Although the roar of the steam engine still echoed over the Longshou Plain, Liu Xun knew only too well that this steel behemoth was just a greedy glutton. Without a constant supply of 'black gold', it would be nothing more than a heap of scrap metal.
'The study of things begins with coal and iron.' Liu Xun marked two large black areas on the map, encompassing Bingzhou (Shanxi) and Liaodong. 'Issue my decree: establish the "Great Han Royal Mining Bureau".' The black stones of these two regions belong exclusively to the state. Those who mine them privately will be considered traitors.'
Although Liu Xun had already neutralised the infiltration of the Sage's disciples using high-pressure steam, a greater obstacle arose from within the Great Han: high-quality coking coal lay buried beneath Shanxi and Liaodong, dormant for millennia. To the powerful, it was just black stone used for heating, but to Liu Xun, it was the fuel that would power the Great Han's rise.
[System Real-Time Calculation]
Current industrial shortage: 5,000 tons of raw coal per day
- Existing production capacity: Less than 200 tons (relying on small-scale manual mining).
Consequences: If a stable coal supply cannot be achieved within three months, the first batch of steam looms and water pumps will be grounded.
In a side hall of the Wang family's residence in Taiyuan, Shanxi.
'His Majesty is trying to cut off our roots!' A fat, burly landlord slammed his fist on the table. 'The underground black stones of Bingzhou have been the source of our Wang family's profits for generations. Now, what kind of 'Mining Bureau' is this, trying to seal off the mountains and seize the mines with a piece of paper?' These local tyrants had colluded with the government to incite the miners and had even set traps at the mine entrances. What they didn't know was that they were not fighting a greedy emperor, but a 'tyrant' eager to bring about a leap in civilisation.
Liu Xun began his reign as a "ruthless enforcer of order". Rather than dispatching troops immediately to suppress the rebellion, he first issued a 'shareholding decree': those who voluntarily donated their mines would receive 5% of Royal Mining's shares and enjoy dividends, while those who failed to do so would have their land reclaimed and their family heads blacklisted. Their descendants for three generations would also be barred from taking Royal Academy of Sciences examinations.
'Your Majesty, we have received a reply from Taiyuan.' Zhou Meng gripped the hilt of his sword, his eyes icy. 'They say the mountain roads are treacherous, making the imperial edict difficult to carry out. The Black Stone is a place where disturbing the earth would startle a dragon — it must not be opened under any circumstances.' 'Startle a dragon?' 'I am the Heavenly Dragon!' Zhou Meng, take your musketeer brigade. Since they think the mountain roads are treacherous, you will use explosives to blaze a road to heaven for me there!"
While the powerful clans were still gathering their private armies and preparing to fight the court with crude guns and cannons, Zhou Meng's troops had already arrived. Instead of charging, they dragged out the newly developed 'steam-compression mortar' from the Academy of Sciences.
'Bang!' As a cloud of white smoke exploded, the powerful clans' fortified strongholds crumbled like paper before the specially prepared, highly concentrated black powder. Standing on the ruins, Zhou Meng waved the mining permit personally signed by Liu Xun and sneered at the wailing clansmen: 'Times have changed, old man. His Majesty's boilers are waiting to be lit. Your heads aren't even as hard as lumps of coal.'" "As the first batch of tens of thousands of tonnes of high-quality coking coal from Shanxi and Liaodong was transported continuously to Chang'an via the Grand Canal, the values on the system panel began to soar.
[System Prompt]
[Coal Hegemony] Achievement: 40%
Industrial Productivity Bonus: +200%
- Unlocked buildings: Coking Plant, Steam Train Dispatch Station (Prototype)
- Negative Impact:
- Negative impact: Remnants of powerful clans in Shanxi fled west, offering the Han Dynasty's gunpowder formula to the 'Sage'.
Liu Xun looked at the small mountain of black coal piled outside Weiyang Palace and took a deep breath as if smelling the alluring sulphurous scent of industrial civilisation.
