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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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The hiring process for the Wagonways Department was unlike anything the imperial bureaucracy had ever seen. The standard civil service examinations, which heavily prioritized the rote memorization of Confucian poetry and ancient historical texts, were entirely thrown out the window. A man who could recite the Analects perfectly was useless if he didn't understand the load bearing capacity of a reinforced timber tie.
They were carefully selecting people who were highly competent in practical, hard sciences, engineering, mathematics, heavy logistics, and metallurgy.
But competence was only half of the requirement.
Standing behind a wide drafting table covered in complex schematics of the flanged wheel, Huang Yue Ying watched as the next applicant was ushered into the room. He was a middle aged, highly recommended structural engineer from Jing Province, a man who had built several successful aqueducts.
As he stepped into the room, his eyes naturally bypassed Huang Yue Ying entirely. He looked immediately to Liu Ye and Zhuge Liang, offering them a deep, respectful bow.
"Ministers," the engineer greeted them, his voice confident. "I am deeply honored to be considered for a position within your new department."
Liu Ye, his expression perfectly neutral, simply gestured a hand toward the woman standing between them. "You are mistaken, Master Engineer. You are not interviewing for a position within our department. You are interviewing for a position within hers. Madam Huang Yue Ying is the Chief Engineer. She will be conducting the evaluation."
The applicant blinked, his confident smile faltering for a mere fraction of a second. He finally turned his gaze toward Huang Yue Ying. Though he tried to hide it beneath a veneer of polite professionalism, the subtle, deeply ingrained tightening of his jaw and the slight, condescending narrowing of his eyes betrayed his true feelings.
He was a proud, accomplished man, and the prospect of taking direct, daily technical orders from a woman visibly rankled his traditional sensibilities.
Huang Yue Ying saw the micro expression instantly. She had seen it a thousand times before from men who thought a woman's intellect could never rival their own. She did not show anger; she merely picked up a piece of charcoal.
"Master Engineer," Huang Yue Ying began, her voice crisp, authoritative, and entirely devoid of intimidation. She tapped a schematic on the table. "You have experience with stone archways under hydraulic pressure. Tell me, if we are to construct a stone viaduct to carry a continuous, moving load of eighty thousand catties of iron and timber across a gorge spanning two hundred paces, what is the optimal keystone angle required to prevent lateral sheer force collapse when a high velocity crosswind strikes the carriages?"
The engineer opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. He stared at the schematic. He was accustomed to building static aqueducts carrying slow moving water, not dynamic, high velocity iron bridges bearing moving freight. He stammered, his mind struggling to calculate the unfamiliar variables of lateral sheer force and wind resistance on a moving object.
"I... well, traditionally, the keystone angle for a static load would be..." he began, his voice losing its confident edge.
"We are not building traditional static loads," Huang Yue Ying cut him off smoothly, her tone perfectly polite but devastatingly sharp. "We are building dynamic, high velocity transit. If you apply a traditional static keystone angle to this viaduct, the first crosswind that hits the carriages will shatter the arch, and the entire convoy will plunge into the gorge."
She set the charcoal down. "Your foundational knowledge of masonry is excellent, but your comprehension of dynamic physics is lacking. Furthermore, your inability to adapt to new variables does not suit the rapid innovation required by this department. Thank you for your time. You are dismissed."
The engineer flushed a deep, humiliated crimson. He looked toward Zhuge Liang and Liu Ye, hoping for a reprieve from the men in the room, but the two ministers simply stared back at him with cold, unified silence, entirely supporting their Chief Engineer's assessment.
Realizing he had been thoroughly outclassed both intellectually and authoritatively, the engineer bowed stiffly and retreated from the room.
As the heavy wooden door closed behind him, Zhuge Liang let out a soft, melodious chuckle, gently tapping his closed feather fan against his palm. "That makes four this morning who could not look you in the eye without gritting their teeth, my love."
"They are brilliant men, trapped in small minds," Huang Yue Ying sighed, though a fierce, uncompromising light burned in her eyes. "I will not have this department slowed down by men who spend half their day second guessing my blueprints simply because of the hands that drew them."
