Chapter 379: The Saltpeter Workshop
Egger was stunned for half a second, but before he could even finish his breath, he figured it out: this wasn't some breakthrough new discovery at all. Instead, he had been trapped in the predicament of knowing much but lacking practical experience, effectively drilling himself into a dead end!
He only remembered that the snowflakes precipitated in the corners of latrines, pens, and stables were saltpeter, and that the soil in these places contained the bacteria needed for the earthen method. He had forgotten that the saltpeter appearing on the walls originated from the very soil beneath them. Using this soil as a starter was certainly the sustainable, long-term path, but if products were needed urgently, boiling the saltpeter directly from that soil was undoubtedly the way to solve the immediate crisis!
Compared to controlled production, boiling raw soil was clearly a stopgap measure—one that felt like killing the hen to get the eggs or draining the pond to catch the fish. However, the current situation was so dire that he needed the meat of those hens and fish to save lives. He couldn't let habitual thinking limit him, obsessing over establishing a complete production chain before being satisfied!
Damn it, Egger quickly realized: he had originally ordered the Industrial Park to produce saltpeter in King's Landing because the climate in the Gift was too cold and tools were scarce... but if they were simply digging soil to boil it, there were no geographical requirements at all. If he had realized this sooner, Queenscrown and the entire North would have already begun a massive, spirited saltpeter-boiling campaign.
Lost time could not be recovered, but it was not too late to mend the fold. After metaphorically slapping himself a few times in annoyance, Egger maintained his composure. "So that's how it is? How much saltpeter can be boiled directly from the soil in these corners, and what is the quality?"
"It fluctuates depending on the quality of the soil we dig," Qyburn answered truthfully. "After some simple trials, my assistants and I summarized the easiest way to tell: crush the candidate soil and sprinkle it onto red-hot charcoal. If it sparks and pops, it contains saltpeter. We scrape it layer by layer until the quality begins to drop. As for output, a cart of good saltpeter-rich soil can produce one small jar. Since we hadn't found a way to separate impurities like salt from the saltpeter, the quality is quite inconsistent."
"Our caravans traveling across the realm now have several tasks: they take products from the Night's Watch Industry to sell. Upon arrival, the scouts looking for saltpeter mines head out first. The rest of the men finish selling a wave of goods and immediately search for latrines, pens, and stables... the natural white crust on the walls is high-quality saltpeter; after scraping that off for separate storage, they immediately dig up several layers of soil from the corners to load into the carts." Nina had taken Egger's personal orders to heart and knew every detail. "Of course, digging on the lands of various lords is often seen as ill-omened by the masters. Doing this usually requires compensating the landowners—those willing to accept goods are compensated with merchandise, while others take copper or silver... we essentially treat it as buying dirt. As for the few who try to extort us with high prices, my instruction is to simply give up. While high-quality saltpeter soil is often only a thin layer on the surface, the Seven Kingdoms are vast—where is there a place without a latrine or a stable?"
The smile returned to Egger's face. This was the benefit of collective effort: he possessed a massive amount of advanced knowledge and intelligence that people in this world couldn't imagine, but even a wise man makes mistakes... let alone the fact that he never considered himself a sage. Limited by a STEM-student mindset and the handicap of being a couch general who hadn't done the manual labor himself, he would occasionally hit these "dead ends" that should have been obvious. In such moments, having a group of local geniuses to catch the leaks and offer timely reminders was how great things were accomplished.
"Excellent!" He didn't hide his approval. "Where is the boiling workshop? Take me to see it."
"The carriage is outside." Nina had guessed Egger would want to see it eventually and had already made the arrangements.
A moment later, the group arrived at the saltpeter workshop, barely a mile away. Billowing steam accompanied by grey smoke from burning fuel could be seen from hundreds of meters away. Drawing closer, the piles of earth, coal, and waste surrounding the low walls made the place look like a battlefield from the age of firearms... Against the backdrop of war clouds gathering along the Blackwater, where most profitable departments were scaling back production and tightening their belts for winter, this saltpeter workshop—the only project spending massive amounts of gold without a prospect of profit—was working feverishly day and night, employing many workers laid off from other departments.
