San Andres Empire, capital city, Xis.
That day, King Simon Andres was playing in the palace when he suddenly heard a guard report that a huge flying Iron Bird was in the skies above the empire.
"Smack!!"
"Idiot! What nonsense are you spouting? How could a bird made of iron possibly fly?"
The guard had interrupted Simon's fun. Feeling as though his intelligence had been insulted, he stepped forward and slapped him.
The guard touched his swollen cheek, on the verge of tears. He felt wronged. What he had said was true.
Besides, even if he wanted to lie, he would never dare do it in front of Simon, the King. That would be asking for death.
"Your Majesty, how would I dare lie? And I wasn't the only one who saw it. You can go outside and ask for yourself."
Seeing the guard's aggrieved expression, Simon nodded. He had only wanted someone to take his anger out on. Now that he had calmed down, it was time to deal with the matter at hand.
He went outside the palace with the guard and looked up. Sure enough, several black dots appeared in the distant sky, accompanied by a rumbling noise.
Next, he fetched a monocular telescope—the most primitive kind—and looked toward the black dots. He could just make out that they had bizarre shapes and really did look like things made from lumps of iron.
Looking at the strangely shaped "birds," Simon couldn't help wondering.
"Could these strange things be secret weapons developed by that odd Yanhuang Empire? After all, that country loves making strange contraptions.
"I heard that a few decades ago, they even made an iron monster that could carry hundreds of people and keep running without getting tired."
San Andres had never stopped keeping an eye on the Yanhuang Empire.
After all, they hadn't forgotten how the Yanhuang Empire had beaten them like dogs and driven them away in a rout a hundred years ago.
At the same time, they had never given up on stealing the Yanhuang Empire's technology.
But because they looked different, their people who entered the Yanhuang Empire were like mice, unable to get into the cities at all.
As a result, many years had passed. They had lost plenty of people, yet gained next to nothing. At most, they could learn a little from the Yanhuang Empire's weekly newspaper.
Then they used that information to try to develop their own technology and make their country a technological power.
But as time went by, they saw that after leaving North America, the Yanhuang Empire couldn't be bothered with them. And since they were beating the neighboring Inca Empire like dogs, they gradually became rather arrogant.
In the end, after several generations of diligent Kings passed away, the new King spent his days doing nothing but eating, drinking, and having fun. He completely forgot about developing technology.
The current King, Simon Andres, was a perfect example.
Meanwhile.
A military base stood a hundred miles away from the San Andres Empire.
Inside the command room.
The commander responsible for the area was General Li Mingfeng. At that moment, in the rudimentary command room, he was discussing the attack on San Andres with his other officers.
"General, San Andres is the empire's first target, and it was founded by those Spanish barbarians. In my view, we should seize it with overwhelming force. We needn't care about the lives of those barbarians."
"I agree with Yufeng's suggestion. They're just barbarians. They aren't even fit to be taken prisoner. We might as well kill them all."
"And since this will be the empire's first battle against another country, we should make it a decisive victory. We can't let those civil officials in the empire look down on us."
The officers all voiced the same opinion: kill them all and leave no survivors.
The Yanhuang Empire's military officers had been suppressed for over two hundred years. Now that they had finally risen to prominence, they were eager to prove themselves, and their bloodlust was unprecedented.
Hearing their discussion, Li Mingfeng nodded. His subordinates' thoughts were the same as his own.
He had been pent up for a long time and wanted to let loose. At the same time, he wanted to show those civil officials in the empire what they could do.
Then he made his decision. "In that case, we'll first have the fighter jets bomb the major cities of San Andres from high altitude. Then the army will launch a direct assault.
"Leave no prisoners."
"Yes, General."
Seeing that Li Mingfeng had agreed, the others immediately broke into smiles.
Every head counted toward military merit. Ye Chen had modeled the merit system on Great Qin's military merit system, and military merit could be used to advance one's noble rank.
The Yanhuang Empire had one hundred and eight noble ranks in all: seventy-two Earth Ranks and thirty-six Heaven Ranks. Each rank corresponded to a name from the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
When Ye Chen first established the empire's system of noble ranks, he had set one hundred and eight levels, each with a corresponding fief, to prevent the awkward situation of eventually having no more ranks to bestow.
Noble titles could be inherited by one's children, but only for three generations.
Of course, if those ranks still weren't enough, he could add more. There were still the Three Hundred Sixty-five Star Mansions waiting in his mind.
He couldn't help it. He was the founding Emperor, and he had written the empire's laws himself. Adding a few more ranks was as easy as saying the word.
So don't worry that I, Your Majesty, am stingy. If you can distinguish yourself, I'll grant you a title.
If Blue Star didn't have enough land to grant, then once the empire colonized other planets, there'd be no problem making a planet or even a star system into a fief for someone who had rendered meritorious service.
As for whether granting so many fiefs would create a problem with local powers growing too strong, Ye Chen could only say they were worrying too much.
In an empire like the Yanhuang Empire, where the central government held all power and technology would inevitably advance to the point that local areas could be tightly controlled, trying to cause trouble was pure wishful thinking.
They'd probably start trouble in the morning, and Ye Chen would know about it right away. Then, by the afternoon, his army would be at their doorstep.
As for whether his descendants might someday lose their minds and give away their power, that had nothing to do with him.
By then, he'd have retired. He couldn't be expected to worry about so much. His descendants would have to make their own way.
If they turned out useless, what could he, their ancestor, do about it?
Above the San Andres capital.
Amid a rumble, several fighter jets appeared in the sky. While the people below watched in curiosity, several huge iron lumps fell from above.
"Boom!!"
Amid the tremendous roar and flames filling the sky, everyone caught in the blast was reduced to nothing but dust and bones.
Even more people were gravely wounded and on the verge of death. Cries of pain and screams filled the streets, and smoke and flames engulfed the city.
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