"I’m telling you to get in the carriage!"
Lu Yuan: "..."
Before Lu Yuan could even speak, Song iqin raised her eyebrows and said:
"Clean the yellow mud off your feet and legs before you get in. Don’t you dare get our carriage dirty!"
Lu Yuan was speechless for a mont, then cupped his hands in a fist and said:
"Madam... Song, I don’t think I’ll get in the carriage.
But there’s sothing I, as a junior, would like to say.
I’d advise you to turn back. Your people are not Travelers, nor are they Officials.
I’m afraid going there won’t be of much use.
I can handle this myself. You shouldn’t put yourself in danger."
Don’t be fooled by how impressive Song iqin looked leading her two hundred-odd n.
But these people were not Officials, nor were they Lord Soldiers.
They were nothing more than a few Mansion Guards.
In reality, they just had a whiff of officialdom about them.
Essentially, they were just house-slaves for a high-ranking official’s family.
Lu Yuan even felt that these impressive-looking Mansion Guards weren’t as formidable as the Zhao Family’s Nursing Ho.
After all, the Zhao Family’s nursing ho was made up of genuine Travelers.
However, as soon as Lu Yuan finished speaking, Song iqin beca displeased. She spat and said:
"Pah!
What do you an, ’not of much use’? All of my people are Mansion Guards from the Inspector General’s household!!
What kind of crap are you spouting!
Are you getting in or not? If not, then forget it. Freeze to death for all I care!"
With that, Song iqin dropped the carriage curtain, ignoring Lu Yuan completely.
Lu Yuan blinked. ’Heh, this woman.’
’She really has a terrible temper!!’
After so thought, Lu Yuan couldn’t be bothered to deal with Song iqin anymore.
He was just trying to be nice.
If she didn’t appreciate it, then so be it.
Besides, his n were on horseback. They would definitely arrive before Song iqin’s group.
He reckoned that by the ti Song iqin and her entourage arrived, everything at Xilingzi would already be over.
Imdiately, Lu Yuan snapped his reins, leading sixty n on sixty horses in a great procession toward Xilingzi.
...
「Around midnight.」
Lu Yuan’s group, having spurred their horses on the entire way, arrived at Xilingzi.
They could see the situation at Xilingzi from a great distance.
The entire landscape was covered in Spirit Stones, which shimred with a faint, ghostly blue light.
From afar, it looked like a swarm of fireflies on a sumr night.
The Spirit Stone Mine here wasn’t mined by drilling deep underground.
Mainly because the technology here was insufficient.
There was simply no way to dig a shaft dozens of ters deep for people to go down and excavate.
So, what was the mining here like?
It was like open-pit coal mining back on Earth in the Shanxi and Shaanxi regions—they just dug massive pits.
The entire area was filled with one huge crater after another, like the surface of the moon after being bombarded by teorites.
They were all dug over many years, one shovelful at a ti.
Xilingzi was connected to a mountain range; it was located at the very end of it.
However, this range was not the Taining Mountain Range, so there were no governnt soldiers or the like stationed here.
As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but shimring blue light. Of course, as Lu Yuan gazed at this vast expanse of glimring blue, he also felt as if hundreds of pairs of sinister eyes were watching him from within Xilingzi.
Gusts of chilling wind blew past, making the hairs on Lu Yuan’s arms stand on end.
But the feeling quickly vanished.
This was because the old steward’s group had also arrived, bringing with them a clamor of noise—the snorting of horses and the CLANGING of tal on tal.
With the presence of more people, that sinister feeling disappeared in an instant.
"Young Nephew, you ride that horse far too fast. You must ride quite often..."
The old steward was panting. Lu Yuan rode with incredible speed, which seed unreasonable. Wasn’t Lu Yuan supposed to be a Scholar?
The family didn’t even have horses before.
Lu Yuan didn’t respond to that, rely gazing toward the distant mountain range and asking:
"Is the Da Xingzi up on that mountain?"
The old steward imdiately nodded.
"Yes, that Xingzi is a creature from an official’s tomb.
There was a heavy rain at the end of this past sumr that washed the tomb open.
But we’ve always mined for Spirit Stones during the spring and sumr. By late sumr, all our n had withdrawn.
We only left a handful of people behind to guard the mine’s periter, so they didn’t pay much attention to what was happening inside.
By the ti they discovered it, it was too late."
Lu Yuan nodded, then turned to the sixty n behind him and shouted:
"I’ll skip the pleasantries! Get this done, and I guarantee the reward the madam gives you will be enough for you to take three concubines by the New Year!"
