Chapter 240: Here They Come?

Chapter 240 – Arrived?

On the road back from the Imperial Capital to Jinling, Chen Jian kept hearing reports about that leviathan‑like eel‑whale from the Mechanical God Sect, the Hall of Holy Blood, and the Ringed Trade Guild.

It was indeed making its way south, and its pace was no slouch.

Chen Jian’s small squad, unburdened by supplies, could cover three to four hundred kilometres a day, while the beast moved almost in parallel with them.

When the squad reached Quancheng, the monster struck Langya.

Upon reaching Zhuolu, the monster assailed Yandu.

On the return to Jinling, witnesses saw the creature land at the mouth of the Yangtze.

After that, it vanished completely from human sight.

By estimating the land speed of that eel‑whale, it seemed likely to reach Jinling in four or five days.

Whether it would launch a direct assault, or bide its time until a greater tide of beasts gathered, was a mystery beyond Chen Jian’s foresight.

All he could do was one thing.

Prepare himself for every possible shock.

“Weren’t you planning to steal a home?”

“I’ll give you a chance.”

The spoils seized from Huadu were about to arrive; when they did, swarms of bee‑like robots would man the artillery, dozens of guns firing in unison— even without a nuclear warhead, it would be enough to make you drink a full pot!

So Chen Jian was not overly worried about the threat from that monster.

On the contrary, he quietly yearned for its swift arrival.

Armed with a deadly weapon, his murderous intent flared.

With dozens of nuclear bombs in his grasp, he could not help but go mad.

After reaching Jinling, he even took a stroll through the city and held an “intimate dialogue between allies” with Zhang Tao.

Of course, Zhang Tao was fully aware of what had transpired in the north, and his attitude toward the squad grew ever more respectful.

When Chen Jian asked the Mechanical God Sect to stockpile enough grain for the upcoming population migration, Zhang Tao agreed without hesitation.

In doing so, the grain crisis facing the Huaxia army was instantly alleviated.

Yet Chen Jian knew this was merely a stop‑gap measure.

“.This Zhang Tao is not that simple.”

On the road out of Jinling, Chen Jian spoke:

“He is still a saint of the Mechanical God Sect, but he seems to have forgotten why he ever took that seat.”

“I have yet to see him launch any meaningful reforms, yet he swings a massive axe at personnel appointments.”

“To achieve such a level, one is either a mediocre talent or a true schemer.”

“Clearly, he cannot be a mediocre talent.”

As his words faded, He Shuo, who had just returned to Jinling and was standing beside him, nodded in agreement:

“Indeed, this kid may not be problematic, but he is not easy to control either.”

“He spares no effort in elevating his own faction; who knows whether he truly wishes to purify the Mechanical God Sect or to stir up some restoration movement.”

“We must keep him under constant watch, but fortunately our deterrence accounts still have enough balance.”

“In the short term he lacks the audacity and the capacity to act rashly.”

“Taking advantage of this period of peaceful development, we can bind our interests through repeated cooperation, cutting off any chance of his defection at the source.”

“Agreed.”

Chen Jian nodded, then asked:

“What is your plan?”

“First open the trade routes—actually, severing them is even simpler; the easiest way is to work through the upper echelons.”

“Whatever the upper class needs, we shall provide.”

“Thus we can secure broad support in Jinling and even within the power core of the Mechanical God Sect.”

He Shuo paused, then continued:

“But that route carries too great a side effect.”

“My thought is to follow the people’s path.”

“Splitting the religious aristocracy from the common folk not only aids us later in cleansing the sect’s toxins, but also lets us truly grasp the most basic, foundational productive forces.”

“The difficulty lies in granting ordinary people the ability to resist the ruling elite.”

“Distribute guns?”

Chen Jian furrowed his brow and followed up on He Shuo’s words.

“Simply handing out guns will not suffice; we must ensure our own armed forces can meet the potential threats that weapon proliferation brings.”

“The measure of this technological gap must be handled with utmost caution.”

“I am not speaking of the gap in weapons we already possess, but of the gap in weapons we are capable of producing.”

“After all, consumables cannot be used as trump cards.”

“No matter how fierce a tank is, it cannot refuel while on the move.”

“If it stops, a handful of militia with powder sticks can capture it.”

“Do you understand what I mean?”

“I understand.”

