An idle sword boat?
Everyone in the Imperial Study was surprised. Why had the National Teacher asked about this the moment he sat down? They had assumed today's chief matter would be when Great Li should announce his identity, so the imperial court could choose an auspicious day and hold a celebration to proclaim it to the world.
Great Li Sword Boats and mountain ferries were weapons of war born of close cooperation between the Great Li Dynasty and the Mohists. They had cost the imperial court enormous manpower, materials, and money. The reason the Ministry of Works had been able to join the Ministry of War in cursing the Ministry of Revenue these past few decades was entirely thanks to those boats and ferries.
The shipyards were among Great Li's most restricted sites. Even a Patrol Envoy with the highest military honors needed layer upon layer of approval and verification to watch those two precious treasures launch, along with the assent and written authorization of both Emperor His Majesty and National Teacher Cui Chan. After Cui Chan secretly stepped down as National Teacher, not a single Patrol Envoy had been able to visit the shipyards. If even they could not go, the senior and junior ministers of the capital and Secondary Capital could forget about it.
For the cultivators of the Great Li Earthly Branches lineage, one of their most important postwar duties was taking turns guarding those shipyards. What they guarded against were thieves within and leaks of secrets.
Minister of War Shen Chen was a veteran of three reigns, now a man in his eighties whose energy was failing.
Back when the old minister had still been relatively young, he had called National Teacher Cui an out-of-towner. Shen Chen had never set foot on a battlefield in