Weapons

By mid-May, the rainy season had ended, and the harvest month was approaching.

But the system shop had refreshed, too!

Su Qin sat in his study and opened the system interface.

"System, open the shop."

The shop interface soon opened.

[As Gulltown has reached 1,000 permanent households, Gulltown has officially become a level 1 town. This special reward offers religious items!]

[The host may choose a refresh category: books! Weapons! Blueprints! Religion (one-percent appearance rate)!]

Su Qin's eyes lit up. "System, choose religion!"

[Religion-exclusive building blueprint (unique within the territory of use (barony)): basic divine court (blue): occupies 360,000 square meters.]

[Includes a prayer room, cathedral, healing room, herb room, divine court library, large dining hall, bathing and sanitation facilities, divine court guardhouse, and other living and defensive facilities.]

[Contains three chief priest positions: presiding priest (judgment), left priest (knowledge, magic, and preaching), and right priest (divine guards), all magical units! Also includes the all-important crystal cultivation pool! Exchange price: 500 gold coins!]

He took a deep breath! He couldn't afford it! At the same time, his pupils widened: magical units!!!

Did Westeros have magical units?

Apparently, but not many!

In fact, the Citadel in Oldtown had been studying magic for centuries!

Rumor had it that scholars in Oldtown had cast magic to prevent House Targaryen from hatching dragons!

And amethyst was precisely a type of magical crystal!

He kept reading.

[Religion-exclusive book (blue): One Hundred Cases Explained. Contains common medical cases and herbal formulas! Exchange price: 100 gold coins!]

It was actually quite good!

[Magical item: Golden Dragon necklace (blue). Can foresee and warn of hostility (magical and physical) within 10 meters. Contains one use of defensive magic, forming a magical shield that can block one physical or magical attack! Exchange price: 100 gold coins!]

Awesome!

[Religion-exclusive ritual implement: Priest's Dragon Staff (blue, magical). A ritual implement exclusively for the presiding priest. Can heal wounds to the soul and has special effects when attacking heretical creatures! Automatically shatters after being actively used to kill more than seven mortals!]

[Exchange price: 100 gold coins.]

[Warning: religious personnel are strictly prohibited from using magic to harm mortals. Bear the consequences yourself!]

Exclusive? It seemed religious ritual implements and magic couldn't be used to kill mortals. That was fine, though. Religion wasn't a path focused on the flesh in the first place.

The original purpose of religion was to guide the soul toward continual transcendence!

Human nature was inherently evil! At birth, the soul was actually chaotic, subject to increasing entropy, and needed guidance to learn restraint.

In fact, no matter a person's age, their soul sought somewhere to belong!

Su Qin sat in his chair and thought for a moment.

"System, what are your criteria for determining that the cultural conversion to Han civilization is complete?"

[First: 90% of the territory's population must follow the Dragon God Faith and accept its doctrine!]

[Second: 90% of the territory's population must accept Han characters!]

Because the faith system could only be activated once the cultural conversion conditions were met!

Moreover, only cultural conversion would allow summoning to break through blue and reach red! Then he could prepare divine miracles for his trusted followers!

But the price would certainly not be low!

"Just those two? What about cultural substance?"

[Host, the people of Westeros have their own culture. You only need to use Han characters to carry their culture! Do not casually spread your own cultural customs rapidly among the masses. That is actually very dangerous!]

[The system uses acceptance of the writing system as a key assessment criterion.]

It really felt like a certain game!

But now magical units had appeared, making the future even more shrouded in mist!

Su Qin spent a long time thinking that day.

That evening.

After some thought, Su Qin waved his hand, and three items appeared before him. He briefly examined them before putting them into the system inventory.

Of course, Su Qin's private funds were now down to 350 gold. He was visibly spending money like water.

The third day of the third week of May.

Afternoon.

Su Qin eagerly entered the smithy with Aila, captain of his personal guard. Yira had told him the craftsmen had finished making the smithy's first batch of weapons. Of course, they had only made one of each weapon and piece of armor as a reference.

At the large smithy's storeroom, the iron lock was opened, and Su Qin entered with twenty craftsmen, summoned as reinforcements during the rainy season, and Aila, captain of his personal guard.

