Chapter 94: Official Gazette
“Grind these things into fine powder, it has to be extremely fine. Go do it.”
After hearing this, the militia squad leader had people bring a pill mill, mortars, pestles, mortars, and other items from the pharmacy, then roused a team of pirate captives and began grinding.
Lin Qian then ordered the militia squad leader to have people make cotton cloth into masks for the grinding pirate captives to wear.
After giving the instructions, Lin Qian sat on the chair and took out the Official Gazette from his bosom to read.
The Official Gazette used a large number of rare characters, plus there was no punctuation, and it was all Traditional Chinese Characters, so Lin Qian read very slowly.
It seemed his self-assessment of his literacy was a bit too high; the number of illiterates on the island should increase by another 0.25.
By the light of the oil lamp, Lin Qian barely managed to understand the first paragraph of information in the Official Gazette.
“On the first day of the eighth month, ascended the Hall of Central Ultimate, received congratulations from the hundred officials, and issued the ascension amnesty decree:
My Deceased Father Emperor ruled the realm for forty-eight years, his profound benevolence and vast grace permeating the hearts of all. When my Deceased Father Emperor abandoned me, his subject, my heart was crushed. Reverently on the first day of the eighth month, I announced to heaven and earth, the ancestral temple, and the altars of soil and grain, and ascended to the throne as Emperor.
Deeply pondering the gravity of the entrustment, it is fitting to promulgate broad and lenient measures. All relevant matters are listed below:
……”
This entire paragraph was nearly a few thousand words, mainly describing the governing measures after the new Taichang Emperor’s ascension to the throne, with content excerpted from the Taichang Emperor’s ascension amnesty decree.
It mainly promulgated the abolition of mining taxes and salt taxes; reinstatement of ministers dismissed from the previous reign for their words; reduction and exemption of accumulated provincial taxes; allocation of one million taels of silver from the Imperial Treasury to reward the Border Army, and other policies.
From the decree alone, all were benevolent policies and sound strategies that remedied the various accumulated abuses of the Wanli Emperor’s reign.
Especially something like allocating Imperial Treasury funds to reward the Border Army—the miserly Wanli Emperor wouldn’t do that unless it was an emergency.
Just from comparing the two consecutive emperors, the Taichang Emperor had the makings of a sagely ruler, and Great Ming politics showed signs of gradually clarifying.
Unfortunately, history played a joke.
Today was already the twenty-third of the eighth month, the Taichang Emperor was already gravely ill, and Li Kezhuo was frantically preparing to offer the Red Pill Elixir.
In less than ten days, after the Taichang Emperor took two Red Pill Elixirs, he would die.
While Lin Qian was sighing inwardly, the militia squad leader had already brought the ground graphite and Red Lead Powder.
Lin Qian frowned after just one glance and said, “Too coarse, it needs to be as fine as dust. Grind it again, and sieve it after grinding.”
“Yes.”
The militia squad leader went back and berated the pirate captives harshly, ordering them to grind it finer.
The second paragraph in the Official Gazette was about the dispatch of the imperial coffin.
In plain terms, it was the funeral arrangements for the late emperor, including the date, procession, and tomb specifications.
This held no significance for Lin Qian, so he skipped it.
The third paragraph of the Official Gazette was about personnel appointments and dismissals.
It bestowed grace on Fang Congzhe to remain as Chief Grand Secretary, brought in Liu Yiyu and Han Kui to the cabinet, and recalled straight-talking ministers such as Wang Dequan and Zou Yuanbiao.
Among these people, Lin Qian was familiar only with Fang Congzhe; a few others he had merely heard of by name, or not at all.
But on a macro level, these personnel changes amounted to favoring veteran ministers and employing new ones, which was conducive to a smooth transition of power between reigns.
At this point, Lin Qian couldn’t help rubbing his eyes.
Reading the Official Gazette under the dim yellow light of the oil lamp was indeed taxing on the eyes.
But the Santa Ana was too far away, and it was inconvenient to send someone back on the ship to fetch White Worm Wax.
Lin Qian simply put away the Official Gazette and went to inspect among the pirate captives.
He saw that the pirate captives were all sallow-faced and emaciated, with pallid complexions, and only faint traces of their former ferocity in their brows.
Up close, an obvious stench could be smelled.
The militia squad leader followed behind Lin Qian and said, “Helmsman, just give any orders you have; don’t let the stink from these criminals get in your nose.”
Lin Qian said, “Haven’t these people bathed?”
The militia squad leader: “No.”
When the pirate captives first emerged from the Santa Ana’s cargo hold, many had excrement and urine on them and had never been cleaned, no wonder the smell was so strong.
Lin Qian instructed, “Starting tomorrow, have these criminals bathe once a month, using pumice stones, soap, and freshwater; clean them thoroughly.”
“Yes.”
