After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

…………

Cao Du's face and expression froze at that moment.

Apart from Li Xing humming twice, the surroundings fell silent.

The group of military generals who had been watching earlier revealed a hint of mockery in their eyes.

The crowd that had just come to watch the commotion looked at each other with disbelief, exchanging glances. They were about to ask a question, but then they stopped, noticing that Minister Cao in front of them seemed to be completely dumbfounded.

He obediently shut his mouth again, not daring to say another word.

Jiang Luzhi's eyes widened as he glanced at the broken knife on the table, then he hurriedly ran out.

The general glared at Lu Kun, who was speaking out of turn, and with a "slap," delivered a blow to the left side of the young captain's back.

"Lu...Lu..." Fearing that Cao Du would take notice, Jiang Luzhi swallowed Lu Kun's name, only angrily saying, "What nonsense are you spouting, you motherfucker!"

"Hiss!" Lu Kun hissed in pain, but dared not retaliate. In front of his own general, he could only shrink back in humiliation.

Huff... Cao Du slowly took a breath.

He narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the craftsman. Although his expression was calm, anyone could see the anger beneath the face of this Vice Minister of Works.

Cao Du asked, "Is what Brother Lu said true?"

The craftsman's knees buckled, and he stammered, "I...I am a lowly person..."

Cao Du raised his hand to stop him: "I understand."

The four-qian-three-fen goose-feather knife from the Ordnance Bureau was made for officers of the rank of squad leader and above.

He turned his head.

Looking at Li Dahei, who had a kind face, his gaze swept across the room and settled on the knife in Li's hand.

It was actually cut in half by this knife?

"Cough cough cough!"

At this moment, the vice president of the Daliang Academy of Sciences cleared his throat and coughed a few times, attracting the attention of everyone present.

Immediately, Li Xing knelt down and looked at the wooden table in front of him.

I was just about to leap up and show my face.

But since arriving in Beijing more than half a year ago, he has been the principal of Daliang Elementary School, and trained accountants for Baiyufang. Later, his elder brother made him the vice president of Daliang Academy of Sciences... The yamen is still under the jurisdiction of the New Instruments Bureau. It's very tiring. When people are tired, they eat more. They eat this and that. Aunt Ning also makes some delicious meat strips for him as snacks from time to time. He has become much stronger... He probably can't jump up!

Principal Xing, who was always pragmatic and sought stability, rolled his eyes.

In the blink of an eye.

So they changed it to crawling.

"Cough cough cough!"

He coughed a few more times, and everyone looked at the child strangely.

"Everyone,"

After awkwardly climbing onto the long table, Vice Dean Li performed a traditional Chinese bow and loudly proclaimed in a clear, childlike voice:

"As I said before, I am the vice president of the Daliang Academy of Sciences! And this knife from our New Weapons Bureau—"

He pointed to the knife in Big Black's hand.

"It uses technology from our new equipment bureau. What kind of technology?"

He tilted his head back and answered his own question:

"It's the latest steelmaking technology from our Daliang Academy of Sciences!"

"Steel!" Li Xing suddenly raised a finger and shouted, "What is steel?!"

Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon!

"Then may I ask, alloy? What is an alloy?"

"Alloys are two different...different..." Li Xing repeated, a chill running down his spine. How did his older brother write it again?

"Cough cough cough!"

He coughed lightly, his expression unchanged and his heart pounding, and continued:

"According to the book written by the dean of my Great Liang Academy of Sciences, this alloy... is just gold combined together... combined together... Hey! When people are united, they can move mountains! When this gold... metal with metal... or with carbon... is combined, wouldn't they be even more united?"

Li Xing drawled out his words, waiting for someone to agree.

"Yes!" Lu Kun said loudly, giving him face.

"Ah—" Li Xing nodded and smiled, giving a look that said, "You're a quick learner," and said, "Brother Lu is right..."

"hehe."

At that moment, a soft laugh came from outside the crowd.

"A mere brat dares to talk nonsense about steelmaking here? What a boastful tone!"

The voice was soft and gentle, yet quite loud.

Everyone turned to look over, and there stood a short, plump, fair-skinned, beardless official dressed in a scarlet robe.

It was none other than Hong Wei, the chief eunuch of the Bureau of Armory, who possessed the highest level of craftsmanship in the Great Liang Dynasty!

Cao Du bowed slightly and said, "Eunuch Hong."

Hong Wei quickly replied, "Minister Cao wouldn't dare."

Everyone bowed to Hong Wei.

"Greetings, Eunuch Hong!"

"Greetings, Eunuch Hong!"

"Hehe, Shen Yue greets Eunuch Hong!"

The Left Commander-in-Chief Zhou Yingyuan, the Right Commander-in-Chief Zhang Gu, the Minister of War Luan Zongyuan, the Minister of Revenue Fang Xiaofan, and the Brave Guard Fan Shiwei merely glanced at the eunuch without giving him any special treatment.

