Chapter 1165 - 1106. The Day Of The Unification Celebration Arrived
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(A/N: Don’t forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
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Lie Fan’s eyes, however, suddenly gleamed with the visionary, transformative fire that defined his entire reign. He looked down the long, gilded corridor, seeing past the stone and the silk, envisioning the future he was actively forging in the dirt outside the city walls.
"But, of course," Lie Fan added, a profound, confident smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, "while we cannot shrink the physical size of the earth, we can certainly master the time it takes to cross it. When Master Huang Chengyan, Minister Liu Ye, and Kongming finally complete the initial phases of the wagonways project... the world will change."
Lie Fan gestured with his hand, illustrating the invisible lines of iron he was drawing across the map. "Once the tracks from Xiapi to Xiaopei are fully stabilized, and we have mathematically perfected the speed needed to haul all kinds of commercial and passenger weights over the iron rails, travel time across the central plains will be drastically, unbelievably cut."
"What takes a horse drawn carriage a week to traverse through the mud will be accomplished in a matter of days, regardless of the monsoon rains. In the future, when I summon the lords of the south or the kings of the east, the journey will not be a grueling, multi month expedition that risks their lives. The empire will be intimately connected, bound by arteries of iron."
Jia Xu listened to the Emperor’s vision, a deep, genuine sense of awe flickering briefly behind his usually impenetrable, calculating eyes. The sheer scale of what Lie Fan was building, an empire not just united by fear and military might, but physically bolted together by revolutionary technology, was staggering.
"I understand completely, Your Imperial Majesty," Jia Xu nodded his head, bowing deeply as they reached the grand intersection that separated the administrative wing from the private imperial residences. "The wagonways will be the physical manifestation of your eternal mandate. We shall accommodate the late arrivals with the utmost patience, knowing that the future belongs entirely to your speed."
"See that you do. Go now, both of you. Ensure the banquets tomorrow are a feast that the history books will weep to record," Lie Fan dismissed them warmly.
"Long live the Emperor," Jia Xu and Mi Zhu chorused, bringing their hands together in a final, deep bow.