My younger brother Lü Fengxian

Chapter 291 The advent of the divine weapon
"In that case, there is no time to lose. Yunchang, why don't you take me with you?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Fei was afraid that the craftsman named Pu would run away and he would lose his chance to make his own exclusive weapon, so he urged him impatiently.

"It's already dark today, why not take a rest for a night and prepare gifts to visit the craftsman tomorrow."

Seeing this, Lu Yi couldn't help but laugh.

"That's all we have to do!"

Zhang Fei thought that it was indeed a bit rude to show up so late at night, so he had no choice but to agree.

After resting for a night in Zhangzhuang, everyone prepared gifts and set off with Guan Yu early the next morning.

Not long after, in a makeshift and obviously very simple blacksmith shop, Lu Yi and others met the craftsman named Pu that Guan Yu mentioned.

"Brother Pu, I haven't seen you for a few days. How have you been?"

Apart from being ruthless towards the powerful and wealthy who bully others, Guan Yu has always been approachable to everyone else except this class. The poorer the person, the more friendly Guan Yu is to them. On the contrary, the more powerful and privileged the person, the more cold and hostile Guan Yu is to them.

"It turns out that Brother Guan is here!"

The young man was very happy to see Guan Yu coming. He quickly put down the forging hammer in his hand, wiped his hands on his dirty apron, and came to the crowd.

When he came closer, Lu Yi realized that although this man was young, his body under the apron was strong and sturdy. He was obviously a strong man, and he couldn't help but be certain in his heart.

"Come on, come on, little brother Pu, a distinguished person is visiting today, let me introduce him to you."

Guan Yu immediately introduced Lu Yi and others in front of him to the young man.

"I didn't know that the Lord of the Mansion was coming in person, and I didn't go out to greet him. Please forgive me, Lord!"

Before the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, the governor of a county was the highest official position after the three dukes and nine ministers. Ordinary people could be punished if they were disrespectful to the governor.

"Ignorance is not a crime. May I ask your name, young man?"

Lu Yi never cared about these false reputations. After waving his hand casually, he could not wait to ask the boy with a childish face.

"I dare not hide the truth from you, my name is Pu Yuan, and I am from Shuzhong."

Although Lu Yi acted approachable, Pu Yuan did not dare to be careless and quickly replied to Lu Yi respectfully.

"That's true!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yi felt relieved.

When he thought about it carefully, he thought so.

Pu Yuan was a famous craftsman of the Shu Han Dynasty whose name was recorded in history. Even Jiang Wei wrote a biography of him.

If it weren't for such a skilled craftsman, how could the magical weapons of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei be made by just finding a blacksmith in the village?

Fortunately, Lu Yi met this person today. Not only could he create exclusive weapons for several people, but he could also put the long-planned ideas of horseshoes and double-sided stirrups into practice.

Although the principles of these things are simple and they can be created by force, if they are to be quantified to equip tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops, skilled craftsmen like Pu Yuan will be needed to pool their wisdom to expand production and reduce costs.

In addition, although Lu Yi's armor and helmets cost more than ten thousand yuan, they were just made by ordinary blacksmiths and leatherworkers. They can only be said to be qualified, and they are still a little short of being excellent.

When Pu Yuan was in Shu Han, he almost single-handedly manufactured most of the weapons and armor of Shu Han. He could be said to be a master craftsman who was the pillar of Shu Han.

Even Zhuge Liang, who was good at invention, recognized Pu Yuan's forging skills and commissioned him to forge 50,000 swords. This greatly enhanced the military power of Shu Han and made Cao Wei dare not face it.

If Pu Yuan joins, I believe the casting and forging technology under his command will be greatly improved in the future.

"It turns out to be Brother Pu Yuan!"

Lu Yi was excited in his heart, but he did not show any of it on his face, and did not display any unreasonable enthusiasm or goodwill.

"Yun Chang has now joined my army. He recommended to me that your craftsmanship is far superior to that of ordinary people. Today, I have seen that you are very talented. I wonder if you are willing to join me with Yun Chang and specialize in making weapons and equipment for this Lord in the future?"

"I should have followed your invitation, but I am not very knowledgeable and I am afraid I have delayed your important task."

Pu Yuan was a little nervous.

He is still too young and not very confident in his abilities, so he seems very embarrassed when facing Lu Yi's recruitment.

"Haha, how can skills be improved without practice?"

"Although you are young, your skills are far superior to others."

"Moreover, improving your skills requires a lot of money and resources. From my perspective, I'm afraid you're a little short of money right now, right?"

However, Lu Yi was well aware of Pu Yuan's future achievements, and therefore had much more confidence in him than Pu Yuan himself. With a wave of his hand, he first affirmed Pu Yuan's skills to reassure him, and then pointed out his current predicament sharply, which made Pu Yuan feel embarrassed and lowered his head again.

"Your Excellency is indeed a man of discerning eyes. I am not well-known now, and the number of people who come to me to forge tools is still very limited. Therefore, I am short of money, which makes you laugh."

