Chapter 1 Dongping's War Banner Rises

The flag-raising ceremony for the Dongping War Banner, the Gondor city flag, and Tan Xiaopei's general flag commenced. After a quick cleanup of the square, twelve iron cannons were rolled out from the small doors on either side of the governor's mansion's straight, towering staircase. They lined up facing the square. The cannons had all been sandblasted and blued, a state-of-the-art metal surface treatment process for the time. Sandblasting, bluing, frosting, and drawing had become the four major metal surface treatment processes of the Ye Clan Workshop, and for good reason. Each technology represented the crystallization of countless artisans' time and effort and the expenditure of considerable funds by the Ye Clan Workshop. The Ye Clan Workshop, in the guise of Ye Tao's private property, maintained the structure and scale of the Dongping Academy of Sciences, a place beyond the comprehension of ordinary people. If Gondor, as a representative of Yunzhou's cities, had stepped into modernity under the all-out efforts of Ye Tao and Yunzhou officials at all levels, then at least seven research institutes—optics, electricity, alchemy, aviation, firearms, power machinery, and textiles—within the Ye Clan Workshop's research institute were producing results very close to modernization. If it hadn't been for Gondor's completion ceremony, Ye Tao wouldn't have revealed these iron cannons. These were no longer clumsy muzzle-loading cannons, but lightweight breech-loading cannons with considerable technical content, using brass-cased ammunition. Although today they were using so-called "thunderclap rounds" as salutes, which had no lethality and even suppressed muzzle flash and smoke to a minimum, only producing a startling sound, once they were loaded with those copper-cased shells, these lightweight rifled cannons would be super weapons for battlefield support, more powerful than the combination of crossbows and fire oil bombs. Furthermore, training gunners for direct-fire cannons to meet standards was even simpler than training crossbowmen. However, Ye Tao planned to report the cannon situation to Tan Xiaopei and the others after the ceremony. For now, he would let everyone think they were just salutes.

After the flag-raising and the cannon salute, the military parade officially began. The invited guests were naturally arranged on the governor's mansion balcony according to their importance. The only ones on the balcony whose status might not have quite met the standard were probably the children of various families. Ye Wenxuan and Ye Wenji didn't originally have this privilege, but this time, Tan Weiming brought his son, Tan Weiran's son and daughter both came, as did Golan's grandchildren, Lu Dan's eldest son, and the six children of the Chi Lei and Chi Yun brothers… Many of these children were members of the Yunzhou Kindergarten and could be considered reunited with Ye Wenxuan and Ye Wenji after a long separation. Ye Tao had originally arranged for these people to be on the second-floor balcony of the Telegraph Bureau headquarters across from the governor's mansion, but Tan Xiaopei changed it. Tan Xiaopei switched the positions of the family representatives and the children. These children, who were able to watch the parade on the main viewing platform, all came from extraordinary backgrounds and naturally knew to behave themselves on such occasions. They were all wearing the simple and solemn uniforms of Dongping Kindergarten and Meng School, their little faces filled with excitement, but they sat up straight and remained quiet. Even when they spoke to each other, they kept their voices down. A group of usually noisy children who gave everyone headaches were now performing in a way that made the adults secretly cheer. Tan Xiaopei's arrangement made his meaning very clear: these children were more important to Dongping's future than the family representatives.

Originally, there were only a few family representatives who were qualified to be on the main viewing platform; they were all families extremely close to the Tan and Ye families. Everyone laughed it off, and no one had any complaints. And for many others, the best place to watch the parade was not the central avenue, where crowds were beginning to gather on both sides and good positions in the buildings along the route had been reserved, but the area around a small square on the side of the central avenue. The small square was the preparation area for the entire parade, where the participating troops would gather, rest, and then depart in sequence. For the spies from Xiling, Beiliao, and Chunnan, who all had ulterior motives, and for the representatives of other forces who wanted to understand Yunzhou's strength, this was the best place to observe.

Among these people, the one with the highest status was none other than Gao Senqi. As the young master of the Beiliao Western Route Army, he had been to Yunzhou quite often in recent years. After the Beiliao army suffered losses and territory in the Battle of Beining Pass, the imperial court's control over local warlords weakened further, and the Gao family had essentially turned the Western Route Army into their private army. The entire territory of the Western Route Army had been under a wartime economic system for years, preparing for the inevitable war between them and Dongping and Yunzhou. However, Gao Senqi had always been able to enjoy the treatment of a friend in Yunzhou because Yunzhou, as a powerful part of Dongping, revered martial prowess and respected heroes. They respected every opponent, especially those who dared to face them with weapons without resorting to conspiracies. They admired pure war artistry… In this pure dialogue between soldiers, Gao Senqi was indeed a good opponent that the generals of Yunzhou greatly recognized. Gao Senqi had arrived early for the completion ceremony of Gondor, and Ye Tao even took him to visit important facilities such as the city defenses, underground facilities, transportation, telegraph management, production, and warehousing, spending two full days. Ye Tao was indeed showing off, but he was also secretly declaring to this friend with whom he had shared some experiences in Chunnan: let's not fight; it's meaningless. Ye Tao didn't seem to be afraid of Gao Senqi understanding these things, understanding important things like city defenses, because he understood very well that although the Western Route Army was very strong now, it absolutely could not threaten Gondor. In fact, no one now felt that they had the ability to threaten Gondor, even during the rainy season when airship reconnaissance was completely useless…

