Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 311 Scheming against Oak.

In the summer of 2111 in the Han calendar, the imperial court further increased its military spending in the north. Meanwhile, the Phoenix Group in northern Shanxi was fully engaged in combating the "black technology" being "conceived" by the Ouki tech giants.

The tech giants have completed the creation of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, which uses rocket boosters to take off and then detaches, falling back to the ground in the hands of the tech giants just like the reusable rockets of Musk's Starship project before Xuan Chong's rebirth.

The Orks are now occasionally able to cross Yanmen Pass to harass the rear lines. These Orks, dressed in tattered flight suits, were easily shattered by the Han army's grenade launchers during the skirmishes. However, when the Houfeng Group measured the abnormal spore spread on both sides of Yanmen Pass, they found that the mountains were covered with them, requiring systematic eradication.

As for the war threat from the Orcs in the north on the northern front, Xuan Chong reported to Yandu: "We can't be too hasty, but we can't be too hasty either."

It is said that after receiving Xuan Chong's report, Lin Sima remained silent for a long time. The few words in Xuan Chong's telegram, spoken slowly and deliberately, were not particularly hurtful but extremely insulting, making Sima want to impeach him, yet also knowing that impeachment would be futile.

The issue of requisitioning supplies that he had previously sent to Hanbei was resolved skillfully by Xuan Chong. At the time, Lin Sima's faction had a well-thought-out plan: if Dongtu responded, they would use IOUs to pressure Dongtu into making Xuan Chong come to them. If they did not respond to the requisition, they would have an excuse to say that Hanbei was not cooperating.

But the result was that Xuan Chong was very "cooperative," but he didn't gain any advantage. Lin Sima understood that Xuan Chong was no longer the easy-going scholar he was two years ago; now he was like a dragon entering the sea in Hanbei.

Once he (Lin Sima) left, his own sons and nephews were no match for Xuan Chong. Therefore, they dared not openly break ties.

…The perspective shifts to Hanbei…

On the ice plains, fuel-powered trains shuttled back and forth between fortress stations and coastal ports. Preparations for large-scale supply operations were underway, simultaneously enticing the Orks to come and waaagh!

In the heated military fortress, Xuan Chong opened a map of the northern part of Xingguo Ridge and began to make plans.

Warfare is dynamic. The Orks, beings who "passively" adjust their state based on the social organization of their opponents, will "think" and change course with each seemingly farcical defeat.

Due to their unique "interstellar civilization tool" attributes, they will eventually find the right planetary surface warfare tactics to counter them in war.

For example, in the ice field region now, the Orks have begun to imitate the wolves of the grasslands, holding up wolf totems and taking pride in wearing wolf skins and carrying "gas rocket launchers".

It's important to understand that after the Industrial Revolution, all nomadic tribes became skilled in singing and dancing. Yet the Orks still dared to ride the monsters they had bred, carrying spears with explosives strapped to their tips, and charge at armored chariots.

While the Orks are indeed highly social and imitative, giving them the advantage of "passively" adjusting their tactics, their strategic thinking, as a race that uses war as a tool, is limited by their instinct to pursue "conflict."

Xuan Chong: "When they perceive that their opponent (that is, us) has a large and well-organized war organization somewhere, their strategy is to make waaagh! big enough, not to win. Subduing the enemy without fighting is not in the Ork's understanding of war."

Xuan Chong has already discovered that wherever the military system is strong in the Han Dynasty, the Orcs rush forward like lecherous ghosts seeing a beautiful woman, ignoring all the "favorable timing, geographical advantages, and popular support" ahead.

So much so that Xuan Chong secretly thought, if he were guarding the roof of the world while the Orks were in India, they would also waagh! Fighting along the snow-capped peaks, completely disregarding the terrain advantage?

Using the Orc attribute, Xuan Chong's current actions are similar to those of players in the Arctic Circle map of the game "Red Alert 2" in his previous life: after blowing up the bridge, he builds a bunch of bunkers to block them, and then intermittently repairs the bridge, causing the insane computer, which is now the Orcs, to mindlessly come and die.

Nowadays, with the strategic development of the North Sea and the maintenance of military organization, even without initiating an attack, the strategic direction of the Orks has changed.

Hearing the "waaagh!" sounds, Xuan Chong realized that despite being separated by Corpse-Hound Ridge, the Orks weren't being cautious; instead, they were enthusiastically trying to approach him. —The Orks had no strategy; they just wanted to fight. Large amounts of scrap metal were being moved towards the eastern part of the northern swamp, repairing themselves along the way with the power of thought. They were heading straight for Corpse-Hound Ridge's headless mountain.

Given the current flawed strategic situation, it will take the orcs a considerable amount of time to devise a reasonable set of tactics, so there's no need for Hanbei to rush things. They can simply address the immediate problems step by step.

