Knife splashing

Chapter 289 Master Lu

When talking about Wuchang City, we cannot leave out the Wuchang Palace.

Its predecessor was originally the palace of the King of Chu. It was destroyed in the war when the Golden Horde invaded from the south during the previous dynasty, and was rebuilt during the Daxuan Dynasty.

Located in the north of Wuchang City, it occupies half of Wuchang City.

Li Yan walked through the streets and alleys holding an umbrella and soon saw the palace. The city wall was built with huge stones and painted with white lime. It stood tall in the rain, looking magnificent.

The vermilion gate of the palace was closed tightly, and the bronze door nails shone brightly like gold, dazzling. Through the city wall, one could see the towering green trees inside, with flying eaves and brackets hidden among them. Raindrops falling on the tiles looked like pearls splashing on jade.

This palace has a distinct military fortress style.

There is a wide horizontal street in front of the palace, and a vertical road leading directly to the city gate. If necessary, a large number of cavalry can be dispatched directly.

Of course, Li Yan had already learned some things on the way.

Because of the important location of Wuchang City, a royal palace of this scale was specially built under the supervision of the Daxuan court to guard this important waterway connecting the north and the south.

Cooperating with the troops of the three city garrisons, it formed a perfect horn.

Therefore, the position of King of Wuchang is also very critical and is usually trusted by the royal family. For example, the current King of Wuchang is the son of the uncle of the current Emperor Daxuan.

Not only that, there are also a large number of villas and workshops surrounding the Wuchang Palace, and their number continues to increase with the ocean trade.

It can be said that the livelihoods of most of the people in Wuchang City are more or less related to the Wuchang Palace.

There were many soldiers patrolling at the gate of the palace.

These are turbulent times, and they are obviously very vigilant.

Li Yan naturally would not approach casually, but turned a corner and entered a nearby street or alley. After asking a few passers-by, he came to a small courtyard.

The small courtyard is also part of the palace's property. It was originally used for the palace's stewards to live in. It is not large in area, but it is exquisitely built, with white walls and black tiles, tall horse-head walls, and windows made of fine brick and stone carvings.

Boom boom boom!
After Li Yan knocked on the door, a sturdy man immediately opened the door and spoke in Guanzhong dialect, "Who are you?"

"I'm Li Yan from Xiaguan."

Li Yan held the gift in one hand and took out the visiting card and Wu Honglin's letter from his arms with the other hand. "I came here today to visit Master Yuan."

"Well, wait a minute."

The man took the souvenir and turned into the yard.

But soon, an old voice came from inside, with a tone full of disgust, "Li Yan? Tell him to get out!"

Li Yan frowned slightly, pushed the door open without any hesitation, and immediately saw an old man squatting on the steps smoking a pipe.

"Humph, no rules at all!"

When the old man saw him coming in, a trace of vigilance flashed in his eyes, and he cursed angrily: "This is the annex of the Wuchang Palace, you can't be so presumptuous!"

Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, "Do I have a grudge against the senior?"

The old man snorted twice and said, "Xiong Baodong has done me a favor."

Li Yan immediately understood and nodded, saying, "In that case, goodbye."

After saying this, he took his visiting card and letter paper, and left the villa without looking back.

When you are out there in the world, not everyone will like you.

If you make friends, you will also naturally accumulate enemies.

It seems that this old man is very stubborn. He may not help Xiong Baodong to get revenge, but he will definitely not cooperate with him.

After going out, Li Yan didn't care. He opened his umbrella and continued to look for the next one.

There is no shortage of master craftsmen in Wuchang City today.

Without hesitation, he went straight to find Master Zheng from the Beijing Blacksmith Camp. Although the other party's price was high, his craftsmanship was absolutely fine and he was knowledgeable.

What Li Yan wanted to build was not just a musket.

I also need to make a few sets of leather armor with the dragon scale armor I got from Qinglong Mountain. Even if it costs a little more money, it won’t hurt.

But when he arrived at the door of Master Zheng, he frowned before he even got close.

In the dim drizzle, there were already many people waiting at the door, all carrying valuable gifts. There were businessmen as well as gangsters.

"Next person!"

As the disciples in the courtyard called out, a businessman immediately bowed and walked in. Soon, waves of compliments were heard from inside.

Li Yan was puzzled and quickly found a merchant at the end of the team and asked in a low voice: "Hey man, why are there so many people?"

"You don't know yet?"

The merchant raised his eyebrows and whispered, "Master Zheng has superb skills and extensive connections. He has been appointed by the prince to supervise the construction of new warships for the caravan."

"This is a huge project, and the spiritual materials required are in huge quantities. Not to mention us merchants, even many craftsmen in the city want to get a job under him."

