Dragon Canon

At first, Zhao Tong had dismissed Wei Yuan’s argument, but upon closer reflection, it seemed to make some sense.

It was now clear that Wei Yuan had no intention of handing over the eight mystic-artifact-grade giant crossbows. Given Western Jin’s current strained treasury—which wasn’t even enough to fund the training of new troops—Hanyang Pass might not get a replacement in three or even five years.

In other words, for a long time to come, Hanyang Pass would become little more than a decoration, and the defense against the Shamans would rest entirely on Wei Yuan.

Knowing he couldn’t persuade Wei Yuan, Zhao Tong could only stamp his foot in frustration and sigh before saying, “Then give me the straight story so that this eunuch can report back to my superiors—just how far do you plan to expand your territory?”

Wei Yuan took the map, pondered for a moment, and said, “If I were to say I won’t expand eastward, you certainly won’t believe me, nor would His Majesty. However, it is the truth that my primary objective from here on out is to campaign westward against the Shamans. My sphere of activity in the east will be limited to Hanyang Pass only; I won’t cross beyond it.

“However, there’s one precondition: Hanyang Pass must not obstruct the flying vessels and merchant caravans going to and fro Qingming, nor may it set up checkpoints to collect taxes. Otherwise, while others might be fine, but the garrison commander and the deputy garrison commanders will most likely meet with misfortune.”

Zhao Tong was taken aback and said, “You cannot! The garrison commander and deputy garrison commanders are all court-appointed officials holding the fourth rank and lower first rank. It will be most wrong to lay a hand on them!”

Wei Yuan smiled. “If tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rank-and-file soldiers were to die, those high-ranking officials wouldn’t bat an eye. Recall the battle where I had wiped out the Xu Clan’s thirty thousand—didn’t they still come back afterward? But if I kill a few more fourth rank and fifth rank officials, and cut down a couple more Avatar-stage elders, once the blade starts falling on those higher-ups, I guarantee that the number of people willing to go to war with me will drop by more than half. Also, they were all killed by horse bandits—what does it have to do with me?”

Zhao Tong gave a wry smile and said, “You must know when to stop. Otherwise, if you go too far, even I won’t be able to speak on your behalf anymore.”

“As long as the Xu Clan doesn’t go crazy, I definitely won’t put you in a difficult position, Eunuch Zhao. Besides, it’s the Shamans whom I share a blood feud with at the moment.”

“I’m glad to hear that. If there is nothing else, this eunuch will return and report back.”

After Zhao Tong left, Wei Yuan finally opened the royal decree and skimmed through it. The decree rebuked him for deploying troops without authorization and crossing the border to make arrests. The language was extremely harsh, berating Wei Yuan like a bucket of dog blood pouring down on someone’s head[1], but in reality, it did not specify a single concrete punitive measure.

Wei Yuan casually tossed the decree into the trash can and returned to the central peak.

His residence at the central peak had been completely rebuilt and expanded several times over. The main hall in the front courtyard now served as the regular meeting place for the cultivators of the Palace of Absolute Beginning. The left wing housed a sand table of the realm, where Wei yuan and his associates devised development strategies, and the right wing was lined with shelves full of maps covering the entire human realm.

Wei Yuan approached the sand table map and carefully studied the terrain in the northwest. He was contemplating where best to build a new city and deploy his newly acquired giant crossbows.

The giant crossbows had a maximum range of 200 li, with guidable projectiles possessing enough power to kill an ordinary Avatar. It was truly a formidable weapon. However, Avatars were not, in fact, its juiciest prey. It was large aerial targets such as flying vessels.

Of the eight giant crossbows brought back this time, Wei Yuan planned to deploy only two toward the Shamans. Of the remaining six, he would deploy four toward the Xu Clan and two in the center of the realm for defense.

Wei Yuan stood in front of the sand table for four whole hours, mapping out a northwesterly advance route and making numerous markings along the way. He marked where to build fortifications, where to establish staging camps, how the main force would split into columns, and even the number of troops in each column and their pace of advance.

Ahead along this route, far beyond the sand table, lay Wei Yuan’s ultimate destination: Redleaf’s Kingdom of Rain.

After finalizing the strategy, Wei Yuan received word that the eight giant crossbows had been transported back. He immediately summoned Yu Zhizhuo to go and take delivery of the giant crossbows.

Upon hearing this news, Yu Zhizhuo immediately set aside all his current tasks and summoned all his junior brothers from the Mastercraft Hall.

The convoy transporting the giant crossbows slowly entered Qingming. It consisted of over eighty wagons as a single giant crossbow took ten full large wagons to carry after disassembly.

Following the predetermined plan, Wei yuan had four giant crossbows transported to Xuanwei Three and Xuanwei Four respectively. The remaining four were sent to the center of the realm. Both of these defensive cities were facing east; anyone leading troops out of Hanyang Pass to attack Qingming would have to pass through the vicinity of these two first.

Wei Yuan had already ordered the men to construct two elevated platforms within the two defensive cities in advance. They served as pedestals for the giant crossbows.

When the giant crossbows were disassembled, Wei Yuan had already ordered his men to draw detailed diagrams of each part, along with their installation location and sequences. The most critical component of a giant crossbow was the main body, assembled from four identical base beams, followed by four bow arms. The primary mystic arrays were engraved on the base beams, and each of the four base beams featured a distinct array.

Yu Zhizhuo inspected the parts while taking notes. Several of his junior brothers each took on specific tasks, using tools to measure all the parts before recording the measurements on the blueprints. This way, once they had thoroughly studied the design, Qingming would be able to craft its own giant crossbows.

