The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 230 Arms upgrade
Pei Dahu arranged for Wu Xiao and two guards to stay in Yang's house in case the Dongchang thugs suddenly attacked and someone was needed to cover Yang Hao's escape.

Yang Hao had already taken out a set of fine fish-scale armor from the house. After asking Wu Xiao to help him put it on, he called a servant and instructed:

"Take my badge and do your usual night duty. Once you're done, take them to the dock immediately. Don't come back. We'll meet you at the dock."

The servant agreed and said goodbye to Yang Hao in tears.

Everyone put on the Ming army's mandarin duck battle jackets and rode on horseback towards the water camp armory under the cover of night.

On the way, Shen Lian briefly told his men about his experience at Yang Mansion, and all the Jinyiwei were filled with excitement after hearing it.

These men have worked in the East Factory for many years, killed countless people, and are extremely ferocious. Their personal martial arts skills are beyond doubt, but they know very little about military affairs.

When they heard that they had to go to the armory to get weapons and move some falconets, everyone was extremely excited.

Lu Jianxing even shouted that he would fire a few cannons at the city gate to let Xu Xianchun know how powerful he was.

Shen Lian warned everyone to stay calm.

Everyone's mission tonight is to guard Zhangjiawan Wharf and wait until dawn to escape from Tianjin by boat. He particularly emphasized that when fighting breaks out, innocent civilians must not be harmed.

Finally, Shen Lian announced that from now on, everything must be under Pei Dahu's command and no action should be taken without authorization, otherwise don't blame him for being rude.

Everyone looked at Shen Lian's fierce eyes, knowing that he was not joking. They all agreed and did not dare to do anything rash.

The streets were silent in the dark night, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard far away along the bluestone pavement.

A night watchman saw this ghostly group of soldiers and hurriedly dropped his lantern and fled.

Everyone remained silent and followed the servant forward slowly.

After walking two miles, a faint light appeared in front of them. The servant said to Pei Dahu and others:

"We've arrived at the water camp. One mile east is the armory. Continue east from the armory and you'll reach the East Gate. It's guarded by standard bearers and is under the jurisdiction of Master Yang. Once you exit the East Gate, you'll reach Zhangjiawan Wharf."

"Looking at the situation, there are quite a few patrols from the water camp tonight. I guess the Franco-Machine Cannon can't be transported away. Let's blow up the cannon later!"

Pei Dahu nodded and said to the servant:
"Alright, get a few more Tiger Crouching Cannons."

The Ming army's French cannons weighed seven or eight hundred pounds. Without sufficient animal power, it would definitely not work if just a few dozen people carried them on their shoulders and pushed them by hand.

The group arrived near the barracks. There were two sentries standing guard on the watchtower, and the soldiers patrolling the camp gate were hiding in the corner, warming themselves by the fire and dozing off.

The servant of the Yang Mansion stepped forward to wake up the patrolling soldiers and took out the badge given to him by Yang Hao from his pocket. The sentry looked at the servant impatiently and waved his hand to tell them to leave quickly.

The camp gate creaked open, and the servants asked everyone to dismount, wrapped the horses' hooves with cloth, and led the war horses into the camp gate one after another. They quickly passed through the barracks and continued to walk east.

I walked with the torch for an unknown amount of time before I saw a faint light appear in the distance.

Lin Yu was riding on a sturdy horse, gently soothing the restless horse. Shen Lian thought he was timid, so he came up to him and said with a smile:
"Brother Lin, if you can survive this time, I'll help you find a few wives. Tell me, what kind do you want?"

Lu Jianxing was surprised:
"Brother Shen also knows a woman in Shandong?"

Zhao Yuanzhi exhaled a breath of hot air and said with a smile:
"There are green grasses everywhere in the world, it just depends on whether Brother Shen can find them."

Pei Dahu was about to speak when the servant in front whispered:
"arrive."

