The frost of the Cold Dew term condensed into a thin layer of ice on both banks of the Canal. Shen Xitang stood in the watchtower of the newly rebuilt Xuanji Freight House, the copper tube of her lodestone telescope already encrusted with ice crystals.
In the lens, thirty miles away, smoke and dust billowed from the imperial road. The new Emperor’s dragon-patterned banners pierced the morning mist, and the Chain Mail of the Black Armor Guards beneath them shimmered with an eerie, indigo hue—this was the "Wolfsbane Armor" specially supplied by the Ministry of Works, its interlayers soaked with Pyrostone Crystal that would explode upon contact with heat.
"Tell the frogmen to bury the magnetic mines at the seventh river bend," she said, pressing her Ice Silkworm Gloves against the bronze steering wheel. "When the imperial carriage passes, trigger them with the sulfur fuse."
Chapter 40