I really didn't want to burn it.

"Because once you cross the Yellow River, you'll be in the territory of the Shaofu (Imperial Household Department)," the other party replied. "Back then, Emperor Taizu's foundation was shallow, so in order to consolidate his imperial power, he established the Shaofu, modeled after the Qin and Han dynasties."

The Shaofu (Minister of the Imperial Household) of the Qin and Han dynasties was a deformed monster, and the Shaofu established by Li Ang himself was even more so. This institution, which was directly under the emperor's command, had its own land, merchants, and businesses. Its output was handed over to the emperor directly without passing through the national treasury, making it essentially a self-sufficient state within a state.

However, the Imperial Household Department had the Embroidered Uniform Guard and prosecutors under its command to oversee the state and officials, thus consolidating the emperor's rule.

Of course, the most crucial and core aspect of the Shaofu is that it also has its own independent army.

Because this army was initially entirely managed by the Imperial Household Department, it meant that this force was the emperor's private army.

This is a loyal army that would stand by the emperor even if the whole world betrayed him; it is the emperor's last trump card.

Emperor Taizu relied on this army to crush the rebellions of powerful families time and time again.

"Since the Empress was rescued by her assassins (who believed Chaldea was on her side), she will definitely go north to seek help from the Shaofu. Now that the entire army in Luoyang has rebelled, only that force is trustworthy."

"How come I never knew..."

"Nonsense, that army operates on the private accounts of the Imperial Household Department, and they won't even appear in the national military parade. Of course, a commoner like you who came up through the imperial examinations wouldn't know these secrets."

"Hey!"

Zhang Yangong's lips twitched violently.

"How effective is that unit?"

"I don't know. That unit hasn't been deployed for decades. Outsiders have no idea what's going on." The other party shook his head helplessly. "But since they've become the trump card relied upon by three emperors, their combat strength is definitely not inferior to the Imperial Guard."

After listening to the other party's explanation, Zhang Yangong pondered for a moment.

"In that case, we need to be careful. Judging from the time and speed at which that strange vehicle retreated, they should be able to rendezvous with that mysterious force before we arrive."

Zhang Yangong took out a map and pointed it out to his comrades.

"Before we reach the territory of the Shaofu on the north bank of the Yellow River, we will pass through a valley. The terrain there is very suitable for an ambush. If Her Majesty has troops at her disposal, I believe she will definitely launch an ambush there. Even if she cannot completely annihilate us, she can severely damage us to shake off the pursuit and give them the opportunity to continue their retreat eastward."

Another general nodded slowly: "You are the commander-in-chief of this war, what do you suggest we do?"

Although they looked down on Zhang Yangong's background, they still acknowledged his battlefield command abilities.

"Of course we must fight! This is our only chance to get close to the Empress before that barbarian Kirshtalia Wodim!"

Zhang Yangong smiled faintly as he said this.

Regarding the Empress's whereabouts, some people on Zhang Yangong's side could guess, as could the people on Group A and the Qin Allied Forces.

However, compared to the Chaldean Queen's united front and the harmonious atmosphere of Zhang Yan Gong's army, the A-Qin allied forces here were filled with tension.

"This is truly eye-opening. I thought Afghanistan would be allied with Chaldea."

On the Penglai, Kirshtalia Wodim mocked Xiang Yu.

Because of the presence of outsiders like Dugu Zuan, both sides naturally used Afghanistan to replace Great Qin, but this did not mean that their attitudes toward each other would be very good.

However, even though he was in a faction whose allegiance was unclear, Kirshtalia Wodim remained remarkably calm.

Ever since he was saved by that boy whose name he didn't even know, Kirshtalia Wodim has become indifferent to his own life.

Therefore, Kirshtalia Wodim was completely unconcerned about the worst-case scenario and even made a lot of jokes about Xiang Yu.

"Didn't your godfather really like those two girls? Why didn't he help them this time?"

"How could that be? We would never cooperate with inhumane terrorist organizations. This is common sense for a great power," Xiang Yu replied, arms crossed.

The Qin officers behind Grandpa Xiang chuckled in a mocking manner.

"..."

Kirshtalia Wodim felt offended and stared at Xiang Yu with disdain.

Although Chaldea is an organization dedicated to preserving human morality and works very hard to save humanity, this does not mean that the organization consists of virtuous people.

In fact, as a standard magician's institution, Chaldea suffers from the common problem of all magicians—it only cares about the result and not the process.