"I see that you are a man of the martial arts world, and you want to ask Master Zheng to make weapons, right? You'd better give up this idea as soon as possible. He doesn't even have time to take care of his disciples."

"Oh I got it."

A hint of disappointment flashed across Li Yan's eyes, and he turned and left.

The Chamber of Commerce’s new warship is meant to deal with the terrible evil creatures in the sea, and even Baotong Temple and some Dharma lineages will be involved.

In the eyes of the other party, this job of his is probably not even worth a penny, so they will not take it at all.

Next, he looked for a few more.

Unfortunately, all these Xuanmen craftsmen have gone to Master Zheng and are required to follow his orders.

Supervising the construction of warships of this level not only pays well, but also allows you to accumulate experience during the construction process.

Even these master craftsmen were unwilling to give up.

Of course, Li Yan also heard a piece of news.

Master Lu from Zezhou Prefecture was also a skilled craftsman, but he and Master Zheng disliked each other, so he was excluded from the team.

At this moment, I am packing up and preparing to go home.

Upon hearing this, Li Yan quickly quickened his pace.

When we arrived at the villa where Master Lu lived, we saw several disciples packing up their things. There were also two donkey carts at the door, filled with all kinds of sundries.

Li Yan hurried forward and handed over the visiting card, "I am Li Yan from Guanzhong, and I have come to pay my respects to Master Lu."

"Please wait."

The other party's disciple was quite friendly. After taking it for a while, he hurried into the house.

It can be seen that King Wuchang also values ​​Master Lu very much, and he arranged two courtyards for him, with a small garden inside.

In the garden pavilion, two people were sitting opposite each other and drinking.

One of them was an old man, over fifty years old, with a burly build, a dark face, wrinkles like anvil lines, and messy hair tied behind his head.

He was wearing a short coarse cloth shirt, revealing his muscular body. The most eye-catching thing was his huge red nose. Even though it was still early in the morning, he already looked drunk.

Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He was dressed in a businessman's clothes, but the color and style were very low-key.

After receiving the visiting card from his disciple, the drunken Master Lu flipped through it and looked at it for a few seconds. "Li Yan from Guanzhong, tell him that I am leaving and ask him to find someone else..."

"Wait a minute!"

When the middle-aged man opposite heard this, a gleam of brilliance flashed in his eyes, and he whispered, "Senior Lu, I have heard of this Li Yan. I am afraid that this matter will fall on this person."

As he spoke, he whispered a few words.

"Oh?"

After listening to this, Master Lu seemed to be thinking about something, and said to his disciple, "Please ask him to come in."

Soon, Li Yan came in with the gift and bowed respectfully, "I am Li Yan, nice to meet Master Lu."

As he spoke, he glanced at the man opposite him calmly. This Master Lu was a Xuanmen craftsman, and it was not surprising that there was a Gangsha aura flowing through his body.

But the man opposite him gave him a very strange feeling.

The other person also had a murderous aura, but it was also cold and stern, chilling to the bone.

He had seen this kind of aura before. The disciples of Doumu Temple on Mount Taibai, whose cultivation methods were related to Star Evil, had the same smell.

Not only that, the other person's eyes seemed strange. Although they were calm, they seemed to be able to see through many things.

Instinctively, it makes people defensive.

Master Lu spoke with a strong Jinzhou accent, "Since we are fellow warriors, it's just right for us to sit down and have a couple of drinks."

"Thank you, senior."

After Li Yan sat down, he was about to speak when Master Lu, who was drunk, raised his hand and said, "The world is big, but drinking is the biggest."

"Come, I'll drink first as a sign of respect!"

After saying that, he picked up the wine bowl in front of him and drank it all in one gulp.

The man opposite had picked up the jar of wine and poured him a bowl.

Okay!

He is indeed a complete drunkard.

Li Yan had no choice but to pick up the wine bowl and drink it all in one gulp.

The wine has a pure and fragrant taste and is mellow on the palate.

"Good wine!"

Li Yan praised: "I never thought that I could drink such a good aged Fenjiu in Wuchang City."

"Hey, you know what's good!"

Master Lu immediately smiled and pointed at the man opposite him, saying, "Without this drink, I would not want to leave Jinzhou at all. If this guy had not promised to give me enough wine, I would not have come here to suffer this humiliation!"

As he said this, he couldn't help but curse, "Damn it, you old thing are looking down on others!"

Li Yan knew that the other party was scolding Master Zheng.

He was too lazy to talk about these things, so he just said, "To be honest, I came here because I have an important job for you to do."

"Big job?"

Old Man Lu curled his lips and said, "There are so many big jobs like this. Just tell me, how big can it be?"

Li Yan said, "I would like to ask the master to help me forge some magical instruments, but please keep your mouth shut and don't let anyone know."

