Yang Yuanpu brought Shen Yang, Zheng Hui, Zhang Ping, and others to inspect the estate fields of Yongchun Palace, still intending to cultivate the land north of Henghe Harbor.
However, not to mention Shen Yang, even Zheng Hui—who had been transferred from Military Registrar of Huangzhou to Advisory Military Affairs of the Prince’sMansion—was skilled in practical governance and an expert in land reclamation and crop cultivation, requiring no input from Han Qian.
Furthermore, the selection and organization of elite guards for the InnerMansion was handled by Guo Liang, Commandant of the Left GuardMansion concurrently serving as Commander of the InnerMansion, requiring even less of Han Qian’s interference.
The hunting preserve north of Henghe Harbor measured five li north to south and ten li east to west, having previously been Emperor Tianyou’s private hunting grounds.
Since the Third Prince rarely left the city, he naturally couldn’t pass up a proper hunting excursion. Han Qian, along with Gao Chengyuan, Guo Liang, and others, led over a hundred guards accompanying the Third Prince as he rode through the preserve for half a day. Besides hunting eight plump and healthy elk, they also killed two large wild boars weighing four to five hundred catties each.
As dusk approached, everyone rode back in high spirits along the eastern bank of Qiupu River toward Yongchun Palace estate, carrying their quarry.
“That place is the estate Mother Consort granted to Teacher Han?” Yang Yuanpu reined in his horse on the eastern bank of Qiupu River. Seeing a three-masted ship moored in the pond on the inner side of Yandang Headland, and noting that the protective wall of the compound on the pond’s western side had already been built to chest height, while dense black smoke columns rose from within the estate grounds, he pointed with his whip and asked Han Qian, “That thick smoke rising there—is Teacher Han secretly forging some formidable war machinery again?”
Zheng Hui, Shen Yang, Wang Lin, and others looked toward Han Qian hesitantly, not expecting that in just seven or eight days since he’d taken over the Yandang Headland fields, he was already undertaking major construction.
After the Left Office’s responsibilities were clearly defined, both Qiuhu Mountain Villa and the workshops were designated as properties of the Prince’sMansion, allowing Zheng Hui, Wang Lin, and others to finally examine them in detail.
Only then did they come to somewhat recognize in their hearts that when Han Qian had initially urged the Third Prince to garrison Xichuan, it might not have been entirely a gamble with the Third Prince’s life for extraordinary merit.
Qiuhu Mountain Villa could be said to have formed a relatively complete system.
By building a stone dam deep in the rear mountains over ten li away, besides creating a lake from the intercepted stream to irrigate two to three thousand mu of mountain fields, the main purpose was to form a stable water flow. This ensured that the large coal-crushing water-powered trip hammers, water-powered mills, and even the water-powered bellows for iron smelting furnaces distributed along the river all received stable water impact. This also guaranteed that the coal yard, brick kiln, lime kiln, and mills could stably supply coal cakes, green bricks, lime, and refined rice. The labor saved and profits generated were already initially sufficient to support Linjiang Money Shop’s annual interest payments as high as fifteen million coins.
This also meant that once the thirty million coins in financing were repaid in advance, Qiuhu Mountain Villa could provide annual yields as high as fourteen to fifteen million coins—roughly equivalent to the land rental income from nearly twenty thousand mu of good farmland.
This didn’t even include what the Han father and son had stirred up in Xuzhou or the Xuzhou Shipping Association.
Even though the Han father and son had the convenience of leveraging the Third Prince and the Longque Army, that they could accomplish so much in just two short years—Zheng Hui still had to admit his own inferiority.
At this moment with no wind across the fields, such a dense smoke column rising from the estate compound across the river led Zheng Hui to guess that a furnace must be operating there, forging something.
Han Qian had no intention of concealing anything. Not wanting to be trapped in busy administrative work, he needed to find some excuse for his upcoming leisure time, so he said to the Third Prince with a smile:
“I’ve been pondering improvements to the scorpion ballista. I built a casting and smelting room in the estate compound, hoping to successfully cast refined steel bow arms—would Your Highness like to take a look? Or perhaps we could roast these game animals across the river tonight for a feast?”
“Excellent!” Yang Yuanpu, disregarding Shen Yang’s objections, turned back and said, “We won’t return to the city tonight. We’ll stay at Yongchun Palace!”
