This chapter was translated for only. And only for those people who don’t mind reading unprofessional translation that was being translated FREELY at the translator’s and editor’s own free times.
Chapter 121
Production (Part 1)
First thing in the morning, Lu Yi was still combing her hair, when Xiao Rong came to knock on the tent’s gate, and said that the Military counselor asked her to come to discuss about the matter of the explosives. After Murong Shu Qing answered, Xiao Rong ran out in an instant.
While Lu Yi was combing Murong Shu Qing’s long hair, she was looking at the crescent moon wooden hairpin that was on the side, and curiously asked: “Miss, how come I have never seen this hairpin of yours ah. Very unusual oh, is Xuanyuan Gongzi the one who gives it to you?!” Miss had never cared about these accessories or hair ornaments, all of her accessories were packed by her. So if suddenly there was an addition to her hairpin collections, there was no need to say anymore, this was surely given by Xuanyuan Gongzi.
Murong Shu Qing looked at her snickering laugh, and helplessly smiled to say: “This girl, you also learn how to make fun of people!”
Lu Yi promptly shook her head, and said with resignation: “I am not ah, I only think if it was Xuanyuan Gongzi who gave it to you, I will arrange your hairstyle to match with this hairpin ah!” She wanted to dress Miss beautifully. Even if Miss was originally very beautiful.
Murong Shu Qing sighed, and smilingly said: “Then I will have to trouble you.”
“Hehe, it is not troubling at all.” Finished speaking, her two hands were fixing Murong Shu Qing’s hair, soon, Lu Yi satisfyingly smiled and said: “Alright, Miss, you look at it.” Miss liked a simple hairstyle, so for this reason, she studied several plain and delicate hairstyles, and she could experiment it today.
The hairs were conveniently bundled into a spiral on the back of her hair, it was fluffy and supple, so there was no need to put some grease on her head, and it still had a perfect arc. It complimented one another well when she inserted the wooden hairpin in it. Murong Shu Qing satisfyingly praised and said: “Your hands are very skillful.” Finished speaking, she took out a red envelope from her waist, and gave it to Lu Yi, she smilingly said: “For you!”
Lu Yi was startled when she took the red envelope, and just thought that today was New Year’s Day. Here, there was no celebration mood like at home, so she totally forgot about it, and promptly half-kneeling to salute: “Thank you, Miss, I wish that Miss has good health. Moreover, you and Xuanyuan Gongzi can have a happy wedding sooner.”
Murong Shu Qing was leaning on Lu Yi’s arm to stand up, this girl had never left these two words, Xuanyuan Yi.
Lu Yi was giggling when she stood up, and asked: “Which clothing does Miss want to wear today, the red color is very festive, since today is the first day of the new year.” Even though Miss did not normally wear red color, but during new year, and when it was timely for the situation, she would wear the red dress together with young master and youngest miss.
Looking at her (LY) appearance that was more excited than hers (MSQ), Murong Shu Qing smiled and shook her head, she answered: “This is inside the army camp so it is better not wearing a red dress, just take that purple one.”
Although she was somewhat disappointed, but Lu Yi still nodded and answered: “Yes.”
After making herself presentable, Murong Shu Qing went to the Master’s tent, there were only Pei Che and Li Ming inside the tent, and she did not see Xuanyuan Yi’s shadow. Seeing that she came in, Pei Che met her up and said: “Shu Qing, we already found the blacksmith and firecracker masters that you want.” Today was New Year Day so it was really not easy.
Murong Shu Qing smiled and said: “En, split them up, and do not tell them what we are going to do.”
“Why?” Li Ming did not understand the reason, they wanted these people to make explosives, but they would not let them know either, how could this be done.
Murong Shu Qing still said persistently: “There are several steps to make explosives, we can not let them to partic.i.p.ate in all of them, when we produce these, the formula can only be prepared by me, I can not divulge the secret formula to outsiders.” If it was not because Cang Yue already manufactured the explosives, she would absolutely not help Dong Yu to make the explosives. The existence of the explosives would create a new strategy or change the circ.u.mstances during the war. She would not spread the formula to make the explosives, as she also did not hope that this process of making the explosives would change the circ.u.mstances during the war because of her.
Pei Che was also in favor and he said: “It makes sense what Shu Qing is saying.” After all, this was a top secret matter, so the less people who knew how to make the explosives, would be better.
Looking that Murong Shu Qing’s persistence like this, Pei Che also thought that it should be that way, so Li Ming just shrugged his shoulders, and did not have any alternative but to agree with what they were saying.
They had the blacksmiths, but did not have the materials yet, so Pei Che somewhat anxiously asked: “Have Yan Yu come back yet?” The spy reported earlier that Shu Qing’s antic.i.p.ation was not wrong, Cang Yue had already counted their soldiers, so there was a possibility that there would be fighting soon.
Murong Shu Qing shook her head, and answered: “I have not seen him yet. Wait for a while.” Since last night up until now, he had been preparing those materials for almost 14 hours, so it was actually really difficult for him.
Li Ming was unable to be patience at all, and he said: “I will go and take a look.” Finished speaking, he energetically and vigorously went out.
Comparing to his impatience, Murong Shu Qing and Pei Che seemed to be very tranquil. Both of the people were just sitting opposite each other, each person had a cup of tea on their hands, and was smiling at each other. Murong Shu Qing looked at the tea leaves that were in the middle of the cup, and were deeply floating in the water, the corners of her mouth was slowly and unconsciously blossoming into a gentle smile.
