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

Felus received Li Jing aboard the Legion's flagship, the "Iron Fist," which had been renamed the Iron Hand.

Currently, only the First Legion and Shadowmoon Wolves are truly equipped with the Glory Queen among the major legions. The others are currently in the process of being equipped, and the efficiency of these guys is exceptionally slow.

When he first saw Li Jing, his gaze lingered for a moment on the figure of the Astartes from the Imperial Dragon Legion.

Are all of this brother's offspring this tall?

Ferrus quickly looked away and led him toward the bridge.

How many ships does your fleet have? What firepower modules are assigned to them?

"Eight hundred capital ships, three thousand escort ships, equipped with modified Great Wall-class heavy firepower modules and new Star Shattering Cannons, ground assault vehicles such as Odin, Thor, and Goliath mechs, and heavy armored tanks are all in the fleet, ready to be deployed to the ground battlefield at any time."

Ferrus did not stop walking after hearing the numbers, but Li Jing could see a trace of information being rapidly processed in his cold white eyes.

Eight hundred capital ships and three thousand escort ships—this is equivalent to the core strength of several complete expeditionary fleets.

He knew immediately from the names "Great Wall-class Heavy Firepower Module" and "Star-Shattering Cannon" that they were definitely not standard equipment of the Empire.

He glanced back at Li Jing to confirm that the general of the Imperial Dragon Legion was not exaggerating, then looked away and continued walking toward the bridge.

The bridge of the Ironfist is quite spacious, and the interior decoration style is very consistent with Felus's own personality, with dark gray metal as the main color, simple lines, and no superfluous decorations.

The walls were embedded with rows of screens displaying fleet status and star map data. Several officers in silver-gray power armor stood in front of the main control console, exchanging information about the current course in hushed tones.

Ferrus stood to the side of the main control panel, turned his head to gesture to the officer next to him, and brought up the star map of the Medusa partition. The holographic projection slowly unfolded in the center of the bridge, marking the signal sources scattered in that gray area one by one.

He pointed to the nearest neighboring galaxy to Medusa.

"The Stuia system, formerly a human colony, has now been occupied by aliens. Our first battle is to take back this system."

"Orbital scans show that its surface architecture leans towards heavy industrialization, but the social structure of this alien race has primitive tribal characteristics. Judging from the distribution density of settlements, they should have been thriving here for thousands of years. The specific species still needs to be confirmed on-site."

Li Jing stood half a step behind him, his gaze also falling on the marker. After confirming the target's coordinates, his eyes quickly swept across the distribution of the surrounding star systems, taking into account the possible routes and potential threat nodes one by one.

“I’ve heard my brother say that you’re an all-around war genius, but here, you have to take my orders.”

"Understood, Father has already given instructions."

Ferrus paused for a moment when he heard the Imperial Dragon Legion address Zhao Zheng.

This brother seems to have ulterior motives within the empire.

"The Stuia system has only two habitable planets; the rest are mining planets. You have only one goal: to stop all their reinforcements before I completely exterminate the aliens on their home planet."

Li Jing nodded; this was a small task, nothing more than a favor.

I just don't know how to deliberately show the Ironborn to Ferus, so that when Ferus becomes curious, he will naturally go to Qiankun Star.

That will be the moment when Ferrus gets on the pirate ship!

Zhao Zheng had already made preparations.

Chapter Sixty-Three: You want me to go rescue Horus?

On the third night after Zhao Zheng returned to Qiankun Star, the communication panel of the Lishan ship lit up with an encrypted signal.

The signal source was marked "Terra-Military Affairs Department-Priority: Emergency". After being relayed and encrypted by multiple Star Speaker relay stations, it carried several layers of verification marks when it arrived in the orbit of Qiankun Star.

At that time, Zhao Zheng was in the ancestral core laboratory underground in Chiyang City, standing behind Zhang Heng and Zu Chongzhi watching them conduct a new round of data layer debugging.

He was also researching necromancer weapons, Gauss weapons, and phase weapons.

Living metal is not a problem, but the technology of the necromancers is a big problem for the Qin Dynasty at present.

The Great Sage and the Qin research team were completely helpless against these undead weapons captured in the early years.

While its strength may not be exceptionally high, its technological sophistication is truly top-notch, as exemplified by this Gauss rifle.

In the necromancer world, this is purely a weapon used by the lowest-ranking necromancer warriors, but the Qin Dynasty has no way of researching it now.

If the Gauss rifle could be developed, the Qin Dynasty would be more than ten times stronger in close combat and frontal assaults!

After all, if Zhao Zheng has a Gauss rifle, he can also make a Gauss cannon. What city wall or fortress could withstand such a shot?

The Star-Shattering Cannon is useful, but its power is too great. One shot can destroy an entire planet, making it pointless for the Qin Dynasty to fight such a war, since the purest essence of war is plunder.

Although the Great Crusade is now aimed at reclaiming the galaxy and eradicating the aliens, this does not conflict with reclaiming planets. Otherwise, where would all those vast resources come from? Where would the endless resources that the Emperor spent building the Web come from?

