To the west of the Wei River in Guanzhong was the gathering place of the Gongshu family.
At this moment, Gongshu Chou was bringing his grandson Gongshu Yi to this stronghold to build a siege weapon for the Qin army. When he learned that there was a guest visiting, Gongshu Chou put down the tools in his hand and went to the entrance of the stronghold to welcome him.
On the winding mountain path, Gongsun Linglong was walking step by step, breathing out a breath of hot air from time to time. She was exhausted from the journey. Her delicate body was so tired that it began to tremble slightly. When they finally reached the mountain gate, Gongsun Dajie let out a sigh of relief and urged the dozen or so disciples carrying the boxes behind her.
At this moment, the door to the stronghold had already opened. Gongshu Chou looked at Gongsun Linglong and was shocked. He wondered why the people of the famous family would come here.
"Yo! Lord Gongshu, long time no see. Why, do you not welcome guests in?" Gongsun Linglong had a friendship with Gongshu Chou, so she said bluntly.
Gongshu Chou was stunned. He glanced at the few boxes behind her and hurriedly called Gongsun Linglong in.
In the main hall of the Gongshu family's stronghold, Gongshu Chou arranged for everyone from the famous families to catch up. After a while, he stopped talking.
Gongsun Linglong didn't hesitate and directly stated her intentions," I'm here to persuade the Great Qin's Seventh Young Master.”
After she finished speaking, she asked her subordinates to open the two boxes at the front of the hall. What he saw was a golden pancake.
"This one thousand jin is a gift from Seventh Young Master. Is the Gongshu family satisfied?"
Gongshu Chou did not seem to care much. He only muttered,"An Xijun, Ying Tianyu."
"That's right. I believe the Gongshu family has already seen Young Master's goodwill. Now, there is still the important matter that Young Master has assigned to me.”
Gongshu Chou looked at the four heavy boxes behind him and thought to himself that a big business had arrived.
"I understand Seventh Young Master's intentions. The Gongshu family is willing to serve you. However, what did Young Master want the Gongshu family to do?”
Gongsun Linglong took out two silk strips from her loose sleeves, stood up, and handed them to Gongshu Chou.
Gongshu Chou's eyes widened when he saw the two pieces of silk.”
"It's the blueprint that Young Master brought over. It's a new type of catapult and ballista.”
"Interesting. From the looks of it, catapults and ballistae of this structure are much more powerful and effective than the ones currently equipped by the armies of the various countries.”Gongshu Chou stared at the blueprint. As a technical person, he quickly understood how powerful it was.
"Young Master has ordered eight catapults and twenty ballistae. The four boxes behind him were the deposit.”Gongsun Linglong said.
"Grandfather, can Yi 'er take a look at the blueprint?”At this moment, a seventy-five-year-old youth walked in and said.
Gongsun Linglong only knew that he was Gongshu Chou's grandson, but she didn't know anything else. The youth walked forward. Gongshu Chou did not object and handed the silk strip to him. However, to Gongsun Linglong's surprise, a pair of mechanical hands extended from the young man's wide sleeves.
Gongshu Yi looked at it and said confidently,""Although these two blueprints are exquisite, there are still some areas that can be improved. If I were to handle them, their shooting range could be increased by at least twenty steps.”
Gongsun Linglong wasn't very interested in things like improving the skill of traps by a few steps. However, she still made a surprised expression," I didn't expect the Little Supreme Leader to be so powerful at such a young age.”
"How about this? In a few days, I will personally bring a dozen subordinates to Five Carriage City to make these weapons for Young Master.”Gongshu Yi ignored Gongsun Dajie's fake feelings and said solemnly.
"Then I will have to trouble Little Supreme Leader."
Gongsun Linglong smiled and bowed to the two of them. He retreated.
"Yi 'er, why? "Our Gongshu family relies on our domineering mechanism techniques to deal with the various countries. In recent years, although he had been forging equipment for the State of Qin, he had no intention of working for it.”Gongshu Chou looked at Gongsun Linglong and sighed.
"The general trend of the world is already very clear. In the future, there would only be two forces in this world, Qin and Non-Qin. Our Gongshu family's old enemy, the Mo family, is destined to stand on the non-Qin side. Grandfather, what will you choose?”Gongshu Yi also looked at Gongsun Linglong and smiled.
