You became an emperor by letting me AFK.

After saying this, he turned and headed towards the altar. Soon after, the ocean surged with terrifying roars, dark clouds gathered, and lightning flashed and thunder roared.

It seemed as if something had been awakened from the waves.

The heavy rain caused the moat to swell, and the entire city swayed under that oppressive force.

The war is imminent.

Qingzhou was preparing for war, and neighboring Minyue was not idle either. Since the Great Qian had decided to completely conquer the south, they were going all out. A massive fleet sailed towards Zhenhai, intending to make it the decisive battleground.

They were happy to have Qingzhou on the front line.

If the support arrives in time, it might be possible to halt the Great Qian's offensive and thus keep Feng Tianyin here.

If the conflict drags on, the side that has gone on a long and arduous campaign will inevitably reveal its weaknesses...

With only one chance remaining, both sides had committed substantial resources. Centered on the capital of Qingzhou, defensive lines were being constructed and completed, growing more magnificent each day than the last.

the other side.

Under Feng Tianyin's command, the Great Qian Expeditionary Force slowed down.

She continued to receive large numbers of new recruits along the way, increasing her numbers from 20 to 22.

This is far from sufficient for siege warfare.

Therefore, rather than saying that Daqian was sending supplies to the front lines, it would be more accurate to say that it was extending the occupied territories forward, allowing supplies to replenish the terrifying consumption.

From an overhead view, Xia He saw siege equipment being assembled and erected.

Their transport also slowed down the march. Moreover, Feng Tianyin continued to occupy as she marched. According to the model deduction of the little robot, "the benefits of occupying along the way are greater than the losses caused by the enemy strengthening the city defenses during this period," which is enough.

A week later.

A total of 24 troops were assembled in the capital of Qingzhou.

A significant portion of their logistical supplies were delivered to the newly occupied territories, where the people supported the Daqian regime.

Therefore, the data is not the 400 million people directly controlled by Daqian supporting 24 people, but a more terrifying figure. A large amount of resources are also being supplied to them in the newly occupied areas, but it has not yet been judged by the mechanism as population control.

"It only counts if the capital is taken down."

Xia He naturally understood the algorithm behind it; otherwise, she might have flipped the card at any moment.

She felt that this battle would probably be difficult, after all, the capital of Qingzhou, Zhenhai, was surrounded by layers of walls, with both land and water defenses, making it a typical fortress that relied heavily on natural barriers.

This is difficult.

If you were to operate it yourself, it would take a lot of effort; slowly whittling down the city's defenses is quite tedious.

Just as Xia He was pondering a solution, she saw the Great Qian army pushing out one after another giant cast iron beast, cylindrical in shape, which required several yellow oxen to pull, plowing furrows into the ground.

"They've even brought out the artillery technology!"

In just one round of neglecting the Great Qian technology tree, Feng Tianyin created some bizarre gadgets.

"No, the manufacturing process is probably substandard; it will definitely explode."

Materials science is the most difficult barrier to overcome.

Besides considering a series of technologies such as mathematics and metallurgy, it also involves luck, like a gacha game with no guaranteed win, where you might keep drawing and still not get the desired item.

Xia He thought about it carefully and realized that manufacturing cannons was indeed feasible in this era.

But what about the materials?

A quick glance reveals that many of the related rare metals have not been developed at all, let alone the relevant metallurgical techniques.

Therefore, she was certain that the cannons made by Feng Tianyin were substandard, not to mention the material strength and durability. Even with the addition of spiritual energy, they were still not up to par, as the research was far too advanced.

However, practice makes perfect, so let's wait and see.

Xia He continued to observe and, as expected, the ace player could not be started; a gradual approach was necessary.

At the start of the war, Daqian faced a long and wide moat, which had become even more turbulent due to the torrential rains of the past few days. Crossing it was not difficult; the challenge lay in simultaneously dealing with the hail of arrows from the city walls.

Admittedly, it is possible to maintain firepower suppression on the city walls while crossing the river.

However, ultimately it will hinder transportation, so there has only ever been one clumsy way to deal with them:

Flood control.

Feng Tianyin's method was simple: fill the riverbed while dredging the water flow, allowing it to spread out quickly and rapidly.

“That was built by diverting some seawater.”

The Qingzhou soldiers on the city wall were dumbfounded, never expecting the Daqian's engineering efficiency to be so terrifying. Little did they know that the super artificial intelligence brain had calculated every crucial aspect of the project, down to the smallest detail, including earthwork, transportation, depth, weight, and construction period.

The civil engineering senior has really stepped up his game.

This eliminates the need for complex preliminary exploration and mapping work, allowing us to roll up our sleeves and get right to work, resulting in maximum efficiency.

The enemy wouldn't just stand by and watch; they tried to stop it, but to little avail.

They hastily fired their arrows, but the Daqian army was also launching a fierce attack on the city walls. The terrifying firepower made it impossible for the Qingzhou soldiers to raise their heads and carry out an effective interception.

The whistling arrows resulted in a massive rockfall.

boom!

