Chapter 95
I think I understand why gunpowder production sites were generally in rural areas.
The smell of urine and feces fermenting together is so strong it feels like it could twist your nose.
It's almost like the smell of a biochemical weapon.
"Ugh, the smell. I feel like I'm dying. Help..."
When I unconsciously brought my hand near my mouth, a soldier standing guard here naturally brought a bucket.
"You can vomit here."
I can't vomit in a place like this with noble dignity, but right now my nose is three feet long.
It's at least better than vomiting on the ground.
After emptying what's inside for a while, I feel like I might live a little.
'If I hadn't skipped breakfast this morning, it would have been a big problem.'
The other butler beside me vomited twice as much as me.
"I showed an unsightly appearance."
"The smell is so terrible that even those of us who've been working here for a month often vomit."
I gave sufficient warning to the soldiers who volunteered to serve here, and I'm paying them very generous salaries.
Even a low-ranking soldier gets 4 gold coins a year, treating them like skilled craftsmen.
I thought it would be enough since I promised to issue a recommendation letter in my name when applying for non-commissioned officers if they serve until discharge.
'I should raise their wages a bit more.'
They'll try to cut wages after I finish all this, but I'll protect these friends' wages even if I have to meet with His Majesty.
"You've suffered a lot. Here's a small reward from me."
I handed them 2 silver coins.
It's too much money to give to 2 soldiers, but that money will all be used for platoon dinner anyway.
It takes about that much to feed meat and alcohol to about 30 soldiers until they're full.
Military service as a soldier is hard enough, so we should at least pay them well.
"Loyalty, thank you! Public Security Division Head!"
The stench got a bit worse as we went inside.
And before my eyes, a vast saltpeter field spread out.
Seeing huge piles of excrement 2m wide, 5m long, and 1.5m high filling my vision, I feel dizzy.
It's hard to describe seeing roofs put on to keep them from getting rained on.
'Did they say about 2-4kg of gunpowder comes from 1 ton of that?'
I think that's not much coming out, but...
Compared to the time when they dug through soil like mining and got 500-800g from 1 ton of soil, it's a revolution in itself.
"I don't see white crystals like saltpeter lumps yet."
In Joseon they called it mocho, when such crystals appear it means it's time to start extracting saltpeter.
Originally they need to be fermented for a full year like ripening.
It's a bit unscrupulous to expect saltpeter crystals to appear after just 1 month.
After being here for a long time, maybe I've gotten a bit used to the smell, as I'm starting to see the surroundings now.
The criminals were working with expressions like they were about to die.
They're directly digging through and turning over those excrement piles with shovels, putting in straw for ventilation and fermentation, and reshaping them back to their original form.
They're even sprinkling urine to maintain moisture.
Usually when doing such work, people talk while doing it.
But they were all silently performing their work without saying anything, perhaps because they really felt like they were going to die.
"It seems like a really good idea to make criminals do this."
The butler I brought answered:
"Viscount, you're truly amazing for turning useless criminals into such useful beings. It's the lowliest of jobs, but someone has to do it."
There's a philosophy that when imposing punishment, it shouldn't be done coldly but with the purpose of reformation.
That's not entirely wrong either.
Unless given life sentences, all prisoners will eventually be released from prison and return to society.
If reformation fails, they come out to society and commit crimes again, creating victims.
'Reformation is more beneficial than punishment.'
And it's also right to open a path for criminals to live like humans since they're people too.
But no one in this era thinks that way.
"Very rarely, there might be cases where people commit crimes unavoidably. When I worked as a junior clerk in the Florence court last year, I saw a case where someone stood trial for killing trash who raped his daughter."
That case became a topic among nobles too.
There was a son of a bitch who raped his own daughter and tried to run away without taking any 'responsibility', and the story of a commoner who killed that bastard.
Since the dead guy wasn't of such great status either...
It could gain great sympathy and empathy from everyone.
'In our empire where the spirit of chivalry is alive, it was actually a very desirable revenge.'