"And you shall not," Liu Ye affirmed, his voice carrying the heavy, practical weight of the Ministry of Work. He looked at the vast stack of remaining applicant ledgers. "The Emperor gave us absolute authority to build this department from the ground up. We are not just laying iron tracks, we are forging a new bureaucratic culture."
They were strictly vetting every single applicant, utilizing a sophisticated, multi layered interview process designed specifically to ensure they were hiring people who wouldn't cause any troubles. They were aggressively weeding out anyone who might secretly harbor resentment, traditionalist bigotry, or attempt to subtly undermine their new female Chief Engineer.
They deliberately presented the applicants with incredibly complex, borderline impossible engineering problems, forcing them to collaborate with Huang Yue Ying to find the solution. If an applicant talked over her, ignored her suggestions, or showed even a hint of condescension, they were immediately disqualified, regardless of their past accolades.
"Next applicant," Liu Ye called out to the guards at the door.
A young, surprisingly scruffy looking man stepped into the room. He did not wear the fine silk of a master scholar, his hands were heavily calloused, stained permanently black with forge soot and grease.
He looked around the massive drafting hall with wide, awestruck eyes, clearly more comfortable in a noisy blacksmith's shop than an imperial administrative building.
He stepped up to the table, wiping his dirty hands nervously on his rough tunic. He looked directly at Huang Yue Ying, recognizing her central position behind the main blueprints. He offered a clumsy, but deeply genuine bow.
"Chief Engineer," the young man said, his voice carrying a rough, provincial accent. "My name is Chen Deng... well, not the famous strategist, obviously. Just Chen the blacksmith from the outer rings. I... I read the public edict asking for men who understand heat and iron."
Huang Yue Ying studied him closely. She liked the soot on his hands. It meant he worked with the reality of metal, not just the theory of it.
"Welcome, Chen," Huang Yue Ying said warmly. She pushed a complex, highly detailed drawing of the flanged wheel toward him. "Tell me what you see here."
The young blacksmith leaned over the table, his eyes narrowing as he studied the intricate curves and the specific thickness of the inner lip designed to catch the iron rail.
"Well," the young man muttered, completely forgetting his nervousness as his mind engaged with the mechanics. He reached out, tracing the diagram with a soot stained finger.
"It's a beautiful design, Chief Engineer. But... if you cast this wheel as a single, solid piece of pig iron using a standard sand mold, the inner flange is going to be far too brittle. The moment it hits a curve on the track under heavy load, the lateral pressure will snap the lip clean off."
Liu Ye raised an eyebrow, genuinely impressed.
Huang Yue Ying's eyes lit up. "And how would you solve it, Chen?"
"You can't cast it solid," the young man replied immediately, his hands moving animatedly as he described the process.
"You have to cast the main body, but the outer rim and the flange need to be banded with a ring of high carbon, heat treated steel. You heat the steel ring until it expands, slip it over the iron wheel, and then quench it rapidly in cold water. The steel shrinks, binding permanently to the iron core. It gives you the weight of iron with the unbreakable, flexible strength of steel on the impact points."
A profound, triumphant silence settled over the drafting table.
Huang Yue Ying looked at Zhuge Liang, who offered a slow, deeply satisfied nod. She looked at Liu Ye, who was already reaching for a fresh hiring contract.
This was exactly the kind of mind the Emperor had envisioned when he shattered the old traditions. They didn't need arrogant nobles reciting ancient poetry, they needed raw, unpretentious genius that recognized truth and innovation, regardless of where it came from or who was directing it.
"Chen," Huang Yue Ying smiled, a brilliant, radiant expression that welcomed him into the dawn of the new era. "You are hired. Report to the eastern foundries tomorrow at dawn. We have a world to build."
The young blacksmith's face split into a massive, disbelieving grin. He bowed frantically, thanking the Chief Engineer profusely before practically sprinting out of the room to tell his family.
As the door closed, the three leaders of the Wagonways Department stood together in the quiet, industrious sanctuary of their new headquarters. The old world was outside, trembling in fear of the Orioles and weeping for their lost, patriarchal traditions.