"Since that's the case, with your attainments in the art of traps, you can go to the king of Qin, Ying Zheng. And why did you choose Ying Tianyu, who was far away in Longxi?”Gongshu Chou asked in confusion.
"Because I trust my intuition. Ying Tianyu would be the person who would bring the Gongshu family's domineering mechanism techniques to the peak.”Gongshu Yi said confidently.
In the Hetao region, east of Mount Helan and south of the Yellow River, on the vast alluvial plains, the camps were like pearls, flocks of cattle and sheep, and the neighing of war horses. Fuping County was still occupied by the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu had never been a hospitable people, but on this day, they had guests.
The Xiongnu lived as nomads. Cattle, sheep, warhorses, and bows were all they had. Relying on their strong bows and strong horses, they had been harassing and plundering the Chinese people who relied on agriculture for hundreds of years.
The Xiongnu was never a country where the royal power was concentrated like the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Period. Instead, it was an organization similar to the tribal alliance.
Li Mu, the general of Zhao, defeated the Hu army at Yanmen, killing more than 100,000 of their troops. From then on, the vitality of the Xiongnu and Donghu was greatly damaged, and the Xiongnu did not dare to go south to herd horses for more than ten years.
Later, Wang Jian, the general of Qin, plotted to sow discord. The king of Zhao was framed and killed Li Mu unjustly. Li Mu died and Zhao was destroyed. The Xiongnu seized the opportunity when Qin destroyed the six countries and regained some territory in the south over the years. However, for a nomadic tribe like the Xiongnu, the size of the land was not the most important. The strength of a Xiongnu tribe was measured by the number of people and horses under it.
During the process of the Xiongnu's southward march. The leader of the Xiongnu tribe, Touman, stood out from the rest of the tribes. Over the years, he gradually annexed the Xiongnu tribes and gathered their cattle, sheep, and people, so that the warriors of the Xiongnu tribes gathered under his banner.
And he was called Chanyu by the Xiongnu tribe, Touman Chanyu. From the start, the Xiongnu was no longer a loose tribal alliance like before, but a unified slave country.
However, a unified Xiongnu was still a weak Xiongnu. Right now, it had the powerful Donghu to its east and the powerful Dayue clan to its west. There were many small tribes in the north. To the south was the mighty Great Qin.
In the main tent of Tou Man, Chief Tou Man, who was in his prime, was discussing the matters of the tribe. He had just settled a civil strife and was currently troubled by the loss of his cattle, sheep, and horses.
"Our Xiongnu warriors didn't suffer many losses in this battle, but the weapons, tents, and horses that were destroyed were in the thousands. The dead cows and sheep had already rotted away because there was not enough salt to preserve them. We don't have enough food to survive this crisis.”
Chief Touman's meaning was very clear. They were going back to their old profession.
An old man walked out from Touman's subordinates. He was an old shaman of the Xiongnu and had a respected status. " Chanyu," the old shaman said worriedly," we've just experienced a great battle. Isn't it too early to start a war with the forces in the east, west, and south?" Although there were many tribes in the north, most of them were huddled in the snow and ice. If we forcefully march north, I'm afraid the gains will not make up for the losses.”
Touman also understood the current predicament. The Xiongnu was originally a hungry wolf, but now this wolf could not find a place to bite. The forces around him were too powerful. The only place that was not strong was the north, but there was not much profit.
At this moment, there was a commotion outside the tent.
Head Man was originally thinking hard about countermeasures when he heard the noise outside the tent and shouted,"What happened? Why is it so noisy?"
A subordinate walked in from outside the tent." Reporting to Chanyu, a caravan of southern barbarians has arrived in the tribe and brought a lot of goods. Including rouge, jewelry, fur, and horses, the Consort took the ladies to choose.”
"Horses?" Chief Touman was puzzled." Since when are the southern barbarians selling horses to us? Let's go out and take a look."
Touman led his men out of the tent. On the open grassland not far from the main tent, there were two carriages parked. A businessman was selling all kinds of exquisite jewelry to his women with four or five men.
However, this wasn't what attracted Touman's attention. What really surprised him was that there was a strong horse neighing between the two carriages.
As the Xiongnu Chanyu, Touman was naturally someone who knew horses. He was immediately attracted by this horse.
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