I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 71 Shock
Yu Chunlai didn't know that his behavior just now would allow him to brag about it for the rest of his life.

"Do you think it is so easy to forge a peerless sword? In order not to waste the 'steel essence' extracted from 600,000 kilograms of pig iron, my prince led the blacksmiths to practice by making hundreds of swords, just to get every detail right!" Yu Chunlai now holds the belief that he will die, and is not afraid of anyone.

Then Yu Chunlai changed the subject and became sad: "But...but an accident still happened!"

"What's the accident?" Zhu Houzhao blurted out. He was so engrossed in listening that he couldn't control himself. After realizing his gaffe, his expression turned serious again.

Yu Chunlai was delighted in his heart, but he did not show it on his face. He knew that every move he made now would determine the fate of the Prince of Jing's Mansion.

"Although the young prince made all the preparations, he encountered failure again and again, until the last time!" Yu Chunlai's voice became low.

"At that time, all the steps went very smoothly, but at the last step of quenching, the flames in the forging furnace suddenly surged, and the flames rushed straight to the roof. No one could enter within ten feet. Everyone was terrified and fled in all directions. Seeing that the last sword was about to be melted, my prince went up against the flow, cut his hand with a knife, and sprinkled the blood on the forge. The flames suddenly went out. The prince took the sword and saw that it was covered with dense patterns!"

What a great Yu Chunlai! He dares to say anything to save the Prince of Jing's Mansion.

"Sacrifice the sword with blood!" Zhang Yong murmured.

Everyone present looked at each other in bewilderment, but had no way to refute. As he said, everyone present had been in government for a long time and had long been away from the production line. They had no idea how a sword was forged. On the contrary, in the various books they had read, there were many legends about the use of blood and human sacrifices during the forging of various famous swords, and they had no choice but to believe it.

Even if they don't believe it, they dare not refute it. Even if Prince Jing shows signs of rebellion again, he is still surnamed Zhu and has royal blood. The royal families of all dynasties would use some miraculous deeds to increase their sacredness and thus enhance the legitimacy of their rule. If you deny the vision when Prince Jing forged the sword before investigating it clearly, it is tantamount to denying part of the legitimacy of the Zhu family's rule.

Everyone present was not stupid, so they could naturally understand this truth, so no one dared to say a word.

Yu Chunlai had just finished all his statements, and all of a sudden his energy was drained out of him, and he collapsed to the ground as if he had no bones.

"What do you think, gentlemen?" Zhu Houzhao said, and no one present could figure out his tone.

"What the envoy from the Prince of Jing's Palace said is too bizarre to be believed." Yang Tinghe said. His words were very vague. He did not say which points were too bizarre, nor did he say which parts were not to be believed.

Everyone nodded.

Zhu Houzhao remained silent.

This scene made Yu Chunlai feel extremely desperate and he was at his wits' end.

He fell to his knees, took a few steps forward, and said in a plaintive voice, "Your Majesty, I have brought the sword forged by the young prince! Please take a look! Please take a look!"

However, his unusual movement triggered a chain reaction. The guards behind him quickly stepped forward, grabbed Yu Chunlai and dragged him back.

"How dare you, you lowly slave, disturb the emperor!" Liu Jin cursed, "Drag him out!"

This time no one stopped Liu Jin, and two guards dragged Yu Chunlai out.

But Yu Chunlai continued to shout, "Your Majesty, please take a look at the prince's hard work! Just take a look. Please."

The sorrow of his voice moved those who heard it.

Yu Chunlai's voice became increasingly distant, and then suddenly stopped. It seemed that someone had blocked his mouth.

Liu Jin sorted out his thoughts and was about to speak, but he heard Zhu Houzhao whisper, "Where are the things?"

"What?" Liu Jin's thoughts were not in sync.

"Where are the things sent by Prince Jing's Mansion?" Zhu Houzhao continued, "They sent them all the way here, I'll just take a look!"

Although what Yu Chunlai just said was a bit strange, Zhu Houzhao was not interested in things that were not strange. He had already become curious because of Yu Chunlai's words.

Yu Chunlai told a very good story, but in the end the quality of the sword was not as good as he said, so his story would have a counterproductive effect.

Yu Chunlai's searched boxes, keys, and a memorial were quickly brought up and placed on the imperial desk.

To be honest, Zhu Houzhao was a little disappointed when he saw this wooden box made of ordinary material.

However, he still removed the seal and used the key to open the lock on the wooden box. He was not afraid of any mechanism inside that would harm him, because the wooden box was sent to the Ministry of Rites, and officials from the Ministry of Rites would usually send it to the palace for unified opening. The gift giver would never have thought that the first person to open it would be the emperor himself. Zhu Houzhao opened the wooden box casually and saw a long sword lying quietly inside. He immediately felt the difference of this sword - it obviously had no gorgeous decorations, but it looked very comfortable.