But inside these walls, surrounded by the blueprints of steam pumps and iron tracks, the future of the Hengyuan Dynasty was being forged with absolute, uncompromising perfection.
With the rigorous, highly unconventional selection process finally done and finished, a profound sense of accomplishment settled over the temporary headquarters of the Wagonways Department.
The sun was beginning to dip below the towering western walls of Xiapi, casting long, golden rays through the drafting hall. The stacks of applicant ledgers had been thoroughly decimated, reduced from hundreds of hopefuls to a lean, meticulously curated list of the absolute brightest, most practically gifted minds the empire had to offer.
Huang Yue Ying set down her charcoal pencil, wiping a stray smudge of soot from her cheek. She looked over the finalized roster, her eyes scanning the names of blacksmiths, masons, carpenters, and structural engineers who had proven their worth not through poetry, but through the crucible of applied physics.
Beside her, Liu Ye rolled up the final contract, sealing it with the official wax stamp of the Ministry of Work. Zhuge Liang gave a slow, satisfied wave of his feather fan, looking at the team they had assembled.
"We have our vanguard," Zhuge Liang murmured, his voice carrying a quiet thrill. "A true meritocracy of iron."
"Then it is time to present our vanguard to the Emperor," Huang Yue Ying stated, rolling up the master scroll and tucking it securely into a protective leather tube.
The three architects of the empire's industrial future left the drafting hall, their official carriages carrying them swiftly through the bustling, twilight lit streets of the capital. They arrived at the towering gates of the inner Imperial Palace, bypassing the standard bureaucratic checkpoints with the absolute authority granted by their new stations.
They did not head to the grand receiving halls, but rather to the deeply secure, secluded wing where the true, grinding work of ruling the continent took place.
They found Emperor Lie Fan in his private office, deeply focused and entirely consumed by the monumental administrative burdens of a newly unified world.
The sprawling mahogany desk before him was practically buried beneath mountains of official documents, silk scrolls, and urgent petitions from across the empire that needed his immediate attention and absolute approval.
To his left were tax ledgers from the recovering central plains; to his right were integration reports from the subjugated tribes of the Qinghai Plateau.
The Emperor sat amidst the sea of parchment, his reading glasses, a rare, meticulously crafted luxury of clear crystal, resting upon the bridge of his nose. He was reading a dense agricultural report from Jiaozhi, a writing brush poised delicately in his hand.
He was a god king to the masses, but within these walls, he was a tireless, brilliant administrator who refused to let his newly won peace rot from neglect.
"Your Imperial Majesty," Liu Ye announced softly, stepping into the room and offering a deep, respectful bow alongside Huang Yue Ying and Zhuge Liang.
Lie Fan looked up, pulling the crystal glasses from his face and setting his brush upon a jade rest. The intense, razor sharp focus in his eyes immediately softened into a warm, welcoming expression.
"Ah, the trinity of my new age," Lie Fan smiled, gesturing for them to approach the desk. "Come forward. I trust the silence of the outer courts means your revolutionary hiring practices have concluded without causing the traditionalists to spontaneously combust?"
"We survived the day, Your Majesty," Huang Yue Ying replied, stepping forward to present the leather tube. She extracted the finalized master scroll and laid it smoothly upon the desk. "The roster for the Wagonways Department is complete. We have vetted, tested, and secured the finest practical minds in the realm. We submit this list for your final imperial approval."
Lie Fan took the list, unrolling the thick parchment. The room fell entirely silent save for the soft, rhythmic ticking of a mechanical water clock in the corner.
His dark eyes scanned the dense columns of names, pausing to read the meticulously detailed, logical reasons Zhuge Liang and Liu Ye had provided for appointing each man. He read about Chen the blacksmith, the man who had solved the flanged wheel crisis, he read about master stonemasons from Jing Province and expert lumberjacks from the southern forests.
There were no flowery titles. There were no aristocratic pedigrees. It was a ledger of pure, unadulterated, calloused competence.
