Chapter 685
: Gongshuqi's firearms blueprints were stolen, and the prefect of Yingtian was invol
Gongshu Qi rolled the ice cracks on the edge of the teacup with his index finger, but his eyes were fixed on the dancing flames on the bronze brazier.
At this time, he was demonstrating the firing principle of the newly-made "Seven-sided Linked Gun" to Zhu Gang and Chang Mao, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the official seal of "Firearm Supervision" engraved on the bottom of the gun.
This was the family seal of an old craftsman from the Ministry of Works during the Hongwu period, but it was knocked out of his hand by a carrier pigeon that suddenly flew into the door.
The left wing of the gray-feathered pigeon was broken at the root, and the blood on its chest left irregular patterns on the blue bricks.
Gongshu Qi's pupils suddenly shrank: tied to the pigeon's claws was a piece of plain silk soaked in alum water, with the edges burnt black - it was clearly the "Blood Feather Order" that had been forcibly broken through after being attacked by fire.
When he squatted down, the silver gear pattern on the upper of his shoes rubbed against the pigeon's beak.
Gong Shuqi then discovered that the tip of its beak was stained with very fine iron sand, which was a warning mark that pigeons would get when they passed through beacon towers in the water network area of the south of the Yangtze River.
"The red scale wax is missing its right eye!"
Then Gongshuqi picked up the unburned pages of the folded book on the table, the wax fragments glowed dark red under the candlelight.
"After the winter solstice last year, the secret agents we set up in Yingtian Prefecture changed to using the code 'Three Glimpses of Red Scales'.
The missing ink on the right eye is an emergency signal in case of attack, but the edge of the wax has traces of being scraped and refilled with a knife..."
He suddenly brought the torn page close to the candlelight, and a very fine array of pinholes could be vaguely seen on the back of the paper.
"Is it Morse code?
No, this is the 'ball code' unique to our Firearms Supervisor.
Each burn mark corresponds to the code on page 7 of Volume 8 of The Exploitation of the Works of Nature!"
Zhu Gang's goose-feather knife hit the weapon rack with a clang.
As the first Prince of Jin in the Ming Dynasty, he naturally recognized the miniature armor pattern hidden in the seal carving of the word "Jin" on the hilt - that was an emergency dispatch order from the Hidden Dragon Guards of the Prince of Jin's Mansion.
"This morning, when the Dragon Guards entered the accounting office of the Military Equipment Bureau, I noticed that the soles of their boots were stained with red mud from eastern Zhejiang."
Zhu Gang's fingertips traced the cloud-thunder pattern on the scabbard, and suddenly turned towards Chang Mao, causing the handle of the scabbard to tilt strangely by three points.
"Do you still remember how to use the 'Mane-Splitting Technique' that you used during the Mobei breakout?"
Chang Mao lowered his head and tightened the leather wrist guard, and a hint of honeysuckle pattern embroidered with silver thread flashed on the cuffs.
"Remember that year when His Highness bent the handle of his sword to lure the enemy, the crossbow arrows we shot from under the horses' bellies had the veins of the honeysuckle leaves carved into the arrowheads."
He suddenly kicked the remaining feathers of a homing pigeon and found that between the veins of a main feather, extremely fine pinholes formed the Chinese character "浙".
This is Lin Miaoyin's original creation of a "feather silk secret letter". The main vein of pigeon feathers is used as paper and the pinholes are used as words. The letter can only be seen after being soaked in vinegar.
At this moment, Gongshu Qi suddenly stared at the shadow in the corner of the hall and shouted: "Who's there?!"
When he bent down to pick up the gun map just now, he clearly saw fresh sulfur powder in the cracks between the bricks. That was the unique pungent smell of the gunpowder he had improved.
At the same time, the latest revised draft of "Illustrated Explanation of Fireguns" spread out on the desk still had the scent of ink. At the key data point of "seven spiral rifling grooves" in the picture, the cinnabar annotation of "forty-two degrees right-handed" had been rubbed off at the corners.
"Yes...it's Apprentice Chen San."
A figure in grey clothes emerged from behind a beam, with uneven gear patterns on his cuffs. It was the attire of a third-class apprentice in the Firearms Supervisor.
He held a half-folded page in his hand, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the four words "Seven Spirals" - this was exactly the improvement plan that Gongshu Qi had proposed at a small-scale seminar last night.
Gongshu Qi suddenly remembered that three days ago, this apprentice had come to ask about the "rifling etching depth". At that time, he casually mentioned that "the number of spirals must be the same as the number of seven constellations".
