If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Huang Yue Ying entered the study, her usually composed demeanor replaced by a vibrating, infectious excitement. She carried a massive, heavily annotated map, which she unrolled across the Emperor's desk with a flourish. She excitedly informed him about the absolute, staggering success of their latest infrastructure project. She pointed to the thick, dark lines drawn across the parchment, detailing how the vast network of reinforced wagonway trails has finally covered the entire northern part of the mainland.
"It is a triumph of engineering and labor, Your Majesty," Yue Ying reported, her eyes shining. "The trails are packed with deep gravel and reinforced timber. We have successfully bypassed the treacherous mud of the spring thaws. We have established solid and unbreakable supply routes that lead directly from the central granaries to the newly conquered northern steppes."
She traced her finger further west. "And they are stretching far to the northwest as well, securing our hold on the desert borders. A journey that used to take an army two months of grueling marching can now be accomplished by our steam carriages and heavy draft wagons in a matter of weeks."
She didn't stop there. Anticipating his next question, she added that the construction progress pushing down into the treacherous, humid south is going extremely well as well.
"The southern jungles and rivers present a much harsher topological challenge, requiring massive stone bridges and constant clearing of overgrowth. But our engineering corps are working relentlessly. It is estimated by my chief surveyors that in several months, everything will be completely done. The entire continent will be bound by a single, unbreakable web of transit."
Lie Fan nodded his head slowly, taking in the sheer magnitude of the map. He was thoroughly satisfied with this monumental achievement. These roads were the veins of his empire; without them, the massive new bureaucracies and armies would wither and die.
He generously praised Yue Ying for her peerless engineering oversight, acknowledging that her brilliance was the very foundation upon which his new world was being built. She beamed with pride, bowing deeply before taking her leave to return to the foundries.
Shortly after she left, the heavy wooden doors opened again, and a far more somber, calculating presence entered the room. He then received a detailed administrative report from the newly appointed Chancellor of the realm, the master of shadows himself, Jia Xu.
Jia Xu approached the desk, his hands tucked neatly into the sleeves of his dark, formal robes. He did not bring maps, but ledgers filled with the raw data of human lives.
With his usual calm, icy demeanor, Jia Xu reported that the massive, unprecedented civilian migration to the north was going incredibly well.
"The incentives worked exactly as you calculated, Your Majesty," Jia Xu stated, his voice a smooth, quiet hum in the large study. "Hundreds of thousands of the landless and the impoverished have taken the coin and the promise of land. The roads are currently flooded with our people, moving into the territories we cleared of the tribal warlords."
Jia Xu, however, was a man who lived in the reality of human friction, not idealistic fantasy. He opened a smaller ledger.
"While the overarching movement is a resounding success, there are inevitably several small problems along the long, arduous road. Moving this many desperate, exhausted people alongside the relocated prisoners of war is not without its sparks."
He assured the Emperor that these were only minor issues, entirely expected in a demographic shift of this scale. "We have had reports of broken wagons halting convoys in the mountain passes, and tragic, albeit standard, travel accidents. Furthermore, there have been the occasional petty fistfights and small brawls where the migrating Han people clashed with the assimilated northern tribes' people over campsites, water rations, or simple, lingering racial prejudices."
Jia Xu closed the ledger with a soft snap. "However, you need not worry, Your Majesty. All of these incidents were swiftly, and often brutally, handled by the heavily armed escorting soldiers. Agitators were immediately disciplined, wagons were repaired by the engineering attachments, and order was restored without disrupting the grand migration. The flow of humanity continues northward, exactly as you commanded. The blood of the empire is mixing, and the roots of your new Nation are taking hold."
Hearing the report, Lie Fan nodded his head slowly, his expression hardening into a mask of absolute, unyielding authority. The soft, ambient light of the study seemed to dim as his gaze locked onto the master of shadows. He leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms on the heavy oak desk.
"Do not mistake my satisfaction for complacency, Wenhe," Lie Fan warned in a cold, authoritative tone that brooked no argument and left no room for misinterpretation. "The logistical triumph of this migration is monumental, yes. But it is also incredibly fragile. If anything bad happens, if this grand mass migration gets halted, delayed, or derailed because of incompetence, oversight, or petty squabbling among the provincial governors, you know exactly the severe consequences of such a thing happening. I will not tolerate failure on this front. The integration of the north is the absolute bedrock of our future campaigns."
Jia Xu, a man who had navigated the treacherous waters of court politics and ruthless warlords for decades, felt the immense, suffocating weight of the Emperor's words. He knew better than anyone that Lie Fan's threats were never empty.