He Shuo nodded

and, after a brief pause, said:

“So the preliminary plan is to first supply them with secondary weapons.”

“The steel mill is already finished; according to Fuxi’s schedule, the coking plant’s equipment should be completed tomorrow, with full assembly the day after.”

“I intend to occupy two days of capacity on line 011 and spin up a simple production line.”

“What production line? A matchlock gun line?”

Chen Jian asked curiously.

.It’s not as if we need to pull

such a massive technological gap.”

He Shuo chuckled and replied:

“I want to forge a batch of pipe‑guns.”

.Si

deng?

“Yes, just follow the design of the Si‑Deng.”

“Use stamped parts wherever possible, the breech can be 3D‑printed, the barrel made with ordinary deep‑drilling, the equipment is not complicated.”

“As for yield and defect rates, do you think those are matters we need to consider?”

.It seems indeed not.

Chen Jian could only laugh and cry, and pressed on:

“What about the bullets? Making bullets is far more troublesome than making guns; we lack a chemical industry—how will you handle caps and gunpowder?”

“Never mind that for now. By the standard of twenty rounds per civilian in Jinling who can get a gun, the ammunition we seized from Huadu is enough to share among them.”

“We never intended to let them rebel outright; we merely wish to send a signal of rebellion.”

“So you plan to turn this thing into a 7.62‑mm submachine gun? Most of the ammo we captured is 7.62.”

“Short burst! Short burst!”

He Shuo corrected:

“In any case, this contraption’s service life need not be considered.”

“Its design philosophy is simple: when used on people, it should be lethal; against small monsters, it should guarantee at least a one‑for‑one exchange—that’s sufficient.”

“I’ve already had Fuxi review the schematics; I’ve glanced at them myself and see no major issues.”

“So you’ve actually had this figured out all along, just waiting for me here, huh?”

Chen Jian smoothed his forehead and asked with a grin:

“What’s the matter, digging a pit and waiting for me to jump in?”

“That’s the art of conversation.”

He Shuo, rarely smiling, spread his hands and asked:

“Just tell me whether you agree or not.”

“I agree—how could I possibly disagree?”

Chen Jian sighed, nodded, and said:

“I never realized you had this talent before; true steel still needs to be forged on the battlefield.”

He Shuo gave a shy smile and said nothing.

In fact, Chen Jian’s words were not a compliment to He Shuo.

The opponent’s plan appears simple, yet every step hides hidden machinations.

Arms proliferation can, to some extent, break the Mechanical Church’s monopoly on safety needs, but withholding ammunition for now preserves a delicate balance of power. Once Jinling’s civilians possess enough weapons, the Huaxia army becomes a crow already perched on the table.

Whether the table is tipped or not now depends on how hard the Mechanical Church is to handle.

Moreover, this strategy reveals no flaw to any faction.

The beast tide is coming; I’ll arm the civilians so they can defend themselves—nothing wrong with that, right?

A remarkably perfect plan.

Chen Jian looked ahead with a hint of melancholy, while the Yangtze River loomed nearby.

Watching the rushing river, Chen Jian recalled the missing monster.

After a moment of contemplation, he spoke:

“Let me add one more point.”

“Once the guns are forged, we won’t sell them to Jinling right away.”

“First we’ll ship them to Suzhou, Yuhang, and the Shen‑city region.”

“Those places may become the front line of the beast tide; no matter what, even our conspiracies must consider practical benefits.”

“Heroes see alike.”

He Shuo grinned at Chen Jian, their tacit understanding needing no words.

Heading south, He Shuo escorted Chen Jian and his companions to the riverbank, then turned back toward Jinling.

Still on the north bank, Chen Jian already saw a swarm of construction machines busy laying road on the south bank.

All the tangled vegetation on the ground had been cleared, and a rudimentary paved road was taking shape.

As he had promised the merchants, the road was now built.

Compared to the paved roads of his past life, this one’s condition could be described as pitiful.

Yet against the newly built local roads in this world, it could proudly be called a “broad avenue.”

The 30A and the Warriors trudged south along the road, hurrying and lagging, finally reaching the Jinling ruins before six o’clock.

Shen Yue, left behind at the camp, had already prepared dinner, and as the group disembarked, fireworks suddenly cracked in the sky.

“A warm welcome to comrades Chen Jian, Lei Jie, Xie Liu, and others on their triumphant return!”

“Salute!”

