Chapter 185 Fate She finally believed in what true fate was.
Guan Ye let out a deep sigh. Since things had come to this point, there was no need to hide it from Mu Chenbi. Guan Ye spread out her hands, revealing calluses: "Fine, arrest me or kill me, it's up to you. My name is Guan Ye, that's all. My father is Guan Xiaotian. Have you ever heard of such a name?"
“Guan Xiaotian…” How could Mu Chenbi not have heard of him? There was no surprise in his eyes, only deep joy. “Tianhu Workshop… the number one blacksmith in the world, Guan Xiaotian, you are Guan Xiaotian’s daughter? No wonder, no wonder you could tell the spiral wind from it. You are from Tianhu Workshop, so everything makes sense.”
Seeing that Mu Chenbi was only happy and not surprised, the Mei siblings were also a little confused. Mei Xiaojing looked at Mei Shiyu and poked her head with her finger, meaning that the Crown Prince must have something wrong with his head.
"The Blood Crossbow Case!" Mu Chenbi exclaimed. "Guan Xiaotian's entire family vanished without a trace. I'm afraid no one knows he actually had a daughter, a daughter who inherited his mantle... How have you all managed all these years? Mr. and Mrs. Guan, Guan Ye, are your parents still alive...?"
Guan Ye looked dejected. "My parents passed away one after another a few years ago. My father died suddenly from drunkenness before going to Canglang Island. So I took a big ship to Canglang Island and was taken in by the Pei family until today."
Guan Ye suddenly looked at Mu Chenbi suspiciously, as if remembering something. "Everyone says the Blood Crossbow Case is inseparable from my father. I've said so much, why haven't you asked a single question about this case? The fugitive's daughter is right in front of you, and you're not even a little flustered?"
Mu Chenbi laughed a few times, ignoring the Mei siblings watching, he placed his palm on Guan Ye's shoulder, leaned down and stared into her eyes, saying, "Putting aside the many suspicious points in this case, even if it is really related to Tianhu Workshop, she is the daughter of a fugitive, and she is not the one who committed the crime, so why should I panic?"
Mei Shiyu lightly picked up the jade clasp, and his gaze toward Mu Chenbi gradually softened. Mei Xiaojing covered her half-open red lips. Mu Chenbi's eyes were filled with affection, and he no longer seemed to be hiding his unusual feelings for Guan Ye in front of others. He treated Guan Ye like this, so he must be... trustworthy.
Mei Shiyu coughed and said, "I don't understand casting techniques. Why would brass be mixed into the weapons of the tomb guards?"
Guan Ye avoided Mu Chenbi's burning gaze, took a half step back and pulled her shoulder aside, saying, "Brass is brittle and was never originally intended for weapons. It's mostly used for decoration. Weapons made with too much brass become brittle." Guan Ye made a sword-wielding gesture, "Unable to withstand gravity, it will shatter with a single blow. The guards stationed at the imperial tombs may not even have the chance to use weapons for decades, so naturally they won't be discovered."
"But," Mei Xiaoqing said, puzzled, "why did Xingguo Workshop have to refine it for us after all these years without anyone noticing? Wouldn't it expose us once it was refined?"
Mu Chenbi's gaze sharpened. "Several months ago, when the sword was presented to the Emperor, Wushuang from the Inner Palace proposed to replace the weapons of the Great Jin with minimal expenditure. To save materials, the existing miscellaneous copper swords in the army should be refined first. If this is implemented, it will be only a matter of time before the weapons of the Imperial Guard are replaced..." Mu Chenbi lowered his voice as he spoke, and all of this seemed to point to one person, and the intricate relationship between himself and this person... Mu Chenbi felt a chill run down his spine and dared not continue.
Guan Ye smiled contemptuously: "Xingguo Fang, this pawn that is about to be discarded, should naturally shine one last time for this move, using it to the extreme, so that it dies in the right place."
Mei Shiyu had a general idea in mind. He glanced at Mu Chenbi, whose face was complicated, and hesitated to speak. Mei Xiaojing was puzzled and tugged at her hair with a look of confusion. "I still don't understand. Brass is not worth much. Why would the Ma family risk their lives to hide several hundred kilograms of it in the weapons of the tomb guards? The Ma family runs a mint, not an armory. Who forged the weapons from several hundred kilograms of brass?"
