The iron chains of Jihong Bridge groaned in the river wind like a mourner’s wail. Shen Xitang’s black boots crunched over the scorched edges of a map of the Timurid Empire; the Persian silver coins stuck to her soles were triggered by a sudden brushfire, revealing a secret code in Sogdian script. Beside a clause reading, "Summer of 1648, three hundred Persian heavy cavalry exchanged for the Tea Horse Road," were ballistics data for the shelling of Dali Prefecture, marked in Manchu!
"Lord Thousand-Householder, inspect this arrowhead." Xiao Heng’s Xiuchun Saber cleaved through a merchant crate belonging to the Armenian caravan. The blade scraped across an eagle crest on the shaft. "This 'barbed poison' forging technique is a secret art of the Miao frontier, captured back when Wang Shouren quelled the Ning King during the Zhengde era..."
Camel bells suddenly echoed along the Tea Horse Road. Fifty Persian horse archers, their heads wrapped in Samarkand turbans, burst from the cliffs. The sinew and horn composite of their bows was identical to the "Divine Arm Bows" used by Li Rusong’s forces during the Wanli era campaign in Korea. Shen Xitang’s Silver Silk shredded a bow limb, and from the hollowed ox-horn fell a fragment of a secret Mu Mansion contract: "For every three days the Jihong Bridge is held, the Persians are granted the right to purchase five Pu'er tea mountains!"
Chapter 157