I started on a deserted island and encountered Ying Zheng, who insisted I was an immortal.

"A pig farm?"

Li Si held the roll of map that Ying Zheng had just thrown back at him, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"Your Majesty, there are 30,000 households in Jiuyuan Commandery. If the Xiongnu are allowed to enter the pass, what will happen to these 30,000 households...?"

"move."

Ying Zheng's words were concise and to the point.

He was holding a vernier caliper and measuring the diameter of a newly manufactured shell.

"Three days. Those who can run should run, and those who can't should go to the cellar."

"Houses can be rebuilt if they burn down, and crops can be planted again next year if they are destroyed."

"But this battle..."

Ying Zheng loaded the cannonball into the breech, producing a crisp metallic clanging sound.

"I want to make the Xiongnu wet their pants at the sound of a motor within fifty years."

Zhang Ying is refueling the tank.

The oil drum was a ceramic jar hastily made overnight by the Shaofu (a local government office), and its sealing was extremely poor, leaking oil all over the ground.

"Old Zhao, this battle won't be easy."

Zhang Ying wiped the oil off her face.

"We only have one tank and fifty shells."

"Two hundred thousand cavalrymen on the other side."

"On average, one shell can kill four thousand people."

"The probability of this happening is even lower than when I got a gold card in a gacha pull back in the day."

Ying Zheng ignored the incomprehensible terms.

He pointed behind him.

There, more than thirty Mohist craftsmen were busy working around several huge pottery jars.

The jar contained gunpowder.

The recipe was given by Zhang Ying.

It contains added white sugar and has been processed into granules.

Its power was more than three times greater than that of the original gunpowder of the Qin Dynasty.

"We don't have enough shells."

"Then let's use explosives."

Ying Zheng drew the Tai'a sword, which he never parted with, from his waist.

The sword pointed at the pile of explosives.

"Wang Ben".

"Your subordinate is here!"

Wang Ben poked his head out of the tank's driver's compartment, wearing that incongruous tank helmet on his head.

"I remember you once said, what are cavalrymen most afraid of?"

"Your Majesty, we fear tripping ropes, horse traps, and chevaux-de-frise."

"Too petty."

Ying Zheng sneered.

"Zhang Ying".

"what?"

"Bury your... whatever landmine you're talking about."

"Right at the entrance to the Hetao Plain."

"I want to lay out a red carpet for Maodun."

"A red carpet leading to hell."

Zhang Ying was stunned for a moment.

Then he gave a thumbs up.

"Old Zhao, you're even more ruthless than me."

"What's this called?"

"That's called firepower coverage."

Ying Zheng fiddled with the walkie-talkie in his hand.

"When you're poor, use tactical flanking maneuvers; when you're rich, bomb me."

"I am now."

"Extremely wealthy."

three days later.

Jiuyuan County.

The setting sun is like blood.

The city gates were wide open.

The city wall was deserted, with only a tattered black dragon flag weakly flapping against its flagpole in the wind.

The earth began to tremble.

On the horizon, a dark line of cavalry surged forward like a tide.

Two hundred thousand.

The sound of horses' hooves converged into a muffled thunderclap, rolling across the parched yellow earth.

Modu Chanyu rode on a chestnut horse.

He is very young.

His face bore the wildness and cruelty characteristic of a steppe wolf.

"The Qin Dynasty?"

Maodun brandished his scimitar, pointing it at the empty city.

"Is this the Qin Dynasty of the First Emperor?"

"Where is Meng Tian?"

"Where is Meng Tian, ​​who was hailed as the greatest warrior of China?"

The Left Wise King beside him laughed loudly.

"The Chanyu, the Han people are as timid as mice."

"I heard their emperor died at sea."

"They're probably too busy fighting for the throne to care about us."

Maodun gave a disdainful snort.

"Pass on the order."

"Go into town."

"Ravail their food and burn their houses down."

"Take their women back to the grasslands to herd sheep."

"kill!"

Two hundred thousand cavalrymen let out strange howls like wolves.

charge.

A fearless charge.

