Chapter 1 Chen E's Request

"Sir, Chief Guard Chen E requests an audience?" A guard quietly came to Ye Tao's side to report.

"Chen E?" Ye Tao asked.

"From the Residence of King Juxian, now working with the Princess," the guard quickly added.

"Oh, very well. Let him in."

Being led into the residence by the guard, Chen E found the reactions of Ye Tao's guards to be quite extraordinary. They were far too calm, seemingly without a trace of nervousness. And when those warriors from the Zongmo Troupe who had come to Yuhang saw Chen E, they merely nodded slightly. Although they were undertaking the work of vigilance and patrol, their expressions were more like they were relaxing and playing.

"Reporting to Lord Ye, the Princess ordered me and my party to launch a surprise attack on the Second Prince's residence. Now, Consort Lian and His Highness the Prince are both at Ji Lian's residence. What does Your Lordship wish us to do with them?" After greeting Ye Tao, Chen E stated his purpose directly.

"Oh? You move quickly." Ye Tao clicked his tongue in wonder. He had just heard that someone had attacked the Second Prince's residence; the news had already been reported. But now the main force was at the Crown Prince's residence, and only a few people were monitoring the Second Prince's residence, with no opportunity to follow up and investigate who had launched the attack. Now, everything was clear.

Chen E ran back and forth once more, delivering the two to Ye Tao's residence. At this time, he finally understood why Ye Tao was so fearless. Four massive airships were quietly parked in the courtyard. It was a rainy night… While Chunnan was equipped with a considerable number of airships, very few could take off and fight at night and in the rain. Even those that could relied on the pilots' superb operating skills rather than the airships' performance itself. But in Dongping, at least forty percent of the total number of airships were capable of taking off and fighting in the rain.

Chang Ling and Tan Weizai were directly loaded onto one of the airships, along with the responding attendants and guards, nearly filling it. The airship immediately flew eastward. After the guard's explanation, Chen E learned that a fleet was anchored at sea, including four specially designed and manufactured airship carriers, each capable of carrying four such small airships. Basically, they were capable of carrying out a bombing raid on Yuhang.

The fleet naturally came from Yazhou. Because of the long-distance wireless telegraph, communication between Dongping and Yazhou was much more convenient. Although the journey was long and the telegraph's communication distance was limited, it actually had to go through two relays, but it was still countless times faster than relying on fast boats to deliver messages. Previously, a round of communication required a month or two, but now, telegrams could be exchanged between the two sides in just one day, including the time for decoding. Ye Tao's plan was directly telegraphed to Yazhou. Old Man Qi and the naval generals put together a plan and sent it back, and that was that. For Dongping, the implementation of long-distance communication also reassured many ministers who worried that Yazhou's strength was expanding and that its isolated location in the bay might foster a desire for independence. But for Chunnan, this was not good news. This kind of operational coordination tonight was just a small test; when the time came to attack Chunnan, Yazhou would be considered an important force, and wireless communication made unified command and control possible. Of course, Chunnan didn't need to know this, especially since the relay communication stations were all located on Chunnan's territory.

For Ye Tao, this night's fierce battle was almost over. Now that Chang Ling and Tan Weizai had been controlled, and in such an unexpected way, the previous agreement with the Second Prince had become insignificant. Ye Tao immediately sent someone to notify Liu Yong and Jin Ze, telling them to be careful to protect their own people first when attacking the Crown Prince, even if the results were not very important. However, it was hard to say how much effect such instructions would have. Liu Yong and Jin Ze, and the warriors and Jianghu experts under their command, were not just doing it for the sake of the mission. Especially those who had been in the Guard Camp for many years, they were all pent up. They were elites among elites, the strongest of the strong, but in reality, they had encountered fewer battles than ordinary soldiers. Especially Liu Yong, who left an extremely deep impression on everyone at the Crown Prince's residence that night. He single-handedly fought his way from the periphery to the center. When two super-experts under the Crown Prince quietly ambushed the Second Prince, he struck, unleashing four palms in the instant they crossed paths in the air. The two guys, who had been lying in wait for a long time and thought they had succeeded, died before they even hit the ground. Then, Liu Yong landed among the Crown Prince's guards, opened his coat, held his knives in both hands, and spun like a top in the crowd, raising a cloud of blood… In less than an hour of fighting, Liu Yong alone killed no fewer than forty people. Afterwards, he met up with Jin Ze and calmly withdrew, without revealing his identity from beginning to end. But did it matter if Liu Yong was exposed? The Second Prince was terrified. His top general plainly told him that if he fought Liu Yong head-on, he could probably… last five or six moves. According to his observation, his level was about the same as Jin Ze's.

