Chapter 253: Divine Might Great General (Subscriptions and Tips Appreciated)

"Fatty Ding, there is no use in worrying right now. You might as well just wait quietly for Tianming to return!" Xiao Xie said without turning his head upon hearing Fatty Ding's words.

"Sigh!" Fatty Ding let out a sigh. He knew that worrying was useless at this point, yet he simply could not manage to be as calm and composed as Xiao Xie and Zhang Liang.

Time slipped away unnoticed, and in the blink of an eye, the sky had grown completely dark. Fatty Ding paced back and forth across the grand hall, glancing alternately at the front gates and then at Xiao Xie and Zhang Liang, who were still deeply engrossed in their game of Go. The more unbothered the two of them appeared, the more restless and irritated Fatty Ding felt.

Especially when Shilan would casually pour another cup of tea for Xiao Xie and Zhang Liang from time to time. The three of them acted as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred at all. Fatty Ding could not help but complain internally: "The three of you are taking this so calmly while I am the only one here worrying ourselves sick! What on earth has happened to that kid Tianming, and why hasn't he returned yet?"

"Zifang, you have lost again." Xiao Xie placed a black stone on the board, the corners of his mouth curving upward into a slight smile.

"Young Master Xiao's mastery of Go is truly peerless. Your train of thought is remarkably unorthodox, and your playing style is so multifaceted that even Zifang has never encountered anything like it. Zifang concedes defeat entirely." Zhang Liang cupped his hands in salute and once again admitted his loss.

Zhang Liang's proficiency at Go could easily be counted among the finest in the world today, yet compared to Xiao Xie, he still fell somewhat short. After all, Xiao Xie's strategies incorporated a vast number of Go manuals from later generations. It was only natural for Zhang Liang to be caught at a disadvantage during his very first game against Xiao Xie, and losing was hardly surprising.

"Bang!" Right at that moment, the front doors were forcefully shoved open, and Tianming walked in with a triumphant grin, announcing, "I'm back!"

"Brother Xiao, you're here too! And you are... Shi... Shilan, you're a girl!" Upon spotting Xiao Xie, Tianming was initially startled, but the moment he laid eyes on Shilan, utter disbelief washed over his face.

"Why don't you hand the Black Dragon Scroll over to Zifang?" Xiao Xie chuckled, noting the profound shock written all over Tianming's face.

"Oh, Third Master, this is for you!" Hearing this, Tianming hurriedly hurried over to Zhang Liang and passed the Black Dragon Scroll into his hands.

Zhang Liang accepted the Black Dragon Scroll from Tianming, examined it closely for a short while, furrowed his brow, and then said to Xiao Xie, "I will need to take this back and study it thoroughly, but I have already grasped the general outline. It shouldn't take too long."

"Very well, I shall await your news then." Xiao Xie nodded in response. In truth, Xiao Xie was already well aware of the information contained within the Black Dragon Scroll, but it was inconvenient to spell it out directly. The contents of the scroll detailed nothing less than Ying Zheng's impending eastern tour.

"Tianming, enjoy your feast at your leisure. We will take our leave now." After Zhang Liang departed, Xiao Xie called out to Tianming, who was entirely absorbed in devouring a roasted chicken, and then led Shilan back to Guihai Manor.

*Flap, flap, flap...*

Shortly after Xiao Xie settled Shilan into a guest room at Guihai Manor, Murong Feng's mechanical bird arrived. Peeling the letter from the mechanical bird's body and giving it a glance, Xiao Xie's expression shifted slightly. The message stated that several military encampments in the vicinity of Qingyun City had begun mobilizing troops to converge upon the city itself, and the force of black-armored soldiers mustered this time numbered as many as fifty thousand.

"Ying Zheng, in the end, you still couldn't maintain your composure," Xiao Xie sighed softly. "I originally had no desire to cause excessive bloodshed, yet there are always those who deliver themselves to their own deaths. Those fifty thousand men will not be returning."

To be frank, Xiao Xie held virtually no interest in overthrowing Ying Zheng to become emperor himself. Firstly, time was severely limited; Xiao Xie could only remain in this world for two years. Spending that time overthrowing Ying Zheng's regime and subsequently restoring stability to the realm meant that by the time all these tasks were accomplished, Xiao Xie would likely barely have sat upon the throne for a few months before having to leave.

Secondly, Ying Zheng had just unified the six states, and the total population of the entire world barely exceeded thirty million—a minuscule figure compared to the billions of later generations. Moreover, to tell the truth, once Xiao Xie had unified the Black-Horned Domain, he was already effectively an uncrowned king. Furthermore, the land area and population of the Black-Horned Domain on the Dou Qi Continent were several times greater than those of the Qin State. Asking him to rule this realm was rather like asking a superpower's president to step down and become a minor island nation's monarch—was that not a sheer waste of time?

