African Nationhood

Chapter 10 Big Shot (Part )
  The servant first led them to the reception room of Mr. Bannerman's house, and then quickly served black tea and desserts.

"Mr. Bannerman hasn't come back yet. Please wait a moment. We will tell you when Mr. Bannerman comes back."

Shi Jintang nodded, "Okay, thank you."

I don’t know how long it took, but the Indian black tea served by the servant had been replaced by several cups, and Henry Gambel Bannerman was still missing.

Shi Jintang is not in a hurry. Big shots will definitely not be as idle as him. Of course, it is also possible that the other party does not take him seriously.

None of this is important. After all, not everyone is born in Rome. He is an unknown and small role, and it is normal for him to wait for the big boss.

If he is aggrieved because of this, then he has really lived like a dog in his two lives.

Compared with Shi Jintang's calmness, Green White seemed a bit impatient.

At first he would shake his feet unconsciously, then he would frequently check his gold pocket watch, and finally he couldn't help but get up and want to go to the bathroom.

At this moment, he saw a formal valet coming towards him. He looked solemn and stretched out his hands to straighten his clothes, fearing that he would lose points because of his disheveled clothes when he saw Mr. Bannerman.

Unexpectedly, the formal valet walked directly to the Oriental: "Hello, Mr. Henry, my master invites you to go to his study for an interview."

"Okay, please lead the way!"

The formal valet immediately turned sideways and asked Shi Jintang to go first, then followed behind and pointed the way carefully, and disappeared from sight in a short time.

Seeing that he was ignored like this, one can imagine the disappointment in the veteran British gentleman's heart. He sat down on the leather sofa angrily and kicked the legs of the coffee table in anger.

This movement caused the maid serving in the living room to look back, and Green White had to sit still, not daring to vent her dissatisfaction any more.

……

The distance from the living room to the study was not too far. The formal valet took Shi Jintang into the study and asked him to wait before leaving.

Shi Jintang nodded in agreement and began to observe the study in front of him when he had nothing to do.

The layout here is more luxurious, with thick Afghan handmade carpets on the floor, large mahogany tables and chairs, and wall-to-wall bookshelves.

There were many ancient books on the bookshelf. In addition to rolls of parchment, he also saw some leather scrolls filled with hieroglyphs. He didn't know the specific books.

But the origin of these ancient books is unknown.

There are also Chinese antiquities, one of which is very special.

It was a figure-relief vase. Because it was a small vase and placed in a glass cabinet, the specific figures could not be seen clearly.

This thing should be a set of three pieces, three large, medium and small vases. They were exhibits brought by the Qing Dynasty during the "World's Exposition" in England in 1851.

I just don’t know why there is only one small vase left. If I can get a complete set of vases, I can collect them.

It will definitely be a national treasure-level collection left to future generations, but it is a pity that he cannot get it.

In addition, there are several blue and white porcelain vases and porcelain jars in this room, which makes Shi Jintang very envious.

This high-ranking British official is indeed wealthy. If all the collections in this manor are preserved, it will basically ensure that several generations of people will be happy and wealthy by the 21st century.

Not long after, he heard the door open. Shi Jintang turned around and saw a middle-aged white man walking in.

His face is a bit round, the bags under his eyes are heavy, and the nasolabial folds are relatively inconspicuous.

There are still gray hairs on the top of his semi-bald head. In addition, this man has a single-sided spectacle on his right eye.

Perhaps it was because the young man in front of him had yellow skin, and there was surprise in his eyes.

"Are you a Qing Chinese or a Japanese?"

Shi Jintang frowned, who are you scolding?

You are Japanese, and your whole family is Japanese!

Of course these Anglo-Saxons are not good birds either.

Although I feel unhappy, the matter is not finished yet, so I still have to control my emotions. "Are you Mr. Bannerman?"

"Yes, young man you haven't answered my question yet."

"I am from the Qing Dynasty, not a Japanese."

When Shi Jintang said the ancient names of the Japanese, he was speaking in Chinese, so this sentence confused the British in front of him.

"Do you want me to be a hero?"

"Sorry, this is my fault. That's what we call Japanese people in Chinese. You don't need to mind."

Bannerman's observation was very careful, and he smiled without any trace.

The meaning is obvious: Do you think I will believe it?

Shi Jintang didn't want to continue this topic and waste time.

So he lowered his head and picked up the Louis Vuitton suitcase he brought, and took out a glass bottle filled with light yellow strips.

"This is the groundbreaking military product my letter refers to - 'smokeless gunpowder'. This gunpowder has three advantages:
  1. It is safe, more stable than traditional gunpowder, and easier to transport;
  2 is high efficiency. After testing, the performance of this gunpowder is 2-3 times stronger than traditional gunpowder;
  3. It is smokeless and has no residue. There will be no residue or smoke after burning, so this kind of gunpowder will usher in a new era. "

Bannerman looked at the strips in the bottle, and his suspicion became more obvious.

Shi Jintang opened the cork of the bottle and took out a 5 cm long strip, placed it on the suitcase, and then lit it with a lighter.

"Thorn."

The light yellow strips burned almost instantly, and there was only a small amount of smoke during the burning process, and it was true that there was no residue.

The strips burned completely, leaving only a shallow mark on the surface of the suitcase.

Bannerman was immediately interested, "It's interesting. Is this 'smokeless gunpowder' obtained from the nitrocellulose made by the Swedish Schönbain?"

Shi Jintang was not in a hurry when he heard that Bannerman had revealed the origin of smokeless gunpowder.

In 1845, Schönbai accidentally poured strong acid on the experimental table while conducting experiments. He quickly wiped it with a cotton apron.

Later, he accidentally placed the apron by the fireplace. Because the apron had been nitrated by strong acid, it burned quickly when it encountered fire, leaving no trace of it left.

Schoenbai thus discovered the secret of nitrocellulose, but it was very unstable, explosive and flammable, and not conducive to transportation.

In 1884, French chemist and engineer P. Viele invented a method to passivate nitrocellulose and reported this invention to the French Army.

There had to be a twist here. The new gunpowder was called a "top secret formula" by the French military, and a large amount of manpower and material resources were arranged to keep it secret.

Two years later, Colonel Nicholas Lebel developed a new rifle and put it into service with the troops together with the new bullet.

Unexpectedly, not long after it was installed, a French soldier fled to Germany with a new rifle and bullets, and sold it for 20,000 marks.

The German military was overjoyed to obtain such a secret and quickly conducted reverse engineering research, quickly figuring out how to make the new gunpowder.

At this point, France became a joke throughout Europe, and other countries gradually learned how to make smokeless gunpowder.

The world has since entered the era of small-caliber rifles.

"Yes, Mr. Bannerman, this gunpowder is based on nitrocellulose.

As for how to keep it stable, that is my confidence and capital for coming here this time. "

Henry Gambel Bannerman stared at the glass bottle in Shi Jintang's hand for a long time.

He just reacted and said to Shi Jintang: "Please sit down, young man.

If this gunpowder is as good as you say, what do you want? "

(End of this chapter)