What shocked the Second Prince's generals even more was the general level of the Guard Camp. Everyone knew that there were no mediocre hands among Ye Tao's guards, but they didn't expect them to be so strong. Their skills went without saying, but what was even more frightening was their tacit understanding and trust in each other, as well as their unique tactics that made full use of their various advantages. Ye Tao's guards handled the transition between long-range and close combat very well, and the weapons in their hands… according to Chunnan's standards, were all at the level of divine weapons and sharp instruments. Even seasoned generals with tens of thousands of elite soldiers might not have one. What level Dongping had reached in military manufacturing needed to be reconsidered. And after this battle, the goal of establishing authority in front of the Second Prince was fully achieved. Everyone understood that although the Second Prince had fought hard all night, killed his brother, controlled Yuhang, and imprisoned the Crown Prince's ministers, and had de facto become the ruler of Chunnan, even if he concentrated his forces, he might not be able to keep Ye Tao here. Ye Tao would certainly be trapped in his residence, but with just Liu Yong and Jin Ze alone, if they really wanted to assassinate someone, probably no one in the world could stop them. Liu Yong's skill was not just at the level of the rumored number one expert in the world, but above other experts, almost unbelievably so. Not to mention the airships hovering above Ye Tao's residence and the fleet off the coast of Yuhang, all flaunting their power.

Although the fleet sent by Yazhou was configured around four airship carriers, it was a strong fleet in every sense of the word. It included twelve Tianwen-class warships that had just been launched last year and had just completed basic training and been incorporated into active service at the beginning of the year. On the new warships, crossbow cannons were no longer the main weapon; cannons were… Each warship had thirty-two cannons, six crossbow cannons, and four Shenbi crossbows (divine arm crossbows). Although they could only fire to one side, this type of warship had completely broken the original rules of naval warfare. In addition, the speed of the Tianwen-class warships was even faster than the original Huya ships, making them almost unstoppable once the fighting started. In addition to the twelve Tianwen ships and four airship carriers, nearly a thousand elite infantrymen dispatched by Yazhou were also on board… This was almost a complete, powerful, and mixed force. With the Second Prince's current level of control over Yuhang and its surrounding forces, there was absolutely no way he could keep Ye Tao here.

At least on the surface, Ye Tao had done the Second Prince a big favor, but the Second Prince had failed to hand over Chang Ling and Tan Weizai to Ye Tao. The name Fuhu Tang (Tiger Subduing Hall) also surfaced when the Second Prince's subordinates "accidentally" encountered Ruan Xiaowu's men while investigating the whereabouts of Chang Ling and Tan Weizai… The new ruler of Chunnan was furious. This powerful secret organization, which should have served him, had become a thorn in the side of the Chunnan ruler due to poor information exchange and the deliberate design of Ye Tao and Chang Huaiyin. And this newly promoted ruler of Chunnan was also embarrassed because he owed Ye Tao a big favor.

Ye Tao outwardly said and did nothing, appearing as if nothing could disturb his peace of mind. He merely declined the invitation to attend the enthronement ceremony. He stayed in Yuhang for another five days, then left Yuhang with the entire delegation and Chang Huaiyin's party. On this day, the fleet that had departed from Yicheng arrived in Yuhang. Six Huya ships escorted Ye Tao's flagship, the Tianjin. This was not a particularly powerful formation in itself, but once it joined forces with the fleet from Yazhou, it would be a formidable fighting force.

This was the first time Ye Tao had boarded the Tianjin, which was specially designed and customized for him. It was the most unique ship ever built, applying almost all the advanced technology available to date. The Tianjin outwardly appeared to be a standard three-masted fast sailing ship that mixed Eastern and Western shipbuilding styles. Moreover, it sacrificed a lot of armament for comfort and command functions. The Tianjin only had eight cannons and two crossbow cannons. However, the stern of the Tianjin was equipped with a huge power-generating impeller, and four generators could provide lighting and other equipment for the entire ship. The ship even had a wireless telegraph that could directly contact other wireless telegraph base stations within two thousand miles. The Tianjin was not originally intended for naval battles; it was more like a hybrid of a yacht and a professional command ship. But it was also suitable for commanding naval battles. It could be equipped with a total of twenty-two communicators that could emit different light signals in all directions for coordination and command. If the distance was relatively far, it could also be commanded via airship relay. Among the sixteen airships carried by the four airship carriers, one was a command airship.

