New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

As it turned out, Ye Yilie's meticulous planning was nothing more than a child's game to Wanyan Wuqimai.

The moment Ah Si's arrow flew out, four personal guards from the Great Jin Emperor quickly stepped forward, tightly surrounding Wanyan Wuqimai while drawing their long swords from their waists.

With a crisp "crack," the arrow was severed in two by the blade, and the supposedly fatal blow was easily chopped off and fell to the ground.

After failing to kill the target, Ah Si turned and fled. But after taking only two steps, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. Looking down, he was horrified to find an arrow piercing his body from behind, protruding from his chest with blood, gleaming brightly in the sunlight.

The killing of A Si immediately triggered a riot among the people in the mountain valley. Wanyan Wuqimai snorted coldly, waved his hand at his personal guards, and said in an unusually cold tone: "Suppress."

At the emperor's command, screams of agony immediately filled the mountain valley. Dozens of temporary miners recruited by the princess's residence were thus inexplicably killed by the imperial guards.

Seeing that they were surrounded, the few assassins lurking among them knew that they had no way out. Since they had been forced into a desperate situation, their only remaining option was to fight back.

The three men drew the daggers hidden at their waists and charged directly at the Great Jin Emperor. Unfortunately, how could three men possibly break through the encirclement of dozens of people? In the blink of an eye, they were killed on their way.

Looking at the corpses lying haphazardly on the ground, Wanyan Wuqimai sneered again: "Overestimating yourselves."

Standing not far away, Wanyan Xi was protected behind Tang Qian. Whether she was frightened by the sudden assassination or saddened by witnessing the miners' unprovoked deaths, her face was pale and her eyes were somewhat vacant.

This was also the first time Tang Qian had personally experienced something like this. The fact that he could still stand beside Wanyan Xi without his legs going weak was a testament to all his courage. In the chaos, neither of them noticed that behind a boulder not far away, another figure suddenly appeared, holding a knife in both hands above his head, and with a loud shout, he slashed at the already stunned Wanyan Xi.

The Imperial Guards, thinking all the assassins had been eliminated, relaxed their vigilance. No one expected that there would be one who had escaped. In addition, when the enemy launched the sneak attack, everyone's attention was focused on the Emperor. At this moment, the Seventh Princess became the target. The closest guard was ten steps away from her, and it was too late to rescue her.

"How dare you, thief!"

Just as Wanyan Xi was about to die at the hands of the assassin, and Wanyan Wuqimai could only rage helplessly, Tang Qian, who was guarding the Seventh Princess, suddenly turned around and firmly protected Wanyan Xi behind him. Facing the blade himself, he subconsciously raised his left arm to block in front of him.

He had just made the move when the assassin's blade was already upon him. Wanyan Xi, who thought Tang Qian would be bleeding on the spot in the next moment and couldn't help but let out a cry of surprise, did not see the bloody scene of Tang Qian's left arm flying off. After a "clang", the assassin felt the long knife in his hand become lighter, and the long knife was actually shorter.

Looking at Tang Qian's left arm, it seemed completely unharmed, still connected to his body.

The assassin didn't know what had happened just now, but now was definitely not the time to ask questions. Having missed his first strike, he raised his right foot and kicked Tang Qian squarely in the chest. The force of the kick was considerable, and Tang Qian immediately arched his body like a boiled shrimp. Even with Wan Yanxi acting as a cushion behind him, the enormous impact still sent him and Wan Yanxi staggering back several steps.

"Someone, come quickly!"

Seeing Tang Qian's mouth bleeding and his eyes closed, collapsing limply in her arms, Wanyan Xi panicked even more. Holding Tang Qian for a long time, at a loss, she turned to the guards who rushed over to help and roared, "If anything happens to Tang Qian, I will make you all pay with your lives!"

After a violent coughing fit, Tang Qian slowly opened his eyes, his vision gradually focusing, and found himself lying on the bed in the room.

