Chapter 12: Ordering Armor

Lin Dao processed his business visa and flew directly to Hai Gang Cheng.

After the flight arrived, he went straight to the hotel and checked in.

After eating and returning to his room, he washed up briefly, then Lin Dao transmigrated to Yonghe Spacetime.

He took out the butane blowtorch, crucible, borax, and other items, placing them in the courtyard.

Lin Dao personally operated them, melting gold with the flame.

High temperature melted the gold cakes, and the molten gold gradually took the shape of gold bars in the molds.

Lin Dao melted fifty gold cakes in one go, casting them into fifty Big Yellow Fish.

Each weighed around two hundred and fifty grams, worth one hundred thousand each when sold.

After finishing the work, Lin Dao packed the fifty gold bars into the travel bag.

"I'm going out to run an errand."

Lin Dao slung the bag over his shoulder and instructed Sun Dalang and the others, "Keep a good watch over the house, and guard the gold cakes at home."

Sun Dalang immediately saluted, "Master, rest assured, the gold stays as long as the people stay!"

Returning to the Modern World, Lin Dao carried the travel bag out of the hotel and headed straight for the gold shop.

Here in Hai Gang Cheng, the financial industry was highly developed.

In the core district, gold shops and pawnshops were everywhere.

Gold, as hard currency, was welcome wherever it went.

Lin Dao was very cautious; he visited over a dozen shops, selling gold bars separately to raise funds.

Walking out of the last gold shop, Lin Dao, carrying the travel bag, pressed down his hat and got into a taxi by the roadside.

He did not return to the hotel, but headed straight for the shell company he had registered here previously.

"Master Lin."

The shell company's office address was rented in a commercial building.

Though small—only a few dozen square meters—the monthly rent and property fees were as high as tens of thousands.

There were only two or three employees.

The most important of these was Finance.

Lin Dao's identity here was shareholder; the few idle employees greeted him enthusiastically as soon as they saw him.

Although they had little work, their salaries had never been withheld.

After a brief greeting, Lin Dao called out to Finance, "Lisa, transfer the previous payment for the goods into the company bank account."

The female finance officer in her forties, watching Lin Dao pull stack after stack of Gold Cows from the travel bag, was also somewhat surprised.

Earlier, the company had imported a batch of grain and vegetables from Haicheng.

These goods had almost no competitiveness whatsoever, yet unexpectedly they had actually been sold.

"After it's entered into the account, settle the final payment to Haicheng as soon as possible."

"Alright, Master Lin, it can be done today."

While Finance was busy, Lin Dao found a chair nearby and sat down, beginning to consider his next arrangements.

Having suffered a loss previously when buying weapons and armor online, Lin Dao was now much calmer and unwilling to act impulsively again.

Zhou Shuren had once said, one person's plan is short, many people's plans are long.

He should pool ideas and borrow the wisdom of the vast netizens.

Taking out his phone, after posting his needs online, quite a few netizens soon offered suggestions.

Excluding those without meaning, advertisements, and nonsense.

The final summarized results were fairly satisfactory.

"There are many processing factories domestically; as long as the money is right, except for rifled tubes like 7.62 and 5.56, they can make anything else for you."

"The only troublesome thing is that if the quantity is small, they won't do it; there isn't enough money for the mold."

"At the processing factory side, they probably need orders of hundreds or thousands before they're willing to start work."

"Don't just fleece one sheep; you can assign different parts to different processing factories."

"The premise is that your financial resources can hold up; this requires a large sum of money."

"I'm very curious, where does the landlord use these things?"

"Africa doesn't even use these things anymore; they have faith shooting."

"Film companies don't use them either; they use cheap, obviously fake plastic and cloth props and costumes."

"If you buy too many, the landlord will probably have to watch a warehouse full of metal armor and sing the bit about selling oneself~~~"

"Those upstairs, stop speculating; I seriously suspect the landlord is a transmigrator, bringing these armors through transmigration to fight wars and contend for the world."

Lin Dao nodded repeatedly as he read.

"Sure enough, experts are among the common people."

"Even that I'm a transmigrator was seen through, awesome~~~"

He called over the two clerks who had nothing to do.

"William, you go collect detailed blueprints of ancient armor, the more detailed the better."

"Peter, you go contact mechanical processing factories, contact several more, prepare to place orders for armor with them."

Locals, especially white-collar workers in Central, liked others to call them by their foreign names; Lin Dao could be considered following local customs.

As for himself, he definitely had no interest in foreign names and such.

The two clerks were somewhat surprised.

"Master Lin, can this stuff be sold?"

This kind of product was too niche; where could it be sold?

"A film and television company wants to make a big investment, a major production." Lin Dao opened his eyes and told a lie.

"Costumes, props, and set design all require authenticity; they must faithfully restore history."

"There's money to be made in this business; just go do the work."

Lin Dao stayed for two days and, in the company's name, placed orders with several mechanical processing factories.

Some factories received orders for helmets, some received orders for chest armor.

Things like pauldrons, vambraces, greaves, and even iron gloves were all ordered separately.

As for quantity, the minimum order was one thousand pieces.

The delivery address for all of them was Lin Dao's warehouse in Haicheng.

Because the order volume wasn't large, the factories' asking prices weren't low.

Adding up components from all sources, the quoted price for a single set reached several thousand yuan.

