Victory has created a new problem.
Wu An realizes it the moment the generals present the numbers.
The Liang army cannot invade Zhou.
Not yet.
The siege of Ling An destroyed too much.
Black Tiger battalions are half strength.
The Golden Dragon remnants barely hold formation.
Gunpowder stores are nearly empty.
Food reserves remain fragile.
Liao Yun places the final report before him.
"If we march now," the general says quietly, "the army collapses before reaching the frontier."
Wu An already knew the answer.
Winning the siege bought time.
But time alone does not create an army.
The war council gathers again.
The ministers speak carefully this time.
They have learned not to challenge him openly.
But fear still shows.
"My lord… the empire cannot support another campaign."
"The treasury remains weak."
"Trade has only just resumed."
One official bows deeply.
"Perhaps peace negotiations with Zhou—"
Wu An cuts him off.
"There will be no peace."
Silence falls.
Because everyone understands.
If Liang stops now, Zhou will recover.
And when Zhou returns—
They will bring an army twice the size.
Wu An turns toward the map.
"So we rebuild faster than they expect."
The reforms begin immediately.
The first decree shocks the court.
Military land grants.
Any soldier who joins the army receives farmland after the war.
Any family that sends two sons receives tax exemption for five years.
Mercenaries are welcomed.
Former bandits are offered pardon in exchange for service.
Deserters who return voluntarily receive reduced punishment.
Within weeks recruitment begins climbing again.
Hungry men will always fight for land.
The second reform is even stranger.
Wu An gathers engineers, blacksmiths, and scholars inside the palace workshops.
"Show me every weapon you can produce."
Muskets.
Cannons.
Rocket tubes.
Old designs from forgotten arsenals.
Wu An studies them carefully.
His knowledge from another world — strange fragments of engineering and warfare — begins to reshape the designs.
Longer barrels.
Improved powder mixtures.
Better artillery recoil frames.
Volley formations instead of scattered musket fire.
Standardized ammunition.
None of it is revolutionary.
But together—
It makes the army deadlier.
Liao Yun watches the experiments skeptically.
"These formations… you want infantry standing in lines while firing?"
"Yes."
"They'll be slaughtered."
"Not if they fire together."
Wu An demonstrates using training units.
Three rows.
First row fires.
Second row steps forward.
Third row reloads.
The volley crashes like thunder.
The target wall collapses under concentrated fire.
The general nods slowly.
"This could work."
"It will have to."
The third reform reshapes the economy itself.
Trade restrictions are lifted.
Merchant guilds receive military contracts.
New grain routes open through the former Southern Kingdom.
River transport expands.
Tax collection shifts from land to commerce.
The treasury stabilizes slowly.
Not prosperity.
But momentum.
The empire begins moving again.
Six weeks pass.
Then eight.
Then twelve.
Recruitment rises.
Factories in Ling An begin producing weapons day and night.
Black Tiger battalions train new formations in the open fields outside the capital.
Liang begins to resemble an army again.
But the clock continues ticking.
Far to the north, Zhou rebuilds as well.
The Emperor's fury has not cooled.
The imperial court has changed dramatically since the failed siege.
New ministers replace the executed ones.
New generals command the legions.
But the Emperor remains the same.
Obsessed.
"Liang must be destroyed," he tells the war council.
"Completely."
The generals nod.
Because they have seen his rage.
Conscription spreads across the empire.
Entire provinces send their sons to the army.
Even women and children are forced into support labor.
Supply trains.
Road construction.
Fortification building.
In the poorer provinces—
Families sell daughters to military camps for coin.
War devours everything.
Zhou prepares for another invasion.
And this time—
They intend to finish it.
Reports reach Ling An regularly.
Zhou legions regroup along the frontier.
New fortresses rise along the border.
Supply depots multiply.
The empire is preparing carefully now.
No more reckless sieges.
This war will be methodical.
Total.
Back in the war chamber, Wu An places a final marker on the map.
The date is written beside it.
Six months.
That is the deadline.
If Liang waits longer—
Zhou's new army will march first.
Shen Yue studies the map carefully.
"You're gambling again."
"Yes."
"Six months to rebuild an empire."
"Six months to build an army."
"And then you invade the heart of Zhou."
Wu An nods.
"If we do not attack them first, they will attack us."
She looks toward the northern frontier.
"You realize what this means."
"Yes."
"This war will become larger than anything Liang has ever seen."
Wu An turns away from the map.
The Presence hums quietly within him.
Six months.
To rebuild a shattered army.
To modernize weapons.
To mobilize an exhausted empire.
To prepare for the most dangerous campaign of the war.
Outside the palace, soldiers train beneath banners newly sewn.
Cannons roll through the streets toward testing grounds.
Blacksmith forges glow through the night.
Ling An is preparing again.
But this time—
For invasion.
Wu An looks north toward the unseen heartlands of Zhou.
And speaks quietly.
"Six months."
If Liang succeeds—
The war ends in Zhou's capital.
If Liang fails—
There will be no Liang left to rebuild.
The countdown has begun.