Tribute boats from Jian’an Prefecture, loaded with ramie cloth, drifted down the Luling River. Shen Xitang’s leather boots crunched over the scorched scrolls of the *Record of Hecuan Military Provisions*. Xiao Heng’s Xiuchun Saber sliced open a disguised Textile Bureau dye-works; as bolts of ge-cloth burst into flames from an underground fire, he discovered that next to the Chinese text for "Sixteenth Year of Chongzhen" lay a notation in Prussian: "Bronze Alloy Ratios of the Berlin Bell Foundry," secretly concealing the forging parameters for the keels of warships on the Spree River.
"Lord Thousand-Householder, examine this shuttle." She traced the spiral grooves of the boxwood shuttle with her fingertips. "This 'Nine-Palace Weft-Picking' technique is a military weaving method improved by Liu Ji during the Hongwu reign. How could it be marked with the eagle crest of the House of Hohenzollern?"
Suddenly, the sound of looms echoed from the riverbank. Twenty Brandenburg firearms craftsmen, disguised as weavers, leaped from the dye vats. The forging patterns on the needles they brandished were identical to the Matchlock Gun components used by Sun Chengzong during the fortification of Dalinghe River in the Tianqi era. Shen Xitang used her Silver Silk to shred a bolt of fine ge-cloth, revealing a fallen, scorched page from the *Secret Ledgers of the Elbe*. Beside the official text claiming "100,000 bolts of military fabric falsely reported," there was a Low German annotation: "Re…
Chapter 190