Warhammer, I really didn't intend to form a second empire!

Kongming bowed and then quietly withdrew.

Zhao Zheng didn't give any further instructions, but just looked out the window, where the distant stars shone quietly in the darkness.

The Qin fleet has set sail and is about to launch an attack into the distance.

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Reputation of the Imperial Dragon Legion

The name of the Imperial Dragon Legion first appeared in the Empire's official war report six months after the mobilization order for Qiankun Star was issued.

The battle report was sent back by Han Xin's frontline fleet. It was encrypted and relayed through the material exchange stations between the Qin Empire and the Empire. By the time it finally reached the document terminal of the Terra Ministry of the Interior, it had already been relayed through three Star Speaker relay stations.

The battle report was not long; it followed a standard military reporting format without excessive rhetoric or embellishment.

But it is precisely this straightforward and clean style that creates an undeniable sense of oppression for the reader.

On the 149th day after launching the offensive, the 3rd Expeditionary Squadron of the 2nd Legion, led by Han Xin, completed the complete clearing of the G-15 star sector. The entire sector consisted of 222 star systems, and every mining and habitable planet was subject to orbital blockade and ground clearing within the stipulated time window.

The battle report listed the specific results: the military forces of seventeen alien civilizations were completely eliminated, and four industrial worlds occupied by aliens and two human pocket empires were incorporated into the Qin Empire.

The casualty figures were marked at the end of the battle report in a standard format: 167 men were killed in action by the Imperial Dragon Legion and 2,347 men were killed in action by the Auxiliary Army.

The enemy's ground forces were completely annihilated, the enemy fleet was destroyed at a rate of 100%, and even the alien strongholds that put up a last stand were completely wiped out by the Imperial Dragon Legion with orbital strikes accurate to single digits.

The battle report remained in the administrative sequence of the Terran Ministry of the Interior for less than four hours before being marked with an encrypted "priority delivery" tag and sent directly to the office terminal of Imperial Chancellor Macado.

Makado read the battle report late at night in Terra Standard Time.

He sat in the golden chair that had been with him for centuries, with a holographic screen floating in front of him, displaying the battle report line by line in a standard text format.

After reading the entire report, he forwarded it to the Emperor, adding a very short annotation at the end.

"Efficiency far exceeded expectations."

The Emperor was in the middle of a battle at the edge of the Sun Starfield at the time, and he did not reply immediately, but he saved the battle report to his personal terminal's bookmarks.

Three weeks later, the second battle report arrived in Terra, this time from Li Jing's expeditionary force.

Li Jing's star sector was further away than Han Xin's. On the 134th day after entering the target star sector, he completed the sweep of the entire area, bringing a total of 236 star systems into the empire's territory.

One of the planets is inhabited by a medium-sized greenskin empire, numbering approximately 30 billion.

Faced with an opponent that might require years and multiple legions to deal with in a conventional human expedition, Li Jing's battle report described the entire process in just one sentence: "The main force of the Greenskins was completely annihilated ninety-three hours after landing, and the remaining spores have been cleansed of the surface through orbital bombardment and promethium."

The third battle report came from Sun Tzu, and its content was basically similar to the first two: the same efficient advance speed, the same precise firepower allocation, and the same astonishing kill ratio.

The three battle reports traveled through the Star Speaker relay station in a very short time and appeared on the reading terminals of the Empire's high command, triggering a series of assessments and discussions.

What speaks even more than the battle reports themselves are the technical update documents and engineering data packages sent back at the same time.

In the appendix to the battle report, Han Xin attached a complete assessment report of the industrial world, which detailed the resource production potential and existing infrastructure status of each conquered star system, and even the priority order for development.

At the end of his report, Sun Wu included an anatomical analysis of the alien organism's tissues, written in concise and to the point, without a single superfluous embellishment.

In their assessment report, Chancellor Macado's staff wrote: "The Second Legion's expeditionary efficiency is currently among the highest of all human faction units that have been contacted, far surpassing the Shadowmoon Wolves currently engaged in the campaign."

Although the commanders of these expeditionary fleets did not "work" for the empire and kept almost all the profits for themselves, this did not change the fact that the Qin Empire was a part of the human empire.

