Translator: churnie
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The funny thing is, don’t know which quick-witted person, they unexpectedly go so far as to use materials at hand to pick up several kinds of edible wild fruit back from the mountain, each one was piled up on the gra.s.s.
Feng Ming looks at it and laughs, he calls out to everyone to sit down for a picnic. Rong Hu, Luo Yun, Qiu Lan and the maids, they naturally sit in a circle with him. Hong Yu is full of the urge to start work as soon as possible and was planning to go back and continue to supervise the clean-up work, but he caught by Feng Ming, “if you want to work you must also eat something then you can go. Hurry up and sit down, I will continue to discuss armor with you?”
Hong Yu has to sit back, he shakes his head and says. “There’s really no way, I thought about this thing carefully. There is really no method at the moment. Alas, the sovereign Kings of the world under the heaven nowadays are thinking about how to make lethal weapons, where is there the time to care about the soldiers’ lives?” He talked to Feng Ming about two or three times, he spoke directly, his personality is frank and straightforward, Rong Hu slowly became familiar with him.
When he heard Hong Yu was talking about lethal weapons, Rong Hu intervenes and asks, “the most lethal weapon in the world under the heaven nowadays? Is that really there?”
“This question is too difficult and I can only talk about my own opinions.” On Hong Yu’s young face there’s a professionally serious expression. “If you use the sword theory, the most lethal in the world under the heaven, of course, it is only Dan Lin Royal Family’s secret double-edge sword, it’s long and sharp and not easy to break, but this kind of double-edge sword is more suitable for a.s.sa.s.sination, the situation on the battlefield is chaotic and the enemy is a large group in distant. Oh, I haven’t been on the battlefield, just guess according to the master said. On the battlefield the weapons that can kill enemies from afar are good things, such as spears, when the other party’s sword haven’t close to ourselves, the spear in our hand can stab them. But the spear also has its disadvantage, its use is not as flexible as the sword, it’s often can’t protect ourselves timely in spite of stabbing and the spearman is p.r.o.ne to injury. Also, the spear tends to be broken, I remember i’m talking about this problem to Feng Ming.” Feng Ming nods.
What Hong Yu says is that the weapon casting problem is the longer the weapon is, the easier it will be broken.
Hong Yu says, “The farther is the archery, in recent years, a lot of powerful people spent a lot of money to ask the famous craftsman to study the archery manufacture, from the selection of bows, curvatures, to the number of feathers and slopes, and so on, there are a lot of secret improvements. However, in archery manufacture, I only know a little one or two about the casting of the arrows, I don’t understand the others.” Feng Ming feels the same way. “The powerful archery attack power is really strong, at Aman river the last time, we have so many masters on our fleet, still it wasn’t enough to be overwhelmed by He Di’s archers.”
Luo Yun gives a light cough at the side. Feng Ming froze for a moment and immediately understood. This guy Luo Yun, who regarded the Xiao family’s reputation as heavier than the Mount Tai, must not like this ‘outsider’ Hong Yu to know about the things of Xiao family’s killer group was beaten by He Di’s fleet.
(t/n: ‘heavier than Mount Tai’: means favoritism over something,
complete explanation “heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than Hong Mao.” To die for the benefit of the people; to fight for fascism, to die for those who exploit the people and oppress the people)
Feng Ming spit out his tongue in secret and quickly remedy it very seriously. “But later they were beaten badly by our Xiao family, we also signed a contract that will make a lot of money, heheh.” He suddenly pats his head and shouts, “Oh right, when it comes to He Di, I think of Zi Yan. Why did when he was sent over there he only sent back a letter saying that he wanted to continue the discussion and there’s no other news? Is there so much to discuss? Even when we live in Tong An inner courtyard, he can’t go back to sleep?”.
Rong Hu says, “I also asked the person who sent the letter about this, they said that He Di very valued regarding the things about the dual-luminous sand s.h.i.+pping route. These days he was trying to discuss with Zi Yan which route to pick first, and the port for loading and unloading is also needs to be agreed, that things are trivial and complicated. They talk about it until the wee hours everyday and they slept almost at the same time.”
