The Human Emperor
chapter-718

Chapter 718: One-Night Miracle (II)

“Siling, is what I’m looking at real?” Zhao Yatong muttered, her eyes filled with a deep shock.

“I wanted to ask this question to you.” The shock in Bai Siling’s eyes was not one bit less than Zhao Yatong’s.

As the pair watched on, the tens of thousands of modules were just about to finish one level, and not even fifteen minutes had passed. Their understanding of city construction and engineering had been completely overturned.

“Ready!”

“Team two, get ready! Pour the solder! Quickly!”

“Everyone else, stand aside! Keep your distance! Crane!”

“Begin to connect the modules!”

……

Shouts came from all over the city. The more than one hundred thousand people had been divided into nearly one thousand teams. Each team was led by an experienced craftsman, and they all worked together, not interfering with each other and coordinating their duties.

Anyone who saw this sight would feel a deep shock, but what was being revealed here was a concept and skill for construction that was completely beyond this era!

Although it was late at night, the City of Steel was abuzz with activity, but nobody except those within knew what was going on.

As Bai Siling and Zhao Yatong stood on the city walls in the blustery wind, they gazed at the distant Wang Chong and Zhang Shouzhi with a strange light in their eyes.

A focused man was incredibly alluring. At this moment, Wang Chong was standing unmoving on the wall, all his attention on the construction. However, his incredible foresight, his commanding air, and his eternal grasp of the overall situation had left deep impressions on these two women, leaving them greatly moved.

For a moment, the two felt like there was nothing in the world that Wang Chong could not accomplish!

“I understand. He was intentionally slowing the construction speed so he could leave those people numb from shock!” Zhao Yatong’s eyes fluctuated with emotion. “He was waiting for them to put down their guard, and also for the steel modules and workmen to arrive!”

“Mm. He fooled everyone!!”

Bai Siling didn’t show any sign of blame on her face as she said these words. On the contrary, there was a deep pride and satisfaction, as if she had been the one who did all this.

“This little bastard!”

This night was bound to be a night of suffering for many factions.

……

Dawn broke in the east as the morning sun rose over the horizon.

Just like usual, the galloping of hooves heralded the arrival of the first horse as it neared Wang Chong’s City of Steel. The man atop it had been repeating this surveillance for more than a month, so he was extremely familiar with the procedure.

“Building a city is such an exhausting and time-consuming task that not even one or two years will be enough. I really don’t know when I’ll be able to stop this constant repetition of going back and forth,” the rider muttered to himself.

Although observation was a scout’s duty and he didn’t have anything to complain about, inevitably, this place was not the battlefield. Every day, he would go to the same place, observe the same things, give the same report… This sort of day repeating over and over would make even the most devoted scout begin to feel irritated.

“…I can only hope that after a while, I can get transferred elsewhere. Even if it’s the front lines, it’d be much better than this boring job! I certainly don’t want to waste two years here!”

While muttering to himself, the rider urged his horse forward, quickening his pace toward the observation point.

The City of Steel was under very heavy guard, with several thousand soldiers assembled there. There was also a high chance that many of the elites who had participated in the war of the southwest were amongst this number. These were true experts, and any conflict with them would lead to a great deal of trouble.

As a result, all the scouts maintained a considerable distance to avoid any conflicts. In any case, scouting and observation had never required running right up to the enemy force.

There were many people observing this area, and it could already be considered the heart of the empire. The Goguryeons, Turks, Western Regioners, Tibetans, Arabs, Characenians… all of them had come, dressed in disguises that made them seem like ordinary travelers.

If this were the heartland of the Great Tang, this would be unacceptable, but since this was Qixi, near the Western Regions and at the confluence of Ü-Tsang and the Western Turkic Khaganate, it was perfectly normal.

The large number of people meant that one had to come early to pick their spot. This particular rider had chosen a low hill. This coupled with the height of his warhorse made it an excellent vantage point for surveillance.

But when that rider was heading toward his usual hill, he immediately noticed that something was wrong.

A mountainous silhouette was gradually appearing before his eyes.

“This is?”

The rider’s eyes widened in astonishment. He had been observing this area for more than a month and was now extremely familiar with the nearby terrain of Wushang. The area that Wang Chong had chosen for his fief was rather flat and lacking in prominent outcrops.