At that, the sixty n let out an excited roar.
Why had they all co here to risk their lives?
Wasn’t it for money and won?
But there was another reason for these n’s excitent: in their eyes, this mission was a sure thing!
They had no idea what went on inside this Young Nephew’s head.
These Mortars he had co up with were just too powerful!
They had all witnessed the test-firing of these things in the wasteland tonight.
They were every bit as good as the Red Coat Cannons used by the Lord Soldiers!
And especially, the shells weren’t just filled with gunpowder and whatnot.
They also contained black dog’s blood dried into powder, five-grain powder, and all sorts of other random things for dealing with Xingzi.
With this stuff, forget a two-hundred-year-old one.
Even a three-hundred-year-old one would be in deep trouble after taking two hits!
"Ready the whistles! As we discussed on the road, spread out!!"
As Lu Yuan spoke, he took the lead and charged forward.
The old steward then imdiately raised the whistle from his neck and began to blow.
A series of shrill whistles pierced the silent midnight air.
Just like the opening of that movie that was submitted for world heritage status, they communicated using whistles.
Over sixty torches scattered in all directions, creating a rather spectacular sight.
The plan for this operation was simple.
Twenty n would manage the sixty cannons from the rear and just keep firing.
There were no other requirents. Just don’t stop.
At this point, so smartass might ask, "Hey, wait a minute?
Aren’t those Mortars?
How can one person handle three of them?"
This requires an explanation. Although Lu Yuan’s creations looked like Mortars, in reality, they were Mortars in na only.
After all, to build a real Mortar with a prir-ignition chanism, just creating a new mold for the shells would take seven or eight days.
And that’s not even ntioning complex components like the prir itself.
If he were to try and make that kind of Mortar, he couldn’t have produced sixty cannons and enough shells even in two months.
The principle behind Lu Yuan’s version was actually a bit like the "conscienceless cannon."
Anyone who’s watched a lot of Anti-Japanese War dramas will definitely know what a "conscienceless cannon" is.
For those who haven’t, let explain it another way.
You set off fireworks for the New Year, right?
You know what a two-kick firecracker is, right?
You just light the fuse, wait a mont, and then WHOOSH~~~~~ up into the sky it goes, and BANG!! It explodes!
It’s basically that kind of thing.
How should I put this? This contraption definitely couldn’t compare to a proper Mortar.
Its range was especially short.
A proper Mortar can fire several kiloters, but this thing maxed out at two hundred ters.
On top of that, it was inaccurate.
Look at soone like Zhuzi—from a kiloter away, he took out the Japanese command post with a single shot and won a bottle of sweet potato liquor.
But with a "conscienceless cannon," well... if you aid forward, you’d be burning incense and praying to the gods if it didn’t fly off to the right.
Of course, Lu Yuan had made so improvents.
He added a tal hoop to the explosive pack so that when it was fired, the projectile wouldn’t fly off in random directions and hit his own n.
At the very least, if you aid forward, it would go forward.
And so, while this contraption of Lu Yuan’s seed to be full of flaws, it did have one advantage.
Compared to a proper Mortar, Lu Yuan’s version had...
Greater power, greater power, greater power, greater power, greater power.
In summary, this was an enhanced "conscienceless cannon."
Because they were lit by a fuse, one person could manage about three cannons.
Light the first cannon, go light the second; light the second cannon, go light the third.
By then, the first cannon would have fired, and it could be reloaded.
It was a perfect cycle.
So, what were the remaining forty n for?
There’s an old saying: artillery bombards, infantry charges; when the artillery’s done bombarding, the infantry charges.
The remaining forty n were split into two groups of twenty. Positioned on the left and right flanks and ard with the long Flintlock Guns Lu Yuan had built, they would sneak up the mountain.
Once the bombardnt was mostly over, these forty n would charge up to clean up.
If the Da Xingzi wasn’t hit, these forty n were to retreat imdiately.
The old saying cos up again: when the infantry’s done charging, the artillery bombards.
The series of sharp whistles cut through the silent midnight, agitating the Xingzi.
The n could see blurry shadows rushing toward them in a great swarm.
anwhile, Lu Yuan, sitting on his horse, listened carefully to the whistle signals. After hearing the signal that the cannoneers had finished loading their ammunition,
Lu Yuan raised the whistle from his own neck and blew it forcefully.
An extrely shrill whistle sounded once more.
Its general aning was...
"Light ’em up!"
User Comments
0 comments from readers