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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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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.
"It is a matter of the mind, Husband," Ying Yue explained, her voice carrying the astute wisdom of an Empress who intimately understood the hearts of her people. "Since traditional Confucianism's strict, suffocating societal norms were no longer the sole major belief after being effectively replaced and loosened by your new doctrine, the atmosphere of the capital fundamentally changed."
She gestured toward the city outside the palace walls. "For centuries, women were taught to endure suffering and physical restriction in silence, believing it was their absolute duty under the old ancestral laws. But your Nationalism teaches that the strength and happiness of the Citizen is the strength of the State. With the old, rigid chains of traditionalism broken, the women of the realm felt far more liberated to embrace new comforts. They no longer feel that suffering in heavy, binding clothes is a moral requirement. Your liberation of their minds allowed us to liberate their bodies."
Lie Fan sat in stunned, absolute silence for a moment, letting the sheer brilliance of her sociological observation wash over him. He had engineered Nationalism to secure his throne and mobilize his armies, but his wives had weaponized the resulting cultural freedom to revolutionize the daily lives of half the population. He smiled warmly at her astute observation, pulling her gently onto his lap.
The Emperor and Empress then spent some deeply peaceful, sweet time together in the quiet study. They ignored the towering stacks of military reports and the maps of foreign lands, choosing instead to simply hold each other, enjoying each other's company away from the crushing, infinite heavy burdens of the state. It was a rare, beautiful pocket of tranquility in a world that was currently being completely remade in fire and steel.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away from the quiet intimacy of the imperial study, far away at the eastern coast, tranquility was the absolute furthest thing from reality. The atmosphere was filled with an intense, suffocating, and earth-shattering military energy.
The sky above the sprawling coastal staging grounds was thick with the black, acrid smoke pouring from thousands of iron funnels, mixing with the gray clouds of an impending spring storm.
The deafening sounds of shouted orders, marching boots, the clanging of heavy armor, and the rhythmic, terrifying mechanical hissing of steam engines created a cacophony of industrialized war that could be heard for miles inland.
Jiang Qin, Zhou Yu, Huang Zu, and Gan Ning, standing proudly as the four chief Admirals of the Hengyuan Navy, were positioned atop a massive, specially constructed stone watchtower overlooking the harbor. From this elevated vantage point, they were carefully overlooking the breathtaking, apocalyptic sight of thousands of massive warships that were now heavily gathered along the docks.
The sheer scale of the armada defied the bounds of human history. The harbor, which had been massively expanded over the past year using explosives and tens of thousands of laborers, was completely choked with vessels. There were the traditional, towering wooden galleons, their decks bristling with heavy ballistas and rocket spewing Hwachas.
And leading the formations were the terrifying new vanguard steam ships, their side mounted paddlewheels churning the water into a white froth as they held their positions against the ocean currents.
The four veteran admirals worked tirelessly, their voices going hoarse as they relayed rapid, highly complex logistical commands through a network of signal flags and booming war drums. Their primary objective was to make sure all the ships would harbor correctly and safely.
The coastal tides were treacherous, and allowing two massive galleons to collide in the crowded bay would cause a catastrophic chain reaction. They navigated the massive fleet with the precision of a master playing Go, ensuring that the hundreds of thousands of marching soldiers could smoothly begin their massive reboarding process without deadly, chaotic bottlenecks.
Down on the ground, amidst the deafening roar of the harbor, this huge logistical embarkation on land was strictly and ruthlessly overseen by the Deputy Grand General and Grand General, Zhang Liao and Huangfu Song.
Zhang Liao, the unbreakable anvil of the vanguard, rode back and forth along the massive stone piers on his armored warhorse. His face was a mask of cold, uncompromising discipline. He commanded the flow of the heavy infantry, ordering the black armored soldiers into perfectly synchronized columns.
"Keep the lines tight! Do not break formation!" Zhang Liao's voice boomed over the hiss of the steam engines. "Armor secured! Weapons checked! You step onto those ships as soldiers of Hengyuan, not a herd of cattle!"
Huangfu Song, the venerable elder general whose tactical brilliance had saved the empire time and time again, managed the incredibly complex loading of the heavy ordnance and the cavalry.
