Chapter 27 - Camaraderie Under the Setting Sun
Original by Bro Got a Gun, Translated by James, Proofread by Cartesian and community
After the horses arrived at the warehouse without any issue, Liu Mang was at a loss as to what to do about the armors and weapons. How do I purchase this stuff?! Weapons like blades and spears were all tightly controlled by the government. Only minor ethnic groups were able to obtain those.
Even buying regular kitchen knives requires identification. If Liu Mang went and purchase a couple thousand of those, he would certainly be arrested.
Armor? Although it wasn’t something that they limit purchases on, it was still something that requires time to make. Kaiyang could only hold Cao Cao back for three days. Liu Mang only had three days too! That’s why Liu Mang had a huge headache. Should Kaiyang be captured, according to Cao Cao’s character, everyone will certainly be killed.
Liu Mang didn’t know when he began to deeply worry about Boss Lu, Chen Gong and them.
“Boss, what are you thinking?!” Chen Yu had been following Liu Mang ever since. He had already decided to become Liu Mang’s lackey. Liu Mang also decided to have someone help him take care of and purchase things when he returned back to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Thus, he decided to take in Chen Yu.
“I want to purchase armor and cold weapons!” replied Liu Mang
“What’s the use of buying those things?!” Chen Yu didn’t understand why Liu Mang wanted to purchase those things. He figured Liu Mang wanted them as toys. “if it’s just one or two, can’t you custom order them?!”
“What I want isn’t just one or two of them. I want five thousand spears and five thousand armor!” The horses will be used to create cavalry units when he goes back. And the one very distinctive weapon of cavalry was the spear.
“Five thousand spears?! That many?!” Chen Yu was a bit speechless. If there really was a manufacturer that would make five thousand spears, that manufacturer was certainly trying to run itself into the ground. Five thousand armors, on the other hand, wasn’t a problem.
“I have some friends who want to role play the battles of the cold weapons era and reproduce its brilliance. The five thousand sets of weapons and armors was precisely prepared for them!” Liu Mang’s casual lying skills became even more profound.
“So rich!” Chen Yu simply did some calculations in his mind. Five thousand sets of armor and weapons will certainly cost tens of millions. What a bunch of wasteful rich kids!
“It’s them who have the money, I’m actually just a proxy for them!” Liu Mang created another fake identity.
“Although our country has weapons regulations, there’s no such thing abroad. You could purchase those weapons in another country!” suggested Chen Yu.
“It’s not that I didn’t want to go abroad, it’s just that I don’t have time for that! In another day and half, I have to turn in all that stuff! There’s not enough time at all!” Liu Mang was also very anxious.
“Spears. Spears?!” Chen Yu suddenly remembered. “Boss, although we cannot purchase spears, we could purchase the javelins that are used in sports!”
“Javelin?!” Liu Mang’s eyes also lit up.
“Yeah, Javelins! Nowadays, the javelins are all constructed from steel. Although the tip is made of rubber, we could have someone produce spearheads for them using steel pipes! If we do it like that, we wouldn’t violate the law and could still procure five thousand spears!” Chen Yu’s idea got Liu Mang totally excited.
“That’s it! How come I didn’t think of it?!” Liu Mang was once a javelin thrower. Javelins are just the modern adaptation of ancient spears. They can certainly replace the spears that he needs. In fact, the quality of modern javelins was certainly going to be better than the ancient spears.
Javelins ranged from 1.5 meters to 2.8 meters. This length was definitely good enough to make spears since the most suitable spears of cavalries was around three meters.
“What about the armors?!” Although they managed to procure the spears, the cavalry units also need armors. Other than light cavalry which wore leather armor, the rest were all heavy cavalry wearing metal armors.
If they didn’t have any armor, then winning against the Ferocious Cavalry that’s outside of Kaiyang wasn’t something that was certain anymore.
“Armor!” Chen Yu was also thinking. “Polishing is required for armor to be comfortable for the wearer. There’s also the need for engraving. There won’t be enough time for sure!”
“Polishing, be comfortable, engravings?!” Liu Mang froze for a bit. “No need, no need! Those friends of mine only wanted to recreate the scene of the cold weapons era! We don’t need some ornate armor, just ordinary whole body armor would do!”
“In that case, it’d be easy to handle. Boss, you just have to find a large lathe factory. There are turning lathes and turning mills everywhere, just have them press some steel for you. You don’t even have to bring your own tools, you’d just have to pay them! A lathe mill could make some tens of sets of armor in a day. If it’s a large lathe factory, five thousand armors in a day is something easy for them to make!” Chen Yu really knew a lot more about the world than Liu Mang. After all, before Liu Mang crossed through time, he was just an otaku type person.
“Chen Yu, Ah Yu, you helped me greatly!” Liu Mang’s two major problems were resolved by Chen Yu instantly.
“Five thousand sets of body armor and five thousand spears. I’m giving you ten million. Come find me if it isn’t enough. Go, place the order for me right away!” Chen Yi’s mother had already sent over the rest of the money for the gold to his card. Liu Mang didn’t bother looking into the amount of money on the card, if he did then he would’ve found out that there was more than the twenty five million that he thought was left on the card. Rather, the amount was more than tripled at eighty million.
The gold bullion that Liu Mang brought with him, in both appearance and style, belonged to the Han Dynasty and was thus considered antiques. The five hundred pounds of gold was sold for one hundred and forty million right away! Taking away the transaction fee of ten million, the remaining eighty million was all transferred to the card by Chen Yi’s mother.
