Da Yan smiled when he heard this, and Lao Nie followed the translation,

"Da Yan said, not only you can give gifts, but she also has to give some gifts back.

She also asked, what kind of woman is the queen of the Han Dynasty? How old are you?

What does it look like? ”

"Uh-"

This question was directly asked to the envoy Liu Jing.

The queen is a monarch, under one person and above ten thousand, and he doesn't even dare to think about these questions asked by the Da Yan clan on weekdays.

But obviously, the steppe people don't seem to have so many twists and turns, and since she has asked, he has to answer hard,

"The Empress, uh, is twenty years younger than the Emperor, the wife of the Emperor when he was in Peixian, and the mother of the Crown Prince.

Appearance, this, this, is naturally the dragon and phoenix among people, outstanding. ”

Da Yan listened to Lao Nie's translation, looked up and glanced at the henchman old woman standing beside him, his earrings and eyes were shining, and he said a few words with a smile.

After listening to Zhile, Lao Nie said to Liu Jing,

"Da Yan said, I heard that the emperor of the Han Dynasty laid down the Central Plains by himself and became the emperor, and there were so many women in the harem, but he still did not change his wife, which shows that the queen is also a very powerful figure.

Lao Nie also chimed in,

"Da Yan clan, you are right, the big queen is the same as you, the words she says and the things she does are sharper than the fastest arrow on the grassland."

Liu Jing nodded like pounding garlic, feeling that the Da Yan clan could analyze the Tao in a few words, although the language and customs were different, but they were transparent, and they did not lose to Queen Lu at all.

He observed his words and then added,

"Our eldest queen wants to discuss with the Great Clan, she has followed the emperor to fight for nearly ten years, and finally won the world, and now is the time to rest with the people, and she herself wants to have a good rest.

To put it bluntly, our two countries are resting, and don't toss each other. ”

Hearing this, Da Yan stared at Liu Jing with big eyes for a long time before slowly asking in a low voice,

"I'm afraid that the queen can't rest these days.

Aren't there several very powerful kings under your Great Emperor?

Did the Great Emperor think that every king was loyal to him? ”

***

The powerful person in the mouth of the Da Yan clan was secretly happy in the North Palace of Luoyang at this moment, facing the secret letter sent by the second brother Lu Shizhi.

This secret letter is about his new discovery in Handan City, Zhao State.

In addition to walking around every day, Lu Shizhi occasionally climbs the corner tower in the north of Handan City, looks at the farther northwest, and sees the long sky and the mountains are far away.

Only the huge steppe harrier eagle that hovers and flies by from time to time seems to remind him at all times how close it is to the steppe of the Huns and the next war.

At this time, he always thought in his mind,

"I wonder if Liu Jing has arrived at the Xiongnu court now? Did you encounter any difficulties along the way?

...... And Zhong Liwei, I don't know where I am?

I hope he has successfully entered the territory of the Xiongnu. ”

On another day, Lu Shizhi sat under the stone gate at the gate of King Zhao's palace, taking advantage of the shadow cast by the magnificent eaves to enjoy the shade, and leisurely watched the captain lead a team of guards to practice.

After watching it for a while, I could only hear them complain during their rest, these newly made bows and arrows were not easy to handle, and it was quite laborious for Zhang Xian to pull the bows, which were far less useful than the old Geng bows in the palace arsenal that were about to break.

An arsenal, as the name suggests, is a warehouse for storing weapons, equipment, and military supplies.

The major affairs of the country are in worship and Rong.

At the beginning of the founding of the Western Han Dynasty, it was stipulated that all weapons and equipment must be manufactured and kept by the government.

The heavy responsibility of manufacturing weapons was undertaken by the Shaofu, one of the nine kings, and the Shaofu also had jurisdiction over the examination work order, the Zuo Yi order and the Ruolu order, which were respectively responsible for the management of the government-run workshop, as well as the supervision and acceptance of swords, crossbows, bows and arrows.

The weapons that have been produced and accepted will be registered and stored in the warehouse.

The storage here refers to the arsenals that belong to the central or local counties.