Gao Senqi undoubtedly occupied the best vantage point next to the preparation area on the small square. It was the window seat on the sixth floor of Gondor's most upscale restaurant, operated by the Seven Seas Trading Company. The sixth floor… just thinking about this height made people feel a little apprehensive. In Beiliao, even tower buildings were no more than nine stories high, and the space on each floor was very limited. But now, reinforced concrete, advanced frame structures and design concepts, and incredible decoration techniques and ideas, along with a carefully designed lighting system, turned the entire restaurant into a place where everyone could enjoy themselves. While drinking a light red wine that Ye Tao called "Chardonnay," Gao Senqi overlooked the entire small square. Twelve battalions of troops had already gathered on the square, and eight more battalions were waiting on the surrounding roads to enter the area and form up.

"Does this brother mind if I take a seat here? This place has a really good view." Suddenly, a clear voice rang out beside him. Gao Senqi's guard's hand had already moved to the hilt of his saber, but Gao Senqi casually waved his hand, and the guard immediately crossed his arms and stepped aside.

Gao Senqi saw that the person who had come was a scholar wearing a dark green robe. Although the man's clothes looked very plain, this deeply dyed double-layered cotton and linen mixed fabric was not something that ordinary people could afford, and the mutton-fat jade pendant hanging from the scholar's waist was even more extraordinary. If there was still any doubt about the scholar's importance, one could glance at the middle-aged man in his forties not far away, who, although he wasn't looking this way, had his attention focused on the scholar's surroundings. Gao Senqi felt that if his guard drew his saber, the seemingly inconspicuous middle-aged man would probably be the first to act.

"Please sit down; I'm quite bored by myself," Gao Senqi said magnanimously, pointing to the seat opposite him.

"May I ask where this brother is from? Judging by your accent, you don't seem to be a local of Yunzhou," the scholar asked.

"Does Yunzhou have a local accent? You're not a local either. If you want to know who I am, just ask; what's so hard to say?" Gao Senqi snorted, dismissing the probing.

"Hehe, very well then. My name is Jiang Yan, and I've come from Yu Hang," Jiang Yan said, cupping his hands in salute.

Gao Senqi was shocked. He never expected that Jiang Yan, the number one strategist of Chunnan, would be sitting in front of him. Although Jiang Yan didn't hold any official position, his words and actions had a far greater impact on many things in Chunnan than those of ministers, vice-ministers, grand secretaries, and generals. In the eyes of the Chunnan ruler, Jiang Yan's ideas were, to a large extent, more reliable than those of his two sons, who were making a lot of noise.

"My respects, my respects. I'm Gao Senqi, commander of the Flying Tiger Army of the Beiliao Western Route Army," Gao Senqi replied proudly. This answer clearly took Jiang Yan by surprise as well. Jiang Yan could see that the guy sitting by the window with a guard was no ordinary person, but he didn't expect him to be from Beiliao, let alone that Gao Senqi would dare to reveal his identity here.

"So it's General Gao. I really didn't expect it. General Gao, you've secured a good position. I asked the manager several times, but I'm afraid you reserved this spot a long time ago, didn't you?" Jiang Yan said calmly.

"No, Ye Tao arranged this position for me. He hopes to intimidate me, and maybe we won't have to fight," Gao Senqi said. "Intimidating me isn't that easy, but you can indeed see some new things here; it's just… not that much."

"The general is very familiar with the Yunzhou armies?" Jiang Yan asked.

"If you knew there was bound to be a war with Yunzhou, could you not be familiar with them?" Gao Senqi was not just familiar with the Yunzhou armies. The Western Route Army had quite a few spies in Yunzhou. The Yunzhou military had strict discipline and proper security measures, making it difficult for spies to infiltrate the army, but there were many opportunities to observe from the sidelines. Gao Senqi knew the equipment and combat strength of each Yunzhou battalion to some extent. Apart from the heavy equipment battalion and the airship squadron, which were simply impossible to imitate due to technical conditions, the Western Route Army had simulations of every Yunzhou troop type to find the strengths and weaknesses of each troop type to facilitate decision-making for officers in future battles. In fact, Gao Senqi had long understood that Beiliao had little chance of winning a war with Yunzhou or Dongping. But he also realized that they had to fight bravely to leave a deep impression in the hearts of the Dongping and Yunzhou people, so that the vast Beiliao people would be taken seriously and treated well… This was perhaps the last thing they, as generals, could do for the Yunzhou people. It was precisely because they realized this that the Western Route Army had accumulated enormous power in an atmosphere of sorrow and gloom over the years. At this time, Gao Senqi smiled and said, "After all, the views of civil officials and military generals are different. Since you're also interested, allow me to explain a bit."