He ensured that the massive crates of black powder, the volatile barrels of refined petroleum for the Fierce Fire Oil Cabinets, and the thousands of terrified warhorses were loaded into the deep cargo holds with absolute, meticulous care, perfectly balancing the weight distribution of the massive ships so they would not capsize in the deep ocean swells.
But a military force of this unprecedented magnitude required more than just supreme discipline and devastating firepower. To ensure total military victory on the foreign, completely unknown islands of Yamato, the mind of the army had to be just as sharp as its sword.
Standing on the deck of the colossal flagship, their robes whipping violently in the ocean wind, were the architects of the enemy's impending doom. The brilliant minds of Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Sima Yi, and Jia Kui will be going alongside the army as the four main strategists assigned for this historic battle.
Guo Jia, despite his fragile health, looked out over the churning ocean with eyes burning with a chaotic, intoxicating brilliance. He was already formulating a dozen different ways to shatter the islanders' morale before the first sword was even drawn.
Xi Zhicai stood beside him, his mind meticulously calculating the supply lines, ensuring that the armada would not starve if the ocean crossing took longer than anticipated.
Sima Yi, the cold, calculating mastermind, was reviewing the translated topographical maps provided by the Goguryeo scouts, searching for the perfect beaches to unleash the heavy cavalry.
And Jia Kui, the master administrator, was preparing the incredibly detailed, highly restrictive legal frameworks he would use to immediately subjugate and govern the native populace the moment their warlords were put to the sword.
The coordination between the admirals on the tower, the generals on the docks, and the strategists on the flagships was a flawless, terrifying symphony of imperial power.
As soon as each wave of massive warships was completely boarded and packed with troops, the decks swarming with heavily armored men gripping their halberds and the newly issued, revolutionary flintlock firearms, the ships immediately set sail across the ocean.
The blast of the steam whistles echoed across the water, a shrieking, mechanical war cry that signaled the beginning of the end for the eastern world. The massive paddlewheels churned, and the heavy galleons caught the wind. They moved in perfect, unyielding formations, cutting through the choppy, unpredictable swells of the eastern sea, heading straight toward Goguryeo's southern coast.
The journey across the first stretch of ocean was brutal. The men of the central plains were creatures of the solid earth, not the rolling sea. As the ships pitched and violently heaved over the massive ocean swells, thousands of the most elite, hardened veterans in the world were reduced to wretched, violently seasick heaps below decks. The air in the holds grew thick with the smell of vomit and fear.
But the strategic brilliance of the Eastern Expansion Strategy Council had accounted for this exact human frailty. They knew that an army that had spent weeks vomiting their rations into the sea would be slaughtered the moment they hit a hostile beach.
Therefore, upon reaching the safety of the staging grounds, the thousands of soldiers will temporarily disembark. The massive fleet dropped anchor in the deep, expanded natural harbors of Goguryeo's southern coast. The pale, exhausted soldiers were aggressively marched off the ships and onto solid ground, where massive, pre constructed encampments awaited them.
Here, on the very edge of the continent, they would take a brief, highly monitored rest to recover their strength, fill their bellies with fresh food, and completely recover from the debilitating sea sickness.
But while the men rested, the machines of war did not.
The moment the last soldier stepped off the gangplanks, the tireless warships, their steam engines constantly fed by the sweating, soot covered coal shovelers deep in the boiler rooms, will then immediately turn back around. Without a single hour of rest, the admirals barked their orders, the steam whistles shrieked once more, and the massive armada executed a flawless, synchronized turn in the deep waters of the harbor.
Belching thick, black smoke into the gray sky, they went sailing back to the mainland coast to pick up the next massive batch of waiting soldiers.
It was an architectural and logistical masterpiece. The Hengyuan Dynasty had essentially constructed a massive, trans-oceanic conveyor belt of iron, wood, and flesh.
The steam engines allowed them to completely ignore the prevailing winds that would have otherwise trapped a traditional fleet in port for weeks. They moved back and forth across the strait with the terrifying, rhythmic predictability of a swinging pendulum.
This relentless, mechanized ferrying process succeeded in creating an unstoppable, continuous chain of military power moving toward the eastern horizon. The island nation of Yamato, isolated for thousands of years by the treacherous, protective barrier of the ocean, had no idea that the very laws of nature had just been broken by the Black Dragon.
