Chapter 557
Chapter 557
The Zhu Clan treated her reputation as trivial. To others, the title of the capital's most talented woman was like a prize, but to the Zhu Clan, it was a disgrace. For instance, if you were to call Mulan the most beautiful woman in Xuanwu City, Shen Lang would also raise a fuss, hating that she was the subject of gossip.
‘Just let you be the most beautiful woman in Xuanwu City, and your whole family can have the title.’
In any case, since no one could best Zhu Ying, she remained unmarried even as she approached her twentieth birthday this year, and the Zhu Clan wasn't anxious. Of course, they certainly had no reason to be. To put it bluntly, a king's daughter might, in some sense, worry about not being able to marry. But a daughter of the Zhu Clan had no such worries at all. Men across the land would rather take a daughter of the Zhu Clan as their wife than a daughter of the king.
The members of the Zhu Clan had a very close relationship with the royal family. Zhu Hongxue shared a master with Ning Han, and Zhu Hongbing was even praised by the king as a thoroughbred horse born from the Zhu Clan. However, Zhu Ying kept her distance from the royal family and rarely entered the palace. The moment the king heard that Shen Lang wanted to secure the capital's most talented and fiercely proud woman as Jin Mucong's wife, his head throbbed. It was a good thing Shen Lang didn't ask for world peace; otherwise, the king might have suggested they discuss that instead of pursuing the marriage between Zhu Ying and Jin Mucong.
Ning Yuanxian wanted to suggest another condition, but he had his pride. He was desperately trying to reward Shen Lang, like an adult showing off his capabilities in front of a child. But if he refused the first condition Shen Lang mentioned, and then refused the second as well, his sincere intention to grant a reward would be meaningless.
“Fine. I will give it a try. When I return to the capital, I will personally visit the Grand Chancellor to propose marriage on Jin Mucong's behalf.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the king felt a chill run down his spine. He was already regretting his rash words, which had now saddled him with a pointless task. This marriage proposal would surely end in humiliation. What kind of person was Zhu Ying? She was a woman who had rejected even the top scholar of the civil service examinations, finding him unworthy. And what about Jin Mucong? To be frank. Just as the saying goes that if one's wife is lovely, one bows even to the hitching post at her parents' house, the king's affection for Shen Lang had greatly improved his impression of Jin Mucong. But to be honest, if Jin Mucong had been a capable man, Shen Lang would never have become a live-in son-in-law of the Jin Clan in the first place. A hundred Jin Mucongs probably couldn't measure up to one Zhu Ying. Of course, Jin Mucong was 'lovable' in a sense. Pitiable, with no one to love him.
After the small talk, the king's expression grew a little more solemn.
“Shen Lang, the Nirvana Army is so powerful. How many more men like them can you train in the future?”
“Would Your Majesty prefer the truth?”
“Of course!”
“I cannot create any more of the top-tier broadsword soldiers. I have used up every last bit of the highest quality steel produced by the Jin Clan. For these two thousand-some members of the Nirvana Army, I have probably spent hundreds of thousands of gold taels.”
The king knew this army was valuable, but he had never imagined it would be *that* expensive.
“Although the Jin Clan's steel workshop belongs to our family, every piece of steel produced there must be recorded in the ledgers, and we actually have to pay for it. It's not as if we can just take it because it's ours.”
The king, of course, understood this well. It would be the same for any nation. For example, the Imperial Guard or the royal workshops all belonged to him. But the equipment used by the Imperial Guard had to be purchased from the royal workshops with money. Every item in the ledger had to be clearly recorded, and the rules must be followed. Otherwise, the potential for frightening abuse would be immense.
“On average, each man trains with five practice swords. We've consumed over a million catties of lead in total, materials I borrowed from the Heavenly Dao Society. Furthermore, they must bathe in medicinal soups every day, which also costs a great deal of money. The Heavenly Dao Society practically scoured several provinces for precious medicinal herbs. As soon as His Highness Ning Zheng's fight for the throne began, he already owed the Heavenly Dao Society five hundred and thirty thousand gold taels.”
Shen Lang had arranged the loan, but the debtor was, of course, Ning Zheng. It wouldn't be right to ask Shen Lang to repay that money. So, while Shen Lang's elite army numbered only over two thousand, the money spent on them could have equipped an army of tens of thousands.
“Of course, if I had enough time, I could train another three thousand heavy-armored broadsword soldiers. But does Your Majesty wish to use this army in the great war to come?”
Ning Yuanxian nodded.
“In that case, it's impossible. Our Jin Clan's workshop would need at least a year to produce that much top-quality steel. Besides, while the Nirvana Army boasts immense power on the plains, their effectiveness would be greatly reduced upon entering the battlefields of the Southern Ou Kingdom.”
The king nodded. The Southern Ou Kingdom was filled with forests and valleys, and the terrain was extremely narrow, making it difficult for an elite heavy-armored army to deploy in formation and fight. The most suitable army for such terrain would be mountain troops, special forces specializing in alpine warfare. The Nirvana Army, a broadsword unit, relies on collective strength, felling the enemy as if chopping rotten wood with thousands of broadswords at once. To do that, they needed to fight on open ground.
