Ryen smiled softly and replied:

"There's nothing to disagree with. It's not like I'm afraid of them coveting anything of mine. Now that Liyue, Mondstadt, and Snezhnaya are cooperating—plus your current strength…"

"And with the adepti and gods about to be revived, the only one you truly need to be wary of is Celestia."

Ningguang smiled proudly.

"So, we're quite confident. Honestly, we're not afraid of the other nations knowing what we're up to!"

Ryen turned back to look at Ayaka and said softly:

"Since you've already signed the contract, you're naturally allowed to visit that world."

"But it's already too late today. Let's talk about it tomorrow."

Ayaka was overjoyed and quickly nodded:

"Thank you, Mr. Ryen! I'll definitely keep your secret— even if Her Excellency the Shogun asks, I won't say a word!"

"No need to be that serious," Ryen chuckled. Seeing that Ayaka's matter was settled, Jean also spoke up:

"Ryen, there's one more thing…"

When Ryen looked over, Jean said quietly:

"The Dragon Knight Corps is about to begin preparations. As for the End, someone has to stay and keep watch there."

"If all of our people scatter to search for a new base, who's going to handle the dragon egg farming over there?"

At her words, the others also started pondering with some concern.

The End was no ordinary place—just the endless waves of regenerating Endermen alone made it far from easy to manage.

If regular soldiers were sent, the familiar ones might manage, but unfamiliar ones would be in real trouble.

Even though we have Totems of Resurrection, that doesn't mean we should be using them every single day, right?

And summoning Wither Storms isn't exactly a walk in the park either.

Besides, there's no day or night in the End, so rest rotations are necessary. That means two alternating teams.

After a moment's thought, Ryen spoke softly:

"Send twenty people. Ten in each group to guard the End, rotating every two days. Every month, switch out the full twenty."

"Select them from the Qianyan Army members already familiar with this world's characteristics. Twenty isn't a big number, so it won't impact our world exploration."

"Once we head over tomorrow, we'll take care of this task while we're at it. Then, just give them some training."

After speaking, Ryen smiled again:

"This really isn't a difficult task. Instead of worrying about this, you all should focus more on how you plan to build the Dragon Knight Corps."

"The so-called dragon knights should ideally be able to coordinate with the dragons and launch attacks together. Otherwise, if they're just riding along, it's better to let the dragons attack on their own."

Ningguang nodded thoughtfully and said softly:

"That's indeed a problem. Let's pick the members of the Dragon Knight Corps from the troops stationed in that world."

"Train them to coordinate attacks with the dragons."

"Also, prioritize elemental dragons."

"My vision is to equip one group of dragon knights with enchanted fiery-arrow bows, and another with the Ice Bows from the Twilight Forest."

"This way, they can trigger elemental reactions over a wide area, deal area-of-effect damage, and interact with elemental dragons."

"For single-target damage, we'll have the Qianyan Army coordinate with the dragons to trigger elemental reactions."

"That way, it'll be a well-rounded force overall."

"My initial plan is to first train five hundred dragon riders. What's your opinion, Ryen?"

Ryen nodded.

"Numbers won't be a problem. We have an endless supply of dragon eggs, and hatching them is simple. As for feeding the dragons, we can even have the riders gather the food themselves."

"The base already has fully automated ranches and fishing machines, so food supply is covered. All that's left is to put in the time."

"But I still think your vision is a little too narrow."

Ryen gently tapped Ningguang's forehead, affectionately saying:

"Think about it—what if the modern firearms unit rides dragons, raining down light machine gun fire from above, then tossing grenades, and finally blanketing the field with RPGs?"

"Wouldn't that basically be an air force?"

"You need to think of the whole picture, all the mods combined. Just because we've activated the Twilight Forest mod doesn't mean you can forget how powerful the modern weaponry mod is."

"Did you forget about the nuclear missile launcher I gave you?"

At that, Ningguang suddenly realized and said helplessly,

"Your world is getting more and more complex. But yes, I did overlook that part."

"Then we can hatch some Ender Dragons and Aether Dragons too. That way, our dragon riders can split into two corps."

"One specializing in elemental reactions, and the other in modern firepower-based group assaults."

"The ultimate plan: two forces, five hundred each—making a one-thousand-strong dragon rider army!"

Just imagining the skies of Liyue filled with a thousand dragon riders…

That kind of scene alone is enough to get the blood pumping.

But to arm them to that extent—just for Liyue alone—would probably take two to three months, considering how slowly Ender Dragons spawn.

And we still have to coordinate with Mondstadt and Snezhnaya.

Ryen felt that forming a basic prototype within a year would already be good enough.

But then again…

A year doesn't actually seem long. At least for Teyvat, achieving such progress within a year would be downright miraculous.

"Sounds wonderful in theory."

Keqing shook her head with a helpless smile:

"Currently, the Qianyan Army has around ten thousand soldiers."

"After accounting for garrisoned forces across regions, we have about eight thousand deployable troops."

"Of those, 2,500 have already been transferred into Ryen's world, leaving us with 5,500."

"A thousand heavy cavalry, a thousand light infantry, and 1,500 standard firearm units."

"At best, we're left with 2,000 troops who can be reassigned freely—and that's not even counting requests from the heavy and light units for expansion."

"We're running out of Qianyan soldiers…"

Hearing this, Ningguang frowned in concern as well.

Back then, Liyue never felt like the Qianyan Army lacked numbers.

In fact, they were constantly streamlining the ranks to cut down on redundancy.

Now look—it's manpower that's become the problem.

Just as Keqing said, even the 2,000 who can be freely deployed include 1,000 for emergency response.

At least 1,000 need to be kept in Liyue Harbor for rapid deployment before any expansion can be considered.

That's a hard limit they couldn't avoid…

~~----------------------

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