The mystic arrays on a giant crossbow’s main body were primarily designed to increase range. The arrays for tracking, mystic-piercing, killing and more were engraved on the crossbow bolts. Hanyang Pass had equipped each giant crossbow with ten bolts, and of course, Wei Yuan had brought them back as well.

The group worked tirelessly for nearly half a day until Yu Zhizhuo finally completed the blueprints for all the crossbow’s components and recorded all the mystic arrays. Then, several Mastercraft Hall disciples began directing the cultivators to reassemble the crossbows. Meanwhile, Yu Zhizhuo organized all the blueprints while constantly making calculations.

Wei Yuan asked, “Well? Can we build them?”

“No problem. These giant crossbows are very old designs; the main challenge is sourcing the materials, and there’s plenty of room for improvement in the design. Give me some time, and I should be able to build even better ones.”

“How much will that cost?”

Yu Zhizhuo silently ran some calculations before answering, “Including fifty crossbow bolts, no more than two hundred thousand taels of immortal silver.”

Wei Yuan was taken aback. “That little? Western Jin spent one point five million taels just to build a single one!”

“You must be joking!” Yu Zhizhuo’s first reaction was disbelief, but when realization struck him, he sighed and said, “No wonder their treasury is always empty. It would be a miracle if it were ever full.”

Wei Yuan was also struck by the same realization. Although such incidents were as many as there were ox hairs in the history books, actually encountering one such incident and discovering the sheer magnitude of the price difference still left him speechless.

If Yu Zhizhuo’s improved giant crossbow cost only 200,000 taels, how much could the original version possibly be worth?

“Senior Uncle Yu, how much do you think these giant crossbows are worth?”

Yu Zhizhuo had been crafting artifacts for many years and had long since reached the level of a master—what kind of materials hadn’t he seen? After a moment’s estimation, he said, “One hundred and twenty thousand taels, and not a tael more.”

Wei Yuan could only sigh. “The gall of these people!”

A giant crossbow that cost 120,000 taels to produce was sold to the court for 1.5 million taels—a markup of over eleven times. By comparison, Wei Yuan had sold a set of cuirass for twenty taels, while the Zhao military had purchased them for fifty taels—a markup of only 1.5 times. Perhaps this was the reason why Zhao was so much more prosperous than Western Jin.

However, despite knowing that the Zhao military’s procurement price was fifty taels, Qingming’s cuirass could only be sold for twenty taels. The thirty taels in the gap between twenty and fifty were not profit Wei Yuan could pocket. Where did the thirty taels go, some might wonder? They had gone to the exact same place as the price difference of over 1.3 million taels for the giant crossbow had gone—the seven Surnames and Thirteen Honored.

“Should we build a few of these? Give me a month, and I can complete the design for a new bed crossbow.” Yu Zhizhuo rubbed his hands together with anticipation. He had a natural fascination with this kind of giant war machine.

But Wei Yuan shook his head and said, “Our resources are limited right now. We should focus on building more flying-sword guns first.”

Yu Zhizhuo gave him a look before replying in a meaningful tone, “I understand.”

Guns and giant crossbows represented two completely different strategic directions. Bed crossbows were formidable defensive weapons, but guns were designed for offense.

As the giant crossbows were transported back, tens of thousands of prisoners of war also arrived in waves. It had been a somewhat complicated process: these prisoners had been captured by the Heaven Fighting Gang, but shortly thereafter, Wei Yuan’s army had arrived and routed the horse bandits, rescuing them.

However, the military commissioner’s kindness had to be repaid, and there were only two ways to do so: their money or their body.

Most of these rank-and-file soldiers were still new recruits who had only recently been commissioned. Of course they wouldn’t have a coin on them. As for those with money, they had long since paid their way to become officers. So in the end, they had no choice but to sell their body: they had to serve the military commissioner for a full decade. Of course, if they truly couldn’t bear it and wished to buy their freedom early, that was also possible—at a rate of fifty taels of immortal silver per year, with the remaining amount depending on how many years of service remained. It all came down to whether a wealthy patron was willing to pay the ransom[2].

Truth be told, the smarter ones had all heard about the connection between the Heaven Fighting Gang and Qingming, but it was precisely because they were smart that none of them said a word about it.

Given the military commissioner’s status, the fact that he was willing to put on such a show for everyone was already a sign of his regard. If they continued to be ungrateful and truly angered him, they might as well have consigned themselves to labor in the mines until death.

Although the ranks of the over 40,000 defenders at Hanyang Pass were definitely padded with fillers, their overall quality still surpassed that of the Xu Clan’s private army and far above other official troops. The officers in the ranks had also been weeded out—they had all been released after they paid their ransom. Thus, all that remained were pure, Body-tempering-stage soldiers.

In addition, over 100,000 refugees were making their way over to Qingming. Wei Yuan estimated that within a few days, Qingming’s population would surpass one million. He was truly stretched to the limit this time—he hadn’t even had time to process the prisoners from his first major battle against the Xu Clan, and now he had hundreds of thousands more, with thousands of refugees joining their ranks every day.

The more than 500,000 who had joined later were all men and women in the prime of their lives, and they were still in time to undergo body-tempering. Once they broke through the first level of the Body-tempering stage and were fully equipped, wouldn’t their combat strength more than double?

Wei Yuan decided to lie low for the time being, absorbing this influx of people and building up his strength. At the very latest, by the harvest season after next, it would finally be time for the main army to strike.

1. An idiom. I mean, surely I don’t need to explain to you what it means? ☜

2. If you think this whole paragraph is subtly sexual, that’s because it is. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ☜