They rushed across the suspension bridge, through the city gate, and into the seemingly fertile Hetao Plain.

Nobody noticed.

The soil beneath my feet was a little soft.

In some places, strange pottery jars are buried.

The fuse is very long.

It connects to a hidden cave at the foot of the city wall.

Inside the underground cave.

Li Si held a tinderbox in his hand, his hand trembling like someone with late-stage Parkinson's disease.

"The...the Imperial Preceptor..."

"Really...really want some?"

Zhang Ying sat next to her, a blade of grass dangling from her mouth, adjusting the drone's remote control.

"point."

"Two hundred thousand people, even just hearing a sound would be good."

Li Si swallowed hard.

Close your eyes.

He pressed the tinder into the fuse.

"Sizzle sizzle—"

Sparks flew.

The smell of burning fuses filled the small space.

Zhang Ying pressed the start button on the drone.

"Buzz—"

The small drone took off, flew over the city walls, and headed towards the plain crowded with cavalry.

on the screen.

Densely packed with red dots.

Like meat on a cutting board.

"three."

Zhang Ying stared at the screen.

"two."

"one."

"Happy New Year."

Chapter 92

Chapter 92

Chapter 92 My Lord, Times Have Changed

boom--!!!

The earth is roaring.

It is not an adjective.

It is a roar in the physical sense.

Three hundred explosive charges buried at the city gate, along with two tons of black powder, were activated in the same second.

A huge fireball rose into the air.

Like a red lotus blooming in hell.

The shockwave, carrying rubble, mud, and severed limbs, swept across everything within a radius of 500 meters.

Those Xiongnu cavalrymen at the forefront didn't even have time to scream before they were vaporized.

The horses were thrown into the air.

The person disintegrated in mid-air.

The city walls of Jiuyuan County trembled under this terrifying force, cracking open in numerous places.

Maodun was thrown off his horse by the gust of wind.

He fell flat on his face.

His mouth was full of mud.

My ears were filled with a buzzing sound, and I couldn't hear anything else.

"Wha...what happened?"

He struggled to get up.

The scene before him was one he would never forget.

The once-fierce vanguard has now become a huge bomb crater.

It's still smoking.

It smells burnt.

Bloody smell.

When mixed together, they create a nauseating taste.

"Heavenly lightning..."

"It's heavenly lightning!"

The Xiongnu cavalry behind them were thrown into disarray.

The horses were startled and began to run wildly, trampling each other.

For the grassland people who believed in the Eternal Heaven, this incomprehensible explosion was divine punishment.

"Stay calm! Everyone stay calm!"

Maodun drew his scimitar and cut down two centurions who were leading the escape.

"The Han people are using deception!"

"Charge!"

"Just charge in, cut off their heads, and the divine punishment will be over!"

Under bloody suppression, the Xiongnu barely managed to restore order.

They are wolves after all.

Bloodlust overcame fear.

We bypassed that huge bomb crater.

Keep charging.

Five miles ahead.

On a high slope.

A lone tank was parked there.

The gun barrel is lowered.

Like a detached bystander.

Ying Zheng stood on the turret.

He was holding a telescope (which had been taken from the ship).

In the lens.

Those regrouped cavalrymen were like a swarm of ants oblivious to their own mortality.

"Is this the army of 200,000?"

Ying Zheng put down the telescope.

There was a hint of disappointment in his tone.

"Not even as orderly as the Roman phalanx."

"Nor were the Egyptian chariots that were fancy."

"They're just a bunch of..."

"bandit."

He patted the turret.

"Zhang Ying".

"exist."

Zhang Ying was loading shells into the car.

High explosive bomb.

Specifically designed to target soft targets.

"Give them a lesson."

The title is—

"My lord, times have changed."

"Okay."

Zhang Ying pulled the lever.

The breechblock is closed.

It makes a tooth-grinding metallic scraping sound.

Wang Ben sat in the driver's seat, his foot on the accelerator, keeping the engine in standby mode.

"Aiming complete."

Zhang Ying's voice came through the car intercom.

"1,500 meters away."

"The wind is blowing from the southeast."