Feng Ming knows that he doesn’t have to worry about the authenticity. “Call Zi Yan to not to try too hard, his personality is too serious. Everything has one strong beat and one weak beats in a measure of music, in order to complete the task he can’t ignore his body, the route is important, but when he discuss it, he still have to eat well and sleep well. Oh right, is Qing Li gives him a hard time? This is what worries me the most.”
(t/n: 一板一眼 one strong beat and one weak beats in a measure of music (two beats in the bar) (idiom); to follow a prescribed pattern to the letter; scrupulous attention to detail)
Rong Hu laughs and says, “How can Qing Li gives him a hard time? I heard that Qing Li was very respectful of He Di and he did not dare to offend him. Presumably he won’t offend Zi Yan in courtesy of He Di. Beside, I heard the messenger said: Zi Yan was arranged by He Di in a small courtyard used by He Di himself. If Qing Li wasn’t invited he couldn’t enter.”
“So, the Prince He Di was actually very sincere to us.” Feng Ming slightly reliefs and he apologizes. “Zi Yan will follow He Di back to Dan lin! It won’t be easy to meet him across the sea in the future.”
Conveniently playing with the gra.s.sroots on the meadow, bite randomly as he pleases, it doesn’t seem he thinks of any idea, then he talks to Rong Hu again, “Rong Hu, you find someone to send a letter to Prince He Di to ask Zi Yan to not be in a hurry to discuss about the route matter, anyway he and He Di can have discussion time later, while i’m still in the Tong pond, find time to come out and meet, otherwise, when I left the Tong pond and He Di back to Dan Lin, i don’t know when we can meet again.”
Rong Hu and Zi Yan is brothers with a good friends.h.i.+p, for Zi Yan being sent to be the messenger and also will cross the sea to stay in Dan Lin in the future, he also felt reluctant, he will grab the chance to get together more, as Feng Ming says so, he nods and agrees, silently remember to ask someone to send a letter to Zi Yan. Qiu Yue listening to the men’s chat, can’t afford any interest, but seeing Feng Ming and everyone talk and forget to eat the wild fruit picked from the mountain, Qiu Yue pick out one of the biggest wild fruit and hand it in front of Feng Ming, smile like a flower. “Duke Ming, try this wild fruit, it looks green and unripe, but it’s sweet inside.”
Feng Ming takes a bite and laughs. “It’s really delicious.” he asks Hong Yu. “Do you want it too?”
Qiu Yue picks another one and hands it to Hong Yu.
Qiu Lan chose a small one, but the peel is slightly red and looks very delicious too, she quietly hand it to Rong Hu and whispers, “I don’t know if this is good or not?”.
When Rong Hu received the wild fruit sent by his wife, he has already felt sweet in his heart even when he hasn’t gotten it into his mouth. He’s smiling and whispers, “Have you eaten yet?”
Qiu Lan nodded.
Their little movements are noticed by everyone and everyone grin and smile at them. Qiu Xing is even more abominable, taking the opportunity to retaliate against Luo Yun and deliberately says. “it can be seen that people must be kind everyday, now everyone has delicious wild fruit to eat, only the annoying guys were not cared.”
Qiu Yue just happens to pick a new wild fruit at the moment, seeing that Feng Ming, Rong Hu, Hong Yu and all have fruits on their hands, without thinking much she casually throw it to Luo Yun who sit in the same circle. When Qiu Xing finished her words, the wild fruit happened to be in Luo Yun’s hands, at this time everyone look at Qiu Xing with fun, being embarra.s.sed Qiu Xing’s face is flushed, edgily says toward Qiu Yue. “I’m talking for you, you’re trying to bully me?”
Qiu Yue is full of innocence. “How do I know what you’re going to say next? But what are you mad at throwing a fruit?”
Everyone haha laugh, even Qiu Lan laughs resoundingly as a silver bell. Qiu Xing hurriedly says, “Even Qiu Lan is a bully.” She stands up and hide in the outer circle.
Qiu Yue chases to appease her.
Luo Yun doesn’t pay attention to the people, he hides the wild fruit on his hands to his body, not willing to eat.
“Archery should also be long-range weapon, right?” After laughing enough, Feng Ming chews the sweet fruit while continuing to chat with Hong Yu. “I used to watch TV before… oh no, just reading the book, besides archery, there are still many large weapons, like a trebuchet, that ancient bazookas, anyway there are so many tricks, but I don’t have any war experience and have seen none of these things.”
