Chapter 50: Coin Minting

It was only natural for the pressure on Lian Jincheng to increase suddenly. After all, although he was a guest, his treatment was even better than that of Jeken, who was a foreign advisor. On top of that, he received an additional salary from Deng Cunyu.

So, after Jeken showed off his own samples, Lian Jincheng took the apprentices into the laboratory and worked there all day. By the third day, Liu Yu received good news: “Sulfuric acid has been successfully produced. Please come and inspect the results.”

Sulfuric acid could be called the mother of industry. In this era, all industries relied on it as a driving force. To understand a country’s war potential, one only needed to know how much sulfuric acid it had.

Eagerly, Liu Yu rushed to the chemistry laboratory. Before even entering, he heard Lian Jincheng saying inside, “Amen. Remember, you must not pour water into sulfuric acid—it must be poured into water. Also, all operations involving sulfuric acid must be carried out in beakers.”

When he pushed the door open, he smelled the pungent odor of chemicals. Lian Jincheng, wearing a white coat and thick asbestos gloves, was slowly pouring sulfuric acid into water while holding a beaker.

Next to him stood a group of apprentices from the Xiliu Camp. They were taking notes of everything Lian Jincheng said with pencils, their eyes filled with admiration.

When they saw Liu Yu enter, Lian Jincheng didn’t put down the beaker but simply nodded at him. “Dear Captain Liu, as promised, I have produced sulfuric acid according to your orders.”

Liu Yu also stood among the apprentices, observing the experiment. After a while, Lian Jincheng finally completed it. “Look! Excellent sulfuric acid.”

Liu Yu felt as if he had returned to his middle school days. After observing for a while, he confirmed, “It is indeed sulfuric acid, with quite high purity.”

Lian Jincheng took off his asbestos gloves. “I’ve lived up to your salary. This is still dilute sulfuric acid. Give me more time, and I can produce high-purity concentrated sulfuric acid for you.”

There was a significant difference between dilute and concentrated sulfuric acid, but Liu Yu was satisfied. “I need a large amount of sulfuric acid.”

Lian Jincheng added, “I’ve already taught the apprentices the specific production method. I’m not holding back anything, nor will I exploit you. They will soon be able to operate independently.”

The method Lian Jincheng used was a very ancient one—the “distillation of stone gall to extract essence,” which involved dry distilling copper sulfate pentahydrate to obtain sulfuric acid. “Let me write down the chemical equation for you!”

Liu Yu needed sulfuric acid urgently. “Very good!”

Lian Jincheng wrote a brief equation on paper using his pen. The equation was:
CuSO4·5H2O === CuSO4 + 5H2O
CuSO4 → CuO + SO3↑
SO3 + H2O → H2SO4

After writing it, he added, “I have another method to produce sulfuric acid—distilling nitrate and green vitriol together. The resulting gas can be dissolved in water to produce sulfuric acid.”

Liu Yu had almost forgotten all his chemistry knowledge. He could only say, “Very good! I will reward you generously.”

In fact, neither of the two methods proposed by Lian Jincheng is suitable for large-scale industrial production; they are only suitable for laboratory extraction. Modern industry mostly uses the SO2!SO2 method to produce sulfuric acid, but Liu Yuzhen managed to deceive him.
“Then I am extremely grateful to you!”
Lian Jincheng took off his white coat; he was still wearing a ritual robe with a cross, making him an outlier among the Xiliu Camp. He said indifferently, “You want to produce nitroglycerin, right?”
“That’s correct!”
In this era, nitroglycerin was the most powerful explosive. With concentrated sulfuric acid, glycerin could be produced from fats, and further processing could yield nitroglycerin.
The Xiliu Camp currently used black powder. As a black powder with a thousand-year history, it had shown its greatest weakness in this era: its insufficient power. In the Xiliu Camp’s laboratory, the best-formulated granulated black powder could already be produced, which represented the limit of black powder’s power. Yet even this kind of powder still had severely inadequate strength.
For example, according to what Liu Yuzhen knew, the Eighth Route Army had used black powder to make anti- infantry mines, but such mines often only caused minor injuries to the enemy. When the Eighth Route Army used black powder to make grenades, there was a classic description: “One blast, two halves”—they lacked significant lethality. He had once seen an estimate on a military forum stating that to achieve the power of modern grenades, the amount of black powder needed would have to be over two kilograms. Therefore, Liu Yuzhen had to plan ahead.
The power of such explosives would still be quite terrifying even in the 21st century. Although, due to their inherent properties, they couldn’t be used as weapon charges, using nitroglycerin for blasting seemed like a viable idea.
It should be noted that during the Sino-French War, both the Black Flag Army and the Qing army had extremely weak siege capabilities. Despite their numerical advantage, the Black Flag Army and the Qing army surrounded a French battalion at Xuan Guang and attacked for days without success. If they had high-explosive explosives like nitroglycerin, siege operations would have been much easier.
But Lian Jincheng offered another suggestion: “That’s too dangerous! It’s really too dangerous. However, I can provide some assistance in this regard.”
Nitroglycerin was extremely unstable; even a slight collision could trigger a violent explosion. The combination of its instability and its immense explosive power made it a deadly weapon.
In this era, there were countless accidents caused by the explosions of nitroglycerin as a mining explosive—entire ships would be blown to pieces, and miners in mines would die. Even today, Nobel was still improving his nitroglycerin in the laboratory, but he had almost lost everything in the experiments and had not made final progress.
Liu Yuzhen knew the final steps of Nobel’s experiments, which would result in a relatively safer explosive, but he didn’t say much: “I am still extremely grateful for your assistance, Mr. Lian.”
A faint smile appeared on Lian Jincheng’s face: “I can offer another path—a relatively safe one, and it can be used as a charge.”