"Correction amount zero".

"Fire!"

boom--! ! !

A ball of orange-red flame shot out from the tank's cannon.

The car body jolted violently.

The shells slicing through the air with a sharp whistling sound.

1,500 meters.

It will arrive in an instant.

The cannonball landed in the center of the densest formation of the Xiongnu cavalry.

boom!

Another red lotus.

This time it's more accurate.

Even more deadly.

Shrapnel flew everywhere.

Like the Grim Reaper's scythe, reaping from the crowd.

One shot.

Within a radius of fifty meters, both men and horses were annihilated.

Maodun had just finished organizing his troops and hadn't even had a chance to call for a charge.

I was stunned once again by this sudden blow.

"What is that?"

He pointed to the fire-breathing iron box in the distance.

"That's... a monster?"

"Has the totem beast of the Han people come to life?"

fear.

It spread again.

And it's even worse than before.

The fear of the unknown is the most terrifying.

"Rush!"

Maodun gritted his teeth.

"It's made of iron! It won't run fast!"

"Surround them!"

"Lock it with a rope!"

"Take it apart!"

The Xiongnu rushed towards the high ground like madmen.

One kilometer.

800 meters.

500 meters.

The machine gun on the tank opened fire.

Rat-a-tat ...

Coaxial machine guns.

Six hundred shots per minute.

Bullets rained down like a storm.

Harvesting wheat.

The real wheat harvest.

The cavalry at the forefront fell like dominoes.

Blood mist filled the air.

The corpses were piled up to form a low wall.

The cavalry behind them couldn't get through at all.

The horses were so frightened by the gunshots that they collapsed to the ground.

This is a massacre.

It is the industrial civilization's devastating impact on the agricultural civilization.

"It's boring."

Ying Zheng watched the figures struggling amidst the hail of bullets.

shook his head.

"Too weak."

"You don't even deserve to let me warm up."

He pressed the intercom.

"Meng Tian".

at this time.

Meng Tian, ​​who had been lying in ambush in the valleys on both sides, was lying in the grass, staring blankly at this scene.

He fought wars his whole life.

I've never seen this kind of play before.

No need to work yourself to the bone.

No need for hand-to-hand combat.

He just sat in that metal box and moved his fingers.

The enemy is gone?

Is this still a war?

This is practically cheating!

Ying Zheng's cold voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Stop looking."

"Come out and clean the floor."

"Leave no one alive."

Meng Tian shuddered.

He suddenly stood up.

He drew his longsword.

"The mighty warriors of Qin!"

"Wind! Wind! Wind!"

Thirty thousand elite Qin soldiers charged out from the valleys on both sides.

They were carrying powerful crossbows.

He had a Qin sword hanging at his waist.

Although the equipment was still cold weapons.

But morale is already at its peak.

Fighting alongside such a god-like being, it's hard to lose!

"Kill them all!!!"

Beat a dog when it's down.

By this time, the Xiongnu had been utterly annihilated by the tanks.

They had no will to fight.

They saw the Qin army charging out.

My only thought was to run.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

Maodun turned his horse around.

He was afraid.

I'm really scared.

That metal box is the devil.

The man standing on the iron box is the Demon King.

But this grassland.

It's easy to get in.

It's difficult to go out.

Wang Ben floored the accelerator.

"Hold on tight!"

"I'm going to speed!"

The tank roared down the hill.

A body made of fifty tons of steel.

At a speed of forty kilometers per hour.

It crashed into the fleeing rear guard of the Xiongnu.

crush.

The tracks were wrapped around flesh and blood.

It drew a scarlet trail across the grassland.

Zhang Ying sat in the turret, loading the gun while glancing at the mess in the rearview mirror.

"Old Zhao."

"Um?"

"Do you think we're being a bit too cruel?"

Ying Zheng lit a cigarette he had brought back from the modern world.

Take a deep breath.

He exhaled a smoke ring.

The smoke blurred his cold, stern face.

"cruel?"

He pointed to the Xiongnu people who were being chased and killed by the Qin army.

"When they marched south, did they consider the cruelty they would inflict on my people?"

