Chapter 106: The Terrifying Power of the Bomb

After the sulfur ore delivered to Chu Family Town was purified, Chu Yun sketched out various obstacles used in modern military obstacle course training. He had trees cut down and constructed a military training ground.

Once the training ground was completed, Chu Yun brought over his sixty guards.

The sixty guards, upon seeing the various obstacles, were filled with curiosity and couldn’t help but ask Chu Yun, “My Lord Count, what are these things used for?”

Chu Yun smiled faintly. “Of course, these are for your training!”

With that, he approached a burlap flag and said, “This is the marker flag.”

Then he walked over to three wooden stakes and pointed at them. “These are called the Three-Step Stakes.”

He then stepped over the stakes and came to a trench. “This is the trench.”

One by one, Chu Yun earnestly introduced the name of each obstacle.

When he finished, he smiled and asked, “Are you all curious about how to train with these?”

Everyone nodded.

Chu Yun chuckled, “These are all called obstacles, so this training is called obstacle course training. Now, I’ll demonstrate how to train using them.”

He then moved to a spot over a hundred meters from the obstacles, sprinted at top speed to the marker flag, and shouted, “We run around the marker flag, charge toward the Three-Step Stakes, leap over the stakes, jump the trench, vault the low wall, and clear the high platform…”

While calling out, Chu Yun demonstrated the entire 400-meter obstacle course.

After the demonstration, he said, “I’ll run it three more times for you all to watch closely.”

With that, he ran the 400-meter obstacle course three consecutive times.

When he finished, Chu Yun explained, “Finally, let me teach you the key techniques for overcoming each obstacle. When you reach the marker flag, you do it like this…”

He demonstrated every movement carefully, explaining the essentials of each to the sixty guards.

They practiced several rounds, and Chu Yun corrected their form.

Once fully instructed, Chu Yun announced, “From today onward, mornings will be dedicated to the ‘Compendium of Materia Medica’ fitness exercises. In the afternoons, you will be divided into three groups for obstacle course training. Every three days, I will hold an obstacle competition, and the winner will receive ten silver coins as a reward.”

Thus, the training of Chu Yun’s guard team began their obstacle course regimen.

Meanwhile, Chu Yun used sulfur, charcoal ash, and saltpeter to manufacture gunpowder.

Having been a special forces medic in his previous life, Chu Yun possessed extensive military knowledge; making gunpowder was naturally quite simple for him.

Right from the start, the gunpowder he concocted was extraordinarily powerful—something that would normally require centuries of research to achieve.

However, although having gunpowder was one thing, manufacturing firearms was still a complicated matter.

Relying on his memory, Chu Yun drew several blueprints for early hand cannons and had craftsmen fashion various components from the hardest bamboo and wood.

He then assembled the parts into hand cannons.

Using the pretext of gathering herbs, Chu Yun left Chu Family Town and traveled far away to test the power of his hand cannons.

Several times, the overwhelming power of his gunpowder caused the weapons to fail outright.

On one occasion, he was nearly injured by splintering bamboo shards.

As a result, Chu Yun had to temporarily abandon the idea of making hand cannons.

He resolved to wait until he could figure out how to produce steel before attempting to make firearms, or even guns.

Then, Chu Yun turned his attention to bombs.

Bombs, to him, were far simpler than hand cannons.

Though he lacked exceptionally hard casings for the gunpowder, he decided that sturdy old bamboo would suffice.

After all, the destructive power depended mainly on the gunpowder’s strength and quantity.

He packed the prepared gunpowder into a length of bamboo, wrapped a fuse made from burlap and rush wicks, and then coated the bamboo with clay mixed with sharp bronze shards before sun-drying it.

However, these bombs were somewhat cumbersome, each weighing at least ten pounds.

Carrying one bomb, Chu Yun rode his horse to a location even farther from Chu Family Town, lit the fuse, and threw the bomb.

He quickly spurred his horse to retreat.

Boom!

Not far behind, an earth-shattering explosion erupted.

The ground itself seemed to tremble.

The horse, unaccustomed to such a deafening roar, was terrified and bolted wildly forward, nearly throwing Chu Yun off its back.

“Whoa, whoa…” Chu Yun pulled on the reins, urging the horse to stop.

Still, it ran over ten miles before finally halting, leaving Chu Yun exhausted and his backside aching as if it were bruised and battered.

He dismounted, led the horse back, and wanted to inspect the bomb’s impact.

But the horse stubbornly refused to move back.

Chu Yun let the horse graze until it calmed down, then rode to the bomb’s explosion site.

There, he beheld a crater over ten to twenty meters wide and three to four meters deep.

Not only that, but all the trees within a thirty-meter radius were snapped or at least had broken branches, and those within a hundred meters bore varying degrees of damage.

“Hmm… maybe I used too much gunpowder?” Chu Yun murmured, a mischievous smile creeping onto his lips as he gazed at the massive crater.

At this moment, his guard team’s training was already showing some results.

With such a powerful bomb as a weapon in hand, finally—

He would no longer be controlled by anyone!