148: Chapter 148 Van Fleet's Ammunition Supply and the Public Security Bureau

The sun gradually dipped into the west, and a cool breeze blew into Zhao Fusu's study. His expression slowly grew solemn.

Autumn had arrived, and even the weather in Xianyang was turning cold, let alone the territory of the Xiongnu people.

In order to have enough food for the winter, the Xiongnu Tribes had to head south to plunder grain.

If humans didn't have grain, they could still eat cattle and sheep.

But if cattle, sheep, and warhorses only ate grass without protein-rich soybeans, they would become listless and find it difficult to survive the winter.

For the herdsmen, this would be a massive loss.

Therefore, herdsmen grazing on the grasslands would often head south in autumn to either trade or plunder to obtain grain.

This kind of sporadic plundering by herdsmen was often impossible to prevent.

They would sneak into villages, steal grain, and then sneak away again.

For the farmers on the border, they could only chalk it up to bad luck.

But if an entire nomadic tribe headed south, it would be a catastrophic loss for the border farmers.

When nomadic peoples moved south, it was usually a group of energetic men riding horses.

One rarely heard of nomadic women riding south.

This was mainly because a gathering of women was worlds apart from a gathering of men.

When women gathered, they generally just complained about men and played mind games. After a couple of days, they would disperse on their own.

But a gathering of men was different, especially when a group of energetic, single, and penniless males gathered; they would immediately become a factor for social instability.

As everyone knows, when idle men get together, once there are more than three, one of them will automatically change classes into an 'Idea King'.

After discussing their skills, they would discover that you are good at this, I am proficient in that, and he knows how to do that other thing. If they stayed together, they could achieve great things.

They wouldn't just want to plunder grain anymore; they would want to kidnap women, and their destructiveness would only grow.

Zhao Fusu knew that an outstanding 'Idea King' named Modu Chanyu had emerged among the Xiongnu. After integrating the Xiongnu Tribes, he had surrounded Liu Bang at Baideng Mountain.

If the Great Qin wanted to develop properly, it had to give this 'Idea King' a good beating.

Specifically, he wanted to vigorously develop the Hetao Plain.

Without the protection of the Great Wall, the Hetao Plain was completely exposed to the iron hooves of the Xiongnu people.

According to intelligence sent by Meng Tian, he had led a million people to reclaim a significant amount of land on the Hetao Plain to plant millet and soybeans.

This autumn, they would be able to reap their first harvest.

Zhao Fusu's gaze was fixed on the Hetao Plain.

The Hetao Plain was too close to the plateau where the Xiongnu people resided.

After years of recuperation and growth, the Xiongnu people had gradually recovered from the last blow dealt by the Great Qin.

The last time the Great Qin was able to easily defeat the Xiongnu people, besides Meng Tian's fighting prowess, it was mainly because the Great Qin had fought a fragmented Xiongnu.

The individual tribes each fought for themselves, so naturally, under the pincer attack of the Great Qin's eastern and western armies, they were beaten into a panicked retreat.

The sudden emergence of Modu Chanyu had integrated the individual tribes together, forming a powerful force.

If Modu Chanyu wasn't beaten into submission with one strike, he would continue to integrate forces in the north, and his power would become even more formidable.

Zhao Fusu remembered that by the time Modu Chanyu had fully developed during Liu Bang's era, he was already incomparably strong, surrounding Liu Bang on Baideng Mountain to the point where he almost died there.

After that, to prevent Xiongnu attacks, the Great Han could only resort to humiliating peace marriages.

The Xiongnu people had little sense of propriety or shame; instances of sons killing their fathers were everywhere.

A princess of the Great Han would be married to an old Chanyu, and after the old Chanyu died, she would be betrothed to the Grand Chanyu, and after he died, she would be betrothed to a Lesser Chanyu.

Few people could endure this, so the Great Han princesses sent for peace marriages often did not live long.

To make this group of energetic men behave, the only way was to beat them into submission.

And they had to be beaten into submission with absolute power!

Zhao Fusu remembered a term from military history called the 'Van Fleet Load'.

Although the Eagle Nation commander who proposed this theory, James Alward Van Fleet, failed to defeat the Rabbit with intense firepower, he successfully caused the Rabbit to suffer from 'firepower deficiency phobia'.

It was evident how much of an indelible psychological shadow intense firepower could leave on a person's mind.

This time, three thousand six hundred explosive packs had intimidated the Nobles of the Six Lands.

They had stopped mentioning the matter of returning to their ancestral lands altogether.

Although Zhao Fusu had greatly intimidated these Nobles of the Six Lands and other potential anti-Qin forces this time,

he had also paid a significant price.

One explosive pack was filled with twenty kilograms of smokeless powder; three thousand six hundred explosive packs meant seventy-two thousand kilograms of smokeless powder!

The entire stock of explosive packs produced by the munitions factory during this period had been used up in one go.

Ninety percent of the striker shotgun ammunition inventory had also been depleted.

To intimidate the Nobles of the Six Lands and the Remnants of the Six States, he had spent a massive amount!

But one must stabilize the internal before repelling the external. Zhao Fusu did not want the Remnants of the Six States to pop up and cause trouble while he was dealing with the Xiongnu.

mortars and mortar shells had already been manufactured under the research and development of the munitions factory's technical personnel.

The next step was to use the production lines for steam threshers and steam rotary tillers to mass-produce the casings for mortars and mortar shells, then transport them back to the munitions factory to fill the shells with primers and smokeless powder.

To increase the production of smokeless powder, Zhao Fusu prepared to add production lines for concentrated sulfuric acid and nitric acid.

The munitions factory increased its external demand for raw materials such as niter, sulfur, green vitriol, and hemp.

Zhao Fusu felt that after witnessing the terror of thermal weapons, the anti-Qin forces would surely try every possible means to manufacture thermal weapons themselves, especially explosives.

With the munitions factory purchasing niter, sulfur, green vitriol, and hemp in large quantities, anyone with a brain could guess that his smokeless powder was processed from these raw materials.

The technical threshold for smokeless powder was relatively high, so they might not be able to make it, but they might be able to manufacture black powder after some fumbling.

Zhao Fusu sighed slightly.

He knew very well that it was difficult to keep the gunpowder formula from leaking, especially when manufacturing it in large quantities; it was even easier for those with intentions to obtain the formula.

However, Zhao Fusu also had a mechanism to deal with these people.

That was the public security organ!

Zhao Fusu decided to add a new Ministry of Public Security within the National Assembly and establish public security bureaus and sub-bureaus in Xianyang City and various major commanderies and counties.

He would hire retired soldiers to serve as public security officers.

Through rewards, as long as the common people discovered someone producing gunpowder, they could report it to the public security bureau and receive a handsome reward.

Public security would arrest those producing gunpowder on charges of threatening public safety, fine them, detain them, and subject them to labor reform.

Repeat offenders or those with serious circumstances would be sentenced to death!