The Water Camp Arsenal was much larger than everyone had imagined. From the outside, it looked like an endless military camp.

"Follow me, don't talk, they only recognize me."

Yang Hao's servants walked in front, followed closely by Pei Dahu and others.

The group soon arrived at the entrance of the armory.

There were several large vats at the door, with bonfires burning in them. Three soldiers were huddled beside the fire and dozing off.

Hearing the noise, a soldier raised his eyelids sleepily and looked at the group of pedestrians.

The servant waved at him, approached the soldier, and said in a friendly manner:

"You've worked hard, brother. Go back and have a rest."

After saying that, he waved the badge in front of him. The soldier glanced at him, turned around and ran to the big vat to urinate, cursed and kicked a few of his companions awake, and asked them to go back to the camp to rest.

Yang Hao has been serving as the Coast Guard Commissioner in Tianjin for the past two years. Apart from being greedy for money, he has also been squandering it everywhere.

Over the past two years, he had managed everyone in Tianjin, from the governor to the servants of the various camps. He had a particularly good relationship with several captains of the water camp, to the point of being brothers. All of this was to ensure his future escape was foolproof.

Yang Hao often sent standard soldiers to the armory to help with night duty. The captains knew that this was to embezzle wages, so they turned a blind eye to Yang Hao.

Just now, the guard saw the servant with the badge and thought it was a standard-bearer on duty again, so he didn't check him at all.

"Yang Jinglue is indeed a good man!"

Shen Lian couldn't help but sigh. He prided himself on being able to get along with everyone in the Pacification Office, but compared to Yang Hao, he was not even on the same level.

"Open the door quickly and go in."

The servant took out the key and was about to unlock the door when two lanterns were lit more than twenty steps away and walked straight towards the group.

The servant's face was filled with panic, and he whispered to everyone:
"Perhaps it was Captain Fan. He sometimes patrols the night himself. If he sees us, we'll be in trouble."

The atmosphere around them suddenly became tense. Shen Lian stared at the two approaching lanterns, while the others pressed their fingers on the scabbards.

Pei Dahu whispered, "Don't act rashly."

When the lanterns got closer, they discovered they were two soldiers on duty.

Two soldiers on duty came up to the crowd, holding lanterns, and looked at them curiously. One of them stared at Pei Dahu's face. The Yang family servant placed two silver coins under the waist badge, put the waist badge into the soldier's hand, and whispered:
"Brothers, these are the soldiers from Lu Tongzhi's garrison. The harvest at the garrison was poor today, so we came to ask for a job during the twelfth lunar month. Don't worry, we'll be leaving tomorrow."

The soldiers of the garrisons were used as combat soldiers and as guards against the Japanese invaders, and they falsely received double the military pay. This was an unspoken rule in all coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty.

The two soldiers took the lantern aside, carried Pei Dahu and the others on their backs, gave a few instructions to the servants of the Yang Mansion, and walked away without looking back.

The servant waited until the lanterns were far away, then shouted at the soldier's back:

"Brothers from the Water Camp, hurry back. Your wife is waiting in bed."

There was a burst of laughter from all directions. The water camp soldiers guarding the armory nearby yawned and walked back to the distant camp in groups of three or five.

After most of the armory guards had left, the servant took out the key given to him by Master Yang and tried it twice on the keyhole, but it didn't open.

On the third try, the lock finally opened with a click.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and looked towards the door with anticipation.

Even the taciturn Lin Yu seemed quite excited and scratched his head towards the door.

Pei Dahu laughed and said:
"Big Lin, grab a mace or a Guan Gong sword later! When the fight starts, you'll be the one clearing the way!"

Pei Dahu said this and reached out to push the door.

I pushed it twice, but the door didn't budge at all.

"Oh no! They must have added a lock. The key is with Lu Tongzhi."

"What should I do?"

Pei Dahu nodded to Lin Yu, the giant beast took two steps back, and slammed its body into the gate.