In addition, he had to order grain, vegetables, and other supplies; the income from selling gold bars was soon completely consumed.

He wasn't anxious about this at all.

After all, in this era, doing business rarely involves paying the full amount upfront.

It's all a deposit first, then settling accounts time and again after receiving batch after batch of goods.

Lin Dao also wanted to sell more gold bars to raise funds.

But he worried that selling too many in a short time would attract unnecessary trouble.

Business is important, but safety and secrecy are even more important.

Having arranged matters on the Hai Gang Cheng side, he set off to return to Haicheng.

In the following period of time, Lin Dao worked as a warehouse manager at his former company, continuously receiving, shipping, registering, and taking inventory.

After finishing work, he would go to his own company's warehouse to receive batch after batch of materials.

Goods from all over the country were sent over in a steady stream.

The armor template he finally settled on was Zha Jia, which saw large-scale use from the Pre-Qin period all the way to the Ming and Qing dynasties and was the most widely used in actual combat.

So-called Zha Jia is actually a type of Fish Scale Armor.

It is composed of piece after piece of armor scales shaped like wooden tablets, hence it is called Zha Jia.

The so-called Zha Jia in film and television dramas, the kind that makes you laugh just looking at it, full of a plastic-and-cloth feel — just laugh at it and move on.

Real Zha Jia has layer upon layer of armor scales packed tight without a gap.

From helmet to neck guard, from chest armor to tassets, from vambraces to greaves — everything is complete.

Wear Silk Cotton Armor, put on a layer of lightweight Chain Mail Armor, and the outermost layer is Zha Jia — that is the Three-layer Heavy Armor with the most deterrent power in the history books.

Lin Dao also specially ordered a batch of ferocious-looking Copper Masks, which are Metal Masks, to increase deterrence.

He reached out and stroked the Zha Jia that had been machine-processed, polished, and colored.

Looking at its extremely high appearance value, he reached out again and pinched the thickness of the armor.

Lin Dao nodded in satisfaction.

"Although the price is high, appearance and defensive power coexist; this is exactly what I want."

Lin Dao brought the first batch of sixty sets of armor and, after several days, arrived at Yonghe Spacetime once more.

On the boundless wilderness, Lin Dao riding a three-wheeled vehicle appeared abruptly.

"."

Lin Dao looked ahead; a mere seven or eight steps away, a figure was relieving itself, and he was also speechless.

He thought this was some Qihuo Army sentry cavalry.

But the next moment, his gaze grew heavy.

The figure with its back to him was not dressed in Qihuo Army attire.

And two or three li further ahead, rows of military camps that had not existed before now stood erected.

He casually picked up the Ram's Horn Hammer beside the vehicle seat, got off the vehicle, and walked toward the figure not far away.

One hammer blow down, and the Jiehu immediately fell to the ground.

High brow, deep-set eyes, dense body hair, a mouth full of large yellow teeth.

Wearing a sheepskin jacket, thick fingers, tiger's mouth full of old calluses.

Lin Dao delivered a few more hammer blows, confirming the fallen Jiehu only had breath going out, none coming in.

He turned and went to the horses not far away, reaching into his satchel to feel around.

Dry rations hard as stones.

A fire steel for kindling.

Two pieces of jewelry still stained with blood.

Some copper coins, and some other messy things.

Among these, Lin Dao only took a wooden Identity Token.

This is the identity token belonging to military households.

"Truly Jiehu cavalry."

Lin Dao raised his head and looked toward the distant continuous camps: "Troublesome."

To keep his cargo transport secret, he had chosen locations far from the Settlement for his arrival and departure.

The Qihuo Army Old Camp was besieged, yet he was instead blocked outside.

Lin Dao's transmigration ability centers on his own self.

Where he was when he left, that is still the same position when he returns.

At this very moment, how to enter the Settlement became a difficult problem.

He struck the warhorse's buttocks with a hammer, letting the warhorse run off on its own.

Back on the tricycle, Lin Dao activated transmigration back to the Modern World.

"When in doubt, ask Yu Jian."

Lin Dao simply went online and posted his request for help.

"A modern person stranded in the Cold Weapon Era—how can he use modern technology to pass through an enemy army's siege camp and enter the besieged city?"

Just like before, he set a bounty.

After all, when asking people for help, it's a bit dry if you don't offer some benefit.

After posting, Lin Dao went to wash up and sleep.

He had work the next morning, and after finishing up it was already noon.

While eating from his fast-food box, he finally had time to check the replies.

He filtered out the ones advertising, spouting nonsense, and meaningless replies first.

Among the remaining replies, quite a few useful suggestions were given.

One reply in particular was very detailed.

"Ancient sieges aren't airtight blockades unless it's the kind in novels where a million-strong army surrounds a village."

"Usually, the blockade is carried out near the city gate and the road."

"Between the various camps, huge gaps are left, blocked by hidden sentries, cavalry patrols, moats, and anti-horse obstacles."

"You can choose to set out at three in the morning on a dark, cloudy night, when people are at their sleepiest."

"Carry the Low-light Night Vision Device, Thermal Imaging Device, and various tools, and reach the foot of the city through the gaps between camps."

"At that point, you just need to contact someone inside the city to lower a rope basket, and you can enter the city."

End of Chapter