Chapter 59
Chapter 59
After witnessing the power of the blasting powder, Chanyu Er changed faces faster than the weather. He immediately piled on a smile and told Prime Minister Li, “The Second Prince is truly benevolent. This prince was only joking earlier. Naturally, we should negotiate peace. Let us sit down and discuss matters properly!”
Inwardly, however, he cursed furiously. Damn these devious, treacherous people of the Central Plains – especially that Second Prince! His body might be weak and frail, but his heart was more vicious than the most bloodthirsty warriors of the Jieyu Tribe!
He had to return and tell Father at once: either the Second Prince must stand with the Tager Tribe, or he could never be allowed to become the next emperor of the Jian’an Dynasty!
Chanyu Er hurriedly departed with the delegation. Prime Minister Li finally relaxed after seeing them off and ordered his men to clean up the stone pile at once.
The wooden chest from the Second Prince had contained only three charges of blasting powder. Emperor Jian had already used one in the capital, and the second had just been detonated.
On the road to the border, Prime Minister Li had considered how to frighten the Xiongnu into retreat. Then he suddenly remembered that during a game of chess, Emperor Jian had praised the Second Prince’s cleverness in inventing fire-setting and cold dousing to make mountain rock brittle and easy to cut.
Thus, as soon as Prime Minister Li reached the border, he ordered the great rocks treated: heated to a high temperature, then drenched in cold water.
When the blasting powder detonated afterward, its power appeared dozens of times greater.
The result matched his expectations. The display intimidated the enemy splendidly and left Chanyu Er thoroughly fooled.
The Xiongnu withdrew. When the frontier soldiers received the news, they erupted in cheers and cried, “Long live the Second Prince! Long, long may he live!”
The Eldest Prince ordered a celebratory feast in the military camp. Many soldiers had heard of the blasting powder’s power without witnessing it themselves, so they crowded around those who had been present and demanded every detail.
Even the Eldest Prince, Xie Shoujun, came to listen. At the time, Xiongnu cavalry had been waiting on a distant hill. To prevent a surprise attack, he had personally deployed nearby with his troops and therefore missed the explosion.
At the wine table, a young soldier with bandages wrapped around his back waved his arms extravagantly as he described the scene.
“You have no idea. After we lit the fuse, we turned and ran. We hadn’t gotten far when – boom! – there was this huge explosion behind us! I was the slowest runner. I felt an enormous force slam into me from behind. That strength must’ve been fiercer than a martial master with internal power!”
“I nearly fell, but I caught myself and kept running. I thought I was safe. Then guess what happened?”
“What?” The soldiers pricked up their ears and asked eagerly.
“Something – probably a rock thrown by the blast – smacked straight into my back! You have no idea how many layers of hard padding I wore. I even put on our general’s armor, and it still hurt so badly I thought I’d been crippled!”
“Luckily, it was only a small stone and didn’t break any bones. But then inspiration struck. I deliberately screamed, fell down, and played dead!” The young soldier rubbed his nose proudly. “That terrified the young Chanyu. He thought the blast had killed me and immediately agreed to negotiate peace!”
The soldiers burst into laughter. “What a coward! He actually fell for that!”
“The blasting powder truly was powerful, though. If you weren’t there, you can’t understand. It really shattered those rocks! I don’t dare imagine what it would do to a person.” The young soldier still sounded shaken.
“I hear the Second Prince created that blasting powder?” a general asked curiously. “He has such ability?”
“That’s right. Prime Minister Li said the Second Prince made it. He also said they already use the gunpowder in Yizhou to blast mountains and excavate waterways! Once the channels are complete, growing grain in Yizhou will be easy, and we’ll never fear going hungry in wartime again!” the young soldier said excitedly.
“Whoa! The Second Prince is that capable?”
“Heh~ My hometown is in Yizhou! The soil there is wonderful. It’s just that the flash floods keep causing disasters! If they truly solve that problem, then – even if I’m exaggerating a little – feeding the entire Jian’an Dynasty won’t be difficult!”
“I never imagined the Second Prince concealed his talents so deeply. I saw him when I returned to the capital before, and at the time I thought…” Another general suddenly remembered that the Eldest Prince sat nearby and hurriedly changed course. “I thought he wasn’t suited to martial work like ours.”
Seated among them, Xie Shoujun polished the dark tasseled spear in his hands and quietly listened to their conversation. A vague but tender, beautiful little face surfaced in his mind.
When Xie Shoujun was twelve, Father had sent him to fight at the border and made him issue a military pledge: until the Xiongnu problem was resolved, he was forbidden to leave the frontier and return to the capital.
In his memories, Second Brother had been only eight then, a soft, smiling child who often slipped over palace walls and crossed courtyards to reach Wuling Palace, climbed into his bed to sleep beside him, and was carried away by Noble Consort Hua when she found him the next day.
On the day Xie Shoujun departed the capital for the frontier, the child had clung to his waist and wailed, promising to visit him there one day.
Yet ten years passed, and Xie Shoujun never saw him at the border.
He assumed Second Brother had been too young to remember and had long forgotten their childhood promise. Besides, Xie Shoujun had witnessed too much blood and carried an aura of violence. He did not want the boy to come.
And from the soldiers’ conversation, it seemed Second Brother was in extremely poor health. Presumably, the long journey itself prevented him from traveling to this bitterly cold frontier.
Perfectly understandable.
But… Xie Shoujun had clearly written to him, and Second Brother had never replied.
Had he forgotten Xie Shoujun long ago, or…
At a sudden thought, the large hand polishing the spearhead stopped.
…Or had he been unable to keep his promise and too ashamed to reply, so he chose another way to fulfill it?
For example… by resolving this Xiongnu invasion for him.
Xie Shoujun suddenly laughed. His tall, commanding figure sat on a bench beneath the night sky, the tension slowly easing from his brow. A steady, gentle smile appeared in his cold, star-bright eyes, softening the stern face honed by the battlefield.
Perhaps he could return to the capital this New Year.
He wanted to see him.
…
Far away in Yizhou, Xie Chengze had no idea that those two old bastards, Emperor Jian and Prime Minister Li, had spread such outrageous rumors about him.
Before long, he would even become the vicious and ruthless Jade-Faced Demon King, a Second Prince whose name was known throughout every Xiongnu tribe and used to frighten crying children on the steppe into silence.
At that time, he had already launched the gunpowder factory in a frenzy. After finding many craftsmen with mathematical talent, he accelerated the excavation of Mount Yuji once again.
The Min River’s dry season had finally arrived as well.
It was time to split the river.