Not to mention that Zhao Zheng would pay taxes in full, and when the Qin Dynasty launched another expedition, he also organized a group of his descendants to contribute to the empire's logistics and transportation. Although the logistics Astartes kept changing personnel for some reason, and their attitudes were extremely sour, this did not prevent the commanders of the various expeditionary fleets from being grateful.

There's no way around it; the Empire's logistics efficiency is just too poor, and they're only in the very early stages right now. If these logistical resources aren't delivered in time, their fleet will probably have to be purged from time to time.

The news that Shadowmoon Wolves had won several battles in Riza and several other star systems had already spread through Terra's communication network in the early stages of the Great Crusade, and Horus's title as the First Son of the Return had long been widely known through the Emperor's channels.

However, the name of the Imperial Dragon Legion spread within the imperial system in a completely different way. It did not rely on propaganda of war achievements, nor on the personal prestige of the emperor. It relied solely on the daily increasing battle reports and the subsequent records of material transfers to slowly but steadily establish an impression of "efficiency," "reliability," "invincibility," and "unstoppable" among the imperial high command.

When the news reached Horus, the Shadowmoon Wolves had just completed another round of rest.

He saw Han Xin's name, as well as Li Jing and Sun Wu's, in the battle report. He read it over and over again, confirming the number "167 men killed in action" in the Imperial Dragon Legion, and then put the report down.

He remained silent for a moment, then put the battle report into the shredder on the table, got up and left the cabin without mentioning it to anyone.

The advance of the Imperial Dragon Legion did not slow down in the following months.

Commanders such as Han Xin, Li Jing, Sun Wu, Wang Jian, and Bai Qi were each responsible for an advance axis, maintaining loose tactical coordination between their formations, and each completing the clearing mission in their respective star fields.

They did not compete for credit or seize spoils. After conquering a star system, they immediately initiated the infrastructure repair and resource assessment process, packaged the data and sent it back to Qiankun Star for processing by Kongming's team. Then they replenished the fleet's supplies to the maximum and continued to advance towards the next coordinate.

This method is exactly the same as that of the Empire, with the slight difference that these expeditionary commanders would establish some infrastructure in the local area, and then the subsequent logistics troops and administrative officials would come to take over.

The officials of the Qin Dynasty were much more responsible than those of the empire; at least they wouldn't impose heavy taxes on the local people from the outset, taxes that would last for hundreds or thousands of years.

Zhao Zheng is not the kind of person who drains the pond to catch all the fish; reasonable development and slow, gradual exploitation are the best approach.

It was only because he was a powerful tyrant that he was overthrown; otherwise, with his slow, insidious method of acquiring resources, he probably wouldn't have lasted even two generations.

This style is also completely different from the way Shadowmoon Wolves celebrate their victories. The Emperor Dragon Legion never says a word about their victories; they simply send the battle report back and then continue their march.

"They are advancing very quickly, even faster than Shadowmoon Wolf. Every time they open up a route, it can be opened to traffic within half a month."

"They don't take anything from the locals. Every time they conquer a planet, they start building foundries and power plants to supply themselves."

"Their casualties were ridiculously low; the casualty figures in every battle report never exceeded one hundred."

These words were initially just casual conversations among officers at frontline supply depots, but they were repeatedly mentioned, relayed, and embellished, gradually accumulating into a vague but widely circulated impression.

It does not rely on the Terran Ministry of the Interior's document system, nor on the Emperor's personal reputation for endorsement.

For every star sector conquered, the Imperial Dragon Legion's engineering teams would lay tracks, erect communication arrays, and establish agricultural modules, transforming those worlds that had been repeatedly ravaged by the Xenomorphs into stable production and output points.

Those worlds initially only passively obeyed the orders of the Imperial Dragon Legion. After all, under the imperial system, any legion had the right to conscript troops from the local area during wartime, not to mention that the Qin Dynasty itself was a rather special existence.

But over time, the local residents discovered that the Emperor Dragon Legion could indeed deliver food to their tables, completely drive the aliens away from their territory, and free them from worrying about whether those disgusting aliens and streamlined black figures would appear outside their windows every morning.

