The Armament Department's offices stood in a corner of the inner city near the wall. Compared with the Garrison Headquarters' grand and imposing air, they seemed especially low and dilapidated. Moss covered the gray-green brick walls, and the vermilion paint had peeled from the main gate, exposing the rotten wood beneath. There wasn't even a proper guard at the entrance, only an old soldier dozing against the doorframe in a faded uniform, a rusty spear cradled in his arms.
The soldier who had brought Li Yuan led him to the gate, pointed inside, then hurried off as if fleeing. He didn't even greet the dozing old soldier.
Li Yuan stepped over the knee-high threshold, and a complex stench washed over him: mildew, rust, old dust, and a faint trace of blood. The courtyard was a little larger than it looked from outside, but it was in disarray. Broken armor and weapons lay piled on the left; on the right stood several open storehouses, where heaps of grain sacks and arrows were dimly visible. A few laborers in uniforms listlessly swept the yard. When Li Yuan entered, they merely glanced at him with lazy indifference, then went back to their work, as if nothing could stir their interest.
The atmosphere here was utterly at odds with the neat, imposing inner city. It was more like a forgotten corner.
"New here?" a slightly shrill voice called out.
Li Yuan turned and saw a thin, middle-aged man with a pair of ratlike whiskers strolling out of the main hall. He wore a relatively neat blue cotton robe and held a ledger in his hand. His gaze traveled up and down Li Yuan, sharp and calculating in the way of a petty official.
"Li Yuan, reporting to the Armament Department under orders from Garrison