“Only the Inner Workshop remains,” Guan Ye blurted out. “Back then, due to the Blood Crossbow Case, the five major workshops of Rongdu were completely destroyed. The only one capable of forging weapons was the Inner Workshop, hastily established by the imperial court. The Inner Workshop…” Guan Ye looked at Mu Chenbi, “The Inner Workshop’s head, Mr. Shen… is your uncle, right?” Seeing Mu Chenbi remain silent, Guan Ye shook her head and continued, “If I’m not mistaken, Head Shen doesn’t understand forging techniques either. He can’t even recognize a few types of iron ore. How can someone like that be in charge of the nation’s weaponry? Or perhaps… it’s precisely because he knows nothing that he can be in charge of the Inner Workshop?”
Mei Shiyu finally spoke: "Why go to such lengths for a mere furnace of counterfeit copper coins from the Ma family, yielding only a few hundred catties of brass? If this matter were to be traced back, it would involve far more than just the Ma family; it would also involve the imperial workshops, and even the Salt and Iron Bureau responsible for distributing supplies… It would easily result in hundreds or even thousands of lives lost. Just think of the Blood Crossbow Case; Father told me that hundreds of heads were chopped off at Caishikou, and even today the soil there is still blood-red. The repercussions of that case have lasted for more than a decade, and there are practically no coppersmiths left in the Great Jin Dynasty…"
The Blood Crossbow Incident, the Blood Crossbow... Guan Ye suddenly remembered what her father had said—the three thousand soldiers of the Crossbow Battalion ambushed the Eagle Ridge Ancient Road. When the rebels appeared, they only fired one crossbow bolt before the crossbow mechanism shattered, injuring the archer who was holding it. The archer's flesh and bones were torn apart, and he was killed in retaliation. The three thousand elite soldiers were wiped out, and their blood stained the Eagle Ridge.
The crossbow bolt had only been fired once when the entire mechanism of the crossbow shattered... Brass, as I just mentioned, brass is brittle, and if too much is added to a weapon, it will be unable to withstand the weight, and it shattered with a single blow... Crossbow, why did the crossbow made by Tianhu Workshop shatter completely?
This is a puzzle that my father has been pondering for more than ten years. He said that crossbows are not rare weapons. Tianhu Workshop and other weapon workshops have made countless of them. My father patted his chest and said that he could make one with his eyes closed.
Damn it, what? Did you make that crossbow with your eyes closed?
Father was furious. He pointed to the sky and cursed himself. He had handled the three thousand crossbows himself, and there was no problem with them at all. It was clear that someone was trying to harm the Five Great Workshops.
Three thousand crossbows, manufactured right under the noses of the five major workshops and the Ministry of War's oversight team—how could every single one malfunction? It couldn't be human error; it must be a ghost. Surely it couldn't be the work of spirits…
Unless… Guan Ye had a bold idea. All along, her father had thought that someone had tampered with the technique… Over the past ten years, he had recalled the process of making the crossbows countless times, not missing a single minute detail, but he still couldn't figure out which step had gone wrong. Her father was wrong. The problem lay in something no one had thought of. All three thousand crossbows malfunctioned at once… the materials, the materials had been tampered with.
—The iron ore used to make the crossbows was mixed with brass.
Guan Ye visualized the shape of a crossbow in his mind. A crossbow consists of a crossbow arm, a bow, a bowstring, and a trigger mechanism. Guan Ye had never seen the shattered crossbow in the Blood Crossbow Case. The mechanism was completely broken. Guan Ye fell into deep thought. It was most likely that the problem was with the trigger mechanism. The trigger mechanism is the most important component of a crossbow. It is usually made of copper, but this copper is not brass. It is made of unrefined white copper. White copper is corrosion-resistant, tough, and strong. It can withstand the violent rebound of the drawn bowstring and can fire dozens of crossbows in succession.
But if brass is used instead of white copper, then it won't even withstand a single arrow; the crossbow will explode, injuring the archer... Everything makes sense now. Guan Ye secretly calculated that with three thousand men in the crossbow battalion, that's three thousand curved crossbows. Each crossbow uses about two ounces of copper, or five hundred catties of brass... That's roughly the material needed for three thousand crossbows...
