Chapter 411 Zhang Huan’s Scheme

After Zhang Huan ascended the throne, Jincheng County was officially restored to its original name Lanzhou. This place has always been the location of Zhang Huan's Longyou Jiedu Palace. All government agencies and a large number of weapons workshops are concentrated here. The Longyou Firearms Department, which specializes in gunpowder, is located in a schoolyard in the southeast of the city, with a two-story wooden building.

But at this time, all the Longyou Fireworks Department had moved to Chang'an. There was only one empty building left in the Longyou Fireworks Department, as well as many facilities for gunpowder testing in the schoolyard, and there were no guards. The entire gunpowder testing site was in an abandoned state. Many children living nearby always like to come here to play. Take a look at this place where the former was heavily guarded and no outsiders were allowed to enter the mysterious place.

In the past few days, several strange Turks have always appeared in the abandoned gunpowder test site. According to people around them, they are merchants from the Western Regions and want to buy this open space for warehouses. If you want to buy land, you must first inspect it. Therefore, these Turks investigated the gunpowder test site very carefully, where can you repair the warehouse, where can you use horse roads, etc.

Naturally, these Turks were the mysterious disappearing Uighur national master Surman and others. After their whereabouts were exposed, the entire Tang Dynasty was full of pictures of the capture of Tulan. Although the paintings on the pictures were a little too beautiful and completely different from the Tulan in reality, out of caution, Surman still asked Tulan and most of them to temporarily return to China to avoid the limelight, and he himself disappeared into the Bashan and Shu River.

He had been silent for nearly a month. As the capture pictures and texts on the city gate gradually turned yellow and fell off, the news of the capture of Uighur spies passed, but Surman still maintained enough patience. It was not until more than two months that he began to consider the second task, stealing the recipe of the Tang Thunder. The Da Tang Thunder is the name of the Da Tianren. Because the Da Tian was severely damaged in the Greek fire, he always had a sense of fear when facing the enemy's mysterious weapons. Moreover, with some of the Da Tian soldiers who fled back in the Battle of Anxi exaggeratedly exaggerating the horror of the Da Tianlei, the Caliph even more fearful. In the terms of the peace talks between Da Tian and Uighur, the first condition was to require the Uighur to get the recipe of the Da Tianlei no matter what.

Surman arrived in Lanzhou two hours ago. Before that, he had ordered his subordinates to set up a suspicion array in Luoyang, Jianghuai area, and successfully attracted the attention of the Tang Dynasty Guoansi. Now he must get the recipe for the Tang Dynasty Thunder within three days.

"Master, please come here."

Surman's eldest disciple Atru waved to his master from afar. These days he has been leading people to survey this abandoned gunpowder test site. He wants to show off his survey results to his master.

Surman has always been wearing a black robe and a black veil on his face, making his expression impossible. He rarely shows up in public. He hides in the carriage most of the time. When he hears his apprentice call him, he slowly walks over. This is a wooden hut that is scaled down. He bows to get in. Surman enters the hut and sees the hut is in a mess, with traces left by the explosion test everywhere.

"Master, I have been searching for a few days, and there are only traces of the Tang Dynasty thunder in this hut." Atlu said, staring at the master, and a hint of desire to be praised in his eyes.

Atlu is the eldest son of King Gloru, slightly different from Tulan. He was sent to Dashi as a hostage since he was a child. But somehow, ten years ago, he actually came to Surman's hands and became Surman's apprentice with a group of princes and princesses from small Western countries. But soon, except for him, the other princes and princesses were sent back to Baghdad.

He was the oldest, so he became a great disciple. Since he was a child, he felt that Master was an extremely mysterious person. He was uncertain and saw him once a year. Master had never taught him anything. He didn't even know whether Master could be martial arts. He knew nothing about Master. Despite this, Atlu was extremely afraid of this young old man in black. He could take all the hostages in Baghdad in various countries. He was also one of the highest elders of Manichi, and now he has transformed himself into the national teacher of the Uighur Kingdom.

Atlu was sensible early, and he felt a vague feeling that his true identity as a master was definitely not that simple.

Surman went into the house and took off the black veil, revealing his pale and bloodless face. He looked carefully at everything in the house without showing any expression. There were broken porcelain pieces everywhere on the wooden walls, which were obviously left behind after the explosion of the porcelain bottle. He saw a black mark on the roof, so he brought a small table next to him, stood on it and reached out to wipe the black mark. Atlu, who was next to him, suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. His master seemed to know how to do martial arts.