Imperial princes were not permitted to leave the city casually, and when they did leave, they couldn’t lodge overnight without permission—rules that even Shen Yang couldn’t change. But he also knew he shouldn’t constrain the Third Prince too much. He immediately called over Gao Chengyuan and Zhang Ping, having them dispatch someone to immediately enter the city and report to the Palace Attendants Bureau that the Third Prince would be staying overnight at Changchun Palace.
Han Qian waved to signal the Han family guards on alert across the river, ordering Lin Zongjing and Guo Nu’er to sail over to ferry everyone and the hundred-plus guards across to the other side.
Compared to Yongchun Palace estate, the Yandang Headland compound was much more dilapidated and crude. Currently just beginning major construction, there wasn’t much to see.
After everyone crossed the river, Han Qian directly had people drag out the bow-arm-style scorpion ballista made from quality cudrania wood from the western side courtyard for demonstration.
Refined steel was difficult to smelt, so the newly made bow-style scorpion ballista still used eight cudrania wood bow arms as the force-storing components. Including the throwing arm, the entire scorpion ballista was only one zhang long—much more compact than a normal whirlwind catapult, sized to be placed on the top cabin and fore and aft decks of three-masted sailing ships.
A two-thousand-shi three-masted sailing ship could accommodate approximately six scorpion ballistas.
However, scorpion ballistas made with cudrania wood still fell somewhat short. Currently they could only hurl thirty-catty stone projectiles two hundred thirty to forty paces—a distance that exposed them to optimal range of enemy bed crossbows, requiring very thick wooden protective walls for defense.
With all these factors combined, warships would become unwieldy and cumbersome.
Han Qian had Han family craftsmen demonstrate how to operate the scorpion ballista, then explained to the Third Prince, Shen Yang, and others: “Cudrania wood bow arms can store enough force to shoot crossbow bolts, but they’re still insufficient for hurling stone projectiles. I’m thinking that if we could cast bow arms from refined steel, we might be able to hurl stone projectiles over fifty catties. Then scorpion ballistas could be positioned atop city walls or warships for combat—the smelting room over there has fired up the furnace precisely to trial-cast refined steel bow arms, but it might not succeed even in three to five years!”
Yang Yuanpu said excitedly:
“Even if it takes three to five years or even longer, as long as Teacher Han can create such powerful weapons and present them before Father Emperor, it will be another great achievement! By then, our Great Chu’s forces will be invincible!”
Han Qian glanced around at everyone, seeing that no one felt any particular urgency, that no one thought his leisurely spending three to five years trial-casting a refined steel bow arm was a waste of time. He thought to himself that in everyone’s minds, they probably still believed Emperor Tianyou could control the situation.
This was hardly surprising. Emperor Tianyou had conquered such vast territories—as subjects, how many dared question Emperor Tianyou’s authority? Even if Xu Mingzhen, Ma Yin, and others currently harbored ambitions, they didn’t dare act rashly.
Especially at present, with Emperor Tianyou already showing clear favoritism toward the Prince’sMansion, everyone probably felt it was better to proceed methodically.
Han Qian sighed slightly in his heart, thinking darkly that if he wanted to accomplish anything, it seemed he still needed to wait for the next opportunity.
Shen Yang couldn’t guess what Han Qian was really planning, why he would expend so much energy and time on this matter at this juncture. But he wasn’t as optimistic as Third Prince Yang Yuanpu, and asked Han Qian doubtfully:
“A superior hundred-times-forged blade costs hundreds of thousands of coins and can bend without breaking. The refined steel bow arms you want to make are so much larger than a hundred-times-forged blade—even if it’s actually possible to make them, wouldn’t the cost be far too high?”
Zheng Hui, also skilled in practical governance, shook his head secretly, saying: “I fear it cannot succeed.”
“Without trying, how can we know whether it can succeed?” Han Qian smiled faintly.
Truthfully, Han Qian didn’t believe that within three to five years he could actually mass-produce refined steel bow arms. After all, as force-storing components, the requirements were far more demanding than ordinary pure steel parts.
Moreover, given the current urgent circumstances, there simply wasn’t possibly three or more years to leisurely ponder such matters.
His insistence on trial-casting refined steel bow arms served two purposes: first, to inform Emperor Tianyou through certain people that he was now patiently settling down to work on something substantial; second, beyond actually casting refined steel bow arms themselves, what he truly had in mind was to practically work through the current era’s steel smelting and steel component forging processes to see if there were any areas for improvement.
