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

There's a lack of administrative officials, a lack of high-level talent, and a lack of marshals to command battles...

In short, they lack everything except energy and minerals.

People like Zhang Heng and Zu Chongzhi were certainly qualified, but the Qin Dynasty's laboratories couldn't function without them.

There are still too few people. The policy of encouraging more and better births is not being implemented effectively enough. How can a dozen or twenty children per family be enough?

With so many academies and positions in the Qin Dynasty, and so many planets and worlds in the Milky Way, having more children is the right thing to do.

The population problem remains a major issue hindering the expansion of the Great Qin. If it weren't for the fact that the various states of the Dragon Kingdom were too important to Zhao Zheng, he would really like to relocate a portion of the refugees from the Empire to this region.

If all else fails, we could take a more extreme approach and do what the tech enthusiasts do: create clones, or extract genetic material from the people of the Dragon Kingdoms to breed offspring.

Oh well, we'll get through this eventually; a population explosion is a certainty anyway.

Zhao Zheng went through the draft of the expansion plan for the Foundry World again from beginning to end. After confirming that there were no obvious flaws in Isaac and Albert's site selection plan, he signed his approval at the end.

He handed the documents to Kongming, then turned his attention back to another equally urgent project: the Ironborn's practical testing.

Nearly five months have passed since the first batch of Ironborn began operating in logistics and mining positions in the River Heart area.

During these five months, the mechanical soldiers, encased in living metal and refined gold skeletons, maintained a record of zero malfunctions and zero deviations.

Whether it's deep mining operations or high-intensity material handling at transfer stations, they all strictly follow the preset procedures and have never deviated from the instructions.

Zhao Zheng felt it was time to move them out of their logistical roles and into the testing phase of actual combat deployment.

Therefore, he chose a mining world that had been initially cleared but not yet fully developed on the outskirts of the Yuanshuo star system, not far from Qiankun Star, as the first practical combat test site for the Ironborn.

The test site was chosen on an asteroid that had been occupied by the Qin Dynasty for several years. The surface was covered with large areas of peeling rock and mines of varying depths. The terrain was complex and lacked vegetation cover, making it very suitable for simulating the complex surface environment of a real battlefield.

The test involved two squads of mass-produced Ironborn units, twenty units per squad, equipped with standardized CMC-Ⅳ lightweight firepower modules.

The command center is remotely controlled by Qin's auxiliary infantry soldiers on orbit, simulating a real battlefield command chain.

The test lasted for two days.

The first day consisted of fire coverage and moving shooting exercises against fixed targets, which Zhao Zheng watched in real-time from the Lishan ship.

The Ironborn formation demonstrated extremely high accuracy in the first round of firing, with all targets achieving a hit rate exceeding the design value. Furthermore, they maintained a stable aiming and firing rhythm throughout the continuous firing process, without overheating or jamming.

The second day's test involved simulating a rapid response after being ambushed.

At the scheduled time, the orbital command sent a sudden set of tactical signals to the Iron Formation, requiring them to turn, disperse, and regroup within a short period of time.

Upon receiving the order, the Ironborn reacted swiftly. Every Ironborn in the formation completed a turning maneuver under a unified signal, and then dispersed into several small groups to advance in the designated new direction under cross-cover.

No units broke formation or experienced response delays during the process, and the Ironclad maintained normal operation even under simulated interference signal conditions.

Zhao Zheng did not immediately express his opinion after watching the entire test.

He told the Ironborn participants to stay put and await further instructions, then turned off the video, leaned back in his chair, and pondered for a long time.

The technical specifications of the Ironblood met expectations, and the speed and accuracy of completing instructions were within acceptable limits.

Their response speed to sudden orders is even faster than some of the auxiliary armies of the Great Qin. Although their flexibility and tactical judgment in battle are still not as good as the Astartes of the Imperial Dragon Legion, they are sufficient as standardized combat units.

What pleased him most was that Tie Yi did not exhibit any autonomous behavior that deviated from the preset program throughout the entire test, and all decisions were strictly limited to the instruction framework.

Stable, reliable, powerful...

This is a very practical and convenient form of artificial intelligence, no matter how you look at it.

So, after the test, Zhao Zheng sent a brief instruction to the head of the Ironblood project team that very evening.

"Increase the production schedule of the Ironborn from 500 units per month to 10,000 units per month, and prioritize supplying the defense formations in the River Center area."

The adjustments to the production line were quickly implemented in the following weeks.

The Ironborn-specific production line underground in Chiyang City on Qiankun Star completed twenty rounds of expansion within half a month, and the supply of living metal and refined gold alloy skeletons also increased accordingly. The production target of 10,000 units per month was basically achieved by the end of the second month.

After its expansion, the Ironborn-specific production line underground in Chiyang City on Qiankun Star has been operating at a stable rate of 10,000 units per month.

After assembly and core testing, the Ironborn, whose skeletons were made of living metal and refined gold alloy, were loaded into transport barges in batches and transported towards the central river area along the newly opened route.