The scene inside the workshop was nothing special; it was simply a several-fold expansion of the earlier experimental field. The pots, pans, stoves, and furnaces for the final boiling stage were replicated in large numbers and arranged with a certain plan, leaving paths in between. Workers stirred scalding liquid in giant cauldrons; porters ran about with wheelbarrows, stopping occasionally to shovel coal; and collectors scooped out the final product—yellowish-white lumps of saltpeter—crushing them and carefully packing them into clay jars to be sent to central storage...
The place was a hive of activity. For a fleeting moment, Egger thought he was back in the smelting district of Queenscrown.
"Thanks to the high population of the Crownlands, we brought in a large amount of saltpeter soil from various places before the Dragon Queen landed. We still have nearly half left. As for fuel, firewood is strictly regulated in the Crownlands, so we could only buy inferior coal in bulk from the Riverlands. This coal is cheap, but the fire is small and the smoke is immense... few people use it. Fortunately, boiling saltpeter can be done in a semi-open environment, so we don't have to worry too much about that."
Qyburn, following along, suddenly remembered something. With a look of sudden realization, he cried out: "Ah! A few weeks ago, the foreman of the boiling workshop reported something to me—during the boiling process, a lot of salt settles at the bottom of the pot first. I've been thinking all this time how to use that to extract the saltpeter separately. Looking back now, isn't that exactly what you said, my Lord... 'different substances have different solubilities in water, and the solubility of a single substance changes at different temperatures'? I suspect that if we take the saltpeter water that has already precipitated its salt and let it cool outside, we might be able to 'freeze' the saltpeter out!"
Smart. Even if it wasn't perfectly accurate, it was close enough. Egger roughly understood that the salt and saltpeter his subordinates spoke of corresponded to chlorides and nitrates in chemistry, and the latter was the niter he wanted. Although he hadn't memorized the solubility curves of these substances, the method Qyburn proposed would at least further remove the chloride impurities even if it didn't perfectly purify the niter.
But Egger was in no mood for praise right now. He asked impatiently, "Where is the finished goods warehouse? How much saltpeter has been produced in total during this time?"
"This way, my Lord."
After experiencing a series of pleasant surprises, Egger couldn't hide his confusion and disappointment when he saw the finished product. "Only these few jars? Based on the output I saw in the workshop, that shouldn't be right."
Nina let out a soft laugh. "You've misunderstood, my Lord. This is only this morning's production. You told me repeatedly that this stuff is of vital importance; how would I dare pile it up here? Every day's output from the workshop is loaded onto wagons and sent to Blackwall Keep, where it's stored properly on the shelves of a primary warehouse—fireproof, theft-proof, and moisture-proof. I haven't checked it in a few days, but I estimate it has already filled nearly half the warehouse. Actually, the first batch should have been on its way to the Gift long ago, but the Dragon Queen's fleet blockaded Blackwater Bay, and that eunuch army cut off the Kingsroad, so it has been stuck in Blackwall Keep."
"My Lord, most of those are semi-finished products," Qyburn volunteered. Now that he had thought of a solution, he couldn't bear to hand over a batch of mixtures. "Give me half a month... no, a week, and I can purify them all!"
"No, I don't have the time to wait." Egger breathed a sigh of relief and waved a hand in rejection. "Pack your things, take your trusted assistants, and prepare to return to the Gift with me. Saltpeter production can't be started in the freezing North, but boiling can... Nina, send someone to Blackwall Keep immediately. Arrange for porters to load the saltpeter from the warehouse onto the Blackbird as quickly as possible. It's too late for today, but King's Landing will open its gates for half a day tomorrow at noon, right? I plan to meet with King Stannis or the Hand then, and we'll depart north immediately after. The purification can be handled by the pyromancers in Queenscrown. The salt we separate will be just enough to solve the Gift's salt shortage."
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