Hong Yu asks strangely, “Isn’t the trebuchet the kind of thing that throws the stones out to enemies? but this kind of weapon is heavy and c.u.mbersome, and the stone is light, not as lethal as the bow and arrow, if the stone is big, who has such great strength to throw it out? Even throwing it from the city wall, it’s difficult to throw it far.”
Feng Ming froze.
Huh?
Why is it not thrown far ah? Does Hong Yu think that the trebuchet was thrown by human hand?
When he watched movies in the past, the ancient Greece and Rome also seemed to use large trebuchets to attack or to protect the city. If a huge rock is thrown out and if it’s powerful enough, it can make a hole in the wall.
“The trebuchet certainly has to be heavy enough and has a long enough range. This thing can’t be done by hand, it’s using the principle of leverage.”
Hong Yu is confused about the physical terms that Feng Ming says, “what is leverage?”
“Oh… that..that, What am I supposed to say about that one? You don’t understand the seesaw?”
“Seesaw?”
Feng Ming also want to explain, but he notice that he is suddenly poked behind and turns back, it turns out to be Rong Hu beside him. He raises his eyebrows and gives Rong Hu a little inquisitive look.
Rong Hu has a smile on his face, but his eyes are very serious, with the wild fruit in his mouth he seems to be in a leisurely manner. At an invisible angle to Hong Yu, he shakes his head at Feng Ming.
Oh!
Feng Ming wakes up to the enlightenment.
Rong Hu must be saying that this knowledge belongs to state secrets and can’t be casually disclosed to Hong Yu, a non-Xirei person.
Yes, if the large trebuchet has not been created in this era, then mastering such a secret weapon will greatly strengthen the fighting power of a country!
Alas, it seems that my national sense of patent rights is still too weak.
Feng Ming secretly whispers the danger.
That’s the former Duke Ming who speak without thinking, but he vowed to help Rong Tian to unify the world, of course he should provide all his weapons knowledge to Rong Tian. Rong Tian is his only intellectual patent owner.
“Feng Ming, what exactly is a seesaw?” Hong Yu asks.
“Huh? Hmmm…” Feng Ming turns his head and quite embarra.s.singly dodge. “It’s a kind of toy for children, later when Qiu Lan and Rong Hu have a baby, I will show it to you and you will understand.”
Qiu Lan and Rong Hu both blushed suddenly and shout in unison. “Duke Ming Don’t make fun of us!”
It’s just for show to pa.s.s by, Hong Yu did not seem to know what’s going on, he’s wholeheartedly thinking about the foundry workshop matter, after eating a wild fruit and a few savory dried meat, he stands up and goes back to supervise.
Feng Ming knows that he’s pa.s.sionate about the foundry at this moment so he doesn’t keep him this time, he follows him up and pats the gra.s.s on his body and says, “When you finish the fire kiln and start working I’ll go to see it again, it’s rare to sneak out today, how i want to stroll around to see the customs of the Tong kingdom people.”
After apart with Hong Yu, Feng Ming touched his full belly and ran to the brook to find Qiu Xing that had just escaped.
After a while, Qiu Xing is no longer embarra.s.sed, she’s enjoying herself with Qiu Yue and playing water, seeing Feng Ming comes over she wash her handkerchief in the cool brook to help Feng Ming wipe his face and asks, “Duke Ming, this broken workshop is dirty, there is nothing to look at, are we going to play down the mountain?”
Feng Ming happily pats her on the face. “Good Qiu Xing, as expected really like what i think, where do you want to go?”
Qiu Yue and Qiu Xing like to play the most, suddenly jump up and shouting, “Go to the city!”, “Look at the cloth market!”, “Riding Horse!”, “Go to the riverbank!”, “Climbing the mountain!”, “Buying snacks!” They throw a bunch of stuffs in a row.
With grumbling and quarreling a group of people go down the hill along the same path to the place where the horse was lodged. When they arrived at the place of the horse-lodge, they still don’t decide where to go. “It’s better to go to the riverbank first.”
Everyone is surprised, this slow-witted person will actually give advice on where to go? Usually when he talked about playing, he didn’t give a single sound, not even for his own reputation.
