Chapter 206: An Unexpected Gift

Ride along the Horse-Dance River by the sea of snow, where the vast sands stretch endlessly into the yellow sky.

Mo Xiaobai led two thousand cavalry on a long journey to the Western Regions, and along the way, he could feel just how terrible the environment there truly was.

The wolf fur coat, which he had thought was quite warm, turned out to be useless here. Plus, the speed of riding a horse created a wind that cut like a knife; this experience was no exaggeration or joke.

They marched until evening, and only then did Mo Xiaobai order a stop for a rest. As soon as he flipped off his horse, he saw Guo Jia shivering violently from the cold.

“Fengxiao, put on this wolf fur,” Mo Xiaobai said as he took off his coat and handed it over. He did not want Guo Jia to fall seriously ill here.

“Jia is fine, My Lord must take care of your own body first,” Guo Jia replied.

“Put it on. Holding on too long will cost you your life. I am going to practice my spear skills with my Flying Generals. Once the fire is lit, it won’t be cold anymore,” Mo Xiaobai said, waving his hand. He pulled his long spear from his Xumi Bag, signaled Li Guang over, and began training his spear skills in a live combat setting.

The biting cold wind forced Mo Xiaobai to focus intensely just to shield himself from the climate. Yet, it was under these harsh conditions that his spear skills gradually improved.

In the past, he couldn’t make Li Guang move even a single step, but now he could exchange seven or eight moves with him. If it had been Zhang He or He Chun, he could probably trade ten to twenty rounds without falling behind.

Of course, these results were achieved when the generals were not using their full strength.

If Li Guang and the others used their full power, bursting past the 90 mark in combat stats, Mo Xiaobai would be stopped in three seconds no matter how much he improved his spear skills.

After all, Mo Xiaobai’s level was still only 26, and his combat stat had barely crossed 50.

As flames from the bonfires rose, Mo Xiaobai, who had been moving around for a while, no longer felt cold. Just as he was about to sit down and heat some soup with Guo Jia and the others, a Rattan Armor Soldier who was guarding the Wild Goose cages ran over in a hurry:

“My Lord, a Wild Goose from a merchant caravan has returned. It brings a Wild Goose Letter.”

Another one returned?

Mo Xiaobai raised an eyebrow, took the letter, and read it carefully. After a moment of hesitation and thought, a clear smile spread across his face.

Seeing Mo Xiaobai’s joyful expression, Guo Jia immediately asked, “My Lord, has some good news arrived?”

“Haha~ This time it is not just simple good news!”

Mo Xiaobai laughed and nodded, then handed the letter in his left hand to A-Dai. He gave it to A-Dai instead of Guo Jia because the content written there was not something Guo Jia would necessarily understand.

A-Dai took the letter and began reading the fat man’s chicken-scratch writing with some curiosity.

The ceramics and fine wine were sold to a high Noble in Qiuci. This was nothing surprising, after all, nothing from Huaxia was hard to sell.

Reading further, the fat man had not only made a lot of gold and silver but also picked up a batch of Refined Iron weapons that Indian merchants had pledged in Qiuci. The quantity was large, and the price was almost like a half-sale.

India?

It must be India, right?

A-Dai’s first thought was that the fat man was making a big deal out of nothing. It was just Indian ironware; what was there to brag about? But seeing the smile still on Mo Xiaobai’s face, it was obvious that Luyu had stumbled upon a huge bargain.

After all, the entire letter only contained these two pieces of news.

Indian ironware?

A-Dai pondered over anything related to those three words until a pot of hot soup began to boil on the fire. Suddenly, the word “Wootz Steel” flashed in his mind.

“Could it be that Luyu acquired Wootz Steel, the material used to forge Damascus blades?” he blurted out. Finally, A-Dai understood why Mo Xiaobai was smiling so much.

Damascus blades!

Even until the Middle Ages in Europe and the Crusades, those Europeans still revered the Damascus blade as a demonic weapon. Even during Napoleon’s time, the Damascus blade remained a top-tier weapon.

“Could it be this coincidental? Are you sure?”

“Of course. Just think about it a little to be certain.”

Seeing A-Dai ask again, Mo Xiaobai nodded and explained, “The reason the Western Regions are so important is that they are the hub for cultural exchange and trade between East and West. But if you were a merchant from Eastern India, would you choose to cross the northern part of India and the entire Qiuci Empire, then pass through the Western Regions to enter Great Han?”

“It would be much better to go directly east. At most, one would detour through the mountainous areas of Southeast Asia to easily enter Yizhou or Jiaozhou. Merchants from Eastern India would absolutely not choose to go through the Western Regions. The Indian merchants who do go to the Western Regions must be those from the west. The true source of Wootz Steel lies in northwestern India.”

Mo Xiaobai paused on purpose for a moment, took a bowl of hot soup from Guo Jia, and continued, “Merchants from western India usually travel north directly to trade with the Qiuci Empire. It is not impossible for them to visit the Western Regions on the way. However, they probably have not mastered the advanced Wootz Steel forging method yet, so the weapons they brought might not be very good. But that does not matter; we only need to take the iron back and smelt it again.”

“Wootz Steel has few impurities and easily forms natural patterns. A single blade pattern is equivalent to countless tiny sawteeth. The effect is completely comparable to hundred-forged steel. The charm of the Damascus blade lies here. The difficulty and cost of forging are not high, but the damage it inflicts on wounds is considerable. When dozens or even hundreds of invisible sawteeth scrape across a wound, stopping the bleeding is not enough to heal the injury.”

“However, such raw ore should not be very common in India. It might be exhausted after a few hundred years of mining. Yet, its impact on cold weapons will not disappear. When forging skills improve, artificially making Damascus steel will still be the mainstream for cold weapons.”

As Mo Xiaobai finished his last sentence, A-Dai couldn’t help but click his tongue in wonder. “It seems Luyu really found a treasure this time. I even want to rush to Qiuci sooner to see those Wootz Steel blades.”

“The goods will not run away just sitting there. Why the rush?”

Mo Xiaobai smiled lightly. Receiving a batch of Wootz Steel blades was just an unexpected gift for him. Actually, there was another unimportant detail on the letter that was also one of the reasons he laughed.

Mo Xiaobai passed the letter from A-Dai to Guo Jia on the other side. Guo Jia only looked at it twice before joining in the laughter. “My Lord, our luck is not bad. Sending out a scout merchant caravan was indeed a clever move with great effect.”

“Fengxiao, you noticed that?”

“The two words ‘Bai Ba’ are written very clearly. If I could not see this, I would not deserve to devise strategies for My Lord.”

“Haha~ Luyu, Gao Lan, and their luck is truly good.”

Mo Xiaobai took a sip of the thick soup and nodded with a big laugh. “I asked them to gather information, and they actually found out that the next ‘King of Qiuci’ is involved. This is a huge joy for us.”

“Previously, I was wondering how to grind down this nail in Qiuci. Now it seems that Yuliduo is not suitable to continue being the King of Qiuci. We can completely ‘help’ Bai Ba, letting him take the throne six months earlier.”