The massive fleet sailed north in a mighty procession, escorting Ye Tao and his party back to Yicheng. Apart from one ship which went to Crescent Moon Island to provide physical reference to the shipyard, the rest of the Yazhou fleet immediately sailed south and stationed on an island less than two hundred miles from the Chunnan coast, midway between the Yicheng and Yazhou routes. This place, called Narwhal Island, was originally occupied by a pirate gang. All along, this pirate gang had been relatively obedient, so the Seven Seas Trading Company, the many Chunnan merchants, and the Chunnan or Dongping navies had all let them off. This pirate gang was called a pirate gang, but they only dared to rob smuggling ships. Sometimes, when they encountered large smuggling fleets, they would even inform the Chunnan navy, acting like an extra-territorial anti-smuggling team. In ordinary times, it was estimated that this pirate gang could have continued to exist, but now, although Dongping was conducting diplomatic negotiations with Chunnan, war preparations had not stopped at all, and the navy was not willing to let this hidden danger continue to exist. The pirate gang on Narwhal Island wisely surrendered. And port expansion and material stockpiling quickly began on Narwhal Island.

Ye Tao stayed in Yicheng for about half a month. By this time, Chang Ling and Tan Weizai were already in Danyang. Ye Tao had no good feelings for Chang Ling, and he wasn't particularly interested in Tan Weizai's future situation. Naturally, Ye Tao wasn't afraid of Chang Ling playing any tricks on him. But delaying for a few days could avoid seeing Tan Xiaopei lecturing his family, which wasn't a bad thing. And Ye Tao did have things to do in Yicheng. The Ye Clan Workshop in Yicheng, limited by its spatial layout, had now been adjusted to become an integrated institution specializing in the research and production of precision machinery and optical products. And Ye Tao had come here to arrange the production and manufacturing of a series of highly specialized equipment such as gun sights, optical sights for firearms, new wide-angle and wide-field battlefield observation mirrors, aerial cameras, and so on. Although the Ye Clan Workshop in Yunzhou already had specific shooting plans for these things, they had not yet entered the actual production stage. In the Yicheng workshop, many technicians were encountering these things for the first time, and Ye Tao had to determine the ideas, technical requirements, and manufacturing specifications of these things and teach them to the craftsmen. There was probably no one in the world who was better at this work than Ye Tao.

Originally, Ye Tao also wanted to go to Crescent Moon Island to see the progress of the new ship's construction. He didn't expect that just after he had completed the manufacturing guidance work here at the workshop, Crescent Moon Island was already laying the keel for three new ships at the same time. According to Crescent Moon Island's calculations, the initial manufacturing of the first new ship could be completed in as little as forty days. This speed was simply unbelievable, and Ye Tao also felt… that he probably didn't need to guide them much, and he couldn't possibly do better.

Afterwards, Ye Tao inspected the manufacture of the new type of kerosene bombs and stardust bombs. The original kerosene bombs and stardust bombs still needed to be lit before being launched, but now, with the establishment of preliminary chemical engineering, the manufacture of simple and safe fuzes was not a major problem. Although timed fuzes were not cheap, they were not too difficult for the Ye Clan Workshop to make. And after watching a series of demonstrations, Ye Tao issued a production task book for 60,000 collision ignition fuzes and 20,000 delayed ignition fuzes.

After that, he went to the Shi family's brick production base in Liyang and the steel factory in Liyang, and so on. On the way to Danyang, Ye Tao inspected almost all the industries along the way that were related to war preparations. He even took a detour to visit several war reserve granaries… Dongping now had enough food reserves for two million troops to fight for two years. At the same time, it could also guarantee the daily consumption of the people of Dongping. Even without replenishing any food, the supply to the people could be guaranteed for three months. Such preparations were too thorough. When Ye Tao arrived in Danyang and met Tan Xiaopei, Ye Tao's explanation was very simple: everything was ready.