Chapter 146: Bai Hanyun’s Suggestion
Looking at the list of materials in front of him, Feng Xiyan read it out loud, "The basic materials we need are wood, stone, rammed earth or adobe bricks, glutinous rice, tiles, and river sand."
Noting them down on her phone, Bai Hanyun asked, "You guys don’t use iron or steel pipes to reinforce the foundations and walls?"
When she asked this, Feng Xiyan looked surprised and explained, "Fairy Bai, bronze, iron, silver, gold, and jade are controlled materials. Only the imperial court and the emperor have authority over them. It’s a capital crime to use iron for building houses. As for steel, we don’t have it in the Yu Empire."
Now it was Bai Hanyun’s turn to be surprised. She paused for a moment, then asked, "Feng Xiyan, if I send you some iron and steel pipes, would you use them to strengthen the buildings? Would it be alright?"
Sensing she was planning something, Feng Xiyan replied truthfully, "Right now, many eyes are watching Xiqiang City and the Feng Army. If Xiyan uses steel or iron pipes to build houses, my enemies could use that as an excuse to charge me with a crime of corruption."
"So... you can’t use them?" Bai Hanyun asked again to make sure.
Feng Xiyan’s eyes flickered coldly for a moment before he smiled and replied, "It should be fine as long as no one finds out. But instead of using them for houses, Xiyan would prefer to use iron and steel to forge weapons."
Hearing his answer, Bai Hanyun remembered she had sent him a batch of high-carbon steel before. Feeling curious, she asked, "Feng Xiyan, have you used the high-carbon steel to forge weapons?"
Feng Xiyan replied, "Yes. We used the weapons you sent as models and tried to forge similar ones. Unfortunately, the designs were too sophisticated, and we failed multiple times to recreate them."