Chapter 717: One-Night Miracle! (I)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
"Gift?"
Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong glanced at each other, unable to speak. Evidently, this pair had not expected this move from w.a.n.g Chong. The two quickly turned around to curiously gaze at the approaching soldier with his two cages.
w.a.n.g Chong had never given them a gift before, so they couldn"t help but be filled with antic.i.p.ation.
The soldier quickly arrived and put down the cage.
Upon pulling away the silk, the pair were each greeted by a fluffy little ball of snow-white. Their eyes instantly brightened in surprise and joy. "This is… a Persian cat?"
Right now, the most popular and beloved pet of all the upper-cla.s.s women of the capital, from the imperial clan to the high-cla.s.s n.o.bility, was the Persian cat from the Abbasid Caliphate. This animal had a docile and friendly personality, so excessively charming that the upper-cla.s.s women would spoil them rotten.
But the Abbasid Caliphate was more than ten thousand li from the capital, and Persian cats were extremely expensive and sensitive. As a result, most of them would die en route.
A Persian cat was essentially priceless in the capital.
And those purebred Persian cats raised by the imperial household were the most revered of all and known as Imperial Persian cats.
The Persian cats that w.a.n.g Chong had found for them were pure white, without the slightest impurity. They also had very special eyes, one of deep blue and the other of amber, and were so adorable that one immediately wanted to hug and embrace them. They were precisely those most cherished Imperial Persian cats.
The pair had also seen such a cat with Princess Nihuang, and neither of them had expected w.a.n.g Chong to give them such a special gift.
"So cute!"
"So beautiful! Look at how it uses its claw to wash its face and comb its fur."
"I know! Look at that! It licked my hand! Haha, it tickles!"
……
In an instant, the two women were completely focused on the Persian cats, squatting on the ground and playing with them. As for w.a.n.g Chong, he had been momentarily forgotten.
Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong might have appeared valiant and formidable, and were hailed as woman heroes, not like those fragile girls who spent all their time in their rooms, but they were still girls. Just like the rest, they liked cute and fluffy pets.
w.a.n.g Chong had catered to their pleasures with this gift.
It"s fine as long as I got them the right thing.
w.a.n.g Chong inwardly smiled in understanding at this sight.
He had requested Yang Hongchang to send these two Imperial Persian cats from Talas in the Western Regions. Yang Hongchang had worked the Silk Road for many years and knew quite a few Arab merchants. While it was hard for others to obtain Persian cats, it was no problem for Yang Hongchang. Arabs were natural merchants, and as long as there was enough money, they could even get Imperial Persian cats.
After a while, after apparently remembering something, Bai Siling took the white Persian cat out of the cage and stood up, turning curiously to w.a.n.g Chong. "That"s right. w.a.n.g Chong, aren"t Persian cats very delicate? And they"re not used to the climate of the Great Tang. How did you manage to get them?"
"Give me ten thousand taels and I"ll tell you the answer," w.a.n.g Chong teased.
"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"
Bai Siling"s brows flared and she immediately seemed ready to give him a beating.
"Haha, okay, don"t hit me. I"ll talk," w.a.n.g Chong said, smiling. "Persian cats like cleanliness. You must promptly clean their cages, and they have to be exceptionally clean. If the cage isn"t clean, they won"t eat. In addition, you will occasionally have to give them some gra.s.s juice."
Persian cats enjoyed cleanliness even more than humans. From a certain perspective, they had a sort of mysophobia. Not many people knew this, so the fact that many of the merchants selling these cats were filthy and didn"t take very much care of the cats meant that many of the Persian cats would die.
If one knew this trait of the cats, selling them became much easier.
After handling the living arrangements for the two cats, Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong also settled their clan guards down, adding them to the garrison of the City of Steel.
On this excursion to Wushang, Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong had brought no small number of experts with them—their combined numbers exceeded five hundred. This was formidable support.
The strength of the support from the two clans spoke for itself.
After taking a stroll on the city walls, Bai Siling finally couldn"t hold back her question. "Oh, that"s right. w.a.n.g Chong, you"ve prepared everything here, so why aren"t you putting everything into constructing the city instead of building those houses and inns?"
"Exactly. This city is too big. Such a big place will require a ma.s.sive effort and years to build, but why don"t you seem in a hurry?" Zhao Yatong voiced her agreement.
While inspecting the premises with w.a.n.g Chong, the two had gradually begun to notice something strange. After the foundation and the first level of the City of Steel had been completed, the construction speed had clearly slowed, with many of the workers being transferred to work on the inns, restaurants, and tea houses meant for the merchants. This seemed very strange.
And w.a.n.g Chong, the lord of this city, didn"t seem worried at all. The pair found this very bizarre.