Wasn't it all collected by Makado from those reclaimed worlds through heavy taxes?

Most importantly, the Emperor, that bastard, loved to use Macardo as a scapegoat, which caused the Primarchs to direct their hatred towards this hardworking Imperial Chancellor during the Great Crusade.

Russ is the only one who has a good relationship with Old Ma. Guilliman only treats Macardo well because of his Ottara and his own personality.

Every single one of the other Primarchs has any goodwill towards Makado.

People like Anglong and Luojia wish they could devour Macardo whole.

The Emperor is a man like that. I don't expect you to have high emotional intelligence, but you should at least have some. None of the Primarchs could sort out the conflicts between them. It was all thanks to Horus mediating things.

The main problem is, Horus is such a troublemaker! How can one person possibly coordinate so many brothers?

Therefore, the root of all these problems, heavy taxes, must be controlled. At least in the Qin Dynasty, taxes should not be so heavy that people cannot breathe.

This is also the main reason why Zhao Zheng wanted to conceal the truth from the world under the Qin Dynasty; otherwise, the heavy taxes levied by the empire alone would have caused rebellions to erupt one after another in the world under the Qin Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhao Zheng values ​​the advanced technology he currently possesses. This technology can only be used by his own world and legion, and must never be exposed to his brothers and legion.

After all, apart from Guilliman and Dorn, none of the others could give Zhao Zheng any peace of mind.

If they actually get their hands on these things, who knows what kind of trouble they might cause on their home planet.

Zhao Zheng didn't want to say anything more about his brothers' stubbornness. Now he just wanted to quickly develop a technology that could enhance the military strength of Qin, and then win over enough brothers for the future position of war commander.

Regardless, we must first seize the initiative. Then we can completely separate all the major legions. If anyone dares to rebel, Zhao Zheng will personally use the Star-Shattering Cannon to blow them all up!

Without the Primarchs' rebellion, how would Chaos fight the Empire?

A Chaos God? He can leave the subspace and come to the real universe to speak with Zhao Zheng!

Can't get out? Then wait until Zhao Zheng develops Blackstone Technology and Necromancer Technology, and then bark like a dog when the counterattack on the subspace comes to our doorstep!

Of course, it was too early for all of this. Zhao Zheng looked at the Gauss rifle but still couldn't figure it out.

This technology, which can cut matter at the molecular level, is incredibly advanced. Most importantly, it can recycle these substances and continue to emit Gaussian rays, repeating this cycle endlessly. In essence, it consumes almost no energy at all.

If this weapon could be deployed, we wouldn't need to go through the trouble of airdropping general cannons from the rails when encountering fortified strongholds; we could simply dismantle them.

Of course, Zhao Zheng didn't get anything, but the laboratory did.

The technology for extracting energy media from the ancestral core has entered a stable mass production stage, and Zhang Heng is attempting to improve this part of the energy media as an independent energy system for a new batch of Ironborn.

When the communications officer's message reached the laboratory, Zhao Zheng had temporarily abandoned his research on Gauss weapons and was looking through the improvement plan that Zhang Heng had just printed out.

Zhao Zheng paused for a moment in the notes section for "Experimental Adaptation," then put down the report and took the encrypted panel handed to him by the communications officer.

He glanced at the information on the panel, then paused for a moment.

"His Majesty?"

"It's alright, you can go out now."

The communications officer responded and left the laboratory, the heavy, adamantine doors closing silently behind him.

Zhao Zheng then looked at the message sent personally by the Emperor on the panel.

"The Shadowmoon Wolf's frontal offensive in the Merodo Sector of the Misty Starfield has encountered a bottleneck. The strength of this alien empire has exceeded pre-war estimates."

"After a year of continuous attacks, Horus's fleet has failed to break through the enemy's outer defenses and has entered a stalemate."

"Your fleet is currently the only one in the Imperial system that possesses an overwhelming advantage in terms of heavy firepower suppression and naval coordination. Horus needs support."

After reading the text, Zhao Zheng put down the panel and casually placed it on top of a stack of data panels next to him.

As he turned back to the control console, the officer on duty had already retrieved the complete star map of the Merodo sector as instructed by him.

A holographic projection unfolded in the center of the bridge, displaying the gray star cluster one by one, with the coordinates of the alien defense platform marked by densely distributed red dots at the entrances of each channel.

Zhao Zheng's gaze lingered on the red dots for a moment, without making an immediate judgment. He zoomed out the star map to a global view and then marked the coordinates of several key nodes one by one in the sidebar of the tactical panel.

“Father… Your Majesty, this is the latest frontline report. From the discovery of this sector to the start of the war, and then to Lord Horus personally leading the attack, the Shadowmoon Wolves have now been locked in a stalemate on the front lines for a full eight months.”

A communications officer, at the prompting of the officer on duty, began to report.

