Young Master Bai revealed a confident smile: “Father, I received orders from the Deity to deliver magical missiles. Since they require immortal arts for assembly, the Deity sent to explain the thod, fearing you might not know.”
Bai Yuan: “Huh? Magical missiles? What is that?”
Cheng Xu darted to Bai Yuan’s side, following up eagerly: “What new weapon is this missile?”
Young Master Bai declared proudly: “Father, please dispatch hired guards imdiately. They must unload the magical missile fragnts from the cart. I’ll instruct them on assembling it right now.”
Hearing these ca from the Deity, Bai Yuan hesitated not at all. With a wave of his hand, he gave the order. Large groups of hired guards scurried out, dragging and pulling a heap of bizarre fragnts from the cart down.
Bai Yuan did recognize these fragnts. Weren’t they pieces of Gaojia Village’s colorful wall? They had just been painted gray this ti. What use could they serve? Was the Deity intending for us to build a new wall?
Pondered possible uses. Building a taller wall could, indeed, be sowhat useful.
While pondering all kinds of possibilities, he heard Young Master Bai directing nearby hired guards to carry the fragnts into the central courtyard of Bai Family Fortress. This fairly spacious yard, asuring several zhang in both length and width, usually served for martial training.
Young Master Bai gestured, deciding the place could accommodate the magical missiles, and began commanding: “You n—move that fragnt on the left. You n—take the one on the right. Good, lift them up… Fit this protrusion here into that socket… Yes, exactly… Move toward the center now… Bring them together… Stronger ones, push vigorously from both sides…”
Dozens of hired guards hauled two building blocks, crashing them together forcefully.
Snap!
A crisp sound echoed as the two mythical fragnts locked together into a larger piece.
Bai Yuan: “???”
Cheng Xu: “???”
Young Master Bai continued: “You n—fetch that fragnt over there… Align it with this socket… Aim precisely… Good, both sides push simultaneously… Slam it inward…”
Snap!
Another crisp sound announced the next integration.
Bai Yuan: “???”
Cheng Xu couldn’t hold back: “What the hell is this?”
Bai Yuan glanced over: “Though I don’t understand it, I feel profoundly bewildered.”
Cheng Xu snapped: “Are you both mad? What nonsense are you playing at, especially now?”
Young Master Bai ordered: “You guys over there—yes, you! Lift that fragnt… Mount it over here… Correct… Move further left… Align the socket… Apply force…”
Snap!
Another fragnt clicked into place.
Young Master Bai glanced up and suddenly rubbed his sweaty forehead: “Slightly wrong. Quick, pry it off! Reinstall it.”
Bai Yuan: “!!!”
Cheng Xu exploded: “Damn it! Playing with ? Starting over? And here I was, all hopeful about that delivery from Gao Chuwu, while you two fiddle about!”
Young Master Bai bowed deeply to Cheng Xu: “General, please bear with . I rely misspoke slightly. Correction shall happen imdiately.”
Cheng Xu scowled: “Don’t think refined speech makes your nonsense sound wise.”
Young Master Bai turned, resuming command: “Bring that piece over… Here… Align it… Jam it ho…”
Snap!
A series of dizzyingly strange operations.
Everyone present was utterly baffled, but as long as Bai Yuan did not order a halt, the servants and militian of Bai Family Fortress had no choice but to continue indulging Young Master Bai in his antics.
After fussing about for a good while, the servants were panting and exhausted, finally completing the task.
Young Master Bai stood before the peculiar device spanning over four zhang in length, first executed a formal bow, then spoke: “Father, uncles, generals… the magical missiles have been successfully assembled. Now, this junior will demonstrate their power to all.”
The crowd remained clueless, still unable to grasp what kind of devilish thing this was.
Young Master Bai gestured to the servants and commanded: “All of you together, go push the axle of the magical missiles. Turn it further over… lift it higher…”
The block missile raised its head, its barrel tilted toward the sky.
Young Master Bai pointed at a strong servant: “You over there, take a hamr and strike the four chanisms at the rear. See them? Those four protruding circular chanisms—hit them down one by one.”
The servant could only reach the lower two chanisms; the upper two were truly out of reach. He had to set up a square table, climb onto it, lift the hamr, to barely manage.
“Strike!”
At Young Master Bai’s order, the servant swung the heavy hamr—thump, thump, thump—knocking down all four chanisms in rapid succession.
A succession of eight dull thuds echoed out, and eight giant plastic shells, each longer than two n, shot one after another from the barrel of the magical missiles…
Once launched, they soared incredibly far, flying over Bai Family Fortress’s castle, skimming past a patch of parched farmland, clearing a dried-up riverbed, and finally crashing with deafening booms onto the slopes of distant Huanglong Mountain.
The sheer range was so astonishing that everyone present nearly had their jaws drop.
It turned out, while the block missile toy in Li Daoxuan’s world had a range of 5 ters, after arriving in the late Ming dynasty, its range beca 1000 ters.
That ant it could fire upon enemies two li away.
It was far beyond the range of even the longest-distance catapults (about 300 ters) and Giant Crossbow Vehicles (about 100 ters), exceeding them by a huge margin.
The entire Bai Family Fortress was utterly dumbstruck.
But the most bewildered person in the whole scene was Cheng Xu, who, as the most knowledgeable about weapons of war, grasped exactly what the range of this magical missiles implied.
Cheng Xu thrust his hands skyward and let out a long, hearty laugh: “Hahaha, Heaven helps , Heaven helps . With such a weapon, those puny bandit army are not worth ntioning. Hahaha, grandmother, your great-grandson must delay visiting you again, hahaha, your great-grandson has once again clawed back from the brink of death.”
He snapped his head down: “Young Master Bai, how many of these magical missiles are there in total?”
Young Master Bai held up three fingers.
Cheng Xu bead with delight: “Quick, quickly assemble the remaining two as well.”
Young Master Bai said: “But at ho… there aren’t any courtyards this spacious. The magical missiles each require at least four zhang in length and width.”
Bai Yuan sprung out imdiately: “Back Garden—tear down all the rockeries. We can place another one there.”
Then, he pondered further: “That yard before the book pavilion, if we dismantle the gazebo and corridor, we can fit one there too.”
Young Master Bai said: “Father, on the wall of the gazebo before the book pavilion, there’s your calligraphy—your greatest masterpiece from your entire life.”
Bai Yuan snorted: “For the sake of Bai Family Fortress, what does sacrificing a few works of calligraphy matter? Among the Six Arts of Gentlen, just set aside the ‘shu’ art for now—scratch it off entirely for all I care.”
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