Year 41 of the Xia Era.
More than ten years had passed since the last Star War ended, and the Human Race had entered a period of rapid development.
With help from the Dwarf Race, human civilization, once stalled in the Bronze Age, advanced by leaps and bounds.
From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the Steel Age, and the Steam Age, a wealth of technologies had been developed.
The Human Race never lacked food, nor faced any outside threats. Since they could speak Beast Speech, they raised vast numbers of livestock, and every household had meat to eat.
Moreover, Blue Star had high oxygen levels and a suitable temperature. Crops grew tall and strong, producing astonishing yields. Food shortages were simply not a concern.
Blue Star was small. The artificial sun Zhang Yang had created rose in the east and set in the west, keeping the entire planet at around 25 degrees, and around 15 degrees at night. (Fantasy setting.)
As Blue Star upgraded and grew larger, the sun would continue rising and setting at a fixed speed, making temperature differences increasingly pronounced. (Fantasy setting.)
Under Xuanyuan Huangdi's rule, the Human Race lived and worked in peace, flourishing and prospering. Their population exploded, already surpassing 51 million.
After the Star War ended, large numbers of the Dwarf Race were sent to labor reform camps throughout the Nine Provinces of Huaxia.
Xuanyuan Huangdi imprisoned the most accomplished among them in Yu Province's prison. Through brutal interrogation, the Human Race extracted and copied extensive, systematic technological knowledge and manufacturing processes.
After comparing large numbers of confessions and examining the development of Dwarf Race civilization, Xuanyuan Huangdi learned what a technology tree was.
Having witnessed the so-called technological power of muskets, cannons, the Steam Repeating Gun, the Steam Airship, and the Steam Furnace firsthand, he began attaching greater importance to the Dwarf Race, and their status gradually rose.
But Dwarf Race technology did not entirely suit the Human Race. Xuanyuan Huangdi wanted to turn Dwarf Race technology into Human Race technology.
A road had to be walked one step at a time, and a meal eaten one mouthful at a time.
To manufacture the Percussion Flintlock the dwarves carried, the most basic requirement was steelmaking.
Flintlocks were made from good steel. Their barrels were long, thin-walled, and exceptionally tough.
They required springs, triggers, and high-grade gunpowder.
Making a gun barrel required a lathe.
A lathe worked by mounting a cutting tool and a workpiece on it.
Its transmission and speed-changing systems produced relative motion between the tool and workpiece, cutting parts to the required specifications.
Dwarf Race lathes were driven by engines powered by alcohol and steam.
That meant they also needed a steam engine.
It was practically a Russian nesting doll, one layer tucked inside another.
Almost every branch the Dwarf Race had unlocked on their technology tree was related to warfare.
They had unlocked few civilian technologies, but if they could develop the more complicated technologies of war, could civilian ones really be beyond them?
Despite possessing the technical knowledge, the weapons the Human Race made simply were not as finely crafted as those made by dwarves.
Many high-precision components could only be made by the Dwarf Race themselves. Perhaps that was their racial gift.
The Dwarf Race had been branded a race of sinners by Father God. The people of the Xia Dynasty were full of hostility toward them, their status was low, and their population began to plummet.
After learning about the situation, Xuanyuan Huangdi finally issued a dwarf protection decree, forbidding the Human Race from persecuting innocent members of the Dwarf Race.
However, members of the Dwarf Race were forbidden from holding any official position, even the lowest post of well chief.
They could be found in fields such as city construction, road building, smithing, research, and teaching.
Dwarves were short, strong, stubborn, and snobbish. They lived long lives, had low fertility, loved drinking, and fought after drinking.
When the dwarves were first distributed across the Nine Provinces after the Star War, their status was low. The Human Race beat and cursed them, driving them like slaves, and their lives were bitter beyond words.
Only after Xuanyuan Huangdi issued his protection decree and made technological development the most heavily weighted assessment criterion did the dwarves' status gradually improve. Human officials throughout the Nine Provinces also began treating them to good food and drink.
Once the Human Race had copied and archived vast amounts of technology, Xuanyuan Huangdi established something called a Technology Museum in every one of the Nine Provinces.
The Dwarf Race had to go there to teach classes, passing their technological knowledge on to the Human Race.
The Human Race also consulted them whenever they encountered technological problems, and they gradually became the Human Race's technology teachers.
Year 35 of the Xia Era.
The Dwarf Race had lived on Blue Star for five years by then. Because the Human Race needed their help developing its technology tree, they had grown exceedingly arrogant.
Every town and city had dwarf markets they had built, selling weapons, armor, farming tools, and the like.
The Dwarf Race gradually accumulated savings and began enjoying comfortable lives.
Life was far more comfortable than it had been on Bo'er Star. They had homes, food, and drink, and some dwarves began to change their attitudes.