In order to summon Heroic Spirits at will, Chaldea's research institute has conducted countless inhumane experiments to achieve its current results.

Putting everything else aside, the existence of Mash, this homunculus, is itself quite intriguing. No one would believe that Chaldea only conducted one homunculus experiment and then just happened to create Mash.

In contrast, even at his most insane, Kiritsugu Emiya, despised by all magicians, was far more humane than these traditional magicians. At least he killed with a purpose, not indiscriminately.

As a former high-ranking member of Chaldea, Kirshtalia Wodim was naturally well aware of the dark side of his organization.

"Speak, what exactly is your imperial advisor's purpose?"

Kirshtalia Wodim skipped over this sensitive topic.

"Although I've already spoken to your female secretary once, I'll say it again."

Xiang Yu glanced at Ophelia beside Kirshtalia and gave a deliberately wicked smile.

“We’re here to fulfill the contract. Didn’t my godfather make a deal with you?”

Do I think I would believe it?

Kirshtalia Wodim countered.

"What does this have to do with me? You'd better be able to guarantee that you can bring that person out when the time comes. My godfather isn't someone who can be given credit so easily."

Ignoring Kirshtalia Wodim's reaction, Xiang Yu waved his hand.

"Whether you like it or not, we share the same goal of dealing with Chaldea, otherwise those Heroic Spirits would have caused all sorts of trouble. As for what happens afterward, that's up to each of us to do our own thing. Don't tell me you don't even have that much confidence in yourself."

Xiang Yu's sarcastic remark infuriated Kirshtalia Wodim; he couldn't very well admit that he lacked confidence in himself.

"As for that Empress..."

Sure enough, Kirshtalia Wodim's eyes changed when she heard the word "Empress".

"Rest assured, the Queen is not important to Afghanistan; what we need is another woman."

"I hope you will do what you say."

Kirshtalia Wodim gave Xiang Yu a deep look.

Chapter 304 Meteor—One!

Despite his deep displeasure with Xiang Yu, Kirshtalia Wodim couldn't say anything unless the other party deliberately provoked him.

So he could only lean against the wall of the bridge with a few of his Group A subordinates, including Ophelia, and coldly watch the Qin soldiers.

Katniss, on the other hand, seemed quite interested in the Penglai ship, looking around here and there, her two long white ears on her head bobbing up and down.

Having only experienced Pan-Human History and never seen the Greek Lostbelts, she was filled with curiosity about this punk-style floating warship.

Flying is a desire inherent in all human nature, and even though Katniss herself could fly, this ship still brought her a sense of novelty.

"Sir, she..."

Xiang Yu's adjutant pointed at Katniss, his face full of anxiety. This was the most advanced technological achievement of their Great Qin Dynasty, and also their most powerful secret weapon.

"It doesn't matter, she wouldn't understand even if I showed it to her." Xiang Yu waved his hand dismissively and said, "Even if she understood it, she still wouldn't be able to figure it out."

This warship is the product of combining the most advanced scientific and magical technologies of both the Qin Dynasty and Greece, along with blueprints exclusively provided by Li Ang. Its complexity is in no way inferior to that of modern warships.

Not to mention that many of the key components were personally crafted by Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire.

Anyway, Xiang Yu himself never figured out the principle behind how this thing could fly in the sky.

In fact, both the Qin Dynasty and Greece spared no effort in building their floating warships. Even though both the Qin Dynasty and the Olympian gods were incredibly wealthy, they ultimately only built three ships. Two went to the Qin Dynasty, and one to the Greek gods.

If it weren't for Ying Zheng's personal taste, Li Ang wouldn't actually approve of creating such a bizarre weapon.

In Li Ang's view, it was a complete waste for Great Qin to acquire these two ships. The Penglai was modeled after an airborne aircraft carrier, and many of its weapon configurations and designs were based on this. However, Great Qin had no air force whatsoever.

The situation is better on the Olympian side; they have enough flying divine messengers to participate in the battle.

The situation is different in the Qin Dynasty; their floating warships are basically just oversized toys.

From a practical standpoint, the position of airships is very awkward. Despite their powerful firepower, they are not fast enough, not to mention they lack other air combat units to coordinate with them.

If used as an aircraft carrier, the Qin Dynasty has no aircraft or flying units; if used as a transport ship, although the airship can carry thousands of troops at once, this force is not enough to influence the overall battle situation; if used as a warship, it is simply using an anti-aircraft gun to kill a mosquito.

