Chapter Thirty-Four: The Structure of the Hive

  Having settled the matters in the mansion, Chen An said straightforwardly to Duan Huai, "Duan Huai, let's talk about your business."

  Duan Fugui knelt down with a thud, sobbing quietly, "Lord Chen, I don't expect you to avenge me now, the Ma family is too powerful. I just hope that in the future, you'll give me an opportunity to stab them a few times."

  That year, a big case occurred in Hezhou. A salt merchant's family was suddenly slaughtered. Duan Hui Zong, the then Qin Prefecture General Catcher, was invited to take over this case. During the investigation, he encountered numerous difficulties and dangers, but remained unmoved. He seized on a suspicious point and investigated thoroughly, only to discover that the mastermind behind the murder was actually a dispute between the Ma family and the salt merchant over an uneven distribution of profits.

  The case was secretly reported to the prefect of Hezhou, and strange things happened immediately. First, a fire suddenly broke out in the yamen where the evidence was stored, and then the witnesses who were caught by Duan Huai died suddenly in prison. Seeing that things were not going well, Duan Huai immediately left Hezhou with several followers. On the way, a group of horse bandits suddenly attacked the merchant team hiding Duan Huai, and only Duan Huai managed to escape at the cost of his life.

  Back in Qin state, Duan caught the head, his liver and gallbladder were torn apart as he saw that his own home had been burned to ashes, his wife and children all died on the spot, and the position of general catcher was also removed by the governor of Qin state. Duan's eyes were filled with blood, and he fled overnight to the southernmost part of Jie state. This is a place where Han people are the mainstay, and they are very hostile to the Ma family. Under the protection of his good friend Wang Hongyin, the leader of the boatmen, he barely escaped the pursuit of the Ma family.

  Duan Huizong, who had lost all hope and enthusiasm, ended up staying in the county town, living a life that was neither here nor there, not daring to start anew, fearing that the Ma family would send someone to assassinate him again.

  Wang Hongxu? How did you end up at another family's house again? Chen An couldn't help but laugh, thinking that Jiezhou was still too small.

  After a moment of contemplation, Chen An advised, "Anyway, you're all alone and miserable. Why not start anew in Chen Family Village? With me to protect you, the tragedy of before won't happen again. Liu Shi Gang has set up an inspection department, but they don't have much experience. Can you help me guide them a bit? As for the people from the Ma family, 'a gentleman takes revenge ten years later', I'll help you take your revenge personally."

  Duan caught his head and was stunned for a moment, then heavily knocked several loud heads, completely unaware that the blood stains on his forehead had not yet dispersed, which was considered to be in response to Chen An's request.

  Beside him, Liu Shi was overjoyed. He had always thought that the Inspection Department was just a guard, and never thought that there were also tasks of breaking cases and counter-espionage. It's just that he was struggling to find someone to guide him on the way. Now that he has joined forces with his former chief catcher, he can finally start doing his real job.

  Chen An didn't arrive at the arsenal until late in the day, where he hastily inspected the manufacturing situation.

  Familiarly authenticated into the operating room, Chen An was stunned by the prompt on his suitcase. On the screen appeared a line of Chinese characters that Chen An liked very much, "Already met the upgrade conditions, whether to upgrade?"

  Taking a few deep breaths, Chen An, who was excited all over his face, did not immediately choose "yes", but instead exited the operating room.

  Soon, Chen An called over Liu Shi and arranged for people to transport a large amount of iron materials into the armory, while transporting other wood materials and so on out. Chen An had a premonition that this upgrade would definitely consume even more steel.

  After everything was ready, Chen An dismissed everyone and stayed alone in the armory. Then he opened the operation room and carefully selected the "yes" option.

  Looking at the prompt that flashed out of the suitcase, Chen An almost fainted. To upgrade to level 4, he needed at least 10,000 kilograms of steel and 1,000 cubic meters of space. Not to mention the space, there wasn't even enough iron.

