Chapter 651: Chapter 423: Treasure
The next day, it was rare for Wei Ziang to get up late, but he just couldn’t hold back his bubbling excitement and joy.
Last night he and Xiaomi sat on the roof watching the moon, and in the end they watched the stars too, the distant nebulae even more beautiful than what their naked eyes could see.
Those brilliant, multicolored hues were ones he had never seen on the ground before, and yet those stunning colors, because they were too far away, could not be seen from the earth.
Xiaomi also said that next time they went out of the city and up the mountain to look, they wouldn’t need to be so cautious, for fear of being discovered.
"Third Young Master, breakfast is ready. Fourth Miss still hasn’t gotten up."
"Let her sleep a bit more."
Last night the two of them hadn’t gone back to their rooms to sleep until after the third watch; Xiaomi had nothing pressing to do anyway, so she could just get up after she’d slept her fill.
"Right, once Xiaomi gets up, tell her I’m off-duty tomorrow and the day after. We’ll eat a little earlier in the afternoon; when I get back we’ll go together to see Father and Mother."
This afternoon he would leave the city; the day after tomorrow, if they headed out early, they could arrive by the time the army rose at dawn, which meant they could stay longer in Anning Village.
"Alright."
After a simple breakfast, Wei Ziang hurried out the door, and of course did not forget to bring that small wooden box with him.
The guards at the city gate all knew this young general; they didn’t even need to check him and let him pass straight through.
He headed straight for the Stone Forest; the army was already drilling on the outskirts of the Stone Forest.
After eating plenty of fat and oil yesterday, everyone’s faces were glowing today; their training had more momentum, their voices full and powerful.
Wei Ziang nodded to himself. What Xiaomi had said was right—those vast fertile fields along the border were far too much of a waste.
In fact, the most important thing wasn’t even planting crops; if they could raise some cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks and the like, and improve the rations once a month, that would be truly excellent.
Coarse grains could fill the belly, but compared to meat, whether coarse grain or fine grain, both still fell a notch short.
Lost in thought, he had already drawn near the Stone Forest.
There were already ox carts hauling things out. Wei Ziang swung off his horse, took his little wooden box, and strode inside.
The Stone Forest now was completely different from the one that had trapped them before.
A broad road led straight ahead; all the rocky hills that blocked the way had been pushed down, the stones hauled away, and the spacious road was wide enough for three ox carts to travel side by side.
Every day ox carts came and went, bringing in firewood and hauling out iron ore that had undergone simple forging.
The secret that there was an iron ore vein under this Stone Forest might not be openly acknowledged, but everyone knew it in their hearts.
Wei Ziang walked forward for a while; those original maze-like paths around them had all become workspaces for the craftsmen, the clanging of hammering ringing out, noisy yet pleasing to the ear.
On the outer perimeter were ordinary craftsmen, giving the freshly dug ore some simple forging so that transporting it to the Capital City would be more convenient and efficient.
Further in, there were over a thousand blacksmiths; these men had been directly hired by the court at high pay from all over the country, allowed to return home only one month a year.
And their numbers were still growing; almost every day new craftsmen arrived.
The craftsmen who had first come with Lord Xie had all stayed as well, though their staying actually didn’t serve much real purpose.
After all, mining didn’t need them, and these basic forging tasks were a waste of their talents; besides, conditions here were limited, without charcoal fires hot enough, they couldn’t produce fine weapons.
But no one could bear to leave.
They’d lived half their lives and this was the first time they had seen iron ore being mined with their own eyes—how could they be willing to go?
In any case, these shipments of iron ore would reach the Capital City far more slowly than they would; they might as well stay here longer and return after a while.
On ordinary days, these senior masters either examined the freshly mined ore or wandered among the ordinary craftsmen; when the mood struck, they would offer a pointer or two.
Knowing that these masters were officials of the Ministry of War in the Capital City, with top-notch skills, everyone naturally welcomed their guidance—this was experience from masters that money couldn’t buy!
Wei Ziang walked along asking questions as he went, until he reached the innermost part of the Stone Forest.
This place had also changed dramatically. Those rocky hills tens of meters high had all been leveled, the stones hauled away, leaving only black iron ore exposed directly to the air.
With open-pit ore, mining was both safe and convenient; in the words of the masters, this was simply Heaven’s blessing on Xuyu!
And the surrounding rocky hills were still being brought down. With an army of one hundred and fifty thousand, it actually wouldn’t take that long to flatten an entire Stone Forest.
Earlier they had simply never wanted to waste the time and effort to do it.
Wei Ziang searched around for a while before he spotted a master on the opposite side.
Mainly because the mornings were cool, everyone liked to roam around; just seeing chunks of ore being forged made them especially happy.
At noon it was too hot, especially with the fires constantly burning and the heat intense, so naturally they didn’t have such good spirits as in the morning.
"Lord Liu, I finally found you."
Seeing that it was Wei Ziang, Lord Liu halted the step he had been about to take.
"You hadn’t shown up for so long today, I thought you’d gone strolling around with your sister. It’s rare for the little girl to be back—what are you doing running out here?"
Everyone knew Wei Ziang was only the Jiang family’s adopted son; plus, since he had previously violated military orders for that sister, and with the occasional joking from his colleagues, they had more or less guessed some of Wei Ziang’s little thoughts.
So when Lord Liu joked, the words flowed easily.
After all, he wasn’t the sort of official who had to attend court every day and mind every word. Lord Liu and his peers, though they held office, were different from the other officials and naturally more easygoing.
"My leave starts tomorrow. I’m going home with Xiaomi tonight, so I didn’t want to delay today."
Wei Ziang smiled as he explained, striding quickly to Lord Liu’s side.
"Lord Liu, there’s something even more important I need to talk to you about."
As he spoke, Wei Ziang had already taken out that wooden box.
"Originally Xiaomi should have come herself, but as you know, she feels awful here, so she asked me to personally hand this over to you."
The thing belonged to Xiaomi; naturally he wouldn’t pocket the credit that should be hers.
Perplexed, Lord Liu accepted the wooden box. "Hand it to me personally?"
He’d never even exchanged a single sentence with that young lady of the Marquis of Agricultural Affairs’ household—what could she have to give him?
"Not to Lord Liu, but to the masters."
By "masters," Wei Ziang meant all the senior Forging Masters from the Capital City, including Lord Liu.
Lord Liu’s expression instantly turned serious; that one sentence from Wei Ziang was enough to show how important this thing was.
He hastily called over a nearby soldier to fetch the others, then led Wei Ziang to a spot where no one else was around.
"What is it that must be given to us?"
He made it sound casual, but his hands were anything but; he opened the wooden box almost with extreme care.
In the sunlight, shafts of reflected light made it almost impossible for Lord Liu to keep his eyes open.
He quickly tilted his head, and when he saw what was in the box, his eyes instantly widened.
"Th-this is..."