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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Under the meticulous, flawless lead of the grand tactician Xun You, the council confidently reported to him that absolutely everything was already in place for the upcoming invasion. Xun You stood before a massive table, moving small wooden blocks representing fleets and divisions. They detailed that the grand logistics, an undertaking of a scale previously thought mathematically impossible, were fully ready.
"The granaries in the northern staging grounds are overflowing, Your Majesty," Xun You reported, his voice crisp and precise. "From the massive food supplies of salted fish, hardtack, and dried grain, to the mobilized army of our most elite veterans, everything is positioned. The assembled navy numbers in the thousands, utilizing a mixture of our traditional heavy galleons and the new, steam powered ships."
The naval admirals, Jiang Qin, Huang Zu, Zhou Yu, and Gan Ning, stepped forward with predatory grins, highlighting that the fearsome Water Dragon pressure pumps and the unquenchable Fierce Fire Oil Cabinets had been successfully mounted onto the vanguard ships.
"The prows of our lead vessels are armed with liquid hellfire, Your Majesty," Zhou Yu stated elegantly. "Any wooden ship that attempts to block our crossing will be reduced to ash before they can even nock their arrows."
Hearing that excellent, highly organized report, Lie Fan nodded his head in deep satisfaction. The war machine was primed. But a war was not won by weapons alone, it was won by absolute intelligence.
He leaned forward, placing both hands flat on the map table, before then sternly reminding them.
"You have the fire to burn their ships and the steel to break their armor," Lie Fan said, his voice dropping into a cold, intensely serious register. "But do you have the words to break their minds?"
He looked around the room, ensuring every general understood the psychological reality of invading an isolated island nation.
"We are sailing into a completely alien culture," Lie Fan lectured passionately. "A land isolated by the sea, with their own gods, their own warlords, and their own treacherous internal politics. We cannot just land on their shores blind and deaf. We must be able to interrogate their prisoners. We must be able to extract critical military and geographical informations much better. And most importantly, we must ensure that our vanguards wouldn't be easily lied to or led into deadly, topographical traps in a foreign land simply because we cannot understand the local dialects."
Hearing that crucial wise reminder, all of the strategists and admirals in the council nodded their heads in agreement. They realized that unchecked arrogance was the quickest route to a watery grave.
They confidently says that they have already fully prepared for that specific matter. Xun You explained that, operating under prior standing orders, they had been conscripting thousands of bilingual scouts from the coastal regions of the recently pacified Goguryeo peninsula, men who had historical trading ties, smuggling routes, or previous violent skirmishes with the inhabitants of the Wa islands, and who understood their strange, guttural tongues.
Lie Fan smiled, a cold, calculating expression of pure satisfaction. He leaned back and says, "Good. Then the trap is fully set, and we have the eyes to see it spring."
The room fell silent as the Emperor stood up to his full, towering height. The flickering torchlight cast long, dancing shadows across his dark silk robes.
He then solemnly announced to the room that he wouldn't be participating in this specific naval battle himself.
A ripple of surprise washed over the generals. The Black Dragon always led from the front. But Lie Fan quickly and logically explained his reasoning.
He stated that the island nation would be far too far away across treacherous, highly unpredictable seas, and a prolonged absence from the mainland at this exact historical juncture was an unacceptable risk.
"My presence is strictly needed in the capital to oversee the newly conquered north," Lie Fan explained, his voice carrying the heavy, undeniable burden of absolute rulership. "We are currently migrating hundreds of thousands of citizens. We are forcefully integrating three hundred thousand nomads. We are installing a completely new, radical Nationalism ideology into the very fabric of our society. If the Emperor vanishes across the ocean for a year, the traditionalists and the shadows of the old world will seize the opportunity to fracture the mainland. I must remain here, sitting upon the dragon throne, to ensure the earth does not shatter while you conquer the sea."
He looked deeply into the eyes of Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, and Zhang Liao, the three men who would lead the campaign and carry his wrath across the water.
"However," Lie Fan said, his voice softening just a fraction, "I fervently hope that the unpredictable ocean weather, the raging typhoons, and everything else will be completely on the side of the Hengyuan Dynasty. You carry the absolute, unified might of the mainland with you."
He stepped away from the table, his arms spread wide in a gesture of magnificent, awe inspiring ambition. He passionately declared to his generals the true, geopolitical stakes of this invasion.
