Ch.48Fall (5)

I arrived at the ger where the craftsmen were gathered.

As soon as I got there, I could hear what sounded like an argument coming from inside.

Wondering what was happening, I immediately stepped into the ger.

“What do those Hui people know anyway!”

“I’m telling you, mathematically this is correct!”

The ones arguing were none other than Song Dynasty craftsmen and Hui technicians.

I had no idea why they were fighting like this.

But as the leader in charge of these men, I couldn’t allow the conflict to continue, so I immediately stepped in to mediate.

“What’s going on that you’re fighting like this?”

When I appeared, the Hui technician and Han craftsmen who had been arguing stopped their dispute.

They looked at me, showed proper respect, and apologized.

“We… we’re sorry, Great Khan.”

“We apologize, Khan.”

In response to their apologies in awkward but clear Mongolian, I raised my hand to acknowledge them.

Then, to understand what had caused this incident, I questioned Hassan, the eldest among them.

“Explain what happened from the beginning.”

“W-well…”

The fight between the Han craftsmen and Hui technicians had started simply over how to calculate the shape of a hemisphere.

This was because I had requested a hollow sphere, which required precise hemispheres to create.

The Han craftsman was making an iron sphere with spikes to fulfill my order.

A passing Hui technician asked in the Song language whether the dimensions of the hemisphere were accurate.

To this, the Han craftsman boasted that it was a perfectly accurate hemisphere with no errors.

The Hui technician, in response to the craftsman’s confident behavior, asked how he could know without actually calculating it.

At this time, Song Dynasty technology was arguably the best in the world, so the Han craftsman was angered by the interference from the Hui people, whom he considered frontier foreigners.

The angered craftsman began arguing with the Hui technician, and naturally, their leaders, Zhang Yong and Hassan, also became involved.

“…That’s what happened.”

“…”

If I had been the original Yesugei, I probably would have killed them all.

This was because, from a nomad’s perspective, they should have just made the hemisphere as instructed.

But fortunately, I was a modern person sensitive to such specification issues,

and I could understand why they were fighting like this.

“Sigh… I understand. Then why don’t we determine who is right?”

“Determine who is right…?”

“How do you mean, sir?”

“Isn’t it simple? Through geometry.”

When I mentioned geometry, both Hassan and Zhang Yong looked surprised.

This was because, from their perspective, someone who seemed unlikely to know even numbers was talking about geometry.

It wasn’t that nomadic culture was inferior to settled culture or that nomads didn’t know numbers or couldn’t count.

It was just that, since they had no need to build tall structures, they lagged behind settled peoples in fields like geometry, algebra, and applied mathematics.

Anyway, regardless of that, the Hui technicians and Han craftsmen couldn’t help but be surprised when a nomadic leader suggested settling the matter with geometry.

“As I understand it, craftsmen and technicians from the Central Plains and Arab regions are skilled with numbers. So it would be better to determine whose words are correct right here.”

Geometry had developed throughout the world through its use in surveying and architecture.

Therefore, it was appropriate to determine who was right through numbers.

“Your words are correct, my lord… but how should we determine superiority…?”

In response to Hassan’s question, I picked up the hemisphere placed in front of me.

Then, showing it to everyone, I continued speaking.

“The winner will be the one who creates the formula for the exact specifications of this hemisphere.”

At my statement that the side with the accurate formula and numbers would win, the technicians and craftsmen nodded.

Then they immediately adjusted their posture and began quickly creating formulas.

Munglig, who was watching this scene from right beside me, rolled his eyes, wondering what was going on.

“Brother, what exactly is happening here?”

“What’s happening? This is how you handle people with too much in their heads.”

I was simply using the habits of intellectuals who compete with knowledge, unlike warriors.

From their perspective, nothing was more important than proving that what they believed was correct.

“Is proving that what you know is correct really that important?”

“Yes. Because if that’s shaken, everything they’ve built up is shaken.”

For scholars, knowledge was essentially the same as belief.

That’s why theologians, who were no different from scholars at this time, had to focus on continuously studying theology to solidify their beliefs.

In this situation, with Islam occupying the Middle East and shaking the foundations of Catholic faith and scholarship, Christian countries had to recapture Jerusalem with burning determination.

They needed to recapture the holy land to prove that Christianity, their belief and faith, was the only true faith.

Of course, this was just the surface issue, and everyone knew the real reasons were material.

“Scholars are hard to understand, brother.”

“There’s no need to understand them.”

As I said this, I pointed to the people who were writing formulas with their heads practically buried in the ground.

