Chapter Five: Manufacturing Guns and Cannons

  After half a day's journey, everyone arrived safely at Baishan.

  Old Yang saw the towering steel furnaces outside Baishan City in the sunset, and the houses surrounding the steel furnaces, listening to the distant ringing sound of hammering, couldn't help but feel a little dizzy. What kind of dream would it take to see such things?

  "Lei Meng laughed and introduced: "The tall and thick chimney you see is the steel furnace. After a rest, go inside tomorrow to take a closer look. There are many fully functional devices in there, no need to rely on manual hammering like before, producing parts much faster."

  Yang Erwu was young and impatient, he couldn't wait until tomorrow. He hastily said: "Master, if you're busy, you can go ahead and attend to your business. Just send someone to take us for a stroll."

  The thunder rumbled, he was busy and couldn't leave, also worried that Old Man Yang's body couldn't withstand the exertion, so he suggested looking again tomorrow; but seeing Old Man Yang's high spirits, he lost his nerve, lest he dampen Old Man Yang's enthusiasm.

  Then Lei Meng's eyes rolled around for a moment, and he decided to come down, saying: "Alright, in a while I'll call someone named Lin Chong, who is considered your junior fellow disciple, to take you guys on a tour. However, there are many important places that he can't explain clearly. How about it?"

  After finishing speaking, Lei Meng looked back and forth at Old Man Yang and Yang Erwu, seeing that both of them were nodding in delight, this matter was thus settled.

  Upon arriving at the castle lord's mansion in White City, after arranging for everyone's food and lodging, Lei Ming sent someone to summon Lin Chong. When he finished introducing Old Yang, Lin Chong promptly knelt down and bowed, shouting: "Greetings, Master!"

  Yang Laotou couldn't stop laughing and repeatedly said, "No need for courtesy, no need for courtesy!" when introducing Yang Erlang. Lin Chong was about to call him Shixiong (older brother), but Lei Ming stopped him, saying: "It's better to call him Shidi (younger brother). He didn't enter the sect much earlier than you, and he's younger." Yang Erlang, who had been pleased that someone would call him Shixiong, now looked gloomy.

  Everyone's meeting ended in a lively and peaceful atmosphere. Lin Chong took the delighted Old Yang and Yang Erwu to visit the steel furnace, leaving Lei Ming and Yang Tian still planning in the hall.

  Actually, there's nothing much to plan for, just that small area, deploying troops and defending against thieves' sneak attacks is enough. However, after the last time Lei Meng unintentionally injured the enemy with his sonic wave, the opponent seems to have some apprehensions, perhaps fearing another encounter with Lei Meng's wrath, or perhaps knowing that injuring Lei Meng is not worth it, so they didn't come again.

  Lei Meng only had some understanding of the sound wave skill from last time, and occasionally managed to use it, but couldn't form a commonly used move against the enemy. Yang Tian knew about this matter and thought it was a pity: with such a powerful skill, if he went to the enemy's camp and shouted a few times, wouldn't there be countless deaths and injuries?

  Upon hearing Yang Tian's complaints, he gave Yang Tian a glance: "Naive!" Afterwards, he no longer bothered with miscellaneous matters and focused on researching his special steel materials and telescopic sights; after Yang Tian handled the defense well, he also devoted himself to experimenting with ammunition.

  Time flies, three months have passed in the blink of an eye, and the enemy has not come to make trouble, I don't know if it's the effect of martial law. The people are starting to get a little anxious, the atmosphere is becoming heavy. Especially on Mount Baishan, every few days there would be loud, unexplained noises, making the people of Baishan City nervous. But there was no better place to settle down, and no obvious harm had been reported. So they stayed at home every day, uneasy, tidying up their belongings.

  "A loud crash" echoed all over the White Mountain. People near and far stopped in their tracks, looking around in all directions, wondering what was happening this time.

  "Haha ~, finally succeeded!" A strange man with a tattered shirt, disheveled hair and a dusty face floated down from the White Mountain.

