The Tyrant of the Great Qian Dynasty: Not only will I refuse to arrange a marriage alliance, but I w

The imperial palace, the armory.

This place was originally filled with standard weapons accumulated by the Great Qian Dynasty over many years, with spears like a forest and swords like a mountain.

However, most of them were old and in disrepair, and many weapons were even covered with rust, clearly indicating that they had not been maintained for a long time.

At this moment, all the old weapons had been cleared out and piled up in the corner of the warehouse.

Su Zhe was standing in the center of the empty warehouse, his eyes closed.

The old eunuch Wei An and General Chen Baipao stood respectfully on either side of him behind him, wondering what His Highness was up to.

With a thought, Su Zhe issued an instruction to the system to withdraw the reward.

The next second, a strange scene unfolded.

Rows of brand-new armor and crossbows appeared out of thin air on the empty warehouse floor.

First one row, then ten rows, then a hundred rows...

In the blink of an eye, the once empty warehouse was filled to the brim with these military supplies that appeared out of nowhere.

The thousand sets of Xuan Tie heavy armor were entirely black, with thick armor plates that gleamed with a deep, irony light in the dim light of the warehouse.

Five hundred divine crossbows, their bodies forged from refined iron, their bowstrings as thick as a child's arm, exuding a dangerous aura.

Wei An followed behind Su Zhe, his cloudy old eyes filled with shock as he watched the almost miraculous scene unfold before him.

But after all, he had served two emperors and had seen all sorts of storms.

He suppressed the shock in his heart, asking nothing and saying nothing, burying his horror deep inside.

He knew that this Ninth Prince was hiding a huge secret.

And what he had to do was keep this secret.

He stepped forward and picked up a crossbow with a worried expression.

The crossbow was extremely heavy, weighing at least forty or fifty pounds.

He tried to pull the bowstring with all his might, but the bowstring didn't budge.

"Your Highness," Wei An said, panting, "such a weapon must be incredibly powerful. However, the force required to draw the string is probably over a thousand pounds, which ordinary soldiers simply cannot handle. Even among the bravest warriors in the army, you'd be hard-pressed to find one. We have this divine crossbow, but no one can use it. What should we do?"

His concerns were not unfounded; even the best weapons are useless if the user cannot use them.

Upon hearing this, Su Zhe took the Divine Arm Crossbow from Wei An.

For him, the weight of the crossbow was just right.

Without using any equipment, he used his arms to pull the thick bowstring inch by inch with his bare hands, his veins bulging.

The bowstring was taut, making a muffled "creak" sound until the full moon.

He casually pulled a specially made armor-piercing arrow from the quiver beside him and nocked it onto the crossbow.

He aimed his crossbow at an obsolete armored target in the corner of the storeroom, a target meant for ordinary archers to practice on.

He pulled the trigger.

With a "whoosh," the crossbow bolt was released.

The crossbow bolt transformed into a streak of black light, accompanied by a piercing whistle, and traversed a distance of dozens of feet.

"puff!"

A dull, penetrating sound rang out.

The iron target, made of fine iron, was pierced directly by the crossbow bolt without any suspense.

The crossbow bolt, still powerful, embedded itself deeply into the load-bearing wall behind the target, leaving only the fletching outside, trembling and making a buzzing sound.

Wei An was so shocked by the power of the arrow that he gasped.

If this were shot at a person, no matter what kind of heavy armor they were wearing, it would be shot right through them!

But he immediately became even more worried.

"Your Highness's divine strength is beyond the reach of ordinary people. However... the tens of thousands of soldiers defending the city are mostly young men who were temporarily conscripted. Their physical strength is not even as good as that of ordinary soldiers, let alone using this divine crossbow. If we force them to use it, I'm afraid they will strain their muscles and bones first, injuring themselves before harming the enemy."

"Who said they were allowed to use it?"

Su Zhe put down the crossbow, walked to the Xuan Tie heavy armor, and ran his fingertips along the fine texture on the armor plates.

The quality of this armor far surpasses the craftsmanship of that era.

"These are prepared for my personal guards."

He turned to Chen Baipao beside him and ordered, "General Chen, convey my command: select five hundred of the most skilled archers from the Great Snow Dragon Cavalry, immediately change their uniforms, and form the First Division of the Divine Machine Battalion! You will personally lead them!"

"Yes!" Chen Baipao accepted the order.

The soldiers of the Great Snow Dragon Riders were all skilled martial artists with extraordinary arm strength, making them perfectly suited to use this Divine Arm Crossbow.

"Distribute the rest of the Divine Arm Crossbows to all officers of centurion rank and above in the three major camps of the capital," Su Zhe continued, issuing the order.

This order puzzled a newly promoted Imperial Guard captain.

He mustered his courage, stepped forward, and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, the Divine Crossbow is extremely powerful and should be used in concentrated numbers to form a powerful crossbow formation, so as to maximize its power. Distributing it among officers of various ranks is... isn't it a waste of such a divine weapon?"

He was acting out of public interest; after all, in his limited understanding of military matters, powerful weapons should be used in concentrated areas to create local advantages.

Su Zhe glanced at him, but instead of getting angry at his questioning, he patiently explained:

"If used in a concentrated manner, the target will be too large. Once it is targeted by enemy catapults or archers, the losses will be extremely heavy."

"Dispersing the distribution will have a completely different effect."

Su Zhe's gaze deepened, and the strategies it contained were beyond anyone's comprehension.

"What I want is not for them to engage in a shootout with the enemy archers. What I want is for every centurion to become a mobile, deadly firing point."

"They don't need to shoot any particular enemy; they just need to aim at the crowd when the enemy troops are on the city walls and the crowd is at its densest."

"What I want is not just to inflict damage, but to instill fear!"

"I want every barbarian soldier who tries to climb the city walls to live in constant fear of being pierced by an arrow! I want them to be distracted while climbing, while wielding their swords, worrying that a deadly crossbow bolt might shoot out from some corner at any moment!"

Upon hearing this, the captain felt a chill run down his spine, finally understanding Su Zhe's true intention.

This is no longer a conventional archery tactic; it's an extremely vicious psychological warfare strategy!

This deadly weapon will be transformed into a sharp blade hanging over the heads of every enemy soldier attacking the city.

This method is unheard of, and upon closer examination, it sends chills down one's spine; it must surely have miraculous effects!

Su Zhe then ordered that all one thousand sets of Xuan Tie heavy armor be distributed to the elite troops of the Imperial Guard, under the command of Zhang Long, Chen Baipao's deputy, as the last reserve force for defending the city.

Although these Imperial Guard soldiers are far less powerful than the Great Snow Dragon Riders, once they put on this heavy armor that is impervious to swords and spears, their survivability and impact will be greatly enhanced.

At the most critical moment, they are a "steel can" unit that can be deployed to the battlefield and deliver the decisive blow.

All arrangements had been made, and the sky outside the armory was gradually darkening.

Just then, a young eunuch rushed in from outside, looking flustered, and knelt down with a thud.

"Your Highness, something terrible has happened!"

"Her Highness the Eldest Princess...she has been kneeling outside Chengqian Palace for two hours!"

"She said... she said if you don't see her again, she... she'll kneel there forever!"