The Military Commissioner's Mansion, Study.
Guo Dajiang entered the study directly: "Grand General, a battle report from Huaigu Pass just arrived. The Jingzhou army has heavily defeated the allied forces of Yizhou and Yongzhou. The Grand Commander of Yizhou, Mu Qianqiu, was struck from his horse and slain by the fierce Jingzhou general, Li Qiongqi."
Hearing the last part, the expressions of many in the study changed slightly.
"Mu Qianqiu is dead?"
"His sister is a favored concubine of Governor Wei of Yizhou. Although he joined the Yizhou army through that connection, he established his position within the ranks on his own merit after enlisting. To climb from the bottom to the position of Grand Commander, he was indeed a capable man who could subdue tigers and dragons. To die like this? I actually thought he could put up a fight against Li Qiongqi."
Guo Dajiang: "They met for no more than three rounds before Mu Qianqiu was pierced and knocked from his horse by Li Qiongqi's iron-ridged serpent spear."
In battles between armies, besides full-scale charges, there is another, less commonly used method for a swift resolution: a duel between the commanding generals.
The two commanders-in-chief face off alone, and the outcome directly affects the morale and fighting spirit of their respective troops.
Ke Zuo stroked his chin: "I'm not entirely surprised. Li Qiongqi's fierce reputation is well-known, enough to make the children of Jingzhou wail. Some even say he is the reincarnation of the mythical beast Qiongqi. In his early years, he killed a wealthy merchant, then fled to a temple where he hid his identity and became a monk who ate meat and drank wine. It's said he killed many bandits who came looking for him at the temple. Cong Liuqi, hearing of his ferocity, recruited him into his ranks and bestowed upon him titles and lands."
Gongsun Liang recalled a past event. "Over a year ago, Jingzhou and Yuzhou had a dispute. Li Qiongqi led troops straight into Yuzhou, his military might like a tiger. He slew several of Yuzhou's commandants in a row, terrifying Governor Lei of Yuzhou."
At the time of that incident, Emperor Zhao had not yet passed away. With the imperial court exerting pressure from above, the governors of the various provinces would not grant their subordinates excessively high-ranking titles. Take their own Huo Youzhou, for example; although he heavily relied on Chen Yuan, he only granted him the rank of commandant at that time.
Judging others by oneself, those Yuzhou commandants who were killed back then were likely Governor Lei's right-hand men.
Chen Shichang: "This Li Qiongqi certainly has a notable background. I wonder, if he and Xiong Mao were to fight one-on-one, who would emerge victorious."
Huo Tingshan tapped his fingers rhythmically on the desk. "Regardless of victory or defeat, with the Yizhou commander-in-chief now slain, the Yizhou army is leaderless and no longer a significant force. The Yongzhou army only numbers seventy thousand, and having already suffered a defeat, their morale is severely damaged. If Zhu Yanwu could capture Huaigu Pass under these circumstances, he wouldn't have remained obscure until now."
In short, Huaigu Pass is a lost cause.
Gongsun Liang then said: "My lord, you have rejected Cong Liuqi's alliance proposal twice and executed his envoy. I fear he will hold a grudge. As the saying goes, courtesy comes before force. Now that the situation at Huaigu Pass is settled, that Li Qiongqi will likely be transferred to the Shenyuan Path."
"Let him come. I too wish to see how formidable this Qiongqi beast truly is," Huo Tingshan said dismissively.
He had indeed executed the Jingzhou envoy. He would execute every single one they sent. Cong Liuqi could even conceive of such a despicable, ruthless, and sinister strategy as using plague—even after eighteen reincarnations, they would never be cut from the same cloth.
Huo Tingshan began assigning tasks. "If they intend to march, it will be within the next few days. Sha Ying, tomorrow you lead troops out and occupy Lingwen County to the west. Use it as our first line of defense."
After issuing a series of orders, the day's council concluded.
