In the "Third Development Zone," which was the former territory of the Qing Dynasty, the madness of the entire population was being cleverly guided and shaped under Lin Feng's will, eventually converging into a torrent powerful enough to shake the world.
Following the jubilation of the "Great Liberation," what followed was not a period of comfortable enjoyment, but a grander and more exciting spiritual baptism—the edict "National Mobilization: Repay His Majesty's Boundless Grace with Blood and Fire" was transmitted to the personal terminals of every new citizen through ubiquitous holographic projection.
The edict was simple and direct, yet it possessed a seductive power:
"My kin, my people! Now that you have escaped the sea of suffering and been reborn, you should know that this grace is not a gift from heaven, but the result of the iron fist of the empire! A life of ease is not the end of the empire, but the starting point for a greater glory!"
"Beyond your homeland, countless stubborn and ignorant foreign races occupy fertile lands, stealing the light of the stars. They are unaware of His Majesty's benevolence and the Emperor's might; they are the filth of the universe and the tumor of civilization!"
"I hereby issue an edict to establish the 'Dragon Fang Legion' in the Third Expeditionary Zone! Any first-class citizen of the Empire aged sixteen to forty and in good health may enlist! You will receive the Empire's finest weaponry and most systematic training! You will no longer be unarmed farmers, but the Empire's invincible blade!"
"Take up arms and march with me! Let the cries of barbarians forge your glory! Let the bones of your enemies pave your path to nobility! Every inch of conquered land will belong to you! Every captured slave will be your most loyal servant!"
"Fight for the Empire! Be loyal to His Majesty! This is the only way for you to repay His Majesty's kindness, and this is the unparalleled achievement for you to bring glory to your ancestors!"
This edict, like a potent stimulant, was injected directly into the heart of this fervent civilization, which had just been liberated from extreme repression.
The entire Third Development Zone was once again in an uproar. If the last uproar stemmed from gratitude and ecstasy, then this time it was fueled by a primal, burning ambition to achieve great things and a bloodthirsty desire to succeed.
"I want to sign up! I want to sign up!" Wang Ergou, the tenant farmer who used to only ask for a full meal, was the first to rush to the conscription office at the village entrance. His eyes shone with fanaticism, and his strong body, which had become robust from eating nutritious food for a long time, trembled slightly with excitement.
He spoke excitedly and incoherently to the imperial officer recruiting soldiers: "Sir! I... no, citizen Wang Ergou! I request to join the Dragon Fang Legion! His Majesty gave me this life! I will use this life to conquer ten thousand acres... no! One hundred million acres of land for His Majesty!"
In his mind, which had become extremely simple due to ecstasy and gratitude, the logic was frighteningly simple: His Majesty gave me food, and now His Majesty needs me to fight a war, so I will go! Kill all those who disobey His Majesty, and His Majesty will be even happier and will give me even more good things!
Old Zhang's son, Zhang Tieniu, the young man who was pulled back from the brink of death by the medical nanorobot, treated the recruitment poster at the conscription office as a sacred edict, respectfully tearing it down and then leading all the young people in the village to kneel before the conscription officer.
"My lord! All the young men of our village beg to die for His Majesty! His Majesty saved our lives, and now we return them to him!"
Their faces showed no fear of war, only a fanaticism akin to religious martyrdom. In their eyes, to die for that emperor, who was like a "living god," was the highest honor in itself.
Wang Xiucai, the down-on-his-luck scholar who burned the Four Books and Five Classics, expressed his fervor in a way unique to intellectuals.
He wrote a lengthy article of over ten thousand words entitled "A Proclamation Against the Rebels," using his newly acquired worldview and historical perspective to argue for the inherent righteousness and legitimacy of the empire's "purification war."
"Therefore, it is known that the evolution of the universe, with its survival of the fittest, is the way of Heaven. The rise of an empire, by the mandate of Heaven, is the rightful successor of the universe. All those who do not submit to the rule of the king are traitors who defy Heaven and should be exterminated to cleanse the world..."
