New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

According to the servant who came to deliver the message, Ye Yilie was waiting in the front yard. He cupped his hands in greeting to his sisters-in-law and then turned and left.

Zhao Fujin even planned to bring over the altered wedding dress for him to try on, to see if there were any changes needed, but Zhao Yingluo smiled faintly and said there was no need for that.

Zhao Fujin reached out and flicked his younger sister's nose: "I didn't realize that our eighth sister is good at tailoring. Or do you only know how to make clothes for your husband? I bet you've measured his height and length and memorized them perfectly, haven't you?"

Zhao Yingluo had just officially become a wife, so she naturally couldn't understand the risqué jokes her sister was making. However, her sister-in-law, Zhou, covered her mouth and chuckled, saying, "Stop making fun of your own sister. The important thing is to come over and help."

Seeing her sisters all looking at her with amused smiles, even the dim-witted Zhao Yingluo could sense that her fourth sister's teasing was not kind. She immediately threw herself at the other sister, pinching Zhao Fujin's waist and refusing to let go: "As the older sister, how dare you make fun of your younger sister? You should be punished."

The sudden tickling almost made Zhao Fujin laugh herself silly. She wanted to turn around and fight back, but she felt all her strength had been drained. She could only beg for mercy and ask her older sister for help: "Good sister, I won't do it again... Oh dear... Big sister, are you just going to let her run wild like this?"

Soon, the women in the house were divided into several groups and started making a ruckus. Their laughter soon carried out of the courtyard, causing the ladies who came looking for the noise to frown.

"A bunch of ill-mannered crazy girls."

Tang Qian walked around the back corridor, crossed the threshold and came to the front hall. Sure enough, he saw Ye Yilie standing outside the eaves of the council hall, looking up expectantly. Seeing the other party's excited look, Tang Qian's eyes suddenly lit up: "You don't mean to say that you've made something out of the drawings I made, do you?"

When Tang Qian entrusted this secret mission to Ye Yilie, he never expected that the other party would be able to successfully create the item in such a short time. However, the kid is now completely smug and irritating, which makes Tang Qian feel excited as well.

"The blueprints you provided are very detailed, and this blacksmith Zhang's skills are indeed extraordinary. However, it took him dozens of attempts to gradually master the technique and roll out the hollow steel pipes we needed."

"Alright!" Tang Qian clenched his fists and waved them in the air, showing no intention of going into the council hall for a detailed discussion. Instead, he beckoned to Ye Yilie: "Let's go, let's go take a look."

Stepping out of the Qiu family mansion, Tang Qian saw several servants setting up the wedding hall in the main hall. He didn't think too much about it, but as he stepped into the carriage, he muttered to himself, "Will Jiang Siyu's wedding also have some kind of ceremony at the Qiu family?"

After leaving Mingyuefang, the carriage soon arrived at a rather inconspicuous shop on the back street of the East Market, where Zhang's blacksmith shop was located.

Tang Qian jumped out of the car and, guided by Ye Yilie, passed through the counter filled with various civilian ironware and went straight to the blacksmith's workshop in the backyard, where two shirtless men were busy around the furnace.

The man squatting beside the bucket with iron tongs in his hand was an elderly man with white hair and beard. Judging from his focused expression, he was probably annealing a newly forged ironware. Standing to the side, carefully observing, was a young man. If he was not the old man's son, he must be his apprentice.

Hearing footsteps outside, Zhang the blacksmith took a long pipe out of the bucket and laughed at Ye Yilie: "Young Master Ye, you've come at the right time. Here's what you wanted."

Tang Qian stepped forward, took the hollow iron pipe that had slowly cooled down in his hand, and examined it from all angles for a long time as if it were a priceless treasure. He then let out a long sigh of relief and cupped his hands in greeting to Zhang the blacksmith: "Sir, your craftsmanship is truly remarkable. You have simply forged a pillar of stability for Guangling City."

Zhang the blacksmith hurriedly waved his hands, saying he dared not take the blame, and looked at Ye Yilie with a hint of doubt in his eyes: "Who is this young man...?"

"This is Tang Qian, the city lord of Guangling. It was his request that you help forge this iron pipe."

"City Lord?" Zhang the blacksmith was startled by the title Ye Yilie used and immediately pulled the young man behind him to bow deeply to Tang Qian, "This old man was unaware of the City Lord's arrival..."

Before he could finish speaking, Tang Qian grabbed his arm and said, “Master Zhang, there’s no need to be so polite. I’ve already said that anyone who stays to help the government defend the city will be the new master of Guangling City. Besides, you have made great contributions by forging what I need. In the future, after we drive away the Jin army, I will give you a blacksmith’s workshop that is a hundred times bigger than it is now.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang the blacksmith was once again filled with fear. He had lived a life of mediocrity, and his son, Zhang Tiesheng, was even more honest and dutiful, only able to follow in his footsteps and inherit his mantle. The highest-ranking official he had ever met was a minor clerk in charge of managing the shops, so how could he dare to accept the city lord's gift without reason?

Seeing Zhang the blacksmith's submissive demeanor, Tang Qian didn't bother to explain what kind of groundbreaking thing the iron pipe they had forged was.

Tang Qian didn't know how to forge iron, let alone manufacture hollow steel pipes. The only method he could think of was to try rolling out hollow steel pipes based on the ancient method recorded in the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" written by Ying Xing in the Ming Dynasty.

First, take a large iron rod, about the size of a chopstick, as the cold-hardened core, and wrap it with a red-hot iron hammer. First, make three joints, the joints glowing red, and forcefully hammer them together. After joining, use a four-sided steel awl, about the size of a chopstick, to penetrate and rotate it through the core, making it extremely smooth and clean.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were able to make the earliest arquebus using this method, and Tang Qian believed that the Song Dynasty, which was several hundred years earlier, could also make it.

He really didn't expect things to go so smoothly.

With hollow steel pipes, he could create matchlock guns that would allow Westerners to unleash their full potential and plunder the world.

The West began manufacturing firearms in the 15th century. Matchlock guns, which used a matchlock to ignite gunpowder and fire bullets, were popular on European battlefields for a full century, demonstrating that such guns had an unlimited market in an era of low productivity.

If Westerners can do it, why can't the wiser Easterners do it?

"How many iron pipes can Master Zhang roll out in a day? I can be of great use to him."

Tang Qian's question made Zhang the blacksmith look guilty: "This thing looks simple, but it's extremely troublesome to make. If even one detail isn't handled properly, it will be ruined, so..."

Let alone several a day, even this one finished product is the result of two days of tireless research by the father and son.