Chapter 1511: The Crown Prince Inspects the Fortress

"Peace under heaven" — this is the heartfelt, grand wish of every child of Huaxia. Heaven only knows how much suffering and bitter hardship is contained within those four words. And how many tears are hidden within this people's reserved smiles?

Peace cannot be begged for, nor can it be endured into existence. It can only be seized from Heaven, seized from men. In an age of great contention, if one rests on one's laurels and wallows in past glories and achievements, unable to pull free, one will quickly fall behind others, forced to swallow shame and humiliation, becoming fish meat on the chopping block.

"For Huaxia, we shall seize peace!" With this murmured utterance to himself, the Emperor poured himself another cup of wine.

Since the New Year festivities ended this year, the weather had been consistently fine, often with clear, sunny skies. In the western outskirts of the capital, a cloudless, azure-blue sky arched upside-down over the vast, boundless earth; the air, though still cold, carried a crisp freshness.

Having just passed through the depths of winter, the mountain peaks everywhere were a withered, sallow sight. Only the clear spring water cascading down through the mountain ravines revealed some hint of new life for the coming spring. This was a range of unbroken, rolling peaks. Gazing out, the lofty mountains stood proudly erect, possessing the imposing aura of a coiling dragon and crouching tiger. The Taihang mountain range also began here, ultimately dividing the northern lands in two.

Such magnificent scenery had been praised by northern literati and refined gentlemen since ancient times, and was considered the most beautiful landscape around Yanjing. From antiquity, the western outskirts of Yanjing had always been a scenic touring destination, and in the areas richest in mountains and waters, the private estates of imperial kinsmen and noble relatives were scattered everywhere.

However, on the vital route between the mountain peaks connecting the capital to Shanxi and Shaanxi, a massive artificial structure now stood erected.

This structure covered a vast area. Its outer wall was roughly two zhang high, slightly sloped, and the entire outer wall presented a strange hexagonal star shape, like a starfish crouched upon the great earth. On the raised platform within the outer wall, another inner wall had been built, also two to three zhang high.

Between the two walls, breastworks were installed, and these breastworks had positions for placing cannons. Although the predetermined gun emplacements had not yet been fully filled with cannons due to the recent completion, quite a few cannons had already been deployed. The dark, grim muzzles behind the breastworks were aimed in every direction outside the bastion fort, giving a sense of strict, heavily guarded security.

Both the inner and outer walls were straight-lined, and the outer layer seemed to have been piled with thick earth, so it appeared a patchwork of yellow and red, indescribably bizarre.

The rough, crude air of this man-made construction had utterly ruined the original natural beauty of the landscape. If any refined literati were here, they would probably lament how it utterly spoiled the scenery.

Yet, at this very moment, in the hearts of those observing this bastion fort, no such lament existed.

On a mountain peak not far from the bastion fort, there was a small pavilion. This pavilion appeared to have been built long ago; its bricks and stones were already mottled, and its timber had long since decayed and collapsed. At this moment, a group of people were standing inside this small pavilion, looking down from their elevated vantage point at the distant bastion fort. Many of them held telescopes in their hands so they could observe in finer detail.

"Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, this bastion fort was recently completed. It is extremely sturdy and was built according to our latest design concepts and principles," spoke a middle-aged Western man standing in the center of the group as they observed. He had a high nose, deep-set eyes, and gray hair, and he spoke in very fluent Chinese. "When garrisoned by rigorously trained and determined troops, it can withstand an enemy siege lasting one to two years, or even longer. Moreover, it commands the vital road from the capital to the west. As long as it can hold against an enemy siege, then enemies coming from the west can threaten the capital — it, along with the other bastion forts we have built, can allow your capital to sleep without worry for one or two centuries."

The speaker was named François Missoulet, a Western engineer. He had long been employed by the Great Han court and had participated in the construction of the capital's bastion fort defense project.

Although his words were somewhat exaggerated, they were not entirely baseless boasting.

In the West at this time, because wars between nations were frequent, military tactics and science were advancing by leaps and bounds. In the previous era, Europe was an age of feudal lords carving up the land, with castles of noble lords towering everywhere. Since the introduction of cannons, the defensive function of these castles had become very weak, because cannons, as long as they bombarded fiercely, could eventually blast open these masonry castles.

Through years of warfare, the new-style bastion fort emerged in response. These bastion forts had been tested in actual combat, possessed highly sophisticated designs, could serve as a strongpoint for an army, and could resist a prolonged siege by a large enemy force.

