Zhao Tong had initially dismissed Wei Yuan's reasoning, but upon further reflection, it seemed to carry some truth.
Wei Yuan had made it blatantly clear that he had no intention of handing back the eight magical colossal ballistas. Given Western Jin's strained imperial treasury, which lacked the funds even to recruit and drill new armies, it might take three to five years before those eight ballistas could ever be replaced.
In other words, Hanyang Pass would be reduced to a useless ornament for a long time to come; repelling the Shamans would fall entirely on Wei Yuan's shoulders.
Knowing he could not sway Wei Yuan, Zhao Tong could only stamp his foot with a sigh. "Then give this old servant an honest bottom line so I can report back. Just how far does your domain intend to expand?"
Wei Yuan pulled over a map and pondered for a moment. "If I were to say I won't expand eastward, you wouldn't believe it, Eunuch, and neither would the King. But my primary objective moving forward is to march west against the Shamans. My scope of activity to the east will be bounded by Hanyang Pass; I will not cross beyond it.
"However, there is a condition: Hanyang Pass must not obstruct flying-boat merchant caravans traveling to and from Qingming, nor may it set up checkpoints to levy taxes. Otherwise, ordinary folk might be fine, but the Garrison Commander and Vice Commanders will likely meet with unfortunate accidents."
Zhao Tong was taken aback. "That absolutely won't do! Garrison Commanders and Vice Commanders are court-appointed officials of the fourth and deputy fourth ranks! How could you lay hands on them?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "Even if tens or hundreds of thousands of low-ranking grunts die, those big shots wouldn't bat an eye. Look at how I wiped out three hundred thousand of the Xu family's men in a single battle—didn't they just come right back? But if I kill a few fourth- or fifth-rank officials, slaughter a few more Dharma Idol elders, and bring the blade down upon the heads of those big figures, I guarantee more than half the people eager to wage war against me will reconsider. Besides, horse bandits will be the ones killing them. What does that have to do with me?"
Zhao Tong gave a bitter smile. "Know when to stop. Going too far is as bad as falling short, and this servant won't be able to speak up on your behalf."
"As long as the Xu family doesn't lose its mind, I won't put you in an awkward spot, Eunuch. Besides, the ones with whom I share a mortal enmity right now are the Shamans."
"Good, then. This servant shall take his leave and report back."
Only after Zhao Tong departed did Wei Yuan open the imperial edict and skim through it. The decree was merely a reprimand for mobilizing troops without authorization and crossing boundaries to make arrests. Its wording was exceedingly harsh, berating Wei Yuan from top to bottom, but it contained not a single concrete punitive measure.
Wei Yuan casually tossed the edict into the wastebasket and returned to the main peak.
His residence on the main peak had been rebuilt and expanded several times over. The central hall in the front courtyard served as the regular meeting place for the Palace of Grand Beginning cultivators. The left wing housed a sand-table map of the domain, where Wei Yuan and the others deliberated and formulated strategic plans. The right wing held shelves brimming with maps encompassing the entire human domain.
Stepping up to the sand-table map, Wei Yuan carefully studied the contours of the terrain toward the northwest, pondering where to construct new fortresses and mount the colossal ballistas.
With an extreme range of up to two hundred li, bolts capable of tracking targets, and the power to slay ordinary Dharma Idols, the colossal ballistas were truly devastating instruments of slaughter. Above all, they excelled at taking down massive aerial targets like flying boats.
Of the eight colossal ballistas dismantled and hauled back, Wei Yuan planned to deploy only two facing the Shamans, station four toward the Xu family, and place the remaining two at the center of the domain for defense.
Wei Yuan stood before the sand table for two whole hours, charting a march route to the northwest and leaving numerous marks upon it. He noted where to raise fortresses, where to establish relay encampments, how many columns the army would split into, and even how many troops per column and at what pace they would advance.
Ahead of this route, far beyond the edges of the sand table, lay Wei Yuan's ultimate destination: Hongye's Land of Rain.
Having outlined the strategy, Wei Yuan received word that the eight colossal ballistas had arrived.
Wei Yuan immediately brought Yu Zhizhuo along to receive the weapons.
Upon hearing the news, Yu Zhizhuo dropped all the work at hand and summoned all his junior martial brothers from the Hall of Heavenly Craft.
The convoy transporting the colossal ballistas slowly rolled into Qingming, consisting of more than eighty freight wagons; a single dismantled ballista took ten full wagons to haul.
Following his original plan, Wei Yuan dispatched four of the ballistas to Xuanwei Three and Xuanwei Four, while sending the other four toward the center of the domain. Both garrison cities faced east; anyone marching out of Hanyang Pass to attack the domain would have to pass near them.
Wei Yuan had already instructed his men in advance to erect two raised platforms within each garrison city to serve as firing mounts for the colossal ballistas.
When the ballistas were dismantled, Wei Yuan had ordered detailed diagrams drawn of every part, noting their positions and assembly sequence. The main component was the chassis, assembled from four identical base beams, followed by four bow arms. The primary spell arrays were carved into the base beams, each of the four bearing a different array.
Yu Zhizhuo inspected and took notes as he went. His junior brothers divided tasks, using tools to measure every part and logging the dimensions on schematics. Once they thoroughly understood the design, Qingming would be able to manufacture colossal ballistas of its own.