"Zhang Ying".

"remember."

"truth."

"Only within the range of cannons."

"And benevolence."

"Only after the tanks ran over them."

The image freezes.

The tank tracks rolled over a tattered wolf-head flag.

Ying Zheng stood on the turret, his back to the setting sun.

A cigarette is held between the fingertips.

Cigarette ash drifted down in the wind.

It landed on the scimitar that Maodun had discarded.

Chapter 93

Chapter 93 Tiling the Great Wall: "This thing... is it edible?"

Meng Tian was holding a compressed biscuit in his hand.

It's as hard as a brick.

This is a victory celebration banquet after the war.

There is no beef or mutton.

Only the military rations that Zhang Ying had taken off the ship.

"Soak it in water and eat it."

Zhang Ying is wiping the bloodstains off the tank tracks.

"Eating it dry will break your teeth."

Meng Tian took a small bite.

frown.

Then his eyes widened suddenly.

"Sweet?"

In this era, sugar is a luxury.

This food, filled with industrial saccharin and high calories, was a veritable nuclear explosion for the taste buds of the Qin Dynasty people.

"tasty!"

Meng Tian swallowed the biscuit in a few bites.

He choked so hard his eyes rolled back.

I quickly gulped down a mouthful of cold water from the kettle.

My stomach felt instantly full.

"Divine food!"

Meng Tian patted his belly, looking amazed.

"Such a small piece, yet it can keep you hungry for a whole day?"

"His Majesty!"

Meng Tian turned around and knelt in front of Ying Zheng.

"If all the elite soldiers of my Great Qin could be provided with this ration."

"Why should we worry about not destroying the Xiongnu?"

"Why worry about the unrest in the Baiyue region?"

Ying Zheng sat on an ammunition box.

He was holding a newly seized sheepskin map in his hand.

That was a map showing the Xiongnu's defenses.

"Destroy the Xiongnu?"

Ying Zheng snorted coldly.

Throw the map into the fire.

"The vision is too narrow."

He stood up.

He walked up to Meng Tian.

"Meng Tian".

"Your subject is here."

"How many years have you been working on the Great Wall?"

"Your Majesty, it has been five years."

How many people died?

Meng Tian remained silent.

This is a heavy topic.

Although the legend of Meng Jiangnu crying at the Great Wall is just that—a legend—the hardships endured during the construction of the Great Wall were real.

They died from overwork, starvation, or disease.

White bones exposed in the wild.

"No more cultivation."

Ying Zheng made a startling statement.

Meng Tian was greatly alarmed.

"Your Majesty! The Great Wall is the nation's shield! If it is not repaired..."

"barrier?"

Ying Zheng pointed to the tanks behind him.

"That's the real barrier."

"We built walls in the past because we were weak."

"We can only hide in our shells like turtles."

"Now."

Ying Zheng's gaze fell upon the endless grasslands to the north.

"I want to tear down the Great Wall."

"Take the bricks to pave the road."

"Pave a cement road that leads directly to Langjuxu Mountain."

"after."

"Where are my tanks going?"

"That is the Great Wall of Qin."

The entire room fell silent.

This idea is too advanced.

Meng Tian was so far ahead of his time that he wondered if His Majesty had been mentally damaged by that iron box.

"However..."

Zhang Ying suddenly interrupted.

He threw the rag into the bucket.

"It would be a shame to tear it down."

"After all, it's a miracle of the world."

"Keep it."

"If we develop tourism in the future, we can make a profit by charging admission fees."

Ying Zheng glanced at him.

"travel?"

"yes."

Zhang Ying pointed to the dilapidated beacon towers.

"Put tiles on it."

"Install the elevator."

"Build another cable car."

"Let future generations see just how awesome their ancestors were."

Ying Zheng's lips twitched slightly.

Tiling the Great Wall?

What a spendthrift!

but……

They charge admission?

It seems like a good way to replenish the national treasury.

"Report—!!!"

A scout rode a fast horse into the camp.

"His Majesty!"

"A great victory!"

"General Wang Li (son of Wang Ben) led his troops in pursuit for a hundred li!"