After Xuan Chong submitted the report to Yandu, there was no response from Yandu.

…From Yandu: Don't try to control everything.

In Beihuahai, a fortress-like base reminiscent of the Soviet-style Red Alert from a previous life sits atop the walls, with a magnetic storm tower atop its walls. Within the base's enclosed spaces, researchers occasionally conduct brief, limited-sample Orc studies.

Xuan Chong is examining the bodies of the Orks who were killed in the latest battle and discovers that the Orks have already begun to work on keeping warm in winter.

Firstly, for the leaders of the Orks, low temperatures are not a problem. A "waaagh!" can, if large enough, completely cover the body surface, forming an insulating zone. Those giant Warboss, Great Techies, and other elite Orcs have their steel weapons perfectly adequate in cold environments.

As early as the spring of 2111, the Han army of the Hanbei Protectorate discovered "cotton-padded jackets" on the bodies of more than 10,000 Oukes who died after the failed assault. However, these cotton-padded jackets were not made of wool or cotton, but of asbestos.

As for the fanged, toothy monsters bred by the Orks, they too began to produce wool like sheep. Orks are spore-forming organisms, and they too are adaptively developing "mycelium" to adapt to the cold northern environment.

Based on the statistics, Xuan Chong began to calculate the next changes for Oak. He then began to formulate a strategy.

Xuan Chong pinched the asbestos! and made a judgment: "The Orks have started mining and have formed industrial settlements." After sensing that Waaagh! was eavesdropping, Xuan Chong immediately ordered the laboratory to destroy the relevant data.

After the fire incinerated all the spores, Xuan Chong checked for any remaining residue, took out a map, glanced at it briefly, pointed along the Dalie River (Rena River), and after deciding on a location, Xuan Chong sent a telegram to the Lin Group and the Long Group.

Xuan Chong: I'm just setting an example, not trying to embarrass anyone.

Therefore, in September of 2111, Xuanchong launched a military operation involving 5,000 people. The operation was an east-to-west offensive, with 324 tracked and half-tracked vehicles providing logistical support for the long-range assault.

Furthermore, eight air bases in the south dispatched one hundred airships from south to north to cover the attack.

Xuan Chong's attack direction was the northern section of the Shihu Mountains (Zhugezhuer). It can be said that the entire Waixingguo Ridge, the Shihu Mountains, acted like a city wall, protecting the Heiqiu River basin and the coastline of the Beihua Sea (Ehuochai) further north. However, it was precisely because of this that the Liao people historically had very little exploration of the northern region of Waixingguo Ridge.

Although they are separated by a mountain on the map, in reality they are like the "Great Wall of Despair," dividing the two areas.

It is said that the Qinling Mountains have two different climates on the north and south sides, and the Shihu and Xingguo Mountains act like city walls, blocking the cold air from the Arctic region. In other words, the Liao tribes had no interest in going through all the hardships of crossing the Xingguo and Shihu Mountains to experience the biting cold winds of the Arctic region.

The Russians were different. Their expeditions explored eastward along the river, traveling eastward, causing countless people to freeze to death and incurring huge sunk costs. They eventually arrived at the wall-like Shihu Ridge and Xingguo Ridge, intending to break through and find a settlement.

Theoretically, if the Liaodong region reacted quickly enough, it was a low-probability event that the Russians could penetrate through and build a fortress. Historically, when the Russians in the southeast attempted to land and build a fortress, they were met with officials from Fujian who simply came to collect taxes. Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the merchants were generally benevolent.

Not only was the Qing response slow, but after the attack, they found the bastion difficult to conquer and actually wanted to demarcate the boundary!? That's just scoundrel behavior.

The Ming Dynasty's approach was: "Boundary demarcation"? What right do you have to "demarcate" my territory? "The Russians, thousands of miles away, had no way to resupply or collect grain from the Siberian region. They could only rely on 'border demarcation' to be recognized by the Qing Dynasty as legitimate foreigners and maintain the daily expenses of their early settlements through trade and procurement on the border."

In other words, if the Qing dynasty had followed the Ming dynasty's example and had not traded with the Mao Yi at all, the Mao Yi settlement would not have been able to maintain its daily life. Over time, the firearms would have rusted, and the fortress would have fled south due to lack of funds.

If the Mao people's fortifications in the Far East cannot be secured, then the series of settlements in Central Siberia will be transformed into ghost towns, similar to the Canadian gold rush villages, under the caress of the northwest winds.

So when will that happen? The Mao Yi's so-called expansion of territory will become a joke, and the border line will be drawn according to the Ural line.

If that were the case, Russia would actually maintain a long-standing friendly relationship with the East, just like Finland. The entire Arctic Circle would also have been developed much earlier.

