Chapter 281: Imperial Army Supplies Purchase (1/2)
Chapter 281: Imperial Army Supplies Purchase
”Spar with you empty-handed? You must be joking! When have you ever seen a tiger tear off its claws to hunt its prey?” the victor on the other side of the walls refuted.
”Huang Shang, 70,000 gold taels, sell your sword to me!”
”Hmph, don't even dream of it!”
”Huang Shang, you only bought that Wootz steel sword for 55,000 gold taels whereas I am offering 70,000 gold taels for it. You are making a huge profit here. With the money you earned, you could easily buy another one!”
”Zhou Zhi, if you're that capable, why don't you use that 70,000 gold taels of yours to buy one? Do you take me for a fool? Even though the Zhang Clan has released several months of stock at once, they only total up to thirty. Given how many people there are in the Imperial Army, that is far from sufficient to go around! The current market price out there is 80,000 gold taels, and that is assuming anyone is willing to sell it at all! I would love to try to purchase the Wootz steel swords produced by Wang gongzi, but his is only more expensive!”
Hearing those words, Li Qingyou decided to walk into the residence.
”What did you all just say?” With his hands behind his back, Li Qingyou walked in slowly with the sword tip held tightly between his fingertips.
”Lord Li!”
On the training field, the three Imperial soldiers were shocked to see Li Qingyou, and they hurriedly lowered their heads to greet him. In the capital, none of the hundred thousand Imperial Army members didn't know Logistics Officer Li Qingyou.
Li Qingyou was their superior, and all of their weapon, armor, stipends, and such had to go through him.
And unlike them, Li Qingyou possessed the privilege to meet the Sage Emperor whenever he wanted.
If one were to offend him, he could easily deduct the resources allocated to them. Of everyone in the royal palace, the trio didn't expect to meet with him.
One must know that Li Qingyou was often busy and rarely interacted with them.
”Lord, we're just sparring with one another.” Somehow, the trio felt a little unnerved by Li Qingyou's questioning.
”That's not what I'm asking. May I take a look at that sword?” Li Qingyou asked, pointing to the sword with a unique pattern in the hand of one of the Imperial Army members.
”This... Of course!”
The Imperial soldier named Huang Shang might have agreed to it, but his expression was extremely reluctant. As though severing a part of himself, he unwillingly passed the Wootz steel sword in his hand over.
Li Qingyou paid no heed to the other party's pained expression. Upon receiving the Wootz steel sword, he immediately tried its weight before feeling its texture.
Heavy! It is several times heavier than what I expected. The surface is very smooth, but there's a blood groove on it. It's probably specially designed that way to improve its lethality…, Li Qingyou thought.
As the logistics officer for the entire Imperial Army, the number of weapons that had gone through Li Qingyou's hands numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Over the years, he had gained the ability to analyze the properties and quality of a weapon accurately just by feeling it with his hands.
This three chi long sword was heavy and cold to the touch; in a sense, it felt as though one was touching a sturdy block of ice. Clearly, the forging technology behind this weapon was completely different from other swords.
At the very least, neither the royal court's workshop nor the swordsmithing clans had ever produced a weapon like this before.
So this is a Wootz steel weapon?, Li Qingyou thought as he examined the sword in his hand.
The youngest son of the Wang Clan, Wang Chong, had created a sword of unparalleled sharpness and durability—the number one sword in the world! While selling his sword in the Bluebottle Pavilion, many had come to challenge him, and neither the best swords and sabers from the Abbasid Caliphate or Charax Spasinu, or the greatest blades of the Central Plains were a match for the Wootz steel.
This legend had started spreading four to five months ago, and it had caused a huge commotion in the capital. Naturally, Li Qingyou had also heard of it.
But unlike the others, Li Qingyou only sneered at the legend, thinking that it was complete nonsense.
How could such a formidable weapon be produced so easily?
Which of the existing top-notch forging technique didn't come from countless centuries or millenniums of heritage, perfected through the hard work of generation after generation?
So how could an entirely brand new school of weapon forging simply emerge from nowhere? And not to mention, the weapons forged by through this technique were so formidable that they could slice through the other top-notch swords and sabers easily?
The very notion of it was so ridiculous that Li Qingyou rejected the possibility of it from the very start.
On top of that, the quantity of Wootz steel sword was so terribly limited that he had never seen one before, and this only furthered his doubts.
But now, Li Qingyou suddenly found his beliefs shaking.
Klang!
Before the trio could react, a cold, sharp gleam swept across the broken sword in another soldier's hand.
Chi!
The broken sword was severed further, and the edge fell to the ground, stabbing into the tiled ground.
The trio were taken aback for a moment before nodding calmly, as if they had expected this sight. Given how each of the Wootz steel swords was worth an exorbitant price of tens of thousands of gold taels, it was natural for its quality to be far above the weapons of the other swordsmithing clans.
But as the one swinging the sword, Li Qingyou had a differing impression of the sword. In the trajectory of his sword, he couldn't feel the existence of the Lu Clan's saber at all. It was as if the sword was slicing through thin air.
This was the first time Li Qingyou was feeling the sharpness of the Wootz steel sword for himself. In his many years serving as the logistics officer, he had never met such a fearsome weapon before.