At this moment, he was staring at the brass key hanging from the other person's waist. It was the certificate that could open the Firearms Supervisor's C Warehouse, where the newly made gun barrel blanks were stored.
"Brother Chang, prepare three Hequ horses and put three boxes of 'Sky-shaking Bombs' in the saddle bags."
Zhu Gang suddenly pressed Gongshu Qi's shoulder and stuffed a wax seal engraved with the hidden pattern of the Prince of Jin's Palace into his palm.
“If three lamps do not light up at the corners of the glazed tiles of the Holy Mother Hall of the Jin Temple three sticks of incense before midnight, bury the gunpowder under the old locust tree.
Remember to bring the remaining pages of the Fire Dragon Scripture. The 'anti-spiral rifling' you mentioned last time might come in handy."
When Chang Mao turned around, he deliberately swung his saber, making it clang. The silver bell on the saber tassel was the "signal for dividing troops" during the breakout in Mobei.
Gongshu Qi was looking at the two men's backs when he suddenly discovered that Zhu Gang's boot heel was stained with half a honeysuckle leaf, and the pinholes on the leaf veins formed the three characters "Zhou Haomiao".
This is the name of the chief investigator of Longxiong Pavilion. It seems that Lin Miaoyin's information has long been hidden in the most conspicuous place.
Bang!
Gongshu Qi kicked the broken teacup at his feet. The icy cracks on the porcelain suddenly reminded him of the burn marks on the folded pages.
Those seemingly messy gaps actually coincide with the "Nine Palace Orientation Diagram" in the "Lu Ban Jing".
He looked up suddenly and saw that Chen San had retreated to the moon cave gate.
The key on the waist was facing the Bagua brick carving on the lintel, which was a natural compass for the location of the firearms warehouse.
"Wait a minute."
Gongshu Qi suddenly smiled and took out a brass medicine box from his sleeve.
"When you were hiding behind the beam just now, you knocked over my new smoke generator, didn't you?
This sulfur mixed with the smell of saltpeter can even drive rats out of their holes."
He looked at Chen San's face which turned pale instantly and suddenly lowered his voice.
"To tell you the truth, the 'seven spirals' on the gun diagram are fake. The real key... is on the sole of my shoe."
As he spoke, Gongshu Qi lifted his foot. The sole of his gear-patterned shoe was engraved with fine spiral lines, with extremely fine silver flakes embedded between each line.
That is the real data that will only be revealed under the light of fire.
At this moment, a horse neighing suddenly came from outside the moon cave gate.
Immediately afterwards, Chang Mao's voice floated in along with the sound of the wind.
"Mr. Gongshu, do you want to bring two semi-finished products of the 'sub-gun linkage device' you mentioned last time?
If we happen to encounter the chain crossbows of the Dragon Guards..."
Before he finished speaking, Zhu Gang's goose-feather knife had already chopped off the dead branches in the corner of the yard.
The blade is stuck with the red clay unique to eastern Zhejiang.
Chen San looked in the direction where the three people disappeared, and quietly took out the folded pages in his arms.
Next to the four words "Seven Spirals", he finally saw the cinnabar annotation that Gongshu Qi had just rubbed off.
It is not "forty-two degrees clockwise" but "thirty-seven degrees counterclockwise, which is the number of the Big Dipper and the reversed Dipper."
This discovery made Chen San's palms sweat, but he didn't notice the edge of the torn page.
Gongshu Qi had just drawn a very thin diagonal line with his fingernail, pointing at the third tooth of the crooked gear pattern embroidered on his cuff. That was the ultimate code for the Firearms Supervisor to identify a traitor.
At this moment, Chen San hurriedly reached into his pocket and took out a charcoal pencil he carried with him, and quickly wrote down the words "seven spirals" on his palm.
After completing the record, he knew very well that the folded pages must not leave any traces to avoid exposing himself.
So Chen San stuffed the paper into his mouth without hesitation and swallowed it with difficulty along with his saliva.
As he swallowed, his Adam's apple rolled up and down, and he looked as if he was racing against time.
At this moment, as his body swayed slightly, the jade pendant worn on Chen San's waist also gently emitted a half arc of light.
The jade pendant had a smooth texture and emitted a soft luster under the firelight.
When the jade pendant became still for a while, Gongshu Qi, who was hiding in the dark, took a closer look and saw that the official seal of the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture was clearly engraved on the mutton-fat white jade.
(End of this chapter)