In this engineer's view, the enemies to the northwest of Great Han did not possess the means to capture this bastion fort. The fort contained granaries, and when fully stocked with grain, they could meet the needs of the garrison for two years. Even the most elite army of present-day Western Europe would have to pay an enormous price to possibly capture a bastion fort — and in the foreseeable one or two centuries, the nations of Western Europe certainly could not dispatch a large army to China.

In the current European wars, even if one side was defeated in field battles, as long as it still had sufficient bastion forts to defend its base areas, it still had enough time and capital to make a comeback. Therefore, protracted siege warfare frequently appeared in conflicts. Although building bastion forts was quite costly in effort and wealth, besieging them cost even more effort and casualties; sometimes a single siege often lasted months or even years. In the limited annual season suitable for warfare, a commander could count himself lucky to capture one or two.

For example, previously, the Spanish Empire waged an eighty-year war of pacification against the Netherlanders. Because the Spanish army was highly elite and unstoppable in field battles, the Netherlanders widely employed bastion forts as a defensive measure. As a result, the Spanish found every step difficult in the Netherlands. Because the pacification campaign consumed vast amounts of manpower and wealth, Spain's national power gradually declined, and in the end, it was forced to recognize the independence of the Netherlands.

Encouraged by the results of actual combat, the nations of the continent vied with one another to build large-scale fortresses. For instance, the King of the Kingdom of France expended great effort to build a series of fortresses around the capital, Paris, turning the entire capital region into a large stronghold.

As a French engineer, François Missoulet had been involved in these fortification projects for many years and had gained extremely rich experience. Because of his earlier association with Louis, the Grand Admiral of the Great Han navy, he received an invitation when Great Han was first established and was hired by the Great Han court at a high salary to come to China to work on fortification and stronghold projects.

He was quite shrewd and adept at currying favor, so he very early on gained the appreciation of Great Han's Minister of Works, Xu Housheng, and was entrusted with special importance, now having become the chief superintendent of the bastion fort project.

At present, there were already quite a few Westerners who had come to Great Han and been employed by the court, active in fields such as architecture, navigation, mechanics, and astronomy. These people could generally be divided into three types:

The first type were missionaries, who came to China with religious fervor, hoping to spread the glory of the Lord in China. Although they were happy to share their knowledge and experience, they only regarded this as an aid to proselytizing. Therefore, such people were employed with restrictions by Great Han. Although their help was not rejected, they could not hold extremely important positions, and their range of activities was also limited.

The second type did not have such great religious fervor. They came to China solely to earn a generous income. Since European countries were generally not as wealthy as China at present, only here could they earn several times their previous income. However, although they earned money here, they still held their homeland in their hearts and planned to return to reunite with their families after earning a sum of money. These people faced far fewer restrictions and could hold certain management positions.

The third type had even less regard for religious concepts. They did not mind that China was a heathen country; instead, they were glad to have obtained an opportunity to put their talents to full use. They were generally happy to integrate into Chinese society and hoped to curry favor and stay in China.

Grand Admiral Louis and this François Missoulet were such people. After staying in China for a few years, the ambitious Missoulet diligently practiced Chinese in his spare time and quickly mastered the language fluently. With an attentive and cooperative attitude, he won the appreciation of his direct superior, the Duke and Minister of Industry, Xu Housheng.

After winning appreciation through his professional knowledge and loyal attitude, he, like his friend Louis, chose to become a subject of the Great Han Emperor and obtained an official position in China. What's more, to better demonstrate his desire to integrate, he even gave himself a Chinese name, Mi Su — those who didn't know might think he chose this name out of admiration for Chinese calligraphy.

Mi Su did not regard his current position as his final destination. He was wholeheartedly intent on relying on his superior's patronage to climb to a higher status. Although he knew that the cultures and systems of China and France were vastly different, he felt that the Duke surely possessed tremendous influence within the government and the court, and he wanted to use this influence to secure greater benefits for himself, ideally becoming an aristocratic lord of the Great Han nation, making those provincial petty nobles back in his homeland green with envy.

Therefore, when Xu Housheng actually brought the Crown Prince before him and instructed him to carefully guide the Crown Prince in inspecting the bastion fort project, he felt sincere delight in his heart, wholeheartedly wanting to use this opportunity to curry favor with the Crown Prince. That was why his introduction was also quite exaggerated — after all, young people liked grandiose talk.

Unexpectedly, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not as delighted as he had imagined, nor did he show much reaction to such enthusiastic words. Instead, he continued to calmly hold his telescope, gazing at the distant bastion fort.

He was not a professional, nor did he understand the first thing about architecture, so no matter how extravagantly the Westerner spoke, he had no real sense of it — anyway, he knew one thing: all officials under heaven liked to exaggerate their achievements and cover up their mistakes, so he naturally held some reservations.