When designing the shape and scabbard of this sword, Zhu Houxuan referred extensively to modern designs. His preparation is simple yet not simplistic, and very design-conscious.

Zhu Houzhao's eyes showed even more interest. He gently grabbed the scabbard and took the sword out of the box. The weight was just right. He grasped the hilt with one hand and felt it was very comfortable to hold.

Zhu Houzhao slowly pulled out the sword. As the sword was pulled out bit by bit, revealing the dense patterns on it, he was completely stunned.
He came to his senses and without hesitation, he pulled out the sword.
All the anger and other chaotic emotions in Zhu Houzhao's heart were swept away, and he was left with nothing but shock.

"Someone come! Turn on the lights! Come and light the lights!" Zhu Houzhao became very excited and urged frantically.

Zhang Yong quickly took down a lantern and came over.
"One lamp is not enough, bring them all here! Hurry up! Hurry up!" Zhu Houzhao could no longer suppress the excitement in his voice.

There is no way. Although the Qianqing Palace is tall, the lighting effect is not that good. After all, there are no glass windows, so lights need to be turned on during the day.

The eunuchs in the hall brought more than a dozen lamps and placed them around Zhu Houzhao, making the room as bright as day. Everyone could finally see the full picture of the sword in Zhu Houzhao's hand, and also understood why Zhu Houzhao was so excited.

I saw exquisite feather patterns spreading outward from the center of the sword's spine, with the ridges clear, delicate and extremely agile.

The feathers radiate along the center line, resembling a natural feather, light and soft, with lifelike patterns that seem to be natural.

"Is this painted on? This kind of pattern can't be forged!" Li Dongyang said in shock.

Li Dongyang's words reminded Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao placed his fingers lightly on the sword and stroked it across the blade as if he was caressing his lover. His eyes told him that it should feel bumpy and concave due to the lines on the blade, but when he actually stroked it, it only felt very smooth. This misalignment of vision and touch gave him a very strange feeling.

This also proves that these patterns are unlikely to be painted on, because using pigments to paint patterns on steel is not possible under ancient conditions. Even if it is possible, the pigments will create a bumpy feeling on the smooth surface of the steel.

Then he dipped a piece of white silk in water and wiped the sword vigorously. The patterns on the sword did not change at all and the white silk remained white.

"This is not painted on. The exquisite patterns have penetrated deep into the texture of the steel." Yang Tinghe looked at the sword in fascination.

Modern people cannot resist the charm of Damascus, let alone the ancients, because the hardest thing they could touch was steel.

Everyone present had more or less seen Damascus swords that had flowed in from overseas, but the patterns on the Damascus swords at that time were complicated at best and disorganized at worst.

But modern Damascus techniques are different, as they can more accurately control the final pattern.

The lines on the sword forged by Zhu Houxuan are regular and all extend in the same direction, but each feather pattern is slightly different, like a feather growing in steel.
So in the understanding of everyone here, this is not something that can be done by human power.

"How was this forged?" Zhu Houzhao exclaimed.

"I heard from the envoy of Prince Jing's Mansion that the patterns on the sword appeared because Prince Jing sacrificed his blood to the sword," Zhang Yong reminded.

Everyone was silent. Although it sounded outrageous, facing this sword that was beyond their imagination, they suddenly felt that this explanation was actually the most reasonable one.
Just now, when they were listening to Yu Chunlai's story, they felt that the most outrageous thing was the blood sacrifice to the sword. However, after seeing the real thing, they suddenly found that this most outrageous thing was actually so reasonable.
If that's the case, then the relatively less outrageous story of using 600,000 kilograms of pig iron to make steel may also be true.
If we think about it further, the King of Jing probably didn't rebel.
Everyone was smart and quickly figured this out.

Zhu Houzhao also realized this, and he suddenly remembered that there was another memorial he had not read.

He carefully put down the sword and began to open the memorial.

Strictly speaking, this memorial was the first formal communication between Zhu Houxuan and Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houxuan realized this half a year ago and has been thinking about how to make good use of this first opportunity.

Forging Damascus was only auxiliary. Ultimately, Zhu Houxuan's goal was to make Zhu Houzhao interested in him.

So after careful consideration, he decided to use this opportunity to establish his own personality!
I revised these two chapters over and over again for more than ten hours, and I always felt that something was missing, but I didn't know where. In the end, I felt that the emotions were incoherent when I looked at the final revisions. Forget it, I won't torture myself anymore. My ability is limited, so I can only leave it like this for now.

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(End of this chapter)