  Was that sound made by that strange person? Everyone who saw this scene was making a judgment in their mind.

  That strange man's body shook and created many residual shadows, then he slipped into the White Mountain City and disappeared. The guards in the city were very tense, worried that something unexpected would happen, just as they were about to chase after him, a thunderous shout came from within the city: "Don't worry, it's General Yang Tian!"

  Yang Tian suddenly appeared in front of Lei Meng, who was sitting upright in the grand hall, and said with a smile: "Finally figured it out! Can be mass-produced!"

  "Alright, no need for me to do it myself. There's been progress!" Looking at the beggar's dejected appearance, Lei Meng continued, "You'd better hurry up and clean yourself up first. We'll talk more when you get back."

  Not long after, a refreshing and handsome Yang Tian walked into the hall, muttering to himself: "You've only made a few guns and cannons, but you want me to mass-produce ammunition, it's really too much."

  Lei Meng sat there, digging his ears and said: "Recently earwax is more, can't hear clearly what you just said, say it again?"

  Yang Tian sat heavily on the chair, leaning his body and said: "Nothing, I'm glad that my experimental ability has become stronger."

  "Oh, that's great." Lei Meng nodded and smiled, "I know it wasn't easy for you. I've melted down my old copper sword to make bullet shells. This afternoon, bring ten reliable people to help out. My scope is almost ready."

  Yang Tian's face was full of reluctance, and he asked: "How many cannons did you actually make? How many guns?"

  "Insufficient materials, yet I've made ten steel cannons and ten sniper rifles!" Lei Meng was very proud, as it was not easy to produce these in a place with such scarce resources.

  "Oh!" Yang Tian patted his head, "What's the use of that little thing you made?"

  "That's enough, those weapons will scare them off with a single shot." Lei Meng rubbed his chin and said, "After all, we haven't been here for too long, if we do too much, it might be counterproductive..."

  "Are you saying there's a ghost in the city?" Yang Tian furrowed his brow and asked, although he knew that there were unstable elements within the city, he hadn't thought that after more than two years, there would still be hidden dangers.

  "Hmm, I've analyzed it, and that time in Hexi City was indeed an inside job." Lei Meng felt a bit more at ease, "So just make some superficial moves, scare them a bit so they don't dare to act rashly."

  Yang Tian nodded, and with a flash of his body, he disappeared into the hall. He had to rush to make ammunition. He believed that although Lei Meng's weapons were few in number, they should be able to play a huge role, after all, his ammunition was not weak.

  Three days later, the sun was shining brightly. Lei Meng, Yang Tian, Lin Chong and others arrived at the halfway point of White Mountain to conduct experiments with a steel cannon and a sniper rifle.

  With a loud rumble, he aimed the muzzle at a mountain slope a thousand meters away, adjusted the angle, and loaded the spherical ammunition. He pulled the trigger, "Boom!" A loud noise echoed, followed by a hundred-meter "roar" rolling in front of the distant mountain slope, blasting out a large crater.

  The crowd applauded at the great power of "Pa Pa". Yang Tian added a sentence: "It's just that it's biased quite a bit."

  Yang Lao said with a smile: "That's not much of a bias. If you hit it a bit higher, it would be just right." Unexpectedly, that outsider also knew how to speak professional language.

  The thunder rumbled without a sound, and then slightly raised the pitch again. After loading the ammunition to fire again, it just hit the top of the slope.

  "Wow!" Lei Meng shouted excitedly, unexpectedly succeeding. The crowd cheered in unison.

  "Haha, not bad, you hit it on the second try." Yang Tian crossed his arms over his chest and walked up to examine the smoking muzzle, which was still intact. "Want to try a sniper rifle? I'm having more and more faith in you."

  "Haha... You don't believe me, so I'll just have to trust Chun Ge." Lei Meng smiled smugly.

  "Try your gun now, you're so proud!" Yang Tian gave a cold glance at Lei Meng and stepped aside.