The sea was no longer a shield, it was merely a highway for the absolute, industrialized wrath of the Hengyuan Dynasty, and the storm was finally arriving upon their shores.
The monumental, unprecedented logistical process of safely moving four hundred thousand heavily armored, elite soldiers across the treacherous, unpredictable waters of the eastern sea took almost a full, grueling month to completely finish.
This massive, seemingly agonizing timeframe was an absolute, strategic necessity. It was not only the staggering human mass of hundreds of thousands of soldiers that were being carefully, methodically moved from the mainland to the massive, highly fortified staging grounds of Jeju-Do, an island positioned perfectly off the southern coast of the Goguryeo peninsula. It was also the endless, towering mountains of vital logistical supplies.
Millions of bushels of dried grain, tons of salted fish, massive barrels of fresh water, heavily sealed crates of black powder, and the incredibly complex, massive siege engines, the devastating Hwachas, the steam powered Water Dragons, and the heavy iron cannons, that would be desperately needed for a successful, unyielding invasion of a hostile island nation.
At the sprawling, heavily garrisoned staging grounds of Jeju-Do, the atmosphere was one of supreme, organized chaos. Li Wei, the cunning, fiercely intelligent imperial official who had been permanently left in charge of the region, stood at the docks to proudly welcome the arriving Hengyuan soldiers.
Li Wei was the Emperor's iron hand in the east. His sole, unyielding mandate was making absolutely sure that Goguryeo forever remains a compliant, completely subservient puppet and a loyal, bleeding tributary state to the Hengyuan Dynasty. And he executed that mandate flawlessly.
As the massive steam ships dropped anchor and the endless columns of black armored infantry marched down the gangplanks, their heavy boots striking the wooden docks in perfect, terrifying unison, Li Wei bowed deeply, greeting the vanguard of his Emperor's wrath.
Later that evening, inside the sprawling, luxuriously appointed command pavilion erected at the very center of the massive military encampment, Li Wei was currently talking with the absolute highest echelon of the Hengyuan military.
Seated around a massive, polished map table were Zhang Liao, the supreme commander, Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Sima Yi, and Jia Kui, the four brilliant architects of strategy, and the four undisputed masters of the sea, Admirals Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Huang Zu, and Jiang Qin.
The interior of the pavilion was warm and fragrant. Extravagant, highly spiced food and premium, aged drinks were, of course, prepared and served by terrified local servants for the Hengyuan generals.
While the high command dined on roasted meats and delicate imported wines, vast, endless feasts of steamed rice, thick stews, and hot tea were distributed to the hundreds of thousands of resting, recovering soldiers outside the pavilion walls.
All of these massive, incredibly expensive provisions, of course, came directly from Goguryeo's own national supplies. Li Wei had orchestrated the requisition flawlessly, cleverly and ruthlessly draining the native kingdom's royal coffers and their winter granaries to support the empire's glory.
The puppet King of Goguryeo had protested mildly, only to be sharply reminded by Li Wei that feeding the Emperor's army was an honor that would save his head from a Hengyuan halberd.
During the lavish, strategically charged banquet, Li Wei used the opportune chance to inform the high command of a new, highly specific variable in their invasion plan.
He stood up, wiping his mouth with a silk napkin, and smoothly announced that Goguryeo would be sending some of their own native soldiers along with the Hengyuan invasion force.
A sudden, sharp silence fell over the map table. The Hengyuan generals were notoriously xenophobic when it came to their military formations, trusting only the rigorous, unbreakable discipline of the infantry.
Sensing the immediate tension, Li Wei quickly raised a hand and revealed his ultimate authority. He stated that he was not making a regional political play, he was strictly following the direct, unquestionable instructions from Emperor Lie Fan himself.
"The order was recently sent to me through a highly classified, secret raven messenger directly from Xiapi, General Zhang," Li Wei explained, pulling a small, tightly rolled scroll bearing the Emperor's personal wax seal from his sleeve. "His Majesty wishes for the vassals to bleed for the empire. The local contribution would be around twenty thousand auxiliary soldiers to assist the main army in securing the beachheads and managing the native topography."
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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