Therefore, the inhabitants of those worlds began to provide supplies and assistance to the Imperial Dragon Legion, spontaneously organizing themselves to help the engineering team lay pipelines, compressing the original three-month construction period to less than two months.

The Shadowmoon Wolves' fame spread thanks to the large amount of propaganda materials Horus sent back to Terra after each victory.

Those words and images, carefully polished by the Imperial Document System, were disseminated to every colony through the Star Speaker communication network, engraved on data plates, printed in brochures, and then spread.

Horus's name is mentioned repeatedly in the text, and the labels "First Son," "The Emperor's Most Beloved Son," and "The Banner of the Great Expedition" are firmly linked to the Shadowmoon Wolf's achievements, creating the image of a rising war hero.

But as I said before, some things can't be achieved by simply creating hype. Public opinion is important, but interests are even more important.

Even if the empire can disregard the common people, they must still care about the expeditionary fleets formed by ordinary people, as well as the other legions.

Horus went too far in this regard; he was not a qualified leader at all.

Your ability to comfort people is useless, and your ability to confide in your brothers is also useless. What you need is some fleet and weapons!

If all else fails, just bring more people over!

What about Horus? Does he exist?

Zhao Zheng searched his memory repeatedly, but found nothing, not even once.

So he really couldn't understand why Horus could still hold such a significant position in the empire.

Is it so great to be the first to return to one's hometown?

In terms of warfare and operations, he is no match for Guilliman; in terms of personal charisma and strength, he is no match for the Archangel; and in terms of the ability to command legions, he is no match for Ryan and Perturabo.

Not to mention the situation between the so-called all-rounders and coordinators; in this respect, no one can compare to Xiao Ma and Luo Jia.

Why is he qualified to be the war commander?

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Zheng finally understood from another perspective.

It's just that there's an Emperor. In order to make Horus, the first son, the war commander, the Emperor was even grabbed by the throat by a war boss during the expedition to Ulanor, and then rescued by Horus to establish his reputation.

Later, during the conquest of Ulanor, he personally beheaded the orc emperor, which solidified his position as warlord.

To be honest, Zhao Zheng didn't know if he could live to see that point without any unexpected events. If he changed history without any accidents, then Horus could forget about becoming the War General.

Zhao Zheng finally received a response to the letter that Kongming had sent earlier, regarding the matter of sending five legions to his command.

The letter traveled through the Terra Ministry of the Interior's document circulation sequence in less than three days before being stamped with a purple "read" mark and sent to Makado's to-do folder. However, Makado never processed the document because the Emperor had not approved it.

But now, the emperor has agreed.

Makado did not delay. That very evening, he drafted a transfer order and issued it in the name of the Emperor. The order removed the 4th, 9th, 13th and 19th Legions from the Shadow Moon Wolf's battle sequence and transferred them to the Emperor Dragon Legion's conscription sequence. Once the four legions completed the handover of their current battle zones, they could advance towards the Great Qin Empire.

The wording of the transfer order was very restrained, using only standard administrative language. It did not mention any background reasons or explain why it was these four legions and not others.

Leaving the Fifth Legion to serve as Horus's spies was the Emperor's last act of defiance.

On the day the transfer order arrived at the Shadowmoon Wolf logistics camp, Horus was on the bridge reviewing the latest frontline battle reports.

He saw the full text of the transfer order and saw that four legions had been transferred from his command to the Imperial Dragon Legion.

He didn't throw anything or question anyone loudly; he simply put the copy of the transfer order back on the table and sat quietly for a while.

He then retrieved the Shadowmoon Wolf expedition plan from the terminal, compressed the time for advancing the next phase's objectives by a full 30%, and noted "accelerating the pace of the war to achieve faster results" as the reason for the adjustment.

Horus abandoned some necessary diplomatic means and went into a state of total war.

When the news reached Qiankun Star, Zhao Zheng was standing on the observation platform of the underground foundry in Chiyang City, watching the first Xuanwu-type heavy armor, built with a fully-fledged living metal composite spirit bone structure, complete the final round of power-on tests.