Hearing the commotion, a maid immediately went to check on Tang Qian. Seeing that Tang Qian had regained consciousness, she instructed him not to move him, then turned and went out, her figure quickly disappearing into the corridor.

Tang Qian tried to take a deep breath and felt that apart from some tightness in his chest, he was not injured anywhere else. This made him feel relieved. He raised his left wrist and couldn't help but smile bitterly. The thing he used to save his life had still been taken away.

Not long after, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Wanyan Xi and her maid Xiao Li rushed over. Seeing that Tang Qian was trying to sit up, Wanyan Xi immediately stepped forward and pressed down on his shoulders, her face full of worry and anger: "Don't move around. The master said that your injury needs to be rested."

It must be said that the assassin's kick was indeed extraordinary. Tang Qian was lucky that his ribs were not broken. If there had been a fracture that caused the bone to pierce his heart and lungs, even a celestial being descending to earth would probably not have been able to save him.

"It's alright, I won't die." Tang Qian's lips curled up. Although he was short of blood and energy, his smile still made Wanyan Xi's pretty face blush. As if sensing that the atmosphere between the two of them was a little strange, Wanyan Xi coughed lightly to cover her embarrassment, stood up and left the edge of the bed. The concern in her tone immediately disappeared: "If you are able to get out of bed and walk around, please come to the mansion, my father has something to ask you."

Tang Qian nodded in agreement and stood up with Xiao Qi's help. Wan Yanxi and Xiao Li went out and waited for a while. Tang Qian came out dressed neatly. Seeing that he was indeed alright, the worry that had been lingering in Wan Yanxi's heart suddenly vanished, and the trace of sorrow between her brows disappeared completely, replaced by an unprecedented sense of ease and joy.

Inside the side hall, Wanyan Wuqimai sat upright. Wanyan Xi wanted to stay and accompany him, but was summoned to the inner hall by her mother, Empress Qinren.

Holding a piece of iron in his hand, Wanyan Wuqimai looked at Tang Qian with a mixture of doubt and surprise: "Could you tell me what this is? How could it block the slash of a long sword?"

Tang Qian bowed and cupped his hands: "This is a little trinket that I had made before I went on a mission to Youzhou. There are no secrets in it, it's just been forged repeatedly."

So-called "hundred-times-forged steel" refers to steel that has been forged hundreds of times. This technique appeared as early as the Han Dynasty and matured in the Tang Dynasty. Exquisitely crafted Tang swords even used the technique of steel-cladding.

However, the entire process takes too long, resulting in a very low output rate.

The reason why Tang Qian's iron wrist guard was not cut by the assassin's blade was because the steel was forged through countless hammerings. The opponent's longsword had too many impurities, so it would naturally break upon collision.

"The Song people's iron-making skills are indeed superb. If we can forge weapons with this steel, our Great Jin cavalry will surely be invincible. Since you are proficient in this craft, can you forge this steel for our Great Jin?"

Tang Qian sighed. He knew that once the iron wrist guard was exposed, it would definitely be coveted. However, if he hadn't stepped forward in the mountain ravine, Wanyan Xi would probably have really died.

"Your Majesty, I can provide blacksmithing techniques, but I cannot improve efficiency. To forge high-quality steel, we can only do so by manpower, and cannot use machinery."

If he were to do as the emperor before him said, he would likely lose his life. However, he had to say something beforehand: forging steel takes time. If the emperor wanted him to arm his entire imperial guard in a short period of time, he might as well just kill him now.

"What is machinery? How can it be replaced?"

As the emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Wuqimai was no fool. From Tang Qian's few words, he sensed something amiss.

Tang Qian didn't know how to explain the difference between machinery and manual labor for a moment, but he also knew that if he couldn't come up with some solid evidence to shut Wanyan Wuqimai up, the matter would probably not end well.

"It is impossible to make a machine that can forge steel, but I do have another simple lathe here that Your Majesty might be interested in."

"Oh?" Wanyan Wuqimai was indeed convinced. "Tell me more about it."