Chapter 221: Struck By Inspiration
During this time, Gan Ning’s army has been actively training and preparing for battle.
Pengli Marsh became the training ground for the navy. In the night, drum sounds rumbled like thunder across the lake surface. Sixty thousand officers and soldiers and over one thousand three hundred warships engaged in fierce battle in the darkness.
Huge lanterns on the masts swayed violently with the movement of the ships. In night battles, these huge lanterns served both as a way to distinguish friend from foe and as command signals from the commander.
Naval night battles were much more difficult than land night battles. Generally, ships would dock at shore at night and set off again at dawn, simply because visibility was poor at night, making it easy to collide.
As for night battles, beyond collisions, soldiers could easily fall into the water if not careful. Therefore, each soldier was equipped with a folded sheepskin pouch and a bottle of strong liquor for self-rescue and to prevent hypothermia.
Gan Ning stood at the bow of the twenty-thousand-stone large ship, watching the night battle of the four armies: Zhao Yun’s army and Xu Sheng’s army, Huang Zhong’s army and Taishi Ci’s army, fighting team by team.
With Gan Ning’s sharp eyesight, he could probably understand about eighty percent of it. The three strategists beside him had poor eyesight and couldn’t see anything.
Lu Su sighed, “Night battles are exhausting, and observing them is even more tiring. It would be great if there were some kind of far-seeing tool that could bring them right before our eyes.”
The speaker meant it casually, but the listener took it to heart. Gan Ning suddenly remembered that among the spoils from Yuan Shu’s personal belongings, there was a box of crystal pieces containing many convex lenses—toys of an Eastern Han emperor, stolen as jewelry by palace maids and eunuchs, which ended up in Yuan Shu’s hands and finally became his own private collection.
Far-seeing tool, convex lens—perhaps something could be made with it?
………..
Gan Ning was out for two days. When he returned to the manor, he went straight to the warehouse. The warehouse in Gan Ning’s Nanchang County mansion was an underground one. Although Chaisang also had an underground warehouse, Gan Ning had converted it into an icehouse, providing ice blocks for cooling in summer.
Gan Ning’s warehouse was a stone house built of large stones, indestructible, with no windows. The roof had a row of small holes just big enough for rodents to enter, used for ventilation.
Inside the five-hundred-square-meter warehouse were rows of iron racks filled with his spoils of war and various property belonging to him, from Zhang Ying, Ze Rong, Liu Xun, Yuan Shu, Huang Zu, and others.
Among them, Huang Zu’s property took up the most space, occupying half the racks, but the rarest and most valuable were Yuan Shu’s items.
As soon as he entered the warehouse, Gan Ning spotted the wooden box in the corner—that was the thousand-year huang jing bought by Xiao Qiao and Xu Wei. Gan Ning picked up the wooden box and placed it on a slightly empty iron rack.
At that moment, Gan Ning had a feeling and turned around to see Xu Wei.
“Yun Qing, why are you here?”
“No… I wanted to cut a piece of huang jing to make soup for you.”
With that, her head slowly lowered.
‘Cut huang jing?’ But she had no knife or scissors in her hand.
Gan Ning suddenly understood a bit. Xu Wei had followed him in.
During this time, he had been indulging in Xiao Qiao’s body and had indeed neglected Xu Wei somewhat. Looking at her pitiful appearance, Gan Ning felt truly apologetic.
He walked forward and affectionately pulled Xu Wei into his arms. Xu Wei said nothing and tightly hugged her husband’s waist, silently feeling his body warmth. All the grievances in her heart melted away in his long embrace.
Gan Ning kissed her forehead. “Will you help me with something?”
“Sure!”
Gan Ning held her hand with a smile. “First, help me find something!”
“What does my husband want me to find?”
“Crystal!”
“I know where it is?”
Xu Wei pulled her husband’s hand and quickly walked toward the southwest corner. Of course, Gan Ning also knew where it was.
