We agreed on a famine year, so how come your family has enough rice and wheat flour?

"Young Master Cui, I'll remember this matter. After all, the other party is the second-in-command of Black Wind Stronghold, so killing him won't be easy."

Lin Feng neither refused nor agreed.

Cui Jian seemed unwilling to let go of any opportunity to avenge his father's death, and gave Lin Feng another bounty poster with Sun Cheng's portrait on it.

It's drawn to look very human, with a pointed mouth and monkey-like cheeks, and a large mole on the left cheek, which is its most obvious feature.

Lin Feng put the wanted poster away and then bought some wolfsbane and arsenic from Yong'an Hall.

Arsenic was a toxic external medicine controlled by the government and was extremely expensive, costing 200 coins per pound.

Each person can only buy one pound per month.

Wolfsbane is cheap, only thirty coins a pound, and you can buy it anywhere.

Lin Feng packed the items into a bamboo basket and left Yong'an Hall.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Feng strolled around the East Market, intending to buy rice and flour.

The brown rice at home is rice that has been hulled but not finely milled, so it has a rough texture.

Lin Feng wasn't used to the food, but since he had the money, he naturally wanted to improve it.

Soon Lin Feng looked at the list: 20 catties of fine white rice for 800 wen.

Twenty catties of white flour cost 900 coins.

Pork costs 100 coins per pound.

Three catties of pork fat cost 600 coins.

Three catties of willow charcoal cost 110 coins.

This trip to the county town cost me a total of three taels and eight mace of silver.

The money from selling cliff honey isn't even enough to cover our expenses.

This chaotic world is plagued by famine.

Fortunately, four taels of silver were recovered from those three servants yesterday.

Lin Feng now has three taels and seven mace of silver left.

After buying the supplies, Lin Feng gritted his teeth and spent ten copper coins to hire someone to carry them to the West Gate and put them on the old horse's back.

"It's getting late, we need to hurry back." Lin Feng led the horse by the reins, carefully avoiding the refugees outside the city, and headed back towards Dongshan Village.

Old Ma's strength was limited; with supplies already on his back, Lin Feng couldn't ride on him anymore, so he had to walk.

Lin Feng returned to Dongshan Village before sunset.

Fortunately, the villagers were all outside digging for grass roots and wild vegetables, and no one noticed Lin Feng's pile of supplies.

"Why did you buy so much stuff?"

Hearing the commotion in the courtyard, Liu Yu came out and saw Lin Feng leading an old horse carrying a bunch of things.

"Refined white rice and white flour!"

"There's still one pound of pork and three pounds of pork fat!"

Liu Yu helped unload the goods, and when she saw the supplies, she was so shocked that she couldn't close her mouth.

A pair of puzzled peach blossom eyes looked at Lin Feng, as if to say, "Husband, are we not going to live our lives together anymore?"

"My wife, our lives will only get better and better."

Lin Feng smiled without explaining further, patted Liu Yu's head, and then put the rice and flour into the kitchen.

"After dinner, please have my wife render these pork fats. The pork cracklings can be used to mix with rice."

"It's not hard work, it's not hard work," Liu Yu waved her hand.

Lin Feng earned all the money in the house, so since he had already bought it, she couldn't say anything.

"My lady, I have three taels and seven mace of silver left here. Please take it."

Lin Feng gave the remaining silver to Liu Yu.

It's not that I want to hand over the family's financial power to Liu Yu.

Instead, he spent all his time running into the mountains, worried that if he encountered wild animals, he would tear his clothes and lose pieces of silver.

It would be better to let Liu Yu keep it for us.

Liu Yu carefully accepted the loose silver from Lin Feng and held it in her palm.

After hiding it, Liu Yu took a notebook and a stiff bamboo pen, dipped them in ink, and wrote on them.

"My wife, I didn't know you could keep accounts."

Lin Feng looked at the account book in Liu Yu's hand in surprise. Every income and expenditure was remembered very clearly.

Liu Yu said, "My father used to work as an accountant for a landlord, and I learned it by observing him."

"My wife, you're wonderful!"

Lin Feng cupped Liu Yu's face and kissed her hard.

The sudden kiss made Liu Yu blush with embarrassment.

"Wife, you go ahead and cook. I have other things to do."

"Oh, by the way, you can make soup with that ten-year-old wild ginseng too."

After Lin Feng finished speaking, he turned around and went to scrape saltpeter from the base of the wall around his house.

Many villagers who passed by shook their heads when they saw Lin Feng playing with mud again.

Although Liu Yu didn't understand what Lin Feng was doing, she believed that he wasn't suffering from dementia as the villagers said.

Lin Feng worked for half an hour and, including the previous work, scraped off a total of five catties of saltpeter.

Overjoyed, Lin Feng quickly took out the sulfur and charcoal and placed them in the yard.

"One part gunpowder, 75 parts saltpeter, 15 parts sulfur, and 10 parts charcoal."

In his previous life, Lin Feng was a king of soldiers, and he could easily handle saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal.

Subsequently, Lin Feng patiently ground the sulfur and charcoal separately into extremely fine powder using a stone mortar.

Once this step is complete, take a steelyard balance and mix the ingredients according to the specified proportions.

Soon, a dark, five-pound mass of powder appeared in front of Lin Feng.

Lin Feng trembled with excitement. He found a small earthenware jar, gently poured in half a pound of gunpowder, and then inserted a piece of hemp paper into the gunpowder.

"My lord, what is this powder?"

After Liu Yu finished preparing dinner, she noticed that Lin Feng had been busy in the yard for a long time, so she curiously came over.

"This is gunpowder."

Lin Feng didn't hide anything from Liu Yu and smiled.

"What is gunpowder?" Liu Yu tilted her head blankly.

"You'll find out soon enough," Lin Feng said with a mysterious smile.

Then take out a fire tinder and burn a corner of the hemp paper.

"Wife, run!"

Lin Feng took Liu Yu's small hand and ran into the house.

The next moment, boom!

A burst of flames erupted, followed by a violent explosion, like a thunderclap.

The news spread throughout the entire village.

Liu Yu was initially puzzled by Lin Feng's actions, but after hearing the loud noise, her legs went weak and she collapsed into Lin Feng's muscular chest.

"Husband, what happened? Was our courtyard struck by lightning?"

Liu Yu trembled in Lin Feng's arms.

"My lady, this is the black powder that my husband was talking about." Lin Feng pinched Liu Yu's delicate nose.

Liu Yu's pretty face was full of worry as she grabbed Lin Feng's arm. "Husband, this gunpowder is really scary. Don't mess with it anymore. I'm afraid something will happen to you."

"That won't do, but don't worry, my wife, I've got your safety under control. Nothing will happen."

Lin Feng patted Liu Yu's shoulder, then led her out of the house and back into the courtyard where thick white smoke was billowing everywhere.

The once perfectly good pottery jar was now shattered into pieces, with fragments scattered everywhere.

There was a shallow black pit on the ground, and there were many black residues in the pit.

This was not unexpected for Lin Feng. The next step was to make granular gunpowder.

Because of the gaps between the particles, granular gunpowder allows oxygen to circulate, resulting in more complete combustion, significantly improving its power and stability, and greatly reducing the problems of residue and smoke.

The loud noise just now echoed throughout the village, and many people discovered that it was Lin Feng's house that made the noise.

The villagers all gathered over here.

"Lin Feng, what happened at your house? Why was there such a loud noise all of a sudden?"

"Why is there a shallow, black crater in your yard? Did it get struck by lightning?"

"What a strange smell! I've never smelled this before!"