Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 375 Warehouse Figure
Amid the crowing of cocks, the city of Beijing slowly opened its eyes like a giant waking up from deep sleep. The sun rose from the east, the sky turned white, and the originally deserted streets gradually had pedestrians. The sounds they made broke the tranquility of the night, and a new day had arrived.

Everything was no different from the past. Ordinary people started a new day of work, as did the vendors and merchants in the city. With the opening of shops, everyone was rushing around for three meals a day. Everywhere gradually became lively. Officials and clerks also walked or took sedan chairs to the yamen to start their day's work.

The Forbidden City, the center of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Tianqi got up at noon today. Today was not a day for a morning meeting, so he could sleep a little longer. However, the young emperor did not get up too late, and got up at about the same time as his subjects. After washing up, Emperor Tianqi moved around a little, flipped through the memorials, and had breakfast at the same time.

The emperor's breakfast was actually no different from that of ordinary people. There were not many delicacies, but just ordinary porridge, rice, pickles, etc., except that they were made with refined grains, and there were two eggs. Speaking of the pickles, they were from Liubiju in the capital. Liubiju's pickles have been famous since the Jiajing period. Yan Song loved their pickles the most at that time and ate them almost at every meal. Emperor Jiajing would also ask Liubiju to deliver pickles to the palace at that time.

There is also an interesting fact, that Liubiju was originally called Liuxinju, which was changed by Emperor Jiajing, who asked Yan Song to write a plaque for Liubiju, and the plaque was written just when Yan's party collapsed. Emperor Jiajing deliberately replaced "xin" with "bi", which was like stabbing a knife in the heart.

While Emperor Tianqi was reading memorials while having breakfast, the various government offices of the Ming Dynasty also began their day's work. To the southwest of the Forbidden City is the workshop of the Ministry of Works, which is also the warehouse where the Ministry of Works stores materials.

This place is not far from the Forbidden City. In later times, it would probably be the area between Yongning Hutong and Guangcai Hutong in Xicheng District.

Today seems no different from any other day. After daybreak, officials, clerks, craftsmen and others began their day's work one after another. The warehouse was bustling with people coming and going, and goods coming in and out.

An official walked here with several carts and arrived at the gate of a warehouse.

"Brother Wang, you're here a little early today." Another clerk looked up and saw his colleague coming, and walked forward to greet him with a smile.

"Brother Zheng, good morning!" Officer Wang smiled and bowed to Officer Zheng, who was talking to him. Then he pointed behind him and said, "There is no other way. The higher-ups are pushing us hard. We can only work hard. Look, there is another batch of materials that need to be put into the warehouse as soon as possible, and we have to bring another batch over later."

"That's true." Zheng Liyuan nodded. The Ministry of Works has been very busy these days because after the defeat on Juehua Island, all the supplies of the Ming Dynasty on Juehua Island were destroyed. The court now wants to rebuild the base on Juehua Island, and a large amount of supplies need to be prepared by the Ministry of Works before being transported to Liaodong. As one of the main warehouses under the Ministry of Works, they naturally cannot be idle and are much busier than usual.

The two were colleagues who often dealt with each other and were very familiar with each other. After chatting for a while, Wang took out the warehouse entry document from his arms and handed it over. Zheng took it and just glanced at it and nodded and handed it back. It was not the first day that they knew each other. In general, the warehouse of the Ministry of Industry was strict on outgoing warehouses but loose on incoming warehouses. There were many incoming warehouses like this every day, and some procedures were already accustomed to.

The two chatted for a while at the door. When the large carriage behind them entered the gate, Wang, the clerk, bowed to Zheng, and said, "Brother Zheng, I have to go in and get busy. Can we talk again when we have some free time?"

"Okay! You go ahead and do your work. The important thing is business." Clerk Zheng nodded with a smile. Clerk Wang bowed to him and followed the last truck into the warehouse.

Once inside, Li Yuan Wang directed the delivery truck to pull to the door of the warehouse and start unloading the goods. While unloading, the laborers in the warehouse helped. Li Yuan Wang stood there with his hands in his sleeves, chatting with someone he knew. After a while, when half of the goods were unloaded, Li Yuan Wang suddenly covered his stomach and frowned, and said to the people around him that he felt a little uncomfortable in his stomach and needed to go to the toilet. No one paid attention to him. He handed over the matters on the scene to his subordinates and hurried to the side.

After walking forward to an intersection and turning a corner, the toilet was on the left side in front, but Liyuan Wang did not go from the left. He looked back and saw that no one was paying attention to him and there was no one nearby. At this time, Liyuan Wang started running, taking two steps at a time and running to a closed warehouse. He stopped and looked around. When he was sure that there was no one around, he pushed open the door and slipped in.

