zhou was extremely excited. He immediately clasped his hands and knelt down, his face turning red: "Thank you for your guidance, Master!"

Lin Qian told him to get up, half-jokingly saying, "Passing on my orders is no easy task."

Lu Zhou clasped his hands in a fist and said, "I am willing to serve you, my lord, at your service!"

Lin Qian noticed his somewhat scholarly tone and asked, "Have you been to school?"

"Replying to the captain, I haven't been to school. I loved listening to storytelling when I was little, and I learned these words from the storytellers."

Lin Qian asked a few more questions, which helped her to figure out Lü Zhou's background.

"Starting today, help me collect graphite and red lead from the island, and then deliver them to the captain of the prisoner-of-war camp. Tell him to grind them as he did last night, and then take the ground powder to the dock to mix. As for how to do it, ask the fire chief."

"Yes."

"Go."

Because carbothermic agents require extremely fine grinding and thorough mixing, a large amount of labor is needed.

So for several days, the prisoners were forced to work day and night, suffering unbearable torment.

Lin Qian asked Lü Zhou to find a deserted beach, set up a laboratory, and repeatedly test the power of different material combinations.

I've tried various combinations, including adding nitrates, sulfur, sugar, and oil.

They also developed a solid version that can be dried and solidified by adding sugar water, and a thick version that can be partially dried by adding oil and sugar.

These were the follow-up measures Lin Qian prepared to avoid the pottery jar simmering method becoming ineffective.

During the few days of rushing to produce carbothermal agent, Chen Jiao also obtained a sufficient amount of prohibited equipment from Huang Hetai.

There were twenty rattan shields, ten sets of raw cowhide armor, twenty crossbows, four hundred crossbow bolts, and one hundred waist knives.

According to Huang Shoubei, these rattan shields and leather armor were manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of War in the ninth year of the Wanli reign (1680), when Zhang Juzheng served as the Grand Secretary.

It's truly remarkable that it's still usable after nearly forty years.

The crossbows were also supervised by Zhang Juzheng during his time in power, but they were poorly preserved, with most of the crossbow strings broken.

In comparison, the quality of the knife was even worse.

Lin casually picked up a knife, only to find that the back of the blade was bent, the edge was dull, and the blade was black—definitely a low-quality weapon.

These were all newly made in recent years. Presumably, Commander Huang also felt that these knives were useless, so he simply gave Lin Qian a hundred of them all at once.

Whether it's the Miao sword, the Qi family sword, or the wild goose feather sword, the design of the swords used in the Ming Dynasty was excellent, and their performance in actual combat was no worse than that of Japanese swords.

However, the standard weapons issued by the Ministry of War were all poorly made and made of extremely poor materials.

As a result, when facing Japanese pirates during the Jiajing era, the government troops in Jiangnan were at a disadvantage in terms of weaponry alone.

This has led to the fact that modern-day Ming Dynasty pirates generally prefer to use Japanese swords.

Lin Qian arranged for the mute carpenter Huang Dai to build a replica of the "Lin Mansion" on an open space on the island, using wooden planks and cotton thread, to serve as a training ground.

Lei Sanxiang then selected over a hundred men from the crew, assigned them weapons, and had them train in three groups: left, center, and right.

Lin Qian's plan was that only 75 crew members would ultimately participate in the operation, meaning that 20 to 30 of these 100-plus people would be eliminated.

Not only will Bai Lian be eliminated, but she also won't be able to participate in the profit sharing after the looting, which will result in a huge loss of silver.

Therefore, the crew members put in a great deal of effort during the training.

……

The tide rises and falls.

Several days have passed in the blink of an eye.

The Santa Ana departed from Nan'ao and headed towards Huangyan.

Seven bird boats followed behind.

(End of this chapter)