"Your Majesty, if we follow Lan Ruoyue's designs, the Arsenal will suffer a massive explosion. A sea of fire will stretch for a thousand miles, and all our efforts will come to nothing."
The moment he arrived at the Imperial Study, Zhou Yunshen laid it all out.
The emperor froze, then asked gravely, "Who said that?"
"My wife!"
Zhou Yunshen continued, "There's nothing wrong with the firearms, but the formula is flawed. To increase their effectiveness, she adjusted the proportions of the gunpowder ingredients. The resulting power is enormous, but there's absolutely no safety to speak of."
The emperor was just about to speak when Murong Tianci said, "His wife said that too."
It was as though the blazing fire in the emperor's heart had met ice water and been extinguished in an instant.
It even sent up clouds of steam, scalding his state of mind beyond recognition until nothing remained.
"How could this be..."
"And I was looking forward to it so much..."
The emperor sat down, dejected. Remembering that he had even brought out his medicinally fed pig, he felt he had lost out even more.
Murong Tianci said, "His wife also said that even if we can manufacture guns, with the technology currently available, we can only make matchlocks. They can fire one shot at a time and won't deliver devastating killing power. Still, it's a direction worth researching. Imperial Brother, you might as well count the silver in the treasury. If there's any to spare, we could start with a little research."
Zhou Yunshen said, "In my opinion, confiscating the Qian Family's assets would give us the money."
Murong Tianci said, "In my opinion, we could levy a tax on those vacant houses officials rent out for three taels a night."
Zhou Yunshen said, "In my