The first thing that greeted them was row after row of redwood weapon racks, neatly arranged along both sides of the storeroom.

Su Qin led the others over and counted a full sixty-four tall redwood racks. Long weapons such as spears and staves could lean against their outer sides; soft armor such as leather armor could be placed on the shelves inside. Of course, those could also hold smaller weapons such as sabers, swords, hammers, axes, bows, and arrows!

Su Qin counted them up. Each rack was two meters long and half a meter wide, with room for forty spears across its front and back! With sixty-four weapon racks in total, they could hold 2,600 spears!

Looking at the clean stone walls, gray stone flooring, and sensibly positioned torch holders around him, Su Qin nodded in satisfaction.

"Gery, you've done very well."

Gery smiled. "The Dragon God's miracle allowed me to discover the pleasure in this knowledge."

"Although I'm from Westeros, I prefer speaking in Han characters. A single Han character can express so many meanings. My lord, I'm truly glad I was the first to step forward that day!"

Only those who had received the miracle knew it was a divine dragon. To outsiders, they uniformly called it the Qilin Faith!

Su Qin smiled. "Making you feel that Han characters are better wasn't my intention, though it's close enough. As long as you accept them!"

Everyone present had loyalty above 95! They were all utterly devoted!

Except Aila, whose loyalty was 89, but he could still be trusted!

Su Qin looked at Gery and the others.

"Take me to see the weapons and armor you've finished!"

"Yes, my lord!"

Soon.

The weapons that came into view were two long weapons, three short weapons, two ranged weapons, and a suit of iron armor!

"System, display their attributes!"

[Redwood spear (white): a spear incorporating hundred-fold forged iron casting techniques, with a redwood shaft! Length: 1.5 meters. Weight: 3 jin. Very suitable for ordinary infantry (no martial prowess) in close combat.]

[Hundred-fold forged iron spear (blue): made entirely of hundred-fold forged iron, with a suitable balance of hardness and flexibility. Length: 2 meters. Weight: 10 jin. Suitable for people with a certain degree of strength (martial prowess greater than 3).

Su Qin nodded in satisfaction. "Aila, see what you think!"

Aila nodded and tried the two spears in turn...

After going through a few moves, Aila looked at the others and smiled. "My lord, both the iron spear and wooden spear are excellently balanced. I like them very much. I believe even [Sunspear] and [Casterly Rock] cannot match this iron-forging technique!"

Sunspear was the royal domain of the Kingdom of Dorne, while Casterly Rock was the royal domain of House Lannister! The two houses were famous throughout Westeros for their heavy infantry and light infantry!

Both countries were grand duchies! Their children could actually all be called princes and princesses!

Of course, there was only one king and queen!

The children of grand dukes were called princes and princesses in private. After all, Westeros had originally consisted of seven countries!

[Titles and territories: small village or town (special knight)-barony-earldom-marquisate-duchy-kingdom!]

After hearing the professional Aila's assessment of the newly made weapons.

Su Qin and the craftsmen smiled, and Su Qin patted Aila on the shoulder.

"I believe your martial skills surpass even those of the Prince of Dorne's personal guard captain!"

"My lord, you flatter me!"

[Aila's loyalty +1, 90 (loyal subject)!]

Su Qin was a little surprised!

So this fellow liked this sort of thing? And he said I flattered him?

Fine, if I drag you to King's Landing one day and have the people praise you one by one, you'll probably ascend to heaven!

[Aila's effective attributes: command: 10, martial prowess: 10.]

He was actually very formidable already! The higher an attribute rose, the harder it became to improve!

Especially above 10, each point actually made a tremendous difference!

Alone and wearing armor, Aila could at least match the fighting strength of fifty ordinary people!

Martial prowess of 5, 10, 15, and 20 each marked a major threshold!

For an ordinary person, reaching 5 in any attribute was actually quite impressive!

Su Qin and the others put down the long weapons!

Su Qin looked at everyone.

"Let's look at the short weapons!"

The craftsmen then led everyone to the short weapons. Their attributes actually looked quite good.