"This is the most powerful alien empire the Empire has encountered on the front lines so far. Its strength far surpasses all the aliens it has seen before, and it is not much weaker than the space dwarves."

"Moreover, some of the Empire's fleet commanders now believe that without your help, Lord Horus would probably have to continue this stalemate with them for a long time."

This alien's technological level is definitely not low; this is the first time since the Great Expedition that humanity has encountered an opponent of this caliber.

It's normal that Horus was blocked. In the early stages of the Great Crusade, the Empire was not so powerful and resources were particularly scarce. There were cases where it might take several legions to attack powerful aliens for several years to conquer them.

The most famous of them all is the Randan Xenomorph, which was the strongest Xenomorph the Empire would ever encounter, bar none.

Moreover, this alien creature is very likely the reason why Zhao Zheng and his army were wiped out.

Therefore, no matter what, Zhao Zheng will definitely have to personally deal with Ran Dan's alien.

He wanted to see what kind of bullshit Ran Dan could withstand the bombardment of a star!

If there were, Zhao Zheng would drag a few stars over and blow up the entire galaxy!

If one star system isn't enough, then bomb a star sector; if one star sector isn't enough, then bomb ten!

Zhao Zheng refused to believe it. He had already blown up so many areas; what could Ran Dan possibly do now?

If there are still any left, there's nothing we can do but let the Emperor go and release the Martian Dragon.

Zhao Zheng zoomed out the holographic star map to the overall picture, confirmed the location of the Merodo star sector in the entire hazy star field, and then turned and walked out of the laboratory.

He had already made his decision on his way back to the Lishan: supporting Horus was essential.

Although Zhao Zheng had no good feelings towards Horus, from the perspective of the Empire's strategy, the alien Empire in the Merodo Sector did indeed need to be dealt with as soon as possible.

Allowing one of the Empire's most elite fleets to remain stationed for too long on the outer perimeter of an alien empire would have a significant negative impact on the overall pace of the Great Expedition.

Although he can now deceive the emperor's orders, it doesn't mean he wants the Great Expedition to proceed slowly.

The sooner the empire reclaims more of the world, the more advantageous it will be for the current empire.

If the Emperor's network can be repaired faster, then it's better to do so quickly. Discovering problems early will help us know how to improve the repair process.

Furthermore, if Zhao Zheng could easily defeat an enemy that even Horus couldn't conquer, he would have more confidence and leverage in his future competition for the position of War General.

We just need to be well-prepared. We must win this battle decisively, but we can't afford to suffer too many losses, and we absolutely cannot allow Horus to gain any advantage from this! Absolutely not!

"Send orders to the five marshals Bai Qi, Han Xin, Wang Jian, Sun Wu, and Yue Yi, instructing them to suspend their respective expeditions and lead their main fleets to the designated coordinates on the outskirts of the Merodo star system."

"I will personally lead the First Expeditionary Fleet of the Lishan this time, and we expect to arrive at the outer edge of the Merodo Sector in about a month."

"In addition, tell our logistics fleet and the Imperial Military Affairs Department that the Second Legion's support fleet is already on its way."

"Also, urge those mechanics at the shipyards on Mars and Jupiter. Our Glory Queen needs to be delivered as soon as possible. It's been almost twenty years! And it still hasn't been built!"

The day after the order was issued, the First Expeditionary Fleet, led by the Lishan, completed its assembly in orbit around Qiankun Star.

Zhao Zheng stood in front of the porthole on the bridge, watching the dark gray ships gradually merge into the formation under the starlight. From the Great Wall-class battleships to the Ironborn unmanned ships, and then to the landing barges carrying heavy mechs and ground troops, each ship had completed ammunition replenishment and refueling.

The outlines of the ships stood out sharply against the dark backdrop of space outside the window, maintaining a neat formation like a bow being drawn back.

Zhao Zheng turned his head, his gaze sweeping over the data screens displaying the formation status on the side of the main control panel. He confirmed that all ships were in standby mode, and then issued the departure order to the officer on duty.

"set sail."

……

Based on reconnaissance data, the alien empire's defense system is indeed more sophisticated in structure than any of the opponents it has encountered before.

The spacing and fire coverage of the orbital defense platforms have been meticulously calculated, leaving virtually no blind spots.

The fleet maintained a loose column formation along its route, slowly advancing along several gravitational wave convergence points on the outer edge of the star sector.

Any fleet attempting a frontal breakthrough would find itself caught in crossfire from multiple directions once it entered effective firing range, leaving virtually no room for maneuver.

Moreover, their number of ships is quite considerable. Judging from the number estimated by the reconnaissance ships while maintaining a safe distance, the total number of ships deployed by the enemy in the Merodo sector is at least in the five figures.

The fact that Horus was able to hold out here for a whole year shows that this guy's military skills are quite up to par.

Zhao Zheng didn't care much about war and hadn't systematically studied any tactics, but he could tell that if the Empire forced an attack here with insufficient firepower and manpower, it would definitely suffer heavy losses.

Horus is already doing a great job of stabilizing the front lines.