Ning Chen led his men back to camp.
“Old Feng, I’ve got a job for you… see the bamboo grove on the slope opposite? Take a party out and cut me as much bamboo as you can. Thick as your arm is best.”
Feng Qizheng did not even ask what Ning Chen wanted bamboo for. He nodded, took a hundred-odd men and went.
“Old Pan, take some men and bring me every spare length of tent canvas we have.”
Pan Yucheng nodded and took his men off.
What Ning Chen meant to build was a delta wing — which is to say a crude hang glider.
If he could not get into Mangzhou from the front, then he would fly down onto it from the mountain on a delta wing.
He had looked over the lay of the land at Mangzhou a little earlier, and this seemed to be the only thing that would work.
Luckily, weaving in Great Xuan was well advanced. The cloth used for campaign tents was something like sailcloth: the cotton thread was soaked in tung oil first and then woven by a particular method.
That cloth was tough and it took punishment. It kept out wind and water. What it did not do especially well was keep out fire.
In any other country he could not possibly have built a delta wing.
Take the Tuoluo Kingdom. Their tents were put together out of hides and animal hair, and some of them out of bark.
In under two hours Feng Qizheng was back with a great load of bamboo.
Pan Yucheng brought in the spare canvas too.
Ning Chen set to work at once.
First he had a bonfire lit and heated the bamboo, bending it into the shapes he wanted.
With no proper tools, all Ning Chen could turn out was a crude version.
And what he had made was hard to steer, and there was a fair chance it would come apart in midair, or that the canvas would tear in the wind… which was why he had said that whether a man lived through it came down to whose life was hardest to take.
The bamboo he had ready was lashed tight with rope, and then the canvas was stretched over it.
Feng Qizheng asked curiously, “Isn’t this just an oversized paper hawk?”
“Uh… close enough!”
said Ning Chen. An oversized kite, to put it more exactly.
Ning Chen had the delta wing carried up the mountain opposite.
The mountain was not high. A hundred-odd meters.
“Who wants to be the first man to eat a crab?” (TL Note: The Chinese phrase for whoever is willing to try a frightening thing first. A crab looks like something no one should put in his mouth, and somebody had to go first.)
Ning Chen asked.
The men looked at him without understanding.
Ning Chen pointed at the delta wing. “This thing is for carrying people. Two at a time is no problem at all.”
“See these two crossbars? Both hands grip the front bar, both feet go up on the back one… if you want to go left, the two of you shift left at the same time. Right is the same.”
Pan Yucheng, Feng Qizheng and the rest were struck dumb and staring.
“Ning Chen, will that thing really carry a man up?”
“Uh… it should be able to?”
Should be?
Every one of them looked at him with nothing to say.
Pan Yucheng asked, “Then how do you control going forward and going back?”
Ning Chen said, “That depends on which way the wind’s blowing.”
Pan Yucheng’s forehead filled with black lines. “So where this thing drifts off to is entirely up to heaven?”
Ning Chen nodded.
“Who wants to try it? Any volunteers? Two hundred taels of reward silver for the first two men to go.”
They looked at one another.
Shouldering that thing and jumping off a mountain — the thought of it alone gave a man the shakes.
Feng Qizheng said, “I’ll do it!”
Ning Chen glared at him. “You’re built like a bear, you’re too heavy. Get lost!”
He could not promise the thing was safe at all. How could he let Feng Qizheng try it?
“General Ning, is that two hundred taels each?”
asked one of the soldiers.
Ning Chen blinked, then laughed. “That’s right. Two hundred each.”
“This subordinate is willing to try.”
Ning Chen’s face filled with satisfaction. “Good man! A son of Great Xuan, and a man of iron bones, sure enough… you’re the first to step forward, so this general will give you three hundred.”
The soldier was overjoyed. “Thank you, General Ning!”
