Chapter 20: The commanders were stunned numb

Ning Jinli produced an imitation-antique ring-pommel great sword, one meter long and palm-wide.

Several commanders stared wide-eyed.

Just looking at it, anyone could tell it was far superior to their bronze swords!

They hadn't even had time to exclaim when Ning Jinli tore open a bundle over three meters long** and pulled out a spear!

"The great swords and spears, for now we only have a thousand each; try them out to see if they suit you. If they do, I'll deliver the full batch later; if not, I'll buy other styles."

She said this and handed the great swords and spears to Xiao Qidi.

For such cold weapons, there was no need for her to explain or demonstrate.

The commanders could barely contain themselves, all crowding over, eyes gleaming, voices trembling as they exclaimed again and again, "This is simply Divine Weapon!"

Xiao Qidi had two commanders try them out.

One took their own bronze sword, the other took the sword Ning Jinli gave.

The result was obvious.

At the moment the two swords clashed, the bronze sword snapped outright.

Xiao Qidi then had another commander take off his bronze armor and chop with the great sword.

The armor fell apart like paper, splitting cleanly in half.

As for the spear, it goes without saying: not only is the tip razor-sharp, it can easily pierce their armor, and it has a longer reach.

"Duan Wu, go fetch the Yu Guo armor and swords captured earlier at Xi Tun Guan," Xiao Qidi ordered.

"Yes!"

Duan Wu dashed out of the cave.

Ning Jinli asked, "Want to try more? The Yu Guo equipment differs from yours."

Xiao Qidi explained, "Yu Guo has abundant iron ore, so its iron‑making technology is the best among the seven states of Zhong Yuan; the other six states still mainly use bronze for armor and weapons, but about half of Yu Guo's forces already wield forged iron."

"Oh, I see—forged iron really is better than bronze."

"Exactly—their iron swords can easily cleave our armor, while their armor can block our bronze swords."

"Then you needn't worry anymore—the tides have turned!"

Ning Jinli wore a satisfied smile.

All these she bought are modern industrially manufactured.

Even the Yu Guo equipment lags behind by over two thousand years!

Soon after, Duan Wu brought back a set of armor used by Yu Guo soldiers and a long sword.

After testing, this forged‑iron equipment proved just as feeble before Ning Jinli's great sword and spear.

This convinced Xiao Qidi completely.

"We have bullet‑proof gear, swords and spears—we can't be missing this." Ning Jinli produced a modern recurve bow.

She also handed him a few arrows.

Moreover, she said she could initially give him five hundred bows, with five thousand arrows.

Several commanders were stunned numb.

Any one of these three weapons utterly outclasses their gear as a super‑powerful divine artifact.

And Jinli Fairy didn't just produce three—she brought quantities like these!

Although Xiao Qidi is a king, no matter how shocked he felt inside, his expression remained unchanged.

Several commanders gathered together, ecstatic as they fiddled with those Divine Weapons.

He paced back and forth, pondering how to form an elite troop.

"With three thousand sets of armor, a thousand great swords and spears each, and five hundred bows… we could equip a thousand great‑sword soldiers, a thousand spear soldiers, and five hundred archers."

"With such elite twenty‑five hundred troops, we could roughly match ten thousand elite Yu Guo soldiers."

Saying this, he frowned slightly and pressed his thin lips together.

Outside Lin Xian Village now stand fifty thousand Yu Guo troops, of whom about twenty thousand are elite.

On his side, selecting two or three thousand to equip with Ning Jinli's gear is already the limit.

After all, he only has ten thousand Xi Tun Guan soldiers, and some must be subtracted for the wounded.

As for the sixty thousand civilians, excluding the elderly, weak, women and children, only twenty thousand men could fight.

They lack training, so they can only serve as ordinary soldiers, making it unlikely to pick out elites.

If the Yu Guo army launches an all‑out assault at any cost, then…

…it would probably be hard to hold out until reinforcements arrive.

"Not only can we handle ten thousand elite Yu Guo troops, I've also brought you a secret piece of equipment—look!" Ning Jinli produced a pair of stirrups.

"What is this?" Xiao Qidi looked puzzled.

Ning Jinli knew he would react that way.

Because history books clearly state that stirrups appeared over seventeen hundred years ago.

That's roughly seven or eight hundred years after the Xuan dynasty.

Ning Jinli said, "This is a stirrup; with it you can upgrade those twenty‑five hundred elite troops into far more formidable cavalry."

Hearing this, several commanders wore expressions of utter disbelief.

Duan Wu couldn't help but interject, "Jinli Fairy, making them all cavalry wouldn't work……"

Ning Jinli blinked her eyes and asked deliberately, "Why wouldn't it work?"

Duan Wu explained:

"Riding a horse is too jolting and shaky to control one's posture; cavalry can only shoot arrows from a distance while moving flexibly, and is utterly unsuited to wielding swords or spears—otherwise the enemy wouldn't be struck down, and the rider would fall off."

"If we selected twenty‑five hundred men, equipped them with the Fairy's gear, and made them all cavalry, their combat effectiveness would actually drop sharply."

Ning Jinli listened and nodded.

This is indeed roughly the same as the explanation in the history books.

Before the stirrup appeared, the cavalry's role and power were not great, far inferior to infantry.

Later, after the stirrup was invented, cavalry became a major weapon in ancient armies.

Especially heavy cavalry, saying it was comparable to ancient tanks is not an exaggeration at all.

"So I brought this for you," she said with a smile, "the stirrup is used to help riders stabilize; just hang it on both sides of the saddle, step your feet in, and even those who know how to ride can use swords and spears."

Duan Wu was half-believing, half-doubting, "Please forgive my presumption, but can these two half-ring-shaped objects really have such an effect?"

Ning Jinli asked, "Which of you is best at riding horses?"

"Fairy, I am skilled," said one officer, clasping his fists.

Ning Jinli handed the stirrup to him, "Then go try it."

At this moment, the people still didn't realize that a small stirrup could enable them to develop such a formidable cavalry force...

"All right, I'll go deliver the equipment now," Ning Jinli turned to leave.

Xiao Qidi shouted, "Wait, Miss Ning, the villagers here have offered you many things; these are their heartfelt intentions, and I promised them I would definitely let you accept them."

Ning Jinli was surprised, "Last time you gave me Golden Silk Nan Ebony Wood, and that wasn't enough; now you want to give more?"

"Come with me," Xiao Qidi said, stepping out of the cave.

Ning Jinli followed curiously, and afterward, on an open space beside the cave entrance, she saw three "small mounds."

Miscellaneous ancient items were piled together in a messy heap.

Most of the items were broken, dirty, and old, mixed among them were some jewelry, jade, calligraphy and paintings, handicrafts, as well as gold ingots and silver bars, etc.

"This... are all these given to me by the villagers?" Ning Jinli's mouth formed an O.

She was both shocked and moved; a sour feeling rose in her eye sockets, and she lightly placed her hand on it.

Whoosh—

A pile of things collapsed down.

Inside, a rolled-up animal skin was revealed, which seemed to have some writing on it.

Ning Jinli casually pulled it out, examined it carefully, and didn't recognize a single character; it didn't even look much like the seal script of this era, possibly even older.

Besides the text, faint, blurry patterns could also be seen.

"Do you recognize these characters?" she handed it to Xiao Qidi.

Xiao Qidi's eyes showed an unusual color, "This is a kind of ancient script; I don't recognize it either, but this pattern... seems to be a map of the mountains near Lin Xian Village."

"Even you say it's ancient script..." Ning Jinli had a flash of insight, "Could this be—a treasure map?!"