Holy Land Andes Empire, capital, Xis.
That day, King Simon Andes was playing inside the palace when he suddenly heard a guard report that enormous flying iron birds had appeared in the sky above the empire.
"Smack!!"
"Bastard, what nonsense are you spouting? How could a bird made of iron possibly fly through the sky?"
The guard's words had interrupted Simon's fun, and he felt as though his intelligence had been insulted. He stepped forward and slapped the guard across the face.
The guard rubbed his swollen cheek, on the verge of tears. He felt terribly wronged. After all, what he had said was the truth.
Besides, even if he were trying to deceive someone, he would never dare lie to Simon, the king. Wouldn't that be courting death?
"Your Majesty, how could I dare lie? Besides, I wasn't the only one who saw this. Go outside and ask around, and you'll know."
Seeing the guard's aggrieved expression, Simon nodded. He had only wanted someone to vent his anger on just now. Now that his anger had faded, it was time to deal with the matter at hand.
He then followed the guard outside the palace and looked up. Sure enough, he saw several black dots in the distant sky, accompanied by a rumbling sound.
Next, he fetched a monocular telescope—the most primitive kind—and looked toward the black dots. He could vaguely make out that they had strange shapes and truly looked like things forged from lumps of iron.
Looking at those bizarre "birds," Simon could not help but speculate.
"Could these strange things be secret weapons developed by that peculiar Yanhuang Empire?! After all, that country loves making these bizarre contraptions.
"I heard that several decades ago, they even created a steel monster that could carry several hundred people, keep running, and never get tired."
The Holy Land Andes Empire had never stopped monitoring the Yanhuang Empire.
After all, they had not forgotten how the other side had beaten them like dogs and driven them away in a panic a hundred years ago.
At the same time, they had never abandoned the idea of stealing the Yanhuang Empire's technological knowledge.
However, because of their different appearances, the people they sent into the Yanhuang Empire had to skulk around like rats. They could not even enter the cities.
As a result, over the years, many of their people had died, yet the results they obtained were pitifully few. At most, they could learn some information from the Yanhuang Empire's weekly newspapers.
They then used that information to try to develop their own technology and make their country powerful through science and technology.
But as time passed, they saw that after leaving North America, the Yanhuang Empire could not be bothered to deal with them. On top of that, they had been beating the neighboring Inca Empire like dogs, and they gradually became somewhat arrogant.
Eventually, after the kings of several previous generations who had governed diligently passed away, the new king spent his days doing nothing but eating, drinking, and playing. He completely forgot about developing technology.
For example, the current king, Simon Andes.
Meanwhile.
A military base stood in a location a hundred li from the Holy Land Andes Empire.
Inside the command room.
The commander responsible for this area was General Li Mingfeng. At that moment, he was discussing the attack on the Holy Land Andes Empire with his other commanders in the crude command room.
"General, since the Holy Land Andes Empire is the first target chosen by the empire, and it was established by those Spanish barbarians, I believe we should seize it with thunderous force. As for the lives of these barbarians, there's no need to care about them."
"I agree with Yu Feng's suggestion. They're nothing but barbarians. They don't even qualify to be prisoners. We might as well kill them all."
"Besides, this is the empire's first war against another country. We should fight beautifully and not let those civil officials in the empire look down on us."
Inside the command room, everyone voiced their opinions, and all of them meant the same thing: life or death did not matter, and no survivors were to be left.
The military officials of the Yanhuang Empire had been suppressed for more than two hundred years. Now that they had finally risen, their desire to prove themselves was explosive, and their bloodlust was rarely seen in the world.
After hearing everyone's discussion, Li Mingfeng nodded. His subordinates' thoughts were actually his own as well.
He had been suppressing himself for too long and wanted to vent, while also showing those civil officials in the empire what they could do.
He then set the tone. "Since that's the case, let the fighter jets first conduct high-altitude bombing over the major cities of the Holy Land Andes Empire. Then the army will launch a forceful assault.
"As for those who are captured, leave none alive."
"Yes, General."
When they saw that Li Mingfeng had agreed, the others immediately broke into smiles.
Every head represented military merit, after all. Ye Chen had established military merit based on the Great Qin military merit system, and it could be used to raise one's noble rank.
The Yanhuang Empire had 108 noble ranks, divided into the Seventy-Two Earthly Noble Ranks and the Thirty-Six Heavenly Noble Ranks. Each rank corresponded to a name from the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits and Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends.
When the empire's noble-rank system was first established, Ye Chen had set up 108 levels, each with a corresponding territory, to prevent the awkward situation in the future where there would be no more titles left to grant.
Noble ranks could also be inherited by one's children, but only for three generations.
Of course, if these ranks were still insufficient, he could add more. He still had the 365 ranks of the celestial stars in mind.
There was nothing he could do about it. Who told him he was the founding emperor? He had written all the empire's laws himself, so adding a few ranks was as easy as speaking.
So don't worry about Me being stingy. As long as you can earn merit, I dare grant you a title.
If there was not enough land on Blue Star to grant, then after the empire colonized other planets, granting an entire planet or even a galaxy as the fief of a meritorious person would be no problem.
As for whether granting so many territories would lead to the problem of powerful local lords threatening the central government, Ye Chen could only say that they were overthinking it.
In the Yanhuang Empire, a centralized empire where all power lay in the emperor's hands and where technology would inevitably become highly advanced in the future, allowing the central government to tightly control the local regions, trying to cause trouble was nothing more than wishful thinking.
Most likely, if you caused trouble in the morning, Ye Chen would know about it by noon, and by the afternoon, the imperial army would already be at your doorstep.
As for whether one of his descendants might one day lose his mind and distribute that power, that would no longer be his concern.
After all, by then he would already have retired. Why should he worry about so much? All he could say was that children and grandchildren had their own blessings.
If his descendants proved useless, what could their old ancestor do about it?
Holy Land Andes, above the capital.
Accompanied by a roar, several fighter jets appeared in the sky. Under the curious gazes of the people below, several enormous lumps of iron fell from the sky.
"Boom!!"
Amid the tremendous roar and the flames filling the sky, everyone caught in the blast was reduced directly to dust and bone.
Even more people were gravely wounded and on the verge of death. Wails and screams covered the streets, filling the city with smoke and gunpowder.
Thanks to Ziyan Mengmengda, Master's Words, Guo Banxi DJ, Book Friend 20221011163621186, and Book Friend 20220514112146985 for the monthly votes. Thank you for your support.
Before you continue