Chapter Summaries

Lin Cuo and the preparatory committee organized the Area 11 government-in-exile, while Li Xingke was ordered to lead a campaign against Longyou despite his objections and workload. Jiang Lihua confirmed the order, leaving Li to foresee a future in which Lin, Jiang, and Chou Xianglin assigned him one major task after another.

• The committee appointed Kaguya Sumeragi interim convener, assigned responsibilities to the Six Kyoto Houses, Katase, Todo, and Ohgi, and listed Kallen as a candidate for high-performance KMFs.
• A Secretariat officer told Lin Cuo that three military districts had mobilized and seven more demanded clarification of the Wartime Military Commission's authority.
• Lin Cuo returned to the Hall of Government Affairs and ordered Li Xingke to leave that night to suppress Longyou, with forces assigned to handle Qinghai and blockade North Sea.
• Li Xingke objected that the central administration and military reorganization were unfinished, but Lin Cuo and Chou Xianglin had already arranged his train, staff, and schedule.
• Jiang Lihua confirmed that Li Xingke would lead the campaign, citing his recovery and issuing her request as an imperial order.
• Li Xingke accepted the assignment and realized Lin Cuo, Jiang Lihua, and Chou Xianglin would continue relying on him to carry out their plans.

Li Xingke departed Luoyang to lead the Western Expedition, carrying Lin Cuo’s plans and a heavy burden of military reports. Back in Area 11, Clovis purged officers who defied his orders and placed the Pureblood Faction under his control while maintaining the ceasefire.

• Chou Xianglin prepared the Western Expedition Special Train, and Lin Cuo gave Li Xingke three sealed envelopes containing military and postwar plans.
• Jiang Lihua wished Li Xingke a safe return before he boarded the train and found thirteen crates of military reports waiting in the command car.
• Clovis returned to Area 11, arrested Chevail, and ordered an investigation into the concealed troops and officers involved in the Luoyang operation.
• Clovis ordered Jeremiah to purge officers who had defied royal orders, and Jeremiah accepted the task.
• Jeremiah, Villetta, and Bartley helped suspend officers, freeze accounts, and bring the Pureblood Faction’s forces under Clovis’s authority.
• Clovis refrained from a major crackdown on the Area 11 Resistance Organization to preserve the ceasefire and avoid damaging Britannia’s standing.

Lin Cuo placated Cao Yuanming with a prestigious appointment while imposing central oversight, then Li Xingke led a rapid campaign that brought Longyou, Qinghai, and the North Sea under central control. The chapter ended with the central government consolidating its authority while trying to prevent both regional power networks and excessive bureaucratic caution.

• Lin Cuo appointed Cao Yuanming to the Wartime Military Commission and made him Pacification Commissioner of the East China Sea, satisfying his demand and temporarily drawing Liaodong out of the regional military power faction.
• Li Xingke integrated the Central Army and Hexi Army at Tong Pass, then defeated Longyou with coordinated air, artillery, armor, engineering, and infantry operations.
• After Longyou surrendered, Lin Cuo ordered a purge that isolated thirty-seven officers with private communications networks, prompting Li Xingke to object to its timing.
• Li Xingke secured Qinghai by cutting its supply railways and exploiting a split in the garrison, while Lin Cuo targeted the families controlling its transport and supplies.
• Li Xingke advanced into the North Sea, where Shen Hu destroyed KMF command cores and the chief of staff eventually handed the resisting commander over to the central government.
• Longyou, Qinghai, and the North Sea left the regional military power faction, while other districts accepted audits and unified railway dispatch; Chou Xianglin then clarified that officers could still act independently within the tactical sphere.

Lin Cuo created a combined-arms doctrine that integrated KMFs with tanks, infantry, artillery, and engineers while allowing other military technologies to develop in parallel. At the doctrine conference, Jiang Lihua reviewed the plan, and Li Xingke was left with thirty-seven pages to revise.

• Li Xingke returned to Luoyang with the Central Army, and Jiang Lihua welcomed him before Lin Cuo told him the army doctrine conference would begin the next day.
• Lin Cuo compared the KMF-focused and conventional combined-arms development paths, which the system initially treated as mutually exclusive.
• Lin Cuo used his existing military projects and experience to create the [Human-machine combined total war] path, integrating KMFs with conventional ground forces and parallel research projects.
• Li Xingke entered the conference and asked Lin Cuo to remove his proposed honorific, while Jiang Lihua reviewed the doctrine and approved assigning the Shen Hu to the theater's general reserve.
• Lin Cuo handed Li Xingke the remaining thirty-seven pages of the conference agenda to revise.

Lin Cuo argued that Great Han’s corrupted ideals had weakened its military and proposed reforms to pay, promotions, and national mobilization. Li Xingke challenged the risks of concentrating power, and the chapter ended with the consequences of filling the many posts left vacant by the rectifications still unresolved.

