[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse":3,"chapter-from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-chapter-170":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","From Special Forces to the Multiverse",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2315220,4527,"Chapter 170","from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-chapter-170",170,"\u003Cp>He lifted the cup and took a large sip; the sour, bitter taste made him squint, but it wasn’t the wine that truly made him narrow his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grand Tutor Han, let me tell you a few things,” Wanyan Honglie raised one finger. “First: last autumn, the Xinming Party and the Kerulen tribe fought a battle on the steppe. I sent scouts to observe—they climbed a mountain, two ridges away from the battlefield, far enough, right? Guess what they saw?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Tuozhou said nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“On that mountain, he heard thunder,” Wanyan Honglie’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Clear sky, not a cloud in sight. Thunder rolled from the battlefield, one wave after another, unceasing. That wasn’t thunder—it was their firearms.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He raised his second finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“After my scout returned, he wasn’t himself. He said the Kerulen cavalry hadn’t even reached five hundred paces before the front ranks fell—row after row, men and horses piled atop one another like grass cut by an invisible scythe. Every fallen cavalryman bore fist-sized blood holes; their armor offered no protection. The charge horns still blew, and the rear ranks kept advancing—but before they reached three hundred paces, another wave collapsed. The Kerulen charged three times, and each time they never touched the enemy’s line. In less than half an hour, the steppe’s fiercest cavalry became a heap of dead horses and dead men.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He raised his third finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Worse was yet to come. When the Kerulen broke and fled, the enemy pursued. My scout said the Xinming Party’s cavalry were no ordinary riders—they didn’t charge in loose skirmish lines like steppe horsemen, but in dense columns, hundreds of horses moving in perfect unison, like a living iron wall. But that wasn’t the most terrifying part. The most terrifying was that the front-row riders didn’t carry sabers or spears—they carried firearms. They closed to within dozens of paces of the Jin lines, fired a volley that felled entire ranks, then drew their swords and charged. Grand Tutor Han, you’ve commanded troops—tell me, how do you break this tactic?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Tuozhou’s face had grown grim. He knew the Xinming Party had defeated the Kerulen, but every report he’d heard called it “a tribal civil war”—no source had ever mentioned these details: firearms, dense charges, combined cavalry-and-firearm tactics. If Wanyan Honglie spoke truth, what did it mean?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wanyan Honglie gave him no time to think.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You think that’s all?” He set down his cup, leaning slightly forward; the candle flame flickered in his pupils. “Last winter, they swallowed the Western Xia. The Western Xia’s Iron Eagles—heavy cavalry, famed as the finest in the world—you Song had battled them for over a century in the northwest, suffering endless hardship. What happened? That organization sent no large army across the border, no siege, not even a proper battle. They sent fewer than a thousand so-called ‘advisors’ into Xingqing Prefecture. Two months later, the Western Xia army began re-equipping—with firearms supplied by them. Grand Tutor Han, two months. In two months, a kingdom that had stood for a hundred years became their arms factory and training ground.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He suddenly rose, walked to the wall, and unrolled a map he had brought himself. He snapped it open—the map didn’t mark mountains or rivers, but the expansion routes of that organization: starting from a tiny corner of the Mongolian Plateau, red stains spread outward like blood, swallowing tribe after tribe, eventually covering the entire steppe and seeping into Western Xia. The Jin’s northern and western frontiers were half-encircled in red, like a man strangled by invisible hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grand Tutor Han, look here,” Wanyan Honglie traced the red line downward with his finger. “They’ve stopped at Western Xia not because they can’t advance, but because they’re digesting—consolidating Western Xia’s iron mines, granaries, population. You Song know better than we do how strong Western Xia’s ironworks were—you’ve dealt with them for over a hundred years. Now all those forges produce firearms for the Xinming Party. If you don’t think about where these firearms will be turned next, why are you still dreaming of a northern campaign?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned, his casual, relaxed expression gone, replaced by the cold severity Han Tuozhou had seen the day he entered the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grand Tutor Han, I’m laying it all out. Every word I’ve spoken is true. You want to launch a northern campaign? Fine—Great Jin is on the defensive. Tigers to the north, wolves to the south—we can’t hold both. But have you considered this: if you and I bleed each other white on the southern front, who will be the real winner?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paused suddenly, as if unwilling to speak the name.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Great Jin truly cannot stop them,” he said after a silence, each word deliberate, sending a chill down Han Tuozhou’s spine. “But if Great Jin falls, you will be next.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Tuozhou shot to his feet, shoving his chair backward; its legs screeched across the floor tiles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Prince Zhao,” Han Tuozhou’s voice turned icy. “Have you finished?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wanyan Honglie met his gaze, silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What you’ve said is terrifying—firearms, cavalry, thunderous cannonades—my skin crawled. But there are a few things I’d like to ask you, Prince Zhao.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go ahead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You say the Kerulen’s hundred-thousand-strong alliance was annihilated in one battle. Thunder rolled across the field, firearms invincible. Then I ask you—why, after defeating the Kerulen, didn’t the Xinming Party press south? Why, after swallowing Western Xia, did they halt at the border? If their firearms are truly as powerful as you claim, and their cavalry unstoppable, why haven’t they marched straight into Great Jin? Your northern frontier is only a few hundred li of steppe away—they crossed the desert in seven days. Isn’t attacking you even closer?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wanyan Honglie opened his mouth, but Han Tuozhou gave him no chance to speak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let me tell you why. Because they’re not as strong as you say. Their firearms may be good, but firearms need gunpowder; gunpowder needs production lines; production lines need a stable rear. They’ve just swallowed the steppe and Western Xia—their internal consolidation isn’t complete. They’re still integrating resources, securing their rear. That’s the real reason they haven’t moved south—not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t yet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Tuozhou stepped forward, his voice rising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And you, Prince Zhao, came here today to tell me all this for one purpose only—to stall. You want me to fear the Xinming Party, to abandon or delay my northern campaign, so Great Jin can free itself to stabilize the northern front—or even strike first against the Xinming Party. Once you’ve cleaned up your northern mess, you’ll turn on Great Song. How many times have you used this trick on the steppe tribes up north? Now you bring it to Lin’an to fool me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Grand Tutor Han—”\u003C\u002Fp>",1129,"2026-06-20T13:48:22.834Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","9e2f283e57003f6e893456d7e03a46f78eca4e477711850397f88421db1f727c","from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-chapter-171","from-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-chapter-169",205,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ffrom-special-forces-to-the-multiverse-cover.jpg"]