After entering the warehouse, Wang Liyuan raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead. He looked very nervous. He hid behind the door and put his ear to the door panel to listen carefully. After a while, he was relieved after making sure there was no movement outside. Then he turned around and looked at the warehouse full of wooden barrels. This warehouse was just one of the warehouses. There were several similar warehouses. The wooden barrels were stacked one on top of the other. At a glance, there were hundreds of them.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Liyuan tried to calm himself down, and then walked towards the pile of wooden barrels. When he reached one of the wooden barrels, Wang Liyuan took out a dagger from his arms and pried open the lid of the wooden barrel. After opening the lid, he put the dagger back into his arms and looked into the wooden barrel. When he saw what was in the wooden barrel, Wang Liyuan sneered, reached into his arms, and took out a roll of something from his arms. Then Wang Liyuan unfolded the roll, put one end into the wooden barrel, and fiddled with it carefully. Then he slowly retreated towards the warehouse door. As he retreated, the roll in his hand gradually stretched, extending from the wooden barrel to near the warehouse door.

By the time they reached the warehouse door, all the things had been put away. At this time, Wang Liyuan's forehead was covered with sweat. He looked up at his arrangement again, calculated the distance from the warehouse door to the wooden barrel, and a smug look appeared on his face.

He gently opened the door, looked out again, then closed the door again, squatted down, and took out a tinder from his arms. With a slight shake, the tinder ignited, and Wang extended the tinder to the thread end of the roll he had placed on the ground. As the tinder approached, the thread end was instantly ignited, and then a slight hissing sound was emitted, and the flames gradually extended slowly towards the wooden barrel.

After lighting the thread, Wang Liyuan did not dare to delay and turned around and walked out of the warehouse. After leaving the warehouse, he closed the door and ran back after making sure that there was no one around. When he reached the turning point in front, Wang Liyuan slowed down and walked towards the place where he had just unloaded the goods.

"Brother Wang, are you okay?" When they returned to the previous place, others saw beads of sweat on Wang's forehead and an unnatural expression, so they couldn't help but ask with concern.

"I guess I caught a cold when I got up early. My stomach suddenly felt uncomfortable for some reason." Liyuan Wang said with a forced smile.

"This is a troublesome matter. Brother Wang, why don't you come over to my place and rest? I see that you don't look well and you're sweating so much?" someone else asked kindly.

"No need. I just went to the toilet and I feel much better. The goods have been unloaded too. I'd better go back and rest so as not to delay the subsequent work. Otherwise, it will be troublesome if the higher-ups blame me." Liyuan Wang waved his hand and politely declined the other party. Then he called his men who had already unloaded the cart to set off.

Seeing that he was so kind, others tried to persuade him a few more times, saying that his health was of great importance. Wang nodded and thanked him, then hurriedly led his people away. He left in such a hurry that he even forgot about the receipt for the warehouse. When the people in the warehouse came to their senses, Wang had already walked a long way away. The people in the warehouse wanted to call him, but when they thought about how he had diarrhea just now, they thought it was better to forget it. After all, they were all acquaintances, and the receipt was not urgent. They could just give it to Wang when he came over again. Now seeing Wang's appearance, I'm afraid he is in a hurry to go back for treatment.

When he arrived at the door, he said hello to Lieutenant Zheng. Lieutenant Wang left in a hurry without stopping. Seeing that he walked so fast that he didn't even care about the big cart behind him, Lieutenant Zheng was wondering, what's wrong with this old Wang today? Wasn't he fine in front? He said he would chat later, why did he come out so anxiously in the blink of an eye?

At this time, the people who followed him out told Zheng Liyuan with a smile that Liyuan Wang had gone to the toilet because of a stomachache. After hearing this explanation, Zheng Liyuan recalled that Liyuan Wang looked a little pale when he came out, and there was sweat on his forehead. This is what happened after all the fuss. No wonder he left in a hurry without even saying a few words. It seems that he can't hold back the urge to defecate any longer.

Thinking of this, Li Yuan Zheng burst out laughing. He even wondered if Li Yuan Wang would be unable to hold back and poop in his crotch halfway through the journey. If that was the case, it would be quite interesting. He would have to ask this guy about it when he comes again later, just to amuse himself.

He waved his hand to let the carriage go, and seeing it gradually go away, Li Yuan Zheng didn't think much about it. He turned around and went back to a small house beside the gate. This house was similar to a gatehouse, and it was where he usually rested while guarding the gate.

After entering the house, Zheng Liyuan poured himself a cup of tea, sat on a chair, drank the tea and hummed a little tune, feeling very happy.

But for some reason, after a few hums, Zheng Liyuan felt an inexplicable panic, as if something big was about to happen. He put down the teacup in his hand, frowned slightly, stood up and walked out of the hut, looking around, everything was normal.

But even so, the panic still remained, and as time went by, the panic became more severe. This made Zheng Liyuan confused. Could it be that this was the so-called "sudden inspiration" of Taoism? But he was just a small official, where did this feeling come from? It was really inexplicable.

Shaking his head, Li Yuan Zheng laughed at himself, turned around and prepared to go back to his own hut, but just as his left foot stepped into the door, there was a sudden loud bang, followed by an earth-shaking movement. Before Li Yuan Zheng could react, a sky full of flames and a scorching storm swept over him. Li Yuan Zheng was so terrified that he didn't even have time to shout, as he and his hut were swept away in an instant and disappeared without a trace.

(End of this chapter)