Nan’ao Island had streams and springs, but the stream water ultimately came from rainfall and was greatly affected by the seasons.
Although ample to support three thousand people’s daily life, those living at sea all knew freshwater was hard to come by, so they were extremely frugal with it.
However, bathing too infrequently could breed disease; pirate captives dying was a small matter, but infecting islanders would be serious.
After inspecting a round, Lin Qian noticed the mortar set aside unused and asked the reason.
The militia squad leader replied, “This is for fine grinding.”
“We need it ground fine—use them all, grind vigorously, and don’t stop until a full hour has passed.”
What Lin Qian aimed to do was use charcoal as the reducing agent to reduce the red lead and release heat, thereby melting the iron bars of Lin Mansion’s Water Gate.
The reaction equation was: PbO + 4C = 3Pb + 4CO↑
As an imprecise analogy, this was the Great Ming version of thermite.
It was just that in this era, there was no capability to produce aluminum metal via electrolysis, so they could only settle for the next best thing: “Carbon Heat Agent.”
And to make the Carbon Heat Agent reach sufficient temperature, the materials had to be ground to extreme fineness.
This was why Lin Qian had come personally to the grinding site; no one else could comprehend this extreme requirement for material fineness.
Fortunately, though the militia squad leader couldn’t understand, he obeyed absolutely; with one “yes,” he then ordered the pirate captives to grind even more meticulously.
Lin Qian patrolled a circle, then sat back on the chair and took out the Official Gazette again.
The next item was Liaodong Regional Commander Xiong Tingbi’s report on Later Jin military actions.
Overall, during Great Ming’s power transition, Nurhaci had been very quiet, with no large-scale military movements.
Finally, Xiong Tingbi had routinely requested the Imperial Court to allocate military funds.
After that, there was nothing important, just routine official promotions, transfers, appointments, and dismissals.
Lin Qian put down the Official Gazette and revealed a playful smile.
The Official Gazette didn’t mention Consort Zheng even half a character, but among the official appointments and dismissals, several Zheng-surnamed officials were dismissed.
It seemed that with the Wanli Emperor’s death, the fall of the Zheng clan’s relatives was inevitable.
If events continued unchecked, Consort Zheng facing liquidation was only a matter of time.
No wonder Consort Zheng was offering beauties to the Taichang Emperor and colluding with the Taichang Emperor’s favored consort Li Xuanshi.
Lin Qian put away the Official Gazette, leaned back in the chair, and closed his eyes to rest.
After some indeterminate time, he was roused by someone.
Lin Qian looked into the distance and saw the horizon slightly whitening with dawn light emerging.
“Helmsman, is this fine enough?” the militia squad leader said.
Lin Qian looked and saw two small piles of powder on the table; even with a hand blocking the wind, quite a bit was still blown away.
After grinding all night, the pirate captives all had swollen, red hands.
Lin Qian: “We’ll try this first.” After speaking, he called Bai Langzai to pack the materials and head to the dock.
Upon reaching the dock, Lin Qian did not board the ship but instead had people erect a shed on the shore, set out table and chairs, and surround it with curtains to block the wind.
The reaction of high-temperature carbon reduction of red lead could release heat exceeding a thousand degrees.
Performing it on the galleon, a slight mishap would mean a major fire.
Moreover, the reaction produced large amounts of carbon monoxide; not standing in a ventilated spot risked poisoning.
Thus, Lin Qian had specially chosen an open area on the beach for the experiment, with people positioned upwind.
He also had people fetch a powder keg, scrap weapons, brushes, grease, sugar water, bottles, and jars.
After everything was prepared.
Lin Qian grabbed a handful of Black Powder from the powder keg, mixed it with charcoal powder and Red Lead Powder in specific proportions, placed it in a close-mouthed gourd, and shook it to blend evenly.
This step also required exertion; it wasn’t like casually shaking a drink a couple times.
Lin Qian shook until his arms gave out, then had crew members continue; after a full hour straight, he finally called a halt.
Then Lin Qian shooed away the crew members, leaving only him and Bai Langzai in the shed.
Lin Qian placed a Wild Goose Feather Saber on the table, padded the blade tip with cloth, and weighted it with a stone to keep the blade stable and level.
Then Lin Qian carefully uncorked the gourd and poured the mixture onto the blade.
Estimating about four taels had been poured, Lin Qian withdrew the gourd, sealed the mouth tightly, and used a twig to slowly level the pile of powder.
Next, beside the powder pile, he separately poured a bit of Black Powder as igniter.
“Slow match.” Lin Qian extended a hand.
Bai Langzai handed over the prepared wooden rod, which had a slow match tied to it; Lin Qian blew the end of the slow match red-hot.
Then he signaled Bai Langzai to stand back, raised the wooden rod with one arm, and lightly touched the red-hot slow match end to the igniter.
