Delivering Supplies
Shen Jingchuan glanced at the time, drove into a roadside casual restaurant, and seeing that no one was around, put all the goods in the trunk into his storage space. He went inside, found a seat by the window, and ordered one meat dish and one vegetable dish.
After settling down, he tapped his fingertips on the table, pondering. He had prepared almost everything for close combat, including guns and personal protective equipment, but he lacked ranged attacks.
He didn't even need to think about firearms or cannons. Bows weren't complicated, but the refugees were all farmers, and it would take them a year or two to learn how to draw and aim a bow.
The crossbow is still the most suitable – it's quick to learn, and you can practice for three to five days to fire in formation.
He took out his phone and looked at the structural diagram of a simple crossbow for a while, then asked the shopkeeper for a piece of paper and a ballpoint pen, and started drawing while thinking at the table.
The core bow limbs and bowstring were brought from the modern world. The rest—the crossbow body, trigger, and arrow trajectory—could be slowly crafted by carpenters and blacksmiths from another world. Even the arrows could be made on-site by carving the shaft from hardwood and having the arrowheads forged by blacksmiths.
By the time the dishes were served, he had almost finished drawing a rough sketch, clearly marking the core components and the processing sequence.
After finishing my meal, I wiped my mouth with a napkin, drank some of the complimentary tea, and drove to the hardware and profile section of the building materials market.
Shen Jingchuan found a store specializing in spring steel and could process it. He directly provided the parameters he had researched: 65 manganese steel sheet, 2.5 mm thick, 40 mm wide, cut into 90 cm lengths.
Drill a 6mm hole at each end, chamfer and round all the edges, and press a 15-degree slight upturn at the end. There are a total of 200 pieces.
The boss frantically pressed buttons on the calculator, then looked up and said:
"This job is quick; it can be done on the cutting table, bench drill, and bending machine. If you're in a hurry, I can deliver it to the warehouse tonight."
"Okay, I'll deliver it tonight."
Shen Jingchuan readily agreed and transferred an extra two hundred yuan.
"Could you please hurry up and clean up the edges and corners?"
The shopkeeper, seeing that he had been given extra money for express service, beamed with joy and readily agreed.
"Don't worry, I'll make sure it's done perfectly, not a single piece is off."
After leaving the hardware store, he turned into the rope and net stall next door and picked out five rolls of high-strength core-spun nylon thread with a diameter of four millimeters. It was enough to make bowstrings for hundreds of crossbows. It was wear-resistant and tensile-resistant, much more worry-free than the ancient ox-tendon strings.
I also asked for two bundles of thin iron wire, which I'll need later to secure the bow limbs and tie other parts, and asked the stall owner to load them onto my cart.
I had just opened the car door and settled in when the delivery call for the first batch of supplies came in.
Shen Jingchuan leaned back in his chair and answered the call, giving the temporary password for the warehouse's electronic lock. He then remotely directed the driver to stack the goods on the open ground near the door, count the quantity, and sign the order.
After giving his brief instructions, he started the car and drove towards the West Mountain Separate Garden.
Delivery calls rang incessantly along the way, with cotton-padded clothes, stab-proof vests, work safety equipment... various merchants arriving at the warehouse one after another. He made arrangements for each item over the phone.
By the time he returned to his lodgings, it was already dusk. He went into the kitchen, rummaged through his storage space for fresh vegetables and meat, lit a fire, and cooked a hot meal.
As darkness fell completely, the last phone call came in—it was the hardware store's driver, who arranged for all two hundred spring steel sheets to be unloaded into the warehouse.
After finishing his meal and cleaning up the dishes, he drove out again, heading straight for the warehouse on the outskirts of the city. He stored all the supplies in his spatial storage, filling it to the brim.
After taking care of these matters, he drove back to the West Mountain Separate Garden, changed his clothes, and felt a familiar spatial fluctuation. In the next instant, he was back in the study in the otherworld.
Shen Jingchuan returned to the courtyard, changed into some casual clothes, and strolled to the front hall. Bai Ruoli leading Yue'er and Qinghe in brewing tea, with several plates of dried fruit on the table. He went over and sat down, chatting with them about the recent events in the city. He picked up his teacup, took a couple of sips, and then instructed a servant to call the steward, Liu Zhong.
A moment later, Liu Zhong strode in, bowed, and said, "Young Master."
"How are the two courtyards on the left and right that I asked you to inquire about a few days ago coming along?" Shen Jingchuan asked, putting down his teacup.
"This old servant was just about to report to the young master, but you were not in the manor, so I didn't come to inform you."
Liu Zhong replied with his hands hanging down:
"The deal for that empty courtyard to the west is done. The house has been abandoned for many years, no one has taken care of it, and it looks dilapidated, but the roof and walls are solid, and the area it occupies is about the same as ours. The owner is in a hurry to get rid of it, and the contract was signed for three hundred taels of silver."
He paused, a troubled look on his face:
"But the place to the east is tricky. It's the ancestral home of a merchant who runs a general store. The family has lived there for over a hundred years, and it was renovated ten years ago. It's in very good condition. The first time I went to buy the house, they almost beat me up. Later, they offered double the price, but they wouldn't budge, saying that ancestral property can't be sold. Right now, we've only managed to get this one on the west side."
"If you don't want to sell, then don't. It's no problem." Shen Jingchuan stood up. "Come on, take me to see it."
The two went out of the gate and walked a few steps west to reach the courtyard. The gate looked fairly decent, but when they pushed it open, the courtyard was full of knee-high weeds, vines were entwined in the cracks of the stone steps, and the window frames were covered with a thick layer of dust, making it clear at a glance that no one had lived there for many years.
Walking along the passageway, the three courtyards of houses are still intact, the beams are not rotten, and the walls are not collapsed, but the plaster is peeling off, and the whole place exudes a desolate and abandoned atmosphere.
Shen Jingchuan glanced around. The layout of this house was similar to his own, only smaller, lacking the west wing, stables, and back garden. The rest of the layout matched. He walked to the east wall of the third courtyard and knocked on the brick wall—the other side of the wall led directly to the west wing garden of his own house.
"Liu Zhong," he turned and instructed, "Tomorrow, find a few people to open a moon gate in this wall, connecting the two courtyards, so we don't have to go around the main street. The main gate of this house remains locked."
"This old servant has remembered," Liu Zhong quickly replied. "I'll call my wife, son, and daughter later, and we'll clear the weeds in the yard and tidy it up slowly."
Shen Jingchuan waved his hand:
"If your family can't handle it all, ask Qinghe and the others to lend a hand. It's not a heavy job."
He glanced around at the rooftops and asked, "How's it inside? Is it leaking?"
"This old servant has checked every room. The roof tiles are all intact, and there are no leaks. It's just that the furnishings inside are old, and the walls are peeling badly, making it look dilapidated."
"No need to tidy up," Shen Jingchuan said casually. "As long as it's not leaky and can hold things, there's no need to go through the trouble."
The next morning, after having breakfast, Shen Jingchuan casually told Bai Ruoli and the other girls that he was going out to run some errands, and then went straight to the stables.
Shen Jingchuan rode his Big Black out of the south gate. He didn't go looking for the Lin Household brothers; he rode alone.
Big Black's speed far surpasses that of ordinary horses; in a real emergency, even his back cannot be caught. Furthermore, in the worst-case scenario, he can always retreat back to the modern world, making him more efficient on his own.
Once outside the city gate, Shen Jingchuan gave the reins a tug, and Big Black galloped forward, the wind whistling past its ears, the trees and fields along the way rushing by. Wild Goose Tomb was not far from the city, and with Big Black's speed, it would arrive in less than half an hour.