Surman wiped a handful of black marks, and there was some black powder in his hand. He rubbed it for a while, then placed it in front of his nose and smelled it. This was charcoal powder, which means that the recipe of Datang Lei has charcoal ingredients.

At this time, he saw a black mark on the corner of the house, which was slightly different from what he saw now. He climbed off the table and bent down to wipe the black mark on the corner of the wall. There was also a little powder on the black mark. He put it in front of his nose and smelled it. Now he seemed to smell a familiar smell. He frowned and smelled it carefully. It was indeed the smell of tinea oil. Yes, he was sure that he was too familiar with this substance.

"Did the Tang Lei use the power of tincture oil like Greek fire?"

Suddenly, Surman took a step back, staring at the corner of the room, and whispered: "Who is it? Come out!"

Atru was also scared and jumped backwards, pulling out the long sword at his waist. A wooden board in the corner of the room was slowly lifted, revealing a round black head. Then two boys came in from the hole as big as a dog hole, one was seven or eight years old, and the other was five or six years old. They looked at Surman and laughed, "Scared you guys!" The smaller boy clapped his hands and laughed.

"Kill them!" Atru tightened the hilt of the sword, and murderous intent appeared in his eyes. The two children came in under his nose, but he didn't notice it. It was so embarrassing.

"Don't be impulsive." Surman glared at him, and he suddenly squatted down and asked the two children with a smile: "Do you all live nearby?"

Atlu's heart suddenly sank. He never knew that his master could speak fluent Chinese.

The two children looked at each other and nodded together. Surman took out more than a dozen copper coins and put them on the table, still smiling and said, "Answer a question, I'll give you a penny, are you willing to do this?"

More than a dozen copper coins were polished yellow and shiny by Surman, which was extremely attractive. Both little boys nodded heavily.

"Then I'll ask you the first question, have your father, uncle or neighbor worked here before?"

"Yes!" the little boy raised his hand first, "My uncle used to work here and could earn two stale money a day."

"Well said, your uncle is very capable." Surman became a kind uncle. He took a copper coin and stuffed it to the little boy, "Then what is your uncle doing here?"

"He specializes in carrying things." The little boy was a little depressed.

"It's good to move things!" Surman put another copper coin on him, and turned around and asked the older boy, "What about you? Do you want to make some money?"

"Erlang, let's go!" The older boy felt the strange uncle's smile strangely. He quickly pulled his companion, and the two ran away in a flash. Surman stared at their backs and smiled gloomyly.

"You bring me the uncle who is carrying things tonight and kill these two little kids."

At night, the bright moonlight covered Lanzhou City. In a house in the north of the city, Atru hurriedly walked to a house without lights and said respectfully: "Master, we have tortured him."

"Come in!"

Atru flashed into the house. The room was very dark, and there was only a moonlight on the side of the window. Surman was lying under the moonlight, staring at the silver-white moon, black robe, and snow-white face, as if he was a creature that absorbed the essence of moonlight.

"What valuable did he say?"

Atlu bowed and said, "He has several carriages that were requisitioned by the government and are responsible for transporting materials. He said that all the items were packed in the Longyou Government Government. Most of them have been shipped to Chang'an, and some of the boxes are still stored in the Longyou Government Government Warehouse."

"What exactly is Datang Lei?"

"He didn't know either, the defense was extremely tight, they only heard loud noises and black smoke coming up, and they didn't know anything else."

"What else? Do you want me to ask and you will say something?" Surman slowly turned his head, his eyes extremely cold.

Atlu's heart trembled, and he hurriedly said: "All the craftsmen have been taken to Chang'an, and the Longyou Government is also reorganizing the items. They will be transported to Chang'an in the past two days."

Speaking of this, Atru added anxiously: "This person will be one of the transporters, too."

The room was very quiet, and Surman was in deep thought. When he stole the secret of Greek fire, only two of them left fled back when he brought him 500 people. He jumped into the sea before he was able to escape. He knew very well what such secrets mean to a great power. Once the secret of the Tang Lei entered Beijing, he would never have any chance.

"Let's go now!" Surman made the decision without hesitation.

The Longyou Government Government, which is Zhang Huan's group of staff, Hu Yong, Du Mei, Pei Mingyuan and others were in charge of Longyou and the actual land control government affairs in various places. It was originally called the Longyou Government Council. After Zhang Huan ascended the throne, Hu Yong and others went to Beijing to serve as officials. The government office that had just been built a few years ago became deserted, and the Longyou Jiedu Mansion had moved to Shanzhou in Hehuang. This large-scale building complex lost its halo of power. Zhang Huan had issued an instruction not long ago, and it would soon be changed to the Longyou Branch of the Imperial College.