The most prominent geographic feature was probably these low hills. He certainly didn’t recall any mountains.

“What’s going on here? Am I seeing things?” the rider wondered to himself in shock, but after a few moments, he decided to raise his head and continue. At that moment, he saw the true appearance of that ‘mountain’, a sight that he would not soon forget.

In the light of the morning sun, a massive, grandiose, and imposing City of Steel had appeared over the horizon. Unlike the City of Steel he usually saw, the walls of this city were now more than six meters tall, the height of three adult men.

Those gleaming metal walls were smooth and steep, appearing to be a single whole and as immovable as a mountain. And in the light of the morning sun, the rider could see smoke continuing to rise from the city as the one hundred thousand workmen labored to make the walls even higher, thicker, sturdier!

“This… this is impossible!”

The rider instantly became agitated, his eyes flying open in shock and awe.

He had been gone for only a single night, and a massive city with walls more than six meters high had appeared out of thin air!

One night!

Just one night!

And this City of Steel with six-meter walls could now be considered a basic defensive fortification, able to fend off warhorses and arrows. The only weakness was against an enemy that had come with siege ladders and could simply scale the walls.

But six meters!

This number was practically miraculous!

In a single night, the City of Steel had undergone a complete transformation. Right now, even if an army attacked, Wang Chong could still man the walls and hold the fort. And even more absurd was that these walls were being strengthened. The rider could predict that in a little more time, they would be nine-meter walls!

“No! I… I have to report this to Milord!”

The rider’s heart chilled and his entire body shivered. In the space of a single night, a six-meter-tall City of Steel had appeared in Wushang. As a scout, he had committed a grave dereliction of duty.

“Hyah!”

The horse galloped off as the rider set off in the direction he had just come from.

Behind him, the scouts and spies from the other factions had also just arrived. The neighing of horses seemed to indicate the extreme alarm they felt.

“This… this is impossible!”

“How could there be something like this! It’s impossible for anyone to do this!”

“One night! One night!! …Just how did they do it? Something must have gone wrong; I must have missed something.”

Cries of alarm came from behind the returning scout. It was evident that he was not the only one alarmed.

……

Bang!

A palm slammed against a metal fretwork table. For a moment, all of the Qixi Protectorate headquarters shook as if on the verge of collapsing.

“What did you say? That brat managed to build a city more than two zhang tall in a single night?”

Fumeng Lingcha’s bellows of rage thundered through the entire protectorate headquarters.

“…Did you think I would believe that? Have you lost your mind? You dare to speak such nonsense in front of me!”

When he received the scout report, Fumeng Lingcha’s first reaction was disbelief. Building a city could not be speedily done. This was impossible! Not even the master engineer Lu Ban reborn would be able to accomplish such a feat.

“Milord, this subordinate speaks nothing but the truth. That youngest son of the Wang Clan truly did manage to erect walls two zhang high in a single night! That city is still standing there…”

The rider kneeling down below was fearful and panicked. Before he could finish speaking, a furious wave of energy blasted him out of the hall.

“Bastard thing! Look again!”

Fumeng Lingcha’s rage could tear the sky apart. All the soldiers of the Qixi Protectorate headquarters trembled in fear. Despite their years of service under him, they had never seen Fumeng Lingcha so furious!

Gallop!

A trail of dust rose outside the Qixi Protectorate headquarters as that rider that had been blasted out of the hall mounted his horse and galloped off for the City of Steel.

……

Longxi, Big Dipper City.

Geshu Han received the news a little late, but he still received a significant shock when the carrier pigeon flew into his tower.

“Milord, this is impossible! How could anyone produce a city in a single night! Could there be a mistake in the report?”

In Geshu Han’s study, a deputy general of the Big Dipper Army slammed the paper against the desk.

“Absurd! One night isn’t even enough time to pour the mortar. Have our scouts been drinking? That they would send back information like this!” A Big Dipper Army officer voiced his agreement. Their first reaction upon receiving this information had not been shock, but the feeling that they were being played for fools.

A city had been constructed in a single night, and this city was several times larger than a normal city. Not even a three-year-old child would believe such an absurdity, yet such news was now appearing before their esteemed and battle-hardened Big Dipper Army Great General!