They began turning from guests into masters, hiring the Human Race to work for them and wait on them.
They even began traveling, roaming the Nine Provinces and reconnecting with old friends. They felt their little lives were becoming more promising by the day.
Quite a few local officials throughout the Nine Provinces felt something was wrong. The Dwarf Race was merely a race of sinners designated by Father God himself. How had it become a superior race?
Furthermore, their subjects frequently reported the Dwarf Race engaging in gang fights, theft, and other misconduct. Even drunken killings of the Human Race occurred regularly.
But local officials still needed the Dwarf Race to meet their assessment targets, so they kept suppressing these incidents.
After speaking with Father God Zhang Yang, Xuanyuan Huangdi drew on Zhang Yang's scattered knowledge to establish a system of comparisons, assessments, promotions, and demotions among provincial governors.
The governors followed suit, establishing promotion systems for their subordinate division chiefs and other officials.
Technology accounted for a substantial portion of those assessments.
The original intention had been to encourage competition between provinces and accelerate the development of civilization.
Instead, it brought a series of hidden dangers and consequences.
Year 37 of the Xia Era.
Contact between the Dwarf Race grew increasingly frequent. Noah, an elder of the Dwarf Race, felt they could not simply hand their technology over to the Human Race like this.
They were a race of sinners designated by God. They only enjoyed their present status because the Human Race needed their technical knowledge.
Once the Human Race mastered all the Dwarf Race's knowledge, the Dwarf Race would once again become the most miserable of slaves.
They had to be like the cat teaching the tiger, keeping one trick up their sleeves.
Before the Star War, the Human Race had been transitioning from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, barely able to manufacture a few kinds of iron weapons. But in the dwarves' eyes...
Heh-heh ^_^!
They called that the Iron Age?
Eight years had passed in the blink of an eye.
A mere eight years was nothing worth mentioning to the Dwarf Race, whose members had lifespans of five hundred years.
Yet the Human Race had already progressed from the Bronze Age through the Iron Age and Steel Age, and was advancing toward the Steam Age.
Once the Steam Age arrived and the Human Race mastered all the Dwarf Race's technology, what use would they have for the dwarves?
The arrival of the Iron Age had brought major changes to human agriculture, cultural patterns, lifestyles, and other fields.
Before the Human Race had even adapted to the sharpness and convenience of iron tools, steel appeared.
The arrival of the Steel Age brought upheaval to certain fields once again. Technology advanced by leaps and bounds, human equipment received another upgrade, and the Human Race developed as swiftly as if it were riding a rocket.
More and more members of the Dwarf Race agreed with Elder Noah's theory, and they began plotting among themselves.
A month later, dwarves everywhere began concealing their abilities. Problems that had originally been simple suddenly became complicated.
Progress on large numbers of manufacturing processes under development suddenly slowed. The Dwarf Race thought their scheme was seamless as a heavenly robe, but they had forgotten one racial trait—their love of drink.
An epoch-defining machine was being developed at Yu Province's Technology Museum: the steam engine.
Once the steam engine was successfully developed, the Human Race would transition from the Steel Age to the Steam Age.
The dwarves deliberately made their explanations extraordinarily complicated. Human Race craftsmen had been studying for seven months without mastering it, leaving the Human Race craftsmen doubting their own abilities.
Research and development throughout the Xia Dynasty suddenly slowed. Naturally, suspicions arose, and officials everywhere began reporting the situation up the ranks.
That day.
Yu Province. Xia Dynasty. The imperial palace.
"Zhuanxu, what do you make of these memorials?" Xuanyuan Huangdi stroked his beard. He had grown somewhat old.
The Xia Dynasty had paper, which the Dwarf Race had produced and then introduced throughout the dynasty.
Zhuanxu's surname was Ji. He was the son of Changyi, the Yellow Emperor's second son, making him the Yellow Emperor's grandson.
He was also Zhuanxu of the Five Emperors, widely known in later ages.
Xuanyuan Huangdi had already reigned for more than sixty years. His life had been a magnificent, turbulent saga: he had defeated the Yan Emperor and Chiyou, establishing the Human Race's first dynasty, Xia.
His sons were all getting older, and he had sent them throughout the Nine Provinces to inspect the officials.
Those with ability and surnames were all high officials in charge of a province, while those without ability had also been sent off to serve as officials in various places.
He was extremely pleased with this grandson. Zhuanxu remained calm and resourceful when faced with problems, understood reason, valued agricultural production and livestock breeding, and promoted the four seasons and five elements while educating the people. He had the makings of a sovereign of his age.
"Your grandson believes that when events stray from the ordinary, a demon must be lurking; when people act out of character, a blade must be hidden; when words do not come from the heart, a ghost must be at work."
"This must be the Dwarf Race's doing. They fear the Human Race will tear down the bridge once we've crossed the river, so they are deliberately slowing progress."
Before you continue