Chapter 15: Opportunity to Strike it Rich (2/2)
Wang Chong tapped his finger on the windows of the carriage as thoughts flashed past his mind. He rummaged through the events that had occurred in his previous life to see if there were any means for one to make a killing.
It was fortunate that Wang Chong possessed the memories of his previous life. On this aspect, he held the advantage over others.
“I got it!”
Suddenly, Wang Chong’s eyes lit up as he recalled something:
“Wootz steel! Right, Wootz steel!”
His gloomy mood disappeared without a trace and in its place was delight.
‘Wootz steel’ was a precious metal with banding patterns on it. When a blade was forged from it, the pattern on its surface would resemble flowing water, forming an exquisite and beautiful sight. At the same time, of all types of metal, Wootz steel was, without a doubt, the best material for forging weapons! Nothing else could compete with it!
In the parallel world where Wang Chong came from, it was also known as ‘Damascus steel’.
The weapons made of this material ranked as the top of the Three Great Swords, even in the modern times!
More importantly, the Wootz steel reserves were extremely limited. After it was dug out, it would be gone for good.
In the future, a real ‘Damascus sword’ could be sold for millions, even tens of million of USD! Furthermore, it was a commodity that was rarely sold; it was not something that one could just buy because they had money!
In this world, the Wootz steel was the same as well!
The reason why Wang Chong remembered this metal was not because of how precious it was. Rather, it was because of its sharpness. The weapons made of Wootz steel were incomparably sharp and could easily tear apart those precious and famous swords!
In terms of sharpness, the weapons made of Wootz steel were the absolute sharpest!
In the parallel world where Wang Chong came from, there was once a scientist who did an experiment and he realized that the Wootz steel had countless nano saws that could not be seen with one’s naked eye. The countless minuscule saws came together to form the legend of the incomparable sharpness of the Wootz steel.
Any rider who was equipped with Wootz steel weapon would be able to easily tear apart a person along with his armor, causing quite a gruesome death!
Furthermore, the tiny saws on the Wootz steel swords made it easy to tear apart the enemy’s wounds, causing massive bleeding within a short period of time. Not only so, it was also difficult to stop the flow of blood from the wounds inflicted by it.
Many tiny cuts turned fatal because of this.
With all of these factors overlapping together, an army equipped with Wootz steel became something that was a fearsome fighting force, something that others would unconsciously shiver when speaking of it.
Their opponents would often sustain great casualties!
However, even though the Wootz steel was such a precious commodity, Wang Chong knew that at this current moment, it was still inexpensive. If nothing went wrong, this should be around the time when the first batch of the mineral had been mined from its only deposit in the Hyderabad mountains.
This first batch of minerals from Hyderabad was currently being carried by Sindhi monks to all around the world; the Abbasid Caliphate, the Western Regions, Great Tang, Turkic Khaganate, Silla Empire…
(Sindhu or Tianzhu referred to ‘India’. However, when the Indians first came to China, it was called Sindhu and it was named by Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che.)
It was only a year later did the precious Wootz steel’s name first appear in the name, and ten years for its name to traverse through the entire world. Twenty years would have passed before the most perfect method to forging the Wootz steel, the Tanilakam method, appeared.
However, in thirty years, the Hyderabad mountain would finish mining the final bit of Wootz steel ore that it had.
That was the last Wootz steel ore in Hyderabad, as well as the final piece in the world!
This was the situation of the Wootz steel!
These kind of ores weren’t unlimited; they were rare and finite. At this moment, there wasn’t a single person in this world who was aware of this fact.
Based on Wang Chong’s memories, the two monks should probably be in Great Tang by now, and the people of Great Tang rarely bothered themselves with people from the Western Regions. At this point, no one’s attention was on the two Sindhi Monks with bizarre appearances and, needless to say, the Wootz steel on them.
If he were to look for them at this moment, he could possibly make an unexpectedly huge killing.
At this point, Wang Chong’s heart couldn’t help but pound furiously
Even though it was a different spacetime continuum, Wang Chong knew that the weapons forged using Wootz steel in this world were highly sought after by the officials and generals of countless empires, the nobility and the wealthy, as well as martial arts experts.
The Wootz steel’s elegant design was fitting of a powerful official’s identity and standing. On the other hand, for a martial arts expert, a Wootz steel could mean a huge rise in his fighting prowess.
For these precious Wootz steel weapons, those people were willing to give their all, even if it meant bankruptcy.
If he could claim all of the Wootz steel that the two Sindhi monks had in their possession, the future benefits that it could bring him was clear. At this point, Wang Chong could no longer hold in the excitement in his heart.
“Little sister, are you interested in walking around with me to look for a few people?”
Wang Chong suddenly turned around to look at his little sister who was sitting beside him.
“Ah, you still want to walk around?”
Wang Xiao Yao’s eyes widened in shock. She clearly remembered the threat her father made about breaking their legs if they were to roam the streets.
“Why, are you afraid?”
Wang Chong taunted.
“Hmph, how can I be afraid!”
Provocation is much more effective than an invitation. As expected, the Wang Family’s little sister fell for it. Wang Chong chuckled and brought this ‘free bodyguard’ of a sister toward the place where the foreigners from the Western Regions gathered.
“Please take us to the Zhuque Street!”
Lingnan is near the Nanling Mountains (or Southern Mountains/Five Ranges) whereas Mobei is near (or in) Gobi Desert. It is quite a rural location and being sent there means that their career would come to an end. (Which was much worse than being killed for the ambitious)
Memorial/ Imperial Report:
These are what the officials write to the emperor to report on affairs or state recommendations and such.
If you all wish to know about what emperors do, here is a good website with concise information on a day of an emperor’s life. It’s more toward the Qing Emperor though (The last dynasty before it developed to the current China), and our story is based in the Tang Dynasty.
I couldn’t find an English translation of the Three Great Swords so I’ll just translate from Chinese here. (Based on Baidu)
Number 1: Damascus sword from the Islamic Tribes in India, Iran (Persia then), Afghanistan, Bukhara and etc (大马士革平面花纹刃)
Number 2: Kris sword from Singapore, Malacca, Philippines and etc. (糙面焊接花纹刃)
Number 3: Nihonto from Japan (平面碎段复体暗光花纹刃)
Of which, the Damascus sword is made of Wootz steel. The translations may not exact, I tried to google to get as accurate a translation as possible but that’s about it.
Based on Chinese Wikipedia,
At the very beginning, the Indians were addressed as Sindhu (Named by Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che). At the beginning of Tang Dynasty, they were addressed as Tianzhu. The Persians addressed Sindhu and Hindu while the Greeks addressed Hindu as Indu.
Eventually, when an enlightened monk from the Tang Dynasty Xuan Zang went to the Western Regions to obtain the scriptures, Indu was changed to Yindu (The way India is called in Chinese now