At present, the government is in the handover period, and the government is very messy. Various documents accumulated over the years have accumulated over the years. Dozens of officials are responsible for identifying various materials every day, sorting and packing useful materials, and burning them one by one if they are useless. This work has been going on for nearly two months and is gradually coming to an end.

Lanzhou City is different from Chang'an. There are no neatly planned buildings here, and there are no walls. The residential and commercial areas are mixed together, which makes them look a bit messy. When it is late at night, you can occasionally see some people who like to travel at night.

Lanzhou has completed its historical mission, and has returned from the political and economic center of a local regime to an ordinary frontier state. The major military camps in the city seem empty, and most of the troops have entered Guanzhong. There are not many garrisons in Lanzhou. Now there are only two thousand people left. The main ones are still stationed along the Yellow River. There are almost no garrisons in the city. Daily public security is the responsibility of the yamen runners in Wuquan County. But there are only a garrison of 500 people in the government. Their mission is to escort the last batch of information back to Chang'an.

The sky began to appear dark clouds, the moon appeared and disappeared among the dark clouds, and the earth was also bright and dark, which seemed a little strange. It was already two o'clock. It was when people were sleeping sweetly, but five black shadows appeared quietly in the woods of the Longyou Government Government. Atru leaned on a tree and carefully observed the garrisoning situation here. Not far behind him, Surman covered his whole body in a black robe. His tall figure was like a strange dark warlock. His face was covered with a black veil, and no one knew what he was thinking or looking at.

The entrance of the warehouse was about fifty steps away from them, and three teams of twenty-person Tang soldiers were patrolling alternately, and I don’t know if there were any hidden whistles hidden.

"Atru, go!" A voice that could not resist came from behind Surman's black veil, cold and without any vitality.

Atlu felt that he was a manipulated puppet and could not have any thoughts of his own. He didn't even know the words of the Tang Dynasty, so he asked him to find what he wanted, but he didn't dare to say a word. He jumped off the tree, waved his hand, and led his three companions to fly to the entrance of the warehouse a hundred steps away.

Surman was the only one left in the woods. He watched the disappearance of his eldest disciple coldly. Suddenly, he was like a mutated monster, and he flipped over a fight, like a powerful arrow shot out, and his slender body shot straight away.

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Atlu and others had already climbed into the warehouse through a breath window. Several people stood there, all at a loss. The warehouse was tall and wide, with dark inside and no lights. However, as their eyes gradually adapted, they saw a scene that shocked them.

I saw countless large boxes piled up like several hills, at least thousands of mouths, and many boxes were buried deep inside and invisible outside. To find the recipe for the Tang thunder they wanted in these thousands of boxes, or even just a line of words, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. What's more, they didn't understand the Tang Dynasty's words at all. Several people looked at each other and didn't know where to start.

"Come here! Move here."

Surman's ghostly black robe suddenly appeared above their heads. I don't know when he came. Several people were stunned for a moment and ran over immediately. Their national master pointed to a box and said, "It's here, move them away."

Several people carefully moved the box away, which contained books or documents. It was very heavy. Each box was covered with a white note. They only knew the word "fire", but there was nothing on the box in front of them.

"Move here too."

At some point, Master had already reached another box mountain a hundred steps away, but he was clearly above him, and Atlu seemed to have seen a ghost, and was shocked.

"And move here too!"

“There are the same here.”

For an entire hour, the four of them were moving the boxes. By the time of the fourth update, they were exhausted. At this time, Surman had disappeared. He drilled through the gaps and looked for the boxes he needed. In the end, he was a little tired. He leaned on the boxes and closed his eyes to rest. He came here to find the recipe for Datang Lei. He had only hoped that this place would be much looser than the guards in Chang'an. He only hoped that the official would have omissions in the process of transferring documents and left the recipe he needed in just a few words. But after searching for it for almost a night, he still couldn't find the box of the Firearms Division he wanted.

Surman sighed secretly. Ten years ago, he used 50,000 taels of gold to bribe the guard guards and entered the secret room where the Greek fire recipe was placed, but he almost died when he touched the mechanism. Is he going to follow the old path this time?