"If you can successfully conquer this far away land," Lie Fan's voice boomed, vibrating with an intoxicating, visionary power, "then the absolute, unbreakable dominance of Hengyuan will be finally achieved in this massive eastern region! A region that, I must remind you, we hadn't even realized was actually this big until our recent maritime explorations mapping the coastal islands."
He pointed a gauntleted finger directly at the admirals. "You are not just going to conquer a kingdom; you are going to extend the borders of the known world. You will bring the rising sun itself under the shadow of the Black Dragon!"
"For the Emperor! For the Nation! Ten thousand years of glory!" the war room erupted in a deafening, fanatical roar, the generals dropping to their knees in absolute, terrifying devotion.
After that momentous, blood stirring meeting concluded, Hengyuan's terrifying, unstoppable war machine started up once again.
The logistical preparations transformed into physical, earth shaking reality. In a military mobilization utterly unseen in the recorded history of mankind, Hengyuan will boldly send around 400,000 heavily armored men marching toward the coastal staging grounds in Goguryeo.
The sheer scale of the movement defied comprehension. Endless columns of black armored infantry, elite crossbowmen, and devastating heavy cavalry marched along the newly constructed northern wagonways. The earth literally trembled beneath their synchronized boots, a localized earthquake that lasted for weeks on end.
Arriving at the massive, expanded coastal ports of the peninsula, the army began the monumental task of boarding. They were bringing in thousands of towering warships, creating a localized forest of wooden masts and smoking iron funnels that completely blotted out the horizon.
These massive invasion fleets have been devastatingly equipped with a technological arsenal that was centuries ahead of its time. They did not just carry the traditional, brutal weaponry of the mainland, the terrifying, rocket spewing Hwacha, the massive, ship breaking heavy ballistas, and the deafening black powder cannons that had shattered the northern steppes.
They were now also armed with the revolutionary horrors forged in the imperial workshops. The prows bristled with the terrifying Water Dragon pressure pumps, ready to blast enemy boarding parties into the sea, and the unquenchable, utterly demonic Fierce Fire Oil Cabinets, primed to turn the ocean itself into a burning graveyard.
As the troops marched in their hundreds of thousands, and the massive, steam powered ships set sail, belching thick black smoke into the crisp ocean air, the world held its breath.
The monumental news of the imperial war engine starting up once again for a grand eastern conquest, of course, spread like absolute wildfire throughout the entire land. The Oriole network, the newly established national academies, and the traveling merchants carried the news to every tavern, village, and provincial capital.
It was a brilliant, flawless synchronization of military might and the newly implemented Nationalism ideology. The people were not just hearing about another warlord's territorial dispute, they were hearing about the glorious expansion of their Nation. The news shook the empire with a profound, newfound war fervor.
Blacksmiths worked through the night with patriotic pride, farmers willingly offered their surplus grain to the passing quartermasters, and the youth of the empire looked toward the eastern horizon with burning, fanatical eyes.
The grand gears of the Hengyuan Dynasty were turning at a speed and scale that defied the comprehension of the ancient world. As all of this massive political maneuvering, cultural upheaval, and heavy technological testing was actively happening across the sprawling breadth of the empire, Lie Fan remained the absolute, unblinking center of the storm.
Seated within the quiet, incense heavy confines of his private study, he of course closely watched all of it. He did not need to step foot in every provincial capital to know the pulse of his people, he felt it through the highly detailed and accurate reports of the Oriole Agents networks that were delivered to his desk every single morning.
Reading through the widespread reactions transcribed on the delicate silk scrolls, Lie Fan found himself leaning back in his heavy wooden chair, a deep, genuine smile gracing his handsome features. He was deeply satisfied that the new Nationalism ideology was actually accepted much, much better than he had initially anticipated by his people. He had expected a decade of grueling, bloody ideological civil war.
He had expected the provinces to erupt in localized rebellions that would require the heavy boots of his infantry to crush. Instead, the common people were embracing the concept of the 'Nation' with a desperate, overwhelming hunger.
This rapid, enthusiastic acceptance proved a profound sociological theory to him. It proved that Confucianism, while already deeply rooted in society for hundreds of years, had also subtly, over the centuries, become some sort of a heavy, suffocating chain around the common people's necks.
Originally a philosophy of harmony and mutual respect, this ancient ideology was frequently being corrupted and weaponized by the elite classes. It was used to continuously push down the common people, turning the concept of 'filial piety' into a demand for absolute, unquestioning subservience to corrupt local lords.
