Xie Ming

Chapter 276 Lu Bao, Wei Cang

On the afternoon of May 17th, Xiao Lang, Zhizhong and a few others collected the silver, grain and horses, and then rushed to a warehouse in the west of the city!
A batch of artillery and weapons previously donated by Xie Sufu were stationed here.

When they arrived at the place, Xiao Jingchuan dismounted, and the people who were with him walked in from the door with cheerful smiles.

"Hahaha"

"Feiyu (Qiu Zhizhong), if I remember correctly, this kind of warehouse is usually not too small!"

"The standard structure is that the front part should be a quadrangle courtyard office, for the local garrison commander to work!"

"look!"

"The corner tower in the southeast corner is the bell tower, where the sentinels are stationed!"

"Let's go in from here. Behind the government office, there are probably two side rooms on the east and west sides. One is the armory, and the other is the granary!"

Xiao Lang walked with a brisk gait and a smile on his face as Qiu Zhizhong, who was beside him, began to talk casually.

Hearing this, the soldier under Xie Sufu who followed in also became clever and immediately echoed the others.

"Haha, the general is really insightful!"

"This"

"To be honest with you, the street in front of our Zhending Weicang is also called Cang Street!"

"The streets and alleys, together with the warehouse, were built during the Hongwu Dynasty under the order of Emperor Taizu himself!"

"Thinking back to the days when the garrison troops were still around, I heard the elders talk about it!"

"When soldiers are recruited, they have to register their household registration. Once they are signed up as soldiers, they cannot leave the household registration at will."

“Food and accommodation are basically regulated!”

"Ho ho ho."

"Unlike now, there are many more recruits who have switched to other industries!"

"Soldier, you don't look like a soldier, officer, eh"

"Haha, this... this warehouse has long ceased to store food. It only stores weapons and equipment. Even here, there are a lot of old, rotten things mixed in. It's getting worse and worse!"

The newly surrendered soldier from Xie Sufu's army introduced this guard warehouse in a very methodical manner, and there seemed to be a sigh at the end of his words.

Seeing this, Xiao Jingchuan glanced sideways, thought the soldier was interesting, and said a few more words to him.

"oh?!"

"My dear, from what you said, it seems that you are very familiar with this Wei Cang!"

"Are there any elders in the family who can serve as soldiers or generals?!" Xiao Lang looked for clues and asked.

Hearing that General Xiao had something to ask about his own situation, the soldier felt quite frightened. He was slightly startled and quickly answered without saying anything.

"Ah, General, reply to the General's question!"

"My grandfather and father were both soldiers of the Ming Dynasty!"

"Uh, no, but I'm ashamed to say it!"

"I have bad luck, a poor family background, and no future. As a result, in my lifetime, I can only do a job as a warehouse door guard!" The soldier looked embarrassed and replied with a wry smile.

"hehe!"

"Look at your age, you must be around 18 or 19, right?!"

"What's your name? Why not tell me?!"

At this point, Xiao Lang seemed to have the intention of showing kindness and training him.

Upon hearing this, the soldier couldn't believe it, stammered, and quickly knelt on one knee, clasped his fists together, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Ah, report to the general!"

"I am Lu Bao, nineteen years old this year!" the surrendered soldier Lu Bao replied seriously.

"Haha, good, great!"

"Are you willing to fight on the battlefield?!" Xiao Lang asked again.

"Yes! Yes!"

"It's just that my family has been poor since I was young, and I have no money to spend on practicing martial arts and picking up guns and sticks, so my martial arts skills are not complete." Lu Bao said with inferiority complex, feeling very ashamed.

"Hahaha"

"You have a good figure. If you are willing to give some strength in the future, your martial arts will improve!"

"Um, Qin Jing? Qin Jing?" Xiao Jingchuan suddenly turned his head and called the young general Qin Jing who was following him. "Here! General, I'm here!" Qin Jing took two steps forward and bowed in response.

"From now on, I'll keep this Lu Bao under your account!"

"I think he's a good guy, you take him with you first!" Xiao Lang instructed personally.

Upon hearing this, Qin Jing accepted the order without any further ado.

After saying this, Xiao Lang and the others did not stay for long and continued on their way.

Lu Bao was filled with gratitude and led the way, taking Xiao Jingchuan and his party to the armory where the artillery was stored behind the government office.

A few moments!

Walking through the hall to the backyard, under the east wing row house, Xiao Lang and others saw a large number of miscellaneous items piled on the table!

Things are piled up in a mess, and there are quite a lot of them!
On top of it, there are pieces of straw mats to protect against rain, but it seems that some of them are already in tatters, so its effectiveness is probably very limited.

Seeing this, Xiao Jingchuan frowned slightly and stamped his feet.

Seeing the look on his face, Lu Bao was also frightened. He hurried over in three or two steps, quickly untied the ropes, and removed the unsightly torn thatch.

Thanks to Lu Bao's hard work, the big object covered under the straw mat finally saw the light of day again.

After a gust of dust passed, I took a closer look and saw that the things wrapped under the eaves like a row of rice dumplings were actually the several cannons that Xie Sufu had mentioned!

"Cough cough."

"Oh! That Lubao!"

"Okay, okay!"

"Don't mess around for now!"

"It looks like these things haven't been cleaned up in years. If they continue like this, some of us will choke to death here first!"

Zhizhong stood behind Xiao Lang on the left. Unable to bear the dust, he wildly waved his arms to cover his mouth and was the first to shout to stop.

"Bah! Bah!"

"Oh! Yes, yes!"

"Lu Bao, stop it now!" Xiao Lang also echoed and hurriedly stopped his actions.

Hearing this, Lu Bao became frightened and stopped what he was doing.

After the smoke and dust had dispersed a little, Xiao Jingchuan took a few steps forward, approached the artillery, reached out his hand, and brushed off the dirt covering the barrel of one of the Portuguese cannons!
"Ah! This Xie Sufu really left us some good things!"

"These cannons are probably older than us!" Xiao Lang joked.

Hearing this, Sang Men Xing, Mr. Liu Erye, Qin Jing and others also walked forward, turning around and inspecting it several times.

"General!"

"Are these cannons still usable?!"

"Look! These cannon barrels are all rusty!"

"If the artillery shells in this fortress are triggered, there's a risk that they'll all explode!" Qin Jing was also quite dissatisfied.

"Cough cough."

"Okay, okay!"

"Hey! Stop thrashing around, you guys!"

"Well, Qin Jing, send a few people over later to help Lu Bao clean up these cannons!"

"Tell me the total number of usable ones and let me know!"

While Xiao Lang was giving instructions to Ling Yan, Mr. Liu, who was traveling with him, had already gone to explore the nearby rooms.

In a moment, he tilted his head from the other side of the corridor and called out.

"General!"

"Come here and take a look!"

"Here, there seem to be some big ones!" Master Liu called out.

"oh?!"

As he said, everyone turned their heads to look and saw Master Liu climb up to the top of a straw mat and pull with all his strength!
When the dust fell off, several sidecars were revealed underneath!
"Eh?!"

"There's actually such a big thing here?!" Xiao Lang said in surprise.

(End of this chapter)