[continuing chapter 3]
"What are you doing?" Chin loomed over the small group sitting cross-legged on the deck. Liang Sheng, the adept, scurried behind him, trying to keep up. This wasn't easy to do, because as far as Wen could tell the man was trying to walk without moving legs or feet. The expression on Chin's face was hard to read, but the old Daoist's could have been parsed by a blind man. Ignoring Liang Sheng, Wen pointed to the drawing one of the new men had chalked on the deck.
"You'll no doubt be interested in this, Chin," Wen said to him. "This fellow has sailed far to the south, and he's learned some new and interesting things. Things that can help us."
"That's 'General Chin' to you, Wen Xia," Chin said. So much for gratitude for my saving your life, thought Wen. "And I'll be the judge of whether or not I'm interested in something." After a pause he said, "So what is this?"
"It's a sail," the new man said. He'd been a crew-member on the captured fuchuan, and according to the stories he'd been telling, he had been crew on one of the treasure fleets that had sailed south to beyond the kingdom of the Maya—Pocapetl's people—in search of silver and gold.
"There is a type of foreign devil we haven't yet seen in our waters, devils who call themselves British or English—they always seem to be fighting over what they should be called. Their ships are small, but though they look in many respects similar to our fuchuan, they move much more quickly and with vastly more agility. I have seen such a ship, from a distance, and I believe that the big difference between their ships and ours, general, is their sails. They are wondrous things, general, and I think that they could make our ship the superior of any other vessel in the great Eastern Ocean. I have been sketching for Wen Xia here a picture of what one of their sails would be made like, and we've been trying to work out how to adapt the design for use on your ship."
Chin's eyebrows lifted. "Superiority, from a sail?" He bent at the waist and stared, narrowing his eyes, at the picture. "It looks strange. Are you sure you've drawn it properly?"
"Yes, sir," the man said. "There's no doubt in my mind that this is how they look. I think that they're made of cloth, you see—not bamboo or matting. So they're more flexible, and can take in more wind."
Chin looked down at the drawing, brows working as he tried to absorb its meaning. "Superiority is good," he said, sounding to Wen as if he was talking to himself. "But new and strange are not so good."
"Are you a sail-maker?" Liang Sheng asked, in a voice like sour wine. "Or a master of sails?"
"No sir," the man said. "I helped adjust the sails, though, on my last ship."
"And no doubt you adjust sails very well." Liang Sheng turned to Chin, his narrow jaw wobbling in outrage. "General Chin, you are correct to suspect this—thing that has been done here. This man is upsetting the proper order on your ship. He is working outside his permitted realm, and if you permit him to continue with this he will damage the integrity of your movement and your calling from heaven." Liang's eyes blazed with the righteous fire of an inconsequential man who has discovered a convenient if pointless fact in his favor.
Chin straightened, and with a sinking heart Wen saw the same stupid fire kindling in the giant's eyes. "Thank you, Liang Sheng," he said, "for helping me to realize what I have seen. This drawing," he thundered, "is to be removed. You two"—he pointed at Wen and the new crewman—"will do double duty cleaning the deck today."
"But why?" the crewman asked. "We've done nothing wrong."
"Weren't you listening just now?" Chin bellowed. "You are guilty of usurping your superior's proper role!"
"I wasn't usurping anything! I just thought —"
"You did not join this movement to think," Chin said. "You joined to follow orders in a great cause. The great sage said, 'Each is to cleave to his own place, and there is no higher purpose that to fulfill one's duty to one's superior.' You are not fulfilling your duty when you usurp the duties of the master of sails."
"But general," Wen said, making a last attempt, "this could make our work easier. What's wrong with that?"
"There's plenty wrong with it, when it comes at the cost of upsetting the proper order," Chin replied. "Without order we are nothing but bandits and pirates." What's so bad about that? Wen asked, silently.
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