“Salute complete!”

“Applause!”

“Clamor of cheers.”

Fresh off the vehicle, Chen Jian stared dumbfounded at the orderly crowd, half‑tempted to laugh, and asked Shen Yue:

“What on earth is this you’ve put together?”

“Ideological construction.”

Shen Yue said solemnly:

“Honor must be made tangible; handing out a few badges does nothing.”

“We can’t yet differentiate treatment, but the ceremony still needs to reflect something.”

“Cooperate, and don’t sabotage my setup!”

“I know, I know.”

Chen Jian took the rice wine Shen Yue handed him, drained it in one gulp, lifted the cup’s bottom, and shouted:

“Comrades, you’ve worked hard!”

“Revive Huaxia!”

A chorus of voices rang out, leaving Chen Jian utterly bewildered.

“What? You even taught that?”

“Of course, it’s obvious.”

Shen Yue pulled Chen Jian to sit beside a modest yet clearly handcrafted wooden table, then said:

“Let’s fix ‘Revive Huaxia’ as our slogan for now; we can tweak it later.”

“Come, eat—this meal must be savored; I cooked it myself.”

“It was overseen by Commander Shen Yue as I operated the ant‑colony robots.”

Fuxi’s voice crackled through the headset, and Chen Jian, amused, looked at Shen Yue and said:

“Cyber‑cooking, huh?”

.You just say whether it’s my recipe. No nonsense, eat!

Chen Jian, of course, paid no mind to such trifles.

He lifted his chopsticks to begin eating, but at that moment, Fuxi spoke again:

"Commander, five kilometers south of the base we’ve detected an anomalous humanoid heat source. It’s under stable tracking; we estimate it to be ordinary refugees."

"Shall we execute an expulsion?"

"Refugees?"

Chen Jian blinked in surprise.

"No need to expel. Keep tracking, mitigate risk, and attempt contact."

"Let’s see what he intends to do!"

At that moment, the girl in the jungle whom Fuxi had labeled an “anomalous heat source” slipped continuously through the trees.

She used the dense foliage and her damp garments to mask her trail and scent, striving to evade any lurking monsters.

Yet it was evident that such caution was somewhat superfluous.

The farther north she went, the eerily silent the surrounding woods became.

In the withered, rotting fungi no trace of large creatures could be found; the whole area seemed scrubbed clean by some immense force, the monsters either strewn as corpses upon the ground or long since fled.

The girl's vigilant gaze swept the woods again and again, yet as she neared the edge and stepped into the clearing, no danger presented itself.

This final stretch was nothing like she had imagined.

She had expected to enter a heavily fortified, impenetrable stronghold.

But now it seemed… perhaps not so.

So, was the opponent’s strength less than she had presumed, or did they simply disregard any possible assault?

The latter seemed far more likely.

After all, according to the merchants’ reports, the force entrenched in the Jinling ruins, called the “Huaxia Army,” truly possessed unimaginable power.

The girl exhaled deeply, scrambled up a towering ginkgo tree with hands and feet, then retrieved a telescope from the pocket slung on her back, peering beyond the overlapping canopy northward in search of the so‑called “New Jinling City.”

She soon located her target.

In fact, that “city” was glaringly obvious.

Though modest in size, its lights shone unmistakably against the night sky.

All of them electric lamps.

Such a scale could scarcely be described without the word “luxurious.”

The girl strained to widen her eyes, hoping to discern every detail of the new city.

How many people, how many weapons, whether the inhabitants were friendly, and whether they would welcome newcomers.

These were the questions she had to weigh.

She bore the expectations of every soul in Qiandao Lake Town upon her shoulders, leaving no room for a single slip.

Yet, from her perch, the crude telescope in her hand offered a woefully poor view.

Beyond the glaring lights and the vague silhouettes of machinery, nothing else came into focus.

Perhaps she should simply go inside and look?

She set the telescope aside, hesitantly settling onto a branch.

She wished to press onward, yet a thread of fear and doubt tugged at her heart.

The resolve to engage new forces and unknowns does not come easily.

Perhaps she should walk a little farther before deciding.

She instinctively brushed her hair back, intending to descend and close the distance, when suddenly a voice echoed from the sky.

"We see you."

The girl’s hair stood on end, ready to sprint, but the voice continued:

"If you wish to look, just walk over and see for yourself."

(End of Chapter)