Yan Xiaohan caught a glimpse of the messy papers on the table, covered in Fu Shen’s strange scribbles. Curious, he picked up a sheet and asked, “Can I look?”
Fu Shen was indifferent: “Go ahead.”
Those scribbles were variant characters, somewhat like a signature. Fu Shen saw him looking intently and casually asked, “Recognize them?”
Yan Xiaohan pointed to one: “This ‘military’ character is the seal of the Military Equipment Bureau. All weapons made by the bureau have this mark. The small hooks at the end of your brush strokes resemble arrows, likely from the Crossbow Workshop of the Military Equipment Bureau.”
Fu Shen was casual, but when he heard “Military Equipment Bureau,” his pupils contracted: “The arrows used in the Northern Yan army are unmarked; I’ve never seen such a seal.”
Yan Xiaohan explained: “Generally, large quantities of military arrows are made by local manufacturing bureaus, some with markings, some without. The Military Equipment Bureau mainly focuses on developing new weapons and manufacturing for the capital’s garrison. Therefore, only arrows used by capital troops would have the Military Equipment Bureau’s Crossbow Workshop mark.”
Fu Shen pulled out another paper with a symbol resembling a running beast: “What about this? Do you recognize it?”
Yan Xiaohan smiled, leaned down to pick up the brush, indicating for Fu Shen to hold the paper, and wrote a more rounded and similar symbol.
“This is a ‘leopard’ character written in one continuous stroke.”
“Before the previous dynasty split the imperial guards, there were only ten guards in the imperial city: Left and Right Golden Insignia, Leopard Strategy, Luan Ceremony, Eagle Soaring, and Feather Forest. At the time, each guard was represented by an animal, with the character slightly modified to become a special mark.” He spoke while writing on the paper: “Like Golden Insignia was a three-legged crow ‘gold’ character, Leopard Strategy is the one I just wrote, Luan Ceremony was a phoenix-shaped ‘luan’ character, Eagle Soaring was an ‘eagle’ character, and Feather Forest was a crane-shaped ‘feather’ character.”
“However, after the imperial guards split and expanded to the Southern Garrison’s Ten Guards and Northern Garrison’s Six Armies, this set of characters fell out of use. Why did you suddenly ask about this?”
Fu Shen slightly nodded, composed and steady, appearing unperturbed, as if the arranged marriage had no impact on him.