“Ten million?!” Chen Yu had never seen such a large number in his whole life. Seeing that number appear on the computer and then the notification that appeared on his account, Chen Yu was dumbfounded. “I don’t need this much! I don’t need this much!” Regular full body armor does not require super high technology or a large amount of steel. Thus, they’d cost no more than a thousand and five thousand full body armors would cost no more than five million. Those five thousand javelins were even cheaper! They could be made with just a steel pole. A single javelin would only cost some five hundred yuan. Adding them together would only be seven and half million! Yet, Liu Mang gave him ten million!
Hearing Chen Yu’s words, Liu Mang didn’t take back the extra two and half million. Instead, he said. “Use this amount of money to rent an office in Jinling for me. Then help me recruit some staff and set up the framework of the company. Our company will focus on these rich kids who have nowhere to spend their money. We will make them whatever they wish to play with! I might also be bringing back stuff like antiques and gems. You will also need to help me find some professionals for that!”
“Eh?! Aren’t you afraid of me stealing the money and running away?!” asked Chen Yu.
“Afraid?!” Liu Mang laughed. “It’s just some two million bucks. If you follow me, let alone two million, even if it’s twenty million, it’d be nothing!” The cheapo Liu has started to become rich! A couple days ago, he was a diaosi-class person who couldn’t even take out a thousand bucks. However, now he found a trade route - selling things from the two different worlds.
“Okay! I, Chen Yu, will follow you!” Before, Chen Yu decided to follow Liu Mang only for the money. Now, however, he did it in hopes of gaining a large quantity of riches, enough to show it off.
“Quickly, let’s go and place the orders!”
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Outside of Kaiyang. Third day of the siege. The sunset was red, the city walls were red and the earth was also red. Corpses have now accumulated upto the the height of half the city walls. The hundred thousand strong Cao army had lost nearly twenty five thousand in the siege. The ten thousand Lu Bu army, although defending the city with the help of the walls, was left with less than four thousand. Amongst these four thousand were those that were seriously wounded. All of the Formation Breaker and the Bing Province Soldiers had joined the fray. Even Lu Bu himself had joined the fray. They had fought back wave after wave of enemy soldiers.
“It’s been three days! My lord!” Chen Gong was covered with blood. His eyes were bloodshot. Although he was a scholar, he wasn’t a weak scholar. He was actually very skilled in horsemanship and shooting. In these three days, no less than fifty soldiers died under his hands.
“That’s right, it’s been three days!” Lu Bu also looked toward the sunset. The Cao army have retreated their troops. In the opinion of Cao Cao, Lu Bu was already like a setting sun that was unable to rise back up again. What he needed was to deal a final blow to Lu Bu tomorrow, killing him on the scene so that his heart could rest.
“Tomorrow, tomorrow at the latest. If Hanyang still doesn’t return tomorrow, then we shall prepare to perish with Kaiyang!” said Chen Gong respectfully.
Lu Bu looked toward Chen Gong. Chen Gong also looked at Lu Bu. Suddenly, Lu Bu smiled and asked. “Gongtai, why did you choose me?! Although I, Lu Bu, was not inferior in any aspect to all the heroes of the world, I still knew of my limitations. If we’re talking about fame, then my slave of three surnames can not compare to Yuan Shao’s three Excellencies in four generations! If we’re talking about the ability to use people, I, Lu Bu, am an opinionated man who can not compare with Cao Mende’s love for talent! If we’re talking about benevolence, haha, I, Lu Bu, other than toward my own family and brothers, have always been cruel toward everyone else and can not compare with that big eared Liu!” For Lu Bu to be able to make a name for himself in the Eastern Han Dynasty and even end up on the pages of history, he was no ordinary person!
“Oh Fengxian!” Hearing Lu Bu saying such words, Chen Gong loosened his taut nerves. He even stopped calling Lu Bu his lord, instead he called him by his courtesy name. “That’s right. If we’re talking about fame, then your fame could stink through eighteen streets! You killed both of your foster fathers, certainly not comparable to the Yuan family’s three Excellencies in four generations. If we’re talking about the ability to use people, other than me, is there any other advisor working for you?! Certainly not comparable to Cao Cao’s cloud-full of talents.”
“If we’re talking about benevolence, hehe. You are the number one general! Those who died under your hands numbered at least ten thousand! Women, children, regardless of who blocks your path, as long as they block your path, you’d kill them without any hesitation! You are certainly not comparable to big eared Liu! However, you had one thing right!”
“Toward your brothers, toward your families, you really do treat them as if they’re your own children, you really do give your all to them! With this single part, you had made this Chen Gongtai devote myself to you till my last breath!”
“Chen Gong oh Chen Gong, do you not regret?!” Lu Bu had never spoken like this with this old partner of his. Chen Gong was a huge talent, his talent could be considered as one of the top in the world. Sometimes, Lu Bu also wondered that if he had Chen Gong’s assistance back when he was in Luoyang and Changan, then he would’ve never been in this situation. Perhaps, he would’ve even been in a position of accomplishment by now.
“Regret?!” Chen Gong stroke his sleeves. “Oh Fengxian, you had once said that you, Lu Bu, never regret. Then I will also tell you this, I, Chen Gong, never once regret following you! Never!”
“Great! Hahahaha! For I, Lu Bu, have Gongtai to accompany me to my burial, then this life is not lonely!”