If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
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(A/N: Don't forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!
Also everyone I have a new novel named "From Couch To The Inquisitor", be sure to check it out and I also could say that my Fallout 4 novel have ended (in the P-Tang12))
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They were ready to move, strictly adhering to the flawless, interconnected strategies and tactical maneuvers that the four peerless strategists had meticulously prepared to crush the remaining island kingdoms. The storm of iron and fire that had consumed Kyushu was about to unleash its absolute wrath upon the rest of the Way Archipelago, and there was nothing on the islands that could stop the march of the Hengyuan Dynasty.
With all the massive logistical and tactical preparations finally completely done, the tense, heavy anticipation that had gripped the conquered island of Kyushu broke like a shattered dam. The absolute, unyielding order was immediately given out by Zhang Liao and the four grand admirals, Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Jiang Qin, and Huang Zu. The mandate was clear, brutal, and historic: the combined might of the Hengyuan army and navy was to officially begin the treacherous crossing toward the massive northern island of Honshu and the mysterious eastern island of Shikoku.
The morning air was suddenly violently split by the deafening, bone rattling blasts of hundreds of massive bronze war horns, their deep, resonant notes echoing across the valleys and bouncing off the smoking remains of Yamato's ancient fortresses. Following the call, hundreds of thousands of heavily armored Hengyuan soldiers began their unstoppable, earth-shaking advance once again.
It was a mobilization of a scale that defied human comprehension. Endless columns of elite infantry, their dark steel lamellar armor absorbing the morning light, marched in perfect, terrifying synchronization. Their sprawling, heavily reinforced baggage trains and towering, mechanical siege engines stretched for miles along the dirt roads.
They were completely resupplied and heavily overflowing, utilizing a brilliant, ruthless stroke of logistics orchestrated by Xi Zhicai, the imperial army was seamlessly using the confiscated national supplies, the vast grain reserves, and the emptied armories of the defeated Yamato to fuel their own advancing war machine. The islanders' own harvested rice and melted down ancestral swords were now actively powering the absolute destruction of their northern neighbors.
Standing quietly on the highest, wind swept balcony of his closely guarded palace in the capital, Governor Tarashihiko helplessly watched this terrifying, endless military advancement. He was flanked by silent, cold eyed Oriole Agents who watched his every twitch, but Tarashihiko had no fight left in him.
He leaned his weight against the carved wooden railing, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and vacant. Seeing the sheer, apocalyptic scale of the marching columns stretching all the way to the horizon, and looking out toward the northern straits where the ocean was completely, suffocatingly blotted out by thousands of black and gold warship sails, he could only look in absolute, paralyzing awe. The air itself seemed to vibrate with the mechanical, rhythmic thud of a million boots and the grinding of heavy iron wagon wheels.
In that crushing, profoundly humbling moment, any lingering, secret hope in his heart was permanently, violently extinguished. The whispers he had entertained in the dark of night, foolish, desperate thoughts of perhaps waiting for the mainlanders to leave, of gathering loyalist remnants in the deep mountains, and reviving the independent Yamato Kingdom, were burned away like morning mist.
He finally, truly knew that he could never, ever rebel. Against an industrialized, monolithic nation that could field such god like numbers, coordinate such impossibly vast logistics, and project this level of apocalyptic destruction with just a fraction of its true imperial power, resistance was simply suicide. The Hengyuan Dynasty was a force of nature, and one does not draw a wooden sword against a hurricane.
As the land forces moved to the northern tip of Kyushu, the outbreak of war violently erupted across the churning waters of the straits. The focus of the supreme command was heavily, brutally set on the massive, sprawling western part of Honshu.
The heavily armored Hengyuan vanguard army, spearheaded by the most vicious, battle hardened veterans of the central plains, rapidly and violently crossed the narrow ocean straits from northern Kyushu. Transported by a massive armada of flat bottomed landing craft and heavily reinforced galleys, they crashed onto the southern shores of Honshu.
