County Princess’ Grand Grace Will Never Be Forgotten
The hall burst into an uproar over what Feng Yu Heng said.
Nobody thought that this county princess Ji An would actually dare to say such a thing! The iron essence from Zong Sui had been matchless for the past hundred years. What sort of incredible thing did she have that could compare?
After Feng Yu Heng left the hall with Huang Quan, the hall was filled with an endless discussion, as Li Kun said: “Your Majesty should be clear. Even if county princess Ji An truly has a divine weapon capable of breaking a weapon made of iron essence, my Zong Sui’s sixth princess will be bringing the method for producing iron essence as a betrothal gift!”
This reasoning was something everyone understood. Even if Feng Yu Heng brought out a rare item and broke the iron essence, how many could she have? What Da Shun wanted was the method of refining this and not just a few glorious moments.
Faced with this argument, Xuan Tian Ming remained calm. He trusted Feng Yu Heng, and he had personally seen some divine weapons that could not be believed. At this time, he dared to conclude that Feng Yu Heng’s dagger was already in her sleeve, but because this was the imperial palace, it would not be good if she brought it out in front of so many sets of eyes.
A wicked smile appeared on his face, as he leaned back in his wheelchair, carefree and content. Fiddling with the whip in his hands, it seemed that he was not even half as nervous as he was earlier.
The Emperor looked towards him, and Xuan Tian Ming’s current appearance gave him a great deal of confidence. It had to be said that he was a little disturbed by Feng Yu Heng’s earlier actions, but for fear of hurting her feelings, he could only nod and agree. But since his ninth son’s current appearance told him: Don’t worry, things will definitely work out.
Thus the Emperor leaned back in his chair, and a wicked smile surfaced on his face that had a great resemblance to Xuan Tian Ming’s smile.
Down below, the officials could not help but sigh. It truly was like father like son. Looking like this, it truly seemed that county princess Ji An would be able to bring them a pleasant surprise.
In truth, everyone still held a sliver of hope. Even if Feng Yu Heng only had a moment of prestige, as long as she could break the weapon made of iron essence, Da Shun would win back some face from the prince of Zong Sui. Although it could not change the fact that the seventh prince would be part of a political marriage, it would not be as depressing as it had been previously.
The Emperor had someone bring the prince of Zong Sui a chair and began to chat with him. On the other end, Feng Yu Heng hastily led Huang Quan out of the palace.
Huang Quan was unable to understand: “Young miss, when had our carriage hidden a dagger?”
Feng Yu Heng quietly said: “It’s not in the carriage. It’s on me, but it’s not good if I bring it out in the palace. We’re going to the carriage for a moment before we can return.”
Huang Quan was speechless, “Young miss, you dared to bring a dagger into the palace?” So arrogant.
Feng Yu Heng shrugged, “Either way, nobody checked. If there comes a plot against the palace, I can protect myself at any time and any place.” These sorts of plots always came unexpectedly, was this not the case in the dramas shown on television?
Huang Quan was completely speechless.
The two went through the motions and went to the carriage. After milling about for a bit, Huang Quan saw Feng Yu Heng pull out a dagger roughly half the length of her arm from her sleeve.
The corner of her lips twitched, “Young miss, you don’t find that to be unbearable to carry?”
The two got out of the carriage. Because there was a palace servant following along with them, they had received a token from the Emperor and shown it to the imperial guards. Thus Feng Yu Heng fearlessly and energetically entered the palace carrying her dagger.
This dagger was something that she had taken from the military. It had been kept in the rest room of the pharmacy. It was a long, high-carbon military knife.
Speaking of, the important difference between iron and steel was the carbon content. The higher the carbon content, the harder it was. The lower the carbon content, the tougher it was. Pig iron was harder than steel, but the ratio of toughness to hardness of pig iron was just right. That’s why when producing things, steel was much “harder” than iron.