'Gunpowder has been provided, but without my steel, their cannons will only explode.' He turned to Mo Li. "We have the coal. I want to hear the first whistle of the 'Chang'an-Taiyuan' railway line within three months!'
Outside Taiyuan, in front of the ancestral hall of the powerful Wang clan of Bingzhou, banners blocked out the sun. These were not the dragon flags of the Han dynasty, but those of the 'Green Guard Corps', composed of thousands of private soldiers. Wielding homemade spears and carrying rusty bronze cannons left over from the previous dynasty, they chanted slogans such as 'The railway severs the dragon vein; the black stone terrifies the earth'.
Meanwhile, Liu Xun sat in his command post in Longshouyuan, a hundred miles away. Before him was a system-enhanced 'real-time three-dimensional battlefield sandbox'. He lightly touched the coordinates of the Wang clan of Taiyuan with his fingertip; his eyes held no anger, only detached indifference born of a profound understanding of historical inevitability.
'Your Majesty, the Wang family has allied with seven powerful clans in Bingzhou, coercing tens of thousands of people to block the planned railway line.' Gongshu Qi was sweating profusely. 'If we force the construction, I fear I will be branded a "tyrant". As for the civil officials..."
'Civil officials?' Liu Xun chuckled lightly and slowly rose to his feet. 'Gongshu, remember this: when the axle of the steam engine begins to turn, any flesh and blood standing in its way will merely be lubricant.' I gave them shares; I gave them dignity. Now, I will annihilate them.'
[System Command]: Mobilise 300 'S-level System Special Forces - Dragon Guard Battalion'. Mission nature: physical obstacle clearance (ignores all casual defences). Cooperating unit: 'Imperial Guard – Zhenfu Division' (responsible for intelligence gathering and subsequent raids).
The Wang family's heavily fortified fortress in Taiyuan was no match for the Dragon Guard Battalion. In the dead of night, there were no towering flames or deafening battle cries.
Wearing graphene tactical vests and carrying silenced, high-pressure air crossbows, the special forces soldiers moved through the building like ghosts from another dimension. Using infrared life detectors, they located the bedrooms of the powerful clan's core members with precision. The Imperial Guards followed closely behind, carrying charges of treason prepared in advance.
One of the clan's instructors had just drawn his sword when a bloody hole appeared between his eyebrows. He hadn't even heard the bowstring click; he only saw a blue blur flash by.
At dawn, the people of Taiyuan emerged from their homes, rubbing their sleepy eyes, only to find, in horror, that the once-powerful Wang family mansion had been reduced to a desolate ruin overnight. There were no rivers of blood and no broken walls; all of the core figures and die-hard leaders, along with their elite private armies, had "physically vanished". Instead, a notice posted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard read: 'The Wang family of Bingzhou colluded with Western saints, intending to destroy a vital national asset. They have been executed. Their land, property and coal mines have been confiscated and transferred to the Imperial Mining Bureau of the Han Dynasty.'
Liu Xun began his 'top-tier performance: the unpredictable and aloof ruler'. Although he did not appear in Taiyuan, he issued an order that terrified all the powerful clans of the land: wherever the Wang family had obstructed the laying of railway tracks, a copper coin engraved with the surname of a powerful local clan had to be buried under every sleeper to 'perpetually suppress the earth's energy'.
'I don't need their understanding; I only need their fear. Fear is the lowest-cost ticket to civilisation.' Liu Xun watched the railway tracks extend rapidly from Longshou Plain.
Following the 'physical removal' of the powerful clans of Taiyuan, Bingzhou's coal supply tripled immediately. The first experimental train, fully loaded with coking coal, sounded its whistle for the first time on the smooth tracks. [System notification] Bingzhou's 'resistance coefficient' has been reset to zero and the Industrial Revolution is 22% complete.
Unlock rewards: Heavy-Duty Winch Technology and Primary Coal Preparation Process.
Current status: Rails have been laid to the outskirts of Luoyang.
