Xu Zhan's eyes were red.
Hearing the word "firearms", he didn't even bother to lift his eyelids.
For a crippled man who couldn't even hold a knife, what difference did it make whether he swapped his knife for a fire stick?
Xu Qinghuan was not in a hurry at all.
She pulled out a few folded parchment papers from her sleeve and slapped them directly on the bed.
Drawn on the paper were tubular objects and spheres, with dimensions densely marked next to them.
Xu Zhan looked down.
"What is this stuff?"
"Your new knife."
Xu Zhan stared at the drawings, his face twitching, unable to tell whether it was a bitter smile or a mockery.
"Little sister, Second Brother knows you have a good brain, but fighting a war is not playing house."
He picked up the parchment with the sphere drawn on it with his left hand, examined it for a moment, and threw it back.
"Those beasts of the Northern Cavalry, you haven't seen them staying in the capital. Three layers of chainmail over leather armor, crossbow arrows can't pierce them, and you take these pieces of broken paper..."
Xu Zhan shook his head, the implication was clear - there was no need.
Xu Qinghuan pulled over a round stool and sat down, picking up the drawing again and flattening it on her lap.
"Second Brother, have you seen firecrackers?"
Xu Zhan was slightly startled.
"The bamboo tube firecrackers set off during the New Year, stuffed with saltpeter and sulfur, lit to shatter the bamboo joints, getting black ash all over your hands."
"...I've seen them."
"Then have you ever thought about replacing the bamboo tube with an iron shell, increasing the amount of medicine to ten or twenty times, and filling the iron shell with broken iron pieces and gravel, lighting it and throwing it into a crowd of people, what kind of scene would that be?"
Xu Zhan's fingers paused slightly.
Xu Qinghuan pointed to the sphere on the drawing: "This thing is called a grenade, a cast iron shell, the size of a fist, filled with black powder and iron sand, pull the fuse and throw it out, and it will burst after three breaths."
"When it bursts, the iron shell shatters into dozens or hundreds of fragments, each comparable to an arrowhead, shooting out in all directions."
She drew a circle on the drawing.
"Within five steps, regardless of cotton armor or chainmail, all beings are equal, all blasted to pieces; within ten steps, those without cover will either die or be maimed."
Xu Zhan was choked speechless.
After thinking for a moment, the bottom of Xu Zhan's eyes changed.
The stagnant gray faded away, and the instinctive alertness of a veteran facing a deadly weapon emerged.
Xu Qinghuan didn't give him time to digest, and her finger moved to another drawing of a tubular object.
"This is called a firelock, an iron tube, stuffed with medicine in the back, stuffed with iron pellets in the front, ignited and fired, enough to pierce two layers of leather armor within a hundred steps."
"You don't need to practice arm strength for ten years, you don't need to practice swordsmanship hard."
"A farmer who has never touched a weapon, teach him to load medicine and light a fire for half a day, and he can kill a grassland warrior who has practiced archery on horseback for twenty years from a hundred steps away."
Xu Qinghuan looked up and looked straight at Xu Zhan.
"Second Brother, you just said that your skills are all in your right hand."
"I tell you, this thing doesn't need a right hand. It doesn't pick people, it doesn't pick arms, it doesn't pick how many years you've practiced swordsmanship."
"It only recognizes one thing - whoever lights the fire first, whoever is accurate, whoever can stand and breathe."
You could hear a pin drop in the room.
He was calculating.
Xu Qinghuan saw clearly that he was using the experience he had accumulated over the years to deduce the use of this killing weapon.
"When defending the city..." Xu Zhan's voice was extremely low, like talking to himself.
"When the barbarians attack the city, the scaling ladders are set up, and people crowd at the bottom of the city wall, densely packed."
His eyes swept to the kill range marked on the drawing.
"At this time, throw this thing down from the top of the city..."
He didn't continue.
Because there was no need to say more.
A soldier who had guarded the border for many years knew too well what it was like at the base of the city wall when attacking the city -
People crowded against people, shields stacked on shields, the people in front fell, and the people behind stepped on the corpses to continue climbing up.
That kind of density, that kind of crowding.
If an iron shell smashed down and burst directly -
Xu Zhan's pupils shrank slightly.
"There's also the cavalry charge." He spoke faster, his left hand gesturing unconsciously on the quilt.
"The grassland cavalry charges the formation, accustomed to using a cone formation, narrow in the front and wide in the back. The leading knife riders wear three layers of armor, and crossbow arrows can't stop them at all."
"But if this thing is buried in the ground when they charge to fifty steps..."
Xu Zhan suddenly looked up.