"True gold is not afraid of fire. Little brother, you have a skill, so why should you be afraid of not becoming famous in the future?"

"If you are willing to join my command, I will immediately promote you to the position of steward in the palace, in charge of craftsmanship. All future expenses and test costs will be paid by the Yanmen Prefecture!"

However, Lu Yi continued to increase the stakes, which made Pu Yuan very excited.

He changed his mind and realized that he was just an ordinary craftsman with little reputation. As the prefect of Yanmen County, Lu Yi not only humbled himself to him, but also entrusted him with important tasks. The famous rulers in ancient times were no more than this. How could Pu Yuan dare to refuse Lu Yi's kindness?

Thinking of this, Pu Yuan immediately knelt down in front of Lu Yi with a sincere heart.

"Thank you for your trust, my Lord. I am willing to do my best for you and will not let you down!"

"Good, good, good!"

Lu Yi was overjoyed and immediately helped Pu Yuan up.

"Today I have gained Brother Pu, which is like gaining an army of tens of thousands of tigers and wolves!"

Seeing that Lu Yi valued him so much, Pu Yuan was moved and decided to work hard for him.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei behind Lu Yi were also delighted to see this, as they could serve under a wise leader like Lu Yi who knew how to appoint people to the right positions.

Lu Yi's words were not deliberately exaggerated.

Now, Pu Yuan's joining has made up for his shortcomings in forging technology. With the countless weapons and armors he will make for himself in the future, the combat effectiveness of the Bingzhou Iron Cavalry will be taken to a higher level. It is no exaggeration to say that Pu Yuan is like having an army of tens of thousands.

"Now that Brother Pu is already our brother, why don't you quickly inform him about the forging of weapons?"

As soon as Zhang Fei saw Pu Yuan joining, he immediately urged Lu Yi impatiently.

Seeing this, Lu Yi smiled and pointed at Zhang Fei, then told Pu Yuan that he and others wanted to create their own weapons.

"So that's how it is!" Pu Yuan couldn't help but realize it after hearing this.

"I wonder if Brother Pu can forge the weapons we need?"

Lu Bu on the side was also a little anxious and asked quickly.

“It can be built!”

"I have traveled all over the world, but I have stayed in Zhuo County for a long time. I have taken a fancy to a mountain spring in the countryside of Zhuo County. The water here is strong and fierce. If I use this water to forge weapons, I will definitely get miraculous results!"

"However, the weapons of the lords all use a lot of materials and must be made of hundred-tempered steel. I only have some wrought iron in my blacksmith shop, so it will take several months of hard work to forge enough hundred-tempered steel before I can forge it. Finally, I need to use the spring water from Zhuo County to quench it before I can forge it successfully!"

As soon as Pu Yuan mentioned his own unique skills, the awkwardness on his face was immediately replaced by confidence and composure. He talked to Lu Yi and others eloquently, and everyone nodded repeatedly, becoming more and more confident that he could create the weapons that everyone wanted.

"Several months of hard work is too long. It's just a hundred-fold tempered steel. As long as you have money, are you afraid that you can't buy it?"

Lu Yi frowned slightly when he heard this. Now that the Yellow Turban Rebellion was imminent, he had to personally take charge of all the preparations for war in Yanmen. He did not have that much time to spend in Zhuo County.

Moreover, there are many good fighting generals among the Yellow Turbans. If they cannot create exclusive weapons in advance, their advantages will be difficult to fully bring into play.

So he waved his hand and immediately ordered everyone to disperse and buy wrought iron.

Although Zhuo County is remote and just a small border town, due to its proximity to the border and frequent wars, there is a great demand for refined steel for making weapons.

Lu Yi and others didn't spend much effort and collected enough refined steel in just a few days.

Pu Yuan was almost penniless due to his travels around the world. Every time he arrived at a place, he had to forge tools for others in order to raise money for the next journey.

He had never seen so much refined steel before, and he felt like he had found a treasure. He immediately locked himself in the small blacksmith shop and worked on it all day long with a few blacksmith assistants temporarily recruited by Lu Yi.

Lu Yi waited for several more days, and five exclusive weapons of different shapes were forged.

After a period of intense tempering by Pu Yuan, five magical weapons finally came out and appeared in front of Lu Yi and others.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei still made the 82-jin Qinglong Yanyue Sword and Zhangba Snake Spear respectively as in history.

With their magical weapons in hand, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei immediately gained momentum and displayed their proud demeanor as top-notch generals. From then on, the villains dared not act rashly.

And Lu Bu also made a double-edged Fang Tian Huaji just like in history.

With the Fang Tian Hua Ji in his hand, Lu Bu displayed his arrogance and invincibility to the fullest, and all the heroes in the world were helpless!

Gao Shun, in line with his introverted personality, created a simple-looking fine steel spear. Although the shape was not exaggerated, Lu Yi had no doubt about the huge destructive power that this weapon could cause in the hands of the commander of the Xianzhen Camp.

