Chapter 167: 3000 Pounds of Gunpowder
Torran hurried forward with his people and bowed.
"This commoner greets you, my lord."
"Rise."
Caelum had no interest in wasting words and asked directly, "Does your caravan carry saltpeter?"
Torran stood and respectfully pulled back the covering on one of the wagons, revealing sack after sack of saltpeter.
"I have not failed your trust, my lord. There are two thousand pounds of saltpeter here."
Saltpeter was expensive and scarce. For Torran to gather this much within two months, he had clearly exhausted every possible connection.
The caravan also carried the sulfur, flint, iron, cotton, and oiled paper Caelum had requested before.
Most of the cargo, however, was sugarcane.
Compared with the value and price of white sugar, none of those other goods were worth mentioning.
Using the ideal ratio for black powder, two thousand pounds of saltpeter could produce roughly three thousand pounds of gunpowder.
That amount would be enough to support a major battle.
Once granulated and mixed with white sugar, three thousand pounds of black powder could provide more than one hundred thousand shots.
It would also be enough to make many explosive charges.
Depending on the desired power, each charge required between ten and fifty pounds of gunpowder.
Without a large enough reserve, Caelum would never have dared produce them freely.
With this shipment of saltpeter, his confidence rose considerably.
"My lord."
Torran looked toward the wagons at the rear of the caravan.
"Those wagons carry the sugarcane you requested. Unfortunately, we had limited space, so I could not bring very much this time."
"There will be no need to bring sugarcane again."
Torran’s expression changed at once.
"My lord, we had an agreement before..."
He thought Caelum had changed his mind.
"Do not worry."
Caelum patted him on the shoulder.
"What I mean is that Newhaven will grow its own sugarcane from now on, allowing us to refine white sugar directly. Our agreement remains unchanged."
Torran’s emotions swung sharply before finally settling.
He let out a long breath.
"That is even better. My caravan will be able to bring you more of the other goods next time."
Caelum nodded.
"Exactly."
A scattered thunder of hooves sounded nearby.
Torran jumped, thinking the Thalric riders had caught up.
When he turned around, however, he saw the Wardens of Newhaven.
His eyes widened.
"Those look like Thalric horses."
The Wardens stopped before Caelum.
Each man carried a bow and military saber taken from the fallen Thalric riders.
They dismounted and saluted Caelum together.
The captain of the first squad stepped forward.
"My lord, we have fulfilled your command and killed every Thalric rider. These are the weapons we seized."
"Very good."
Caelum said, "Take the men to rest."
"Yes, my lord."
The Wardens wore military sabers at their waists and carried flintlock muskets and bows across their backs.
The killing intent surrounding them sent a chill down the spines of those nearby.
Compared with them, the caravan guards looked thoroughly ordinary.
Torran could only stare.
These hundred men had wiped out the entire Thalric raiding party?
Since when had the army of the Grand Concord Dynasty possessed such terrifying combat strength?
He immediately realized that Newhaven’s Wardens were far stronger than they appeared.
Torran’s arrival meant the sugarcane Caelum had stored could finally be put to use.
Had it remained there much longer, it would have started to spoil.
After arranging for Torran and his people to rest, Caelum entered the warehouse alone.
"Send the sugarcane into the warehouse in batches."
Soon after, he activated the technology tree.
[White Sugar Refining Accelerated Production]
[White Sugar Refining Complete]
...
Batch after batch of sugarcane was brought into the warehouse.
Each batch was soon reduced to waste residue and carried back out.
The process repeated until all the sugarcane had been refined into white sugar.
When Torran entered the warehouse and saw white sugar filling nearly half the space, he froze.
Then delight flooded his face.
His hands trembled in disbelief.
Unable to wait, he took a taste.
A rich sweetness spread across his tongue.
White sugar.
It was all real white sugar.
Not even in his dreams had he imagined seeing this much in one place.
Torran asked excitedly, "My lord, are you truly allowing me to purchase all of this?"
"Of course."
Caelum said, "I know the goods and money you brought this time will not be enough to cover the full price. You may pay the remainder on your next visit."
"This is only the first shipment. Once your caravan grows larger, I can provide as much white sugar as you can afford to buy. The only question is whether you can handle that much."
Torran’s face flushed red.
He could barely contain himself.
He immediately dropped to his knees before Caelum to show his sincerity.
"Thank you for your generosity, my lord. From now on, whatever you require, simply give the order. I, Torran, will do everything in my power, even if it costs me my life."
After Caelum left, Torran stared at the vast stock of white sugar in the warehouse, unable to suppress his grin.
Now that he had secured this connection with Caelum, becoming one of the wealthiest merchants in the realm was only a matter of time.
"Come in and load the cargo!"
He shouted toward the entrance.
When the members of the caravan came inside, every one of them stared in shock.
"How many Coins must all this be worth?"
What stood before them was not white sugar.
It was a mountain of gold and silver.
Besides saltpeter and sulfur, Torran had also brought iron, cotton, and oiled paper.
The iron could be used to produce flintlock muskets.
The cotton could be soaked in gunpowder and dried to make fuses.
The oiled paper allowed Caelum to manufacture large quantities of paper cartridges, keeping the power of each musket shot consistent.
Artillery could wait.
A single cannon required a large amount of iron, and the cannonballs consumed even more.
It also used far more gunpowder.
With Caelum’s current resources, artillery was still too expensive.
There was no rush to unlock the technologies that followed it either.
Only when iron and gunpowder became plentiful would it be time for cannons to appear.
[Flintlock Musket Production Complete]
[Flintlock Musket and Iron Ball Ammunition Production Complete]
[Black Powder Production Complete]
[Black Powder and Powder Granulation Complete]
[Black Powder and Paper Cartridge Production Complete]
After a full round of accelerated production, the iron Torran brought had been turned into two hundred flintlock muskets and a large quantity of iron ball ammunition.
A large portion of the black powder had been packed into paper cartridges using oiled paper.
The remainder was reserved for other purposes.
Caelum was in an excellent mood.
"That gives us four hundred flintlock muskets."
This would undoubtedly provide a massive increase to the Wardens’ combat strength.
Their growing numbers had also made them stronger.
At the same time, however, their ammunition consumption during shooting practice had risen as well.
That expense was unavoidable.
If Caelum reduced training even further just to conserve ammunition, the Wardens’ marksmanship would decline.
Their combat strength would fall with it.
There was no point in saving ammunition that way.
Torran arrived in haste and left just as quickly.
Once the white sugar had been loaded, he brought the caravan to Caelum, said his farewells, and began the journey home.
If he delayed much longer, winter would arrive.
The cold along the frontier was harsh enough to freeze a person to death.
The caravan’s long line of wagons left Newhaven.
The Wardens escorted Torran all the way through the mountains before finally turning back.
