My Imperial Advisor is ChatGPT

The sandstorms in the Western Regions seem to never end.

Beside the ruins of the Devil City, Liu Bang was squatting in the shadow of a wind-eroded rock, holding a withered branch in his hand, and rudely poking the "strange man" in front of him who was tied up.

The strange man had a head of curly blond hair like wool, eerie emerald green eyes, a nose as high as a mountain peak, and skin as white as a piece of dead pork soaked in water. At this moment, he was curled up on the ground, babbling a string of incomprehensible gibberish, his expression a mixture of terror and anger.

"Old Xiang, look at this thing, it's really ugly." Liu Bang clicked his tongue in amazement, as if he were choosing livestock at a market. "Is this the Roman Your Majesty was talking about? It looks like a poorly evolved monkey!"

Xiang Yu, sitting to the side wiping his Overlord Blade, snorted coldly upon hearing this, not even lifting his eyelids: "Who cares if he's human or monkey, the key is whether he can fight. When I grabbed him just now, this bastard actually tried to bite me. He's quite strong, but in my hands, he's like a little chick."

The Roman seemed to understand the contempt in his tone, and suddenly struggled to his feet, shouting at Xiang Yu, "Ego sum Marcus! Civis Romanus sum!" (I am Marcus! I am a Roman citizen!)

"What is he talking about?" Liu Bang picked at his ear. "What 'dead horse' and 'sour horse'? Is he hungry and wants to eat horse meat?"

"Fan Kuai! Get this monkey a steamed bun!"

Fan Kuai strode over, cursing, holding a hard, stale bun that could kill someone, and shoved it into the Roman's mouth: "Eat! Eat it if you don't want to die!"

Poor Marcus, a esteemed centurion of the Roman Republic, could only tearfully devour these carbohydrates imbued with the mystical power of the East, silently praying to all the gods in his heart.

Just then, a Sogdian merchant from the Western Regions, who was in charge of guiding them, cautiously approached.

"Sir... in my younger days I traveled all over the country and even went to the far west, so I know a little bit of this bird language."

"Oh?" Liu Bang's eyes lit up, and he grabbed the merchant. "Quick, translate for me, what was that blond-haired monster yelling about just now?"

The merchant leaned closer to listen for a while, and his expression became somewhat strange.

"My lord, he said... he said he was a citizen of Rome, of noble birth, and could not be insulted. He also said... he also said that if you kill him, the Roman legions will raze this place to the ground and capture you all to be fed to the lions in the Colosseum."

"Feed the lions?" Liu Bang was stunned for a moment, then burst into a thunderous laugh.

"Hahaha! Old Xiang, did you hear that? This monkey said he's going to feed us to the lions!"

Xiang Yu finally raised his head, a savage glint flashing in his eyes. He stood up, and the shadow cast by his two-meter-tall frame instantly enveloped Marcus.

"Tell him," Xiang Yu's voice rang out like the clang of metal, "that he should summon that Roman legion. My Ironclad Cavalry is just waiting for blood to be spilled."

The businessman, trembling with fear, translated it.

Marcus looked at the demon-like Eastern general before him, then glanced at the Qin soldiers in the distance, who remained disciplined even during their rest. His Adam's apple bobbed, and he finally shut his mouth. As a professional soldier, he keenly sensed the suffocating killing intent emanating from this army—they were no ordinary barbarians; they were a war machine far more terrifying than the Carthaginians.

Liu Bang dusted off his hands and stood up.

"Alright, stop scaring the child. His Majesty said he wants him alive."

"Pack him up and put him in a cage. This is our 'auspicious omen' to present to His Majesty. This trip to the Western Regions was worthwhile. With this golden-haired monkey, we won't be punished, and we might even get promoted another rank."

"Let's go back to Xianyang! I'm really craving that hot mutton stew!"

……

Xianyang, thousands of miles away.

