"Can you imitate this musket?" White asked the weapon blacksmith impatiently.

"There is no problem in imitation. We have disassembled and reassembled the musket several times, but it is a bit troublesome to make some parts, especially this iron pipe. It will take a lot of time to make one," the weapon blacksmith replied.

After a pause, he added: "Your Majesty, actually the key to the musket is not the musket itself."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

"The musket serves this thing." The weapon blacksmith picked up the small bag containing black powder. "Without this thing, the musket cannot function at all."

Taking the small bag, White opened it and saw that it was the black powder poured in when using the musket.

There was also a pungent smell, which was so unpleasant that he closed the bag in disgust.

The weapon blacksmith continued to explain: "We have studied this black powder and found that it is easily ignited and produces a lot of white smoke. The musket uses flint to create sparks, ignite the black powder, and then push the projectiles out of the iron pipe."

It turns out that black powder is so important. White weighed the small bag in his hand.

"What is this? Do you know?"

"I'm very sorry, Your Majesty, we didn't know."

The weapon blacksmith said with regret: "I speculate that it should be made by grinding several things into powder and mixing them, but what specific things are they? What is the ratio? We can't figure it out."

"Tsk!"

Hearing this, White couldn't help but smack his lips. Without knowing the key black powder formula, even if the musket could be copied, it would be useless.

I really want to send troops to capture Irving Eisen right now and interrogate him for the formula of the black powder.

Thinking that the king was angry, the weapons blacksmith present could not help but feel frightened.

"never mind."

White turned to look at the six weapon blacksmiths and said: "Now that you have completed the task I assigned, your lives and your family's lives will be safe."

Hearing this, the weapon blacksmiths breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that their lives and that of their families were finally saved.

"However, I have a new task to give you." White continued.

The six weapon blacksmiths listened attentively, praying silently in their hearts that the new task was not to research the formula of black powder. They were not good at this research at all.

"I will find another person to study this black powder matter."

White said slowly: "You go back with the musket and imitate one for me. Then I will order all the blacksmiths in the city to make the musket, and you will be responsible for this. I will tell you what materials are needed and the payment.

The Finance Minister will be sent to talk to you."

When they heard the black powder earlier, the weapon blacksmiths' heartstrings suddenly tightened. Fortunately, White did not let them study the black powder.

Not bad, not bad, if you just copy and mass-produce the musket, there won't be any problem.

In the blacksmith circle of the royal capital, these six weapon blacksmiths are quite famous and are qualified to command and manage the city's blacksmiths.

What's more, they are still under the king's orders, and no one will dare to disobey the king's order.

"Yes, Your Majesty." The weapon blacksmiths responded in unison.

Although he would find someone else to research the black powder, White didn't know who he should look for.

It is unlikely that all the things needed to make black powder are produced locally in Bianzhu Town. Certain raw materials should be purchased in large quantities from outside.

Moreover, the musket weapon only appeared in Border Guard Town recently, and the required black powder should not have been invented too early.

Taking this into consideration, White decided to send someone to investigate the recent abnormal purchasing behavior in Bianzhu Town.

After this investigation, I found some tricks.

Last year, Border Guard Town went all the way to the Royal Capital to purchase food; in winter, they actually purchased large quantities of saltpeter for making ice from the saltpeter factory; they also purchased large quantities of the ashes of hot magic stones from magic stone traders from magic stone merchants.

Food can be eliminated directly.

White has learned about the situation in Border Guard Town. That place needs to import food to meet its own needs. It may be something Duke Eddie did that forced the Marquis of Eisen to purchase food elsewhere.

Purchasing saltpeter and the ashes of the scorching magic stone is very suspicious.

Why buy so much saltpeter in winter? It’s not summer, because it’s too hot, so we need saltpeter to make ice to cool down.

The ashes of the scorching magic stones are usually thrown away as garbage. What is the purpose of acquiring them in Border Guard Town?

Obviously, these two things are closely related to black powder.

In this case, without further delay, White immediately promulgated two new royal orders in the royal capital.

The saltpeter making factories in the royal capital and surrounding areas are prohibited from selling saltpeter to Border Guard Town, and are forced to purchase all saltpeter at low prices.

Magic stone merchants are prohibited from collecting the ashes of scorching magic stones. All collected items will be confiscated, and they are forced to purchase large quantities of scorching magic stones at low prices.

The magic stone merchant thought that Bianzhu Town would continue to purchase gray powder in the coming year, so he was secretly collecting it.

As for the acquisition of the Scorching Magic Stone, it was because it was summer and no one was buying the Scorching Magic Stone for heating, so White planned to find a place to consume the magic power of the Scorching Magic Stone to ensure that he could obtain sufficient magic stone ashes.

Afterwards, White summoned Serar Henry, the president of the Magic Stone Research Association in the royal capital.

Since the black powder may contain the ashes of the hot magic stone, he planned to hand over the task of finding the black powder formula to the Magic Stone Research Association.

The function of the Magic Stone Research Association is to research and synthesize new magic stones.

The previous voice magic stone was synthesized and produced by this association, and the magic induction beads used to detect magic power are actually a kind of synthetic magic stone.

The technical process of synthesizing magic stones is extremely complex, and it is quite a waste of money. It requires the consumption of a lot of high-quality magic stones. Generally, only very large cities like the Royal Capital will establish magic stone research associations.

The Royal Capital Magic Stone Research Association spends a lot of research funds every year, but the research results are not good. The sound magic stones they synthesized are disposable, and so many high-quality magic stones are wasted.

If the establishment of the Magic Stone Research Association was not a symbol of a country's financial strength and related to the country's face, White would have shut it down long ago.

Meeting hall.

Serral Henry, the president with white hair on his temples and full of intellectual knowledge, walked in and saluted the king respectfully.

"Greetings to you, Your Majesty."

"Sieral Henry, I have a task that I want to give to your Magic Stone Research Association to complete." White said straight to the point.

"It is our association's honor to solve His Majesty's problems."

White instructed his servant to hand the bag of black powder to Seral, who took it and opened it to examine it. He smelled a pungent odor and couldn't help but frown.

After closing the mouth of the bag, Seral asked: "Your Majesty, what is this?"

"This is a kind of fire that can be easily ignited. I only know that the ingredients inside are the ashes and saltpeter after the hot magic stone has exhausted its magic power. There may be other things. I want your association to combine the ingredients of this black powder with

The ratio will be studied," White said.

"This mission..." Serar looked at the bag in his hand, "It's really difficult."

"If the research is not completed, your association's research funding will be cut in half next year." White threatened, "Your association hasn't come up with anything good anyway."

"this……"

Seral was embarrassed to actually threaten himself with research funds.

Without sufficient funding, the Magic Stone Research Association cannot survive. The new magic stones they synthesize and produce are expensive and useless, and they cannot earn enough money to purchase the high-quality magic stones needed for research.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and accept the task.
Chapter completed!