In the dead of night, in the cold and dark alley, the mutilated dog suddenly barked several times, then "wuwu~" and ran away in fear.
Beside the corner of the locust tree, a long shadow occupied the kennel without morality. He sat up with his legs crossed, his head lowered, and he lovingly stroked the wooden eagle sculpture in his hand.
The wind blew loudly, causing the leaves to rustle, and the dead leaves swirled like butterflies and slowly fell to his feet.
Suddenly his whole body tensed up, and when he looked up, he saw a tall and deep figure quietly standing in front of him.
The towering black shadow added a sense of cold danger to the quiet and deep night.
"Autumn."
A deep middle-aged male voice called him.
Qiudai was startled for a moment, and when he saw clearly who was coming, he immediately jumped up and knelt down with one hand on the ground.
"Master Qu."
A cold chill washed over his head.
"The Jiulong machine box has been cracked by Yu Wensheng. Do you know about this?"
Qiu was horrified. He clenched his palms and gritted his teeth to prevent his voice from revealing his emotions: "Qiu, I don't know."
Bah!
A sharp iron claw pierced into his shoulder blade, and all the muscles in Qiu's body suddenly spasmed and trembled in pain, and blood flowed all over his chest and back.
"The mission failed, Qiu."
"Qiu... I know my mistake."
"How about the mission to assassinate Yu Wensheng? How is it going?" asked a plain voice.
Qiu endured the pain and spoke clearly: "Yu Wensheng is highly skilled in martial arts and very suspicious. It would be extremely difficult to kill him openly or assassinate him. Only by waiting for an opportunity to gain his trust can we find an opportunity to take his life."
These principles were taught to him by Zheng Quchi.
After hearing this, Master Qu nodded in agreement: "Indeed, it is a very difficult task to kill the God of War of Ye State, but it is also necessary. This time, he has completely angered the Mohist family. Mozi has sent the most powerful person from the Mohist family. The top disciples are here to see who of you can complete this task."
"Qiu Ding will atone for his sins."
Satisfied with his attitude, Master Qu stopped "small punishments and big warnings".
"I ordered you to monitor Zheng Quchi. Is there anything strange about her recently?"
"...She did not betray the Mo family." Qiu replied.
But Master Qu didn't quite believe it: "Really?"
"Yes, in order to complete her mission, she infiltrated the camp as a carpenter and met Yu Wensheng once. He didn't suspect anything."
"Since she is still law-abiding, I won't deal with her for the time being."
Qiu didn't understand why the Mo family wanted to take advantage of Zheng Quchi, but at the same time they were sure that she would betray her.
"Who helped Yu Wensheng open the Jiulong machine box? Hmm, I don't know when he found such a powerful machine master. If you find out who this person is, kill him."
Autumn should be.
"In addition, Fu County is recruiting masons. Inform Shan Bian to change his identity and join the masons. I have a task to give him."
"yes."
Before leaving, Master Qu didn't know if he saw the changes in Qiu. He gave a solemn warning: "Qiu, don't trust Zheng Quchi, she will not be our companion. Once you find something wrong with her, you will kill her directly." Don't be lenient when it comes to her."
Qiu squeezed the eagle wooden sculpture tightly, her face turned pale as gray, and after a long time, she let out a low "hmm".
——
As soon as winter arrived, Zheng Quchi felt a little unbearable. It was okay to stay indoors, but once he went out, the sudden drop in temperature could not be resisted by sheer willpower. ,
This large family basically relies on shivering to keep warm.
She originally planned to buy some cotton to sew a coat, but she didn't expect that cotton was a rare thing in Ye State, and no one in Fu County even cultivated it.
No wonder everyone's bedding is made of linen, and the stuffing inside is filled with shredded kapok instead of fluffy and warm cotton.
Looking through the few copper pieces left in his pocket, Zheng Quchi shed a handful of sad tears.
She decided not to wear a cotton-padded jacket and wear a higher-end fur.
It was impossible to buy them. There were many deep mountains and ridges around Fu County. People said that there were many long-haired beasts in the woods. She planned to go hunting and get a set of furs for her family.
Liu Fengmian had been quarreling with her for some reason in the past two days. Except for going home to sleep at night, he was almost invisible during the day. She guessed that he must have gone to work at Yu Wensheng's place.
He was still wearing the same thin autumn clothes, so she had to hunt enough skins for their family of four.
If a worker wants to do his job well, he must first sharpen his tools. When it comes to hunting, he must first have hunting tools.
Her previous military crossbow had been returned to Qiu, and time was a little tight. She had to make an emergency crossbow for hunting.
As for why we didn’t make a simpler weapon like a bow, the main reason is that the bow is too long and has insufficient shooting power.
The first time she made a crossbow, she repeatedly reviewed the data in her mind, modified it based on the advantages and disadvantages of the Ye Kingdom's military crossbow, and finally finalized the design drawings.
A crossbow has several structures: a crossbow bow, a crossbow arrow, a crossbow arm and a crossbow machine.
The size of Ye Guo's crossbow is too bulky. She is small in stature and has short arms, so the custom-made crossbow does not refer to the data of ordinary people, but is made according to her conditions.
She also needs to increase the strength of the crossbow arm and increase the speed of the arrow, so that when shooting from a longer distance, she can ensure the power of killing with one hit.
In addition, the previous winding method must be replaced with a more labor-saving and lighter method to achieve continuous firing speed.
All these require her to put some effort into the early design, replacing the traditional winding with a gear winding device, and modifying the crossbow batch, crossbow bed, and crossbow string.
When shooting, hold the crossbow horizontally, place the crossbow arrow in the crossbow groove, pull the crossbow string into the inlay, and finally pull the trigger, and the arrow will fly out.
call out--
Snapped! The wooden pile fixed to the ground in the courtyard was hit by a sharp arrow and split into several pieces.
Zheng Quchi clapped the crossbow happily.
Not bad, not bad, this power is enough.
This is still a single shot. When she studies and develops a continuous crossbow that can fire a large number of beads at once, it will be more convenient to use it to hunt more dexterous birds.
After choosing a sunny day, she was ready to go hunting.
But Brother Sang was still worried about her going: "I'm afraid all the beasts on this mountain have burrowed into their holes. Where are you going to look for them? Who will go up the mountain to hunt at this time of year?"
Knowing that he was deliberately fooling her, Zheng Quchi said: "It is more difficult for animals to find food in winter and their physical strength is also weak. It just snowed two days ago. Those hares and pheasants must be hungry and come out to look for food, so I hunted them." If you come back with some small animal skins, the meat will be enough for you, big brother."
"Whatever you want to make up for me, just give it to your husband." He said sourly.
Zheng Quchi coaxed sweetly: "My husband is not as important as my eldest brother and my younger sister. I will make the first one for you to wear after hunting the leather."
Brother Sang knew that she had big ideas and couldn't dissuade her. He could only tell her repeatedly: "Don't go too deep. If you can't hunt anything, come back quickly. In previous years, you just had to endure it."
"Yeah, I understand, wait until I come back."
She waved her hand, loaded the crossbow and arrows in her cloth bag and hung them on her waist. She also brought some dry food and went up the mountain alone.
(End of chapter)
