BXBX NOVEL Chapter 172 - Do You Mind Changing Your Weapon? (2)
They were about to set off soon, but the official envoy didn’t even know about this!
Fortunately, at least the official envoy knew to show up. What about the other deputy envoy?
She was nowhere to be seen!
Shi Songtao cursed in his heart. What wrongdoings did he do in his previous life to have to partner with these two people in this life!
As he was thinking, a slender figure walked in from outside.
This person was dressed in green and had delicate features. She looked like a fairy that had walked out of a painting. She carried a long sword on her back, and the hilt of the sword was exposed above her right shoulder. After entering, she didn’t even glance at the crowd as she walked to the spot behind Zhou Shu.
Then she stood there like Zhou Shu’s personal maid without saying anything.
“Does everyone know this person?” The scene became a bit awkward. Zhou Shu coughed, breaking the deathly silence. “This is Lu Wenshuang, and she is also our deputy envoy for this diplomatic mission.” “Greetings, Deputy Envoy.” The people from the Ministry of Rites reacted quickly and greeted her one by one. The Forging Masters were all stunned by Lu Wenshuang’s beauty. “Hmph!” Lu Wenshuang felt uncomfortable under their gazes and harrumphed coldly.
wer
Everyone felt a sharp pain in their ears, as though their heads had been stabbed by a sword. They immediately woke up.
“Alright, everyone knows each other now. In the following days, we must work together to complete this mission beautifully.” Zhou Shu wasn’t very good at speaking formally. After clapping his hands, he threw the scene to Shi Songtao and left. After leaving the post house, Zhou Shu realized that Lu Wenshuang was still following him.
Zhou Shu turned around and asked curiously, “Miss Lu, Deputy Envoy Lu, why are you following me? We are leaving officially tomorrow. You can do whatever you want to do today. You don’t have to follow me.”
“The mission I received was to keep you safe,” Lu Wenshuang said coldly. “From now on, I will follow you everywhere and protect you until we return from Great Qin.”
“Follow me everywhere?” Zhou Shu frowned. “No need. Besides, we haven’t set off yet. This is Chang’an!”
“Someone was abducted twice in Chang’an.” Lu Wenshuang said expressionlessly.
Zhou Shu could clearly see the disdain in her eyes.
Zhou Shu was furious. What do you mean?
I was acting with my enemies both times, alright? Otherwise, would they be able to abduct me?
How ridiculous?
He couldn’t be bothered to explain to Lu Wenshuang “Follow me if you want.”
Zhou Shu simply pretended that she didn’t exist. He wanted to see how long she could follow him. She couldn’t possibly follow him to the toilet and watch him as he slept.
As he strode forward, he deliberately increased his speed. He stepped on the clouds and rode the wind. His speed didn’t seem fast, but he had already overtaken quite a few carriages by the road.
Lu Wenshuang’s footsteps didn’t change, but she still followed Zhou Shu a step behind. No matter how Zhou Shu sped up, the distance between them didn’t increase or decrease.
Unless Zhou Shu was willing to use his full strength, there was no way he could shake her
off.
Zhou Shu didn’t return to the marquis’s mansion. Instead, he went to the camp outside the city.
Great Xia’s diplomatic mission’s guards were currently training here.
After revealing his identity, Zhou Shu met Chen Ji, the commander of the guards.
Chen Ji looked to be in his thirties. He was handsome, and his silver armor was very fitting, making him look very well-built.
Lu Wenshuang’s eyes flashed when she saw Chen Ji.
“Greetings, Marquis Zhou. Greetings, Deputy Envoy Lu.” Chen Ji cupped his hands.
“Greetings, General Chen,” Zhou Shu said.
Yesterday, he had learned from Meng Bai that Chen Ji’s cultivation was at the fifth rank of the Martial Dao. Even among the Demon Executing and Fiend Eradication armies, he could be considered an expert.
He was a high-ranking military officer with a high level of cultivation. Compared to cultivating, he was better at leading troops in battle.