• Li Xingke questioned why the army doctrine agenda addressed wages, promotions, and citizenship rights, and Lin Cuo argued that the army depended on the wider society.
• Lin Cuo described how Great Han’s ideals of equality, openness, and peace had been distorted, while Cao Yuanming agreed and cited years of delays to Liaodong’s radar upgrade.
• Li Xingke asked whether Lin Cuo meant to replace those ideals with militarism, authoritarianism, and xenophobia, and Lin Cuo acknowledged that this path offered the greatest short-term efficiency.
• Lin Cuo defended differentiated pay for skills, responsibility, danger, and output while promising stable basic benefits, and said promotions would rely on examinations, performance, and combat merit.
• Li Xingke questioned whether those promotion rules would apply to posts opened by the Rectification Committee’s purges as the potential benefits and risks of expanded advancement came into view.

Lin Cuo and Li Xingke negotiated limits on wartime centralization while Jiang Lihua urged them to restore their powers to her once the country was secure. Her intervention established a new political path centered on the Son of Heaven, and the meeting moved on to urgent matters.

• Lin Cuo and Li Xingke debated how officials would be selected and who would control the candidate lists during the emergency.
• Jiang Lihua asked Lin Cuo to hold her, then urged him and Li Xingke to put the country in order and return their powers to her afterward.
• Jiang Lihua's words strengthened the Son of Heaven's legitimacy and the army's responsiveness, while increasing the country's dependence on her safety and public image.
• Li Xingke and Lin Cuo agreed on limits to emergency powers, basic benefits, independent reports for Jiang Lihua, and oversight of the purge authorities.
• Jiang Lihua fell asleep, and the system established a wartime political path under the Son of Heaven's personal rule.
• Lin Cuo handed Jiang Lihua to a court lady and redirected the meeting toward matters that could kill people.

Lin Cuo laid out plans to unify Great Han’s military-industrial groups and modernize its weapons production for a large-scale war. Li Xingke approved the direction and accepted responsibility for chairing the Combined Army Committee.

• Lin Cuo showed Li Xingke the major industrial groups and proposed unified contracts, production standards, audits, and shared wartime technology.
• Lin Cuo presented the TQ-21 Standard Gao Hai design, while existing TQ-19 machines received standardized communications, controls, and ammunition supplies.
• Lin Cuo explained that Great Han needed high-end KMFs as well as mass-produced tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery to fight BETA swarms and Laser-Class threats.
• Li Xingke agreed to preserve KMF and tank production, expand artillery, and unify logistics standards through the Combined Army Committee.
• Lin Cuo implied that Li Xingke would chair the committee, and Li Xingke realized he had been given another major responsibility.

Lin Cuo negotiated India’s autonomy and future right to choose independence in exchange for military integration and joint technology development. The agreement led to a new Guren Shen Hu test machine, whose radically redesigned cockpit left Li Xingke speechless.

• Lin Cuo presented Li Xingke with a plan to let India choose independence, free association, or continued Federation membership after the common-defense war ended.
• Aditya Singh’s delegation negotiated with Lin Cuo for two days before India accepted autonomous government and a future referendum under terms that preserved Great Han’s authority over defense, foreign treaties, and strategic railways.
• India agreed to unified military communications and joint command, industrial cooperation, and technology cross-licensing, while Rakshata secured an independent laboratory and protections for her team’s patents and research.
• The India autonomy treaty and supplementary technology agreement were signed, and the system announced the creation of a Joint Military-Industrial Commission and expanded Indian technology industries in Great Han.
• Seventeen days later, the Guren Type One, Shen Hu Frame Mobility Test Model, appeared in Luoyang, and Li Xingke was struck by its motorcycle-like cockpit.

Lin Cuo defended the Guren Shen Hu’s unusual cockpit design as ergonomic and discovered that public recognition could affect pilots and machines across worlds. Kallen tested the machine and showed exceptional compatibility with its body-driven controls.

• Li Xingke and Rakshata confronted Lin Cuo about designing the cockpit around Kallen’s body and piloting posture, while acknowledging its practical merits.
• Kallen arrived to test the Guren Shen Hu and questioned its forward-leaning cockpit, prompting Lin Cuo to explain the supports and defend his intentions.
• Lin Cuo’s system unlocked a hero recognition module that described how public image and renown could influence combat strength in certain worlds.
• Kallen accepted the Guren Shen Hu and climbed into its cockpit, where the support structure adjusted to her posture and physical exertion.
• Kallen completed joint mapping and quickly piloted the Guren Shen Hu through intuitive movements, leading Li Xingke to admit that its control method suited her.

Britannia exploited Nanyang’s resentment of Luoyang’s centralization to foment unrest, prompting Lin Cuo to send Li Xingke south with a powerful army and the Rectification Committee. The campaign began restoring central control while the BETA expanded their industrial network across the solar system.

• Charles and V.V. abandoned Odysseus’s engagement as a route to Penglai Island and decided to stir unrest in Nanyang while keeping Area 11 quiet.
• Britannian-backed loans, propaganda, weapons, and communications equipment fueled resistance to Luoyang’s military centralization across Nanyang.
• After reviewing the BETA’s expanding solar-system operations and the Nanyang crisis, Lin Cuo ordered Li Xingke to return and sent him south to restore the common defense order.
• Great Han established the Nanyang Front Army under Li Xingke, with the Rectification Committee accompanying it to investigate local military networks.
• As the campaign began, the central government paid overdue railway wages, restarted arms factories, provided medical care, and incorporated local armies into the central establishment.