[Hundred-fold forged greatsword (blue): blade length: 70 centimeters. Width: 10 centimeters. Weight: 6 kilograms. Can effectively damage leather armor and penetrate iron armor with sufficient strength! Suitable for people with a certain degree of strength (martial prowess greater than 3).]

[Hundred-fold forged flail (blue): handle length: half a meter. Chain and spiked head length: half a meter. Weight: 5 kilograms. Can effectively damage iron armor (martial prowess greater than 3).]

[Hundred-fold forged armor-piercing pick-axe (blue): haft length: 70 centimeters. A spike at the front of the head and a hammer at the back. Effectively penetrates armor. Weight: 5 kilograms. Martial prowess greater than 3.]

Su Qin stepped forward and tried them for a while. They all felt good!

So the craftsmen rightly deserved praise!

"Gery, everyone has done very well."

Of course, tangible benefits had to follow, too!

"You're all getting a raise!"

"Thank you, my lord!"

An ordinary craftsman's salary was one gold a month! With food and lodging included, that was actually quite a lot!

But to Su Qin, it was a mere drizzle.

With the capital great nobles possessed, it was hard to imagine that the funds you desperately needed were no more than an exhaled breath in their hands!

Last came the crossbow, bow, and armor!

[Qin light crossbow (white): single-shot long crossbow, with a redwood body and ox-sinew string. Fires 40-centimeter bolts, with an effective direct-fire range of 50 meters! Insufficient maximum draw weight; cannot penetrate armor! (Suitable for people with ordinary arm strength, braced against the ground to draw.)]

An excellent weapon for defending a city! It could also deal with unarmored targets, or hit targets at around 100 meters with arcing fire!

[Redwood longbow (white): combines Westerosi craftsmanship with Han civilization's horn-bow crafting techniques. Bow made from laminated redwood boards, with multiple strands of ox sinew combined into a string. Requires a certain degree of strength to draw (martial prowess greater than 3). Weight: 3 jin. Length: 1.5 meters. Direct-fire range: 200 meters! Arcing-fire range: 400 meters! Within 50 meters, armor penetration is positively correlated with arm strength and arrowheads!]

Archers were not trash units that ordinary people could learn to use after a few days of training, as in some games! Throughout history, those who served as archers had always been elites! They needed not only physical fitness but also prolonged training! Ordinary people could not possibly start out as archers using high-draw-weight bows!

[Hundred-fold forged armor (blue): a knight's iron armor made from hundred-fold forged iron in imitation of Westerosi techniques. Protects the entire body, with a ventilated helmet. Total weight: 20 kilograms. Provides good defense when paired with chain mail and can protect against arrows.]

Su Qin nodded in satisfaction. These were all good things!

After a moment's thought, he said, "None of these manufacturing techniques can be leaked. Be careful, all of you!"

The craftsmen had actually made excellent things!

The hundred-fold forged iron technique should be somewhat better than the local techniques!

Although it was not steel, it was already better than what many nobles' smiths could produce!

Hearing this, everyone exchanged looks and answered together, "Yes, my lord!"

Secrecy was essential!

In truth, the most important technique, hundred-fold iron forging, was entirely in these craftsmen's hands. For now, the enemy could not copy it! Smithing had always been passed down privately!

Now, the most important thing was output! Equipping ordinary soldiers with weapons came first!

He looked at Gery and asked, "Gery, how many redwood spears can you make a day?"

Gery looked at Su Qin. "My lord, if twenty of us work on them, with Downton and me leading ten men to forge the spearheads and the other ten responsible for planing the shafts and the other processes, we can make thirty a day!"

They generally did not work at night! In the pitch dark, people here usually went to bed very early!

Su Qin thought for a moment. What about the cost, then?

He asked, "How much does a day's production cost?"

"My lord, including ox sinew, redwood, iron ingots, and labor, each spear costs fifty copper!"

Nodding, Su Qin rubbed his chin. That was acceptable.

He took fifty gold from inside his clothes and handed it to Gery. "Direct the workers to build another large smithy!"

With the technology in hand, he needed to expand production capacity. Talent was no problem at all!

In this era, arms were still easy to sell, especially in chaotic regions short on iron, where weapons were expensive!

If pressed, he could make plenty of gold by selling a few common weapons!