Then, smiling, I continued.

“We just need to watch what they’re doing from above.”

To conquer the world, all knowledge is necessary.

But a leader doesn’t need to know all that knowledge.

I just needed to make them fight like this and then make good use of the excellent results.

* * *

The battle of pride between the Hui technicians and Han craftsmen.

The winner was none other than the Hui technicians.

“See that! Hahaha! We are superior in geometry!”

“This… this can’t be…”

At Hassan’s words, Zhang Yong wore an expression suggesting something that should never have happened had occurred.

This was because at this time, Asians believed that Song Dynasty technology was the best in the world.

So when they learned that the Muslims they had been treating as slaves were more advanced, they couldn’t help but feel self-deprecation.

“It seems the Hui technicians are victorious. Will you accept this result?”

At my question, Zhang Yong lit up his eyes with determination.

“P-please give us one more chance, Khan. We can create a better formula and prove ourselves.”

“You should know how to accept defeat.”

Hassan’s words were polite, but they were full of the meaning “you’re just incompetent.”

Seeing this, I couldn’t help but think that people act the same regardless of cultural differences.

Anyway, this was completely a victory for the Hui technicians.

So all I had to do was raise Hassan’s hand to end it.

“J-just once! Just one more time…!”

Seeing Zhang Yong pleading with desperate eyes, Hassan didn’t know what to do.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke with the Hui technicians and then nodded.

“Fine. This is your last chance. If you lose again, from now on you must make things according to our formulas.”

“A-all of them?”

To Zhang Yong’s question, Hassan nodded without hesitation.

“Of course. If you don’t accept this proposal, there will be no rematch.”

“Ugh…”

After deep contemplation, Zhang Yong nodded.

Then the other Han craftsmen following him began to dissuade him.

“Elder! If this happens, we’ll have to follow the words of those Hui people!”

“That’s right! Those inferior…”

“Be quiet! This is a matter of pride! If we don’t prove that our loss was a mistake, doesn’t it mean the Central Plains are inferior to those Arabs?”

“T-that’s true, but…”

“Your words are right, Elder, but…”

“No more discussion!”

Having dismissed all opposing opinions, Zhang Yong looked at Hassan.

Then he requested a rematch.

“I request a rematch.”

“Very well.”

Munglig and I could only stare at the two men with their fiery gazes, wondering what they were doing.

“Brother.”

“What is it?”

“Should we just beat them all?”

“I think that would be good too… but.”

Looking at the perfect hemisphere placed before me, I had to postpone that thought.

Thanks to the fight between the Han and Hui people, the sphere I had originally intended to use as a grenade had been perfected.

Two perfect hemispheres were precisely interlocked to form a round shape.

Since they were truly perfect hemispheres, I thought that with these, we could make morning stars that would effectively damage heavy cavalry.

With the emergence of medieval cavalry, traditional weapons like spears and polearms had lost much of their effectiveness.

This wasn’t just in the West—the main force of the Jin Dynasty was also iron cavalry, so infantry weakness continued throughout East and West, ancient and modern.

One weapon that could somewhat compensate for this infantry weakness was the morning star.

It’s often confused with the mace, but maces were used by cavalry while morning stars were used by infantry.

That’s not to say cavalry had to use only maces.

However, there was a reason why Mongol cavalry had to primarily use maces in battle, and that was due to the lack of technical skill.

With maces being one-piece, it wasn’t a major problem if the weight balance was distorted.

But morning stars had iron chains connecting the handle and the sphere. So if the balance was off, the sphere could hit the user’s body.

But now, with a perfect sphere that solved this technical deficiency right in front of me, I couldn’t help but get excited.

“I think such a perfect sphere could create a weapon with even more devastating power if used to make a blunt weapon.”

“I certainly think so too, brother.”

Munglig agreed with my words.

As warriors whose lives were at stake, we had to pay attention to such details.

The maces already in use by the Mongol army were powerful but heavy, making them difficult to use repeatedly.

Additionally, being one-piece made it quite awkward to swing them in the desired direction.

Of course, skilled riders like Mongols could handle these issues well by twisting their bodies to change direction and such.

But on the battlefield, each of these small details could be life-threatening, so it was better to improve them.

“If we fill this perfect sphere with molten iron to make it small but heavy, even the Jin Dynasty’s armored Menganjie would die instantly.”

Weight could produce tremendous destructive power proportional to speed.

In other words, no matter how thick the armor of enemy cavalry, one hit from a morning star would make them cough blood and collapse.