The arrays on the ballista chassis primarily boosted firing range; arrays for tracking, spell-breaking, and lethality were all inscribed onto the ballista bolts. Hanyang Pass had allotted ten bolts per ballista, which Wei Yuan had naturally hauled back alongside them.
After a busy half-day of hard work, Yu Zhizhuo finally finished drawing schematics for every component and recorded all the formations. Several disciples of the Hall of Heavenly Craft then began directing the cultivators to reassemble the colossal ballistas. Yu Zhizhuo sorted through all the schematics while continuously calculating something in his head.
Wei Yuan asked, "How is it? Can we build them?"
"No problem. These ballistas use very dated designs. The main issue is that the materials are hard to come by, but there is plenty of room for improvement in the engineering. Given a little time, I should be able to make something even better."
"And the cost?"
Yu Zhizhuo did some silent math before answering, "No more than two hundred thousand taels of immortal silver, including fifty bolts."
Wei Yuan was stunned. "That little? Western Jin spent 1.5 million taels to build just one of these!"
"How could that be?" Yu Zhizhuo's initial reaction was disbelief. Then the truth dawned on him, and he sighed. "No wonder their treasury is always empty. It would be a ghost's miracle if their coffers were ever full."
Wei Yuan also grasped what was happening. Though such affairs were a dime a dozen in the history books, encountering it in person and seeing so staggering a price difference still left him dumbfounded.
If Yu Zhizhuo's improved ballistas would cost only two hundred thousand taels, how much was the original version actually worth?
"Martial Uncle Yu, how much would you say these original ballistas are worth?"
Yu Zhizhuo had refined artifacts for decades and was a master of his craft; what material hadn't he seen? After estimating for a moment, he replied, "A hundred and twenty thousand taels. Not a copper more."
Wei Yuan could only sigh. "What audacity to pocket that much!"
A ballista costing a hundred and twenty thousand taels to manufacture had turned into 1.5 million when sold to the imperial court—a markup of over eleven times. By contrast, Wei Yuan sold a set of breastplates for twenty taels, and the Zhao military purchased them for fifty taels, a markup of just one and a half times. Perhaps this was why Zhao was so much stronger and more prosperous than Western Jin.
Yet even though he knew the Zhao military's procurement price was fifty taels, Qingming could only sell the breastplates for twenty. That thirty-tael margin between twenty and fifty was not something Wei Yuan could pocket. Where that thirty taels went was exactly where the 1.38-million-tael difference on the ballistas went: straight into the pockets of the Seven Surnames and Thirteen Clans.
"Shall we build a few? Give me a month, and I can finish the design for a new bed crossbow." Yu Zhizhuo rubbed his palms together, having a natural passion for massive war engines.
Wei Yuan shook his head. "Our resources are limited right now. We should prioritize manufacturing flying-sword guns."
Yu Zhizhuo gave Wei Yuan a meaningful look and said, "Understood."
Guns and giant bed crossbows represented two entirely different directions: bed crossbows were defensive bulwarks, whereas guns were instruments of offense.
As the colossal ballistas were transported back, tens of thousands of captured soldiers also arrived in batches. The process had been somewhat convoluted: these captives had been seized by the Heaven-Battling Gang, only for Wei Yuan's army to arrive soon after, rout the gang, and rescue them from the horse bandits' clutches.
Yet the Lord Military Commissioner's grace and benevolence had to be repaid. Repayment took only two forms: either with money, or in the flesh.
These common grunts, most of whom were raw recruits newly promoted to regular rank, had no money. Anyone with coin had long since bought themselves an officer's commission. Thus, they had no choice but to pay in the flesh, committing to serve the Lord Military Commissioner for ten years. Of course, if anyone genuinely could not bear it and wished to redeem themselves early, that was also permitted: every remaining year was valued at fifty taels of immortal silver, and they simply needed to pay for the years left—assuming any patron was willing to foot the bill.
The smarter ones had already heard whispers about the connection between the Heaven-Battling Gang and Qingming, but precisely because they were smart, none of them spoke it aloud.
Given the Lord Military Commissioner's stature, being willing to stage such a play for everyone's sake was already showing great consideration. If anyone failed to appreciate his favor and truly provoked him, they might very well be tossed into the mine shafts to dig until they died.
Although the garrison of forty-odd thousand from Hanyang Pass had been diluted with fresh recruits, their overall quality remained superior to the Xu family's private army, let alone ordinary regional troops. The officers had already been filtered out and released upon payment of ransom; what remained were purely Body Casting soldiers.
Furthermore, more than a hundred thousand refugees were still on the roads. Wei Yuan estimated that within several days, Qingming's population would surpass one million. This time, he was truly stuffed to capacity. The captives from the first major battle against the Xu family had barely been digested, and now hundreds of thousands more had been added, with thousands of refugees trickling in every day.
The more than five hundred thousand people who joined later were all able-bodied men and women in their prime, still well within the window to undergo Body Casting. Once they broke through the first realm of Body Casting and were fully outfitted with gear, their combat power would multiply exponentially.
Wei Yuan decided to lie low quietly for the coming period, assimilating this population and building his strength. At the latest, when the harvest season after next arrived, the grand army would strike.
Chapter 384