Although there is no yellow sand like in the Western Regions, this place is filled with another, even more pungent smell—the smell of coal smoke.

Inside a top-secret testing ground of the Imperial Household Department, two dark railway tracks stretched into the distance like giant pythons. On the tracks sat a strange-looking, enormous object.

This is the "Dragon," the first steam locomotive of the Qin Dynasty, jointly created by the Mohists and Zhao Gao.

Calling it a train is a stretch; it's more like a giant boiler on wheels. A massive chimney looms at the front, puffing out thick black smoke. The carriages are made of heavy cast iron and wooden planks, the joints coated with a thick layer of black eucommia gum, giving it an ugly and menacing appearance.

Wearing his personal windproof goggles, Ying Zheng stood on a high platform ten zhang away from the railway tracks, holding a folding fan in his hand, trying to disperse the drifting coal dust.

"This is the chariot you built... that can run without horses?" Ying Zheng pointed at the violently trembling iron lump, his tone tinged with doubt.

"Your Majesty, that's right!" Zhao Gao was dressed today in a deliberately filthy black robe, his face still smeared like the Kitchen God's, but his eyes gleamed with fanaticism. "After more than three hundred improvements and blowing up over a dozen boilers, we've finally solved the problems of airtightness and linkage transmission. This cartload of coal can now pull 50,000 jin of goods for a hundred li!"

"Fifty thousand catties?" Ying Zheng raised an eyebrow.

That's equivalent to the pulling force of fifty horses.

"Let's begin," Ying Zheng ordered calmly. "Let me see if this coal-eating monster can outrun the Ferghana horse."

"promise!"

Zhao Gao waved his small red flag and shouted at the front of the vehicle, "Ignition! Pressurize! Drive!"

The Mohist disciple in charge of driving was already sweating profusely with tension. Upon hearing the order, he abruptly pulled open the valve.

"Waaaaah!"

A piercing whistle suddenly rang out, startling the imperial guards on guard duty, causing their warhorses to neigh and leap wildly.

Then, the enormous thing moved.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The massive iron wheels rubbed against the rails, producing a sickening metallic clang. White steam billowed from both sides of the piston, pushing the connecting rod and slowly turning the wheels.

The speed is getting faster and faster.

Although in later generations this speed was about the same as an old ox pulling a broken cart, in the eyes of the Qin people at that time it was simply a miracle.

A lifeless, molten iron lump that only spewed smoke actually started running on the ground, dragging five carriages loaded with stones behind it!

"It moved! Your Majesty! It really moved!" Li Si exclaimed excitedly, his beard trembling. "This is an auspicious omen! This is a blessing for the Great Qin!"

Ying Zheng didn't speak, but stared intently at the train billowing black smoke.

His eyes did not hold the blind worship of Li Si, but rather reflected a calm calculation.

Capacity, cost, speed, maintenance...

"Little G," Ying Zheng asked in his mind, "is this thing still usable now?"

[Your Majesty, to be frank, this is just a premature baby.]

[The thermal efficiency is extremely low, only about 2%. That means that out of 100 kilograms of coal burned, only about 2 kilograms are actually used for coal production; the rest is just noise and smoke.]

Moreover, the steel used in these rails is of poor quality and too brittle. Although the wheel bearings use ball bearings, the lubricant (lard) is not heat-resistant. They won't last long before needing repairs.

【but……】

Its significance lies in the fact that you've unlocked the most crucial technological milestone. With this prototype in hand, the rest is simply a matter of iterative upgrades.

Ying Zheng nodded.

"I'm not in a hurry. I have plenty of time."

Just then, the "Dragon" train, which was running happily, suddenly encountered a small accident.

At a bend in the railway ahead, the distance between the two rails has widened slightly, perhaps due to roadbed subsidence or thermal expansion and contraction of the rails.

For a horse-drawn carriage, this tiny amount is nothing. But for a train still in the testing phase, it's fatal.

"Clang!"

