Chapter 25 - His Majesty acquires an Akhal-Teke horse (1/2)
Going up the mountain was easy, but going down was difficult. On their way down, Xue Yuan was very respectful, actively protecting Gu Yuanbai. On occasion, when the ground was uneven, he’d directly hold Gu Yuanbai’s hand to guide him down to safety.
Although Xue Yuan was injured, he was still very strong and familiar with the mountain and the forests. The guard captain kept an eye on him, but, since Xue Yuan was acting so proper, he resigned himself to staying behind the Emperor just in case.
As a matter of fact, Xue Yuan’s mood was rapidly getting better.
He didn’t like men, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how to appreciate the good things in life either. The young Emperor’s hands were soft and white. In that April weather, Xue Yuan’s entire body felt warm, and the shade in the forest was not cool enough for comfort. However, the young Emperor’s hands were as cold as a piece of jade, and he could hold onto them to cool off.
When he held the Emperor’s hand, his skin was soft enough to slip between his fingers, and he felt that he could become addicted to those hands.
Most of the evil ideas and hostility that had been in his heart dissipated. Sure enough, the young Emperor was the one that had upset him, and in the end he was the one that made him feel comfortable again.
Gu Yuanbai was really an inflexible straight man and didn’t notice any issue. It was only after getting down from the mountain and into the carriage that he noticed his hand was red.
Gu Yuanbai sighed. After just getting helped out a bit his hand was like that, it really wasn’t very masculine at all.
The palace attendant washed Gu Yuanbai’s hands, and the layers of soft cushions in the carriage had been changed. With the swaying of the carriage, Gu Yuanbai started to feel a bit drowsy.
When he woke up, the carriage had reached the palace.
Unhurried, Gu Yuanbai closed his eyes, and he heard Tian Fusheng’s question coming from outside the carriage. “Is the Emperor asleep?”
The person who replied also spoke in a low voice, saying, “He’s asleep, it was a tiring day.”
After some rustling, no other noise came from the outside for a while. Gu Yuanbai, still feeling sleepy, rested his head on his palm. The scent of the incense in his nose was heavy and intense, and it made him feel languid and tired. He breathed out slowly and, as he was about to doze off for a while more, the curtain in front of him was raised.
Gu Yuanbai asked lazily, “Who is it?”
Carefully, Tian Fusheng replied, “Your Highness, the people from the Engineering Department have come to present the improved crossbows and farming tools they’ve newly developed.”
Gu Yuanbai opened his eyes suddenly and, with a wide smile, he said, “Take Us to see them!”
The Emperor walked towards the palace energetically, followed by a group of people. When he reached the outside of the building, Gu Yuanbai spotted Chu Wei and the official historian waiting at the side. Only then had he remembered that the vacation time for the new imperial scholars had just ended and that they were now supposed to be on duty.
Chu Wei, as the highest scoring scholar, had received a posting at the Xiuzhuan academy.1 The Xiuzhuan academy was a 6th rank posting, and the main responsibilities it held was to keep track of the history of the country, record the words and deeds of the Emperor, register events and draft ceremonial texts.
It was not a surprise for Chu Wei to be there, but it was a surprise for him to go to Gu Yuanbai as soon as he took office.
Gu Yuanbai glanced at him briefly and paid it no mind, instead looking at the two officials from the Engineering Department. Xu Ning was one of them. When they saw the Emperor walk in, they hurriedly went to salute him with a bow.
Gu Yuanbai helped the two of them up and said with a smile, “We heard that the Engineering Department came up with some new things.”
Xu Ning smiled and said, “Your Majesty, they are military weapons and farming implements.”
In just a dozen days or so, Xu Ning seemed to have changed a lot. He looked a little fatter. The food in the Engineering Department seemed to be very nourishing. In addition to the flesh on his face, the biggest change in Xu Ning was the radiant expression on his face. He looked very energetic, very motivated, and his spirit appeared cheerful. Seeing that change made Gu Yuanbai feel extremely satisfied and relieved.
“Very well.” Gu Yuanbai smiled. “Hurry and let Us see what they are.”
The official handed him a crossbow, and Gu Yuanbai placed it in his hand and took a closer look. Bows and arrows had to be shot by humans, but crossbows worked through a mechanism. The user only needed to aim, and the range depended on the way they were constructed. The advantage of the crossbow was that it had a long range, great shooting strength, and it didn’t strain people’s physical strength, but having to wind up the small pieces was troublesome and time-consuming, so it wasn’t practical on the battlefield.
