Chapter 150

The morning mist at Desheng Fortress in Datong was thick with the acrid stench of horse manure. Shen Xitang’s black boots crushed the charred edges of the *Xuanda Defense Map*. Xiao Heng’s Xiuchun Saber cleaved through the rammed earth battlements of the fortress wall; a broken segment of a Frankish Cannon barrel caught the northern wind, casting a phosphorescent glint—within the raised inscriptions inside the bore, the seal "Manufactured by Order of the Prince of Jin" was etched in small seal script! "Lord Thousand-Householder, look at this rifling." She traced the spiral fracture with her fingertips. "This rifling technique was introduced by the Portuguese in the twenty-third year of the Wanli era, but it was banned by the Ministry of Works during the Tianqi era..." Suddenly, the sound of bronze bells rang out from outside the fortress gate. Thirty horsemen, dressed like residents of Baisheng City, charged from behind the signal tower. The forging patterns on their triple-barreled matchlocks were identical to the abandoned armaments of Wang Pu’s troops. Xiao Heng’s scabbard shattered one of the gun barrels; what spilled out were not lead shot, but rolls of the "Secret Files of the Shahu Pass Customs," each page bearing vermilion annotations stuck with the "Xinglongkui" cipher of Fan Yongdou!