In the Country Protector Army, Martial Dao cultivation had nothing to do with position.
Take Cheng Wanli, the previous commander of the Huben Troops, for example. He wasn’t even a ranked martial artist at the start, but he could still become a commander of an army. Although the Huben Troops were only the outermost imperial guards, and their duty was to guard the palace gates… Not only was Chen Ji’s cultivation level high, but his position in the army was also high.
After all, someone that Meng Bai praised was definitely a genius.
“General Chen, we are leaving tomorrow. How are the guards’ training?” Zhou Shu smiled.
The guards of the diplomatic mission were a hodgepodge. There was the Country Protector Army, the Demon Executing Army, and the Divine Constable Bureau. It would depend on Chen Ji’s ability to integrate them well.
“We’ve already begun to get used to each other. Along the way, I will continue to train them. When we arrive in Great Qin, they will definitely be elite soldiers that can fight!” Chen Ji said confidently. “Do you want to inspect them?”
“Forget it.” Zhou Shu was tempted, but he still shook his head.
He believed in one principle-letting professional people do professional things.
He didn’t think that the half-assed military training methods he had learned in his previous life could train an elite army.
How would it be possible to train an elite army by just standing in a military posture and marching? “General Chen, how are the military supplies? Is there anything lacking?” Zhou Shu asked.
He wasn’t familiar with how to train soldiers, but he was familiar with military supplies and equipment. He was a Forging Master, and the Forging Division was his territory… “It’s not so bad,” Chen Ji said. “The great general came forward to coordinate. The standard weapons supplied by the Forging Division are all fine.”
“What about the ranked weapons?” Zhou Shu asked. “How many ranked martial artists are there among our guards?”
Chen Ji was a little puzzled. It was impossible to supply ranked weapons directly. As a Forging Master, did the marquis not understand this?
“Three hundred of the guards were transferred over from the Demon Executing Army. All of them are ranked martial artists. There are also one hundred from the Divine Constable Bureau. Together with the ranked martial artists of the Country Protector Army, there are about four hundred and thirty ranked martial artists.”
“More than four hundred?” Zhou Shu smacked his lips.
He didn’t think much of it, but Lu Wenshuang’s eyes flashed with surprise.
More than four hundred ranked martial artists was definitely not a small number.
Ranked martial artists were not easily found everywhere. Even if many of them were ninth-rank martial artists, it was still a lot.
Now, for the sake of the diplomatic mission, the Imperial Court had mobilized so many ranked martial artists. It was obvious how much the Imperial Court valued this diplomatic mission.
Chen Ji quickly calculated and said, “About one-fifth of these ranked martial artists have ranked weapons.”
“Only one-fifth?”
Zhou Shu once again realized the scarcity of ranked weapons. But this problem wasn’t something that he could solve for the time being. There were over four hundred people, and there were still over three hundred guards who didn’t have ranked weapons. With his current forging speed, it would take him a long time to forge three hundred or so ranked weapons. “One-fifth of the ranked martial artists have ranked weapons. It’s not a small number,” Chen Ji said. “Marquis, even if we face five thousand Great Qin elites, we can still hold them off.”
Zhou Shu shook his head. He wasn’t concerned about these things. If they really needed to fight a war with Great Qin, then even if all four hundred people had ranked weapons, how useful would it be?
In other people’s territory, they could easily pull in tens of thousands of soldiers. “General Chen, what weapon are you using? Yellow-grade or black-grade?” Zhou Shu asked. He didn’t forget that he was here to look for workers.
“I am using a saber, but it’s a yellow-grade weapon,” Chen Ji said with a strange look in his eyes.
Previously, there was a guard named Yin Chengshan who had brought the Flaming Sunset Saber. It was similar in shape to the saber he used, but it was more powerful than his saber. It was said that Marquis Zhou had personally forged it.
“Saber? A yellow-grade weapon?” Zhou Shu pondered. “General Chen, would you mind changing to another weapon?”