Lin Zhao, a doctor of modern materials engineering, traveled to the Security Gunpowder Bureau in 1901 during a laboratory explosion and became an apprentice. After witnessing the shortage of smokeless gunpowder and the tragic defeat of the Qing army due to inferior gunpowder, he determined to reproduce advanced military technology. A simple laboratory was built from scratch, using local methods to refine saltpeter and improving medicine-making equipment. However, the conservatives made things difficult for them and foreign businessmen plotted against them - the newly developed samples were destroyed and key raw materials were maliciously hoarded. At a critical moment, he received the support of the enlightened official Shen Yanzhi, and joined hands with private blacksmiths and overseas students to establish a secret workshop in the mountains. After hundreds of experiments, on the verge of life and death when the machine exploded, smokeless gunpowder that reached world standards was successfully developed. After that, he conquered steelmaking technology, improved machine tools, and gradually broke the Western monopoly, allowing China's steel fire to illuminate the darkness of the late Qing Dynasty.