The pair weren"t intending to apply any pressure on w.a.n.g Chong, but they also had to explain things to their clans. The pair had come with two purposes. The first was to probe w.a.n.g Chong for what he was up to, and the second was to find out for their clans how the progress on the city was going.
After all, the Zhao Clan and Bai Clan had invested a great deal of money in this City of Steel, contributing their own blood, sweat, and tears.
"Haha, a workman needs good tools to do their job well. Relax; this city will finish construction much faster than you can imagine."
w.a.n.g Chong grinned.
Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong couldn"t hide their thoughts from him. The two had appeared so distressed when they had asked their questions that he immediately knew that they had been compelled to ask them.
Every person had their own hards.h.i.+ps, and it was already impressive that Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong had continued to help him up to this stage. w.a.n.g Chong naturally wouldn"t make things difficult for them.
"Moreover, you can tell your clans that the Zhao Clan and the Bai Clan can expect to make far more profit than antic.i.p.ated. In addition, the city will finish construction in a month," w.a.n.g Chong said.
"Ah?!"
Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong looked in stupefaction at w.a.n.g Chong. It wasn"t that they didn"t believe w.a.n.g Chong, but it was clear that this City of Steel was still an embryo, thousands of li from the finish line.
Moreover, building a city was such a time-consuming task that pulling it off in a month would be a huge achievement, and w.a.n.g Chong"s city was far larger than normal. Even as w.a.n.g Chong"s close friends, the pair felt like completing the city in a month was still only possible in a fairytale.
An odd smile appeared on w.a.n.g Chong"s face as he looked at their questioning gazes, but he did not explain.
Facts spoke louder than words. After one month, the two would not believe him to be exaggerating. Moreover…
When that time comes, probably even Geshu Han and Fumeng Lingcha will be given a big shock!
w.a.n.g Chong looked up at the sky and inwardly chuckled.
Even though the construction of the City of Steel was in full swing, Fumeng Lingcha, Geshu Han, Gao Xianzhi, and An Sishun had done nothing more than send a few scouts to watch. This was rather abnormal.
w.a.n.g Chong had a keen understanding of their plans. Unfortunately for them, they would never have the chance to realize them.
……
Time slowly pa.s.sed, and ten days later, the second batch of fifty thousand workmen and experts from the great clans arrived. The second wave of modules for the City of Steel also smoothly arrived from the various sword smiths and shops of the Great Tang"s prefectures.
On that same night, when all the watching eagles and birds had dispersed, and all those scouts and Arab and Characenian spies disguised as merchants had left, w.a.n.g Chong finally began his plan.
Rumble!
The earth began to quake, and with w.a.n.g Chong"s order, the flame of a furnace shot out from the northeast corner of the city, quickly followed by a second, third, fourth… Thousands of furnaces blazed to life, spreading from the northeast corner to every part of the city.
So fierce were the flames that the area in and around the City of Steel was as bright as day.
"Begin!"
On the southern wall, the stern Zhang Shouzhi, standing next to w.a.n.g Chong, swung down his arm. Boom! In that instant, a ma.s.sive cras.h.i.+ng and clattering of metal came from all around.
The one hundred thousand workmen and all the soldiers responsible for defense put down their duties and began to help with the construction of the walls. From Zhang Shouzhi"s arrival at Wushang to now, a mountain of modules for the City of Steel had been gathered.
Once the foundation and first level were completed, these modules had never been touched, the majority of the workmen being tasked with constructing the restaurants, inns, and tea houses inside the city. Now, however, as if everything had already been planned out, the workmen began to move these modules and attach them together.
Clang!
The first hammer fell, sending sparks flying into the night. Tens of thousands of modules for the City of Steel began to be erected. By this time, all the workmen were familiar with the diagrams and the methods of construction. Now was the time to display their knowledge.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The banging of metal shook the heavens. Under the light of the furnaces, the steel modules were like fish scales, neatly and tidily coming together, guided by some sort of law.
The one hundred thousand workmen worked as a cohesive unit, all of them working together like a smooth and precise machine. With a flabbergasting speed, they constructed the city.
This vast and magnificent construction process and the formidable ability to plan and manage these proceedings left Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong with their mouths agape.
"Impossible!"
Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong were both from great clans, clans with extremely long and storied histories. In terms of strength and resources, their clans far surpa.s.sed any of the other so-called "great clans" of the capital.
Coming from this kind of background, Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong had very open minds, but not even they could have imagined such a grandiose sight. More than one hundred thousand people were working as a united whole, with even more discipline than the army.
Moreover, w.a.n.g Chong"s method of constructing a city was completely different from the commonly accepted one.