Pei Che was drinking the tea, while he was sighing in his heart, she was definitely different when she was in love, the soft purple brocade muslin really made her fair skin look sparkling. It seemed that she was even more elegant and daintier than that clear and cool white dress. It seemed that these couple had been in love for more than a dozen years, and it could almost be considerate as perfect.
Murong Shu Qing raised her head, and just saw Pei Che’s smiling face that was looking at herself, based on her experience, there was nothing good when he was smiling like this. Thinking for a while, she said: “Pei Che, let"s have the blacksmiths make three inches, six inches, and nine inches of big empty b.a.l.l.s now. Each size should be thin and hallow.” Trying to find something to do for him, so he would not be fantasizing anything!
Pei Che somewhat astonishingly asked: “What are we making?”
“Experimenting.”
“Experimenting?” Pei Che still did not understand with regards to this word, but it looked like she would not give any explanation to him either, so he could only sighed and said: “Alright, I will just go and prepare them.”
When he was just leaving the Master’s tent, Pei Che could not help but to turn around to look one glance at Shu Qing again, she was a young lady from an aristocratic family after all, how could she understand so many things like this?! Shu Qing really gave him a lot of amazements and surprises. Maybe Xuanyuan Yi knew the reason for this?! No longer thinking to much, Pei Che turned around to go out of the Master’s tent.
Very soon, it was almost 11 AM to 1 PM, When Xuanyuan Yi and Pei Che returned to the Master’s tent, they found that Murong Shu Qing had not left yet. Instead, she was very focused on writing in front of the table gracefully, seriously writing and drawing. Both of the people were looking one glance at each other, they did not say anything, and quietly walked behind her.
Murong Shu Qing was drawing concentratedly, so she did not pay any attention to their arrival, both of them were feeling even more and more astonished behind her. It seemed that she was drawing several small pictures about some components that they had never seen before, so Xuanyuan Yi could not help but to pick up her drawing and opened it up with his hands for him to examine, and he asked: “What are you doing?”
Murong Shu Qing was startled first when she suddenly heard his voice, but very quickly, Murong Shu Qing smilingly answered: “Making a proposal, I am thinking that Cang Yue is using a bow and arrow to shoot the explosives, the method is not only dangerous, and the distance is also short. Moreover, if the strength of the bomb is mightier and bigger, it will be even heavier, so it can not use a bow and arrow to shoot the bomb.” Using the writing brush to draw was really a huge challenge, luckily, the picture was basically finished.
Pei Che had also thought about this problem, so he attempted to say: “Make a huge bow?!”
Murong Shu Qing shook her head: “Out of the question, if everyone has your and Xuanyuan’s good martial arts, then we can make a huge bow, but the majority of the soldiers do not have that, so this method is not practical.” They could not make a group of highly skilled in martial arts military officers went to pull the bows, then at that time, there would not be anybody who was commanding the fight.
Pei Che nodded his head, picked up the picture and studied it for a moment, then he asked: “Then, you have any good way.”
Murong Shu Qing put out the enlarge picture from underneath, and said: “I think with the three inches small bomb, we can learn from Cang Yue and use the bow and arrow to shoot it out, it is more flexible and suited with a close range combat. For the six inches and nine inches, we can try something like this.”
“This is….” Pei Che and Xuanyuan Yi looked at each other in dismay.
Murong Shu Qing lightly smiled and answered: “We should leverage a principle by adding a pulley into the trebuchet that you are using originally.” Several days ago, she saw the trebuchet that was used during this era when she was at the back of the army camp, the simple crowbar would actually shoot out the stone. She was just thinking now, that maybe she could use this thing to shoot out the explosives, after all the current steel technology was not developed yet, so it would be impossible to make a cannon. They also did not have any time, moreover, she did not have any capability either. So using the current tool was actually the best.
“But Shu Qing, the picture that you have drawn, is somewhat different ah?!” After Xuanyuan Yi and Pei Che carefully looked at it, they discovered that it really looked like a trebuchet, but there was something added on the side, it was really different.
“Yes, I will explain it to you.” Murong Shu Qing looked at the two of them who could be said to be military geniuses, no matter which country they were, the were prominent figures. But looking at their faces that were looking at her anxiously, and waiting for her explanation, she felt like laughing in her heart. However, that would not be good and very impudent to do, so she did not have any alternative but to lightly cough several times, and she pointed her finger at the picture to explain: “The original trebuchet that you are using to besiege a city, uses a group of six people to pull it once, it wastes too many manpower, but if we add these three pulleys and this bearing gear, this only needs a group of two people to shoot it out. By having this, the large scale explosives can be shot in a long-distance, and it s the best to besiege a city.”
“Really?” If it needed only a group of two people, this would conserve a lot of manpower this way, moreover, immediately using the trebuchet, they could also convert it even quicker, so they did not have to be afraid if Cang Yue suddenly attacked. But could these several small wheels really accomplish that the trebuchet would only need two people?
Facing Pei Che’s questioning and Xuanyuan Yi’s suspicious gazes, Murong Shu Qing was also lazy to explain about the principle on how to combine a moving pulley and a fixed pulley. That would take too much time and efforts, so Murong Shu Qing feigned a mysterious smile and said: “You take this picture first and give it to the carpenter in the army to see if it can be modified. If you do not believe it, try to modify one”
Alright, they would just have to experiment it, so Pei Che forced a smile, took the drawing and went out, when did he become a specialist who ran errands for her experiment!
Sian’s notes:
Lu Yi is a good matchmaker for MSQ & XY, isn’t she!! Hahahaha… She’s so cute.
Haha! MSQ makes PC run around for her…