The judge in charge unusually sentenced him to 1 hour in prison, and nobles rewarded the protagonist of this heartwarming anecdote with massive sponsorship.
"Except for such cases, they're trash who steal and threaten people's food just because they're a bit hungry. How can such evil ones be reformed? They're no different from beasts, so we can only warn them with harsh punishments."
The idea that punishment should be reasonable and focused on reformation only works in a world with human rights.
"Also, most criminals are poor, so letting minor offenders continue working here and form families after serving their sentences is great mercy, I think."
This is the general mindset of this era.
Human rights, reformation? Rather than that, the basic thought is to just beat up all criminals.
But for a mere butler, he seems to talk a lot and know a lot unusually.
"You're very knowledgeable, you said you were a court clerk, which family are you from?"
Court clerk isn't a job just anyone can do.
"I'm the third son of the Heritz viscount family. I originally planned to keep working as a clerk in court, but I moved here because becoming a butler for the Medici viscount family seemed better for the future."
...... For such a talented person to come as a low-ranking butler of a mere viscount family.
Does this mean our family is now a major corporation in its own way?
As I was thinking that while patrolling, soldiers and gunpowder craftsmen were supervising the criminals from some distance away.
"How can the excrement piles be properly mixed like that?"
"I'll send anyone caught trying to escape to Deus's side!"
Prison in an era without awareness of human rights is truly terrible.
I should really live without committing crimes.
No, I shouldn't lose in political fights with nobles.
'As long as I don't commit treason, I won't have to do hard labor like that...'
As I was patrolling around, the supervisor here came running breathlessly from over there.
"Viscount! If you came, you should have come right inside, why are you in such a smelly place..."
I felt displeased for a moment hearing those words.
It's not good for someone who's the overall supervisor to disparage the site.
But I soon withdrew that thought.
"You're not getting used to this smell, but you're enduring well without even covering your nose. It seems you come to the site often."
"Isn't this an important job you entrusted to this old man who retired 3 years ago? Of course I should do it with all my might."
"The smell is strong, but you have to see the site to know how things are running. How are things running here now? Let's talk as we go to the office."
Hearing my words, the supervisor continued speaking fluently:
"For the first week, we focused on making saltpeter fields one day, and having soldiers remove the will to escape from criminals' heads the next day. The smell is strong, it's dirty and hard, and they don't even get paid, so I understand why they do that..."
I like that as a site supervisor, he sees the employees here as people, not criminals.
"But these are people paying for their crimes, so we disciplined them by beating up those trying to escape as examples. Now no one tries to escape."
It seems some words are omitted, but there's definitely the magic word 'joint responsibility' attached after that.
Like if one guy escapes, they're worked so hard it would be better to die, or if they just attempt to escape, they're given tremendous labor.
'I can't say anything to stop them from trying to prevent prisoners from escaping.'
"And although it hasn't even been a month yet, this method will definitely succeed."
"How can you be so sure?"
The site supervisor grinned and said:
"Gunpowder craftsmen can tell how much gunpowder will come out by tasting the soil. When I tasted it, it was excellent."
They did that in Joseon too, is this common worldwide?
"If fermented for a year, it will produce 6 times more than using the conventional method. Considering that the trouble of obtaining soil is eliminated... I estimate we can get about 10 times more."
Just because gunpowder production increases 10-fold doesn't mean military power becomes insanely strong.
But since war-waging capacity increases, the probability of winning wars increases.
'Like how a marathon isn't about who runs fast, but who maintains their pace well.'
"That's very impressive."
Work on the saltpeter fields is settled, and the rest of the practical work can be handed over to the Public Security Division Head.
Now I should only need to come to work one day a week.
The remaining work just needs to wait about a year.
"If production succeeds in a year, I'll take you in as an official retainer of our viscount family."
"Thank you."
And I talked with the supervisor for several hours.
And after a year passed and results came out, I declared at a gathering of all generals and numerous nobles in Florence:
"From now on, the empire won't have to worry about gunpowder."
When I spoke next, the meeting hall became a crucible of frenzy.