  Delayed for a day, Chen An finally confirmed the upgrade options. This time, the portable box unexpectedly provided two solutions to solve the space problem. One was that the portable box autonomously constructed a honeycomb structure inside the mountain body, and the other was that Chen An pre-constructed a flat structure along the outer edge of the mountain body.

  Chen An was speechless, staring at the suitcase with a look of disdain. If he chose option two, wouldn't he have to tear down the house that had just been built?

  He chose the first option very decisively, and a prompt immediately popped up from his suitcase. Chen An was stunned on the spot, "Insufficient steel, six times the dosage is required!!!"

  Two days later, Chen An walked into the operating room with a difficult expression, through a small path that was barely left behind, and countless piles of iron materials.

  "Insufficient energy, upgrade time extended by half, at least six days are needed." Seeing this prompt, Chen An almost couldn't help but smash the suitcase, impulsiveness is a devil, after choosing to agree, Chen An hastily escaped from the armory with tears streaming down his face.

  Lin Yushan, who was given a secret mission, returned after hard training and helpless waiting.

  Several boxes of brand-new Hanyang-made rifles, along with two boxes of newly manufactured round-nose bullets, were brought back to Chenjiazhuang. Lin Yushan's intelligence agency was operating smoothly, especially after Wang Hongyun joined, allowing information from the upper and lower reaches of the White Dragon River to reach Chen An's desk within a day; for areas above Hanzhong and below Zhaohua, it would take only two or three days to obtain accurate news.

  Lin Yushan indeed had a talent for gathering intelligence, not only quietly nailing several nails into the hull of Wang Hongxun's ship, but also secretly contacting British sailors on the Yangtze River navigation route. If successful in bribing them, the Yangtze River navigation route would become an entirely defenseless transportation line for the Northern Industrial Company.

  What was brought back to Chenjiazhuang along with the military supplies was a haggard middle-aged man.

  Is this old man's lucky day? Why are middle-aged people always being brought to Chenjiazhuang, Chen An is very curious.

  Lin Yushan introduced in a low and simple voice, Chen An's eyes lit up instantly, warmly welcoming him, while subtly patting the horse's buttocks, almost cordially comforting the other party.

  After hastily sending the middle-aged man to the guest room to rest, Chen An happily patted Lin Yushan's shoulder heavily, "Yushan, this time you did a great job. What crap about guns and cannons, none of that is as important as Mr. Xu Shangwu. Well done, well done, but no reward."

  Lin Yushan rubbed his sore shoulders desperately, imitating Koval's mannerisms, and glared at Chen An with a menacing look, turning his thumb down and scornfully despising Chen An.

  It was completely unexpected that Lin Yushan led his men to secretly sneak into the Hubei Gun Factory to steal guns, and rescued a person who was almost blown up, namely Xu Shangwu. After learning of Xu's identity, Lin made a prompt decision, abandoning his original mission, taking huge risks, and first sent Technician Xu out of the factory.

  It was completely man-made, just to trigger a machine manufacturing accident and let Master Xu die unjustly.

  Xu Shangwu is the only son of a domestic military technical family.

  Grandfather Xu Shou, a master of machinery and a man of many talents, was one of the key personnel in Zeng Guofan's Anqing Arsenal. In 1865, using imported foreign parts such as axles and boilers, Xu Shou built China's first steam-powered ship.

  Xu Jianyin's father not only had superb skills, but also had a smooth career. Xu Jianyin successively went to Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and other places to engage in military technology production and research, and became the general manager of Shandong Machinery Bureau, and also became the first scholar to be sent abroad by the imperial court for military technical investigation.

  Unfortunately, good fortune is hard to predict, and it was because he had entered the high-level vision of the officialdom. After the disastrous defeat of the Jiawu War, he was forced to receive an edict to investigate the root cause of the complete destruction of the Beiyang Fleet, and became a thorn in the eyes of all parties. It is said that at that time, Qing Prince, who had a good private relationship with him, privately asked Zhang Zhidong to transfer him to the Hubei Gun Factory to avoid disaster.

