Chapter Ninety-Five: Collecting Saltpeter

After so many days, Chu Yun’s system of management had already begun to take effect. Added to that was his exceptional ability and the confidence he inspired, so everyone readily obeyed him.

Thus the chiefs of the middle households obeyed the chiefs of the large households, the chiefs of the small households obeyed the chiefs of the middle households, and everyone in turn listened to the chiefs of the small households.

So although many of them could not understand why Chu Yun had insisted on taking a detour to the karst cave, no one raised a single objection.

An hour and a half later, the group arrived outside the cave that Ye Zelan had indicated.

Outside the cave was a dense thicket of brush, tangled with thorns, and even the entrance could only be seen from a raised position.

Still, the mouth of the cave was wide, and from the massive mountain it pierced, the cavern inside was clearly unlikely to be small.

After inspecting the entrance, Chu Yun made his judgment. A flicker of delight rose in his heart, and he smiled faintly.

Because the cave was so large, it was nearly certain that bats, birds, or similar creatures had once lived within it, which in turn meant there must be a saltpeter deposit here.

And since the cavern was so spacious, it ought to be large enough to hold more than three hundred of them, with room to spare for refining the saltpeter right inside.

Most important of all, the entrance was choked with thorns, which meant the deposit had not yet been discovered or mined by anyone.

Chu Yun immediately called over the three chiefs of the large households and had them assign men to hack through the brambles and open a path into the cave.

Then everyone entered together.

Inside, the cavern was astonishingly broad, covering well over five thousand square feet. And farther in, through smaller openings, there were still more chambers of varying sizes.

The scale of the cave far exceeded Chu Yun’s expectations, filling him with immense surprise and delight.

He then used torchlight to examine the rock walls and, as expected, found snowflake-like saltpeter crystals in many places.

Since there were saltpeter crystals on the rock walls, the soil inside the cave could certainly be boiled down to produce more saltpeter.

Once he confirmed that the saltpeter was real, Chu Yun grew even happier.

However, he did not let excitement cloud his judgment. In his previous life, he had been a special operations military doctor, and he remained calm at every moment.

So the first thing Chu Yun thought about was the safety of the more than three hundred people.

In a cave this large, there was inevitably no shortage of snakes, mice, ants, and insects. Otherwise, there would not have been a saltpeter deposit here in the first place.

Chu Yun called over the three chiefs of the large households and distributed the white hemp cloth they had prepared back at Flat Slope Manor, telling everyone to use it to cover their mouths and noses.

Then he arranged for them to chop up the mugwort, bitter wormwood, and other medicinal herbs they had gathered along the way, and burn them in the corners of the cavern.

Very soon, the whole cave was filled with the smoke of medicinal plants, driving out large numbers of mosquitoes and insects.

Before long, a rush of wings sounded overhead, and flocks of bats flew out.

Seeing the bats emerge, Chu Yun judged that the smoke had spread sufficiently. He then designated the sleeping and living area and scattered grass ash around it so that people would not be bitten by insects and ants while resting.

After everything was done, everyone could not help praising him.

“My lord Earl, you are truly amazing. You know so much. Now we can stay in the cave with complete peace of mind.”

Chu Yun only smiled lightly.

In his previous life, as a special operations military doctor, he often stayed in the wilderness with special forces teams, so of course he knew many wilderness survival techniques. Especially when supplies were scarce, it had always been up to him, as the doctor, to use his knowledge of traditional medicine and improvise on the spot, drawing on all kinds of herbs to carve out a safe space for everyone. One had to remember that many insects and ants in the wild carried deadly poison and could take a life.

But Ye Zelan came over to Chu Yun and asked, “Earl Chu Yun, South Huai Town is not far ahead, and the people there have always been very friendly toward us. Why do I feel as though you want us to stay here for quite a long time?”

Hearing this, many others also turned to look at Chu Yun.

After all, Chu Yun had made everyone busy turning this cave into a place where people could live. Clearly, they would not be leaving anytime soon.

Some could not help worrying that perhaps the witch-doctor cult had already caught up to them, and that they needed to hide in this cave.

Chu Yun simply had Huang Daniu come over and hold up a jar for him. Then, using the jar as a makeshift amplifier, he said, “The reason I’ve asked everyone to stay in this cave and rest for a while is mainly because I discovered a saltpeter deposit here, and I need your help to collect it.”

As he spoke, he walked over to the rock wall.

Huang Daniu quickly cooperated, hugging the jar as he came to stand beside him.

Chu Yun gave Huang Daniu a faint smile, then pointed at the snowflake-like saltpeter crystals on the wall while using the jar to amplify his voice. “These white snowflakes on the wall are saltpeter. I need everyone to carefully collect them for me.”

“Wencai, Lefu, and Cuiflower, the three of you should organize your respective large-household teams and speed up the collection until all the saltpeter in the cave has been gathered. Whichever team collects the most with the fewest impurities, each household in that team will receive two knife coins as a reward. Of course, everyone should also be careful about safety. If the crystals are too high for us to reach, do not try to collect them.”

As soon as everyone heard there would be a reward, they instantly became excited and energized.

However, Chu Wencai still asked, “My lord Earl, how do we determine whose collection has the fewest impurities?”

Chu Yun said, “If what you collect is all snowflake-like saltpeter, then naturally there will be very few impurities. If there are no other questions, begin gathering the saltpeter now. Let us finish as early as possible, and then we can light a fire and cook.”

In order to win the reward, everyone did not wait for Chu Yun to finish speaking before rushing off to collect the saltpeter from the walls, each one full of enthusiasm.

Chu Yun then found Chen Ping.

“Second Uncle, how much grain do we have in total?”

Chen Ping had always been chiefly responsible for the provisions.

Before this, Bai Hao and his cavalry squad had only helped guard the grain.

Chen Ping said, “Yun’er, rest assured. We have enough grain to eat. Since everyone discovered they did not need to consume their own supplies and instead turned over all the grain they had brought from Chu Family Town, and since all of your rewards were taken in knife coins rather than grain, we still have twenty-six large measures left.”

Chu Yun nodded slightly and asked, “How much grain does everyone eat per meal now?”

Chen Ping replied, “Eleven smaller measures.”

Here, one smaller measure was six jin, so eleven of them came to sixty-six jin.

That amount surprised Chu Yun a little.

At the beginning, everyone had needed at least one hundred jin per meal.

Now they were only eating sixty-six jin, which clearly meant that after switching to three meals a day, everyone’s appetite at each meal had also dropped quite a bit.

Chu Yun said, “In that case, our remaining grain should be enough for twenty-three meals, or at least seven days. Then after living here for six days, we will set out for South Huai Town and buy more grain to replenish our stores.”

Chen Ping froze. “Yun’er, I should not ask, but I am still curious. Do we really need to stay here that long? From what I can see, the saltpeter on the wall can be collected in at most an hour. Didn’t you also tell everyone to finish collecting it quickly and then light a fire to cook? Is there really some trouble that forces us to hide here?”