May the twenty-ninth, night.
Xu Qinghuan pushed open the wooden door of the side room in the west city courtyard. A wave of heat, mixed with the smell of charcoal and raw iron, rushed over her face.
There were few lamps lit in the room. Only the charcoal stove in the corner still glowed with a dark red fire, casting slanted shadows on the wall.
Jenny Huang was crouching on the ground, holding two fragments of raw iron. She repeatedly compared them by the light of a bean-sized oil lamp flame.
Her face was smeared with streaks of black soot. Sweat trickled down her temples, gathering into drops at her pointed chin before falling onto the scorching iron fragments with a hiss of white smoke.
Xu Qinghuan closed the door behind her and pulled over a wooden stool with a missing corner to sit down.
Jenny Huang did not look up. Miss, the amount of slag in this batch of iron ingots is terrifying. I have tried three different quenching methods, but the result is still brittle. If we use it to forge swords, it might work against leather armor, but if it strikes the heavy armor of the Helian people, the blade will definitely chip.
Xu Qinghuan looked at the two fragments, her fingers tracing their rough edges.
Let us put the swords on hold for now. Xu Qinghuan withdrew her hand and rested it on her lap. You must have seen the fire in the north of the city from your room last night.
Only then did Jenny Huang straighten her back. She wiped the sweat from her face, spreading the black soot even more evenly.
I saw it. It was a commotion for most of the night. Jenny Huang threw the iron fragments onto the ground, producing a sharp clank. I heard they burned the pastures? These barbarians have learned to be smart. Instead of fighting head-on, they specifically do things to disgust us.
Xu Qinghuan nodded. They are trying to wear us down. Tie Lanshan has thirty thousand men, and they need to eat and drink the moment they open their eyes.
The Helian people have now occupied the water sources and burned the pastures. In a few more days, even the laborers going out of the city to gather firewood will be shot into hedgehogs. The infantry cannot go out, and the cavalry cannot catch up. This war is suffocating.
Jenny Huang frowned, wiping her hands haphazardly on her apron.
Do you mean, Miss, that we need to make something to counter their cavalry? Jenny Huang walked to the desk and flipped open several densely drawn sketches. A bed crossbow is too heavy; pushing it onto the Gobi Desert makes it a sitting duck. Cheval de frise works, but that thing needs to be nailed with massive logs. We cannot just have soldiers carrying wooden stakes and running behind the horses bottoms, can we?
Xu Qinghuan stood up, walked to the pile of sketches, and pointed at the outline of a crossbow mechanism on one of them.
The thing we need must be detachable and assembleable, and it must make their horses hooves afraid to touch the ground. Xu Qinghuan's voice sounded exceptionally clear in the empty room. It does not need immense lethality, as long as it can slow them down. Even if it is just for an instant, the men led by Xu Zhan can twist their heads off.
Jenny Huang stared at the blueprints, muttering to herself. Disassemble... assemble... what if we change the crossbeam of the cheval de frise into iron chains, and the stakes into ground spikes? But ground spikes cannot be nailed firmly; a horses charge will scatter them.
Take your time to figure that out. We will test it once you draw up a model. Xu Qinghuan changed the subject, taking a crumpled piece of paper from her sleeve and spreading it flat on the desk. There is another matter, more urgent than tinkering with these iron lumps.
Jenny Huang leaned in and saw the word Dehydrate written on the paper. She was a bit stunned.
Dehydrate? Jenny Huang scratched her head. Miss, what is this about? Did we not just cure the bleeding gums of those wounded soldiers?
Xu Qinghuan sat back on the wooden stool, her hands folded.
That only treats the symptoms. Sheep kidney soup can help in an emergency, but we cannot expect to slaughter sheep every day. Zhenbei City does not have that many sheep, and the imperial court does not have that much silver. Xu Qinghuan looked into Jenny Huang's eyes. As long as these soldiers are still eating stale rice and rotten grain, that strange disease will return in less than a month.
When that time comes, military morale will not be something that can be suppressed by distributing a few taels of silver.
Jenny Huang crouched by the desk, somewhat puzzled.
Then would it not be fine to just get more green vegetables? Down south in Jiangnan, there are green leaves to eat all year round.
This is Zhenbei City, not Jiangnan, Xu Qinghuan interrupted her. Here, there is only sand and stone.
The grain transport convoys take two months to travel here from the capital. Any vegetables transported here would rot into mush.
I have thought it over. We need to extract the water from the vegetables and turn them into dried vegetables to carry with the army. When it is time to eat, just soak them in water. The medicinal properties will still be there, and people will not get sick after eating them.
Also, we should try to plant some vegetables to see how it goes. In a dream, I heard a visitor from beyond the heavens say that bean sprouts are quite good, I just do not know if they can grow here.
After hearing this, Jenny Huang burst out laughing.
Miss, I thought it was some divine method. Every commoner household in the Great Qian Dynasty knows how to make dried vegetables.
Just hang the cabbages on a rope and sun-dry them for a few days, right? If worse comes to worst, we can salt them and make pickled vegetables. They will not spoil for a year.
Xu Qinghuan did not laugh, just looked at her quietly.
Jenny Huang's laughter gradually died down. She saw the seriousness on Xu Qinghuan's face and knew this matter was not that simple.
If sun-drying were useful, would so many men in the border army have died over the years? Xu Qinghuan asked in return. The vitality and medicinal properties inside vegetables dried by the sun have long dissipated. Eating them does nothing but fill the stomach; they are completely useless otherwise.
As for pickled vegetables, have you calculated how much salt thirty thousand men would consume in a day eating them? What is the price of salt at the border? More importantly, eating pickled vegetables makes people thirsty, and water is what the Gobi Desert lacks the most. Fighting a war with pickled vegetables is just asking for the soldiers to die faster.
Jenny Huang was stunned. She looked down at her toes, her mind racing.
Are you saying, Miss, that we need to dry them, but we cannot let the medicinal properties dissipate, and we absolutely cannot use salt? Jenny Huang gasped. This... if the water is gone, would the vegetables not wither? Where do withered weeds get medicinal properties?
That is why we must try. Xu Qinghuan stood up, walked to the charcoal stove, and watched the flickering fire inside. We cannot sun-dry them, and we cannot shade-dry them. We have to bake them with fire. The heat must be low, and the speed must be fast. Before the vegetable leaves can react, we force the water out and lock the medicinal properties inside.
Jenny Huang also walked over, staring at the stove fire.
Miss, this is meticulous work! If the fire is too big, the vegetables will burn; if the fire is too small, the water will not come out, and they will grow mold in two days.
Jenny Huang muttered to herself, her hand unconsciously reaching for the charcoal tongs nearby.
We need to build a specially made kiln, spread fine sand at the bottom, and let the heat rise evenly...
Xu Qinghuan watched her enter an obsessed state and knew this matter was half accomplished.
Jenny Huang, this matter concerns the lives of thirty thousand men. Xu Qinghuan patted her shoulder. As for the equipment, draw the blueprints first.
But for this dehydrated vegetable kiln, you must make a prototype for me as soon as possible. Whatever materials you lack, go directly to Li Sheng to get it done. The silver that the lieutenant generals estate just spat out is more than enough.
Jenny Huang nodded heavily, her eyes shining.
Rest assured, Miss. As long as the theory is sound, the rest is just craftsmanship. I will work through the night to simulate it and show you the first draft tomorrow morning.
