Give them fish, or teach them to fish?

Zhao Gang's eyes burned with excitement.

He clapped a hand heavily on Lin Mo's shoulder.

"Comrade Lin Mo, you did well."

"Very well!"

Listening to the excited praise, Lin Mo recalled the promise he had made to Fendona and spoke with some uncertainty:

"Brother Zhao, was I a little... too impulsive when I said I'd help them?"

Zhao Gang abruptly raised a hand, cutting him off.

"No, you did the right thing!"

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, our only chance to pry open the door to that world's trust!"

With that, he turned to the head of the military's strategic analysis team.

"Old Li, tell us what you think."

Old Li rose. The enormous screen behind him instantly changed, filling with tactical markers and red warning symbols.

"Deputy Commander, our preliminary assessment is far from optimistic."

"The Elves have exceptionally capable individual fighters. Every one of them is a top-tier marksman by our standards."

"And judging by their shots' power, they're comparable to sniper rifles."

"But..."

His tone shifted.

"Their tactics are still stuck in the attritional warfare of the cold-weapons era."

"Their bows are traditional self bows."

"Their range, power, and rate of fire have already hit their ceiling. Anything beyond that would require magic."

"And then there's their logistics!"

Old Li pointed at the devastated ruins enclosed in a red box on the screen.

"Their bows and arrows are still produced in small workshops by hand. A single high-intensity battle could empty a month's stock."

"Without outside intervention, the Elves... won't survive two more sieges of the same scale."

Old Li's words doused the excitement that had just flared in the command center.

They had found a new world, but that world was about to go under itself.

What was this? Had they bought a ticket aboard the Titanic?

Academician Qian Zhenhua pushed back his chair and walked unsteadily toward the screen, reaching out as though he wanted to touch Fendona's face.

"A complete ecosystem, utterly different from our own... a civilization built on magic..."

"Besides, Commander-in-Chief Lin is still among the Elves. We must step in and help them!"

A young staff officer could not help speaking up.

"How should we help?"

"Giving them gunpowder technology outright would be too risky. With their foundation in magic, their weapons would probably soon catch up to ours in power."

Zhao Gang nodded. That was precisely his concern.

Give them fish, or teach them to fish?

That was the question.

"But we can't send troops directly, either. So how do we help?"

The entire command center fell deathly silent.

This question had stumped a gathering of Great Xia's finest minds.

"An advanced compound bow!"

Qian Zhenhua's voice rang out like a thunderclap.

Whoosh!

Every gaze instantly converged on the academician.

"They're born archers. The bow is part of their soul, part of their culture."

Qian Zhenhua's eyes shone.

"We can give them better bows!"

"Better bows?" Old Li frowned.

"Our military bows and crossbows may be advanced, but fundamentally..."

"No."

Qian Zhenhua interrupted him and motioned for the staff to bring up a design he had previously conceived, complete with structural diagrams.

"General Li, take a look at this."

An oddly shaped bow equipped with pulleys and cables appeared on the screen.

"This is a bow I designed earlier. It offers a draw weight and arrow speed far beyond those of traditional bows, while reducing the force needed to hold it at full draw by over eighty percent!"

Qian Zhenhua's voice grew impassioned.

"It was a decent invention, but in the modern age-especially in an apocalypse-it wasn't particularly useful. For Elves, though, it's perfect!"

"It's essentially an upgraded bow. It lets Elf archers hold a steady aim with ease!"

"Better accuracy also means fewer wasted arrows, indirectly addressing their arrow shortage!"

"A huge reduction in physical exertion means a massive increase in sustained combat capability! Before, their hands would shake after ten shots. Now they could fire fifty!"

"That means each Elf could loose three, even five times as many lethal arrows as before!"

Before his words had faded, Qian Zhenhua had another set of drawings brought up.

It was a repeating hand crossbow, relatively simple in construction yet exuding a cold, lethal efficiency.

"And there's this-the latest modern version of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow."

"Like emptying a pistol's magazine, it can fire an arrow with every pull of the trigger on top."

"It might not match the compound bow's power, but its value lies in close-range suppressive fire!"

"Elves aren't good at close combat? Then let them turn their enemies into pincushions with a rain of arrows before they get close!"

"Imagine Elf archers-even ordinary Elves-each carrying a repeating crossbow, forming a mobile formation that rains down arrows. How terrifying would that density of fire be?"

The command center was silent.

Everyone was stunned by the picture Qian Zhenhua had painted.

This plan was indeed far cleverer than simply tossing them a pile of AK-47s.

It addressed the immediate crisis without revealing core technology, while also respecting the other side's civilization!

"Excellent!"

Zhao Gang slammed a hand on the table, his eyes lighting up.

"As expected of Academician Qian! This is an excellent plan!"

Qian Zhenhua smiled faintly.

"None of these bows will be especially complicated. Standardized production will be quick. That takes care of their combat capability. Next is their arrow consumption..."

"I noticed that their arrowheads aren't hard enough. Once recovered, they need to be reforged."

"Terra must have iron, too. It's a common metal throughout the universe. We can provide an improved metal formula and smelting process to double the hardness of their arrowheads, allowing them to be recovered and reused repeatedly! The emphasis is on affordability and durability!"

"Good! That solves everything!" Zhao Gang finished excitedly, then looked around at everyone.

"Does anyone have anything to add?"

The experts quickly offered their suggestions.

"The design drawings must use the most intuitive illustrations possible. Eliminate all modern industrial terminology so their craftsmen can understand them!"

"We can print the drawings on nanofiber cloth. It's waterproof, fireproof, and corrosion-resistant, so repeated use or accidents won't damage them. That will save Commander-in-Chief Lin from wasting time carrying replacements over,"

"For the metal formula and smelting process, choose the simplest methods, the ones easiest for them to use in mass production! Improve their production speed and combat capability across the board!"

After their final discussion, the complete set of modification requirements was ready.

Zhao Gang immediately gave the order to get to work!