The most powerful crossbow —the king of crossbows in the Northern and Southern Dynasties— the ballista, was extremely big. It was also known as the bolt thrower. The ballista was very powerful and it had a long range, capable of firing large scale projectiles. Gu Yuanbai remembered that it was a good tool for a siege. During the Song Dynasty, the technology reached its peak, and its range seemed to have gone over 1.5 kilometers.
However, while the ballista was great, sometimes it couldn’t beat the small hand crossbow.
The crossbow, now improved by the Engineering Department, was not the same as the one that had been trampled on before. The materials had been changed and improved. There were three short and thick bolts on the top. Gu Yuanbai checked the thickness and found that the bolt was only 6 to 8 centimeters long.
Although the bolts were small, it didn’t mean that this weapon wasn’t lethal. In the short range, a bolt like that was more powerful than a long arrow.
There was something else hard to spot at the bottom of the crossbow. Xu Ning stepped forward and split it apart, showing that there were more short, neatly placed bolts on the inside.
Xu Ning smiled, somewhat embarrassed. “Us officials tried to make a lot of different designs, and this was the most convenient one. However, it can only fit fifty bolts.”
“Fifty?” One of the civil officials at the side gasped. “If the fifty bolts hit, won’t that mean fifty lives?”
“How could it be that accurate?” Another official from the Engineering Department replied. “But even if only five out of the fifty hit, it’s still a useful portable crossbow.”
Gu Yuanbai looked at it for a while, and the more he looked, the more he liked it. He turned his head and told a palace attendant, “Go to the Government Office and ask the Minister and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War to come over.”
The palace attendant hurried away and, just a moment later, the Minister of War and his Deputy Minister, as well as the Minister of Industry rushed over, their feet barely touching the ground.
Gu Yuanbai looked at the Minister of Industry and laughed. “Why did you come all the way here?”
The Ministry of Industry bowed to salute and, with a shy expression, he said, “This official heard that the Engineering Department had invented something good, so I came over to take a look.”
When the Engineering Department was first founded, the Minister of Industry was actually extremely troubled. Wasn’t the Ministry of Industry the one in charge of engineering? Did the Emperor intend to establish two engineering departments?
During those days, the Minister of Industry wasn’t able to eat well or rest properly. Then, the Emperor took the Minister of Industry to look around the Engineering Department, and then the Minister of Industry understood.
The Ministry of Industry was very different from the Engineering Department. One was broad and complex, focusing on developing specific things, while the second was focused on brainstorming and creating new things, without dealing with official affairs or social events. It was strictly a research department, and it didn’t diminish the powers of the Ministry of Industry. After that, whenever the Minister of Industry was free, he went to take a look, getting excited every time.
Seeing that everyone was coming, Gu Yuanbai passed the crossbow to the guard by his side. The guard stepped forward and pulled the crossbow, shooting towards the open space far ahead. With only a swishing sound, three bolts flew towards the distance.
The crossbow allowed one to fire the three bolts all at once or one by one. When the bolts hit the ground, Gu Yuanbai couldn’t resist taking a step forward, and, next to him, the Minister of War was already shocked. “That was over two hundred steps!”
Just eyeballing it, Gu Yuanbai guessed it to be about a hundred meters away.
The Minister of War looked as a man went ahead to measure the distance, muttering, “Back in the day, the repeating crossbow was able to fire ten bolts in a row with a lot of power, but sadly, since it was too heavy, it was restricted to being used for defense. Our dynasty has ballistas, the only thing that was missing was a crossbow like this that could be picked up easily.”
The Deputy Minister added, “This crossbow has such a long range, and it shoots three bolts at once! It looks very powerful!”
Everyone was very happy, especially the people from the Ministry of War, who had already begun to question the people of the Engineering Department about whether the crossbow could be mass-produced.
The smile on Gu Yuanbai’s face couldn’t be concealed. Usually, he was already radiant without a smile, but now he couldn’t suppress it. Chu Wei was recording the words and deeds of the Emperor, staring at him intently, and as he watched the brush in his hand couldn’t help but stop.
Next to him, the official historian was also thinking of the crossbow, and he said, “If such a powerful weapon can be developed, the one to do so will become famous through history.”