The first batch of mass-produced Ironborn who completed combat testing were incorporated into the Imperial Dragon Legion's garrison after arriving in the River Heart region.

They played a significant role in the defense of mining areas and the surface, freeing up some of the manpower that the Qin Dynasty had previously struggled to provide.

The "good brothers" of the Imperial Dragon Legion were transferred to other places for missions, while the Ironborn played a huge role in tasks such as surface defense, regional patrols and resource mining.

Three months after the Tieyi troops were deployed for actual combat, Zhao Zheng received his first complete feedback report. The report came from Meng Tian, ​​the commander of the troops stationed in the Hexin area. It was concise and detailed.

The report noted that the Ironborn maintained a zero-failure record in continuous patrol and surveillance missions and performed exceptionally well in a small-scale alien infiltration incident.

Upon receiving the alarm, they quickly surrounded and eliminated the infiltration point, taking less than eight minutes in total.

Not a single Ironborn was harmed in the operation, nor did a single Xenomorph escape.

After reading the report, Zhao Zheng wrote a note at the end: "Continue to proceed at the current pace," and then turned to another matter.

That matter was proposed by the two Martian sages. After witnessing firsthand the industrial system of Qiankun Star and the scale of resources in the river region, the attitude of the two sages who came to Qin from the Martian Church underwent a subtle change.

Initially, they were simply following orders from Mars, viewing it as a routine technical support mission.

But now they have proactively submitted a proposal hoping to remain within the core industrial world of the Qin Empire.

Zhao Zheng read through the entire proposal, considered it for a while, and then agreed to the suggestion.

The fact that two Martian sages are willing to settle down permanently is certainly a good thing, as it means that the technological resources and personnel they bring will be deeply integrated with the industrial system of the Qin Dynasty.

This was a smart move. Zhao Zheng knew that although these members of the Mechanicus Cult were full of prayers and were hopelessly superstitious, their technical skills were genuine.

Unfortunately, Zhao Zheng was unaware of the extent to which these two Martian conservatives had gone mad after he demonstrated his "talent" in the field of technology to them.

Arguments on the claim that Om Messiah is Emperor Qin himself.

This manual has quietly spread throughout the Martian forging world and has been recognized by many sages and priests. Now, many of them are thinking of bringing their families and assets to settle down in the Qin Dynasty.

Unfortunately, Zhao Zheng was completely unaware of these subtle actions; otherwise, he would have desperately tried to stop them from happening.

With the gradual completion of the Forging World and the continuous increase in the number of Ironborn, the defensive stability and resource development efficiency of the River Heart region have shown a steady upward trend.

Those peripheral star systems that were once marked as "high-risk" in postwar assessments are now nearly half covered by Ironborn patrols and garrison forces.

The remaining peripheral galaxies are being gradually brought into the patrol range, and full coverage is expected to be completed within the next six months.

As Zhao Zheng looked at the updated star map aboard the Lishan, the full coverage of the river center area was moving from plan to reality.

The Ironborn and Imperial Dragon Legion's patrol fleets moved along the planned route, alternating between gray and green markers, with data streams refreshing smoothly on the screen.

Zhao Zheng's gaze lingered on the markings for a moment, then he turned away from the star map and returned to the main control panel.

"Send orders to Isaac and Albert to speed up the construction of the planned Foundry World. If there is a shortage of materials, draw them directly from the strategic reserves of Qiankun Star."

"Also, tell Meng Tian that the coverage of the Ironborn's independent patrol fleet can be extended outwards to include those peripheral star systems that are currently in a gray state in regular monitoring."

After the order was given, Zhao Zheng sat down in front of the control panel.

He seemed to suddenly remember something, reached out and swiped a few times on the panel, brought up the research progress report of the ancestral core underground of Qiankun Star, and read it through.

The research is still progressing slowly, but Zhang Heng and Zu Chongzhi's team have successfully unlocked part of the data layer of the second ancestral core.

That data contained a complete architectural blueprint for planetary energy systems, but with current technology, it was impossible to understand all the details.

Zhao Zheng extracted the blueprint data separately, stored it in his private database, and then closed the panel.

Outside the window, the arc-shaped surface of Qiankun Star shimmered with patches of varying shades of color under the starlight. The underground lights of Chiyang City converged into a vast network of light on the planet's shadowed side. The newly built Ironborn production lines and the soon-to-be-expanded workshops for producing advanced high-tech weapons were stacked layer upon layer deeper underground.

Zhao Zheng's gaze lingered on the light net for a moment before he turned and left the porthole.

He also needed to go to the underground biological laboratory in Chiyang City, where Hua Tuo had made several new discoveries about the stability of gene seeds that he needed to personally confirm.

The production and deployment of the Iron Tribe were just one part of the many parallel tasks currently being undertaken by the Qin Empire.

The expansion of the forging world, the analysis of the ancestral core, the optimization of the gene seed, the newly discovered speedboat STC...