Standing atop the speeding locomotive (currently travelling at just 20 kilometres per hour), Liu Xun felt the coal-smoke-laden breeze blow in his face. Looking ahead, he murmured to himself:
'Luoyang is the last tombstone of the old era. Only when the train enters Luoyang will my 'Great Man of Investigation' truly have a firm foothold.'
The blood of the powerful clans of Bingzhou had barely dried on the land when wagons laden with high-quality coking coal from Taiyuan began winding their way along the newly laid railway tracks, like long black dragons, into the Chang'an Royal Academy of Sciences.
Liu Xun stood beside the towering, modern blast furnace. The "Energy Integration" task had been completed, and the system in his mind resonated with a crisp metallic sound.
[System Reward Distribution] Achievement 'Energy Hegemony' unlocked; core blueprint 'Krupp Blast Furnace – Chinese Version Improved' unlocked; key technologies 'Coke Desulfurisation Process', 'Hot Blast Preheating Technology', and 'Limestone Slag Removal' assessed; output and quality of Han Dynasty steel to experience 'leap of magnitude'.
'Gongshu Qi, dismantle all those rudimentary smelting furnaces for me!' Liu Xun waved his hand and a faintly glowing blueprint fell into Gongshu Qi's hand. 'Before, we used charcoal; the firepower was weak and unstable. Now, I'll give you coke — molten iron that has accumulated underground for millennia! I want this molten iron to flow and build the Han Dynasty's empire!'
In the forbidden zone of the Longshou Plain, a huge steel blast furnace rose from the ground.
As Liu Xun personally activated the blower, the coke burned fiercely inside the furnace and the temperature instantly exceeded 1500°C. Tempered by limestone, the originally stubborn iron ore shed its bitterness and impurities, transforming into pure, reddish-brown molten iron that flowed like a dragon.
'Your Majesty, this molten iron... it's alive!' The elderly craftsman Mo Li knelt beside the outlet, tears streaming down his face. He had spent his entire life forging weapons, and had never witnessed such a pure, violent torrent of metal.Liu Xun wasn't satisfied with pure iron. He extracted the manganese ore that he had collected in Sindhu, India, from his system space, and ordered the first batch of 'alloy steel' experiments to begin. When the first ring-pommel sword infused with manganese was pulled from the cooling oil tank, the entire ironworks seemed to resonate with a clear, melodious clang.
[Performance comparison] Old ring-pommel sword: used a hot-rolling process, prone to chipping and poor wear resistance. New manganese steel blade: high toughness and hardness; even in intense combat, the blade will become brighter with use and will never break.
Liu Xun gripped the hilt and, with a casual swing, cleanly severed a solid iron pillar as thick as a child's arm. The cut was as smooth as a mirror, with not even a trace of white on the blade.
"Zhou Meng, catch!" Liu Xun hurled the longsword at the kneeling Dragon Guard commander. 'Pass on my decree: the entire Dragon Guard and Embroidered Uniform Guard must change uniforms. Let the so-called 'Western Saint' know that his 'biochemical divine body' is nothing but rotten meat before the manganese steel of the Han Dynasty."
Liu Xun activated his 'Ultimate Performance: Iron-Blooded Emperor." Standing before the blast furnace, bathed in red light, his eyes burned brighter than molten steel. 'The land of the Han Dynasty will be connected by rails, and its dignity will be protected by manganese steel. Anyone who dares to defy me will be crushed into dust by this torrent of steel!" As the first batch of manganese steel swords rolled off the production line, the 'Environmental Pressure Value' on the system panel turned red for the first time.
System monitoring: Air quality around Chang'an has declined due to the operation of the massive blast furnace.
Causal Fluctuations: The surge in steel production has caused surrounding small countries to panic, and an anti-Han alliance is gathering secretly in the western forests.
Liu Xun's note: So what if black smoke blankets the sky? As long as I hold this steel sword, the world will only have one colour.'
The blast furnace roared and manganese steel flew everywhere as the industrial behemoth of the Han dynasty took shape. However, after three hours of running the first experimental high-pressure steam engine, a piercing gas screech erupted from the Weiyang Palace Academy. Without high-strength sealing materials, the scalding steam broke through the bronze flanges. The entire machine fell into instant, lifeless silence.