The reason why the aquaculture and fishing industry in "Beihuahai" mentioned by Xie Ming did not develop for hundreds of years was because "bears roamed there".

…When embarking on an expedition to the northern deserts, the most important thing is to be familiar with the route…

Now that Xuan Chong is handling this himself, he can feel that the "Eternal Holy Ancestor" in the TV series from his previous life was truly extraordinary for filling in all the answers wrong.

Returning to the present, Xuan Chong started from the "city wall" exit, and along the way, his 5,000-strong force routed three groups of Orks attempting to intercept him. The largest group consisted of only 800 Orks, equipped with 30mm smoothbore cannons. Xuan Chong personally aimed and blasted them into a bloody pulp. After the raid, these "bloody pulp" were disposed of to ensure they wouldn't regenerate.

On September 23, with the support of the Xuanchong accompanying base vehicle, the 9-strong force began to assemble transport boats with timber on the Dalie River along the northern border of Waixingguo Ridge and began to advance westward up the river.

It's worth mentioning that the source of the Dalie River is near Beihai Lake (the place where Su Wu herded sheep), and the main channel of the Dalie River flows northwards, eventually emptying into the Arctic Ocean. Xuan Chong's goal was clear: to target the existing coal mines along the Dalie River.

Xuan Chong: The ability to mass-produce (man-made) asbestos insulation materials means there must be sufficient fuel (coal mines). The presence of coal mines indicates the emergence of industrial settlements. Industrial settlements rely on transportation; you can't possibly have built a railway that runs through Siberia, can you? Therefore, it's highly likely that they're addressing industrial logistics issues by utilizing the Tale River as a water source.

The area north of the Xiongnu Plateau is too cold, and the number of Orks is much smaller than in the south. Before coal mining was widely used, it was impossible for Orks to live in large numbers within the Arctic Circle.

So take advantage of this moment, rush over and beat them up, destroy a part of them, and tear up the "homework book" of the Orks' eastward expansion strategy.

…the airship cruised high in the sky…

Sure enough, Xuan Chong found the Orcs' mining and smelting base. There were thousands of small mud furnaces there, spewing blue flames like jet engines.

The smelting output of these small rural blast furnaces would be highly unstable if controlled by humans. It's not that they can't produce high-quality steel, but the steel itself is unreliable. With the addition of rare earth elements, a few thousand furnaces could produce enough iron for one modern industrial converter. It's worth noting that the rudimentary methods used to produce Tamahagane, the raw material for Japanese samurai swords, were inferior to those of small blast furnaces; and the master smelters of Japan would select the best-quality iron blocks and reforge them.

However, to the Orcs, the internal structure of these mud blast furnaces, resembling termite mounds, was created by the Waaagh! force, much like the oil and electrical circuits of a 21st-century aero-engine, allowing for precise coordination. Furthermore, the mixing of coal and iron ore inside the furnaces wasn't a natural sedimentation, but rather the Waaagh! force agitated them, allowing the iron to precipitate more perfectly.

When the Xuanchong troops arrived, three or four thousand Orks tried to stop them with shotguns and other firearms.

Without hesitation, Xuan Chong called for airship bombing. The bombs, equipped with gliders and controlled by the torque system, successfully entered the airships through areas of rising thermals on the ground. The few Orks who attempted to take off in their aircraft to intercept were also identified by Xuan Chong's torque radar network, and were intercepted by the airship's rockets (guided by Xuan Chong) once they took to the air.

After all the small blast furnaces on the surface were leveled, the Orcs were mowed down by heavy machine gun fire and incendiary bombs. Xuan Chong took a look at the steel that had already been smelted locally, which amounted to about 13,000 tons.

Therefore, Xuan Chong did not intend to leave these iron materials to the Orks. He sent a message to the Dragon Group. Liu Yi's photon projection appeared on the battlefield, just like a real person. After looking at the captured steel, he also started to open the communication and call for reinforcements.

Then a rather high-ranking person from the Xuanwu Group arrived; his name was Wang Jingang. Upon seeing Xuan Chong, he said, "I've long admired your name."

Then, after glancing at the 10,000 tons of iron, he indicated that it could be transported away, but it would require the help of other capable individuals.

Under the guidance of another member of the Dragon Group, the tens of thousands of tons of steel melted at room temperature and entered the mold set up by Xuan Chong. Then, Wang Jingang used his dragon power to ignite the "iron source," and the iron came alive as if it had encountered a spark, transforming into a giant iron lion that entered the river.

Liu Yi then sent something "similar to an energy core" into these iron lions. The iron lions began to move freely like living creatures. The steel inside them maintained a flesh-like state under the combined effect of various abilities. When they stepped into the river, the internal energy dissipated, causing the river water to swirl with steam.

Liu Yi explained to Xuan Chong, "This iron lion can run for thousands of kilometers before stopping."