Luo Yun sees Feng Ming’s surprised look, and says again, “Luo Deng chief said, Young Master’s main ride of Xiao Family new s.h.i.+p has arrived, it stopped at the river not far from the outskirt city of the Tong pond, it’s also appropriate for the Young Master to look at it”
Only then Feng Ming is relieved.
Yeah! This is the true color of Luo Yun.
It turns out to be that he’s taken to deal with Xiao family works…
Feng Ming turns around and spread out his hands to Qiu Yue. “It’s good, there’s no need to argue.”
Everyone is coming together ride on the horse under the leaders.h.i.+p of Luo Yun, the flapping sound raise a large amount of dust as they rushed toward the river in the outskirt city.
It turns out that the river is not far from the Tong pond city, Feng Ming estimates the difference is about three miles, don’t know if Luo Deng was frightened by the last sudden attack of He Di, considering that the fleet must not be too showing off, the place to park this time is not a fixed dock, but a secluded river with sandy soil on the sh.o.r.e.
Not far from the sh.o.r.e, it has already smelled water.
Feng Ming pats the horse to go over, only to be surprised and says, “Does the Aman River pa.s.s through the Tong pond? I thought it was going along the side of the enemy..”
Rong Hu goes down following him behind, walking along the horse and explaining to him, “This is not the mainstream of the Aman River, it’s only a branch of the Tong kingdom. However, apart from the branches of the Aman River, In addition to the two major tributaries that flow into Fan Jia and Zhao Bei, this section of tributary is the largest. Don’t look at the wide river surface, go a little bit ahead of the narrow river, the water flows is going fast, only the old helmsman dares to sail there.”
A group of people lead the horse and walk along the river, the green gra.s.s of spring come out of the earth early, verdant and lush, the feet on top of it soft and loose, accompanied by the wind that come from the river, which was particularly suitable for relaxation.
Naturally, there is a follow-up before the visit, to inform the Xiao family new s.h.i.+p parked on the sh.o.r.e.
Luo Deng happens to be on the boat and heard the comrades say that the Young Master had come and he enthusiastically disembark to greet him.
He meet with Feng Ming on the sh.o.r.e and lead Feng Ming to board the boat first, he points to the nearby s.h.i.+p. “The river here is wide, but the draft is not as deep as the mainstream, if it was that kind of luxurious s.h.i.+p like before, it’s not going to come in. Therefore, all the medium-sized s.h.i.+ps in the Xiao family s.h.i.+pping which are dispatched this time, the style is not comparable with the s.h.i.+p that Young Master originally rode. But when it comes to speed and practicality, it’s best to use this medium-sized s.h.i.+p.” With lowering the voice he says, “In case we are ambushed again in the future, this kind of s.h.i.+p is much better than the stupid luxury s.h.i.+p.”
Feng Ming is at the prow of the boat, looking at the row of Xiao family medium-sized s.h.i.+ps.
If the vessels made in the past can be described as luxurious, then the adjective used for the s.h.i.+ps in front of him should be vigorous.
Imposing and Practical.
But thinking of another issue, Feng Ming asks Luo Deng with some lack of confidence, “That… the last super-sized vessel damaged in the Aman River, it won’t fit the whole Xiao family group inside, will it?”
Does he travel so much like this go to the first country just to claim all the most expensive and largest s.h.i.+ps handed down by his father as his property?
Then he is really prodigal son.
Fortunately, Luo Deng gives denial answer, “Such a vessel, we still have somewhere else, but when Young Master departed, it was not all mobilized. Un, does the Young Master not like the medium-sized s.h.i.+ps? Then I immediately sent a message asking them to mobilize all the other vessels, but the draft here is not deep enough, I am afraid that the Young Master still have to use the medium-sized s.h.i.+p to depart from the mainstream and then transfer to the vessel.”
“No, no, no!” Feng Ming says. “I’m just casually asking, although the vessel is big but it was taking too leisurely, I would rather have a smaller faster s.h.i.+ps.”
Luo Deng reliefs and says, “This s.h.i.+p is not comparable to the vessel that the Young Master used to ride in the past, but it’s still bigger compare to the average s.h.i.+ps.”
As the saying goes. The boat has been approaching the s.h.i.+p. The sailors are aboard.