The Emperor is Above

Chapter 17: Master of Armor and Soldiers

At dusk, in the Sophora japonica hill, smoke rises up, cocks crow and dogs bark.

The shadow of the tall locust tree was stretched out long, and a big rooster crowed and walked proudly in front of Tun Shigu with his head held high.

Erhei, who was cleaning the animal shed, poked his head out curiously, then continued to clean quietly, moving the reindeer dung into the compost pile outside the yard.

"Whose child is this?"

Aunt Bo, who was busy in the kitchen, heard the sound and came out of the kitchen. Seeing Tu Shigu lying on the ground, she couldn't help but laugh out loud, "It's not even the New Year yet, isn't it a bit early to kowtow?"

Tun Shigu didn't care about the mud all over his body. He jumped up nimbly from the ground and ran to the four wolf skins drying on one side of the yard.

The wild wolf itself is ten feet long and weighs more than three hundred pounds. After its skin is peeled off and spread out, its fur appears even wider, just like a fur cushion, but it needs to be tanned and aged to become soft and comfortable.

"Don't worry about him, Auntie Bo. This is Master Tu's subordinate, Gu Shi!" Qing Yi greeted Auntie Bo with a smile, "Daniu and I bought a lot of New Year's goods, they are all on the sled in the back."

"So it's the fat boy from Tuan Yizhong's family. I didn't expect that after twenty years, he's still so fat!" Aunt Bo understood immediately and suddenly slapped her forehead, "Hey, look, my stove is still burning."

"Who skinned this wolf?"

As soon as Aunt Bo entered the kitchen, Tun Shigu, who was standing by the wall, let out an angry roar. His chubby round face turned red with anger and his eyes were full of rage.

"Brother Shigu, aren't these four wolf skins peeled very complete? I was watching while they were being peeled, and there aren't any holes. What's wrong?" Qing Yi was a little puzzled by Tun Shigu's sudden anger.

"Humph, what do you outsiders know!" Tu Shigu, who had been smiling all the way, showed such anger and regret for the first time.

"When ordinary people skin animals, it's fine to just gut them, but wolf skin needs to be kept intact to make armor, so how can we skin it so roughly?
Although the fur on the wolf's belly is the thinnest, it has the best toughness after tanning. It is an excellent material for making helmet linings or inner armor to protect against arrows."

At this point, the sorrow on Tu Shigu's face became more intense. "What a pity, what a pity. To skin a wild wolf, you should open the skin from the wolf's mouth, and then turn it over and peel it while it's still hot. Only then can you make the best armor."

"I didn't expect there was so much to learn just by skinning a wolf. But when I found these wild wolves, they were frozen stiff, and there were scars on their bodies. We could only gut them and skin them."

After hearing Tun Shigu's explanation, Qing Yi also felt a little sorry, but the matter was irreversible after all. Fortunately, there were still seven wild wolves that had not been skinned in time.

"Brother, our families are both in Maoqiuting, not far from each other. You should know that my family has been making armor and weapons for three generations.

My father's generation was rewarded by the king for their contributions in making armor and was granted the title of upper commoner. However, when my generation inherited the title and became a lower commoner, I have not yet achieved any meritorious service.

I have poor talent for cultivation, and I am only at the high level of body forging at the age of 30. Fortunately, my skills in making armor and bone soldiers have not brought shame to my ancestors. "

Tu Shigu said with a bitter look on his face, "I was so anxious to buy a wild wolf from you because I wanted to make a good set of armor and find an opportunity to present it to you.

If you trust my brother's skills, let me do it myself and try to peel off the wolf skin as much as possible. After all, it is not easy to have so many wild wolves in the capital."

"Oh? Brother Shigu, are you going to do it yourself?"

Qing Yi was stunned at first, after all, Tu Shigu was a lower-ranking noble, but thinking about the professional quirks of technicians, he clapped his hands and laughed, "Brother Shigu's family has passed down the skills for three generations, so I naturally trust him very much.

If you can make armor and weapons out of these wolf skins and bones, I will give you a complete high-level wolf, and two wolf skins and their bones. "Brother, that's very generous!"

Tu Shigu excitedly bowed to the ground, patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, brother, the fur and bones of your eight wild wolves can be tanned into a set of armor per piece.

The teeth of the wild wolf are the hardest and are not inferior to the ninth-grade animal bones. Each wild wolf has forty-two teeth, four of which are fangs. So the eight wolves have a total of thirty-two fangs, which can be polished into sixteen wolf-tooth daggers and sixteen spear heads.

I will polish the other 308 wolf fangs into wolf fang armor-piercing arrows for you. Unfortunately, I don't know how to carve runes, and I don't know a rune master, otherwise these wolf fang armor-piercing arrows would be even more powerful.

As for the remaining bones, they are not as hard as the bones of the exotic beasts after all, so you can put them aside and process them later if you need to do anything else."

Qing Yi nodded repeatedly after hearing this. Even with the title of corporal, there were only ten vacancies for private soldiers. Eight sets of armor were enough, and there were more than enough wolf-tooth daggers and spear heads, and even more than enough wolf-tooth armor-piercing arrows.

He brought Tu Shigu to the snow pile where the wild wolves were piled up at home. Looking at the wild wolf corpses piled up into a small mountain in front of him, he immediately said with great enthusiasm:

"Don't worry, brother. I will make these armors at your house. I will ensure that the first tanning process is completed before the New Year. I will start making the armors after the New Year and ensure that they will be completed by the end of February next year."

When night fell, four servants of the Tuan family walked out of the locust hill with bitter faces: "Our master has his old illness again. He can't move when he sees the best materials."

Another honest voice said, "Don't say so much. Huaiqiu Yi is a kind man after all. He gave the master a lot of rewards! Let's go back early and transport the full set of tools here tomorrow morning."

"That's true. The sleigh invented by Huaiqiu Yi is really a good thing. Let's imitate one tomorrow. This way, we can have a faster means of transportation."

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Two thick tallow candles were lit in Qing Yi's house. Under the bright candlelight and the clear moonlight, the hot dinner was steaming and the aroma was particularly tempting.

"It's delicious, not only is the meat fragrant, but it's also extra chewy."

Tu Shigu was holding a big bowl, eating voraciously and rushing to be the first to eat, not considering himself an outsider at all, which made Aunt Bo laugh, "Fat boy from the Tu family, how come you took Hua Ni's bowl of rice?"

"Huh? What?"

Tun Shigu was stunned. He looked up and saw a fat and strong civet cat staring at him with murderous eyes on the long dining table. Its sharp front claws left several deep marks on the table.

"Cuckoo-"

The little white fox on the other end was laughing so hard, but when he saw the fat cat looking at him with murderous intent, he actually pushed his food bowl over to him in a friendly manner, which made a hint of surprise flash in the fat cat's eyes.

"Master Tuan, this is your rice bowl!" Da Niu walked into the restaurant carrying two rice bowls with a diameter of one foot on a tray.

Tu Shigu looked embarrassed and said with a hint of surprise, "I'm full, but can your stomach handle eating so much at night?"

"Is this still more than enough?" Daniu's eyes widened. "Look how much my master wants to eat!"

Qing Yi was holding his three-foot-diameter rice bowl. Tu Shigu's eyes almost popped out: "My goodness, this bowl of meat is enough for me to eat for half a month."

(End of this chapter)