After reading Murong Feng's letter, Xiao Xie swiftly penned a reply, secured it to the mechanical bird, and released it into the night sky. Ever since Xiao Xie had inherited the position of the Mohist Paramount, all data concerning Mohist mechanization naturally became accessible to him. These documents had been transferred back to the Stepping Heaven Tower, meaning Xiao Xie now commanded a cadre of skilled mechanization artisans. Though they might not match Elder Ban, manufacturing a few mechanical beasts according to blueprints—backed by the financial resources of the Stepping Heaven Tower—was an effortless task.

Hours later, at the Xiao Residence in Qingyun City, Murong Feng received Xiao Xie's dispatched letter. Unfolding it and reading its contents, Murong Feng's expression changed subtly. After a brief moment of reflection, she issued her commands: "Pass the word down: prepare two hundred Divine Might cannons upon the city walls, and additionally deploy one Grand Divine Might General!"

"Understood!" A shadow guard immediately acknowledged the order and withdrew.

Indeed, the reason Xiao Xie paid little mind to Ying Zheng's military forces was precisely because of the Divine Might cannons. As two of China's Four Great Inventions, papermaking and printing had already been brought to life by Xiao Xie, and gunpowder naturally followed. Gunpowder of a sort had already existed during this era, but the gunpowder of this period paled vastly in destructive power compared to the black powder Xiao Xie had concocted. People typically used it to make fireworks, and while a few might employ explosives to inflict injury, gunpowder was rarely applied to actual warfare.

Gunpowder was only truly integrated into warfare after the invention of firearms, and weapons of immense lethality such as cannons were not manufactured domestically in China until the Qing Dynasty. Yet now, Xiao Xie had brought cannons into existence prematurely. Pitted against cold weapons, no matter how formidable Ying Zheng's army might be, before the might of artillery they were mere sitting ducks.

Although the cannons Xiao Xie engineered were of the most rudimentary design—inferior in destructive power and range to the artillery of later centuries, which could strike targets hundreds of kilometers away—against a Qin army still relying on bows and arrows with a maximum effective range of a few hundred meters, the Divine Might cannons' range of several kilometers was more than enough to utterly crush them.

Within the eighth floor of the Stepping Heaven Tower rested the manufacturing methods for papermaking, movable-type printing, and the compass. Any single one of these items, if brought to light, could shake the world, exerting a monumental impact upon the entire globe. As for the ninth floor, it housed the blueprint and methods for constructing artillery. Xiao Xie had not deceived Shaoyu and the others; the baleful energy carried by artillery was far too heavy. Compared to combat waged with cold weapons, battles fought with firearms would exponentially increase soldier casualties; a single shell left no room for mercy.

"Elder Sister, two hundred Divine Might cannons should be more than enough to annihilate the black-armored troops dispatched by Ying Zheng. Is there truly any need to mobilize a Grand Divine Might General as well?" Murong Huang remarked upon hearing Murong Feng's instructions, feeling that her sister was making a mountain out of a molehill. The destructive force of the Divine Might cannons was already colossal, with the blast radius of a single shell capable of reducing buildings within five meters to rubble.

The Grand Divine Might General was an enhanced version of the Divine Might cannon, forged through the integration of Mohist mechanics. Due to its exceptionally stringent manufacturing requirements, even utilizing the materials acquired by the Stepping Heaven Tower, only twenty such units had ever been successfully built. While a standard Divine Might cannon utilized shells ten centimeters in diameter, the Grand Divine Might General fired projectiles one meter across, possessing a hundred times the destructive power of the ordinary cannon—capable of leveling an area of one square kilometer with a single shot.

"This is the young master's letter. You will understand once you read it." Murong Feng handed the letter in her hand over to Murong Huang.

Murong Huang took the letter and scanned it. Upon it were inscribed only three stark characters: *Execute without pardon!*

Murong Feng smiled faintly and explained, "The young master's objective is not to wage an all-out war against Ying Zheng, but rather to showcase the strength of our Stepping Heaven Tower. Therefore, this battle must not only completely obliterate those fifty thousand Qin soldiers, but it must be executed with such brilliance that Ying Zheng will not dare to dispatch troops ever again. Specifically deploying a Grand Divine Might General serves primarily as a deterrent."

"So that's how it is. But in that case, why not deploy all of the Grand Divine Might Generals? If all twenty of them fired a single volley simultaneously, wouldn't those fifty thousand Qin troops be entirely wiped out instantly?" Murong Huang nodded in realization, then asked with a puzzled expression.