For days on end, nothing of note happened in the celadon shop.
Wang Sheng, Zhang Neng, and the others were busy preparing for the impending peak season of maritime trade.
Wu Youcai was away on business.
Shao Shuyi occasionally tried to help out with whatever he could, but Wang Sheng rarely let him intervene, telling him simply to keep the accounts in order.
The reason business at the hostel-store was so brisk was simple: over ten thousand pieces of celadon were due to arrive from Chuzhou, leaving far too much to attend to.
On the evening of the nineteenth, learning that a Zheng family boat carrying silks and cotton cloth was passing Old Locust Tree on an overnight voyage back to Taicang, Shao Shuyi was delighted. He immediately asked Shopkeeper Wang Sheng for leave to visit his old home in Zhangjing.
In truth, it was hardly leave at all, as the twentieth was his scheduled day of rest anyway, free for him to spend as he wished.
Wang Sheng had appeared preoccupied, weighed down by some unresolved concern, but hearing Shao Shuyi's request, his knit brow actually relaxed. He readily agreed and sent someone to arrange with the head boatman to give Shao Shuyi a ride.
The journey back was uneventful. When Shao Shuyi pushed open the gate to his courtyard, the moon was already high in the midnight sky.
Wang Huadu was shouldering a gleaming anchor-axe, his face dead serious. But upon recognizing Shao Shuyi, his expression broke into a grin. "I thought a thief had slipped in and was about to test my axe."
Shao Shuyi shot him an exasperated look. "Just make sure you don't hurt yourself."
Wang Huadu yawned and said with airy nonchalance, "Cheng Ji is here, snoring like a log. I'm going to sleep too. Make yourself comfortable."
Shao Shuyi chuckled silently. The fellow certainly made himself at home, carrying on as though he were the host and Shao Shuyi merely a guest.
Wang Huadu and Cheng Ji were bunking in the west room among the clutter, so Shao Shuyi retreated to the east bedroom. After reflecting briefly on the past few days' events and weighing his gains and losses, he drifted off into slumber.
Early the next morning, the moment he opened his eyes, he heard bursts of laughter and banter in the yard.
Draping a coat over his shoulders, he stepped out to see that Yu Yuan had arrived as well, and called out a greeting.
"Brother Shao," Yu Yuan said, offering a bow.
Shao Shuyi returned the bow, feeling a bit surprised.
He could not recall clearly whether Yu Yuan had joined the others in calling him "Xiaohu" last time, but why the sudden change? An address like "Brother" not only conveyed closeness, but also held a touch of respect.
Wang Huadu was in the courtyard rehearsing chops with his anchor-axe. Surprisingly, his movements had some rhythm and discipline, far from the chaotic flailing of a raw beginner.
Whether he had learned this from Cheng Ji or already possessed some basics was hard to tell, though Shao Shuyi leaned toward the latter. Of course, Wang Huadu's skill did not seem particularly high—he was indeed a competent axeman, but merely an axeman and nothing more.
Cheng Ji sat cross-legged on the ground, nodded to Shao Shuyi, and resumed tinkering with his bow.
In his hands, Yu Yuan held something shaped like a bronze tube, turning it over and over. Seeing Shao Shuyi look his way, he said at once, "Brother Cheng brought it."
With that, he handed the bronze tube over.
Shao Shuyi took it, looked at it, and exclaimed in surprise, "A firearm?"
"A bronze handgonne," Cheng Ji said, standing up with a rather embarrassed look. "I heard it was made over ten years ago. Several dozen were issued to the Crossroads Army, but nobody liked using them. They've just been piled in the storehouse ever since, left to decay."
Shao Shuyi's expression turned to a mix of delight and misgiving.
Was this not a primitive firearm?
He examined it closely. It was about thirty to forty centimeters long, with a touchhole at the breech leading directly into the powder chamber. He wondered whether slow matches were used to ignite the propellant.
At the bottom was a socket for a handle; once fitted with a wooden shaft, it could be gripped in hand.
Around the muzzle was a rust-speckled iron band. Without a doubt, it was meant to reinforce the barrel—likely because the casting was sub-par and they feared it bursting.
In short, this was a muzzle-loading smoothbore handgun. Crude as it was, it already possessed the embryonic form of a firearm.
Its accuracy was hardly worth mentioning—bound to be atrocious.
Its range would almost certainly be disappointing as well.
As for its power? Hard to say, but Shao Shuyi suspected it could not penetrate the armor of a soldier clad in iron, especially since the Yuan dynasty already had cotton armor.
This handgonne was truly a chicken rib—hardly worth having, yet a pity to discard. Small wonder the soldiers of the Crossroads Army disliked using them, leaving them in the armory to gather dust.
Cheng Ji seemed well aware of this and said sheepishly, "Bronze is still worth something, though, so I can't let it go for too little."
"Why sell me a handgonne?" Shao Shuyi asked, intrigued. "Wouldn't anchor-axes, sickle-axes, ring-pommel sabers, iron swords, spears, foot bows, or even armor be far more useful and easier to sell?"
Cheng Ji fell silent for a moment before admitting honestly, "Nobody audits the handgonnes."
"Does your Guards Battalion have bronze cannons?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"We do," Cheng Ji nodded. "Three in total, called 'bowl-mouthed cannons,' cast in the third year of Zhishun (1332). One burst, one vanished without a trace, and only one remains. They say it can be used in defending city walls, but it's never actually been fired."