Before the local defenders could even comprehend the scale of the threat, the vanguard secured the beaches, immediately deploying portable wooden palisades, digging deep trenches, and setting up their heavy repeating crossbow batteries to establish heavily fortified, impenetrable beachheads.
Simultaneously, out on the deeper, churning waters of the open sea, the unmatched Hengyuan Navy executed a flawless, terrifyingly coordinated multi pronged amphibious assault. The massive, towering Vanguard warships, their steam engines belching thick black smoke into the pristine sky, maneuvered into firing positions with a synchronized, mechanical grace that left the islanders utterly paralyzed with fear.
Without a single word of parley, the massive warships unleashed devastating, earth shattering black powder bombardments. Thousands of heavy iron cannons roared in unison, vomiting fire and thick white sulfurous smoke across the water. The heavy iron shot tore into the coastal fishing villages, shattered the wooden palisades of the local warlords, and threw massive plumes of wet sand and screaming men into the air.
Under the terrifying, deafening cover of this relentless artillery fire, the fleet landed tens of thousands of fierce, heavily armored naval marines along the western, northwestern, and southwestern coastlines of Honshu. The pristine beaches of the island were instantly transformed into chaotic, blood soaked staging grounds for the Black Dragon's wrath.
However, unlike the centralized, relatively cohesive Kingdom of Yamato that they had just crushed, the Hengyuan strategists found that this vast western region of Honshu was an entirely different geopolitical beast.
It was deeply, chaotically divided among numerous fiercely independent chiefdoms, highly territorial clan territories, and loose, fragile tribal confederations, rather than a single unified kingdom. This fractured, deeply paranoid political landscape perfectly mirrored the ancient, blood soaked Yayoi period of the island's history, where warlords fought bitter, generation spanning feuds over small patches of arable land and access to bronze.
The Hengyuan intelligence network, spearheaded by the Oriole Agents who had infiltrated the island months prior disguised as merchants and wandering monks, had painted a highly detailed, complex picture of the main indigenous powers.
Looming largest in the south was the Kibi Chiefdom. Located along the vital, strategically crucial southwestern coast facing the calm waters of the inland sea, they were a massively wealthy, highly organized agricultural and iron working powerhouse. With an approximate population of over sixty thousand souls, they were a dominant force in the region.
They boasted a formidable, well equipped military strength of ten thousand fierce warriors, uniquely armed with advanced, double edged iron swords forged in their own blazing foundries. They were ruled by the cunning, immensely wealthy, and ruthlessly ambitious Chief Kibitsuhiko. From his sprawling, heavily fortified wooden palace, he controlled the most vital sea trade routes, taxing every vessel that passed.
Kibitsuhiko was currently in a tense, highly suspicious alliance of convenience with the neighboring state of Harima, but his true hatred was reserved for the north. He held a deep, ancient, and blood-soaked rivalry against the Izumo, a hatred so profound that his warriors would rather die than fight alongside them.
Far to the north, situated on the rugged, misty northwestern coast facing the freezing, turbulent waters of the Sea of Japan, lay the Izumo Confederation. They were the absolute antithesis of the materialistic Kibi. The Izumo were a deeply mystical, highly religious confederation famous for their massive, intricately cast bronze bells used in grand rituals, and their sacred, ceremonial swords that they believed held the spirits of their ancestors.
Boasting a population of around fifty thousand, they were ruled by a revered, enigmatic High Priestess and her fanatical council of scarred warlords. Their military did not rely on iron superiority, it relied heavily on the rugged, impassable mountainous defensive terrain of their homeland and the sheer, terrifying fanaticism of their spearmen, who fought with a religious frenzy. They were highly isolationist, viewing the southern chiefdoms as corrupt and impure, and they absolutely refused to ally with Kibi, even as the Hengyuan warships appeared on the horizon.
Further up the freezing, snow battered northern coasts lay the Koshi Tribes. They were a loose collection of rugged, deeply hardened tribal warriors living in smaller, scattered settlements heavily integrated into the dense pine forests.
