Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Perfection of the National System

Although the Orc Emperor Manhammer was not particularly clever, he was well aware that the forces he had left behind in his stronghold were all elite main battle corps. For them to collapse so swiftly, Sun Li’s power was absolutely nothing to be underestimated. Upon reaching Kalimdor, still under orc control, Manhammer began a massive conscription campaign, hoping to restore the army’s ranks to a force of one million. In the simple orc mind, numbers were a decisive factor in war—especially since they had shamans!

While Manhammer was busy rounding up orcs to bolster his troops, Sun Li’s Song Empire was being built at rocket speed. First of all, since the system’s population base was far lower than that of the orcs and the gold resources weren’t even enough to recruit a full 100,000-man army, let alone civilian production, Sun Li established a population hierarchy similar to that of the Mongol Empire. In Song, humans were the upper class, orcs the lower. Upper class humans held absolute privileges over lower class orcs—much like the Mongols had over the Han in times past. In short, humans had become the undisputed ‘masters of men.’

To maintain this system, Sun Li set up only two levels of administration—city and town. The rank depended on the number of humans present. Currently, there was only one city, Sun Li’s original stronghold, while there were two towns: Tiger Town and the current Orc Town.

These two towns merely served as supply hubs; the core was Sun Li’s initial city, which he named the capital of Song—Kyoto—where the university was also constructed.

The old cold weapon units were all converted to line infantry, save for the heavy cavalry, whose structure was preserved. Line infantry were easy to train and could be formed quickly. Though heavy cavalry seemed outdated, in this strange world Sun Li chose to keep them—who knew where they might prove useful in the future?

To better protect himself and because of limited strength, Sun Li abandoned plans to deeply control the orc tribes, keeping armed forces only in the two towns and the city. Moreover, except for Kyoto, all humans in the two towns were equipped at all times with flintlock guns and swords, both for self-defense and to intimidate the orc populations. At crucial moments, they could be called up as militia for defense, so Sun Li didn’t need to station large garrisons in every town. With the policy of universal conscription, a single battalion of regulars in each town sufficed, serving not only for defense and maintaining order but also for periodic expeditions to levy head taxes from surrounding orc tribes or slaughter rebels.

Once the administrative officials produced by the university began full operations, Sun Li’s policy could be summed up in four words: simple and violent. Simple management for humans, violent rule for orcs—almost to the point where the regular army could execute orcs anywhere and anytime for any legitimate reason. If orcs weren’t so simple-minded and disunited, such brutal enforcement would surely provoke an uprising among other races.

After establishing the basic state structure, Sun Li, to make things easier, spent points to recruit a super-efficient administrative minister with 100% loyalty. Sun Li handed all government and legal functions to him, becoming a hands-off manager—aside from the army, he had nothing to worry about. Amazed by the minister’s efficiency, Sun Li mischievously named him Zhuge Liang.

The minister’s abilities fully lived up to the name, at least in Sun Li’s opinion! With his administrative burdens completely offloaded, Sun Li turned his attention to war and future internal governance. The current humans were all system-generated, utterly trustworthy and unlikely to cause trouble.

But Sun Li was determined to accomplish something grand—to strike the human nations and trample the elves and dwarves as a young hero in the New World. He couldn’t just rampage and slaughter indiscriminately; if he did, he was certain the world would unite to form an anti-Song alliance, topple him like a boss, and beat him soundly to vent their grievances—a truly cathartic, universally satisfying ending.

After exhausting his brain, Sun Li finally devised a solution that would serve both internal governance and external war: the creation of a comprehensive intelligence and secret police system. He even had a name ready—Embroidered Guards. Xiao Bai was beyond words at Sun Li’s shameless plagiarism, yet Sun Li, though blatantly copying Earth’s best intelligence systems, found it highly effective. With the Embroidered Guards staffed entirely by system-generated spies, Sun Li had no fear of this organization ever turning on him. From its inception, the Embroidered Guards monopolized vast powers, possessing their own special operations units for arresting officials. They reported only to Sun Li, and could carry out executions without judicial review, with virtually no limits on extrajudicial punishment—modeled on the Ming dynasty’s Embroidered Guards at their peak.

The Embroidered Guards wielded terrifying internal authority—except for system characters, they were the third power after Heaven and Earth. On the battlefield, they handled all intelligence gathering and trained assassins for deadly missions. Sun Li’s Embroidered Guards truly became the most powerful and audacious intelligence agency in Earth’s history, with fanatical loyalty to Sun Li. They were counted among the army’s headcount but were even more stubborn, to the point that Sun Li could casually order one to commit suicide, and they would instantly draw a blade and do it. Their worship of Sun Li bordered on madness.

To maximize the Embroidered Guards’ effectiveness, Sun Li dared not meddle as an amateur. He spent points to recruit a cunning, utterly unscrupulous spymaster—the system’s best. With such a clever and ruthless subordinate, Sun Li was quite pleased, and, true to his vain nature, named him Gestapo. Clearly, he was a fanboy of the Third Reich.

With administration handed to Zhuge Liang and the nation developing healthily, intelligence was entrusted to Gestapo. Sun Li recruited spies to spread into the southern continent’s human settlements, laying down an intelligence network. Then he once again turned his attention to recruiting the backbone of his army.

But soon he discovered something that greatly infuriated him!