  In the 27th year of Guangxu, Xin Chou, Xu Jianyin, who had fled to Hubei, still did not escape the pursuit and killing by the black hands behind the scenes. He was killed in a sudden explosion at a gunpowder factory, along with sixteen excellent military craftsmen.

  Xu Shangwu put aside his grief and took over the military industry left by his predecessor. With his talent and hard work, he once again became a high-ranking official at the Hubei Gun Factory. He had always been suspicious of his father's tragic death and was about to start investigating the matter quietly when another **explosion accident** strangely occurred.

  It was just lucky for Technician Xu that Lin Yushan snuck into the factory and needed someone to guide him to steal a gun, and just happened to hijack him to another room before the explosion. Technician Xu luckily escaped with his life, but scared Lin Yushan and others half to death.

  Xu Shangwu was also frightened and immediately cooperated with Lin Yushan to escape from the arsenal.

  With the guidance of Xu Shangwu, who was extremely familiar with the arsenal, Lin Yushan and his men carefully snuck into the factory for the second time and successfully stole a batch of newly manufactured firearms and ammunition. In fact, the factory had not been put on high alert at all, as if the explosion that occurred a few days ago was nothing out of the ordinary. This made Xu Shangwu, who was still shaken by the event, feel extremely fortunate and also strengthened his determination to leave Hubei.

  Lin Yushan took advantage of the excuse of repaying a lifesaving favor and directly brought the person to Chenjiazhuang.

  This is a real talent, Chen An immediately appointed Xu Shangwu as the technical director of the Northern Industrial Company. Kowal and three other foreign technicians were in contact with Xu Shangwu for a short time, and they admired this new director from head to toe. Others not only know how to make guns and cannons, but also know how to manufacture gunpowder and ***, even know how to build ships, it's hard not to admire him.

  Carrying two brand new 7.9mm Han Yang rifles, with a bag of bullets in his hand, Chen An swaggered into the armory. Today should have been upgraded, I wonder if it can produce more ammunition every day, Chen An thought gleefully.

  Yes, did I take a wrong turn? Chen An stared at the scene in front of him and suddenly didn't react.

  What about the operating room? What about the raw material warehouse? What about the finished military goods warehouse? How could they all be gone, Chen An was a bit stunned. This is a strange hexagonal structure, the entire arsenal is just a wide hexagonal plaza shape.

  On the right side, there was a hexagonal metal pillar with what seemed to be red and green lights and buttons. Chen An hastily walked over to the pillar and pressed the button without hesitation. As expected, the pillar silently opened a door, which Chen An entered before it closed immediately. Suddenly, a downward force came, catching Chen An off guard and making him feel quite uncomfortable for a while.

  The metal door opened automatically, revealing a spacious hexagonal space with the familiar operating table and suitcase in the middle, but Chen An swore that this space was absolutely not the one from earlier.

  The suitcase seemed to know Chen An's doubts, and on the screen, a strange shape was constantly rotating, with a small, flickering bright spot in one of the spaces.

  Speechless, Chen An already believed that he was indeed favored by the Buddha or Jade Emperor, but didn't know if the Buddha also had a daughter like the Seven Fairy Maidens.

  This is essentially seven identical hexagonal spaces, the armory in the middle, with three more layers of identical structures below it, all raw materials have been moved down. Above the armory are three more identical spaces, the central one being the operation table, left and right can be used as material inlet or set as armory outlet.

  Looking at the suitcase's hint, Chen An knew that he still had to secretly excavate two more entrances on both sides of the mountain, for the transportation of materials and the removal of finished military products. This was also good, saving him from always transporting in and out of the same place, which would easily arouse suspicion. Chen An could only comfort himself like this, then threw the difficulties of excavating the cave behind his mind.