In Jinling, iron cost only ten coins per catty, while ordinary crude steel cost over a hundred coins per catty, and hundred-times-forged steel suitable for casting superior swords was worth its weight in gold.
With Han Qian having considerable free time recently, how could he not devote some thought to this area?
Even if he could only advance contemporary steel-smelting technology by one small step, the benefits would be incomparably greater than three to five or even three to five hundred scorpion ballistas.
In Xichuan, Han Qian had first shown weakness to the enemy, then lured large numbers of elite Liang forces into a death-trap pocket formation within the city for devastating strikes. The two types of powerful weapons he relied upon were the scorpion ballista and whirlwind catapult, previously unseen in the contemporary world.
Although after the battle Han Qian had presented the manufacturing diagrams for scorpion ballistas and whirlwind catapults to be promoted throughout the Chu army to resist enemies, his current attempt at Yandang Headland to further modify them into scorpion ballistas convenient enough to install on warships and city walls could in no way be considered neglecting proper duties.
Next, Han Qian invited the Third Prince, Shen Yang, and others to the smelting room in front of the western side courtyard to actually observe the forging process for refined steel bow arms.
It being the height of summer, several young craftsmen inside the earthen brick building were all bare-chested, sweat streaming down. The charcoal fire in the hand-forging furnaces burned red-hot, the oncoming heat scorching like flames, making it unbearable to remain in the earthen building even briefly.
Though Shen Yang, Zheng Hui, Zhang Ping, and others accompanied the Third Prince standing outside the earthen building, they still sweated profusely. Seeing two hand-forging furnaces built inside, they watched Han family craftsmen use fire tongs to grip crude iron bars and place them into concave furnace chambers to heat until red-hot. Several servants were using leather bag bellows to blow air into the furnace chamber from below. Once the iron bars were heated red and softened, iron ore powder was gradually sprinkled on, and the bars were constantly rolled using fire tongs.
Zhang Ping, Wang Lin, and others merely watched the spectacle, finding it unbearably hot even standing outside. But Zheng Hui knew this was the frying steel method passed down since the late Han dynasty.
Although Zheng Hui was a military commander, he came from the Zheng clan of Huangzhou, a distinguished scholarly family. Later, due to frequent warfare in Jingxiang, the Zheng clan’s sons abandoned literature for the military. But he had been well-read in classics since childhood, which was why after the audience before the Emperor in Xiangzhou city, he received recognition and was directly promoted into the Prince’sMansion to serve as Advisory Military Affairs.
Among the various ranks in the Prince’sMansion, Advisory Military Affairs was second only to the three positions of Prince’s Tutor, Chief Administrator, and Military Administrator.
After the great victory at Xichuan, many had judged that when the Third Prince was enfeoffed as Regional or First Rank Prince, Han Qian should deservedly serve as Advisory Military Affairs of the Prince’sMansion for his achievements. Who could have imagined that in the end, Han Qian merely served in the Prince’sMansion as Literary Attendant concurrently leading the Left Office?
Huangzhou also had several iron smelting sites, with their iron sold far and wide to Tanyue. Zheng Hui naturally knew very well in his heart that the frying steel method produced crude steel, suitable for making farm implements but requiring the traditional hammering method—repeated pounding—to forge weapons.
Crude steel contained large amounts of impurities. Hammering removed impurities, reducing the weight. Only after a hundred forgings when the weight no longer decreased could it be considered successful.
However, considering the bow arm’s deformation direction and complex circumstances, there were considerable refinements in the quenching process.
Zheng Hui looked at the small earthen building crammed with over ten Han family craftsmen and servants, secretly feeling that continuing this way, it might not produce a usable bow arm even in three to five years. And even if Han Qian figured out the method for casting refined steel bow arms, the manufacturing cost of one scorpion ballista would probably be alarmingly high, wouldn’t it?
Zheng Hui also noticed Shen Yang’s slightly furrowed brow, thinking perhaps Han Qian was still dissatisfied in his heart with this round of military merit rewards and punishments, deliberately finding such a project to neglect the Prince’sMansion’s affairs?
Thinking this, Zheng Hui looked toward Han Qian, only to see him watching the movements inside the smelting room even more intently, wondering what exactly was going through his mind.