Lie Fan nodded his head in profound satisfaction. A wide, incredibly proud smile broke across his face.
"Flawless," Lie Fan praised them, tapping the scroll with the back of his hand. "You have bypassed the aristocratic bloat that plagued the Han for four hundred years and found the true, iron spine of my empire. This is exactly what I envisioned."
He rolled the scroll back up, but before he set it aside, Lie Fan paused. He looked up, his gaze locking directly onto Huang Yue Ying.
"However, Madam Chief Engineer, I have one question regarding the composition of this roster," Lie Fan began, his tone curious, lacking any accusation but entirely probing. "I shattered the oldest, most deeply entrenched traditions of this continent to place you at the head of this department. I opened the door. I must ask... did you consider women to be put on this list?"
The question hung in the air, heavy with the incredible, progressive weight of the Emperor's grand sociological design. Liu Ye and Zhuge Liang remained perfectly still, allowing Huang Yue Ying to answer for her own department.
Huang Yue Ying did not flinch, nor did she attempt to obscure the reality of the situation. She stood tall, meeting the Emperor's gaze with absolute, unashamed candor.
She candidly nodded her head. "Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. I considered it deeply. I scoured the applicant ledgers looking for them."
She paused, taking a slow breath, before honestly explaining the brutal reality of their era. "But there are no women candidates, Your Majesty. None who applied, and none who possess the requisite, foundational skills for the positions we offered today. We must be entirely realistic about the nature of the Wagonways Department. This sector heavily involves grueling, hard physical labor, rough construction, the hauling of raw iron, and weeks spent living in muddy encampments laying track. It is a brutal environment."
Huang Yue Ying offered a small, somewhat wistful smile. "Even if there are women out there like me, women who possess the fire and the intellect to dare to fight against society's patriarchal norms... they wouldn't consider entering this specific, incredibly grueling sector just yet. The societal conditioning is too deep, and the physical barriers to entry in heavy metallurgy are too high. I am an anomaly because of the unique education my father afforded me, and the unique courage you granted me. But a single spark does not immediately burn down a forest."
She looked at the scroll on the desk. "They are watching me, Your Majesty. If I succeed, if this department thrives, then perhaps in five years, or ten years, young girls will see that the foundries are not strictly forbidden to them. But for now, to ensure the Wagonways succeed, I had to hire the men whose hands are already stained with soot."
Lie Fan listened to her incredibly grounded, pragmatic assessment. He did not look disappointed, rather, his respect for her grew exponentially.
She was not a naive idealist who would force an agenda at the cost of the empire's infrastructure, she was a brilliant, calculating leader who understood the slow, generational turning of the cultural wheel.
Lie Fan nodded his head and entirely agreed with her practical assessment.
"You possess the wisdom of a true sovereign of industry, Madam Huang," Lie Fan commended her warmly. "The door has been unlocked. It will take time for others to build the courage to walk through it. You may proceed exactly according to what you have directed and planned. The treasury is open to these men."
The three ministers let out a quiet, collective breath of relief. Their monumental task for the day was complete. They brought their hands together, bowing deeply in perfect unison.
"We thank Your Imperial Majesty. We shall begin deploying the work camps at dawn," Liu Ye stated.
Just as they turned on their heels, preparing to take their leave and return to their families for the evening, Lie Fan raised a hand.
"Hold a moment. Do not leave just yet," Lie Fan commanded, his voice suddenly dropping its warm, conversational tone, shifting into a register of absolute, world altering gravity.
The three of them froze, turning back to face the desk.
"I have something extremely important to share with you," Lie Fan continued, his dark eyes gleaming with an intense, visionary fire that sent a shiver down Zhuge Liang's spine. "But I will not speak of it until the room is full. We are currently waiting for Chancellor Jia Xu, Minister of Revenue Mi Zhu, and State Teacher Huang Chengyan to arrive."
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 36 (203 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 1,010 (+20)
VIT: 659 (+20)
AGI: 653 (+10)
INT: 691
CHR: 98
WIS: 569
WILL: 436
ATR Points: 0