It was a long while before Geng Jing and the others came back to themselves.
Feng Qizheng rubbed at his ears. “Ning Chen, what is that thing you’ve made? An oversized firecracker? You nearly deafened me.”
Ning Chen smiled his mysterious smile and beckoned them over.
They gathered around, none of them understanding.
Ning Chen pointed at the hole in the tree. “Look closely.”
They leaned in, and after a moment they saw it — an iron ball set into the wood.
Something seemed to occur to Geng Jing. He asked, stunned, “That iron pellet — it came out of that oversized firecracker of yours?”
“What oversized firecracker? It’s called a musket.”
“That iron pellet came out of your musket?”
Ning Chen grunted yes.
“What’s the use of it?” Geng Jing asked, curious.
Ning Chen: …?
“To kill the enemy, obviously.”
Geng Jing looked thoroughly unimpressed. “Then why not use a bow? That thing of yours must be a chore to make. A bow is simple, easy to build, easy to work… and it hits harder than that does.”
That, Ning Chen would not stand for. “You’re telling me my musket hits softer than a bow?”
Feng Qizheng laughed. “It really does hit softer than a bow… An army archer at a hundred feet would put a shaft straight through that tree, no trouble at all. Any of us could do it. That musket of yours can’t even get through a tree.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched hard, several times.
The gun he’d sweated over, and they were telling him it was worse than a bow?
Still, the workmanship on this one was crude, and it really didn’t hit very hard.
“You may have a point. But when it comes to killing men, a bow can never beat a musket… An arrow can be tracked. The enemy has time to react. Once a musket goes off, the ball leaves no trace, and there’s no guarding against it.”
“Fired at close range, this will punch through armor.”
The armor of the Great Xuan is made of small iron plates linked together, each overlapping the next like roof tiles… but to keep the weight down the plates are thin, on the order of two or three millimeters. At close range, armor would not stop a shot.
But the Great Xuan also had an elite corps — the heavy armor. Their plate was thick and tough, and this crude little gun probably wouldn’t get through it.
Geng Jing laughed. “Leaves no trace? Is it really as miraculous as all that?”
Ning Chen rolled his eyes. “If the enemy is using a bow, I promise you he’ll be dead before he’s even drawn.”
Geng Jing thought about it. “Ning Chen. Try shooting at me.”
Ning Chen: …?
“Lord Geng, are you serious?”
Geng Jing nodded.
“I’d like to see for myself whether this thing is as miraculous as you say.”
Ning Chen said, entirely serious, “Lord Geng, don’t joke about this… It’s a crude, simple piece of work, but it has more than enough force to go straight through a man’s skull.”
Geng Jing answered, just as seriously, “Ning Chen. If this thing really is what you say it is… do you understand what that means?”
Ning Chen smiled. “It means the fighting strength of the Great Xuan’s soldiers goes up by a long way.”
Geng Jing nodded. “If this thing can truly cut our losses on the field… Ning Chen, you’ll go down in the histories of the Great Xuan. Your name will carry its fragrance for ten thousand years.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. Give it a rest… the day this goes onto a battlefield, the enemy will be cursing eighteen generations of my ancestors.
In the Great Xuan his name would carry its fragrance down the centuries, all right. In every other country it would stink for ten thousand years.
“Ning Chen, come at me… I want to see which is faster. The ball out of that musket, or my blade.”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Better not. This is for dealing with the enemy, not our own people.”
“You’re told to do it, so do it. Why all the talk? What, no faith in your own work?”
Ning Chen was getting annoyed. He’d sweated over this thing and it was being brushed aside.
“Fine. Don’t blame me if you get hurt.”
Geng Jing gave a small smile. He had a great deal of faith in his own ability.
As the Inspectorate’s only purple coat, Geng Jing would have counted among the very first rank of fighters anywhere in the jianghu.
Geng Jing stepped back a few paces and drew his saber.
“Ning Chen. Come on!”
Ning Chen took out powder and ball and began to load.
Watching how much trouble the loading was, the men grew still more certain that this thing simply could not measure up to a bow.
Ning Chen finished loading.
“Lord Geng, you’d better back up further. At this range you won’t get out of the way.”
Geng Jing snorted, not deigning to answer.
Feng Qizheng laughed. “Ning Chen, you can’t know what Geng the Purple Coat is capable of… Never mind that piece of junk of yours. Put a hundred great bows on him and loose all hundred arrows at once and you wouldn’t scratch him.”
Ning Chen said nothing, only smiled.
He raised the muzzle and leveled it at Geng Jing, and asked, smiling, “Lord Geng. Ready?”
Geng Jing said confidently, “Come on!”
A crack.
The sound was like a thunderclap, and fire and black smoke spread out from it.
This time everyone had the sense to cover their ears.
When the shot had died away they all looked quickly at Geng Jing.
And found Geng Jing standing there with a blank face.
He looked himself over. He was not hurt. He looked at Ning Chen. “What kind of trick are you playing? Why didn’t an iron pellet come out?”
Ning Chen smiled slightly and pointed past him. “Lord Geng. Look at the wall.”
Geng Jing turned to look, and his face changed on the instant, his pupils contracting. There was a hole in the wall the size of a small child’s fist.
He walked over to examine it, and his expression grew graver the longer he looked.
The brick had split apart, and the iron ball was buried three or four inches into the body of the wall.
Feng Qizheng and the others were dumbfounded. Geng the Purple Coat didn’t block it?
Geng Jing was more shaken than any of them. It was not merely that he hadn’t blocked it. I never saw the ball at all.
The thing is exactly what Ning Chen said it was. It leaves no trace.
If he had fired at me just now — does that mean I’d have been dead before I could react?
A chill went through Geng Jing, and his heart was still hammering.
Ning Chen smiled. “Well, Lord Geng?”
Geng Jing’s face was full of shock. He looked at Ning Chen. “You pulled it wide on purpose just now, didn’t you?”
Ning Chen laughed. “I could hardly shoot you for real, could I? If I’d actually hurt you… His Majesty would have my head off, no question about it.”
Geng Jing said gravely, “Ning Chen. This thing of yours… it’s terrifying.”
“If you’d shot at me just now, I’d already be dead.”
Feng Qizheng and the others stood there with their mouths open.
“Geng the Purple Coat, is this thing really stronger than a bow?”
Geng Jing nodded. “Stronger than a bow doesn’t begin to cover it… The speed of the shot is beyond anything the eye can follow.”
“If the soldiers of the Great Xuan were all issued one of these… on the battlefield, nothing would stand in front of them.”
Feng Qizheng came running over. “Ning Chen, let me see that musket of yours.”
Ning Chen handed it over without ceremony, with one instruction. “Remember. Never point the muzzle at one of your own.”
Feng Qizheng nodded once and turned the musket over and over in his hands, muttering, “It’s heavy, too… this thing, this powerful, and even Geng the Purple Coat couldn’t block it. So if you carried one of these around, wouldn’t you be unbeatable?”
Ning Chen laughed. “It’s not as grand as all that. It’ll do against an ordinary foot soldier. Against a real fighter it’s nothing much.”
“Geng the Purple Coat is a real fighter’s fighter, and even he couldn’t block it.”
“That’s because the noise startled Geng the Purple Coat and threw him off for a second,” Ning Chen said. “And besides — if I tried to use this on him, he’d have cut my throat before I even got it up.”
“Never mind Geng the Purple Coat. Any decent fighter could get out of the way in the time it takes me to raise it and shoot.”
It was a crude, simple piece of work, after all. For accuracy and rate of fire it could not begin to compare with the firearms of a modern civilization.
(End of Chapter 84)