Chapter 38: Armament Bureau

"Quickly, go fetch a physician."

At the entrance of the Prince's Mansion, a soldier covered in blood hung upside down from his horse.

His body was on the ground, while his foot remained caught in the stirrup.

Zhao Xu and Chang Wei arrived at the entrance, saw this, and immediately helped the soldier down.

A sharp arrow had pierced through the soldier's left shoulder; the shaft had been snapped off, but the arrowhead remained inside.

The soldier's breathing was already very faint. Upon learning that the person before him was Yan Wang, he gasped and said, "The Northern Di scout troop has over two hundred men... A village in Wuan County has been slaughtered by them, cough, cough..."

At this point, the soldier began to cough violently.

"This Prince knows. Rest well now," Zhao Xu said to the soldier, ordering men to carry the soldier into the Prince's Mansion to be settled.

The commotion here also attracted Liu Fu.

Upon learning that Northern Di scouts had entered Yan Commandery, his face turned deathly pale.

Chang Wei sneered, "Master Tutor Liu, aren't you usually quite bold? How could you be scared like this?"

Liu Fu's expression was grave; he did not care at all about Chang Wei's mockery.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "You are not locals of Yan Commandery; you have no idea how terrifying the Northern Di cavalry is. The Northern Di people live on horseback from birth, and their bows never leave their sides. One could say the horse and the bow are parts of their bodies."

Swallowing hard, he continued, "Ten years ago, after capturing the Ningjin Dusi, the Northern Di obtained a large number of Great Song craftsmen. Their Armor and Weaponry are no longer inferior to Great Song's. If not for internal strife among the Northern Di, I fear Yanzhou would have changed hands long ago."

Chang Wei had also heard in Jingshi that the Northern Di were difficult to fight.

But his spirit was extremely high, and he refused to be convinced.

Yet, he was not a reckless person. "Your Highness, these Northern Di scouts entering Yan Commandery this time are likely gathering intelligence for the autumn harvest. This subordinate will lead troops to drive them out, lest they slaughter the people of our Yan Commandery."

Yan Commandery is only a little over two hundred and eighty li from north to south; the Northern Di cavalry could cross it in two or three days.

If they were allowed to reach the vicinity of Yancheng, they would become a laughingstock.

Zhao Xu nodded.

His promise to the people still rang in his ears; he could not allow these Northern Di scouts to run rampant in Yan Commandery.

In this barbaric era, there was no such thing as the morality of war.

The Northern Di slaughtered the people of Great Song just as one would slaughter cattle or sheep; they had no compassion.

"Remember, do not force a confrontation; try to use strategy," Zhao Xu said.

His Personal Army did not yet have any Cavalry.

He had only managed to scrape together over two hundred cavalrymen from the private troops of the Huang and Du families.

There was no need to mention the level of these cavalrymen.

He was only afraid that Chang Wei would get hot-headed and disregard everything else.

"This subordinate understands." Chang Wei cupped his fists heavily and turned to leave.

Liu Fu sighed, "The wolves have not been wiped out, and now the tigers have come. It is truly a troubled time. I don't know how many more people will die at the hands of the Northern Di scouts this time."

Zhao Xu frowned.

In contemporary history, wars between the Central Plains dynasties and foreign tribes were extremely cruel.

Often, the process of foreign tribes entering the Central Plains was accompanied by massive massacres.

During such periods, the population of the Central Plains would sometimes decrease by seven or eight tenths.

During the era of the Five Barbarians' Chaos, the people of the Central Plains were almost wiped out as a race.

And under foreign dynasties, the fate of the Central Plains people was often extremely tragic.

They were like the low-caste people of the contemporary A-San country, with low status, serving the foreign tribes who considered themselves superior.

Thinking of this, a chill moved from Zhao Xu's brain down along his spine.

Now.

Great Song faced the threat of encroachment by foreign tribes such as the Northern Di, Xiliang, Gaochang, and Jiaozhi.

And a small amount of information also revealed that in even more distant places, Western powers similar to the contemporary ones were running rampant on the seas, and perhaps their claws had already reached the East.

"Trample the clouds, reckless and unruly," Zhao Xu recited softly.

After a chill, a surge of anger rose in his heart.

So what if they are foreign tribes?

So what if Great Song is weak?

So what if Great Song has Rich Clans?

Since he has arrived here,

How could he allow them to bully others!

Watching Chang Wei leave, Zhao Xu said to Liu Fu, "Have you found the person to head the Armament Bureau?"

"Found him. Just as Your Highness said, not someone who reads books to death, but someone who is well-read yet unconventional."

"Let's go, to the Armament Bureau."

In ancient times, unconventional scholars were basically those who did not pursue an official career and instead busied themselves with all sorts of miscellaneous things.

He had his reasons for asking Liu Fu to find such a person.

From now on, the Armament Bureau would be the military industrial base of Yan Commandery.

He certainly did not need someone who would spend all day criticizing him for "strange skills and ingenious devices."

Under the protection of Xu Lie, the two rode their horses to the East City.

By a river, Liu Fu stopped. "Your Highness, this is it."

Zhao Xu nodded slightly.

This river was called the Liu Zhang River, which ran through the entire Yancheng from east to west.

To the north of Yan Commandery, there was another river, the Jinlin River.

In ancient times, cities were often built near water, and Yancheng was no exception.

"Not bad, very suitable." Zhao Xu was very satisfied.

Ancient times relied entirely on human labor, animal power, and water power.

The Armory was built next to the river, so it would be much more convenient to use some water-powered equipment to increase productivity.

The group arrived at the entrance of the Armory.

The guards at the entrance checked their credentials before letting them pass.

The guards here had all been replaced by soldiers from the Prince's Personal Army, and soldiers would come to rotate every month.

"Wang Ying pays respects to Your Highness." A middle-aged official wearing a green official robe hurried out to greet him.

In the Great Song, officials of different ranks wore official robes of different colors.

The most magnificent were vermilion and purple, followed by red, scarlet, blue, and so on.

Green was basically for the lowest-ranking officials.

Liu Fu shook his head.

If he hadn't been unable to find anyone else suitable, he really wouldn't have wanted Wang Ying to serve as the Director of the Armory.

In his view, this Wang Ying was not only a freak but also slovenly, truly unfit for public display.

He had also hesitated for a long time before deciding to let him take the position.

"Your Highness, this Wang Ying has no other hobbies, he just likes to collect folk crafts, and even has a book he wrote for this purpose." Liu Fu gestured toward Wang Ying.

Wang Ying was stunned for a moment, remembered something, and pulled a book out from his bosom.

Liu Fu took it and presented it to Zhao Xu.

"Sericulture, sowing, weaving..." Zhao Xu flipped through it, and upon seeing the content, he revealed a look of surprise.

What Wang Ying recorded were all the various technologies currently in the Great Song.

For example, sericulture techniques, the styles of current Weaving Machines, and even the technique for grinding beads.

"Rare, truly rare." The more Zhao Xu read, the more pleased he became, and he couldn't help but ask, "How did you come to know all this?"

Wang Ying answered honestly, "These were all things I sought out while traveling across the length and breadth of the land; I found them interesting, so I wrote them down for future generations to use as reference."

"Good, good, good." Zhao Xu said the word three times.

From this booklet, he could basically understand the current technological situation of the Great Song.

After a rough look, he felt that the technological level of Great Song society was basically around the end of the Song Dynasty.

Although Gunpowder was already used in warfare, it was not yet professional.

There were also many areas for improvement in other technologies.

"There is much that can be done, much that can be done indeed." Zhao Xu let out a sigh of relief.

In this way, the knowledge he brought from the modern era still held a great advantage.