With a loud bang, a cloud of dust rose in the darkness and the door was knocked open.

Then, a strong smell of sulfur and gunpowder came to his nose. Pei Dahu sneezed and hurriedly told the people behind him to extinguish the torches and light up the lanterns.

Under the illumination of more than a dozen lanterns, the outline of the interior of the armory gradually became clear, and everyone began to observe the storage in the warehouse.

Gunpowder, swords, halberds, axes, shields, firearms, tiger squat cannons, rockets, ammunition, armor, military uniforms, bedding, tents, cloth, cotton, saddles, leather...

Pei Dahu looked at the piles of gunpowder, saltpeter and sulfur, and reminded people to keep the lanterns away from the gunpowder.

Apparently, not only was gunpowder from the Tianjin Water Camp stored here, but also from the Japanese army and the garrison troops. If tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder were to ignite, they would be wiped out.

Pei Dahu turned around and looked at Shen Lian.

"Kill the guards outside who haven't returned to the camp! Leave no one alive!"

Shen Lian nodded to his two younger brothers, and Lu Jianxing and Zhao Yuanzhi immediately took a few guards with them, holding goose-feather knives in their hands, and walked out without saying a word, stepping lightly.

After a few screams, the last dozen guards died in the Jinyiwei's sneak attack at night.

Pei Dahu gathered everyone together and whispered:
"Two of you go stand guard outside the armory. The rest of you hurry and find your weapons and armor. The Jinyiwei will carry the muskets, and the Kaiyuan soldiers will carry the ammunition and the tiger squat cannons! Forget about the French cannons; they're too heavy! We can't carry them!"

Everyone agreed and immediately went their separate ways to choose the armor and weapons they liked.

Lu Jianxing was very interested in saddles. He quickly picked out a batch of high-quality saddles made of fine leather and excellent workmanship. He ran back and forth in and out of the warehouse with excitement on his face, and replaced the new saddles for everyone's mounts.

"Hurry up! Armor, swords, and bows and arrows, take more! They'll be useful when you're going to kill people!"

Pei Dahu kept urging him from the side.

"Brother Shen, look at the steel edge of this Miao Dao. It can cut ten people without breaking!"

Zhao Yuanzhi had more than a dozen fine Miao knives tucked under his armpits and was walking towards the door like dragging firewood, with the knives slipping from his armpits as he walked.

Shen Lian put on a suit of fish-scale armor, then put on a layer of iron armor on the outside, and then began to search for the musket.

Suddenly, a sharkskin scabbard inlaid with dragon patterns in the corner of the wall caught the interest of the Jinyiwei.

He drew his sword from its sheath and struck with it, his momentum filled with murderous intent.

Several guards subconsciously took a few steps back to stay away from this killer.

Shen Lian raised his Miao Dao and approached the lantern:
"It turned out to be the work of Master Mao Shun. In the 25th year of the Jiajing reign, I encountered Yu Dayou's Tiger Spring Divine Weapon, which broke ten Japanese swords!"

Shen Lian gently stroked the blade and murmured:
"Brother Dao, help me avenge the factory master today!"

At this time, rumbling footsteps were heard all around.

Everyone looked at each other and then at Yang Hao's servants.

Wu Xiao filled his quiver with triple-barbed iron-boned wolf-tooth arrows, and drew a long bow to adjust the bowstring.

Yang Hao's servant said to everyone:

"Don't worry, the water camp soldiers are not that fast!"

Everyone was still in shock.

In the dim light, a giant wearing several layers of iron armor, holding a shield in his left hand and a pickaxe (a giant mace) in his right hand appeared in front of them.

Pei Dahu looked up at Lin Yu, who was a head taller than him, and laughed loudly:
"Excellent! You are worthy of being the second bravest warrior of our Central Army Guard. Even if Dian Wei or Li Yuanba were reincarnated, they would not be more than this!"

"Let's go to Zhangjiagang!"

(End of this chapter)