When Lan Yi surfaced from the seawater, he faced the azure sky and involuntarily revealed the satisfied expression of someone enjoying a post-coital cigarette. Sure enough, loosening up his muscles and bones every now and then was good for both body and mind.
All around him,
there were either warships dead as doornails, without a trace of life, or wreckage cleaved cleanly in two, groaning its dying lament as it rose and fell with the waves.
Thick black smoke seemed to mark where corpses were being burned. The columns of smoke pierced the heavens, announcing to the cities and merchant ships that could see this stretch of sea from every direction that the war was over... Of course, perhaps they believed it had only just begun. Lan Yi happened to think the same.
Chen Qimei had once reported to Lan Yi.
This Punishment Fleet represented nearly all the naval strength the imperial powers possessed in the waters north of Xinghan.
Having lost the ability to interfere along Xinghan's southern coast, the foreigners would inevitably gather every force they could mobilize to interfere with the martial artist groups rising in the south.
That was the typical way the imperial powers thought.
In their eyes, even if they could not stop the martial artist groups from rising, they could at least play the troublemaker and keep the martial artists from getting too comfortable. It was a military-first, economy-second approach. The operation's limits were to probe the martial artists and sabotage their production capabilities.
The First World War was about to break out.
The imperial powers had no intention of creating a quagmire in the Far East that would drain their precious attention.
Instead, they hoped the Punishment Fleet sailing south from the north could drag the martial artist groups to the negotiating table, using economic measures as a collar to restrain this astonishing force that was rising at breakneck speed, in exchange for bargaining chips.
But they had never imagined it.
This intervention force, which by all rights should not have been so easily defeated, had ample room to maneuver along Xinghan's coast and a fleet of rear supply ports behind it. Yet it had been wiped out cleanly. Before its annihilation, it had not even had time to send a single piece of decent information to Yanjing.
To the northern battle command,
the Punishment Fleet had suddenly lost contact at some point.
The last message the Punishment Fleet had sent before that was: Something had come from the southern sky, like a white rainbow or a meteor. That thing had stopped above the enemy warships.
Then all contact had been lost in an instant.
The Punishment Fleet never sent another telegram back to the Yanjing command center.
At first, the command center thought it was a radio malfunction or natural interference. The Punishment Fleet, busy with the fighting, might have been pursuing a retreating enemy while maintaining radio contact. But the last telegram the Punishment Fleet had sent before losing contact still cast an ominous shadow over the Yanjing command center.
The martial artist groups rising in southern Xinghan.
Had they already mastered some kind of aerial strike capability?
Even the imperial powers had only left their plans for related aerial strike capabilities on paper. Using air power against warships on the open ocean belonged to the realm of science-fiction military concepts.
Five hours after contact was lost,
the Yanjing command center finally realized that things had gone badly wrong.
The Punishment Fleet had fifty-seven warships of various types and over ten thousand crew and personnel. So many of them losing contact for so long could not possibly be explained by radio failure or natural interference. The Punishment Fleet assembled by the imperial powers must have encountered something far beyond their expectations.
Even then, the arrogant foreigners in the Yanjing command center had not considered the possibility that the fleet had been destroyed.
The reason was simple enough.
Even if they could not win, they could always run, right? What could possibly stop ironclad warships determined to flee?
Could this ancient, decrepit land truly be like the myths and legends of India, with some epic weapon capable of bringing ten suns down from the sky?
Ten hours after contact was lost,
the foreigners in Yanjing, already anxious, agitated, and gripped by fear of the unknown, finally made a move.
Their move was... to vent first.
They announced the imposition of martial law in Yanjing and the surrounding areas, sending letters condemning the incompetence and incitement of the current court, which had caused dangerous rebel elements to emerge in the south and seriously threatened the lives and property of the imperial powers' subjects in China. The Qing Imperial Court bore undeniable responsibility for this matter and had better prepare to face the consequences!
The wording was ruthless and murderous. The army was supposedly imposing martial law, but in truth it was being allowed to indulge itself. The Imperial Court's troops simply sat as immovable as mountains, refusing to move or pay any attention.
The nation's fear of foreigners had reached the terminal stage, and the grandees of the court dropped to their knees.
They truly had no idea what was happening in the south.
Besides, were not those few governors in the south all batting their eyelashes at and cozying up to the imperial powers? In name, they still fell under the Qing Imperial Court's jurisdiction, but in reality, each had long since slipped beyond control and was only one step away from declaring himself king. Weakening the authority of the Imperial Court was exactly what the imperial powers liked to see when cultivating proxies. Who could have imagined that they would lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet?
Perhaps this rebel Huo Yuanjia and this demonic Lan Yi had even been raised up by you yourselves. Now look at the mess you've made!
Of course, the princes and ministers of the court did not dare say that aloud. They could only think it in their hearts. Outwardly, they begged with every ounce of humility they possessed, abandoning all dignity as they pleaded with their friendly nations not to be alarmed. They should wait a moment and investigate clearly before imposing martial law; it would not be too late.
We, the vast and glorious Chinese civilization, would never commit such barbaric, unreasonable, and despicable acts of sneak attack!
A thousand words and a thousand flowery phrases condensed into five characters: Father! Please stop hitting us!
As it turned out,
when someone wanted to find an excuse to beat you, no matter how heart-rendingly you wept or how desperately you insisted you had done nothing, they still would not hold back. Their copper-headed belts would keep whistling through the air.
The three-year-old child emperor seated upon the throne of the Ninth Quintessence still understood nothing.
He did not understand what was happening beyond the palace walls.
In bewilderment, he watched the weeping ministers and the distant firelight and thick smoke rising beyond the palace walls. Then he heard a minister choke out in despair that the position beneath him—and two hundred and ninety years of the realm—might not survive.
Why would it not survive?
Was the throne not right here? Had the realm not always been right there? If someone really dared to seize it, then he... then he would summon that uncle who was brilliant at war but suffered from a foot ailment to come back and beat up the bad people!
For the first time, the little emperor felt angry.
His fury was like a young wolf, beneath the shadow of a colossal creature and an enormous position, ignorantly baring its rotten, half-grown fangs.
Twenty-four hours after contact was lost,
there was finally news of the Punishment Fleet!
Amid their revelry and debauchery, the foreigners in the Yanjing command center finally received intelligence from an agent in Jinling. Not long after sending this telegram, that agent's residence was raided and seized by the martial artist groups. The second Lei Chi Immortal Lotus blossomed above the Jinling Power Plant.
Such a magnificent feat had the entire city bowing in submission!
The Punishment Fleet sailing south had been completely annihilated!
The man-eating demonic priest had departed from Puhai!
He was coming north along the railway! He was here—he had already arrived! He was Lan Yi!!