Conrad's Last Campaign Read Free Page A

would not involve the execution of several scientists.
    The khan’s moods always had to be judged carefully. Sometimes he was the regal Emperor of China who ruled wisely but would have you shortened for bowing too little. Sometimes he was the barbarian ruler who would drink and carouse with his men but kill them personally for disagreeing with him. Today, he was the working technocrat who would probably not have you killed for disagreement so long as it was said politely and backed up with facts.
    We settled for bowing several times and walking with our heads down.
    “Su Song”, he said, “Look around you. I have brought you some very expensive presents. Please look and tell me what you think of them.”
    At his gesture, servants removed the canvas coverings from three huge wagons and several tables around the room. The wagons were about four bu by about two bu wide. Two of the wagons had iron wheels and were mounted on some sort of iron strips. The third wagon was obviously some sort of war wagon with shield walls, similar to the Korean battle wagons, but with some sort of metal weapon mounted in place of the usual crossbows. The other wagons seemed to be primarily cargo carriers, but they also mounted weapons and on the front of one was a nozzle that looked like a fire lance.
    If the weapons were functional, that would explain the crossbowmen in the room. The khan would never take a chance that someone would use them on him.
    Since the khan was looking at us expectedly, we wandered around the wagons and tables inspecting the contents briefly; very briefly as the khan’s patience was famous for its absence. The cargo wagon held wooden forms covered with doped cloth, apparently some sort of war kite and a mechanism with a large propeller attached.
    There were tin bottles and brass tubes in most of the wagons along with miscellaneous parts that looked like so much junk.
    Sitting alone was a large mechanism as tall as a man and wider than it was tall that seemed to be driven by a rather inefficient looking water wheel. I had my doubts that the mechanism would actually work. Even though the water wheel had linkages that matched the bigger mechanism, I couldn’t see how it could produce enough power to be useful.
    The water wheel could be a paddlewheel from a warship, but those were normally powered by a treadmill and the linkage still didn’t make any sense.
    The most interesting thing was the track system that two of the wagons stood on. The track was several times the length of each wagon, so I signaled two of my assistants to join me at one end of a wagon. As I suspected, the three of us could rather easily roll the cart forward in spite of its heavy load.
    I spent several minutes inspecting the wheels and bearings and, more importantly, the iron strips they sat on. Their design was impressive. Wide flat tops and bottoms with a thinner vertical member gave them stability without using excess material. Somebody smart designed this system.
    The khan’s patience ended at the same time as the wine in his cup, “Well, Su Song, give your first impressions of what you see here.”
    “Your Imperial Majesty, it seems as if you have conquered yet another enemy and brought the spoils to us. What we can recognize is war material. The war cart reminds me of the war cart used by the Koreans. The weapons are some sort of fire lance, but I would have to experiment to know their power.
    “The rail and wagon system is impressive and shows signs of long development. Such a system would cut the cost of bringing building material and supplies to the Celestial Palace by ninety percent or more. For now, we are limited to destinations on or near a very expensive canal. This would cost less than one percent of what a canal would cost, and could go anywhere.
    “The engineer has also solved the problem of theft of the rails. They are made of the most cheaply manufactured cast iron, useless to blacksmiths, and each has a cast figure of a man