"Capture Modu Chanyu alive!"

"They have now been escorted back to camp!"

Ying Zheng raised an eyebrow.

"So fast?"

He looked at Wang Ben.

Wang Ben was holding the remaining half of a compressed biscuit and grinning foolishly.

"Your son is more successful than you."

Ying Zheng kicked Wang Ben.

"Walk."

"Let's go see this grassland overlord."

"I would like to ask him."

Do you still feel it now?

"My Great Qin".

"It's only this big."

In the center of the camp.

Maodun was bound hand and foot.

Kneeling on the ground.

His face was covered in blood, but his eyes still showed defiance.

They saw Ying Zheng walking over.

Maodun raised his head.

"Kill me if you must!"

"Eighteen years from now, I'll be a hero again!"

"hero?"

Ying Zheng smiled.

He squatted down.

His line of sight was level with Maodun's.

Do you feel like you lost unfairly?

"Do you think I used sorcery?"

Maodun spat out a mouthful of blood.

"That metal box...it wasn't made by human hands!"

"If it's a real fight with swords and spears."

"Our Xiongnu warriors are second to none!"

"childish."

Ying Zheng stood up.

He pulled the golden apple from his pocket.

I tossed it in my hand.

"Zhang Ying".

"Let's teach this Xiongnu chieftain a lesson."

"What is science?"

What is industry?

"What does 'dimensional reduction attack' mean?"

Zhang Ying sighed.

He pulled a tablet computer (solar-powered version) out of his pocket.

Click on a video.

That was the "Animal World" program I downloaded on the ship.

In the picture.

A pride of lions is hunting wildebeest.

"Did you see that?"

Zhang Ying shoved the screen right in front of Maodun's face.

"This is what you think war is."

"Survival of the fittest".

"Rely on teeth and claws."

then.

Screen switch.

It has been transformed into a modern slaughterhouse assembly line.

The machines roared.

The pig went in.

The sausages came out.

Maodun's eyes widened.

He was trembling all over.

He couldn't understand those machines.

But he understood that cold, efficient, and emotionless killing.

"this……"

"This is also war."

Zhang Ying put away the tablet.

"We are the Great Qin."

"You are pigs."

"In the past, when we used knives to slaughter pigs, we might get bitten by them."

"Now."

"We built a slaughterhouse."

You lose.

"It's not because you're not brave."

"It's because you don't even qualify as an opponent."

"You're just..."

"Raw materials."

Maodun collapsed to the ground.

My mental defenses completely collapsed.

All pride.

All ambitions.

In front of that small, glowing screen.

It shattered into pieces.

"Take him away."

Ying Zheng waved his hand.

It's like shooing away a fly.

"Don't kill him."

"Send it to Xianyang."

"Let him go dig coal."

"To keep Zhao Gao company."

"Tell him."

"Dig up 10,000 tons."

"I will reward him with a compressed biscuit."

After dealing with Maodun.

Ying Zheng turned around.

Looking at the even wider sky to the north.

"Zhang Ying".

"Um?"

"you say."

"On this earth."

"Is there anyone stronger than the Xiongnu?"

Zhang Ying thought for a moment.

"Yes, I have."

"Who?"

"Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty (although he died young, his grandson is still alive)."

"And then there's the Seleucid Empire over there."

"What's wrong?"

"Itching to get your hands dirty?"

Ying Zheng touched the Tai'a sword at his waist.

He then touched the tank behind him.

A greedy smile appeared on his face.

"My fuel tank."

"We haven't finished our trip yet."

"Pass on the order."

"The entire army will rest for three days."

"Fill up the tank."

"Loaded with ammunition."

"Target--"

Ying Zheng's finger traced an arc in the air.

It points to the more distant west.

"The End of the World".

The image freezes.

Ying Zheng pointed his finger in the direction where the setting sun was.

That place is an unknown distance.

It is also the next battlefield that the Qin chariots will soon crush.

And behind him.

Wang Ben was holding a wrench, excitedly tightening the last screw on the tank.

It made a crisp "click" sound.