These studies are all progressing simultaneously, and he needs to pay continuous attention to and adjust each one.

When Zhao Zheng entered the underground biological laboratory of Chiyang City, Hua Tuo was standing in front of a row of petri dishes, holding a data board in his hand, his eyes focused on the numbers jumping on it.

Hearing the sound of the elevator door opening, he looked up, bowed slightly in Zhao Zheng's direction, then turned around, picked up one of the petri dishes from the row, and handed it to Zhao Zheng.

"Your Majesty, the stability test results for this batch of genetically modified seeds have just come out, and they are much better than expected."

"Especially the batch of samples you brought back from the Emperor, which were then finely adjusted based on the genetic material extracted from you, now your gene seed has a compatibility rate of 92.7%, and its stability is extremely strong after the successful surgical modification."

Zhao Zheng took the petri dish and took a closer look.

His gene seed looked somewhat terrifying in the dark golden liquid inside the glass tube, somewhat like the juvenile form of Cthulhu.

Even in Zhao Zheng's spiritual vision, he could see that the gene seed was covered with countless eyes, exuding an evil aura.

Was he some kind of evil person? Zhao Zheng didn't quite believe it.

He returned it to Hua Tuo, his gaze sweeping over the several data reports spread out on the operating table.

What is the success rate of the modification surgery?

"Among the 12,000 candidates who underwent surgery in the past six months, the failure rate was about 3%, which is about 10% lower than last year."

Zhao Zheng nodded.

He walked out of the laboratory, paused at the entrance of the elevator shaft, and his gaze fell on the huge holographic screen at the end of the underground corridor.

The screen displays the real-time troop strength statistics of the Emperor Dragon Legion, which are being updated every second and have already exceeded 500,000.

Five hundred thousand! The early stages of the Great Expedition!

Zhao Zheng stood in front of that screen for a long time.

He had previously focused on the development of the Riverheart region and the deployment of the Ironborn, along with the introduction of the Martian Sages and the analysis of the Ancestor Core, which consumed most of his energy.

He hadn't carefully reviewed the overall troop strength data of the Imperial Dragon Legion for some time, so when this number appeared before him, it surprised him for a moment.

Five hundred thousand Space Marines is an extremely exaggerated number, regardless of the era of the human empire.

The Space Marines of the Imperial Dragon Legion are particularly different; even the most ordinary soldiers are at least veteran level when they are deployed alone.

Not to mention the psionic units here; every think tank member is at least an alpha-level psionicist, and some of the outstanding think tank leaders and the fleet's chief think tank members are guaranteed to be at least alpha+ level psionicists.

This is really outrageous; at least Zhao Zheng has never seen any legion this strong so far.

With both strength and expertise, this legion is arguably the strongest in terms of both individual soldier capabilities and psionic units.

Zhao Zhengdu doubted whether the Astartes of the Fifteenth Army Corps could compare to his own sons.

The current Imperial Dragon Legion can be considered the strongest legion in the Empire. Zhao Zheng can confidently say that he believes he could win against any of the Primarchs, even if they all attacked together.

With the advanced technology and power now under the Qin Dynasty's command, Zhao Zheng suddenly became a little arrogant.

Who is Zhao Zheng?

A selfish, greedy, and ruthless tyrant, rarely seen in the world.

Once you have one, you want two; once you have two, you want three. Give him a sweet treat, and he'll snatch it all away. Even when he falls to the ground, he'll grab a handful of mud, unwilling to suffer any loss—a true celestial pixiu.

If you give someone such power and suddenly make him think that he can also benefit from this, wouldn't he do it?

Although there are many things that cannot be revealed to the Empire, it doesn't mean that Zhao Zheng can't use his Primarch identity and current achievements to enrich himself at the expense of the Empire.

Moreover, Zhao Zheng has great foresight; if he wants to be greedy, he absolutely cannot be greedy for just this little bit.

Given Zhao Zheng's status and military achievements, there is only one position that is most suitable for him, no matter how you look at it.

I might as well give this position of War Commander a try!

Chapter 49 Who says this war is boring? This war is fantastic!

Zhao Zheng's thoughts about the position of War Commander lingered in his mind for several days, but ultimately he did not take any concrete action.

He knew very well that this position already had a clear owner in the emperor's plan, and Horus, as the first son, was expected to achieve great things.

Zhao Zheng knew that no matter how many military achievements he had or how powerful his logistical system was, he could not change the emperor's established arrangement for this position in a short period of time.

Moreover, the relationship between Zhao Zheng and the emperor was not like that of father and son at all; they were more like two collaborators, and their relationship could only be described as so-so.

I pay taxes, you provide me with sufficient resources and convenience, and we remain unrelated.

He was the only Primarch who returned early in the Great Crusade but failed to get along well with the Emperor.

The position of War General can be put on hold for now. There's no rush, and the Emperor hasn't even started making arrangements for it yet. Zhao Zheng also has his own things to attend to.