It was a societal architecture specifically designed for ensuring that the proud nobles, the stubborn scholars, and the wealthy merchant class could forever stay high above them, hoarding the wealth and the land while the peasants broke their backs in the mud.
But Nationalism shattered that hierarchy. By declaring that every man, woman, and child were equal 'Citizens of the Nation' united under the Emperor, Lie Fan had essentially elevated the lowest beggar to share the same national soul as the highest duke. The psychological liberation was intoxicating for the masses, and they rallied behind the Dragon Throne with a fanatical devotion that no warlord could ever hope to command.
As he was intently reading all of these intelligence reports, completely absorbed in the geopolitical mastery of his own design, the heavy mahogany doors of the study opened with barely a whisper. Ying Yue at this time softly entered into his private study.
The contrast between the brutal, calculating world of espionage on his desk and the serene, ethereal beauty of his wife was breathtaking. She wore a flowing dress of pale blue silk that seemed to catch the ambient light of the room, her dark hair pinned up with elegant, understated jade hairpins. She moved with a flawless courtly elegance, radiating a warmth that instantly melted the cold, imperial pragmatism from Lie Fan's eyes.
She gracefully walked up to his massive ebony desk and, with a tender smile, gave Lie Fan a beautiful wooden tray carrying a pot of warm, relaxing tea. The rich, earthy scent of the premium southern brew instantly filled the air, chasing away the metallic smell of ink and old parchment.
Resting alongside the porcelain tea set on the tray was a thick, meticulously bound document. As she poured the tea, the steaming liquid cascading perfectly into his cup, she softly asked Lie Fan to help his wives in looking over it. She explained that they needed his unparalleled, razor sharp administrative eyes to check the financial condition of their newly launched undergarment business.
Hearing that incredibly cute, earnest request from the most powerful woman in the world, Lie Fan let out a warm, rich chuckle that echoed off the high ceiling of the study.
He reached out, his calloused fingers gently brushing against her soft hand as he took the cup. He went to drink the refreshing tea first, letting the warm, soothing liquid wash down his throat, easing the tension that always gathered in his neck after hours of reading spy reports.
After taking a soothing, deeply appreciative sip, he set the cup down and went to carefully check the papers. He unrolled the thick document, his mind instantly shifting from the macro politics of empire building to the micro economics of commercial enterprise.
The document was completely filled with the incredibly detailed financial ledger of the secret business. There were columns upon columns of meticulously recorded transactions, supply chain costs for premium cotton and rare silks, and the wages paid to their covert network of highly skilled seamstresses. But it was the final column, the gross revenue, that made Lie Fan's eyebrows rise in genuine astonishment.
The ledger clearly showed that its profits were continuously rising at an astonishing, nearly vertical rate. He traced the timeline of the business with his finger. He saw the exact trajectory he had predicted, for a whole initial month of it producing barely anything in terms of raw silver, the business was operating in complete secrecy.
During that first month, they were merely seeding the product, giving the garments away to the elite courtesans of the red light districts, taking a massive initial loss to build the cultural desire.
But then, right at the beginning of the second month, the ledger exploded. As the proud noblewomen of the capital finally swallowed their pride and flooded the secret mansion in the northern district, the silver began to pour in like a torrential river.
The profit margins on the intricately crafted garments were astronomical, yet the wealthy matriarchs paid it without a single second of hesitation, desperate to secure the comfort and the allure that the attire promised.
Lie Fan looked up from the staggering numbers and smiled, a look of profound, deeply affectionate pride in his eyes. He reached out and took Ying Yue's hand, reassuringly saying that the business is going incredibly great from the looks of the ledger.
"You have created an small kingdom within an empire, my love," Lie Fan praised her, his thumb gently caressing her knuckles. "The overhead costs are perfectly managed, and your monopoly on the design allows you to dictate the market price entirely. So, you and the others definitely don't need to be worried about losing money or failing at all. In fact, if this trend continues, the Harem's private treasury will soon rival the Ministry of Finance."
Hearing that comforting, highly validating evaluation from the greatest strategic mind of the era, Ying Yue chuckles softly, a musical sound that brought immense light to the shadowed room. A look of profound intelligence sparkled in her beautiful eyes before she made a connection that even Lie Fan had not fully anticipated, as she leaned against the edge of his desk.
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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