Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

The smoke of the "Craftsman God Competition" has barely cleared when, deep within the "Black Mountain Iron City," an even more awe-inspiring transformation is quietly changing the rules of war in a silent yet violent manner.

This place is no longer a forging area with roaring furnaces, but a giant workshop covering hundreds of acres and towering like a palace.

Inside the workshop, there were no chaotic hammering sounds, no sparks flying everywhere, only a heart-pounding, uniform "click, click, click" of mechanical operation.

This is the "military industrial miracle" that Xiao Chen poured his heart and soul into creating—the "crossbow assembly line".

In the past, although the crossbows of Hanyuan were powerful, each crossbow was made with its own parts, and the parts were not interchangeable.

On the battlefield, broken crossbow arms had to be discarded; broken crossbow mechanisms couldn't be replaced. Repairs were difficult, placing immense logistical pressure on the system.

Xiao Chen ordered the implementation of "standardization of military equipment".

The Gewu Institute drew up standard blueprints for the "Hanyuan Type III Crossbow", breaking down the crossbow into thirty standard components, including the crossbow arm, crossbow body, crossbow mechanism, bowstring, and trigger.

The manufacturing company produced hundreds of sets of "precision steel molds". All parts must pass the mold inspection, and the error must not exceed "one point" (about 0.3 mm).

Regardless of which machine tool processed the parts, as long as they are of the same model, they can be freely interchanged and assembled.

Xiao Chen introduced the concept of assembly lines into military production.

The enormous workshop was divided into five areas:

Preparation area: Water-powered saws cut timber into standard-sized blanks; lathes turn iron bars into standard shafts and gears.

Processing area: Dozens of hydraulic drilling machines, milling machines, and grinding machines work day and night to perform precision machining on parts.

With a "click," the locking mechanism of a crossbow was completed.

Assembly Area: This is the most spectacular place. A water-powered conveyor belt moves slowly. At regular intervals, there is a craftsman. The first person installs the crossbow body, the second installs the crossbow arm, the third installs the crossbow mechanism... and the last person hangs the bowstring and adjusts the trigger.

Quality Inspection Area: Every finished product must undergo a "tensile test" and "precision calibration". Those that pass are stamped with the "Hanyuan Ordnance Bureau" seal, coated with anti-rust oil, and put into storage.

The efficiency is astonishing. Previously, a skilled craftsman would take ten days to forge a single powerful crossbow. Now, on the assembly line, a crossbow, from blank to finished product, takes only one hour!

"Report!"

The workshop foreman excitedly ran in to report, "Your Highness, today's output: 120 units! 95% pass rate!"

"Excellent!" Xiao Chen clapped his hands and laughed. "At this rate, we can produce three thousand crossbowmen a month, and thirty thousand a year! Enough to equip an invincible crossbow army!"

To test the power of the new crossbows and to deter the treacherous Northern Yan envoys, Xiao Chen decided to hold a martial arts demonstration with ten thousand crossbows firing simultaneously at the Jiangwu Grand Training Ground outside Zhenbei City.

On this day, on the training ground, three thousand crossbowmen clad in black armor stood in three neat square formations. Each soldier held a gleaming, dark-black Type III crossbow.

On the high platform, Xiao Chen sat in the center, flanked by Han Yuan, a civil and military official.

At the lower end, a row of seats was specially arranged for the Northern Yan delegation, led by Wanyan Hong, the Vice Minister of War of Northern Yan. Wanyan Hong's face was gloomy, and his eyes flickered, as if he were thinking about something.

"Lord Wanyan," Xiao Chen said with a smile, "I invited you here today to show you the methods of my Han Yuan lad."

"Hmph," Wanyan Hong scoffed, "Our Northern Yan also possesses the advantage of crossbows. It's nothing special."

"Yeah?"

Xiao Chen's lips curled into a cold smile. "Then please have Lord Wanyan take a look."

"Martial arts demonstration, begin!" Wang Dashan waved his command flag.

"First volley, fire!"

"Click! Click! Click!" Three thousand crossbows were cocked simultaneously, the sound as uniform as if they were fired by one person.

"Target, target range 300 paces away, fire!"

