Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

The night was dark.

The cheers and clamor from the top of the West Gate wall seemed to be shut out by an invisible wall.

Inside the general's study, the candlelight flickered, casting Chu Ze's tall figure onto the wall, creating a long shadow.

He ignored the restless excitement and admiration of his guards outside the door, and did not attend the victory celebration that was destined to last until dawn.

The fruits of victory need to be tallied immediately and then transformed into chips for the next game.

Chu Ze closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his own spiritual sea.

That ancient and magnificent "Landscape of Mountains and Rivers" is slowly unfolding in an unprecedented manner.

On the scroll, the glimmer of light representing Guangning City now shines as brightly as a small sun, casting a faint golden glow over the surrounding dark areas.

Streams of extremely pure spiritual energy are converging into the diagram from all directions.

They are no longer the trickling streams they once were, but have transformed into a visible, surging golden river!

Chu Ze clearly "saw" the source of these spiritual essences.

The largest surge originated from the battlefield at the West Gate. The deaths of those five hundred elite Han soldiers transformed into a vast and complex torrent of blood, which was filtered and purified the instant it was absorbed by the scroll, becoming the most basic killing essence.

Another force rose directly from the city of Guangning itself. It was the confidence, hope, and adoration ignited by the 100,000 soldiers and civilians who had witnessed this resounding victory. This spiritual energy, gathered from the will and desire of the people, was warm, pure, and inexhaustible.

But what surprised Chu Ze the most was the third one.

It was a torrent of spiritual energy he had never seen before, ethereal yet unimaginably vast and boundless. It did not originate from Guangning, nor from Liaodong, but rather poured in from beyond the scroll, from a distant, imperceptible dimension!

This force is filled with countless chaotic and noisy thoughts.

"Holy crap! This NPC is so cool!"

Where can I download this game? I want to play it!

"Traitors deserve to die! General, you are mighty!"

It's Blue Star! It's Qian Lele's live stream!

Chu Ze instantly understood the source of this spiritual energy.

The "Map of Mountains and Rivers" packaged the real world as a game, deceiving players on Earth. Now, it's doing the opposite, drawing a peculiar kind of "cross-border attention" from Earth's tens of millions of "viewers"!

Just as he was analyzing the source of these spiritual essences, rows of golden data streams refreshed in front of him like a waterfall.

[The ambush at Ximen is now complete...]

[Defeat 491 elite Han army soldiers, gain 24550 basic spiritual essence.]

[Defeat 5 Han Army Banner Captains to obtain 2500 Spirit Points.]

[Severely injure the Han Army Banner Commander 'Hu Yongqiang,' triggering the 'Bite of Betrayal' follow-up event, and gain 8000 Spiritual Essence.]

[Historical event correction: The Siege of Guangning West Gate (Minor).]

[Event Evaluation: Perfect Ambush. You annihilated the enemy's elite force with minimal losses and successfully delivered a poisoned nail back to the enemy camp, laying an important foundation for subsequent battles.]

[Event Reward: 30000 World Influence Points!]

[Popular Support: The loyalty of the military and civilians in Guangning City has been raised to 'Reverence', the conversion efficiency of popular will power has increased by 50%, and the current output of spiritual energy per hour has increased by 150 points.]

[Cross-Dimensional Intervention (Beginner): Qian Lele's livestream, dubbed the "Chosen One," caused a huge sensation on Earth, bringing tens of millions of people to the attention of the world of "Iron-Blooded Jiangshan." The stability of the world coordinates has slightly improved, and a one-time "Cross-Dimensional Attention" spiritual energy point of +100000 has been gained!]

The series of prompts made Chu Ze momentarily dazed.

Especially the last one, the "attention level" from Blue Star, provided a full 100,000 points of spiritual energy in one go!

This is several times more than the total spiritual energy he obtained from painstakingly designing a trap and slaughtering five hundred elites!

Chu Ze stared at the rapidly rising number in the lower right corner of the scroll interface, which finally settled at a value that made him gasp for breath.

[Current total spiritual energy: 163580 points.]

160,000!

Before the war began, he had almost exhausted all his reserves in order to speed up the setting of the cement, leaving him with less than a thousand points of spiritual energy.

Now, after one battle, his "assets" have increased more than 160 times!

This is a massive amount of start-up capital, enough to shake up the entire Liaodong war situation!

Just as Chu Ze was trembling with excitement over this huge sum of money, the very body of the Mountain and River Map also underwent a dramatic change due to the infusion of this immense spiritual energy.

On the scroll, the brilliant light representing Guangning suddenly contracted, then erupted again! Golden radiance swept out, dispelling more of the darkness on the scroll.

The previously blurry map of Liaodong has become clearer than ever before. From Guangning eastward, cities occupied by the Later Jin, such as Luyang, Yizhou, and Zhenwu, are all clearly visible.

In the scroll's functional module area, the [Chosen One Recruitment] module, which had been in a semi-active state, was now flashing a blinding golden light, like a star about to explode.

Chu Ze probed his consciousness into it.

The familiar option has changed.

[Elite Closed Beta (30 players): Completed.]

Instead, there is a brand new option that exudes an alluring glow.

[Phase II Closed Beta (100-player scale): Unlocked.]

[Recruitment Scale: 100 Chosen Ones.]