From the capital of Luoyang to the border counties and inner counties, there are large and small arsenals, the arsenals of the border counties are to defend the border and stabilize the country, and the arsenals of the inner counties are convenient for the deployment of troops and generals in preparation for local civil uprisings.

In addition, the official system in each princely country, like the central government, has a great degree of autonomy, so these kingdoms with different surnames also have their own arsenals.

"I was almost careless, Zhao once promoted Hufu cavalry shooting, and was once a powerful country among the Warring States Clan, plus it has been adjacent to the Hu people for a long time.

In the arsenal of Zhao State, I'm afraid there will be any magic weapons that can control the enemy, right? ”

Lu Shi's heart moved, and he slowly paced closer, and stretched out his head to look at the bows and arrows in the hands of the guards with a curious face.

***

He lived in Zhao for a short time, came out and went in, didn't have a fight, and was already familiar with everyone.

In addition, he is weak and quiet, and he seems to have no sense of existence, and Zhang Ao, the king of Zhao, has also instructed his subordinates to be respectful to this powerless Jianhou Hou, as long as it is not too out of line, he can follow him.

The lieutenant was unguarded against this sick relative, and even had some unprovoked contempt, so he casually handed him a bow.

Lu Shizhi followed his brother Lu Ze to practice martial arts since he was a child, and later entered the Chu camp, where he was tortured to death, and his body was weak and weak, but he still knew the difference between the advantages and disadvantages of weapons.

Under the suspicious gaze of everyone, he took a sharp breath, stretched his arm and pulled hard, although he failed to fully draw the bow, but he had already given a preliminary judgment in his heart-

The bow arm of this bow is generally elastic, and the bowstring is not always flexible, which can be called a qualified weapon, but it is not a good product.

It's just that although it is not handy, it is a common high-quality bow and arrow in the army, and it seems that it will not reach the level of being complained about again and again.

Could it be that the soldiers of Zhao Guo have used a divine bow that is a hundred times better than it, and with the comparison, it will cause a lot of dissatisfaction?

He was distracted, his movements were inevitably deformed, and suddenly his breath was uneven, his arms were weak, and he coughed so much that his face was red and his neck was thick.

"Ahem, ahem, this bow, ahem, ahem, is indeed not convenient.

What is the difference between the Geng bow you just said and this bow? ”

The guards secretly held back a smile, hurriedly helped Lu Shizhi to sit down in the shade, and hurriedly poured him a glass of water before he explained in detail.

It turns out that everyone knows that there are a number of old Geng bows in the arsenal, which look tattered, but they are extremely silky and smooth, with a high head, fast rate of fire, and light weight.

Those who have good deeds went to check, only to find that these old bows were all from the hands of craftsmen with the same surname, that is, the Jiang family living in Handan City.

"The old Jiang family has lived in Handan for generations, and it has been six or seven generations now.

His family's ancestral craft is not only to make bows, but also to make crossbows.

According to legend, the ancestor of the Jiang family was valued by the male lord of Zhao Wuling, and was appointed as an engineer and entrusted with the important task of making bows against Hu.

Later, the general Li Mu also used a good bow made by his family and matched it with Hu Ma to train 10,000 good archers and break the Xiongnu and Linhu tribes. ”

"That being the case, this Jiang family should have been famous outside the territory a long time ago, why have we outsiders never heard of his family's name?"

"Alas, after years of war, the state of Zhao was destroyed in decline, and his family died and ran, as if only Lao Jiang was left, and he became a waste."

"What do you mean by that?"

"In the Qin period, Lao Jiang had missed his conscription due to illness, and was cut off by the government, and he was inconvenient to move, disheartened, and had not made a bow for many years.

At present, there are only a few dozen of the broken and old bows in the arsenal. ”

Lu Shi's heart was compassionate, Qin was dedicated to the spirit of the Legalists, in order to seek quick treatment and quick peace, severe punishment and strict law, people who broke their hands and feet because of a little crime can be seen everywhere, Lao Jiang suffered this unjustified disaster, and it was also helpless under the harsh law.

From this, he realized more deeply what the emperor, empress and sober-minded ministers talked about every day "lightly and lightly and resting with the people", for ordinary people like Lao Jiang.