Though their population was much lower, hovering around twenty thousand, their warriors were terrifyingly brutal. They painted their faces with ash and animal blood, and they were undisputed masters of vicious, hit and run guerrilla warfare, completely unaccustomed to the concepts of pitched battles or formal surrender.
To the east of Kibi and Izumo were Tango and Harima. These were incredibly wealthy, bustling coastal trade hubs that thrived on the constant friction between the larger powers. Tango, situated to the north, controlled a fleet of swift, highly maneuverable northern naval skirmishers and pirates.
Harima, to the south, heavily guarded the fertile southern coastal plains. Both boasted populations of around thirty thousand, functioning as opportunistic, deeply pragmatic buffer states. Their rulers possessed no grand illusions of divine right; they frequently and shamelessly shifted their alliances to whoever offered the most bronze, iron, or secure trade routes.
And finally, caught in the middle of this boiling cauldron of ancient hatreds, were Bizen and Bitchū. Located slightly more inland but sprawling along the coastlines, these were massive agricultural powerhouses with heavy, incredibly dense farming populations.
Recognizing their vulnerability to the predatory raids of Kibi and Izumo, they had formed a fragile, desperate tribal confederation to protect their vast, life giving rice paddies. They lacked the elite iron swordsmen of Kibi, instead fielding thousands of lightly armored, terrified peasant militias and highly skilled hunters armed with long bamboo archers.
This was the sprawling, chaotic landscape that the Hengyuan Empire had violently thrust itself into.
As the massive, thundering bombardments of the Hengyuan navy leveled the coastal watchtowers and the armored marines began their relentless, organized march inland, absolute panic gripped the sprawling territories of Honshu. The sheer, unprecedented scale of the invasion broke the minds of the local rulers.
From the high wooden palace of Kibi to the misty mountain shrines of Izumo, desperate, panicked military mobilizations were frantically ordered. War drums beat relentlessly through the night, echoing across the rice paddies and the dense forests. Blacksmiths worked until they collapsed, desperately trying to forge enough iron spears to arm the terrified peasantry.
Desperate rulers, suddenly realizing that the demons from the mainland they had heard rumors about were terrifyingly real, tried to form emergency, last-minute alliances. Emissaries on exhausted horses galloped furiously between the chiefdoms, carrying frantic pleas for unity.
But it was a tragic, pathetic failure. Their ancient rivalries, their generational blood feuds, and their deep-seated paranoia blinded them entirely to the true, apocalyptic nature of the threat. When Chief Kibitsuhiko of Kibi sent an envoy to the Izumo demanding they send their spearmen to guard his northern flank, the High Priestess of Izumo had the envoy's head severed and sent back in a basket, claiming the gods demanded Kibi burn first.
When the agricultural confederation of Bizen and Bitchū begged Harima for military support, the opportunistic rulers of Harima simply closed their borders, hoping to wait out the slaughter and perhaps pillage the remains of Bizen themselves.
They were hopelessly, tragically fractured, entirely unable to comprehend that the Hengyuan Dynasty did not care about their local politics, it only cared about absolute subjugation.
And this crippling disunity was exactly what the peerless, cold blooded minds of Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, Sima Yi, and Jia Kui had counted on.
Sitting in the safety of their heavily guarded, opulent command pavilion on the newly established beachhead, the four strategists looked over their sprawling topographical maps. They did not view Honshu as a single battlefield, they viewed it as a complex, beautifully flawed puzzle, and they possessed all the pieces necessary to dismantle it.
They brilliantly, flawlessly exploited this highly fractured, divided political landscape. They did not just use brute force; they used the dark, invisible art of Hengyuan statecraft.
Sima Yi, his eyes gleaming with cold, predatory calculation, immediately targeted the Kibi Chiefdom. He understood that Kibitsuhiko's power lay entirely in his wealth and his trade routes. Sima Yi dispatched Admiral Zhou Yu with a massive detachment of the fleet to completely, hermetically blockade the inland sea. The heavy Hengyuan warships choked off every single trading vessel, instantly strangling Kibi's economy.