Liu Yu was in urgent need of a highly powerful gunpowder. Moreover, Lian Jincheng had specifically mentioned that this kind of gunpowder could be used as an explosive charge, which was a major drawback of nitroglycerin. Nitroglycerin was too unstable and prone to explosion; despite its immense power, no one in military history had used it as an explosive charge in weapons—whether rifles or artillery—still relied on traditional black powder. The power of several hundred kilograms of black powder might not even compare to that of a few kilograms of nitroglycerin. But Lian Jincheng proposed another highly powerful gunpowder: “I can produce sulfuric acid for you now, and soon we can obtain high-concentration nitric acid, which can then be further refined to produce an even more concentrated nitric acid…” Liu Yu blurted out, “Nitrocellulose!” He regretted having forgotten too much about chemistry, to the point of forgetting this gunpowder, which was far more powerful than black powder. He had seen this type of cotton-based explosive in the ‘One Hundred Thousand Whys’ during the Cultural Revolution. Lian Jincheng was very pleased: “This is the advice of a professional—something second-rate people cannot replace. Indeed, all that’s needed are nitric acid and cotton, but ideally a mixture of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid.” “Best yet, use degreased cotton,” Liu Yu recalled. “We can get that.” Nitrocellulose, as an explosive, could be considered somewhere between black powder and nitroglycerin. It was much more powerful than black powder but far safer than nitroglycerin. In his view, nitrocellulose was still not stable enough—explosion could occur with sufficient dryness and high temperature, while insufficient moisture would prevent it from being detonated even by a detonator, reducing its power. That’s why, in modern times, pure nitrocellulose was quickly phased out of military explosives. The truly reliable options were yellow explosives and TNT. TNT was not only powerful but also stable enough that it wouldn’t explode even when burned—only a detonator was needed to set it off. During the Red Army’s Long March at Luding Bridge, the defending forces tried to blow up the bridge by throwing grenades into the fire, but it didn’t explode at all. Even more extreme cases occurred on the Soviet-German front, where the Soviets disassembled German bombs to use the TNT as firewood for warmth. But under the current circumstances, nitrocellulose was indeed their best choice. He knew that the Black Flag Army used black powder effectively for ambushes. The platoon leader Deng from the previous unit had boasted several times about how they buried hundreds of kilograms of black powder in strategic locations to obliterate enemy troops. But what kind of scenario would arise if they used nitrocellulose instead? More importantly, he could produce concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid in his own laboratory, and the import of cotton was not restricted at all. High-powered landmines or grenades seemed within reach. Yet he remained sober enough to realize there was still one major issue: production volume. The production of nitrocellulose didn’t depend on cotton but rather on the production of concentrated nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid—ultimately, it came down to the production of concentrated sulfuric acid.