As the others filed out of the study, Chen Yuan took a small register from his robe. "Grand General, this is the casualty list for the Black Armored Cavalry since the southern campaign against Jing began. For this mission, the Black Armored Cavalry suffered thirty wounded. Lu Zilong, Han Yuan, Xu Hua..."
Chen Yuan listed nearly ten names. "...a total of eight men sacrificed. According to the squad leaders' recollections, they successively encountered over six hundred enemy troops and killed at least half of them."
The Black Armored Cavalry was an elite force the Grand General had painstakingly built. Fighting one against two was not an issue. But being elite did not mean invincible; there would still be casualties.
Huo Tingshan took the small booklet and flipped through it.
The booklet wasn't thick, but it contained several pages. The front recorded the Black Armored Cavalrymen seriously wounded on this mission, with details from their unit number to their place of origin, enlistment date, and position.
The latter part was the death roll, recorded in the same format. Since the southern expedition began, the death toll among the two thousand Black Armored Cavalry was less than fifty, not even one-fortieth of their total.
Huo Tingshan turned the pages slowly, reading carefully. "Make a copy of the death roll and have someone send it back to Youzhou immediately. Issue the death benefits for the fallen soldiers first. For soldiers whose families have no other able-bodied men, double the benefit... no, triple it. Also, as before, notify the county magistrates or local village heads to look after the widows and children of the fallen, and ensure local ruffians do not bully them."
Youzhou was no longer the financially strapped Youzhou of the past. It was now prosperous and must never shortchange the soldiers who fought for him.
Huo Tingshan gave Chen Yuan another task: "Fill the vacancies left in the Black Armored Cavalry. You select the replacements."
Chen Yuan: "As you command."
After reporting, normally Chen Yuan should leave, but Huo Tingshan said, "What's the hurry? Come, tell me how far things progressed during those few days when the little girl was missing."
Chen Yuan said helplessly, "Grand General..."
"You were quite brisk a moment ago. Why are you so hesitant now when asked to report on a matter?" Huo Tingshan snorted coldly. Switching to a father's perspective, he found fault with Chen Yuan everywhere. "You old scoundrel, did you do something improper?"
Before, he thought Chen Yuan was quite good—steady, a man of few words but effective, not one for unnecessary talk. But now, looking again, he seemed like someone who wouldn't utter a word even after three strikes, annoyingly hesitant when he should speak, lacking masculine decisiveness.
Chen Yuan: "This subordinate would not dare to disrespect the young lady."
Huo Tingshan took a cunning angle. "Dare not? That means you've thought about it."
Chen Yuan: "..."
"When did you find the little girl, and what happened at the time?" Huo Tingshan was here on a mission.
Mission issuer: his own wife.
After their daughter returned home, they had asked about the events of those few days. But probably not wanting her parents to worry, their daughter summarized it in a few sentences as "after escaping, I reunited with Chen Yuan," and said no more.
Last night, his wife tossed and turned, unable to sleep, and finally tasked him with this inquiry. A small matter, which Huo Tingshan readily accepted.
Chen Yuan was silent for a moment, then concisely recounted the events of those days.
After leaving the small village, they headed south to evade pursuers. For those days, they dared not enter any cities, camping in the wilderness instead. After shaking off their tail, they turned north to return to Shenyuan Path.
After listening, Huo Tingshan twisted the thumb ring on his finger, implying meaningfully, "My daughter will not marry a mere Central Protector of the Army."
Chen Yuan lowered his eyes. "This subordinate understands."
Having issued this warning, Huo Tingshan finally rose and left the study.
The Chen family was one of the subsidiary clans of the Huo family. Chen Yuan had served the Youzhou army with loyalty since he was seventeen.
From the perspective of a superior, this was taken for granted, his duty. If not for the Huo family, if not for the continuous support and promotion over the years, how would the Chen family have achieved what they have today?
After her daughter returned, Pei Ying's heart finally settled, and she began to ponder other matters.
