Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

After packing up their equipment, the group headed from the underground towards the firearms research institute.

This firearms research institute could be considered quite old, being one of the first projects initiated after Fang Zheng had established himself.

Initially, it was for the purpose of researching gunpowder, and only after gunpowder was successfully developed did it begin to transform into researching firearms.

When the group arrived at the firearms research institute, they discovered that the gate was wide open, and there were hardly any people working inside.

From outside the gate, there were a total of ten or so people, scattered in twos and threes, playing cards, with some people's faces covered in paper strips.

The people playing cards inside the room, seeing strangers arrive, hurriedly greeted them!

"Rare guests! Rare guests indeed! Oh, isn't this Mr. Xie? Did the master send you here?"

Xie Xian looked at the person who came and couldn't help but feel speechless.

The young man in front of him was named Mo Xiaohu, and he was a classmate of Zhao Lie, the kind who was terrible at studying.

In his memory, besides drawing, he would play with ink sticks during class, unable to listen at all.

He barely managed to teach him to write before letting him graduate; he didn't expect him to be entrusted with an important task here!

Looking at Mo Xiaohu's hopeful gaze, Xie Xian nodded and said, "Yes, I'm here to get some things."

"Get things? Isn't the master sending you to allocate funds?" Mo Xiaohu's expression visibly dropped.

"Funds? What funds? I haven't heard of it," Xie Xian was completely bewildered.

Zhao Lie explained with a smile, "After the master went to the capital, he stopped the funding for the firearms research institute. Now there's no gunpowder, and they have no money to make firearms, so they can only draw pictures with the blueprints."

Mo Xiaohu said with a dejected face: "That's right, it's fine if they don't give us money! They even transferred away more than half of the people from the firearms institute!"

"Mr. Xie, please help me beg the master to allocate some money to the firearms institute, or we'll all be useless!"

Xie Xian sighed.

What was going on? He didn't understand about funding or anything.

Could it be that research couldn't be done without money? It was ridiculous; wouldn't brush, ink, paper, and inkstone be enough?

He had researched the books of sages for half his life, and wasn't it just brush, ink, paper, and inkstone? Once there were results, the master would definitely allocate funds for large-scale manufacturing of firearms; what else would money be spent on? He couldn't understand.

"Xiaohu... if you're short of people, I can ask the master to help you get some."

"Funding or anything is not important; is it that brush and ink are not enough? I'll send someone to bring you some later," Xie Xian comforted him.

Seeing that he didn't understand, Mo Xiaohu immediately became anxious!

He jumped up and down, saying: "Money! We can't do anything without money... gun barrels... more than a hundred need to be scrapped to make a suitable gun barrel!"

"Skilled blacksmiths also cost money... good steel has to be used... and..."

"We can't use ordinary people either; how much time would it take to teach them from scratch?"

"Now, more than half of the people in our institute have been transferred to the newly established steam institute, which has an annual funding of two hundred thousand taels! Those idiots are using it to boil water!"

"Last month, the bastards from the steam institute came to mock us, giving us a pot, saying it was quick for stewing meat. Two people in our institute, stewing meat with that broken pot, were blown into the medical hall!!! The master didn't even care!"

"Our annual funding of two thousand taels isn't even enough for the brothers to go whoring at Snow Moon Tower! Is this fair!!!?"

Xie Xian and Zhao Lie exchanged glances.

The physical fitness of the people in the firearms institute was really good...

"Aren't you supposed to be researching with the research funding? If you use the research funding to go whoring, no wonder the master doesn't give you money; there's nothing I can do about that!" Xie Xian said helplessly.

Mo Xiaohu frowned: "What's wrong with us spending a little of the research funding ourselves? All the other research institutes in the county do the same! We're under a lot of pressure usually; isn't it reasonable to use research funding to find inspiration?"

Seemed to make some sense... Xie Xian pinched his chin and thought for a moment, then two words popped out of his mouth: "Reasonable!"

"Very reasonable!" Zhao Lie added.

Using research funding to take care of some personal matters, wasn't that all for finding inspiration? It couldn't be more reasonable!

"Ahem... ah, I understand, I'll talk to the master later, but I have to see if you have anything valuable here first."

Mo Xiaohu immediately revealed a look of surprise: "Yes, yes, yes! Come inside!"

"I even have treasures that the master hasn't seen! I guarantee you'll be satisfied!"

With that, he pulled the two of them inside.

Entering the interior of the firearms institute, Xie Xian couldn't help but open his mouth wide, looking at the various strangely shaped pipes hanging on the wall.

Although he didn't understand what they were, the things on the wall clearly had a special aesthetic.

He had never felt this strange feeling on anything else before.

So he turned to Mo Xiaohu and asked, "Were all these things on the wall made by the firearms institute?"

Mo Xiaohu shook his head and looked at the wall: "The master saw these things in a dream, saying he was afraid of forgetting them, so he asked us to make models."

"Actually, they're just some iron shells."

Then Mo Xiaohu held out a finger, pointing to the objects on the wall and said: "This is called Peach Blossom Spring Eagle, this is called Afang 47, this is called Fang Zheng One Submachine Gun..."

"My favorite is this one!"

"The master said that this thing is called Savior of All Living Beings, and it can shoot out a thousand bullets in the blink of an eye, one person being better than a hundred thousand soldiers!"

"The master also said that if I make it, he'll reward me with one million taels of silver...."

Mo Xiaohu looked at the Gatling model, his eyes full of brilliance.

Looking at him like this, Xie Xian was completely speechless.

One dared to say it, and the other dared to believe it!

"Alas... but it's just a dream after all! No one in the firearms institute takes these things seriously; don't we know how we make this ourselves? The master is also whimsical, haha."

Mo Xiaohu smiled: "Come! Let me show you the real treasure!" With that, he took down an unremarkable long gun from the bottom row on the wall.

"This gun is called a matchlock gun! By stuffing paper-wrapped iron pellets into the barrel and using a match cord to trigger the gunpowder, the pellets can be ejected to kill enemies."

"Its power is infinite! Its momentum is amazing! It can be described as sounding like thunder and moving like lightning! If it's applied to military formations...."

A trace of disdain appeared in Zhao Lie's eyes: "Stop bragging; this thing of yours injured my brother, the shooting range is at most seventy steps, and it's still crooked; it's far inferior to a bow and arrow."

"I'm here this time because I have an important mission to protect the master when I go out, bring your repeating hand cannon!"

A trace of shame flashed across Mo Xiaohu's face, and he defended: "Isn't the master here? I have to introduce it little by little; there's also the second-generation flintlock gun later..."

"Your second generation also injured my brother, hurry up!"

Xie Xian looked at the two of them with suspicion, leaned close to Zhao Lie, and whispered: "Or... let's go back... I think it's pretty safe with you guys here!"

This posture doesn't look like they're getting protective gear for me; they're trying to blow me up!

Are they holding a grudge because I was too strict with them back then!?

"Hey~ Master! You've already come!"