As he spoke, he took out a booklet from his pocket and handed it over.

The booklet was a complete cover. He temporarily got it from the Chamber of Commerce. It had a hard cover on the outside and inside it was written what he wanted to forge.

Earth dragon skin scale armor, muskets, and weapons made for Lu San and Sha Lifei. As for him, he needed to refine the Soul-Breaking Sword again.

All items require top-quality spiritual materials to be refined. They collected them along the way and now all are placed in their farmhouse in Hanyang.

"Ok?"

Seeing the earth dragon skin and those magic weapons, Master Lu was not concerned at all. But when he saw the new musket, he immediately closed the booklet, handed it to Li Yan, and shook his head, saying, "I can't do it!"

"You are so brave. And even if I want to, I won't do it."

Li Yan glanced at the middle-aged man opposite him calmly.

"Leave him alone."

Master Lu shook his head and said, "This kid is also a disciple of the Xuanmen Orthodox Sect's side branch. He is doing business with me and he won't talk nonsense."

Li Yan hesitated for a moment, then said, "We have the secret diagrams. If the master agrees, we will present them to you."

This is his trump card to convince the other party.

New firearms will definitely become a trend in the future, but very few people know how to make them.

Any craftsman would probably not be able to resist the temptation.

As expected, Master Lu perked up when he heard this, "You really have it? Don't lie to me!"

"Of course I won't lie."

Li Yan said seriously: "There are many secret methods in it. I wonder if the master is proficient in them?"

This is why they are looking for experts.

The book "Thunder and Fire Sutra" clearly explained the method of making new firearms, but how to configure the materials and how to control the timing of the fire were all unheard-of professional terms.

Sharifei was completely confused, and several of the techniques required practice since childhood to master, so he had to ask an expert for help.

Master Lu was not angry at all after hearing this. Instead, he became interested. "Tell me, what secret method do you need?"

Li Yan said in a deep voice: "Gangsha clamping steel method, inner carving method, open fire opening method..."

He casually mentioned a few, and Master Lu's expression gradually became serious, "It seems that you really have it."

After that, he shook his head and said, "To be honest, I know all these secrets."

"But what I am going to make will definitely not be an ordinary weapon. If you rely on the power of the treasure and cause a big cause and effect, you might even implicate me. The risk is too great."

Li Yan smiled and said, "Please rest assured, senior. The court has released some quotas. I am sure I can get them."

"Moreover, this substance will surely spread in the future. If you can master the method of refining it in advance, you can be one step ahead of others."

"If I'm not mistaken, the other master craftsmen who stayed in Wuchang will definitely master this method by supervising the construction of treasure ships."

As soon as these words came out, Master Lu's face suddenly turned ugly.

He originally stayed because he wanted to participate, but now he was excluded, so he naturally felt unhappy.

Thinking of this, Master Lu said coldly: "Don't provoke me, kid. It's okay to agree to you, but there is a condition."

"Hu Ming, I can't explain it clearly, talk to him!"

Hearing this, Li Yan turned his head and looked at the middle-aged man in black.

The man smiled and bowed, saying, "My name is Hu Ming. I am a lay disciple of Doumu Temple. I live in the Jade Emperor Temple in Zezhou. I am considered a Taoist priest of Huoju."

Jade Emperor Temple?
Li Yan suddenly realized.

He had heard from Yu Linzi that the Jade Emperor Temple not only enshrined the Jade Emperor, but also the Three Enclosures, Four Saints, and Twenty-Eight Constellations.

The temple is well versed in calendar, astronomical observation, and numerology.

It is considered a branch of the Doumuyuan of Taixuan Orthodox Sect, but it mainly believes in the Jade Emperor. It has many secular branches outside of it, and is proficient in numerology, and is quite famous in the martial arts world.

It seems that this person is also practicing the Star-Inducing Evil.

Thinking of this, Li Yan smiled and bowed, saying, "So you are a Taoist friend from the Jade Emperor Temple. Why did you take off your Taoist robes and put on the clothes of a merchant?"

Hu Ming shook his head and said, "To be honest, I didn't know your name until I passed by Taibai Mountain on my way. I never thought that when I came to Ezhou, you were already famous."

As he spoke, he said helplessly, "It's all because of those masters in Taibai Mountain. Once the observatory was built, everyone was jealous. I had no choice but to take off my Taoist robe, join the Jinzhou Chamber of Commerce, and raise money everywhere."

"I see."

Li Yan almost laughed out loud.

Anyone who builds an observatory will be poor for a while.

Of course, these things have nothing to do with him. Li Yan asked again: "What conditions do you two have? Why don't you tell me and see if I can do it."

Hu Ming's face turned serious. "We want a treasure from the treasury of the Wuchang Palace..."

(End of this chapter)