In this light, everything makes sense. The missing brass at the mint wasn't meant to be hidden in the weapons of the tomb guards, but rather to be used to cover up another massive conspiracy—the Blood Crossbow Case.
"The Blood Crossbow Case," Guan Ye murmured softly.
"What?" Mu Chenbi was in a daze and didn't hear clearly.
Guan Ye suddenly grabbed Mu Chenbi's collar, "Does the inner storeroom still have the old crossbow from the bloody crossbow case?"
“No,” Mu Chenbi shook his head. “I’ve been in and out of the inner workshop countless times. I know better than Shen Ao what’s missing from his storeroom. There are no old items from the Blood Crossbow Case. Twenty years have passed, and these old crossbows have long since…” Mu Chenbi suddenly realized something, and his phoenix-like eyelashes flashed across Guan Ye’s eyes. “Guan Ye, do you suspect… that the missing brass is related to the Blood Crossbow Case? That brass wasn’t just melted down to make weapons for the tomb guards, but… was it first used to make crossbows? And then… melted down into weapons that hadn’t been used for decades… to destroy the evidence?”
Mei Shiyu understood what the two were talking about after a moment's thought. Guan Ye said that brass is brittle and easily cracked, and the crossbows on the Eagle Ridge Ancient Road... are also arrows that explode and cause damage... So that's how it is... It turns out that way?
"Not a single one left?" Guan Ye pressed. "A broken crossbow... I just need to take one look, just one look, and I'll know... whether... it's true or not."
Mu Chenbi looked down at Guan Ye's hand clutching his clothes. He also hoped to give Guan Ye an answer, but what was gone was gone. Guan Ye's hypothesis was not without reason, but without the old crossbow as evidence, everything would only be a conjecture that was difficult to establish. He could not convince the descendants of the three thousand archers, nor could he overturn the case of the five major workshops led by Tianhu. The three judicial departments would not recognize it, the court would not recognize it, and the culprit would certainly not recognize it.
“That’s all…” Mu Chenbi gently grasped Guan Ye’s cold hand. He saw the light in Guan Ye’s eyes dimming little by little. Mu Chenbi’s heart was breaking, but there was nothing he could do.
"A broken crossbow?" Mei Xiaoqing blinked her almond-shaped eyes. "Is it okay if it's broken?"
Mei Shiyu nodded and said, "Guan Ye suspects that the materials of the crossbow have been tampered with and replaced with easily cracked brass. As long as she has the crossbow and has seen and examined it, she will know whether the materials have really been replaced. If we can prove that Tianhu Workshop was framed... the Lu family, as well as the other workshops, can be exonerated."
"Ah." Mei Xiaojing swallowed. "Just a tiny fragment." She gestured on her fingernail as she spoke. "Is this size okay?"
Guan Ye, regaining her senses, nodded. "I can detect even tiny fragments, no matter their size, like a grain of rice."
Mei Xiaojing hesitated before reaching into her bosom and pulling out a purse embroidered with twin lotus blossoms. She held it in her palm and touched it tenderly. Mei Shiyu looked at it suspiciously and asked, "What is this? I've never seen you take it out before."
“It was found in my father’s eyes.” Mei Xiaojing’s eyes reddened.
Mei Shiyu's thin face was sunken, and his cheeks were bone white. "Heaven above, God has eyes. The truth of the Blood Crossbow Case has finally come to light."
“My father, Mei Changfeng, was a soldier in the crossbow battalion. A crossbow exploded and blinded him in one eye. He led the wounded soldiers of the crossbow battalion to hold off the rebels and died on Eagle Ridge Road. Because of his meritorious service in resisting the enemy, and being a fifth-rank captain, his body was brought back to his hometown for burial. I heard from the elders of the clan that my father’s right eye was blown open, and the mortician pulled something out of it. He was going to throw it away, but my mother insisted on keeping it as a memento. Here.” Mei Xiaoqing took something out of her purse and handed it to Guan Ye. “Is this the crossbow fragment you mentioned?”
It was a fragment the size of a fingernail, its somber brass color unchanged even after years of being hidden away. Guan Ye picked up the fragment in disbelief, and with just one glance, she was certain of everything. At that moment, Guan Ye finally believed in what true destiny was.
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