The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

Daming Prefecture, south of the city, an abandoned blacksmith shop.

The place was remote and dilapidated, with waist-high weeds growing in the yard, cobwebs and thick dust everywhere inside the house, and a strange smell of rust and mildew permeating the air.

No one could have imagined that Jiang Lin, the "Khitan spy" leader whom the entire city's soldiers were searching for, was now leisurely sitting on a dilapidated recliner, holding a foxtail grass he had picked up from who-knows-where, and gently scratching Shen Kuo's nose.

"Achoo!"

Shen Kuo, who was squatting on the ground, intently studying a pile of black powder in the corner with a small wooden stick, suddenly sneezed loudly and almost fell headfirst into the pile of powder.

He looked up, rubbed his itchy nose, and saw Jiang Lin's smug smile, which made him furious.

"Headmaster! Can you be serious for once! We're wanted criminals now! And you're still in the mood to play around!" Shen Kuo complained, his face smeared with soot, making him look like a tabby cat.

"What's the panic?" Jiang Lin tossed away the foxtail grass and said lazily, "Even if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. We're safe now."

"Safe? Where is it safe?" Shen Kuo stood up, dusting off his hands. "There are soldiers everywhere outside, biting people like mad dogs. This wretched place of ours will be found by them sooner or later."

"They won't be able to find it," Jiang Lin said confidently.

Why?

"Because this place belongs to Zhao Liben." Jiang Lin's lips curled into a playful smile. "It's also where he hides his private assets and handles shady matters. Do you think he would allow his soldiers to turn his own backyard upside down?"

Shen Kuo was stunned, then suddenly realized.

"The most dangerous place is the safest place... Headmaster, you've already made all the arrangements?"

"It's not really an arrangement." Jiang Lin shifted to a more comfortable position, "It's just that before coming here, I had Qian Duoduo spend some money to look through the property deeds of some high-ranking officials and nobles in Daming Prefecture. Just in case."

Looking at Jiang Lin's calm and composed demeanor, Shen Kuo's tension and anxiety gradually dissipated.

He felt that as long as the mountain stood, it seemed that no matter how big the sky was, it would never collapse.

"So what do we do now? Just keep hiding here?" Shen Kuo asked.

"Hiding? That's no fun." Jiang Lin took out an oil paper package from his pocket, opened it, and inside were two roast chickens that were still steaming hot.

"Where did this come from?" Shen Kuo's eyes widened; he hadn't eaten anything properly all day.

"Problems that money can solve aren't problems at all." Jiang Lin tore off a chicken leg and handed it to Shen Kuo. "I trust money to get things done."

Shen Kuo didn't care about anything else, took the chicken leg and started to devour it, saying indistinctly, "Headmaster, you must have a backup plan, right? Will Her Highness the Princess be able to reach the capital smoothly?"

"Don't worry," Jiang Lin said slowly, munching on a chicken wing. "Wang Shao isn't someone to be trifled with. Zhao Liben's attention is entirely focused on the city right now. He has no idea that his death warrant has already been sent to Bianjing at breakneck speed. His current lockdown and manhunt are just a last-ditch effort."

"And what about us?" Shen Kuo quickly finished off a chicken leg, then turned his gaze to the other one. "Are we just going to wait around?"

"Of course not." Jiang Lin pushed the rest of the roast chicken towards him. "We need to add some spice to make him go even crazier."

He looked at Shen Kuo, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes: "What is Zhao Liben most afraid of right now?"

Shen Kuo thought for a moment and said, "Are you afraid we'll leak the information about the account books?"

"Not only that." Jiang Lin shook his head. "He's even more afraid that things will escalate beyond control and alarm the imperial court. He's sealing off the entire city now because he wants to silence all of us who know the truth before the news gets out, so that there's no way to prove anything."

"Therefore, we must do the opposite." Jiang Lin's thinking was crystal clear. "We not only need to make a big fuss, but we need to make it so that everyone knows about it, so that Zhao Liben can't suppress it even if he wants to!"

"What's going on?" Shen Kuo asked, puzzled. "Although Senior Brother Su has spread the news in the entertainment district, the whole city is under martial law now, so the news can't get out at all. Even if the common people find out, what can they do? Can they really fight against the government troops?"

"A common man's anger can spill blood five steps away. The power of the people is like water; it can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. But what we need now is not water, but a fire." Jiang Lin stood up and walked to the pile of black powder that Shen Kuo had just been studying.

It was a simple earthen stove. Because it was damp, it emitted a lot of black smoke when it was lit, leaving a thick layer of soot on the walls and stove.

"Cunzhong, look what this is?" Jiang Lin picked up a bit of cigarette ash with his fingers and rubbed it between his fingertips.

Shen Kuo leaned closer, examined it carefully, and then smelled it. He frowned and said, "Isn't this just ordinary tobacco ash? When we were in Ghost Cry Garden, the turbid gas coming out of the well burned, and this also produced this stuff. The texture is much finer than the tobacco ash from ordinary charcoal."

"That's right, it's delicate." Jiang Lin smiled. "The soot from burning ordinary pine wood is called pine soot, which is a top-grade material for making ink. The ink of Li Tinggui from Huizhou is worth one tael of gold per tael of ink, which is due to his superb skills in burning soot and making glue."

"Master, you mean..." Shen Kuo's eyes lit up; he seemed to understand something.

"What I mean is," Jiang Lin looked at the cigarette ash in his hand as if it were a mountain of gold, "Zhao Liben has blocked our supplies, trying to starve us out. Then let's make something ourselves, something that will make Zhao Liben envious, something that will drive all the scholars in Daming Prefecture crazy!"

"Isn't he trying to frame us as 'Khitan spies'? Then let's use the most elegant things, the things that best represent the spirit of Song Dynasty literati, to give him a good slap in the face!"

Jiang Lin's tone was calm, but the arrogance and confidence in his words made Shen Kuo feel a surge of excitement.

He could almost see a massive storm, started by a small handful of cigarette ash, about to sweep across the entire Daming Prefecture.

And they are at the eye of the storm.

Shen Kuo looked at Jiang Lin and nodded heavily: "Headmaster, what do I need to do?"

Jiang Lin smiled, pointed to the pile of cigarette ash, and said, "First, we need more of this 'ghost fire embers.' Then, we need glue. Finally, we need a pair of hands that can turn the rotten into the miraculous."

He patted Shen Kuo on the shoulder: "Cunzhong, the important task of developing the first 'petroleum ink' of the Great Song Dynasty is entrusted to you."