When Hans Schmidt, the director of Hero Pharmaceutical Factory from Germany, and Will Heming, the security director of Jizhi Holding, arrived at Zhus office, they saw him writing something on his desk. Zhuzhi was dressed neatly, with his eyebrows tightly furrowed, his mind completely focused on the papers in front of him that were filled with English words and square characters.

  Neither of them dared to disturb him, and they were also curious about what important scientific paper Sir Julius was working on. As they watched Sir Julius writing with his head down, he even pounded his fist on the table when he got excited, scaring both of them. It wasn't until then that Sir Julius noticed their arrival, and he smiled awkwardly: "Please, sit down."

  Hans Schmidt, a somewhat elderly German engineer who had also studied chemistry, was deeply impressed by Zhu Ziyu's methods for synthesizing hydrochloric acid morphine, diethyl morphine and hydrochloric acid scopolamine. He had great respect for the Chinese scientist, who was more than ten years his junior. When Zhu Ziyu gave an order, he bowed slightly before sitting down. Will Heming had long been familiar with Zhu Ziyu and sat down with a smile, pointing to the pile of papers on the table and asking, "Jason, what's your next big project?"

  "What a big deal, it's just translating the manuscript sent by Friedrich, which is an introduction to European military and politics. By the way, Will, when will your manuscript be sent over?"

  Hans Schmidt, who was standing by, became interested in their conversation and interrupted, "Sir, what script are you talking about? Do you need my help?"

  "Come on Hans, I almost forgot to mention it, you're a military expert after all, why don't you write a book about the development of European weapons and gunpowder manufacturing?"

  "Jazz, such books can be bought in bookstores..." Hans Schmidt reminded him in a low voice.

  "No, no, I don't want to buy a technical book, but one that introduces European armaments to Eastern people." He looked at Will Heming again, "Will, why don't you and Hans divide the work? You can be in charge of writing about the use of land army weapons and the drills of various troops."

  Zhu Jishi picked up his pen and wrote down "Tai Xi Li Qi" and "Tai Xi Lian Bing Ji Yao", a total of nine Chinese characters, all in traditional script. His foundation in traditional script was not very good, but the white Sven who worked as a cook in his house could recognize characters. It is said that when he was young, he even took the imperial examination to become a scholar, unfortunately, he did not pass. So during this period, Zhu Jishi often asked White Sven for instruction on traditional script, and now he can basically write traditional script.

  "Alright, I'm familiar with the Army's weapon handling and drill manuals, so let me handle it." said Will Hemingway, "Jason, is that why you brought Hans and me here today?"

  "Of course not." Zhu Jishi shook his head, tidied up the manuscript on his desk, and took out a cowhide paper package from the office drawer with "Mercuric acid" and "Ammonium nitrate" written on it in English.

  Hans Schmidt and Will Heming exchanged a look, Hans Schmidt asked: "Gentlemen... can these two chemicals be used to make medicine?"

  "Alright Hans, from now on just call me Jason," he said with a wave of his hand. He paused for a moment, pointing to the two packages of chemicals and continued, "These two things can be used to make explosives."

  "Explosives...?" Hans Schmidt looked stunned, shaking his head. "Jason, what are you planning to do? As far as I know, fulminate of mercury is extremely unstable and prone to explosion... Now it's used in percussion caps for firing guns, but using it to make explosives is impossible, isn't it? And ammonium nitrate, does this chemical explode? I've never heard of it."

  Zhu Jisheng smiled slightly, looking at Hans Schmidt, "Hans, but I have a way to make ammonium nitrate explode, the explosive power of ammonium nitrate is roughly equivalent to 10 times that of black gunpowder!"

  "Ten times the power of black powder!" Hans Schmidt didn't seem to react much, but Will Heming jumped up and shouted loudly: "Good God, Jason, you're not joking, are you? Ten times the power of black powder? This will change the face of war! If we use it to fill explosive shells..."

  Hans Schmidt, however, shook his head and raised a very professional question, "But how are we going to detonate picric acid and ammonium nitrate? These two chemicals may be explosive under certain conditions, but if these conditions are too difficult to achieve, they cannot be used for military purposes."

  Zhu Jishi nodded in agreement, "Hans, you're right. The bitter and sour taste is indeed not easy to ignite... but I don't know how to ignite them... however, using them to produce explosive shells is probably unrealistic, unless there are more advanced cannons. Currently, the explosive shells seem to be unsafe. If the explosive power is increased by 10 times, it's too dangerous for our own people."

  He actually knew of two even more powerful explosives, one was picric acid! It had been invented as a dye long ago, but no one had discovered that it could explode; the other was **the main component of TNT explosive, which has not yet been invented. Zhu Jishi is planning to "invent" it, but he doesn't plan to use it for military purposes, but rather to make tablets for treating angina pectoris.

  As for the idea of using these two "explosives" to manufacture weapons, Zhu Jishi definitely did not have it at this time. Firstly, he considered himself a pacifist and could not manufacture weapons for imperialism to use in wars... Secondly, with ammonium nitrate explosives available to cheat money, why bother to introduce more powerful explosives? This is the same logic as Zhu Jishi's plan to use berberine to treat cholera and tuberculosis.

  "Jason, how are you planning on blowing them up?" Hans Schmidt asked with interest.

  "With the heating method, the explosion point of ammonium nitrate is 300 degrees Celsius. If it's mixed with a small amount of coal oil, it will be easier to detonate. I want to use mercuric fulminate to make a special detonator for ammonium nitrate explosives. Hans, Will, you two are more knowledgeable about weapons than me, can you help me design this?"

  "Is it just making an explosive with fulminate of mercury?" Hans Schmidt thought for a moment and said, "That's not the problem... **how to detonate it?**

  "Can it be ignited with a fuse?" asked Will Hemingway.

  "Fulminate of mercury is very easy to explode, it will explode when subjected to impact or vibration in a dry state, and sparks and flames can also detonate it. Its explosion point is only 170 degrees Celsius." Hans Schmidt was familiar with the properties of fulminate of mercury, he thought for a moment, then said: "I think we can make hand grenades using ammonium nitrate, and use fulminate of mercury to detonate them... Such hand grenades will definitely be smaller in volume than those filled with black gunpowder, and 10 times the explosive power should be enough to cause significant casualties to densely formed infantry. I think if ammonium nitrate can really be detonated by fulminate of mercury, we should set up a specialized bomb factory!"

  Zhu Jishou nodded heavily, "I was thinking the same thing. Hans, Will, if this deal goes through, you two will be in charge of managing the munitions factory and each receive 5% shares and a one-time bonus of ￡800."

  The emperor doesn't begrudge hungry soldiers, but Zhu Jishi isn't an emperor, just a baron, so of course he can't let his subordinates work for nothing. Not to mention the 5% stake in the munitions factory, even that 800 pounds is not a small sum in this era. Under the motivation of such a generous reward, within three weeks, Hans Schmidt and Will Heming presented a very primitive and extremely unsafe fuse-ignited ** on Zhu Jishi's office desk.