The gray dead air at the bottom of his eyes was being burned through bit by bit.
What was exposed underneath was an instinct that a general could not quit in his bones.
That was the most instinctive killing intent of a general.
"Is this formula... stable?"
Xu Qinghuan was waiting for this sentence.
"This was discovered by a woman named Jenny Huang, and it has been tested. Five parts saltpeter, two parts sulfur, three parts charcoal, and the fuse is wrapped in pine resin for a moisture-proof layer. It will still go off in this damn weather in the Northern Territory."
"Mass production? Where do the iron shells come from?"
"There is a blacksmith shop in Zhenbei City, and there is ready-made pig iron. I have already asked Jenny to draw the mold. Casting is not difficult, what is difficult is keeping it a secret."
Xu Zhan's chest heaved, and he let out a long breath of foul air.
He looked down at his empty right sleeve, and then at the crumpled parchment on his lap.
Speechless for a long time.
"Little sister."
"Yeah."
"When did you become like this?"
Xu Qinghuan avoided answering.
Xu Zhan didn't ask further. He unfolded the drawing and smoothed it out again, pressing his left hand firmly on it, his knuckles cracking.
"Let's talk business." Xu Zhan's voice sank, his tone completely different from just now. "How do you plan to deal with He Minghu and Ma Jin'an?"
Xu Qinghuan had exactly this intention.
"First tell me what you know, what exactly is the situation in this Zhenbei City."
Xu Zhan leaned against the pillow, his eyes deep.
"Three forces."
"He Minghu, a third-rank deputy general. He has three thousand elites under him, all sent by the Ministry of Revenue, and they only recognize him."
"This man is good at fighting, but he doesn't have a good brain. He acts like a mad dog. Once he bites, he won't let go. You beheaded Wang Biao last night, and he is probably exasperated now."
"Ma Jin'an, the supervising censor, an upright fifth rank, his official position is not big, but all the scheduling and registration, grain and grass distribution, and military merit reporting in Zhenbei City are all in his hands."
"He is a pair of eyes planted by Xu Jie in the Northern Territory, or the emperor's, it's hard to say. But fundamentally, he is specially keeping an eye on the movements here for the people in the capital.
"He Minghu can walk sideways in Zhenbei City, half relying on soldiers, and half relying on Ma Jin'an to balance the accounts for him. The two are in cahoots."
"Tie Lanshan, the commander-in-chief." When Xu Zhan mentioned this person, his tone became subtle. "He has been in the Northern Territory for nearly twenty years, and his roots are deeper than the city wall. He Minghu and Ma Jin'an bypass him, he knows it very well, but I guess he doesn't want to act."
"Why?"
"Because he is waiting." Xu Zhan sneered repeatedly.
"Waiting for He Minghu and Ma Jin'an to make a big mess, waiting for the capital to send someone to clean up the mess. Waiting for everyone to fight until their heads are broken and bleeding, and then he comes out to be the fisherman who wins everything."
Xu Qinghuan nodded slightly: "Old fox."
"Harder to deal with than an old fox," Xu Zhan corrected, "a fox only hides, he bites."
"Where is He Minghu's weak point?"
Xu Zhan thought for a moment and tapped his left hand twice on the quilt.
"Grain."
"He cut off the supplies of the outpost camp, but his own three thousand elites also need to eat. The official granary in Zhenbei City has long since bottomed out, and the military pay from the Ministry of War hasn't arrived in half a year. What does he rely on to support his troops?"
Xu Qinghuan's eyes narrowed slightly.
"There are three merchant houses in the city: the Demao Firm, the Wantong Company, and the Jufeng Estate. On the surface, they deal in furs and medicinal herbs, but in the shadows, it is nothing but a smuggling ring."
"Horses, cattle, sheep, and pelts from the steppes bypass the official border markets to get in, while salt, iron, and tea are smuggled out. He Minghu takes a thirty percent cut of the profits. This sum of silver is far more lucrative than the military funds allocated by the Ministry of War."
Xu Zhan paused for a brief moment.
"If we cut off these three merchant houses, He Minghu's three thousand elite troops won't last a month."
Just then, before Xu Qinghuan even had the chance to reply, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed from outside the door.
Li Sheng's voice filtered through the wooden door. "Miss, Zhao Hu is here. He brought the official token from the Commander-General's estate."
"What did he say?"
"He said that General Tie has prepared morning tea and invites the Princess over for a chat. It is a weasel paying respects to a hen—he is up to no good."
The room fell into a breath of heavy silence as Xu Zhan and Xu Qinghuan exchanged a knowing glance.