“Your Majesty, however, I have already prepared to train the next Nirvana Army. This second Nirvana Army will still be incredibly powerful, but they won't be broadsword soldiers. Instead, they will be a mountain-jungle unit, perfectly suited for combat in the mountainous and forested terrain of the Southern Ou Kingdom. They will be an archery unit with outstanding mobility and agility, numbering around three thousand men.”
“Isn't an archery unit of three thousand a bit small? It would be very difficult for them alone to change the tide of the war.”
“Your Majesty, what if each man uses a two-dan bow, can fire dozens to a hundred shots consecutively, and aims with unparalleled accuracy?”
Ning Yuanxian's eyes widened in astonishment.
‘That... that should be impossible, shouldn't it?’
Currently, the most elite archery units in the entire Great Yan Dynasty used one-dan bows. A one-and-a-half-dan warbow was used only by master archers, yet he was saying all three thousand would use two-dan warbows? If a one-dan bow had an effective lethal range of about one hundred and fifty paces, a two-dan warbow had an effective lethal range of at least two hundred and fifty paces. And they could fire a hundred shots with unparalleled accuracy? Ning Yuanxian didn't know the term 'special forces'. That's right! Shen Lang intended to train a special forces unit suitable for jungle warfare. And his goal was to train three thousand of them at once.
“To fire a hundred arrows with a two-dan bow requires astonishing strength. Even the broadsword soldiers of the Nirvana Army probably don't possess such power. Besides, isn't there no way to mass-produce such powerful two-dan warbows?”
That was certainly true. Even with the strength to lift five hundred catties, one couldn't fire a hundred arrows from a two-dan warbow. A two-dan warbow was a very heavy warbow, exceeding two hundred pounds. Moreover, all bows in this world were made of wood, so it was difficult to achieve such strength. Historically, the English longbow was made from a single yew tree. Shorter ones were about one hundred and fifty centimeters, while longer ones exceeded two meters. They were typically hundred-pound bows, with a very few exceeding two hundred pounds. Furthermore, with a normal bow, the farther back it's drawn, the greater the force of the shot. It required maximum effort to draw the bow and was difficult to hold, making it even harder to aim in that state.
However, what Shen Lang had designed and was producing was a modern compound bow. He couldn't create aluminum alloys yet, but he could make high-strength steel. A warbow made from low-carbon steel could generate great force, so a mere two-dan draw weight was no problem at all. A compound bow made with a pulley system had the effect of greatly reducing the holding weight. When using a compound bow, the draw force peaks and then decreases, following a curve. After reaching the peak draw weight, the pulley system takes over, reducing the effort needed to hold the bow at full draw, allowing the archer to hold a stable posture and aim at the enemy. Therefore, the appearance of the compound bow would undoubtedly be an epoch-making event.
Shen Lang knew that all those with the Blank Bloodline possessed extreme concentration; it was their nature. When they trained with broadswords, they practiced a single cleaving strike over a million times for several months. So, his plan was to put the second Nirvana Army into archery training after their bloodlines were modified. They too would surely be able to practice archery a million times in just a few months, just like the broadsword unit.
These men had minds as calm as still water, and they were extremely focused and sensitive. What would happen when such people devoted themselves wholeheartedly to archery practice? Furthermore, if they all used top-tier two-dan warbows with high-carbon steel arrowheads, what astonishing killing power would they possess? An army of three thousand such archers would be a nightmare for any opponent. The Nirvana Army's broadsword unit excelled in close combat, and the new archery unit would excel in ranged combat. Combining these two armies would make them nearly unbeatable. In fact, Shen Lang inwardly had even higher expectations for the three thousand elite archers.
Historically, English longbowmen shot arrows until the great French army wet themselves in fear. At the Battle of Agincourt, six thousand English soldiers fought against a French army of thirty thousand. Of the six thousand English troops, five thousand were longbowmen. As a result, the English army killed over ten thousand French soldiers in that battle, while suffering fewer than three hundred casualties themselves, achieving an unprecedented and brilliant victory in history.
And the second Nirvana Army that Shen Lang would create, though not large in number, would have combat power far superior to the English longbowmen. It was almost impossible to imagine what they would achieve on the battlefield. King Ning Yuanxian, too, let his imagination run wild with the potential exploits of this army. Then, the king suddenly asked.
“Shen Lang, you've paid so much money. Why not train that army to serve the Jin Clan?”
“And what would we do after incorporating them into our Jin Clan's army? Should the Jin Clan rebel and declare ourselves kings? Does Your Majesty wish for my father-in-law to become king, or for me to become king, or for Jin Mucong to become king?”
‘Ugh! Shen Lang becoming king?’
The mere thought of that possibility made the king shudder. If a man as harmful to others as Shen Lang became king, the common people would truly suffer and rise in protest. Besides, Shen Lang's goal was a world without enemies, which meant eliminating the Crown Prince, the Xue Clan, and the Third Prince. To achieve that, strengthening Ning Zheng's power was the most cost-effective method.