Looking at the mess on the floor, Liu Xun wiped the condensation from his face and said with icy eyes, 'Your Majesty, I deserve to die! I tried cowhide, hemp rope and even lacquered silk, but under that pressure they were like paper, turning to mush in less than an hour."
Liu Xun stared silently at the system panel:
[System Diagnosis] Current Industrial Bottleneck: Lack of high-polymer sealing materials
Core need: Natural rubber
Applications: Steam engine piston rings, high-pressure pipeline gaskets, future cable insulation and heavy-duty wheels.
Origin: Han Dynasty, Southern Ocean Company Province (present-day Southeast Asian rainforests).
'Without rubber, my steel is just a pile of leaky scrap iron.' Liu Xun turned to the south, drawing a heavy line across the Strait of Malacca on the map. "Issue my decree: initiate the 'Forest Hunting Plan.' Tell the Governor-General of Nanyang that I don't want gold or silver, but rather the 'white gold' that flows from the trees.'
At that time, the Great Han Nanyang Province was surrounded by miasma and tribes. Armed with manganese steel machetes and miasma-proof masks, a pioneering army broke through the gates of the tropical rainforest aboard a paddle steamer billowing black smoke, in accordance with Liu Xun's imperial edict.
'His Majesty decrees: the sap from each "rubber tree" shall be equivalent to the tax of one able-bodied labourer!'
The Governor-General of Nanyang brandished his whip in the blazing sun. This was not gentle trade, but the first plundering of the primeval rainforest by industrial civilisation. Tens of thousands of indigenous people were forced to join 'rubber tapping teams', carving the expansionist marks of the Han dynasty onto tree bark in the damp, decaying jungle according to the 'standard rubber tapping charts' issued by the Academy of Sciences.
To ensure that these viscous latexes reached Chang'an before they spoiled, Liu Xun took on the role of 'Lord of the Seas', consolidating all the large sailing ships in the region and installing the Academy's newly developed 'low-pressure reciprocating steam engine' as auxiliary power.
Starting from Malacca and passing the Pearl River Estuary, the Sea Highway headed north along the East China Sea and directly upstream along the Yellow River into Guanzhong. Using the 'vulcanisation reaction analysis chart' awarded by the system, Liu Xun established rudimentary rubber-boiling factories in Southeast Asia for the initial processing of raw rubber.
Along the way, countless sailors died from malaria and drowning, but as long as Liu Xun could outrun the system within 300 days, all the sacrifices were merely numbers on reports. At a secret meeting in Weiyang Palace, Liu Xun glanced at the newly vulcanised black rubber blocks that had just arrived and casually tossed them to the trembling Southeast Asian merchants.
'Do you think I'm too cruel?' Liu Xun lit a menthol-scented cigarette; his eyes were unfathomable behind the smoke. 'Without these rubber pads, the Han Dynasty's cannons couldn't fire accurately. Without these sealing rings, your children would have to walk long distances. I brought refined language and medicine to Southeast Asia, and they gave me some rubber in return—it's fair.'
He activated his 'pressure field' and the temperature in the entire hall seemed to plummet. The merchants kowtowed repeatedly, not daring to utter another word about 'excessive labour in Southeast Asia'. As the first batch of rubber sealing rings was installed on the pistons of the 'Qilin' steam locomotive, the system emitted a clear 'ding-dong' sound.
[System Prompt] [Key Material – Rubber] Supply chain established; Industrial Revolution Progress: 35%; Core Breakthrough: [Airtightness] Perfectly Achieved; Reward: [Pneumatic Braking System] (The train can finally brake safely).
Standing before the restarted steam engine, Liu Xun listened to its deep, powerful and leak-free roar and smiled with satisfaction.
'The joints are set. Now, I'm going to install the 'brain' for the Han Dynasty.' He looked at Gongshu Qi and said, 'The rubber is ready. Next, I need you to insulate all the copper wires. I'm going to lay the first telegraph line in Chang'an!"