In the 21st century, the majority of the weapons used by the military were made of high-carbon steel and steel alloys. In the current era, Zong Sui having a thorough understanding of smelting steel was already very rare, but if they wanted to produce high-carbon steel, it was not something that could be accomplished in a few hundred years.
Before she came out, she had already carefully looked at the so-called weapons made of iron essence. That was just the earliest form of man-made steel. They had the technique, but it was not developed. But the number of skilled craftsmen in this ancient era were indeed many. Even though this was the case where the technology was not very advanced, they were still able to turn the steel into batches of weapons. This was something that she truly admired.
On the way back to Fei Cui Hall, she began to ponder. If she provided the knowledge for producing steel, would they be able to find a master even more capable than the ones in Zong Sui? She would not be asked to personally work a furnace to make steel, right?
Pondering along the way, they arrived back at Fei Cui Hall. Seeing that Feng Yu Heng had returned, everyone turned their attention to the dagger in her hand. The dagger was still in the sheath, and it did not look very long. Compared to the weapons made of iron essence from Zong Sui, it could only be considered exquisite. This sort of thing did not give people much confidence and caused people to lose heart, as people began to comment: “County princess Ji An shouldn’t have just been exercising her ability to talk, right? That sort of thing that is used by a girl to protect herself is able to compete with iron essence?”
But some people held an opposing view: “Not necessarily. The quality of a weapon cannot be determined by its size. Moreover, I feel that county princess Ji An is a girl that does not like showing off her abilities. Do you still remember the three arrows that she shot at the Mid-Autumn banquet?”
Once this was brought up, everyone immediately recalled the Mid-Autumn banquet, when Feng Yu Heng shot three arrows and shocked everyone. At the start, she had kept saying to move the target further back, and everyone felt that she was exaggerating her abilities, but they never thought that once the three arrows were shot, she would not only win the phoenix hairpin, she would also receive the Hou Yi bow.
“Let’s see if county princess Ji An will be able to move the heavens! Hehe, old friend Sun, do you want to make a wager?”
For a while, the officials had begun to make wagers on whether Feng Yu Heng’s dagger or Zong Sui’s iron essence weapon would win.
One way or the other, today was the celebration of the new year. Even if the Emperor saw this, he would only laugh. Although he laughed, he was very interested in the weapon that Feng Yu Heng had brought back.
Feng Yu Heng saluted him then raised the military knife and said: “This is the weapon that my master gave to A-Heng for self-defense. Zong Sui has named the material for their weapons iron essence. The material for the weapon in A-Heng’s hand also has a name.”
“Oh?” The Emperor looked at her, “What is its name?”
Feng Yu Heng gently raised the corner of the lips and loudly said: “It’s called steel!”
Steel?
Everyone was confused. They had never heard of this thing. What was steel? Was it better than iron essence?
Feng Yu Heng turned back around and said to Li Kun: “Prince of Zong Sui, if I said that the method for making iron essence was outdated to my Persian master, you would definitely not be convinced, but I must tell you that it is indeed the truth.” She said this while holding the dagger in her hand, as she pulled the knife out of the sheath!
Everyone felt that the sound of this dagger being pulled from the sheath was very crisp. When they looked at the blade of the dagger, they saw that it was shiny and capable of reflecting images.
With this thing making a debut, even the prince of Zong Sui was shocked. Staring wide-eyed, he looked at the thing in Feng Yu Heng’s hand as though he had seen a ghost.
Feng Yu Heng continued: “Presently, most weapons used to kill the enemy are made of iron. A hundred years ago, Zong Sui managed to produce the iron essence that you are so proud of. But I will tell you today, the so-called iron essence is just the starting point of making steel. This is the border of beginning to craft this sort of thing. And the steel that is in my hands is something that you can not even possibly dream of making.”
Once she said this, she suddenly began moving and rushed towards the iron essence weapons. When she arrived in front of them, she reached out with the dagger and flicked it towards the bottom of the platter that the attendant carried, and all of the weapons were sent flying into the air.
