Chapter 289: Prepare to Take an AK and Shoot the Xiongnu!

The third day after the sky‑curtain inventory settled the dust.

The atmosphere in the side hall of Weiyang Palace was completely different from the tense, sword‑drawn, flashing golden‑light scene of the previous two days.

There were no officials paying court, no silk‑and‑bamboo music; instead a simple home‑style banquet was set.

Liu Che personally carried a wine jar, walked up to Gu Shanhe, said nothing, knelt down and bowed his head once.

Gu Shanhe startled, quickly reached out to steady himself: "Your Majesty, what is this for?"

Liu Che refused to rise, looked up at Gu Shanhe, his eyes a little red: "Immortal Master, this head, I must bow."

"Above the sky‑curtain, we have taken inventory of Great Han's mighty generals and backbone, making it crystal clear so that future generations know Great Han does not rely on luck but on real swords and real guns! This favor, I shall never forget."

Gu Shanhe pulled him up, smiled:

"Your Majesty speaks heavily; the sky‑curtain has its own logic, I am merely a messenger."

"Let's drop the empty courtesies and speak something concrete."

"Concrete?" Liu Che was taken aback.

Gu Shanhe pointed at Ying Zheng and Liu Bang, who sat nearby munching sunflower seeds and watching the scene with blank faces, then pointed at himself: "I'm the type who is idle even when idle."

"Since you're here, just playing DVDs is pointless."

"I see Great Han's current weapons are still bronze and wrought iron, the army still runs on two legs; that won't do."

"How about I get you some upgrades?"

At that moment, Ying Zheng happened to spit a sunflower seed into his mouth, glanced lightly at Liu Che, his gaze exuding a smug, punch‑me‑feel superiority.

"Upgrades? Liu Che, look at my fleet now."

He extended two fingers and gestured in the air:

"Steam‑clad iron armor, propeller thrust, a full load displacement of five thousand tons, armor so thick even a catapult can't breach it."

"My fleet now not only fishes at sea, but can sail upstream along rivers straight into the heart of the steppe to scare the Xiongnu's horses."

Liu Bang, beside him, slapped his thigh with glee: "Hehe, the First Emperor is just showing off!"

"We're not lacking either!"

"Do you know how long it now takes us to forge a steel sword?"

"It used to take three days; now? Assembly line work, half an hour! A hundred swords a day!"

"If Xiang Yu had this back then, we'd have used a sea‑of‑people tactic and drowned that kid in the Wu River long ago!"

Liu Che listened, and the wine cup in his hand trembled a bit.

He looked at Ying Zheng's 'I don't care about anything' expression.

Then he glanced at Liu Bang's 'We're rich now' demeanor, and thinking he was still using bronze crossbow machines, a burning fury rose in his heart.

He sprang up with a "seng", circled the table, and walked straight to Gu Shanhe.

Grabbing Gu Shanhe's sleeve in one hand, the force was like Huo Qubing's charge:

"Immortal Master! Don't worry about those two, help me first!"

"Whatever you want, we'll give it! Even the treasury keys are yours!"

Gu Shanhe was amused by his stance.

"One or three, both are fine."

"Fine, since Your Majesty sincerely invites, I'll magnanimously lend a hand."

As soon as he finished speaking, he pulled several scrolls of schematics from his bosom (actually a system space) and slapped them onto the table.

With a "pop", Liu Che's heart jumped as well.

【Great Han Industrial Revolution·First Stage: Steam and Steel】

Outside Chang'an, the former royal hunting grounds were temporarily fenced off.

The steam‑engine blueprints Gu Shanhe provided were practically a divine script to Han‑era craftsmen.

Terms like cylinder, piston, condenser left the craftsmen bewildered.

"Immortal Master, this… this iron lump burning, can it really turn by itself?" the old craftsman asked shakily.

Gu Shanhe didn't waste words, rolled up his sleeves, got hands‑on, leading dozens of top craftsmen day and night.

Starting from casting the cylinder, they ground it inch by inch, laboring for a full half‑month.

On the ignition day, Liu Che attended in person.

When the first jet of steam burst from the boiler, driving the massive flywheel with a "creak‑creak", Liu Che's hands trembled.

The huge roar shook the entire city of Chang'an.

"This… this is immortal art!" Liu Che exclaimed, incoherent with excitement.

