With a single swing of the graduate student's hammer—
Clang!
—the indicator light on the photovoltaic system instantly went dark.
At almost the same moment, far below the hill, outside Gao Family Fortress, the workers who had been sitting neatly watching Shi Kefa's Legal Education suddenly erupted into noise.
"Hey! Hey! Something popped up on the Divine Mirror!"
"There's a line of text blocking the screen!"
"What does it say? We can't read it!"
The discussion instantly turned chaotic.
Just then, a primary school student sitting near the front suddenly jumped to his feet.
"Oh no!" he shouted. "It says: Low battery, please charge!"
So that was the reason.
The tablet had been running continuously from morning until evening. Under normal circumstances, Li Daoxuan would have already taken it out to recharge it in the heavens.
But today, because the photovoltaic system had just been installed, he had grown complacent.
The solar panels hadn't had enough time to charge the tablet properly, and then a group of overly enthusiastic little people had decisively smashed the switch.
Naturally, the tablet ran out of power.
Up on the hillside, Song Yingxing heard the commotion below. He turned his head to look at the restless crowd, then calmly turned back toward the graduate student.
"Try pressing the 'on' side again."
The graduate student raised the hammer once more.
Thunk!
The indicator light lit up again.
Below the hill, the crowd immediately quieted.
"Oh! The words are gone!"
"Good, good! Keep watching!"
"Don't interrupt the lecture!"
Song Yingxing was overjoyed.
"That's it! It really is a switch."
Bai Gongzi laughed softly.
"Hehehe. Then things just got much easier."
He rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"Let's hurry back and dig out the section on electricity in the physics book. We'll review it carefully. Then we'll build every device mentioned inside."
He lowered his voice conspiratorially.
"Late at night, when no one is watching the show, we'll come over, switch off the immortal solar generator, strip the rubber insulation, and tap into the power."
Song Yingxing nodded vigorously.
"I'll try making a light bulb."
Bai Gongzi added,
"I want to experiment with parallel circuits."
Wang Zheng clasped his hands together solemnly.
"As for me, I respect the gods and buddhas. I have not participated in any discussion involving damage to divine artifacts. Hallelujah. Mazu protect us. Amen. Dao Xuan Tianzun is benevolent."
Song Yingxing glanced at him.
"Old Wang, didn't you bring up magnetic fields last time? Don't you want to try electromagnetic fields?"
Wang Zheng stiffened.
"Oh! This… this is different…"
He hesitated for a moment, then suddenly grinned.
"Dao Xuan Tianzun has a vast and generous heart! Hahaha! Electromagnetic fields—here I come!"
Led by the three of them, a group of graduate students immediately joined in. Middle schoolers and self-taught high school students crowded forward to help.
Sleeves were rolled up.
Eyes gleamed.
An unprecedented scientific conspiracy began to take shape.
In truth, Li Daoxuan had already heard everything.
He had originally intended to intervene if the little people attempted anything dangerous involving electricity. But to his surprise, they were extremely cautious—even thoughtful.
They knew to turn off the power.
They knew about insulation.
They feared electric shock.
There was no need for intervention at all.
Let them do it.
No—"do it" wasn't quite right.
Let them advance by leaps and bounds.
With that settled, Li Daoxuan switched perspectives once more.
He swept across several regions.
Nothing unusual.
Then—
Luoyang City.
The instant his vision stabilized, a shrill scream tore through the air.
"They're here! They're here!"
"The bandits have arrived!"
"Commander Meng Hu and Commander Du Hu are leading the rebel army!"
"They're approaching Luoyang—almost at the city walls!"
Chaos exploded across the walls.
Zhu Changxun let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
"They're here! Ahhh! The bandits are here!"
"What do we do?! What do we do?!"
"Protect me! Quickly, protect this prince!"
His panic instantly infected his five hundred personal guards.
Half of them remained on the walls, but the other half rushed back, colliding with one another as they scrambled to surround Zhu Changxun.
The militia organized by Fan Shangzheng fared no better. Orders dissolved into shouting. Formations collapsed into scattered clusters.
Henan was not Shaanxi.
Nor Shanxi.
In Shaanxi and Shanxi, bandits had raged for years. Soldiers and militia there had long been hardened by blood and fire.
Henan had not yet endured such a baptism.
The moment real war arrived, its defenders froze.
But amidst the chaos—
The Gao Family Village arquebusiers burst forth from the concealed defensive tunnels.
They moved like flowing water.
No shouting.
No hesitation.
They sprinted directly toward the city walls.
Only now did Zhu Changxun understand why these men had insisted on assigning positions in advance.
Because the positions were already fixed, there was no need to panic.
As soon as they emerged, they ran straight to their designated spots.
Those with weaker memories simply followed the charcoal marks they had drawn earlier.
In the time it took to blink a few times—
Two thousand arquebusiers were in place.
Zhu Changxun stared.
"Oh?"
"Huh?"
"Eh?"
He turned to look at his own guards—still bumping into one another, shouting, blocking each other's paths.
The contrast was painfully obvious.
Bai Yuan walked up beside him, smiling.
"Five taels of silver per man. Was it worth it?"
Zhu Changxun swallowed.
"Well… from the current perspective, it's temporarily not worth it…"
He hesitated.
"Maybe two taels per man would be more reasonable."
Bai Yuan smiled without replying.
"They're here! We can see them!"
A cry rose up.
Everyone looked east.
Beyond the city walls, a dark tide rolled forward—dense, endless, swallowing the land itself.
At a glance, their numbers were impossible to estimate.
Zhu Changxun's legs nearly gave out.
"It's over… we're finished…"
"So many… far too many…"
"Luoyang is doomed… Henan is doomed… we're all doomed…"
His guards turned pale.
The militia trembled.
Fan Shangzheng fared slightly better. He had already seen two hundred thousand bandits outside Huaiqing Prefecture. Compared to that, he could still think.
He turned to Bai Yuan.
"Master Bai, what is your assessment?"
Bai Yuan calmly unfolded his folding fan. On it was written a single word:
Gentleman.
He raised the fan to cover half his face.
"There is no need for concern. Though the bandits are numerous, they are nothing more than earthen chickens and tile dogs."
Li Daoxuan added calmly,
"Although the scoundrels have appeared outside the east gate, scouts must be deployed at the south, north, and west gates as well. Guard against a feint."
Fan Shangzheng jolted.
"Understood!"
He immediately dispatched men.
As Luoyang made its preparations, the bandit army outside was also busy.
Small handcarts rolled forward.
Bandits shoveled earth and stones, loading them quickly.
Zhu Changxun frowned.
"What are they doing?"
Fan Shangzheng replied gravely,
"They're preparing to fill the moat. Once the battle begins, they'll push those carts forward under arrow fire and dump the earth in."
The real battle was about to begin.