Now, everything Lin Jincheng talked about depends on the production of concentrated sulfuric acid, but at present, Lin Jincheng can only produce dilute sulfuric acid. “Jincheng, I’ll give you full support—whether it’s money or people, I’ll back you wholeheartedly.” This time, Lin Jincheng didn’t target Colonel Jacken. “No problem. I definitely won’t let you down.” In fact, that’s all he knew. Now that he had revealed everything, he had to secure the greatest benefit possible. “The production of concentrated sulfuric acid must be completed within a week, but I have one condition.” Liu Yu still thought of that crucial issue—producing it in a laboratory on such a small scale would result in extremely limited output. As the backbone of industry, concentrated sulfuric acid would play a vital role in his plans. Since the output couldn’t be increased, they had to race against time. The sooner Lin Jincheng developed it, the more output Liu Yu would have. “Go ahead and state your condition. I’ll definitely meet it.” This time, Lin Jincheng smiled like a woman. He looked up and said, “It’s not me; it’s him.” “Dear Captain Liu, do you still remember your kin?” This time, Liu the comprador was much more down and out, though he still wore a suit and tie. “I’m in trouble now and really need your help.” Liu Yu had a strong impression of this comprador from the Banque Orientale en Chine in Haifang. This guy was just like Deng Cunyu—someone who would sell anything for enough profit. But compared to their meeting in Haiyang, he did seem a bit older. “Liu the Comprador, what’s wrong? Last time in Haiyang, I owed you a favor. I’ll definitely help you.” Upon hearing Liu Yu’s address, he sighed deeply. “Ah, it’s so difficult! This matter is related to you. I’m no longer a comprador for the Banque Orientale en Chine; I’m just an ordinary merchant here to ask for your help.” “The matter of purchasing goods for me in Haifang last time?” Liu Yu had a deep memory of Liu the Comprador’s greed. For money, he ignored the French ban and joined forces with Deng Cunyu to sell arms to him in large quantities, probably offending the French quite a bit as well. Sure enough, Liu the Comprador took off his top hat. “He dismissed me from my position. From now on, call me Liu Qing.” The air still smelled of chemicals. Liu Yu felt it wasn’t proper to stay here. “Come! To my reception pavilion. I’ll ask the kitchen to prepare some good dishes to calm you down.” Liu Yu actually needed a few such profit-driven scoundrels; otherwise, if the French blocked him in Haifang, he wouldn’t be able to buy arms even with money. “Don’t worry, Liu the Comprador. Our Xiliu Camp won’t treat friends poorly.” The reason Liu the Comprador was dismissed by the Banque Orientale en Chine this time wasn’t solely because he procured arms for Xiliu Camp. It was more due to uneven distribution of profits internally and infighting among the French, with the Chinese employees suffering as scapegoats. Not only did he lose his lucrative position as a comprador, but he also had to return a lot of the money he had made. Liu the Comprador was filled with resentment and anger. “I’m no longer a comprador for the Banque Orientale en Chine. There’s no need to use that title.”

Liu Yu held his hand and said, “So what does that matter? You may not be a comprador for the Oriental Bank of Commerce, but you’re still our chief comprador in Xiliu Camp. Since we have Shanxi under our control, we definitely won’t let our friends suffer! If I can eat meat, I won’t let my friends settle for soup.”

Liu, the chief comprador, usually didn’t show much emotion, but now he was delighted too. “That’s true! Thank you very much. But this time, Liu Qing has a big request for your help as the camp leader.”

In reality, the position of comprador only existed in foreign firms; later it was renamed “Chinese manager.” Having such a comprador position in Xiliu Camp was rather irregular. But what Liu really valued was the immense power that came with it—having whatever he wanted, rain or wind. After the French, he was practically the most important figure in coastal defense.

Now that the position of comprador no longer existed, although he lost only a few thousand taels in wealth, his prestige had plummeted. He was like a defeated rooster. That’s why he was determined to try his luck in Shanxi.

Liu Yu glanced at Lian Jincheng, dressed in a missionary’s robe, and thought, “Ah! Lian Jincheng is setting a trap to lure me in. Well, fine! Even if not for the sulfur, I’ll help out for the sake of friendship. I can’t let my friends down.”

He said loudly, “There’s no need for such formalities. We’re all friends—why be so stiff? Just tell me what you need. Aside from women, I, Liu Yu, can help with anything. Do you want some foreign guns? I still have some Spencer rifles in my warehouse. Money isn’t a problem either.”

“No, no, no!” Liu, the chief comprador, remained firm. “This isn’t difficult!”

Lian Jincheng added from the side, “Liu, the chief comprador, wants to set up a workshop.”

“A workshop?” Liu was stunned. “A workshop?”

“A small workshop, a minor business,” Liu, the chief comprador, insisted. “Just a small business to make a living. But we really need your help.”