A loud bang.

The locomotive lurched violently, its immense inertia propelling it off the tracks and into a sandpit beside the road. The following carriages, caught in the chain reaction, crashed together with a deafening roar, scattering coal and stones everywhere.

Smoke and dust billowed up, and the once invincible "Dragon" lay on the ground like a dead snake, with only its chimney still stubbornly spewing white smoke.

The entire room fell silent.

Zhao Gao's face turned deathly pale instantly, his legs went weak, and he knelt down on the ground.

"Your Majesty, please forgive us! Your Majesty, please forgive us! This...this must be because the local earth god is unhappy..."

Ying Zheng looked at the tragic "cheating" incident but did not get angry.

Instead, he laughed.

"The Earth God?"

"Zhao Gao, you're talking nonsense again. It's obvious that your road wasn't paved properly."

Ying Zheng descended from the high platform and arrived at the scene of the accident.

He looked at the twisted rail and reached out to touch it. It was hot.

"Thermal expansion and contraction," Ying Zheng uttered these four words.

"I told Zhang Liang long ago that gaps must be left when laying railway tracks, to give them room to breathe. Did you fill in the gaps completely to save time or for aesthetic reasons?"

The leader of the Mohist school, who had rushed over, lowered his head in shame: "Your Majesty is wise... We did indeed feel that leaving a gap would cause bumps, so..."

"Foolish." Ying Zheng sneered. "For the sake of a little stability, you almost ruined my carriage."

"Remember, the forces of nature cannot be defied. If you try to fight them, they will destroy you. You must go with the flow and give them room to maneuver."

"Tow the car back for repairs. Re-lay the roadbed. Recast the rails."

"I'm giving you six months. After six months, I'll ride in this carriage to Hedong County to inspect the coal mines. If it derails again..."

Ying Zheng glanced at Zhao Gao's plump buttocks.

"I'll tie you to the hood of the car as a safety bar."

……

Although the "Dragon" wrecked its debut, the shock it caused continues to reverberate throughout Xianyang.

Once the wheels of industrialization are set in motion, they will not stop because of a single pebble.

Meanwhile, in a quiet study in the Epang Palace, Fusu was facing a question from the "depths of his soul."

Sitting opposite him was Chunyu Yue, the head of the Epang Palace University, and several representatives of the "new school" who had just been selected from the common people.

"My lord," Chunyu Yue said with a complex expression, holding a newly printed textbook—"The Foundations of Natural Science in Qin"—"Although this old minister is dull-witted, I know that Your Majesty's promotion of these 'studies of nature' is for the sake of strengthening the nation. But..."

"But what?" Fusu asked without turning his head as he was reviewing documents regarding the expansion of the "Daqin Infrastructure Group".

"But some of the things written in these books... are truly horrifying!"

Chunyu Yue opened the book and pointed to one of the pages.

"It says here: 'Lightning is not divine punishment, but the release of electrical charge.' Who will still revere Heaven after that? If there is no reverence, won't the people become lawless?"

"And then there's this line: 'Man is a creature of nature, sharing the same origin as monkeys' (Little G's personal opinion). This...this is utterly disgraceful to our ancestors! If we admit that humans evolved from monkeys, then where does propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame come from? How can we even talk about hierarchy and social status?"

Fusu put down his pen.

He raised his head and looked at the teacher who had once taught him "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness".

After two years of hard work on the front lines of infrastructure construction, in factory workshops, and in business negotiations, Fusu's worldview has undergone a complete transformation.

"Teacher," Fusu's voice was calm yet firm, "do you think it's more important to revere Heaven or to ensure the people have enough to eat?"

"This..." Chunyu Yue was speechless.

"We used to revere lightning because we were afraid it would strike and kill people or burn down houses. But now, we have lightning rods and fire prevention laws. Lightning can't harm us, and we can even use it (although we haven't fully achieved that yet). So what's the point of reverence?"