A single boulder can often collapse a small section of a city wall. The Daqian catapult, with its longer lever arm, torque, and material strength, is incredibly powerful and, through repeated improvements by the academy, stands at the forefront of the times.

Xia He checked the specific attributes and found that it was indeed more powerful than the previous catapult.

She glanced at the moat again and raised an eyebrow.

A massive water diversion operation?

A portion of the moat's water was diverted by Feng Tianyin's civil engineering projects, soaking the base of the city walls, causing Qingzhou to shoot itself in the foot.

The soldiers guarding the city wall were dumbfounded, watching helplessly as the rushing water pounded against the wall and then seeped into the soil. It disappeared, but that also meant it had eroded the underground foundations, far from being as unscathed as it appeared on the surface.

"How did you design this? How could you give the enemy a chance to draw water?"

"It's clearly because your long-range cover wasn't up to par."

"Useless! Reinforce it from the inside immediately. We've used so much stone; it must be reinforced all over again."

"The catapults are coming again—"

The Qingzhou soldiers were in a chaotic state, while the Daqian side, under strict discipline and command, was orderly and increasingly efficient.

How could they possibly understand Feng Tianyin's precise engineering calculations?

The key battle is in comparative engineering.

Xia He had grasped a little of the basics; what the Daqian army was doing now was gradually dismantling the outer defenses. The trenches and fortresses that had been painstakingly built were being destroyed one by one, failing to achieve their intended interception function.

in contrast.

The Daqian army's dismantling of these defensive lines put psychological pressure on the Qingzhou soldiers. Moreover, the bombing never stopped; they used whatever materials were available and launched them directly, achieving a high-saturation coverage.

Feng Tianyin has shown no intention of climbing the city wall so far.

Doing so would inevitably result in heavy casualties, and if too many losses are incurred, it would only embolden the enemy.

Don't forget that you are now in enemy territory.

If the Daqian army were to suffer too many losses and thus incite rebellion, it would only slow things down. Therefore, she continued the bombardment at a leisurely pace.

Three catapults were destroyed on the first day.

It's ok.

If it breaks, just keep building; at the same time, siege towers rise from the ground, and all kinds of machinery are ready.

Xia He noticed that the massive cast iron cannons were under maintenance every day, so they were being used as a weapons testing ground, weren't they? Feeling somewhat weary, she simply fast-forwarded through time, letting the siege battle pass by little by little.

A month passed quickly, and both sides were exhausted, both physically and mentally.

Although there have been many sieges in history that lasted for a year and a half or even longer, their attack intensity was about 80% less than that of the Great Qian Dynasty.

The catapults bombarded and repaired every day; one month's offensive was equivalent to ten months' worth of other attacks.

Boom, boom, boom

After so much time, Xia He noticed significant changes: the outer city defenses had completely disappeared, the city walls were pitted and collapsed, and the moat had been filled in. There were still no large numbers of Daqian army corpses to be seen; instead, many Qingzhou soldiers had fallen to their deaths beneath the city walls.

Clearly, Feng Tianyin did not attack the city during this period.

Even the group from the Qingzhou Royal Palace were getting impatient, since it was difficult for the enemy to cause them any harm unless they attacked.

Pure torture.

Both sides underestimated Commander-in-Chief Feng Tianyin's patience. She was too composed and able to keep her subordinates in check. She was as calm and collected as a fisherman, remaining calm and collected throughout the entire process.

Even Xia He was a little confused, but she didn't need to guess; she simply asked:

When do you plan to officially launch the attack on the city?

"Your Majesty, it's not about attacking the city, it's about breaching it, and it will happen today."

At Feng Tianyin's command, the filled-in moat collapsed, causing the walls of Zhenhai, the capital of Qingzhou, to crumble section by section.

Long!

Amidst the sudden burst of smoke and dust, everyone realized that the dredging of the moat was a cover for digging up the walls and tunnels. For the past month, the Daqian army had been operating right under their noses. It was the same old tactic used against Nanyuan, but the strategy was packaged in a different guise.

"Find the gap quickly and plug it up."

Before the enemy could react, a cannon exploded, and the city gate was pierced through, shattering the threshold along with it.

The cannon's muzzle also exploded, resembling a blooming trumpet flower.

"Is this thing disposable?"

Xia He was amused; forcing it on with substandard materials would result in this. Fortunately, the other five cannons escaped destruction, each managing to fire a single shot and inflict further damage on the city wall.

They are the pinnacle of technology in the Great Qian Dynasty, and they have pioneered cannon technology.

Despite substandard forging, inferior gunpowder, and inadequate aiming, the world witnessed the first instance of cannons attacking a city, and the city was breached with a single shot.

It's extravagant, but as long as it works, it's cheaper than risking lives.

Feng Tianyin pointed at the main city tower and said, "Begin the general offensive."

"kill!"

After a month of frustration, the Daqian army rushed impatiently towards the city wall. The seemingly indestructible wall was now leaking everywhere, like a small boat in a storm.