The inspiration came from the author getting way too into playing Factorio. It’s Factorio in the early stages, then Dyson Sphere Program later on.
To sum it up: Lin Li is an engineer devoid of emotion, but is forced to become the industrial tsar of the Qin Empire.
The good news: His Majesty Zheng trusts him completely, giving him money and manpower whenever he asks.
The bad news: The Qin Empire’s tech tree is a barren wasteland. Even making a screw means starting with mining!
And so, things go like this:
Scene One: A fangshi presents an elixir of immortality, claiming it grants eternal life.
Lin Li feeds it to a dog right in front of everyone.
Result: The dog convulses, coughs up blood, and bleeds from every orifice before dying.
Ying Zheng: (breaking into a cold sweat) Get every last fangshi to scam someone else!
Scene Two: A Confucian scholar rails against papermaking and printing as frivolous tricks.
Lin Li prints ten thousand copies of the Qin Code in open court.
Result: The monopoly on knowledge is shattered, and the Confucian scholars collectively spit blood.
Chunyu Yue: “You’re digging up our ancestors’ graves!”
Scene Three: The remnants of the Six Kingdoms send top-tier assassins to kill him.
Lin Li silently pulls out a revolver and fires seven shots in a row.
Result: The assassins are wiped out, given a physical send-off.
The assassin stares wide-eyed with his dying breath: “Wait, you call that a concealed weapon?!”
Lin Li grumbles: “I’m tired. Let’s just destroy everything. Hurry up and get the assembly line running. I’m sick of dealing with these primitives!”
Factorio? I only saw civil construction, not automatic construction