In the end, Lu Yi forged a single-edged long halberd for himself. Lu Yi imitated the King of Chu, Xiang Yu, and named this magical weapon the Tianlong Breaking City Halberd!

In the past, Xiang Yu led 8,000 young men from Jiangdong to attack Qin in the west. He was victorious in every battle and attack, and he burned his boats and plundered thousands of miles of land, thus becoming a hegemon.

Today, Lu Yi, with his command of tens of thousands of Bingzhou cavalry, is so similar to him.

Lu Yi's action implies that he can also be invincible and victorious like Xiang Yu, and eventually achieve the same or even greater achievements than Xiang Yu.

With the magic weapon in hand, everyone's fighting power finally reached its historical peak.

Lu Yi's trip to Zhuozhou was also a complete success.

After the matter was settled, Lu Yi immediately led everyone back to Yanmen.

However, when Lu Yi came, he was only accompanied by Lu Bu and Gao Shun.

When he returned, not only was Guan Zhang by his side, but he also had a master craftsman like Pu Yuan under his command. It was truly a fruitful experience.

After returning to Pingcheng, Lu Yi immediately appointed Pu Yuan as the chief engineer of Yanmen County Magistrate's Office in charge of construction matters in accordance with his previous promise.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had no achievements yet, so Lu Yi appointed both of them as the commanders of Yanmen County. Generally speaking, there is no commander in the inland area, and the prefect is in charge of the military. However, Yanmen is a border county and not only has the position of commander, but also can have multiple commanders at the same time. Although Lu Yi's move was a bit presumptuous, the power of the prefect of the border county was much greater than that in the Central Plains. In addition, the Yellow Turban Rebellion was about to begin, and the governor was about to appear. Who had the time to care whether Lu Yi was presumptuous or not?

In addition to the court positions, Lu Yi also specially recruited two thousand retired veterans from the reserve camp to set up the Xiaodao Camp and the Yanyun Camp.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were the main generals of the Xiaodao Camp and the Yanyun Camp respectively.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei were entrusted with important tasks by Lu Yi as soon as they joined him. They were so grateful that they immediately vowed to serve Lu Yi until death.

After settling Guan Yu and others, Lu Yi immediately started to drive the Yanmen County war machine, whose size was even comparable to that of the later Shu Han.

Millions of people began to get busy following the orders issued by Lu Yi from the Pingcheng Prefecture's Mansion.

Each piece of weapon and armor was freshly produced through the careful forging of craftsmen such as Pu Yuan.

And countless amounts of food began to be transported to the central army in Pingcheng.

The soldiers in the army began to strengthen their training under the strict requirements of generals such as Lu Bu, Guan Yu, and Gao Shun.

And retired veterans have begun to re-enlist.

The reputation of the Bingzhou Iron Cavalry will spread throughout China along with them, under the leadership of Lu Yi.

The auxiliary troops, which number more than the 10,000 full-time combat soldiers, are also undergoing intensive training.

In the future, when Lu Yi leads the Bingzhou cavalry to attack other places, these auxiliary soldiers will take on the responsibilities of the combat soldiers, be responsible for guarding the cities in various parts of Yanmen County, and stick to their duties of guarding the house.

Like Lu Yi, the two brothers Zhang Jiao were also secretly accumulating troops, weapons and food, actively preparing to overthrow the Han Dynasty.

At the same time, they continuously dispatched their disciples and messengers to travel back and forth between the states and counties, and agreed with the 184 chieftains in the states and counties throughout Kanto to launch a major event together on March th of the upcoming seventh year of Guanghe ( AD) to overthrow the tyrannical Han in one fell swoop!
But at this moment, the world seemed like the calm before the storm. Except for Lu Yi and others in Yanmen County of Bingzhou, no one noticed the intention of Zhang Jue and others.

From the Emperor Liu Hong to government officials at all levels, everyone was numbed by the temporary appearance of peace and comfort.

They only saw that the Xianbei had been driven out of Hebei and there was no possibility of their revival in the short term.

The rebellion of the Western Qiang had been temporarily suppressed, and the Xiongnu and Wuhuan had been intimidated by Lü Yi and Gongsun Zan respectively.

The world seemed to have returned to peace and prosperity, and a new era of great prosperity seemed to have arrived.

However, they did not see that the lower-class people were living in precarious conditions and had to sell their wives and children just to cope with the exploitation of officials and to make ends meet.

What they failed to see was that in addition to the lower-class people struggling to survive, there were millions and tens of millions more refugees and starving people.

They were poorly clothed and hungry, and had to eat each other's children to survive. Husbands even ate their wives, and wives ate their husbands.

All these people's ways of survival and retreat were blocked by the imperial court and corrupt officials. In order to survive, they had no choice but to rebel against the Han Dynasty.

Beneath the calm surface of the lake called Dahan, undercurrents have long been surging and dangers are lurking everywhere.

If we are not careful, under the stirring of people with ulterior motives, a violent wave will sweep across the world, swallowing up everything and destroying everything!
Only under life and death, all beings are equal!

(End of this chapter)