"What exactly is this?" The box that had been dug out from the basement wall wasn't particularly sturdy, so Liang En easily pried open the lid with a crowbar.
To his surprise, the box didn't contain wooden training guns or actual firearms. Instead, there were a dozen or so hollow steel pipes, each with a dagger blade inserted at one end.
"It seems neither of us guessed right, but what is this? Spears, perhaps?" Taking out one of the hollow steel pipes with a thin layer of rust on the surface, Liang En's face displayed a puzzled expression. "When did the Empire on which the sun never sets equip such a weapon?"
Clearly, this weapon assembled from steel pipes and dagger blades should have been a standardized design. The dozen or so spears in the box were almost identical, and the dagger blades were all standard military issue.
"Wait a moment, I recognize this thing." After seeing the spears in the box, Pierce was initially stunned for a few seconds before suddenly speaking up. "These are indeed the weapons of the Homeland Guard."
"Just as I mentioned earlier, after the Dunkirk evacuation, Britain suffered significant losses of light weapons. So, while prioritizing the regular army, it was difficult to provide sufficient arms to these militia-like Homeland Guard units."
Pierce also pulled out a spear and held it upright for examination. "That's why Prime Minister Churchill at the time suggested that efforts be made to arm the members of the Homeland Guard, even if it meant each of them getting a spear."
"Wait, this should be a kind of rhetorical device." Upon hearing Pierce's explanation, Liang En widened his eyes in surprise. "Similar to how we say being armed to the teeth doesn't mean putting titanium braces on teeth and going to bite people."
"You're right, but the British logistics department actually did just that." Pierce shrugged. "They produced a quarter of a million spears made from steel pipes and dagger blades and distributed them to the Homeland Guard."
"Well, that indeed sounds like something the British would do." Thinking of the famous TV series "Yes, Minister," Liang En felt that the British bureaucracy was capable of such actions.
Fortunately, although around 250,000 of these were produced at the time, most were collected after the war. So, not many have survived to the present day, and each one can now fetch around thirty to forty pounds. It made the ten minutes or so they spent digging worthwhile.
As for the second location, the mezzanine on the ground floor turned out to be a complete waste of effort. After digging it open, they only found a tangle of dense electrical wires inside. So, if their guess was correct, this place likely used to be a simple distribution box.
"I suppose they sealed this off because dismantling it would have left an eyesore right by the door," Liang En said unhappily, after all, those useless electrical wires inside were really worthless.
"So, let's hurry and check the next place." At this point, Pierce's impatience was evident. He wanted to head upstairs to the second floor to see what was there. Compared to the previous two locations, the mezzanine that Liang En had discovered on the second floor seemed much more valuable.
The reason for this assessment was the remnants of wooden baseboards and the rather attractive wallpaper they saw in the room. Clearly, these features wouldn't have been meant for ordinary soldiers or even junior officers.
"Just think about it—a hidden mezzanine in the captain's room." Pierce said excitedly, while hammering away at the load-bearing wall. "There might be the former captain's personal stash of money inside."
"But hiding money wouldn't require plastering the wall with cement, would it?" Liang En countered as he chipped away at the cement blocks with a chisel. "How would he retrieve the money that way?"
"Um—" Asked this way by Liang En, Pierce momentarily froze in his tracks, but he quickly found what seemed like a reasonable excuse.
"Perhaps the person hid something in there before being dispatched to the battlefield, planning to retrieve it after the war when the house was abandoned. But then they never came back from the battlefield."
One had to admit that Pierce's reasoning was rather plausible. Judging from the remnants of wallpaper on the walls, this mezzanine seemed to have been built during World War I.
During that brutal war, the British military lost over 900,000 soldiers in combat, particularly the regular forces were decimated. So, it wasn't surprising that someone who hid something couldn't retrieve it, given the circumstances.
Unlike the previous two mezzanines, the third one had an additional layer of wooden boards covered in sheet metal, apart from the outer layer of disguised red bricks.
This fact indicated that, compared to the hastily sealed mezzanines below, this mezzanine had clearly been carefully camouflaged. It was highly likely that it concealed something significant.
Clearly, just a thin layer of sheet metal-covered wooden boards couldn't deter two treasure hunters armed with specialized tools. Ignoring the darkening sky, they retrieved two LED headlamps from their car, then proceeded to dismantle the final barrier.
A shoebox-sized wooden box lay quietly in the small opening, looking rather dark. After taking the box out, Liang En realized that the black surface was covered in a layer of slightly dirty wax.
After carefully inspecting the opening and ensuring there was nothing else inside, Liang En and Pierce returned to their car with the item.
Twenty minutes later, they were back at the warehouse of the Emerald Antique Shop. They gingerly removed the layer of wax from the box on the workbench, then opened it.
"Is this a set of nested dolls?" Looking at the iron box inside the wooden box and the letter placed on top of the iron box, Pierce couldn't help but make a sarcastic comment.
"Let's read this letter first." Liang En put on gloves, then used tools to open the envelope. After unfolding the letter, the somewhat disorderly handwriting transported both of them back to a night a century ago, when the fires of war raged:
"On March 17, 1917, clear weather. Our entire regiment is about to be dispatched to the European mainland, into the trenches to fight the Germans. According to the higher-ups, we will be back home before Christmas this year."
"But no one in the regiment headquarters believes this, because this statement has been repeated since the beginning of the war until today. Yet, one Christmas after another has passed, and the war has not ended."
"Even worse, the faces of the young men show expressions as though they are about to be led to the execution ground. The camp is as silent as a morgue."
"There were numerous issues when receiving supplies, and even though we are about to head to the front lines, the canned beef allocated to the regiment has been swapped for salted beef, and the quantity is only half—"
"Almost all the veteran soldiers in the regiment at the start of the war are now lying in graves. Only a group of new recruits, who have had at most a month of training, remain. Among them are many unfit for service and children who haven't reached the age. Taking them to the battlefield is no different from sending them to die."
"Well, let's complain up to here. Tomorrow, I will be leading this motley crew into the meat grinder. I hope I can come back alive."
"Also, the box contains spoils recently obtained from suppressing a rebellion. I hope I can have a chance to retrieve them alive, then exchange them for money to bring some solace to the families of those who lost their fathers, husbands, and sons."
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