"Do other military units have gonnes and cannons as well?"
"As far as I know, very few."
Shao Shuyi understood.
To say the Yuan military possessed no firearms and gave no thought to their deployment would be doing them an injustice. But to claim they utilized firearms as a primary, conventional tactical arm would be a vast exaggeration.
In plain terms, they were still in an experimental stage of feeling their way around firearms, possessing no dazzling guns or cannons.
The bronze handgonne in his hands was less a weapon than a plaything; its practical uses were far too narrow, an unwieldy white elephant.
As for that bowl-mouthed cannon, it was probably just an enlarged version of this bronze gonne, with dismal range, power, and precision; it truly could only serve a purpose in siege defense. Deploying such a contraption in pitched open battle would only invite mockery—yet war was the catalyst of military technique and doctrine, so who knew what the future might hold?
"I have no money on hand," Shao Shuyi said with regret, pushing the bronze handgonne back into Cheng Ji's hands. "If you can wait until next month, I'll buy it from you."
"Keep it for now," Cheng Ji said, shoving the gonne back. "The thing is useless and no one inspects it. Just give me thirty guan next month. It's no trouble."
Thirty guan?! Shao Shuyi was taken aback, but then he thought that it was made of bronze after all, so the price was not unreasonable. Still, there was surely room to haggle...
Paying no heed to whatever was running through his mind, Cheng Ji merely said, "Last time, I explained bow and arrow maintenance. Today I'll test you: once a bow is unstrung, how do you protect it from moisture?"
"Coat the limbs with mutton fat or beef tallow; raw lacquer or tung oil will also serve," Shao Shuyi answered.
"And after coating?"
"Place it inside a bow case, with insect-repelling herbs inside."
"If the bow is strung, how should it be hung?"
"Hang it vertically."
"And when unstrung?"
"Hang it against the recurve."
"Rain is bad for bows and arrows, but in urgent combat you sometimes have no choice but to use them anyway. Once finished, how do you treat the bowstring?"
"Unstring it immediately and dry it gently over a low flame."
"In winter, bow limbs become brittle. How do you handle them?"
"Rub and soak them with warm sesame oil."
...
The questions and answers flew back and forth, and before long, more than a dozen questions had passed.
Wang Huadu leaned on his anchor-axe, dumbfounded, and muttered, "Xiaohu, when did your head get so sharp?"
A look of admiration surfaced on Yu Yuan's face.
He was a scholar with a quick mind and a strong memory, and knew he could learn much faster than Wang Huadu, yet absorbing so many particulars all at once was no easy feat. Brother Shao truly was remarkable.
Cheng Ji was even more astonished.
These questions seemed simple and straightforward enough, yet one could never fathom just how dense some men could be. What you taught them one moment, they would forget clean the next, and even if they managed to recall anything, it was usually muddled and backward.
Cheng Ji sometimes wondered whether the soldiers in the ranks took forever to master even basic bow maintenance simply because they were unlettered and slow-witted.
The youth before him had committed everything to memory after being shown just once. Such brightness was rare indeed; no wonder he was able to serve as an accountant in the Zheng family's celadon shop.
"I brought some common maintenance supplies today. Try your hand at them," Cheng Ji said, turning to fetch a bundle and taking out the items one by one.
Shao Shuyi gave an acknowledging hum, stepped quickly over to Wang Huadu, and whispered, "How much of the money from last time is left?"
"Spent it all ages ago," Wang Huadu said breezily.
Seeing Shao Shuyi's brow furrow, he laughed heartily. "Don't worry. I borrowed five guan yesterday and bought some rice and flour."
"Borrowed from whom?" Shao Shuyi asked.
Wang Huadu pointed toward Yu Yuan. "Him, of course."
Not knowing what they were discussing, Yu Yuan offered a goofy grin from across the courtyard.
"I'll pay you back shortly," Shao Shuyi said with a nod.
"What's all this about paying back?" Wang Huadu said, displeased. "Just take it. If I run out of food some day, I'll come to you. We're brothers—you wouldn't just leave me to starve, would you?"
Shao Shuyi's face broke into a smile. "Then it was petty of me. You're right—between brothers, there's no need for words. It's all kept in the heart."
"That's more like it." Wang Huadu clapped Shao Shuyi on the shoulder, then glanced over at Yu Yuan. "Young Master Yu is our brother too."
Shao Shuyi nodded firmly.
Then, remembering something, he leaned close to Wang Huadu's ear and whispered, "When you have some free time, go down to the Liujiagang docks and look into a broker named Sun Chuan. See what sort of people he usually associates with."
"An enemy?" Wang Huadu asked, his grip tightening on the anchor-axe.
"Don't do anything reckless yet, just gather information," Shao Shuyi said hurriedly. "If you can't find out anything, it doesn't matter—we'll deal with it later."
"I happen to be heading to the docks for hired labor, so I should have a chance," Wang Huadu said. "Brokers can never sit idle for a moment, constantly on the move outside, so he won't be hard to find."
Shao Shuyi nodded slightly.
Yu Yuan had already trotted over to Cheng Ji's side, helping him arrange the items from the bundle onto the ground one by one.
The "hands-on practice" lesson was about to begin.
Chapter 20