Fusu stood up, walked to the window, and pointed to the chimneys belching black smoke in the distance.

"As for whether humans evolved from monkeys, I don't know. But I do know that the Mohist disciple who was driving the train, although his face was covered in soot, knew how to handle tens of thousands of pounds of steel. And those nobles who sat at home talking about rank and status couldn't even make a wheel."

"Teacher, the Qin Dynasty has changed."

"In the past, we governed the country with 'rites' and restrained it with 'laws.' But now, we rely on 'reason'—the principles of things, the truth of matters, and the ultimate truth."

"If the teachings of a sage block the path of truth, then even a sage... must yield the way."

Looking at his familiar yet unfamiliar disciple, Chunyu Yue suddenly felt a deep sense of powerlessness. The once gentle and refined eldest son who had always obeyed him was now dead in the sandstorms of Shangjun.

Instead, a ruthless and rational successor was about to take over this vast industrial empire.

"Enough, enough..." Chunyu Yue sighed and walked out with a hunched back.

He knew that the door to the old era was slowly closing behind him.

……

A month later.

Liu Bang's expedition to the Western Regions finally returned to Xianyang.

There was no fanfare as expected, because the "auspicious omen" they brought back was really smelly.

Marcus was kept in a cage the whole way. Although he didn't starve to death, he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

When he was dragged into the Qilin Palace and saw the Eastern Emperor sitting on the high imperial couch, wearing a black and gold dragon robe, with eyes as sharp as a hawk, a tremor from the depths of his soul made his legs go weak and he knelt down on the ground.

He had originally thought that the emperors of the East would be adorned with jewels like the King of Kings of Persia, or as rude and barbaric as the chieftains of the barbarians.

But he was wrong.

The man before me wore little adornment, but exuded a suffocating aura of power. It was a confidence born of complete control and understanding.

"Raise your head."

Ying Zheng's voice echoed throughout the hall.

Marcus raised his head, trembling.

He saw that the emperor was playing with a gold coin in his hand—it was a Roman gold coin that he always carried with him.

"Your name is Marcus?" Ying Zheng asked, with an interpreter (the Sogdian merchant) translating beside him.

"Yes...yes, great Eastern monarch," Marcus stammered.

"I've heard that you Romans don't have an emperor?"

Marcus paused for a moment, then straightened his back, a final display of pride as a Roman citizen: "We...we are a republic! We are governed by the Senate and the people! We elect our consuls..."

"Oh," Ying Zheng interrupted him casually, "It's just a bunch of people sitting together arguing, and whoever shouts the loudest gets to say what they want?"

Marcus blushed, wanting to retort but not daring to.

Ying Zheng smiled and picked up a piece of paper from the table.

That was a compilation of intelligence that Liu Bang brought back from the Western Regions. It contained detailed records of Rome's territory, population, military system, and even their penchant for drinking wine and watching gladiators kill each other.

"The Mediterranean Sea..." Ying Zheng looked at the blue expanse on the map. "Interesting."

"Marcus, I will spare your life."

"Not only will I spare your life, I will also give you an official position."

Marcus stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "An officer?"

"Yes." Ying Zheng pointed to Zhao Gao beside him. "Go, arrange a teaching position for him at the Epang Palace University. Teach... teach 'Latin'."

"I want the young people of Qin to learn your language."

"Because in the future, when my caravans, my fleets, and even my army visit you..."

A meaningful glint flashed in Ying Zheng's eyes.

"There has to be someone who can understand what I'm saying, right?"

Looking into Ying Zheng's unfathomable eyes, Marcus suddenly understood something.

This Eastern empire did not consider Rome a rival.

In their eyes, Rome... might just be the next place that needs to be "traded," "built with roads," and "incorporated into their territory."

"Thank you... thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty." Marcus lowered his noble head.

He knew that from this moment on, Rome's fate was inextricably intertwined with that of this distant Eastern empire.