[Recruitment method: targeted screening + random selection.]

[Spiritual Essence consumed: 50000 points.]

50,000 points of spiritual energy, recruit 100 players!

Chu Ze's heart skipped a beat.

Sure enough, recruiting one player per Spirit Essence is just the initial preferential policy. It is estimated that with version updates, the Spirit Essence required will only increase in the future.

But he did not hesitate.

Although Guangning City achieved a great victory at the West Gate, this was only a temporary repelling of Amin's probing attack.

The behemoth that was the Later Jin still held sway outside Guangning City. Huang Taiji's main force could march south at any moment.

With only the existing thirty players, plus the old, weak, sick and disabled people in Guangning City, it is already the limit to defend the city. To launch a counterattack is nothing short of a pipe dream.

He needs more manpower.

More "leeks" (victims), more "labor force," and more "war maniacs"!

He needs to quickly convert the players' two biggest advantages—"immortality" and "massive numbers"—into real combat power, creating a snowball effect, and completely tearing a hole before the Later Jin can react!

"Confirm the execution of the Phase II internal testing."

Without the slightest hesitation, Chu Ze issued the order directly.

[Spiritual Essence - 50000 points, confirm execution...]

[Connecting to Earth's coordinates... Connection stable.]

[Currently screening for highly compatible souls...]

[Targeted selection criteria: Priority will be given to majors related to 'Engineering', 'Management', 'Materials Science', and 'History'...]

[Random selection pool established...]

[Estimated time to complete recruitment: twelve hours.]

After doing all this, Chu Cheng looked at the spiritual essence that had shrunk considerably, but felt no heartache whatsoever.

This is an investment.

It is a necessary investment in order to obtain greater returns.

He was well aware that as the number of players surged from thirty to one hundred and thirty, management problems would inevitably follow.

The existing "nanny-style" management model, in which he personally assigns tasks, is definitely not going to work.

It's impossible for him to manage over a hundred players with different personalities and needs.

A more complete and automated system must be established.

For example, the guild system.

By having capable and ambitious players like Wang Han manage other players and form communities of shared interests, he only needs to control these "guild leaders" to control all the players.

Furthermore, there are more diverse tasks.

We can't just keep fighting and killing. We need to provide different types of players with reasons to keep playing, such as infrastructure, logistics, production, and exploration, to prevent them from causing trouble in the city because they have nothing to do.

Chu Ze's thoughts raced, and a larger and more comprehensive "version update" plan was rapidly taking shape in his mind.

Just then, his attention was drawn to another change on the map of mountains and rivers.

At the edge of the scroll, a previously chaotic area is now emitting a faint light.

It was a complex network woven from countless points of light and lines.

[Technology Tree (Fuzzy Guide)]

Chu Ze immersed his consciousness into it.

He saw that at the very beginning of this network, a point of light was fully illuminated, radiating a bright glow.

Next to the spot of light, there are three small words: "[Basic Cement]".

It was Zhou Keke's masterpiece.

From this illuminated spot of light, several dim rays of light extend, connecting to those spots of light still shrouded in darkness deeper within.

One of the rays of light was flickering slightly, as if making some kind of silent summons to Chu-Ze.

Chu Ze extended his consciousness along the light.

A brand new node, radiating a fiery aura, appeared before him.

Blast furnace ironmaking

Chu Ze's heart skipped a beat again.

He clicked on the node, and lines of golden text appeared.

[Technology Name: Blast Furnace Ironmaking]

[Technology Introduction: A revolutionary technology capable of significantly increasing pig iron production and quality. By constructing a furnace with a specific structure and utilizing blast furnace equipment to increase the furnace temperature, continuous smelting of iron ore can be achieved.]

[Unlock Condition: The chosen one or a native resident successfully builds the first blast furnace and produces qualified pig iron.]

[Unlock Reward: A one-time large amount of Spiritual Essence; this technology can be rapidly rolled out within the territory.]

Steel!

This is the backbone of civilization!

Chu Ze's breathing became somewhat rapid.

He knew better than anyone what steel meant in the age of cold weapons.

That means more weapons, stronger armor, sharper farm tools, and more efficient production equipment!

Iron smelting technology in the early Ming Dynasty was considered advanced, but by the end, it had been overburdened by years of war and bureaucratic corruption. Many of the weapons of the Liaodong border troops were rusted and blunt, and their armor was in a terrible state.

The spear in his hand was one of the best weapons that could be found in the armory of Guangning City.

But what if he could master the technology of blast furnace ironmaking?

What if he could make every soldier under his command wear armor made of steel and use weapons that could cut through iron like mud?

What if he could use steel to transform Guangning City into a true steel fortress?

At that time, let alone Amin, even if Huang Taiji personally led the main force of the Eight Banners, what could he do to him!

Chu Ze's lips curled up slightly involuntarily.

He knew how to greet the one hundred players who would be joining the upcoming "second phase of closed beta testing".

He had even already thought of the title for the next "version update announcement".

[The 2.0 version of "Iron-Blooded Jiangshan," titled "Dawn of Steel," has arrived! The brand-new class, "Engineer," is now available! If you're a true brother, come to Guangning City and forge steel together!]

A brand new, more ambitious plan centered on climbing the technology tree has already taken shape in his mind.