Everyone was shocked and subconsciously dodged back. Even numerous hidden guards appeared at the Emperor’s side.
But the Emperor angrily snorted: “Everyone retreat! Do not block Our way!”
The hidden guards disappeared in a flash. At this time, he saw Feng Yu Heng raise her arm and begin to cut at the iron essence weapons that were in the air.
Her hand went up, and the dagger came down. Two iron essence swords, three iron essence sabers and two iron essence hooks were all cut into two parts in this instant.
After the wasted parts of iron essence weapons fell to the ground, the prince of Zong Sui was not able to endure such a shock, as he dropped to the ground.
His iron essence, the glory of his Zong Sui over the past hundred years was actually… wasted?
Not possible!
He sharply raised his head and looked straight at the thing in Feng Yu Heng’s hand. He could not accept this matter at all.
On the contrary, everyone seated in the hall from Da Shun, the Emperor included, let out a thunderous applause. Even Feng Jin Yuan was unable to hold back his feelings of excitement, as he stood up with everyone else. He repeatedly shouted to his second daughter: “Good! Good! Good!”
At this moment, Feng Yu Heng was a god of war in everyone’s hearts. Many years later, people would look back at her heroic appearance and feel a surge of emotion. They would sigh over how astonishing and strange a girl she was.
Xuan Tian Ming applauded along with everyone else. He had always known that his wife was a deity. Xuan Fei Yu calling her deity big sister was very clear. Feng Yu Heng was just a deity. She was the deity that had fallen in the mountains of the Northwest!
The applause continued for a long time. When it finally calmed down, they heard the Emperor loudly ask: “Prince of Zong Sui, do you admit defeat?”
What could Li Kun say? The broken pieces of iron essence weapons lay on the ground as a constant reminder to him that Zong Sui had lost. On this large piece of land in the middle of the continent, Zong Sui had suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the large country, Da Shun.
He was still a man, and after the shock had subsided, he admitted defeat. Standing up from the ground, he saluted first to Feng Yu Heng and expressed his admiration. He then turned to face the Emperor and said: “This lowly prince has lost. This lowly prince will represent Zong Sui and retract the request for a marriage. We do not dare covet the divine Prince Chun. We also promise that Zong Sui will pledge its loyalty to Da Shun for another generation and will never betray it.”
“Good!” The Emperor rejoiced and immediately promised a number of benefits for Zong Sui.
The establishing of relations between the two countries was like that. Even if one side was the subordinate country, the other side still needed to give a sufficient amount of benefits. Only like this would one side be willing to follow the other.
As for Feng Yu Heng, she could only earnestly express herself to the Emperor and the officials: “A-Heng wishes to present the technique for producing steel to father Emperor and personally teach the craftsmen how to produce pure steel. After making it into weapons, it will be tested by the Northwest Army. After ensuring that it was a success, a large investment can be made into the military to improve our Da Shun’s military strength.”
The Emperor took a deep breath. Before the officials could even sit back down, Feng Yu Heng’s words made them stand on edge once more.
General Ping Nan was moved and went forward to bow deeply to Feng Yu Heng.
How could Feng Yu Heng receive such a thing, as she quickly went to stop him. The Emperor, however, said: “Just let him bow. As someone who has led soldiers for a lifetime, this has been the day he has been looking forward to. Previously, my Da Shun was not even able to produce iron essence, but now it will be receiving your techniques in producing steel. If he does not bow to you, I fear that he will not have any place to show this gratitude.”
General Ping Nan repeatedly nodded. At this time, all of the other generals also gathered around, as though they had planned it in advance, and they saluted Feng Yu Heng in unison: “County princess Ji An’s grand grace is something that we will never forget! County princess Ji An’s grand grace is something that we will never forget!”
TN: Steel is a combination of iron and carbon… What is pure steel?
Thank you to Heavenly on Patreon for letting me know that pure steel is steel that does not have any extra alloys added to it.