It was funny, really. Pan Long had possessed the Classic of Mountains and Seas for so long and opened quite a few worlds, yet this was his first chance to bring back a few guns.
Almost every world he had visited before had been one of swords and magic. Even the composite world based on "Next Year's Ark" had only held Psionic Power weapons shaped like guns. They looked as though they fired bullets, but they were actually casting spells.
There was no way to reproduce those weapons in the Nine Provinces World.
This time was different. Although the world of "The Adventures of Indiana Jones" had some supernatural elements, its foundation was still physics and chemistry. The guns used so widely here were mechanical weapons through and through, with nothing supernatural about them and no apparent obstacle to reproducing them.
If he could take these guns back to the Nine Provinces World, establish a secret workshop, then dismantle, study, and finally reproduce them, the Pan Lineage would have a powerful industry of its own.
...One that could get the entire lineage executed.
Guns were a weapon of national importance. The Imperial Court would never allow ordinary people to control them.
Then again, if the Pan Lineage truly mastered this "weapon of national importance," bringing a few allies aboard would give them a steady supply of rank-and-file soldiers. They would have enough resources to contend for the realm one day.
That alone made a little risk worthwhile.
A gun's greatest advantage was not its power, but how quickly soldiers could be trained to use it. Training a competent soldier for close combat alone took a year or two; training one to shoot a bow took four or five; training one to ride and fight in formation could take more than