The Chancellor solemnly nodded his head at that, his icy demeanor cracking just enough to show his absolute understanding and submission. "It shall be as you command, Your Majesty. My agents are embedded in every caravan. The flow of our people will not be broken."
After that intense, heavy meeting, days passed peacefully once again in the sprawling, bustling capital. The usual rhythms of the imperial court resumed, a steady heartbeat of bureaucracy, trade, and military drilling.
Exactly after a week of this deceptive quiet, the capital was treated to a spectacle of power. Lie Fan was grandly brought out of the imperial palace, his massive, heavily armored carriage rolling through the stone paved streets, escorted by hundreds of elite imperial guards in gleaming armor.
Their destination was the heavily guarded Imperial Workshop, a sprawling, fortress like complex located on the outskirts of the city, permanently shrouded in a canopy of gray smoke and echoing with the ceaseless clanging of hammers.
Lie Fan was not going there merely to inspect ledgers. He was going to finally see the fully finished, working prototypes of the technological marvels that had drained a vast portion of the imperial treasury, the Steam power engine, the Water Dragon, and the Fierce Fire Oil Cabinet.
For this historic unveiling, Lie Fan had deliberately brought the entire Eastern Expansion Strategy Council with him. The procession included the realm's most brilliant strategists, their robes fluttering in the wind, alongside the newly arrived naval admirals, men with sea salt still clinging to their cloaks and the swagger of ocean conquerors in their steps. They had been summoned from the coastal shipyards to witness these three revolutionary prototypes with their own eyes.
As the massive iron gates of the workshop ground open to admit the imperial retinue, Lie Fan gathered his council in the main courtyard. The air here smelled heavily of sulfur, burning coal, and hot iron. He stood before them, a towering figure of ambition, and explained with absolute clarity that this steam engine is exactly what will be heavily used for the upcoming Eastern Expansion.
"For generations," Lie Fan projected his voice over the distant, rhythmic thumping of the foundries, "our naval dominance has been dictated by the whims of the heavens. We have waited on the tides. We have prayed for the winds. No longer. The massive application of the steam engine to our heavy warships will be done immediately after these prototypes are shown and proven today."
He swept his gaze across the assembled admirals, stopping to meet the eyes of Gan Ning, Jiang Qin, Huang Zu, and Zhou Yu. "Having several warships equipped with this tireless engine could massively boost the navy's power immensely. We will completely ignore the limitations of wind and ocean currents. We will strike when we wish, where we wish, and the ocean itself will not be able to stop us."
With those heavy, world altering words hanging in the air, the heavy iron doors to the primary testing hangar were hauled open by a dozen sweating laborers.
The grand introduction of each prototype was a masterclass in theatrical engineering, meticulously overseen by Huang Yue Ying, Liu Ye, Huang Chengyan, and Zhuge Liang. The four of them stood proudly before their creations, their faces smudged with soot but their eyes burning with the brilliant light of unparalleled genius.
The first display was the Steam Engine itself.
It was a terrifying, beautiful behemoth of industry. The machine dominated the center of the massive stone hangar, a sprawling collection of thick, riveted iron plates, brass fittings, and heavy iron boilers that hissed and spat like a caged mythical beast. The heat radiating from the contraption was instantly oppressive, washing over the council members and forcing some of the softer scholars to take a step back.
Huang Chengyan, the elder statesman of the engineering corps, barked an order. A crew of bare chested workers immediately began shoveling high grade, black coal into the roaring furnace beneath the primary boiler. The fires surged, casting dancing, demonic shadows against the high stone walls.
"Observe the pressure gauges," Liu Ye called out, pointing to a series of intricate, glass and brass dials. "As the water boils, the vapor is trapped. It seeks an exit, but we deny it. We build its fury, and then... we direct it."
With a heavy, gloved hand, Liu Ye pulled down a massive iron lever. The sound that followed was deafening, a monstrous, continuous hiss that shook the very dust from the ceiling rafters. The trapped steam was forced into massive, lubricated iron cylinders. Suddenly, the great, thick steel pistons began to thrust outward with a terrifying, rhythmic violence.
They connected to a series of heavy drive shafts and immense, iron toothed gears. The entire room vibrated as the massive wheel at the end of the shaft began to turn, slowly at first, then faster, and faster, until it was a blur of unstoppable, continuous motion.