  Lei Meng glanced at a large tree thousands of miles away, just a small point, behind the sniper rifle's scope, but saw the distant scenery suddenly enlarged and swayed in front of the mirror.

  His hands were unsteady, and he hadn't aimed properly, it was a bit off. Lei Meng thought for a moment, then took another deep breath. He calmed himself down, slowly moved the gun barrel, and finally saw the white cross painted on the tree trunk. With a soft "pfft" sound, Lei Meng pulled the trigger. The silenced sniper rifle emitted a small spark, hitting the distant large tree.

  The thunderous sound passed through the scope and saw that the bullet hit just below the crosshairs.

  "Hit it very accurately!" Lei Meng muttered to himself, then handed the gun over to Yang Tian. Yang Tian held the gun and swung it back and forth several times, also taking a look at the target situation, a joyful expression appeared on his face. "Hmm, it's quite accurate! There's potential!"

  "Immediately withdraw forty reliable and skilled men for training here!" Lei Meng waved his hand and gave the order.

  Very soon. Another month has passed. Yang Tian had brought in forty reliable special forces members to train on White Mountain, and their marksmanship was not bad, they could go into battle now.

  One day, a scout came to report that Jin Yuan had a large army moving in the direction of Wujiji. The roads between the three cities were repaired and traffic was much faster. Under the premise of fewer people, defending Wujiji was undoubtedly unwise. So, Lei Ming made a decisive order: Abandon Wujiji and return to defend Bairen!

  A large number of fine steel Tang knives were made, and the spearheads of the long guns were also replaced with fine steel spearheads, no longer candle heads. There were many weapons, but few soldiers, and it was impossible to confront the enemy's formation on the battlefield at will. Someone else's tens of thousands of troops could crush 20,000 people with just one charge. Therefore, Leiming's order received unanimous approval from the generals.

  The direction of Huáng Yuè Castle did not detect any major military movements, so Léi Míng only dispatched 1,000 soldiers to guard the west bank of the river and another 1,000 to guard Bái Shān. The remaining troops were stationed at Bái Hé. With the support of artillery, Léi Míng chose to stay behind and defend Bái Shān, which was an important base that needed to be guarded, and he was undoubtedly the most capable candidate for this task.

  The Jin Yuan army advanced unimpeded to Wujijun, greatly boosting the morale of the entire Jin Yuan army and giving them confidence in destroying the three cities of Leiming. They were just waiting for orders from above to launch an attack. The White River City was shrouded in war clouds...

  In a dimly lit small room, Jin Yuan Emperor Wang Dingjiao sat at his desk with his legs crossed, smiling at the frowning Wei Ming.

  "Are you really going to attack White River? He just wants some civilians from you, is it worth it?" Wei Ming asked Wang Ding in a low voice. He thought that Lei Meng had only asked Jin Yuan for some military dependents and had no impact on future development, so he was very opposed to the way of attacking Lei Meng's army. "Don't you think it's unwise for Chu Wei to let you take White River?"

  "You don't understand." Wang Ding sneered with a smile, "No matter what Lei Meng and the others say, they are still voting for Huang Tian. He can't send troops to destroy them without reason, or else he will lose the hearts of the people."

  He paused for a moment, put his foot on the desk and said: "But they actually betrayed Jin Yuan. If I hadn't made any statement at that time, it would have been ridiculed by both countries!"

  "Hmph! You just saw the fine sword made by Lei Meng, and you want to take those good craftsmen for yourself?!" Wei Ming snorted, he was very dissatisfied with Wang Ding and the others. "You are all untrustworthy and unrighteous people! I'm ashamed to be in your company!" After finishing speaking, he left behind a shadow and flashed away.

  "Heh heh, a piece of fat meat, who wouldn't want to swallow it? Haotian just didn't want to send troops to the White River for no reason." Wang Ding chuckled to himself, "No benefit, who would be so proactive?"