“Anyone else want a turn? Nobody in Great Xuan has ever flown down from a hundred meters up, have they? Whoever pulls it off, I’ll grant him the title of First Flying Man of Great Xuan.”
“General Ning, this subordinate is willing to try.”
“General Ning, this subordinate will go too.”
In no time a fair number of men had stepped forward.
Ning Chen laughed. “Don’t rush. Everybody will get a chance!”
Ning Chen picked one of them out to test the delta wing along with the first soldier.
“Listen to me. The two of you take hold of the front bar, start running, and go straight off the mountainside… the moment you’re off the ground, get your feet up on the back bar. That saves you a lot of strength. Hang off it by your arms the whole way and your arms won’t hold. Understood?”
The two of them nodded and said together, “Understood!”
“Good. Go.”
The two of them took their places.
One of the soldiers looked at Ning Chen. “General Ning, if this subordinate is killed by the fall, please split the reward silver in two — one half to my parents, one half to my wife and child.”
The other came straight in after him. “I got no wife and no children. If I’m killed by the fall, I’d ask General Ning to give the reward silver to my ma and pa.”
Ning Chen frowned. “What kind of talk is that? This general has every confidence in what he builds… I look at the two of you and I see full brows and square jaws. That is the face of great wealth and honor. Do exactly as I told you and I promise nothing will happen.”
“Yes!”
said the two of them together, their confidence doubled.
Ning Chen gave the order. “Go!”
The two soldiers ran the delta wing to the edge of the cliff and threw themselves off it.
The delta wing dropped straight down the mountainside.
Ning Chen’s face changed. He ran to the cliff edge — and saw the delta wing catch the wind and lift, drifting away into the distance.
He muttered without thinking, “Damn… if I’d known it would go like this I’d have built a few hot-air balloons on the way here.”
Feng Qizheng was all curiosity. “What’s a hot-air balloon?”
Ning Chen ignored him, his eyes fixed on the delta wing gliding through the air.
The delta wing was in a dive, and it was moving pretty fast.
“Come on, down the mountain!”
By the time Ning Chen and his men were halfway down, he could see that the delta wing was on the ground… but it was too far off to make out how the two soldiers were.
“Faster, all of you, faster…”
Ning Chen brought his men down off the mountain and ran flat out for the place where the delta wing had come down.
From a long way off he could see two men standing there.
Ning Chen’s eyes lit up. It was the two soldiers. They were alive.
“It worked! Hahaha…”
Ning Chen ran up and looked the two of them over. One of them still had blood running down his head.
“Are you all right?”
The man wiped a hand across the blood on his head and grinned foolishly. “Thank you for your concern, General Ning. I just didn’t brace myself on the landing and my head hit the crossbar. A scratch. It’s nothing!”
Ning Chen came closer and examined the cut, then let out a breath. A patch of skin scraped off the forehead, no worse than that.
“Quick, tell me — what did it feel like?”
One of the soldiers grinned. “It was frightening at the start, and after that it felt wonderful.”
The other nodded again and again. “General Ning, you’re incredible! I actually flew, like a bird. Hahaha… nobody’s going to believe me when I tell them. The only thing is the landing hits pretty hard.”
Ning Chen clapped them both on the shoulder.
“Good men! Sons of Great Xuan and men of iron bones, sure enough… the two of you are the first men in Great Xuan ever to fly… and now, this general grants you the title of First Flying Man of Great Xuan.”
“And another fifty taels each on top of your reward silver… you’ll have it when the fighting is done and we go home.”
The two of them were so pleased they were practically blowing snot bubbles. “Thank you, General Ning!” they said together.
Ning Chen was delighted. So a surprise attack by delta wing was going to work after all.
“Come on, bring the thing back!”
Ning Chen meant to start building delta wings right away. They were simple and quick to make, and he meant to hit Mangzhou by surprise that very night… and let that old son of a bitch the Left Chancellor find out what it meant to have soldiers drop out of heaven.
(End of Chapter 243)