Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord
Chapter 193: Something Is Wrong with This World (2)

“Everyone, speak one at a time. Alexei, you go first.”

“Yes.”

Alexei glanced at the others, braced himself, and took a step forward.

“We… discovered a saltpeter mine. The deposit is vast, and the quality is extremely high.”

“What!?”

Hughes slammed the table hard, almost jumping out of his chair.

Castel’s war industry had always been choked by a lack of saltpeter.

Whether for making nitroglycerin or smokeless powder, a large supply of saltpeter was essential.

But the island simply did not produce this material.

Fortunately, there were still ways to obtain it.

With no other choice, Hughes had built many public latrines, since feces was a traditional source for saltpeter production.

However, the output remained too low.

“Hahaha, this is amazing! I knew it! If we have a gypsum mine, how could we not have a saltpeter mine? We just hadn’t been lucky enough to find it before!”

Hughes walked excitedly to Alexei’s side, patting him on the back, completely unaware of his strange expression.

Gypsum was often found alongside saltpeter.

Islands, due to bird migrations, had a high chance of containing saltpeter deposits.

That was why Hughes had never given up and planned to send a prospecting team after the war to search for one.

Wait a minute!

Hughes suddenly froze mid-action.

“I remember all mineral exploration was halted after the war began. Did you secretly send people out?”

“No, sir.”

“Then how did you discover the saltpeter mine?”

“…The workers dug it up while laying the foundation for the new factory district.”

“…”

Just like that?

Such luck?

Hughes blinked.

“Well, seems like we got lucky. Where exactly was it found?”

“At the entrance of the smokeless powder plant.”

“…”

Hughes fell silent.

After a moment, he nodded with a strange expression.

“Well… that’s… quite convenient. Chloe, what’s your report? I heard you were looking into forbidden knowledge.”

“Uh, it’s not related to that. I’m here because the laboratory’s experiment was successful.”

“Experiment? Which one?”

Hughes perked up.

After the war started, Hughes had halted many experiments, prioritizing manpower for war-related technological advancements.

No matter which aspect Chloe had managed to break through, it would surely benefit the war effort.

“The trial production of mercury fulminate primers was successful. The passivation process using diatomaceous earth was successful.

The shell stamping process was successful. The annealing and tempering process was successful. Then, we tried making a few bullets using a lathe.

All of them fired normally, exactly as you described.”

Hughes sat in his chair, eyes widening with each sentence.

By the time Chloe finished, he was completely stunned.

It was not surprising that these things could be made.

Hughes had already provided Chloe with the full set of procedures and plans.

In theory, they should have been able to make them long ago.

However, theory and practice were often separated by a massive gulf.

For example, the ideal composition for black powder was 74.84% potassium nitrate, 11.84% sulfur, and 11.32% charcoal.

But simply mixing ingredients in that ratio would likely yield poor results.

The reason was simple, every raw material contained impurities.

And in this era, quality control over raw materials was practically nonexistent.

If these practical issues were ignored, the final product would be problematic.

Knowing what impurities existed in the raw materials, finding ways to purify them, reducing their impact, and repeatedly testing to determine a usable ratio, none of these steps could be skipped.

Each type of ammunition required different ratios.

Yet somehow, they had mixed the materials casually and succeeded on the first try, with all reactions occurring perfectly.

Such a miracle…

“Oh, and one more thing. We built a steam-powered stamping press. I modified the design based on your blueprints. We tested it, and it worked. We now have the ability to mass-produce bullets.”

“You designed a machine based on the principles I provided… and encountered no issues requiring adjustments? It worked on the first try?”

“Yes, we’ve already produced the first batch of shell casings.”

Hughes fell silent once again.

This… was theoretically possible.

As long as luck was extremely, extremely, extremely good.

After all, even monkeys randomly typing could eventually produce the complete works of Shakespeare…

Still, this was undeniably good news.

Now that they had discovered the correct formula for bullets, only minor adjustments remained.

Compared to bullets, firearm design was actually much simpler, it was just mechanical structures.

Hughes had plenty of existing designs in his mind.

With Nini’s ability to melt steel at room temperature, crafting a hand-cranked Gatling gun would be a piece of cake.

More importantly, solving the issue of propellants also unlocked another major weapon, artillery.

This was something that could truly change the nature of warfare.

From now on, the concept of lining up in formations for musket volleys would become a joke.

The infantry doctrines that had made the Empire invincible would become nothing more than toilet paper.

And yet… they had managed to produce all of this so easily?

Hughes should have been happy, should have been celebrating.

But instead, he felt a chill down his spine.

Now he understood why everyone in the room, despite bringing good news, looked so uneasy.

Everything was going too smoothly.

Hughes noticed that the others in the room were subtly glancing at Connor.

Even the old butler looked hesitant, as if he had something to say but was holding back.

Right.

He still hadn’t heard Connor’s report yet.

But… he hadn’t assigned Connor to do anything, had he?

Hughes swallowed hard and looked at Connor with a solemn expression.

“Connor, as far as I remember, I didn’t give you any extra tasks.

I only asked you to pack up the estate’s belongings and bring them here.”

“Yes, young master.”

Connor hesitated for a moment.

The usually calm and composed old butler now showed an uncharacteristic unease.

“When I was organizing the estate… I accidentally discovered a hidden chamber.”

Just like that?

He had lived in the estate for so long and never found a hidden chamber, yet now it was discovered?

“What was inside?”

Hughes took a deep breath.

At this point, even if Connor said he had found treasure left behind by the Pirate King, Hughes wouldn’t be surprised anymore.

“My lord, our second phase of recruitment is complete.

We now have a total of one hundred and twelve soldiers. Two of them were mistakenly recruited due to a clerical error.”

Alexei suddenly interjected with this seemingly unrelated information.

After saying it, he offered no further explanation.

Hughes glanced at him in confusion.

Connor paused for a moment, waiting for Alexei to finish before continuing.

“In the hidden chamber… I found a cache of steam rifles. All wrapped in oil paper, well-preserved, and complete with full sets of equipment.”

He hesitated, his voice trembling slightly.

“I counted them… There were exactly one hundred and twelve.”

The document in Hughes’ hand slipped from his grasp.

He staggered backward, collapsing into his armchair.

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.