This article spread rapidly through the Imperial Network, becoming the Dragon Fang Legion's most powerful "theoretical weapon." Wang Xiucai himself was also exceptionally recruited into the Dragon Fang Legion's "political commissar" system because of this article, responsible for pre-battle mobilization and ideological propaganda.
The biggest changes were seen in the liberated women.
Chen Qiaoniang, the girl whose feet had been unbound, was the first to sign up for the women's medical corps. Her feet, now healthy again, unleashed astonishing strength. In the physical fitness test, she even surpassed many men.
“It was His Majesty who allowed me to stand up again, to run freely.” She said to the examiner with a determined look in her eyes, “Now, I will use these feet to traverse His Majesty’s lands, to save every loyal and brave soldier who fights for His Majesty. I also want to witness with my own eyes those foreign women, who, like I was in the past, were bound by ignorance and cruelty, to be ‘reborn’ under the Empire’s gunfire!”
A complex light flickered in her eyes. There was gratitude, there was loyalty, but even more so, there was an unquestionable obsession that said, "I have been saved, so you must also be saved by me in the same way."
In just one month, a "Dragon Tooth Legion" of up to 50 million people was assembled.
This number left even the professional soldiers in the Imperial Army speechless. They had never seen such an enthusiastic and fervent recruitment drive. This was no longer recruitment; it was a national pilgrimage.
Next comes arming and training.
The Empire demonstrated its terrifying war mobilization capabilities as an interstellar civilization.
Thousands of massive transport ships descended like a dark cloud over the plains of the Third Frontier. From their hulls poured an endless supply of war materials.
The "Punisher" Type IV exoskeleton armor, prepared for ordinary soldiers, is standard issue for the Imperial Army, but for these farmers who were using hoes just yesterday, it's like armor descended from the heavens.
Wearing the armor instantly increases one's height to 2.5 meters and amplifies strength twentyfold. An ordinary farmer, clad in it, could easily overturn an old-fashioned tank. The armor's built-in tactical computer projects battlefield information directly onto their retinas, providing a clear view of friend or foe identification, ballistic calculations, and mission instructions.
The weapon they carried was the standard C-14 electromagnetic rifle. This weapon fires supersonic tungsten-core bullets capable of penetrating half a meter of steel plate.
They were even equipped with squad-level support weapons, such as the "Flame Wave" plasma jet and the "Hive" miniature missile launcher.
These weapons were no longer earthly creations to them, but rather divine thunder and fire.
The training process is simple and brutal, yet extremely effective.
There were no lengthy drills or complex tactical exercises. Their training consisted of only three things:
First, absolute loyalty. For sixteen hours every day, they would be confined in "psychic pods," repeatedly watching artistically adapted epic footage of Emperor Lin Feng leading the empire to its rise, while theologically modified versions of the "Imperial Citizens' Code of Loyalty" would play on a loop. This intense mental indoctrination transformed the concept of "loyalty to Lin Feng" into an instinct in their minds, as instinctive as "eating when hungry."
Second, the killing instinct. They engage in thousands of simulated battles in virtual reality. The enemies are various forms of alien races. The system rewards the fastest, most efficient, and most brutal methods of killing. Any hesitation or pity will result in the most severe electric shock punishment. This tightly binds the concepts of "killing non-yellow-skinned aliens" with "gaining pleasure and avoiding pain."
Third, weapon operation. It's so simple that you only need to learn how to aim and pull the trigger. The rest is handled by the exoskeleton armor's auxiliary systems.
In just three months, a well-equipped, steel army composed of fanatical believers, born solely for slaughter, was formed.
They are the Dragon Fang Legion. They are the Emperor's will, the Empire's iron fist, and the most terrifying "catastrophe" about to sweep across this planet.
Their first target has already appeared on the other side of the horizon.
It was an ancient, naturally beautiful elven kingdom bordering the Third Frontier District—the "Moon Whisper Forest" of Avila.
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