The council stood in stunned silence. There were no horses turning this wheel. There was no flowing river pushing it. It was sheer, raw power pulled from fire and water, tearing through the air with a mechanical heartbeat. They watched in awe as the massive machine was brilliantly used and demonstrated in real time, its continuous power turning a heavy grinding mill that would have required twenty oxen to move, completely effortlessly.
Before the strategists could fully process the implications of a ship moving with such relentless, untiring force, Zhuge Liang stepped forward, waving his feather fan gently to clear the steam from his vision. He guided the Emperor and the council to the next testing zone, an outdoor proving ground flanked by high stone walls.
At one end of the yard stood a series of incredibly thick, reinforced wooden targets, painted to resemble the heavily armored hulls of enemy warships. At the other end sat the Water Dragon.
Unlike the sprawling steam engine, the Water Dragon was a more compact, terrifyingly dense piece of machinery. It was heavily reinforced with bronze and steel, featuring a massive, hand-cranked pressure chamber and a long, articulated brass nozzle that looked exactly like the open maw of a mythological serpent.
"Water is life," Zhuge Liang spoke calmly, his voice easily carrying over the murmurs of the crowd. "But when denied space to flow, and when compressed beyond its natural state, it becomes a blade."
Under Zhuge Liang's meticulous, expert oversight, two teams of muscular soldiers began furiously turning the heavy iron cranks on the sides of the machine, while others pumped water into the reinforced bronze holding tanks from a nearby reservoir. The grinding of the gears grew higher and higher in pitch, a whining sound of immense mechanical tension.
"Open the valve!" Zhuge Liang commanded.
The soldier at the front threw his weight against a heavy release lever. A sound like a thunderclap echoed across the yard as the immense, crushing water pressure was suddenly unleashed. It did not spray, it erupted in a perfectly solid, blindingly fast horizontal column of concentrated force. The water tore across the yard and slammed into the heavy wooden targets with the kinetic impact of a speeding boulder.
The council watched in absolute shock as the immense, crushing water pressure literally tore through the wooden targets. The thick, overlapping oak planks didn't just break, they violently splintered and exploded inward, leaving a gaping, jagged hole right through the center of the mock hull.
The sheer physical devastation caused by nothing but highly pressurized water left the military men gaping. They realized instantly that this wasn't just a tool for extinguishing fires, it was a kinetic weapon capable of sweeping an enemy deck clean of soldiers, shattering boarding ramps, and blowing holes through lighter vessels.
But the engineering corps was not finished. The air was still thick with mist when Huang Yue Ying stepped forward, a wide, dangerous smile playing on her lips. She led them to the final large-scale prototype, situated in a specially designated, fire-proofed stone trench.
This was the Fierce Fire Oil Cabinet. It was a terrifying, brass bound iron chest mounted on a rotating pivot, connected to thick, braided leather hoses and a secondary pressure pump. A distinctly chemical, sharp smell of heavily refined petroleum hung heavily in the air around it.
At the far end of the trench sat a highly detailed, mock naval ship, complete with rigging, sails, and wooden effigies of enemy soldiers.
"If the Water Dragon represents kinetic force," Yue Ying announced, her voice vibrating with excitement, "then this represents absolute annihilation. We have refined the black oil found in the western deserts, mixing it with precise amounts of sulfur and saltpeter. It does not just burn. It sticks. It consumes."
She nodded to her crew. They pumped the pressure levers, building the internal force within the cabinet. Yue Ying personally took a long, iron pole with a burning rag attached to the end and held it just below the brass nozzle of the cabinet.
"Unleash the wrath!" she yelled.
The operator cranked the release valve. A thick, dark stream of liquid shot from the nozzle, passing directly over Yue Ying's burning rag. The liquid ignited instantly.
What followed was a terrifying, unquenchable liquid flame that roared like a living dragon. A massive, churning jet of bright orange and chemical green fire vomited across the trench. The heat was so intense, so immediately violent, that Lie Fan and the council had to throw their arms up to shield their faces, retreating several steps back from the trench edge.
The liquid fire slammed into the mock naval ship. It didn't just set the wood on fire, it coated it in a sticky, burning gel that burned with a ferocious, blinding intensity. Water could not put this out.
The terrifying, unquenchable liquid flames turned the mock naval ship into ashes within seconds. The sails vanished in a flash of light, the rigging melted, and the thick wooden hull cracked and collapsed in on itself, utterly consumed by a heat that seemed to defy nature itself. When the deafening, earth shaking demonstrations were finally done, and the last of the fiery wreckage smoldered into blackened, hissing ruins, a heavy, profound silence fell over the Imperial Workshop.
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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