Chapter 187: Expansion!

Chapter 187: Expansion!

At ten in the morning, there were still six hours left before the final deadline Chen Jian had set for the "Pontiff" Jin Cheng.

He was not in a hurry to hear a reply, for he knew well that the three conditions he demanded would not be easily met.

The reason he had fixed the time so rigidly was, in truth, to apply enough pressure on the other side.

If they could show a proactive attitude, a slight delay would be tolerable.

But if they chose to sulk and act rogue, the one who would have to negotiate next would not be him, but Zhan Lu.

After all, the whole city of Jinling lay within the honey‑comb network’s coverage and within the vigilance of Fuxi and Zhan Lu; even if the opponent finally tore off the mask and fired a few heavy shells toward the manor, the drones in the sky could wipe out the entire city before they even finished loading ammunition.

So, for safety’s sake, he could not roam freely in Jinling before the talks began and the agreement was drafted, yet he remained remarkably calm.

Moreover, he slipped in a new meeting whenever a gap appeared.

It was a meeting with the representative of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce.

In fact, their original purpose in coming to Jinling was to locate the Jiangnan Chamber, forge a partnership, open a trade route, and solve the supply problem of Huangshi City.

But their operations had been too intense, and successive discoveries of crucial clues had forced that goal to be set aside.

Now that a major phase of action had finally drawn to a close, Chen Jian re‑activated the task, and once the counterpart’s envoy arrived, he launched negotiations with extraordinary efficiency.

Guided by Fuxi, Chen Jian presented the Jiangnan Chamber with a list.

The list enumerated a series of supplies—food, steel, rare metals, minerals, coal, and the like—intended to lay the groundwork for the early stage of industrialisation and to stockpile resources in advance.

Chen Jian had assumed these items would be easy to obtain, but he overlooked a problem:

In an age where equipment is scavenged from graves and steel is forged by tearing down houses, even the largest Jiangnan Chamber could not fathom exactly what they were asking for.

Apart from food, steel, saltpeter and coal, the names of other minerals were, to them, essentially inscrutable.

What is pyrite?

What is phosphate ore?

What is lithium ore?

What are rare‑earths?

What on earth are you talking about??

How could anyone be interested in such baffling things?

The Jiangnan Chamber’s representative was riddled with question marks; left with no choice, Chen Jian could only promise to furnish a detailed catalogue later, describing the properties of each material so they could procure or collect them.

Until the other side’s operations became proficient and they could smoothly complete resource‑gathering tasks, the focus would remain on food, steel, saltpeter, and coal.

The representative thanked Chen Jian profusely for his magnanimity, as if he were not conducting business but receiving a great blessing.

Chen Jian found his reaction both infuriating and amusing, yet he could say little.

“Nian Xipi, if you’re truly grateful, at least lower the price a bit!”

“You sound so pleasant, but the moment price is mentioned you become a stubborn, unyielding dog‑ged soul.”

After more than an hour of dithering, seeing that the price could not be squeezed any further, and after confirming market conditions with Zeng Yi and the others, Chen Jian finally relented and reached a preliminary cooperation framework.

Once the envoy had departed, Chen Jian could not help but let out a long sigh.

“Damn it, negotiating with these merchants is more exhausting than fighting a war.”

“No wonder they say the marketplace is a battlefield.”

Beside him, Lei Jie rummaged through the gifts the Jiangnan Chamber’s envoy had brought, then continued:

“It’s understandable; what we want is too odd and too massive, and in this world’s environment it isn’t easy to obtain.”

“His refusal to cut the price is normal; this isn’t the era when we could just dump inventory and ramp up capacity on a whim.”

“Rebuilding industry is never simple. By the way, have you ever thought about how far we actually need to go?”

Hearing Lei Jie’s words, Chen Jian fell silent for a moment, then answered:

“According to Fuxi’s calculations, with the equipment and resources inside Project 011 we actually have several paths to choose from.”

“The first is to follow the historical timeline of the industrial revolutions, restoring first‑ever industrial‑revolution technologies as a priority.”

“Things like steam‑engine technology, coke‑based steelmaking, standardized components, and so on.”

“Once this industrial loop becomes self‑sustaining, we would push forward, sequentially completing the second and third revolutions, until we sprint toward the information age.”

“In theory, this is the safest plan.”

“The problem is that this route takes far too long; even with AI assistance, a shortage of industrial workers and insufficient education would still require centuries to finish.”

“If we take the second plan—skipping the first revolution and starting from the second—we could shorten the timeline, but not by much.”

“Education is a tight‑binding spell that locks the pace of industrial development.”

“So, if we want to restore production quickly, we essentially have only one option.”

“That is, to bypass all preconditions and bite straight into intelligent industry.”

“Thus our focus can be confined to a relatively small scope.”

“Or more precisely, the industrial equipment we need to build in the short term can be limited to a modest number.”

“For instance, we don’t need to erect massive mines or sprawling chemical plants.”

“Conversely, we build exactly what we need.”

“Need weapons? We build an armaments factory; need vehicles? We set up an automobile assembly line.”

“In short, we maximise the use of limited resources—especially smart devices and smart chips—to solve the urgent problems.”

“If we encounter shortages of resources or a lack of supporting industry, we’ll keep opening disaster‑recovery works, keep digging graves to solve it.”

“This aligns with the grand strategy we originally set and fits the basic conditions of this world.”

“The only snag may be that this is an expansionist route.”

“Once we commit to it, the fighting is unlikely to stop.”

“Understood.”

Lei Jie, deep in thought, then said:

“The essence of this route is to compress our former superpower into a tiny micro‑state, then grow by relentless outward expansion, right?”

“Exactly.”

Chen Jian nodded gravely, and Lei Jie immediately raised his hand and declared:

“Then I support this path.”

“History teaches us that when facing a formidable external enemy, a peaceful development route simply won’t work.”

“We must still dare to brandish our sword—especially since our sword is quite sharp.”

“I think the same.”

Chen Jian gave a faint smile, then said:

“This route has another advantage: it lets us maintain the greatest possible gap between us and other powers.”

“That gap benefits us both in terms of our own security and in any future ‘unification’.”

“The difficulty, you see, lies in the fact that a cold start is simply too hard.”

“Balance is exceedingly fragile; should we fail to sustain the momentum of expansion, to seize scarce resources with all our might, any interruption would render recovery impossible.”

“Thus we require a formidable army.”

Leijie blinked, then suddenly said:

“Why does this thing feel oddly familiar? It suddenly seems blinding.”

“You can drop that, you know!”

Chen Jian, half in tears and half in laughter, glared at Leijie and then said:

“It is a choice forced upon us, yet also our finest one.”

“After all, time is limited; once the 011 project is activated, the equipment’s lifespan is likewise finite.”

“Within that brief lifespan, we must strive to accomplish something grand.”

“Indeed.”

Leijie fell silent; at that moment he understood Chen Jian’s earnest concerns.

He does not wish to be the sun over the wasteland.

Yet, when choices are absent, certain steps must inevitably be taken.

He bowed his head again, rummaging through the heap of gifts for anything useful, when, at that very instant, the door to the room was knocked.

The few of them lifted their gazes together; Huang Yu, stationed at the doorway, ensured safety before opening the door, revealing the representative of the Mechanical Cult tasked with reception.

The latter inclined his head slightly, first bowing, then speaking with reverent tone:

“Esteemed gentlemen.”

“The commander of the Fifteenth Regiment of the Sanctum Guard is waiting outside.”

“He says he wishes to see you.”

(End of Chapter)