She Became A Downfall Noble Lady
Chapter 403 - 402: Too Poor Quality

Chapter 403: Chapter 402: Too Poor Quality

So, just three or four days into their journey, Qi Sanshun and Qi Jiaer found themselves with something to do. They held onto blocks of wood, rubbing them against fine files to smooth out the burrs. Although they had spread a large cloth in the carriage, it still ended up full of wood shavings.

Ye Xinyan, who was traveling with them, arranged various official positions based on ancient military registers. For any rank she was unsure about, she had to consult the guards and Hongzhi.

Jinrong learned that Ye Xinyan was making a set of game pieces for children to play with and, noticing that all four of them in the carriage had wood shavings on their clothes to some degree, couldn’t help but find it amusing.

During lunch that day, Jinrong said to Ye Xinyan with a laugh, "Ye Zi, you’re muddling through this. If you want to play chess to pass the time, why not just buy a Go set in town? There’s no need for all this fuss."

Ye Xinyan glanced at Jinrong and, brushing the wood shavings from the hem of her clothing, replied begrudgingly, "Go is such a profound game. I don’t even know how to play it myself, so how could I possibly teach the two of them?"

Jinrong’s smile became slightly awkward as he almost forgot, the young lady of Duke An’s Mansion didn’t excel in any of the four arts of zither, Go, calligraphy, or painting. He was unwittingly picking on Ye Zi’s shortcomings.

"Actually, you just never sat still long enough to learn properly. With your intelligence, if you really wanted to learn, even starting now would be soon enough." Jinrong sought to recover ground.

Ye Xinyan shook her head decisively, "I don’t want to learn."

What a joke, to learn such a thing? Playing Go wasn’t that simple; it required talent. Without talent, no matter how much effort you put in, at best you would be an amateur between fourth and sixth dan. The young ladies in ancient private chambers who played were just idle, indulging in a passing fancy—it wasn’t even an affectation of cultural sophistication.

What couldn’t one do with that time?

Jinrong: "..." Alright then, for Ye Zi, learning that indeed wouldn’t be much fun. It would be more useful for her to write something, do some work, or earn some silver.

"But what about them..." Jinrong gestured toward Qi Sanshun and Qi Jiaer, "How about we let Hongzhi and Hong Wu teach them?"

Ye Xinyan shook her head, "Forget it, such a sophisticated skill is too much for them at their young age. It’s better to wait for a chance and the right opportunity to learn. The game I’m making is very simplistic. It’s called ’war,’ but really it’s just about following the rule that the bigger officer captures the smaller one. There’s not much depth to it, perfect for boys to play with and pass the time."

Jinrong laughed, "With how you are, needing to ask others about the ranks, can you really come up with a set of rules?"

"That’s not necessarily the case," Ye Xinyan retorted, clearly not convinced.

Upon further reflection, Jinrong realized that might well be true. One of the things Ye Zi excelled at was establishing various rules.

In fact, making the land warfare chess set didn’t take much effort. In just one day, the two youngsters had finished crafting the pieces, and Ye Xinyan had drawn the chessboard. Meanwhile, she had Bi Ning dye the pieces in light red and green, marking them with the corresponding ranks.

In Ye Xinyan’s view, children, especially boys, had a natural aptitude for understanding toys and equipment. Reality proved her right, as she only had to go through the rules of the land warfare chess once, and explained the ranks written on the pieces and their order three times, before letting them have at it. Miraculously, they remembered everything.

Boys really have a natural affinity for playing with such things; and then, the two of them played with great enjoyment.

Qi Sanshun was several years older than Qi Jiajia and naturally won every battle. This uneven matchup was quite detrimental to the child’s confidence and interest. However, if Qi Sanshun always let Qi Jiajia win on purpose, it would also become uninteresting.

Ye Xinyan couldn’t bear to watch and made way for a carriage, finding two guards to follow behind the two children and join in their game. With two guards each giving the children ideas, the red and green sides began to match each other in strength.

The land battle chess was a simple game with no technical content. Precisely because it was simple and required no special skills, it was easy to pick up and also fun. Not only were Qi Sanshun and Qi Jiaer hooked on playing it, but even the guards from Duke An’s Mansion and Prince Yu’s Mansion were rubbing their hands with eagerness when it was their turn to join in, showing great interest in this little toy.

Jinrong saw the guards flocking to the land battle chess and became interested as well, joining the two youngsters in the carriage to watch a couple of battles. That evening, he took the chessboard and asked Ye Xinyan in detail, "What exactly are these landmines and sky thunders? And what kind of soldiers are the mine-sweeping troops?"

Ye Xinyan glanced at the chessboard. In the game of land battle chess, there were bombs and landmines, things ancient people would naturally have no concept of. But these two weapons were very important elements in the game of land battle chess. Without these lethal weapons, the game would lose much of its appeal, so she translated bombs and landmines as sky thunder and landmines.

With the concept of sky thunder, an artifact from ancient times, as a foundation, it was much easier to explain landmines.

However, faced with Jinrong’s inquiries, Ye Xinyan still planned on giving an evasive answer first to see if she could get by with it. If that worked, she could save herself the trouble of further explanation. She said, "It’s just a little toy for children to play with, there’s no real rationale behind it. These two things just make the battle more interesting and get the children more engaged. They don’t correspond to actual objects."

Jinrong didn’t end the conversation there, but instead continued to ask, "I can understand a bit about the sky thunder, but how did you come up with these landmines and mine-sweeping troops?"

Ye Xinyan, left with no choice, had to follow Jinrong’s line of questioning and explained haphazardly, "Since we have sky thunder, of course we can imagine landmines. For instance, mines that can be buried in the ground, stationary ones that explode on contact—of course, this is all just hypothetical. As for the mine-sweeping troops, we obviously can’t do anything about the sky thunder, but if one could detect or sense the location of landmines, then we’d send soldiers to remove them. I’ve called the soldiers who do this kind of job mine-sweeping troops."

After hearing Ye Xinyan’s explanation and looking at the chessboard again, Jinrong sighed and said, "If only we really had weapons like sky thunder or landmines. Any army that possessed these kinds of powerful weapons would undoubtedly be invincible and secure victory easily."

Ye Xinyan didn’t hide her smirk. There will be such things when the development of cold weaponry reaches its peak, and then black gunpowder will come into play. That will be followed by even more powerful nitroglycerin explosives, and then...

Forget it, this is probably just a man’s nature. Upon seeing such things, they immediately think of their destructive power and securing a sure victory.

As for the subject of explosives and bombs, Ye Xinyan didn’t elaborate further, and Jinrong, not having such advanced awareness, didn’t ask any more substantial questions. So the discussion about the land battle chess ended quite smoothly.

This simple and interesting toy was perfect for passing the time on the road. With his interest piqued, Jinrong immediately had Hongzhi find someone to make a set just like the original. Carving, painting, and inscribing were done in one go, and it took only half a day for him to get the hang of it.

And so, Jinrong and Guan He also took a seat in a carriage, occasionally arranging their troops and engaging in a few matches.

Each time he played with the chess pieces, Jinrong would express his regret, "Although this game is simple, it is indeed interesting. It’s just a shame that the quality of the chess pieces is so poor. When we get back, I’ll have a set made of rosewood. It will feel much more comfortable to hold."