The two soon arrived at the iron rack holding the crystals. Gan Ning picked up a bronze box inlaid with gems—this was probably a treasure box of some Han Dynasty emperor, exquisitely crafted.
Opening the box, it indeed contained more than twenty small convex lenses ground from crystal.
“This is it. Let’s go to the study!”
Gan Ning brought Xu Wei to the study. He pulled her into his arms and had her sit on his lap, smiling. “I’ll show you something fun!”
“Husband, you’ve grown stubble!”
Xu Wei was a bit distracted, her gaze and thoughts all on her husband. She gently stroked his chin, not looking at the desk at all.
Gan Ning was helpless and whispered to her, “Tonight, we’ll properly study the art of lovemaking…”
Xu Wei bit her lip, blushed, and glanced seductively toward the small room nearby, her gaze tempting Gan Ning.
Gan Ning understood the hint and glanced toward the door. Xu Wei got it, ran over to lock it, and soon, the two figures vanished from the study.
After some unknown time, the two reappeared at the desk.
“What does husband want me to do?”
Xu Wei then curiously examined the bronze box on the desk and discovered it contained many beautiful crystal pieces.
“Look at this!”
Gan Ning took a convex lens from the bronze box and placed it on the book. “What do you notice?”
“Oh!” Xu Wei suddenly saw that the characters had enlarged.
She was like someone discovering a new world, quickly sitting down to study it. Gan Ning quietly unlocked the door and saw Xiao Qiao approaching from afar.
“Husband, time to eat. Oh! Yun Qing is here too!”
“A Yu, come quickly. I’ll show you something fun!”
Gan Ning beckoned Xiao Qiao forward. She was stunned too—under the convex lens, her hand was magnified, becoming exceptionally clear.
Xu Wei felt a bit guilty and hurriedly urged, “A Yu, let’s go eat first. We’ll study together tonight.”
Xiao Qiao’s personality was a bit careless. If the more perceptive Da Qiao were here, she would definitely notice what she and her husband had just done.
Some things, once done, inevitably leave traces, even the smell in the air is different.
…………
After dinner, the family of four came to Gan Ning’s study. Da Qiao had heard about the magnifying glass during dinner and was somewhat interested. With the children asleep, she came along.
The three women enthusiastically played with the convex lenses on the desk, while Gan Ning sat on the other side, sketching a design for a single-tube telescope and detailing the production method beside it.
He had no intention of letting artisans make it. He must keep the telescope secret and not let it leak out again, so he planned to have Xu Wei make it for him.
Xu Wei was very skilled with her hands; she made her own clothes and even jewelry. Having his own woman make a telescope for him meant no worry about leaks.
Gan Ning spent a long time selecting from a pile of convex lenses and finally found suitable eyepiece and objective lenses.
At this point, Da Qiao worried about the children and left first.
Xiao Qiao also knew full well that tonight she couldn’t have her husband accompany her, or Xu Wei would be upset.
Seeing the hour was late, she reluctantly left. Only Gan Ning and Xu Wei remained in the study.
“Husband, what do you want me to help with?” Xu Wei asked with a smile.
“Wait for me, I’ll be right back!”
Gan Ning drew his treasure sword and went out, returning with a bamboo stalk cut from the bamboo grove behind the study.
He cut the bamboo into more than a dozen sections and selected a one-foot-long bamboo tube, just right to fit the objective lens. The eyepiece was obviously smaller, so paper had to be stuffed around the gaps.
Gan Ning squinted and looked—it was a bit blurry. He adjusted the bamboo tube’s length, and suddenly the door several zhang away appeared clearly before his eyes.
“Yun Qing, come here!”
Gan Ning called the puzzled Xu Wei forward and held the telescope steady for her as she looked through one eye.
Xu Wei was astonished, stammering, “Husband, what’s going on here?”
Gan Ning had her sit down and explained at length using his drawing, giving her a junior high physics lesson. Xu Wei gradually understood: these crystal pieces were called convex lenses, and her husband had made them into a thousand-mile eye.