The key is that he understands the mechanism of Byzantine, but he knows nothing about the mechanism of the Tang Dynasty. The mysterious tricks of the ancient Eastern Kingdoms are far better than those of Byzantine. Surman was about to stand up, but he felt that his robe was hooked by the nails in the box behind him. He turned around and carefully took the robe from the nails. Suddenly his eyes straightened. On the box behind him, there were three words "Fireware Seal". Although the light was dark, he could see clearly. Yes, it was it!

"When I searched for it without any effort, I found it without any effort." Surman remembered this ancient oriental proverb. He couldn't help but be surprised and happy, but he did not rush to do it. Instead, he carefully looked at the boxes around him. There were only three boxes with the words "Fire Equipment" pasted. He looked up from the window and looked at the sky. The moonlight was bright and the night was dark. After this darkest moment, the sky should be bright.

Surman took out a cold dagger from his arms, and with a light stroke, the wooden strips of the box were cut off with a slight sound. He quickly took off the wooden board from the side. The things placed in the box were all in the account books. Surman took out a book casually and hurriedly browsed a few pages in a faint moonlight. This seemed to be the payment account for labor fees. A certain month and a certain day used three carriages to pay five cents of money.

He threw away the account book in his hand and pulled out another old one. Surman's heart suddenly jumped up. It was an account book for purchasing various materials. He saw at a glance that he purchased 300 kilograms of charcoal on May 7. He remembered the charcoal powder he had touched in the cottage. It should be it, but Surman was still very cautious. He found the labor fee account book just now. In a page on May 7, he found one of them, and he had three hundred kilograms of charcoal and grind powder, and paid 50 jin.

‘Charcoal powder’, which is indeed one of the components of the Tang Dynasty thunder. With the first gain, Surman was excited. He cut open another box, and there were letters in it. He had no time to look closely at the seal, and only glanced at the letter skin. He kept flipping through more than two hundred letters. Suddenly, he was attracted by a letter. This seemed to be a letter written by the Firearms Department to the combat military. The letter skin read: ‘Several explanations for the improvement of the power of the Zhentian Thunder’. There are two words ‘copy’ below. Surman knew that the official documents of the Tang Dynasty had regulations on recording copies.

‘Shentian Thunder’, Surman murmured to himself, “It turns out that the Tang Dynasty Thunder is called Shitian Thunder.”

He immediately tore open the letter impatiently and read it hurriedly: 'Three months ago, the military responded that the explosion power of the thunder was not strong. It was found that because the turtle oil used was produced in Dunhuang, he specially purchased 500 barrels of Persian tulle from Persia three months later. The texture of the turtle oil powder was pure, and the charcoal powder in the original formula was reduced to 20%, the salt was reduced to 15%, the yellow wax was reduced to half, the turtle oil powder was increased to 60%, and the dry paint was added to one or two liang, and the fixed powder was increased. In this way, the new thunder of the thunder was more than three times stronger than the old thunder.

’

After reading this, Surman was so excited that he almost screamed, "Tube oil powder, charcoal powder, salt, yellow wax, dry paint, fixed powder" This is the whole recipe of Datang Lei.

But he still restrained his excitement and found the record from March last year from the procurement account book. The first line was to purchase 500 barrels of Persian turmeric oil and pay 300 stag.

It was it, Surman trembled his hands, and he put the letter and account book carefully into his arms. At this time, it was already a little clear. He looked at the mountains of documents, sneered, and took out the flint, "Click! Click!" Two sounds, a blue flame appeared in his hand, and he lit the wooden box where the letter was kept, and a wisp of black smoke came out.

"Master, what are you doing?" Atru shouted in surprise.

"Nothing!" Surman said without expression: "Since I can't find what I want, I will burn the traces of it with fire. Let's go to Chang'an again."

"But." Atru wanted to say that he could come back tonight, but he could not say a word from his master's gloomy face.

"National Master, someone is here." A subordinate heard the rushing footsteps from outside, and he screamed nervously.

"Let's go." As soon as Surman's word "go" came out, four cold lights suddenly shot out from his hands and suddenly penetrated into the four people's chests. The four people shouted, their faces turned black and they fell to the ground and died.

Surman slowly walked to Atru's body, kicked him, and sneered cruelly: "Don't blame the master for killing you, just blame you for knowing too much."

After saying that, he turned around and climbed up the wall like an extremely clever ape and threw himself out of the window. At this time, with a "clang!", the door of the warehouse was kicked open.

‘It’s time to leave!’ The soldiers were shouting anxiously.
Chapter completed!