Moonlight steeped in the scent of iris bathed the ruined walls of the Jingdong Garrison. Shen Xitang’s leather boots trod over a rubbing of the "Stele of Mu Ying’s Pacification of the Borders." Xiao Heng’s scabbard shattered a model of a faux Palace of Versailles, revealing a Bronze Secret Casket. Inside, the "Richelieu Secret Decree" lay starkly in view—beside a clause on the "Cession of the Ailao Mountain Tin Mines" on the parchment, the French fleur-de-lis, the Russian double-headed eagle, and the seal of the Mu Mansion were intertwined in a sinister display.
"Look at this tide of treaty-making," she said, her armor scraping against the rolled edge of the Parisian meridian scale. "The celestial alignment for the 'Summer Solstice of the 49th Year of Yongli' is precisely the eve before Mu Tianbo poisoned the Yuanjiang chieftain..."
A bell tolled suddenly in the mountains. As fifty French cannons, disguised as Ming Army Frankish Breech-loading Guns, pivoted their muzzles, the gilded inscription "Wanggongchang Special Make, 34th Year of Chongzhen" glowed like blood against the cliffs of Mount Wuliang, blasting the last pulse of the Ming border into the scattered remnants of a European hegemonic chess game.
Chapter 176