Today's procurement meeting is, of course, a formal procurement meeting.

It's just that people don't quite understand it, and some even have a vague sense of resistance.

The Empress meant more to let them observe.

They chatted privately for a few minutes on the sidelines, but didn't talk much about what was happening in the room. They exchanged glances at most, keeping their meanings unspoken.

"Huh?" Li Xing called out to Hong Wei, "What did you just say, sir?"

Hong Wei chuckled softly:

"Young man, do you know the *Iron Metallurgy Records*? Do you know the *Exploitation of the Works of Nature*? Do you know the method of frying iron? Do you know the method of making steel? Do you know how to quench? Do you know how to write the character for quench? One…"

He meant to say "a child who hasn't even grown all his hair yet," but as the words reached his lips, he suddenly realized he was a eunuch, and his resentment grew even stronger. He raised his voice and angrily said:

"How dare a child who can't even read spout such nonsense here!"

"The merit of the Ironworks Record is that it used a reverberatory furnace for decarburization. The Exploitation of the Works of Nature is that it is comprehensive and complete. The methods of steelmaking, such as the crucible steelmaking method and the frying steelmaking method... oh, you call them the ball steelmaking method and the frying ironmaking method. They are comprehensive, but too vague. There are no quantitative measures. Each craftsman has his own skill, and there are high and low levels. There is no progress in carbon production, and the steel is not very good."

Li Xing casually spread his hands and said:

"These two books are thoroughly familiar to the five top craftsmen who make it into our Academy of Sciences. It's just a pity, ah, that we've already phased them out quite a bit."

Hong Wei narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Oh?" he said.

"Heh." Li Xing looked down at him with an undeniable air of superiority.

"interesting."

Hong Wei reached out his hand, and the head of the Armory handed him a Mengwu knife worth twenty taels of silver.

"Ha, further words are useless. This sword is named Mengwu."

The chief eunuch, whose knowledge and experience in the Bureau of Armory were actually comparable to those of a master craftsman, laughed.

"Wait, if a blade strikes your goose-feather sabers and the nick on your blades is less than half an inch, I, Hong..."

"How is it?" Li Xing asked.

"Heh, what do you want?"

"One thousand taels of silver."

"I'll give you two thousand taels!" Hong Wei's eyes flashed, and he stepped forward, sword in hand.

…………

"and then?"

Inside a side hall of Fengtian Hall.

A smile appeared on Zhu Cuiwei's slightly thin, oval face as she asked Wang Bing.

Wang Bing, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Censorate who had just gone out to inquire about the situation, gave a wry smile and bowed in response:

"Then... there was Hong Wei's Mengwu Blade... which was instead seized by the New Weapons Bureau..."

Wang Bing said in a voice that even he found this unbelievable:

"A gash more than half an inch long was chopped out...it almost broke off!"

With a whoosh, Chen Yuezhi abruptly stood up and exclaimed, "Really?"

Thump, thump, thump! The newly appointed head of the Ministry of War felt his heart pounding like a drum.

If... if the New Weapon Bureau really produces such a powerful weapon, then against the Northern Dynasty, wouldn't our dynasty, our dynasty, our dynasty be...

Sun Chengshan's pupils also contracted incessantly.

Yan Yuqing, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard with a full head of white hair, was quite calm. She not only knew about this matter, but also that the Embroidered Uniform Guard commanders above the thousandth rank had even started using the newly forged Embroidered Spring Blade from the New Weapon Bureau.

Before Wang Bing could answer, Zhu Cuiwei shook her head and said:

"It's not that exaggerated. Even if the new goose feather blade can cut a considerable nick in Meng Wu's blade, it would still be difficult to break through the light armor of the Northern Dynasty, let alone heavy armor."

Chen Yuezhi was taken aback: "Your Majesty..."

Zhu Cui smiled and said:

"The official seal in Xing'er's hand was given to him by me, and his position as vice president of the Academy of Sciences was also appointed by me personally."

Xing-ge'er... Chen Yuezhi's expression froze.

Sun Chengshan's eyes narrowed, as if he had thought of something. His gaze sharpened, and he stood up and bowed, saying:

"Your Majesty, may I ask... then what about the president of the Academy of Sciences...?"

Zhu Cuiwei took a silent breath, her hand unconsciously reaching for her lower abdomen, but in front of the ministers, she naturally stopped herself. Instead, she picked up a cup of tea brewed by Chunyu and said softly with a smile:

"It is indeed my humble husband."

"Oh,"

The Empress of the Great Liang Dynasty sighed childishly, somewhat helplessly.

"He's been like this since he was little, always enjoying tinkering with little gadgets..."

…………

"Cui Cui, you must remember, the focus of our new military-industrial complex, or rather, the goal of this new system, is not in the military..."

Zhu Cuiwei read the letter the young doctor had written to her many times, and this sentence remained vivid in her memory.

"And in...work."