Liu didn’t understand. Seeing Liu’s face full of smiles yet his refusal to say the truth, he could only guess.

No matter what kind of workshop it was, Liu was more than willing to support it. Even heavily polluting industries that were rejected elsewhere in later times would be welcomed by him. After his death, who cared if floods ravaged the land? If they couldn’t defeat the French, it was all just empty talk.

The accumulation of capital was a sin; he would go to hell after his death. Ever since he crossed over, Liu had held this belief. But the riddle laid by Liu, the chief comprador, was truly hard to solve.

Suddenly, he had an idea. Pointing at Liu, he said, “You guy, you want to set up a coin-making workshop, right?”

He immediately understood. Liu, the chief comprador, was truly a profit-driven man, willing to engage in such business.

Indeed, coin-making was profitable. In Vietnam, whether it was casting copper coins or lead coins, the profits were enough to earn a death sentence. Especially lead coins—though their value was low and they were considered inferior currency, the profits were so great that the Vietnamese royal family repeatedly declared that only the royal family could mint them. Lead, usually of very low value, became a widely used currency.

Even with officially minted coins, there were substantial profits. In the 23rd year of Tự Đức’s reign (1870), the Ministry of Finance reported that by minting large white-lead coins worth 60 wen, each weighing 4 qian, 3,000 coins could be produced per 100 units of copper and white lead, yielding a net profit of 186 mien—representing a profit margin of as high as 56%. As for private minting by figures like Liu Da, they would surely reduce the weight, use more low-value white copper and less copper, and with lower production costs, the profits would be astonishingly high. “Great! You’re just not straightforward, but I’ll ensure your safety!” Shanxi was one of the two most important coin-minting areas in all of Vietnam. Ordinary people there were even allowed to bring white lead to official minting facilities to produce coins, making it an area rich in coin-making resources. Now, Liu Yu was eager to explore new sources of income. Over there, Liu Da was overjoyed: “Is this true?” Lian Jincheng beside him chimed in, “Our Commander Liu keeps his word—how could we ever deceive you?” “We’ll set up a coin-minting workshop right in our base. With the protection of our Xiliu Camp, nothing will go wrong,” Liu Yu said, determined to foster growth by allowing others to participate. “Transportation and materials are all very convenient.” But Liu Da shook his head. “Your base is indeed convenient, but it’s too conspicuous. It will attract the French’s attention, and that will cause big problems.” “What’s there to fear?” Liu Yu encouraged him. “I have an entire battalion of infantry to protect you.” “But my piastres and Indochinese copper coins have to pass through Henan. It’s too obvious; problems are likely to arise.” Piastres? Indochinese copper coins? Something seemed off. Liu Yu’s eyes sparkled. “You’re undermining your old employer—bold of you. But I like it. That’s what a real man does!” He got Liu Da to reveal more: “If he’s unkind, I won’t be fair! Let’s partner up on this deal—we’ll both make a fortune.” In no time, Liu Yu understood the whole situation. It turned out that the French, in order to control Vietnam, had established the Oriental Bank of Commerce, headquartered in Paris. This bank would later become powerful, plundering vast wealth in the Far East. But at that time, it was still a relatively small colonial bank, founded in 1875 with a registered capital of only 8 million francs and annual profits of less than 400,000 francs. Thanks to their victory in the Sino-French War, the bank managed to expand into China, monopolizing the economy of Yunnan for a long time, with branches across the country, eventually becoming a monopolistic institution with a registered capital of hundreds of millions of francs. Due to its limited strength, the bank only issued a small number of copper coins as a symbol of its silver coin launch at the time of opening. But by this year, 1879, the bank suddenly made a big leap forward, determined to issue large quantities of currency. According to Liu Da’s description, these silver coins included 1-piastre silver coins, as well as smaller silver coins worth 50 cents, 20 cents, and 10 cents, along with copper coins worth 1% and 2% of a piastre. All these currencies were only used in Cochinchina, the French-occupied southern colony of Vietnam, and were explicitly labeled in French as “French Indochina”! Liu Da took this opportunity to firmly undermine capitalism: “They’ll start issuing them in a month—we need to act fast!” “Why?”

“All of them are poor-quality coins, the worst kind imaginable! Such tiny copper coins—fifty of them can be exchanged for one eagle coin. What a huge profit! If minted, the profit would surely be ten times more!”
Liu Yu laughed instead and said, “I think there’s a type of coin that yields an even greater profit.”
“Which one?”