Chapter 127: Armor-Piercing Heavy Arrows
Obviously, the "good conduct" of the two Captain Wang brothers won praise from Steward He and Captain Zhang, and also won the recognition of the other servants.

After hanging out for a whole day, Captain Wang used his rich life experience and experience in getting close to the prisoners, and that evening Captain Zhang mysteriously called the two of them over.

At first Captain Wang just thought that Captain Zhang was going to take advantage of the spare time before departure to hang out in some brothel. However, when he arrived at the warehouse and saw all the servants there, he knew that this matter was not simple.

Sure enough, more than a dozen trucks had already been parked at the door of the warehouse.

The other servants arrived first, and were now working in groups of two carrying baskets of heavy objects from the cargo hold and stacking them neatly on the cart.

There were no torches on the open ground, and people could only barely see with the bright moonlight in the sky and the faint light from the cargo hold.

Captain Wang couldn't see clearly from a distance, but he judged from the servants' movements that the bamboo baskets must be filled with extremely heavy objects.

Captain Wang and the other two were too embarrassed to go forward to see what was happening. They just kept their heads down and followed Captain Zhang forward.

When the three men walked to the cargo hold door, Captain Zhang looked back and saw that Captain Wang and the other two were just walking honestly with their heads down, unlike most aliens who looked around and asked questions. Captain Zhang seemed very satisfied with this.

Captain Zhang's scarred face twitched as he said, "You two brothers just joined the group today. Logically, I shouldn't have brought you along so soon."

"But considering that we are fellow countrymen and comrades, and that the master is in urgent need of help, I, Zhang, will not bother with you two brothers."

Captain Wang heard this and knew that this was a sex scene, so he lowered his head and said: "Thank you for your respect, Captain. Don't worry, we two brothers are not ruthless people. From now on, we will follow your lead!"

Captain Zhang's scarred face showed a satisfied look. He pointed to the warehouse and said, "I won't say more. From today on, you two will work with the brothers in the team. Now go to the warehouse to move the goods."

Captain Wang let out an "Ah" and quickly dragged Xu Tian into the warehouse.

After entering the warehouse, Captain Wang finally saw the situation inside the warehouse clearly. Every corner was filled with bamboo baskets, and it was unclear what was inside the baskets.

When he took a closer look, Captain Wang was immediately shocked.

I saw that the bamboo basket was filled with sharp arrowheads. All it took was to insert the arrow shaft and it would be an arrow that could hit the target from a hundred steps away.

In addition to ordinary arrowheads, Captain Wang was shocked to find conical armor-piercing arrows that were thinner and longer than ordinary arrowheads!
A doubt that had been lingering in Captain Wang's mind for a long time was solved by coincidence.

That is how the Eastern Tartars, who were extremely short of iron tools, had backward metallurgical technology and extremely low productivity, were able to obtain a large number of arrows, even heavy armor-piercing arrows that had extremely strict requirements on materials.

Even in the vast Ming Dynasty, which had abundant resources and vast territory, there were only a few places that could produce heavy arrows that could penetrate armor.

As the name suggests, armor-piercing arrows are specially used to penetrate armor.

Since the arrow is intended to penetrate the enemy's armor, extremely high requirements are placed on the sharpness and hardness of the arrow.

Ordinary arrows can be made of iron, but armor-piercing arrows must be made of high-quality steel.

Neither the Northern nor the Eastern Tartars obviously possessed the technical conditions to smelt high-quality steel.

So, where did the Jiannu's armor-piercing heavy arrows come from?
As a captain of the Embroidered Uniform Guard who was responsible for gathering intelligence, Captain Wang had long been doubting this.

Now, I got the answer inadvertently.

"Is it Zunhua or Wuzhou?" Captain Wang was puzzled.

The Zunhua Iron Smelting Plant in Zunhua, Hebei, was once the largest iron and steel smelting plant in the Ming Dynasty. Its technology was also extremely advanced, even ahead of the world's advanced level. Moreover, it was geographically closer to the border, making it easier for the eight Shanxi merchants to purchase.

Wuzhou is rich in Su steel. At that time, there was a widely circulated folk proverb "Iron turns into steel in Wuzhou", which refers to the huge scale of Wuzhou's steel industry.

However, Captain Wang only thought for a moment about the origin of these armor-piercing heavy arrows, and immediately worked together with General Xu Tian to lift a basket and walk towards the cart at the warehouse door.

Although the cart at the cargo hold door was larger than an ordinary carriage, it could only hold five baskets of arrows. Immediately, other servants carried a hardwood frame to frame the bamboo frames containing the arrows.

Then others immediately piled heavy logs on top to serve as a cover.

The exposed parts of the hardwood frame will be blocked with specially sawn short logs, so that from the appearance, it is a truckload of real wood.

Captain Wang couldn't help but give a thumbs up to Liang Jiabin's method. Even if such a heavy cart of logs encountered inspection at the border checkpoint, most people would give up because it was too troublesome.

What's more, it is almost certain that all the banknote offices and officials along the way have been bribed by the eight major Shanxi merchants.

In this way, no one would take the time and effort to check, and the male guest could calmly sell these boxes of sharp arrows outside the Great Wall, and eventually they would become killing weapons in the hands of the Jiannu, shooting at the soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty!
"For the sake of profit, these Shanxi merchants have completely stopped considering themselves as Han Chinese! Such behavior is almost tantamount to treason!"

Although Captain Wang was angry in his heart, he remained calm on the surface and worked with Xu Tian to move the boxes of arrows onto the cart.

They were busy like this for half the night, until the bell of midnight rang from the watchtower in Zhangjiakou Fort, and finally all the carts were loaded.

Following Captain Zhang's order, everyone returned to the Liang family's compound in the city.

The servants lived in three large bunk beds, with twenty people sharing one room.

Everyone washed their feet and faces, and by the time thunderous snoring began to sound from the large bunk bed, it was already the beginning of the morning hour.

In the dim room, a figure suddenly sat up on the bunk bed against the wall.

The figure was about to reach out to touch the person next to him, but that person was already prepared and sat up straight away.

It was Captain Wang and Xu Tian who had not fallen asleep.

Captain Wang carefully observed the surroundings until he was sure that everyone in the room was asleep. Then he leaned over to Xu Tian and whispered, "Go and report to the head immediately. If anyone wakes up and asks about your whereabouts, I will cover for you."

Xu Tian nodded and did not refuse because he was a mute.

If Captain Wang went to tip off the enemy and left himself behind to cover him, it would be difficult to explain where Captain Wang went since he could not speak.

Captain Wang could just make up a lie, saying that Xu Tian went to the toilet.

"Master, please be careful. I will be back soon!"

After Xu Tian finished speaking, he tiptoed out of bed.

Even in the dark, he was able to move smoothly and did not suffer from night blindness, which was common in that era.

(End of this chapter)