Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
The remaining "officials" sensed trouble and quickly drew their weapons. One young man even pulled out a short sword from the Land of the Rising Sun, its wavy patterns resembling the glass beads used by the constable to frame others.
"It’s definitely you!" An old soldier charged forward in a swift motion, aiming his iron hook directly at the constable's throat. "Disguising as officials to plunder villages, acting as a vanguard for the Japanese bandits!"
In the chaos, Lin Dahe picked up a copper plate and examined it closely. Although it had been warped by fire, he could vaguely make out that it was half of a military order. The missing edge likely had a mortise and tenon structure that would fit seamlessly with its other half...
"Watch out!"
Cui Xiaoman's scream pierced through the air just as a crossbow bolt whizzed past Lin Dahe’s head, embedding itself into the courtyard wall. When he looked up, he saw the constable had already mounted his horse, while the remaining fake officials fought their way back, retreating towards the northern mountains.
"Don’t chase!" The old soldier blocked the villagers who wanted to pursue. "First, set up defenses!"
Seventh Uncle had already rung the bronze bell in front of the ancestral hall. Women were moving with their children towards the cave, while young men gathered at the threshing ground to collect weapons. Lin Dahe noticed that what the one-armed veteran was distributing were not farming tools—sharpened pitchforks, poisoned arrowheads, and even several wrapped waist knives!
"What is this...?"
"Prepared in advance," the old soldier wiped blood from his iron hook. "Taken from the Zhou family's cellar."
Cui Xiaoman suddenly tugged at Lin Dahe's sleeve. Using her motion of organizing weapons as cover, she discreetly unfolded a half-burnt piece of yellowed paper—it had been peeled from the resin layer of the copper plate. The paper was covered in strange symbols, resembling both a map and accounts; most striking was a red seal in one corner: "Dengzhou Garrison needs supervision."
"A distribution map of saltpeter mines." Cui Xiaoman's voice trembled. "My father mentioned before he died that the court lost a batch..."
Suddenly, three columns of smoke rose in the distance. The old soldier's expression changed drastically: "It's the beacon fire from Yangshugou!" He snatched the copper plate back. "The bandits are after this!"
The system interface suddenly flashed on screen: [Emergency Mission: Resist the First Wave of Attack, Remaining Time 01:59:59]. Beneath the glaring countdown, an incomplete image of a copper plate slowly emerged; its missing part was precisely what Lin Dahe held!
Peddler Zhang rushed over in a panic: "That limping Hu merchant... I saw him again on the official road! He was with seven or eight people wearing straw cloaks..."
Lin Dahe's heart sank. He suddenly recalled that night at the kiln when wet pine branches appeared in the drying room—what someone wanted to destroy might never have been pottery but rather this half piece hidden within the furnace layers!
The booming sound of the bronze bell in front of the ancestral hall reverberated painfully in people's ears. Lin Dahe climbed up a ladder to nail wooden stakes into the earthen wall; with each strike, ancient dust fell away. Seventh Uncle hunched over as he knocked on doors from house to house, his jujube wood cane tapping against door panels faster than the bell.
"Buried food we can't take into the cellar!" The old man's hoarse voice echoed through the alley. "Women and children evacuate first!"
Underneath an old locust tree at the east end of the village, the one-armed veteran demonstrated how to tie a sickle to a long pole. The muscles on his remaining left arm bulged as he intricately wrapped hemp rope around a three-finger-wide blade. "Watch closely—" The veteran suddenly spun and thrust forward; his hooked sickle traced an arc and accurately snagged a scarecrow’s neck three yards away. "Hook their horse legs!"
A dozen young men watched with shining eyes and eagerly grabbed their own sickles to imitate him. Lin Dahe noticed that hanging from the veteran's waist was that half-burnt copper plate, glinting as it swayed with his movements.
"Dahe!" The Mad Old Woman appeared by the wall without him noticing, clutching a coarse cloth bundle in her bony hand. "Catch this!"
Comment 0 Comment Count