With a deep, muffled roar, three thousand triangular armor-piercing arrows shot out, forming a dark cloud in the air that instantly blocked out the sunlight.

"Pfft pfft pfft pfft..." The rain of arrows fell, and the hundred wooden targets three hundred paces away, along with the straw figures behind them, were riddled with holes and instantly turned into dust.

"This...this range..." Wanyan Hong's expression changed. The best crossbows in Northern Yan could only shoot two hundred paces, but Han Yuan's crossbows could shoot three hundred paces!

"Second round, rapid fire!"

"Click! Buzz! Click! Buzz!" The crossbowmen moved with practiced ease, drawing the string, loading the arrow, and firing. The powerful crossbows that previously required ten breaths to fire now only needed five!

The rain of arrows poured down like a torrential downpour, relentless and continuous. The target area ahead was completely covered by arrows; not a single intact piece of wood could be seen.

"Third strike, armor penetration!"

The soldiers donned specially made armor-piercing spiked arrows. In front of them were ten suits of lamellar armor in the style of the Northern Yan dynasty.

"put!"

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."

"Clang clang clang..." With a series of crisp sounds, the ten suits of sturdy iron armor were easily pierced as if made of paper, and arrowheads emerged from behind, deeply embedded in the earthen wall behind them.

"impossible!"

Wanyan Hongteng stood up abruptly, his face deathly pale. "My Northern Yan iron armor can withstand a powerful bow from within a hundred paces, how could... how could..."

"Lord Wanyan," Xiao Chen said calmly, "this is just a routine tactic of my Cold Abyss crossbowmen. If it were a Cold Crow Heavy Crossbow, it could penetrate double layers of iron armor at a distance of five hundred paces."

With a "thud," Wanyan Hong slumped into his seat, cold sweat pouring down his face.

He knew that against such a terrifying array of crossbows, a charge by the Northern Yan cavalry would be a massacre.

The martial arts exercise was not over. Xiao Chen had specially arranged a battlefield repair session.

The arm of a powerful crossbow was deliberately broken off. The soldier remained calm, took out a standard crossbow arm from his spare parts bag, clicked it into place, tightened the screw, and in less than ten breaths, the crossbow was restored to its original condition.

"What...what kind of sorcery is this?" Wanyan Hong murmured. In his understanding, a broken crossbow should be thrown away; how could it be repaired like this?

"This is called standardization and modularization."

Xiao Chen explained, "In my Hanyuan Army, every ten men are equipped with a spare parts box containing all commonly used parts. On the battlefield, we can repair them as soon as they break, without delaying the battle."

"Furthermore," Xiao Chen added, "our crossbows are also standardized. Arrows from any batch are interchangeable. This increases logistical efficiency tenfold."

Wanyan Hong was utterly desperate. He understood that Han Yuan's military advantage was not merely a difference in equipment, but a generational gap in the entire warfare system. Northern Yan had fallen far behind.

After the martial arts demonstration ended, Wanyan Hong led the delegation away, utterly dejected. He didn't even dare to ask to buy the powerful crossbows, because he knew Xiao Chen would never sell them to him.

"Your Highness," Wang Dashan said excitedly, "with such a powerful crossbow, our army will be invincible in open field battles!"

"Not bad," Xiao Chen nodded, "but this is just the beginning."

"Issue the order to extend 'assembly line' and 'standardization' to all arms production. Swords, spears, armor, shields, even supply wagons and tents, all must be standardized."

"yes!"

"Furthermore," Xiao Chen's gaze deepened, "there's no need to deliberately conceal today's events. Let Northern Yan, the imperial court, and the grasslands all know what formidable weapons Han Yuan possesses. Subduing the enemy without fighting is the best strategy."

Sure enough, after Wanyan Hong returned to Northern Yan, he embellished his account of what he had seen and heard.

The Northern Yan court and the public were shaken. Rumors of the invincible Cold Abyss Crossbow Formation spread like wildfire. The morale of the Northern Yan border troops plummeted, and they dared not provoke any further.

The advent of the assembly line not only enabled Hanyuan to leap forward in its arms production capacity, but also laid the foundation for Hanyuan's industrialized warfare.

This is a kind of dimensional reduction attack, which heralds that the warfare mode of the cold weapon era is about to be completely rewritten.