After returning to the palace, the Empress kept Xiao Yue in her bedchamber for a heart-to-heart talk.
Xiao Yue, with a mischievous grin, stirred things up, saying, "Royal Sister, are you really going to let him off the hook just like that for secretly keeping the Xiongnu Queen?"
The Empress glanced at her, thinking to herself, "I summoned you here to ease my mind, not to stir up trouble..."
Thinking of this, she parted her lips slightly: "He was able to capture the Holy Maiden of Jiang Kingdom and eliminate a potential threat for me, yet I treated him this way and even threatened him. This time, I was indeed wrong..."
Xiao Yue's eyes widened in shock. Her imperial sister actually admitted her mistakes...
"Moreover," the Empress continued, "Jiang Lianyue is already quite beautiful, yet he didn't lust after her. This is enough to prove that what he said is true. He only had the Xiongnu queen do laundry, cook, and feed the birds. This time, I was judging him by my own petty standards..."
Xiao Yue thought to herself, "My silly older sister, you think 'feeding the birds' is just a simple 'feeding the birds'? There's another layer of meaning to it..."
However, she did not say it aloud. As the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, she dared not speak recklessly without evidence, unless she saw it with her own eyes.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yue looked at the Empress and teased, "Royal sister, I remember someone saying... that they didn't like him. Why are you suddenly so concerned about him?"
As if her secret had been revealed, a faint blush rose on the Empress's beautiful face.
"Who cares about him? Xiao Yue, don't talk nonsense..."
Seeing that her elder sister was still pretending, Xiao Yue simply called her out: "Elder sister, stop pretending. In the entire court, in the entire capital, who doesn't know about you two..."
The Empress turned her face away, muttering shyly, "Really, who's gossiping about us..."
"Royal sister, a few days ago, when he returned victorious from his campaign against the Southern Xiongnu, didn't you let him ride in the imperial carriage with you into the city? You also bestowed upon him the title of Prince of Yan, showing him great favor. Anyone with eyes can see that you like him!"
Hearing Xiao Yue's words, the Empress seemed to understand, blinking her phoenix eyes, "So you're saying that I was too obvious?"
Xiao Yue didn't respond to her question, but calmly asked, "Royal sister, he has a wife, and he seems quite devoted to her. What are you going to do?"
"I……"
The Empress's slender, white fingers intertwined as she slowly paced back and forth. After a long while, she uttered only the word "朕" (zhen, meaning "I, the Emperor"), and then remained silent.
Finally, she stopped walking and stood still: "Xiao Yue, you usually have a lot of ideas. Let me ask you, if you encountered this kind of situation, how would you handle it?"
Xiao Yue pointed to her nose with her index finger, "I...I..."
She hesitated for a long time before finally managing to say "I," but couldn't utter the next word.
...
The Prince of Yan's Mansion.
While playing with his parrot Xiao Ba in his room, Qin Chuan pondered how to handle his feelings for the Empress and Ru Yan.
But after much thought, I still couldn't come up with a good solution...
Then I realized that Xiao Yue was right; we can't just ignore everything and spend all our time on romantic love...
Thinking of this, he left the room, summoned Li Aniu, and, along with some Imperial Guards, boarded a black-covered carriage and went directly to the Ministry of War's Weaponry Department.
The official in charge of the Armory was named Tian Honglu. Upon hearing that His Highness Prince Yan was personally visiting the Armory, he immediately ordered all the hundreds of craftsmen in the Armory to stop working and come to the gate to welcome the Prince Yan.
"Your Highness."
As soon as Qin Chuan stepped off the carriage, Tian Honglu came to greet him.
Tian Honglu bowed, a fawning smile on his face.
When Qin Chuan saw so many people standing at the door to greet him, he told Tian Honglu to call them all back so he could continue forging weapons.
"Your Highness, it is an honor to have you here. I have failed to greet you properly and beg Your Highness's punishment."
Tian Honglu still wore a fawning smile. Qin Chuan knew he was just saying polite words, so he didn't say anything more and asked directly, "Where are the muskets made?"
Tian Honglu's eyes darted around quickly, and he hurriedly said, "Your Highness, I'll take you there right away."
He led the way, with Qin Chuan and Li Aniu following closely behind.
The three of them walked together through several weapon workshops in the Armory. There were workshops forging swords and knives, where blacksmiths swung their sledgehammers at the freshly forged components, sparks flying everywhere. There were also workshops sewing animal hide armor and carving wooden arrows. All sorts of things were available.
Qin Chuan is currently unable to resolve his marriage to the Empress, and he doesn't have enough money to buy armor and weapons for the national army. Moreover, he can't buy firearms either, so he can only rely on the Armory to manufacture them.
We previously captured 42 muskets from the Japanese pirates. These were old-fashioned matchlock guns, far less powerful than composite bows. If they could be improved into new matchlock guns with trigger or flintlock firing mechanisms, their power would be greatly increased, making them formidable weapons on the battlefield.
"Your Highness, this is the firearms workshop."
Tian Honglu led Qin Chuan to the firearms workshop, where many craftsmen were making various firearm parts, but no finished samples of firearms were visible.
"Wasn't that musket copied?" Qin Chuan asked Tian Honglu.
"Your Highness, they are in the storeroom; more than three hundred have been made," Tian Honglu replied.
"take me."
"Yes, Your Highness."
Qin Chuan followed Tian Honglu to the armory, where more than three hundred muskets had indeed been manufactured.
Qin Chuan picked up a musket at random and tried it out. The effect wasn't great, but it could still hit targets thirty or forty meters away and cause some damage.
"Master Tian, these are the blueprints for making rifles and flintlock muskets. Have the craftsmen study them carefully and see if they can make them."
Qin Chuan took out a stack of blueprints and handed them to Tian Honglu.
Tian Honglu was overjoyed and quickly took it to the firearms workshop.
Qin Chuan also left the Armory, taking with him a musket and some gunpowder pellets, and went to the Dali Temple.
"Your Highness."
When Cheng Yang, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, saw Qin Chuan arrive, he quickly sent someone to inform Xiao Yue, the Senior Minister.
Xiao Yue, dressed in a white robe and the attire of a female official, gracefully walked up to Qin Chuan.
"What brings the Prince of Yan to my Dali Temple?"
Qin Chuan smiled and joked with her, "I've come to see your Princess Xiao Yue."
Xiao Yue's face showed a hint of disgust as she crossed her arms and said, "Old habits die hard. Your shameless nature hasn't changed at all. I really don't know how my elder sister could have fallen for you..."
Qin Chuan, however, did not respond to her words. Instead, he scrutinized her and said, "Your figure is actually quite good, with a curvy figure. It's just that you wear such loose clothes all the time, so it's not noticeable at all. How about I help you with some transformation?"
Xiao Yue couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, "Stop talking, okay? If my elder sister finds out, she won't just want to kill you, she'll kill me too..."
“Then let’s not talk about it,” Qin Chuan said seriously, “Is that Crimson Moon Society’s Holy Maiden being held here with you?”
"Why are you asking this?" Xiao Yue asked curiously.
Qin Chuan pulled out the musket, a hint of coldness in his eyes. "I want to show her what this is."
He then asked Li Aniu to bring over a compound bow, pointing to it and saying, "And this one too."
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