Such as manufacturing glass.
The main raw materials for glass are quartz sand, soda ash, limestone, etc. Soda ash can be obtained from natural alkali deposits or produced artificially.
China's soda ash deposits are mainly concentrated in Henan and Inner Mongolia, with the latter having the larger quantity. Henan is the ancient Yuzhou, and Inner Mongolia corresponds to regions like Youzhou, Bingzhou, and Liangzhou.
Henan was relatively close to them, but unfortunately, present-day Yuzhou was not yet their territory, making it impossible to discreetly obtain soda ash. They could potentially get it from Inner Mongolia, but they had already moved south, and the distance was now too great.
Therefore, after much thought, Pei Ying considered producing alkali herself.
She chose the straightforward and robust ammonia-soda process, favoring its simple main raw materials: just limestone, crude salt, and ammonia gas, unlike the combined soda ash process which also required synthetic ammonia.
Pei Ying looked at the chemical equations written in her little notebook, her gaze lingering on ammonia gas.
Human urine contains urea, and urea contains ammonia. Heating urine can yield ammonia gas.
But the efficiency is too low. Urea is only a very, very small part of urine, about 2%, and not all urea transforms into ammonia gas upon heating.
Pei Ying fell into deep thought.
So when Huo Tingshan returned at noon, he saw her sitting dazedly by the low table, not moving for a long while. He couldn't help but raise a long eyebrow. "Practicing meditation like a monk? Don't bother. You have a husband, and your husband will live as long as you do. Madam, you are destined not to enter monastic life."
Pei Ying glanced at him and ignored him, continuing to look at the small booklet on the table.
Huo Tingshan took a seat beside her, his gaze falling on the little notebook. He saw it contained not a single word, only some winding, twisting symbols. "Is this writing from your era?"
"No, these are chemical equations," Pei Ying said.
Huo Tingshan became interested. He was always fascinated by her time. "What are chemical equations?"
Pei Ying: "..." How was she supposed to explain that?
"You can understand them as summaries of the process of material changes, like the route you take from one city to another when marching to war," Pei Ying said carefully.
Huo Tingshan pointed at the chemical formula for ammonia gas. "Madam, what does this single symbol represent?"
"A colorless gas with an odor." Seeing his keen interest and his determination to understand everything, she had no choice but to add, "Making glass requires several raw materials. Some of them aren't readily available here. I was thinking of using substances to substitute for others, but then I found the substitute materials are also hard to obtain."
At this point, Pei Ying sighed. "The conditions are too rudimentary."
Modern industry uses the Haber-Bosch process, mixing nitrogen and hydrogen gases to form ammonia under high temperature and high pressure. Any single raw material or condition required for this method would stop Pei Ying dead in her tracks.
Huo Tingshan pondered her words. "Madam said some raw materials aren't readily available. Does that mean these things exist in the world, just in other places?"
Pei Ying was surprised by his sharpness. "Yes."
Huo Tingshan chuckled softly. "Just tell me where the materials Madam needs are. Even if they're in that surnamed Ji's residence in Chang'an, I will fetch them for you."
Pei Ying: "Youzhou."
Huo Tingshan: "..."
So she had been frowning and worrying for half a day, and the thing she was so fixated on was right in his own territory.
Seeing his complex expression, Pei Ying explained, "I'm just a bit impatient. It takes at least a month to return to Youzhou from here, and finding the alkali deposit would take at least half a year to a year. That's too long."
Huo Tingshan had heard of gold and silver mines, but this was his first time hearing of a soda ash mine. "Aside from Youzhou, are there other places with... soda ash mines?"
"Yuzhou also has them," Pei Ying said.
Inner Mongolia's Chagan Nur alkali deposit is the largest in Asia, and the alkali deposit in Tongbai County, Henan, is the second largest in the country. Tongbai County probably isn't called by that name now. If we go, it will take some effort to search for it.
