Chapter 155

The smoke from the Red-Barbarian Cannon workshop at Menggen Prefecture had not yet dissipated when Shen Xitang’s leather boots crushed the tattered pages of "Divine Machinery of Western Methods." Iron filings stuck to her soles flared as they met a pocket of subterranean fire, revealing Manchu secret symbols etched between the rifling grooves—beside an inscription reading "Seventh Cannon, Category C, Rabbit Month, 16th Year of Chongzhen," there sat an engraving of a Siamese forging cipher translated by the Jianzhou Culture Office! "Lord Thousand-Householder, look at this spiral," Xiao Heng said. His Xiuchun Saber split open the cannon barrel, the blade scraping against the snowflake pattern of the cold-forged steel. "This 'nine-winding circular' rifling technique is the master skill left in Datong by the Frankish artisan Almeida during the Jiajing era..." The sound of interlocking gears echoed from a hidden cellar door. Twenty bare-chested craftsmen emerged from behind the furnaces, the forged patterns on their iron rods identical to the armor-piercing spikes used by the Ming Army during the Wanli-era relief of Korea. Shen Xitang’s Silver Silk shredded one of the rods; a scrap of the "Siamese Secret Treaty" fell from the hollow core—beside a clause stating, "One Red-Barbarian Cannon for three jade mines in Northern Burma," a thumbprint of Mu Tianbo, soaked in elephant blood, was clearly visible!