Simultaneously, Jia Kui, the master of political manipulation, sent heavily bribed, silver tongued emissaries under the cover of darkness into the opportunistic state of Harima. Jia Kui did not ask Harima to fight, he simply opened chests filled with pure, minted Hengyuan silver and guaranteed Harima absolute control over Kibi's eastern farmlands if they broke their alliance and allowed the Hengyuan cavalry to pass through their lands uncontested.
The greedy rulers of Harima, blinded by the wealth, immediately betrayed Kibitsuhiko, opening their roads and leaving Kibi completely isolated and surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Meanwhile, Guo Jia, coughing lightly into his silk handkerchief, turned his chaotic, brilliant mind toward the fanatical Izumo Confederation in the north. He knew that religious zealots could not be bribed with silver, nor intimidated by simple threats. They had to be broken psychologically.
Guo Jia utilized the deep network of Oriole Agents already seeded within the Izumo mountains. The spies began spreading terrifying, manufactured omens. They poisoned the sacred wells, burned the peripheral shrines, and whispered that the gods had abandoned the High Priestess.
Then, rather than launching a costly infantry assault into the treacherous mountain passes, Guo Jia directed the heavy artillery units to set up at the base of the mountains. He ordered the cannons to fire endlessly, day and night, directly into the sacred mountain peaks. The explosive shells shattered the ancient rocks, causing massive, terrifying avalanches that buried the Izumo defenses.
The deafening, unnatural thunder of the cannons completely broke the spiritual resolve of the Izumo spearmen, who believed the mainlanders had literally captured the gods of thunder and bound them in iron tubes.
Xi Zhicai, the unparalleled master of logistics, focused his efforts on the agricultural heartlands of Bizen and Bitchū. He recognized their strategic importance, their massive rice paddies were the key to sustaining the Hengyuan army through the winter. Xi Zhicai ordered the vanguard cavalry to sweep through the coastal plains not with swords, but with a terrifying display of disciplined restraint. When the terrified peasant militias of Bizen lined up with their bamboo bows, expecting to be slaughtered, the heavily armored Hengyuan cavalry simply stopped.
Translators rode forward, carrying the imperial decrees drafted by Xi Zhicai. They announced that any village that immediately laid down its weapons and submitted to the Dragon Throne would be spared, their crops protected from Kibi raiders, and their local elders allowed to live.
Faced with the apocalyptic might of the armored cavalry and the sudden, shocking offer of mercy, the fragile tribal confederation completely shattered. Village after village dropped their weapons, abandoning their warlords and pledging allegiance to the invading empire simply to survive the harvest.
Through this relentless, perfectly synchronized combination of overwhelming, industrialized military might, localized economic strangulation, psychological terror, and surgical bribery, the invasion of Honshu violently and efficiently began.
The chiefdoms were completely crushed, isolated, or bought off one by one. Kibitsuhiko found his iron swordsmen starved of supplies and surrounded by Harima traitors and Hengyuan heavy infantry. The High Priestess of Izumo watched her sacred mountains crumble under artillery fire, her fanatical warriors weeping in terror. The tribal leaders of Bizen found themselves generals without armies, as their peasants willingly submitted to the mainland magistrates to protect their rice.
The ancient, proud, and fierce independent rulers of western Honshu were being systematically dismantled by an empire that fought on a level of political and military sophistication they simply could not comprehend. The skies over the island darkened with the smoke of burning fortresses and the continuous, rolling thunder of black powder, signaling the violent, irreversible end of the Yayoi era in Western part of Honshu, and the dawn of absolute Hengyuan supremacy.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 36 (203 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 1,010 (+20)
VIT: 659 (+20)
AGI: 653 (+10)
INT: 691
CHR: 98
WIS: 569
WILL: 436
ATR Points: 0