After listening to Kongming's report, he did not comment on Horus's radical adjustments, but simply nodded to indicate that he understood.

Zhao Zheng knew that Horus was probably very afraid of losing the emperor's favor, otherwise he wouldn't have been so aggressive at the beginning of the Great Expedition.

"What a giant baby," Zhao Zheng couldn't help but think, "I'm absolutely right about him."

He has absolutely no sense of self-awareness as a commander. If he had known, he should have brought the Tenth Legion over as well, so that he wouldn't have been messed up by Horus.

It's going to be tough now. They just brought in four legions. If they bring in the Stormwalkers too, Horus's legions won't be able to grow any stronger.

However, these matters are no longer relevant to Zhao Zheng. From this moment on, Horus will have to bear the consequences of his choices, while the Imperial Dragon Legion only needs to continue doing what it is supposed to do.

Now, it's time to prepare for the next step of the plan and head towards the central river area!

Chapter Thirty-Six: Combined Legion's Combat Drills

Six weeks after the order was issued, when the first batch of space warriors belonging to the Fourth Legion appeared at the supply exchange station on the edge of the Qin Empire's territory, Zhao Zheng was standing in front of the holographic star map on the bridge of the Lishan, checking the latest exploration data of the river center area sent back by the forward fleet.

The star field where the Great Qin is located is on the outermost edge of the extreme star field, just at the very edge of the area illuminated by starlight.

According to Zhao Zheng's "steady progress" strategy, the River Heart region should have been entered at least in the middle of the Great Expedition, since the space dwarves there were quite powerful and had the help of the artificial intelligence Ironborn.

However, Zhao Zheng now desperately needs artificial intelligence. Their ancestral core is a perfect match for their development model, not to mention that the river center area itself is extremely rich in mineral resources.

Not to mention that this area is quite vast, more than enough to allow him to develop a very powerful force.

As for the dwarves, if they are willing to surrender, they will be demi-humans of the Empire; if they are not willing to surrender, then we will fight them until they surrender!

If they refuse to surrender in the end, then this short, humanoid alien will be completely wiped out.

The duty officer's report interrupted his train of thought.

"Your Majesty, the advance team of the Fourth Army Corps has arrived at the designated coordinates. There are a total of three transport barges with a capacity of 12,000 people. The identification signals on board the ships match the list in the annex to the transfer order."

Zhao Zheng did not turn around; his gaze remained fixed on the gray area on the star map that had just been marked as "explored," and his fingertips tapped lightly on the armrest.

"Let them land at the ground airport of Qiankun Star and arrange their camps first. We will arrange a meeting after the Ninth, Thirteenth and Nineteenth Legions have all arrived."

"All material handovers must be handled strictly according to standard procedures. Have Kongming oversee the process to ensure there are no mistakes and that these relatives don't feel neglected."

As the duty officer turned to relay the instructions, Zhao Zheng looked away from the star map.

As the duty officer turned to relay the instructions, Zhao Zheng looked away from the star map.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to go down and check on the soldiers of the Fourth Army Corps. After all, they were also under his command. He wanted to check on their condition first to avoid any mishaps when arranging tactics later.

Zhao Zheng remembered that having a Primarch and not having one were two completely different extremes.

Tie Yong is rigid and dogmatic, stubborn and inflexible.

At this point, the Holy Blood Angel was nothing more than a ghoul, charging to the front lines with human lives and a thirst for blood, doing the hardest work and earning the worst reputation.

The Ultramarines at this time were not the rational beings they were after Guilliman's return. The Sons of War were no joke; when their blood boiled, they charged ahead without thinking, making them easy targets for schemes. Osiris and his crew later learned this the hard way.

The Nineteenth Legion, needless to say, was still salvageable; they hadn't been completely misled by Horus.

And to be honest, Zhao Zheng still had some thoughts about these four legions that were not currently under the command of any original entity.

According to the Emperor's operating procedures, these four legions would eventually be assigned to their respective Primarchs, but Zhao Zheng was not the Emperor, and he also had his own ambitions and selfish motives.