Xuan Chong looked at the Transformer-like Iron Lion cutting through the waves of the Dalie River and murmured, "Doesn't this remind you of the myths and legends? A god travels thousands of miles, then exhausts his strength and transforms into a mountain peak?"

Liu Yi: "It's not a myth."

Xuan Chong nodded.

Liu Yi: "The court is quite satisfied with your performance now. The Emperor asked me to ask you when you will take 'North Lake' (Baikal).

Xuan Chong feigned ignorance: "Satisfied? I submitted the report months ago, but haven't heard back (Sima is holding it back)."

Liu Yi: "At the time, nobody knew whether you were making excuses or really planning something. How could you expect your superiors to respond to you?"

After understanding, Xuan Chong took a deep breath: "We can't take Beihu this year. The overall strategy of the Protectorate is to advance along the Dalie River and force Ouk out of the Arctic Circle."

Liu Yi looked at Xuan Chong with a meaningful gaze. In the long history of the Han Dynasty, there are terms such as "holding up an army to increase one's own power" and "nurturing bandits to increase one's own power," especially in the north where Xuan Chong was located, which was particularly unique.

Xuan Chong glanced at him: "In the direction of Dongtu, I hope the court will establish prefectures and counties. Apart from the area around my old family home, all other areas should be handed over to high-ranking officials sent by the court for planning."

Liu Yi paused slightly, then said in a gentler tone, "Your family is a vassal king; according to etiquette, they cannot be without a fief." —In present-day Hanzhong, a vassal king's fief can only be revoked if he commits a serious crime. Otherwise, the procedure would be incorrect.

Xuan Chong: "At the beginning of the founding of the country, my family was granted a place in the northeast by the imperial court, which is a corner of the country. Now the 'North China Sea region' can be handed over to my family."

Liu Yi: "That place is a bitterly cold land."

Xuan Chong: "Re-binding to the state will make my family feel more secure."

…Retreating to abdication is a virtue…

Xuan Chong knew in his heart that as Dongtu developed into the future, "feudal remnants" would become the biggest obstacle to its progress. As the creator of the "Dragon Playing with a Pearl" strategy, when the "Pearl" was completed, it would actually be a stage for all the young talents in the entire "Black Dragon River" region.

If in the future it's still "Dongtu's boss is the boss"

So the scene on the big stage would be like this: on one side, people work hard every day without any highlights, on the other side, people walk their birds in cages, on one side, people lie down and collect rent, on one side, instant noodles and starch sausage, on the other side, dumplings, dumplings, dumplings, while on the other side, there are clients, clients, making changes and deletions.

Zhang Mazi (whose investment business) just distributed money to the people of Goose City, giving them some extra wages. But Huang Silang and his cronies will soon follow up with a few carriages claiming "it's all ours" and take back the money—no, the "blessings"—the money.

Xuan Chong couldn't imagine how arrogant his family members, relatives and old Dongtu people, would be when Dongtu's entire industrial layout was successfully completed twenty years later and attracted young people from the entire region to invest.

The concept of "feudalism" is only useful when it comes to expanding and defending frontier regions.

Xuan Chong did not harbor any wishful thinking that "as long as I am wise and decisive, feudalism can be created" just because he had transmigrated to the position of a feudal lord in this life.

As a self-proclaimed "test-taker," Xuan Chong's attitude is, "Why should I use feudalistic conditions to pursue industrialization? Isn't that just making things harder for myself?" He suggests leaving the "cultural old districts" within the first ring road to his own area and charging admission fees.

Although Xuan Chong had planned this all along, he is now using it as a "bargaining chip" to negotiate with the court, which is worried about him gaining territory in the north.

Upon hearing Xuan Chong's sincerity and his willingness to cooperate with the court in establishing Dongtu as a prefecture next year, Liu Yi immediately bowed respectfully! This bow was sincere, because Dongtu's economy was booming, and legally, this fertile land belonged to the Dongtu royal family. Moreover, Xuan Chong's military power in the north was at its zenith.

To be willing to donate at the height of one's family's prosperity is to sacrifice one's family fortune to alleviate hardship.

According to the sage's words, "judge by actions, not intentions," it would be wrong for the court to still harbor suspicion towards Xuan Chong.

The prerequisite for possessing military power and wielding significant influence is having an industrial base. Dongtu's previous expansion was indeed quite formidable. Xuan Chong's industrial plan for Dongtu was aimed at becoming an "industrial center radiating across both land and sea regions."

The vassal king has built a powerful army in the north, and behind it lies an integrated industrial economy and modern military. The Han court must be on guard!

But for the imperial court, if the hidden danger could be resolved without surgery, everyone would be happy. No one would want to turn something that can be compromised into something as painful as cutting out a tumor.

(End of this chapter)