The Dragon Head Plain outside Chang'an was heavily guarded by the menacing Dragon Scale Guards today. However, unlike usual, there was a thick, hot air accompanied by muffled, thunderous rumbles.
Liu Xun stood with his hands behind his back. Behind him stood a bizarre three-storey building with thick red copper pipes extending from its interior like the veins of a dragon. One end of the pipes plunged into the deep pool below and the other hung high atop the arid loess slope.
'His Majesty says he intends to make the source of the Jing River flow upstream today to irrigate the barren land on the hundred-zhang-high slope.' A white-haired imperial censor stroked his beard; his eyes were filled with disdain. 'Water flowing downhill is an immutable "natural law". His Majesty has conquered the world; now he seems to have truly gone mad, daring to challenge the will of Heaven.'
'The Master did not speak of strange phenomena, physical prowess, disorder or spirits,' muttered another Confucian scholar softly. 'If it truly succeeds, then all the Confucian classics I've studied for decades will have been for nothing.'
Liu Xun, listening to the whispers around him, activated his 'ultimate performance: divine silence'. Rather than arguing, he simply raised his hand and winked at Gongshu Qi beside him. 'Light the fire, let my beloved ministers see the "thunderous energy" I borrowed from Hell.'
"Whoosh—" The heavy whistle instantly shattered the tranquility of Longshou Plain, followed by heavy, powerful crashing sounds from within the building. 'Clang! Bang! Clang! Bang!"
Black smoke billowed from the chimney like an ink dragon, blotting out the sky — the result of burning charcoal and wood.
As Liu Xun closed the insulated handle covered in 'Southeast Asian rubber', the centrifugal water pump connected to the steam engine's core began to spin wildly. The system's real-time parameters were as follows:
Steam pressure: 8 atmospheres (limited state).
Speed: 1,800 revolutions per minute
Head: 120 metres (approximately 40 zhang according to a Han dynasty measurement).
Flow rate: 300 tonnes per hour.
Initially, only a series of piercing suction sounds emanated from the copper pipe suspended on the steep slope. The officials exchanged bewildered glances, preparing for a farcical end. However, three seconds later came a deafening roar!
A massive column of water as thick as a vat and as white as jade gushed forth from the pipe at the top of the slope with overwhelming force. It crashed against the parched earth with a whistling sound that tore through the air. The water instantly transformed into sweet dew, rushing down the designated channels and nourishing everything in its path.
The water rose higher than ever before, shattering the 'natural law' that had been ingrained in these scholars for millennia. 'A miracle! This is the breath of a true dragon!'
'Your Majesty! You are truly a god descended to earth, able to command rivers to flow backwards!' The censor, who had just been mocking him, suddenly collapsed to his knees in the muddy water. Looking at the endless stream of white dragons and then at Liu Xun, who stood amidst the black smoke and white vapour like a god or demon, the spiritual tower he had built from Confucian classics crumbled completely. All the officials knelt in unison, not from the pressure of power, but from extreme fear and fanatical worship of this supernatural force.
Trudging through the mud, Liu Xun approached the shivering Confucian scholars and personally sprinkled a handful of warm water on the ground. 'My lords,' he declared. 'See clearly: There are no gods in this world. This water rises because I have grasped fire, imprisoned steam and forged iron!'He turned abruptly, his gaze so piercing that the officials dared not look him in the eye. 'From this day forward, there will be no more drought in Guanzhong! I will make every inch of Han Dynasty land resound with the roar of steam. If anyone still claims that 'investigating things' is an unusual and frivolous skill, let them go to the pump house and argue with my steam locomotives!"
[System Notification]: 'Guanzhong Water Conservancy Revolution' initiated. Popularity (Superstition Direction) has surged by 500%, and the Industrial Revolution is now 40% complete. Unlocked rewards include 'Basic Centrifuge Technology' and the 'High-Pressure Water Dragon Design Blueprint'.