Three months.

Only three months had passed.

Outside Chang'an, factories belching black smoke sprang up from the ground.

In the steam‑powered textile mill, looms clattered "clack‑clack", producing in a day more cloth than a year previously.

In the weapons forge, the tinkling of hammering was replaced by the heavy thuds of steam hammers "dong! dong! dong!".

Red‑hot steel billets, under thousands of tons of pressure, were instantly forged into shape with unprecedented precision.

Liu Che personally sounded the steam locomotive's whistle, its note piercing the heavens.

Ying Zheng and Liu Bang stood aside; Ying Zheng still wore his deadpan face, though the corner of his mouth twitched imperceptibly;

Liu Bang shouted loudly: "Whoa! This commotion! It's more thrilling than our sneaky chicken‑stealing days in Pei County!"

Having solved the power issue, Gu Shanhe tossed out the formulas for black gunpowder and yellow gunpowder.

"Immortal Master, if we mix sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal in proportion, can it really explode?"

Liu Che looked at the pile of powder, a bit doubtful.

Gu Shanhe was too lazy to explain and had someone find an abandoned earthen slope.

On the day of the test explosion, Liu Che, Liu Bang, and Ying Zheng all stayed outside the safety distance.

"Ignite!"

Boom—!!!

A deafening blast shook the earth and mountains.

The earthen slope, originally over ten zhang high, was instantly cut down by half!

The shockwave, mixed with dust, blew the people's robes, making them rustle.

Liu Che covered his ears, which buzzed from the shock, stared at the flattened slope, and muttered, "Xiongnu… Xiongnu… you're finished."

Gu Shanhe called Zhang Qian back, not sending him to ally with Dayuezhi, but stuffing a box of items into his hands.

"Take this, go to the Western Regions. No politics, only business."

Zhang Qian opened the box and found crystal‑clear glassware, fragrant soap, and exquisitely packaged tea leaves.

"These… are these for sale to the people of the Western Regions?"

"Yes. Tell them these are treasures personally passed down by a Great Han immortal master."

Zhang Qian set off, half‑believing, half‑doubting.

Six months later, when Zhang Qian's caravan returned, the whole of Chang'an City was in a frenzy.

On the camels' backs were not silk but boxes of gold, silver, and gems!

The kings of the Western Regions traded a sweat‑blood prized horse for a bar of soap, and the price of an entire city for a set of glassware!

"Your Majesty! The soap— the Western Regions are going crazy for it!"

"They say it smells better than perfume; after bathing, you're fragrant all over!" Zhang Qian reported excitedly.

Liu Che sat on the dragon throne, watching the mountain of gold and silver below, his hands trembling.

He counted the money until his hands cramped and said to Gu Shanhe:

"Immortal master… in my life I've never collected so much money! This money… burns my hands!"

Gu Shanhe also presented the process for refining sea salt and mineral salt.

When the first batch of snow‑white, bitterness‑free "snowflake salt" rolled out of the salt works, the citizens of Chang'an City spread the news by word of mouth.

Liu Bang tasted a spoonful, smacked his lips, and said to Ying Zheng with admiration:

"Brother Zheng, what the public ate back then—what were those things? Black, indistinguishable from stones."

Ying Zheng coldly retorted, "So you fought Xiang Yu for so many years yet never understood salt; no wonder you're always short of grain and provisions."

The townsfolk spontaneously erected a "Merit Monument" for Liu Che.

Liu Che waved it off, saying it wasn't needed, yet he sneaked to look at it many times, and when he returned his mouth wouldn't stop smiling.

Everything was ready.

Gu Shanhe redeemed a thousand AK‑47 assault rifles from the system, each fully loaded with ammunition;

a ten‑barrel breech‑loading cannon;

and a reconnaissance aircraft.

"Your Majesty, take these and capture Langjuxu Mountain for me."

Liu Che took the gun, its weight heavy in his hands.

He looked at Huo Qubing and said, "Qubing, you command."

Huo Qubing's eyes lit up.

He cradled the AK, reluctant to let go, pulled the trigger, and a rapid "tat‑tat‑tat" of flames erupted, shattering the wooden target a hundred paces away.

"Well done! Much more effective than bows and arrows!"

The reconnaissance aircraft made a sweep first, pinpointing the Xiongnu Chanyu's royal court.