Huo Tingshan laughed. "What's so difficult about that? An alliance between Youzhou and Yuzhou is imminent. Governor Lei of Yuzhou won't refuse a request from his in-law."
Pei Ying's eyelid twitched.
He spoke with such certainty; it seemed the marriage alliance was already a settled matter. Speaking of which, the letter had probably reached Youzhou by now. If things moved quickly, Huo Mingji might already be on his way south.
"Send a letter to Governor Lei of Yuzhou. Tell him you want to send a hundred-man team into Yuzhou to search for medicinal herbs." Pei Ying then remembered Huo Mingji's marriage matter. "Will Governor Lei agree to send his daughter to Luoyang?"
Luoyang was Huo Tingshan's territory, for one. Secondly, while remarriage was common in these times, before marriage, men and women did not live together, as it easily invited gossip.
If the situation were reversed, she would never let her daughter go to Yuzhou alone.
"He definitely will," Huo Tingshan said with certainty. "Yuzhou is weaker than my Youzhou, and the other party is eager for an alliance. There's no reason for him to refuse. Madam, not all parents in this world love their children as you do."
Like him, he hadn't paid much attention to his two sons after their birth, nor did he think they needed to be nurtured as delicately as rare, fragile flowers.
Someone like her, who puts the child first in everything, is a minority, an extreme minority.
Mentioning children, Pei Ying thought of the wounds on her daughter's hands—more than ten thin, long cuts. They probably weren't cleaned properly at the time and would leave scars.
Wounds...
Pei Ying was startled for a moment. She turned to look at the man beside her. "Huo Tingshan, when soldiers in your army are wounded on the battlefield, do they clean the wounds?"
"Of course," Huo Tingshan said, very familiar with the procedure. "Typically, we clean them with plain water, then apply herbal medicine. If there's rotten flesh on the wound, either cut it off or place maggots on it to let them eat the rotten flesh clean."
Pei Ying silently rubbed her arm, smoothing down the goosebumps that had risen.
Huo Tingshan laughed. "What's there to be afraid of? Just maggots. You can pinch them to death with your fingers."
Pei Ying: "..." Who wants to pinch bugs.
She quickly changed the subject. "In my time, we use saline solution for wound cleaning."
Then, before he could ask what saline solution was, Pei Ying continued, "People eat salt to maintain the salt balance in their bodies. Simply put, it's to keep your internal organs and all the little parts inside working properly. Saline solution has a similar osmotic pressure to that inside the human body, so when used to rinse wounds, there's no worry of the wound dehydrating because of it."
Huo Tingshan stroked his chin, half-understanding her words, but it didn't stop him from knowing this was a good thing. "Madam, how is this saline solution made?"
Pei Ying: "Dissolve nine grams of salt into one liter of distilled water."
Huo Tingshan asked with great interest, "What are 'grams,' and what is a 'liter'?"
Pei Ying: "...Units of measurement."
Huo Tingshan asked curiously, "What's a 'unit'? And what kind of water is distilled water?"
Pei Ying: "..."
Pei Ying refused to communicate with him.
Seeing this, Huo Tingshan chuckled softly. "How about we exchange information? For this trip to Yuzhou to find the soda ash you mentioned, I plan to send Chen Yuan. Would you like to know what happened during those few days?"
Hearing Chen Yuan's name, Pei Ying quickly inquired, "What did Chen Yuan say? What happened during those days?"
Huo Tingshan didn't keep her in suspense and recounted the facts.
After hearing it, Pei Ying fell silent. His description was utterly ordinary, with nothing offensive. But she knew that some feelings could undergo a qualitative leap in life-and-death situations. She sighed, "Chen Yuan is a good man, but ten years is a long time. Nannan is thirty-five, and he would be forty-five. Sigh, it's too early to talk about marriage now. We'll see later."
Huo Tingshan curled the corner of his mouth. "Ten years is indeed a bit much. An age gap of four years is just right."
Pei Ying: "..."