Of course, the Penglai was still a very impressive ship. To the feudal states of the Qin Dynasty, such a flying monster was nothing more than a shooting star. A single trip there would surely make those small, city-state-sized kingdoms surrender at the mere sight of it.

When it comes to showing off, Xiang Yu and Ying Zheng share the same idea.

"Standing on the clouds like this, I am a god."

Xiang Yu stroked his chin, his face full of smugness.

"Someone! Hard starboard, head north!"

Xiang Yu, full of vigor, issued orders to the warship crew.

"Um... Lord Xiang Yu," the navigator said awkwardly in a low voice, "34 degrees to the left is enough; full rudder will cause us to veer off course."

"Long-winded!"

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

On the north bank of the Yellow River, in a narrow valley, lay the remains of soldiers.

Led by an armored vehicle, a group of soldiers in dark green armor were forming a square formation and fighting against another group of black-clad soldiers while retreating in an orderly manner.

"Those pursuing troops from the Tang Dynasty are really something else. It took a lot of effort to lure them in a little, but as soon as we retreated slightly, they started to retreat again."

Scáthach, who had been given temporary command of the army due to a lack of capable generals, kept her eyes fixed on the situation on the battlefield.

The ambush did not go smoothly; the advance troops were very cautious and even lingered at the mouth of the canyon for a long time.

If Scáthach hadn't used Shadow Bord as bait, she would have suspected that the other side was planning to do a battlefield sit-in like the Indians.

Even so, these pursuing vanguard troops were very cautious, almost taking three steps before moving forward to the next step.

This made Scáthach very uncomfortable, as a perfectly good ambush was turned into a positional war by the enemy.

Ritsuka asked worriedly, "Master, is it okay to fight like this?"

"It's alright, the opponent doesn't have any Heroic Spirits. As long as we play it safe, we'll definitely win." Scáthach seemed very confident.

Scáthach's battle strategy is very clear: lure as many enemies as possible into the canyon, and then have her own AoE Servants use their Noble Phantasms to eliminate as many enemies as possible.

Seeing the orderly advance and retreat of the soldiers opposite, Scáthach smiled and commented, "The commander on the other side must be a famous general who will be remembered in history. This trip to the Singularity wasn't a complete waste."

What Master said can be translated as "Well done, GG!"

However, just as Scáthach was trying to find a way to pull the opposing army a little deeper into the canyon, cannon fire suddenly came from behind them.

"what happened?"

"Master! We've encountered a large Tang army in the rear!"

"rear!?"

Scáthach was also taken aback, and her delicate eyebrows furrowed.

"Warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when you are capable, make it appear that you are incapable; when you are active, make it appear that you are not active; when you are near, make it appear that you are far away; when you are far away, make it appear that you are near."

Zhang Yangong recited "The Art of War: The Initial Planning" from Sun Tzu's book, his face full of pride.

"What is real is made to appear unreal, and what is unreal is made to appear real. Your Majesty, your general probably didn't expect this, did he? My attack from the front was merely a feint, intended to pin your troops down here!"

Through several encounters, Zhang Yangong discovered that the enemy commander was not the original leader of the troops, and the army's cohesion was severely compromised. Moreover, the enemy was not a native of the Tang Dynasty, and their familiarity with the terrain was clearly inferior to his own.

Taking advantage of his information advantage, Zhang Yangong deliberately slowed down the pace of the battle, smugly allowing his other troops to achieve a pincer movement from both the front and rear.

"Tsk, I was careless."

In the Shadow Bord command center, Scáthach shook her head helplessly.

She really didn't expect to be tricked by the other side, but fortunately it wasn't a big deal, as she hadn't used her biggest trump card—her Servant.

Even if the enemy traps her army from both sides, she can still easily break through by using heroic spirits to charge into the enemy lines.

But when she broke through and left, Scáthach felt a sense of defeat, as if she couldn't defeat the opponent and had to escape.

"We should at least take a piece of the other side; it would be too much of a loss to just leave like this."

"No problem. Although the enemy has more soldiers, our soldiers are of higher quality," Cú Chulainn said without concern.

As the last trump card of the Tang emperor, Scáthach's troops were a level above the Tang imperial guards in terms of both soldier quality and equipment.

This is also why Scáthach is confident in not deploying her Servants to the battlefield immediately.

"Their intention is very clear: they want to gradually erode our strength."