Vol 2 Chapter 3 (1/2)
Volume 2 Chapter 3
Meeting the Tanzya Tribe
Favargo, it was a small garrison to the South.
TLN: fá bā gòng —> Favargo
In the local dialect ‘bā gong’ meant pointing towards the mountains. Here the rivers criss-crossed with each other, the mountains extending forever into the distance, Favargo was situated on plain within these mountains, it’s area covering less than a 100 li.
Hearing someone was coming to replace him, the local official was a bit wild with joy, he was afraid after Aiwa entered here, he would change his plan of remaining here; therefore he quickly packed his luggage to leave this ghost region he had overseen for 5 years. During this 5 years time, he had never spent a single peaceful day here.
He had requested the Queen for troops to attack the Tanzya tribe two times, however the result was that the Queen had sent Federer this incompetent generation, resulting in reprisals from the Tanzya tribe, if it weren’t for the st.u.r.dy city wall’s protection, both the young and old of his family would have already been dealt with by the Tanzyanians.
Aiwa along with a few soldiers came to the southern city walls, going towards the Tanzya tribe’s direction. Shrouded by the b.l.o.o.d.y suns.h.i.+ne of the setting sun, dust rose till the sky, inside the dust, there was a squadron of troops slowly moving towards the South.
A few of those chamberlains were left behind by the old general, they were very familiar with this region, in order to thank Aiwa for replacing him, the old general specially chose a few able a.s.sistants as a present to Aiwa. Aiwa didn’t refuse, this was an unfamiliar region to him, this kind of manpower was quite essential.
[Those Tanzyanians are again fighting over our frontier people’s property!]
A chamberlain sighed with regret and said. Aiwa could barely see using his naked eyes, most of those mounted soldiers were women, and their strong and healthy bodies were clearly distinguishable under the setting sun.
[Don’t we also have cavalry?]
Aiwa turned and asked the chamberlain at his side. [They are a nomadic tribe, living their daily lives on horseback, very swift and fierce, our so called cavalry have only ridden a horse during their training time, which could also be treated as having fun, and how can they overcome them?]
The chamberlain said. This chamberlain was the one who held the highest expectation in the ex-senior officer’s eyes, however, after the attacks by the Tanzyanians intensified, those cruel reprisals made the Ha.s.s Empire’s frontier people not able to speak of their sufferings. Therefore, he also didn’t fantasize about this Aiwa who came from a General’s house in being able to change anything; if only he didn’t provoke anything, and then steadily lived his life it was good enough for him.
[Does our cavalry train regularly?]
Aiwa’s sight watched the backs of those victors, although they didn’t have eyes on their backs, from their leisurely appearance Aiwa could make out that they loathed and made fun with regard to Ha.s.s Empire’s defenders.
A kind of rage rose within Aiwa’s mind.
Aiwa’s sight moved away from their backs, looking at the mountains all around, after seeing the valley between these extending mountains, Aiwa concluded that these Tanzyanians were surely infiltrating from within this valley.
[Every path inside the valley could be their attack route, our numbers are also limited, making it is impossible to cover each and every mountain pa.s.s, moreover our fighting strength is unable to compare to our enemy. Must not see that they are mostly woman, their fighting strength doesn’t differ even a bit when compared to a man.]
The chamberlain wanted to warn Aiwa: Guarding inside the city walls is the safest, if are overconfident of our cavalry, then that would be delivering their small life to its end.
[What you want to say is, we can only get plundered by those Tanzyanians?]
Aiwa could make out the actual meaning of his words. His sharp gaze attentively watched the chamberlain at his side.
[Answering the Chief, What I want say is, if we don’t want the Tanzyanians to hara.s.s us, then it wouldn’t be possible by just relying on our current army.]
The chamberlain quickly explained.
[Then do you have any good ideas?]
Aiwa kept asking questions. Actually he didn’t have hope that this chamberlain would be able to propose a good idea, if not, the ex-senior officer would have already recommended him to the Ha.s.s Empire making his name famous.
[No.]
That chamberlain had already realized the general idea; he quickly retreated to the back.
[Transmit an order down, during this 1 month, n.o.body is allowed to act blindly without thinking, carefully train their troops, after a month I’m going to conduct a big martial arts compet.i.tion, giving a heavy reward to the victor!]
A grand plan was brewing inside Aiwa’s mind.
At this border town small garrison, an army of almost 2000 men were stationed, among them one-third consisted of the infantry, and cavalry another one-third. The remaining portions of soldiers were those who were banished here after violated orders. In an average persons eyes, these soldiers were only criminals, therefore, the senior officer never looked at them as humans, to fight a battle it was necessary to charge and breakthrough the enemy lines, but to speak of it there had never been any kind of reward for it. Thus, when that chamberlain heard the victor would be bestowed a heavy reward by Aiwa, he didn’t dare to believe what his ears had heard.
But from Aiwa’s tone of speaking, he could feel this was a man who kept his promises! The contempt he held previously lessened a bit.
Aiwa made some persons plant many scarecrows, to be used as an imaginary enemy to train the soldiers. The cavalry was trained twice every day, those who had experience were made as the senior officer’s trainers, once during the day, once during the night, due to Aiwa’s promise, the soldiers put out all their energy into training, some soldiers still intensely trained while the others rested, because they were thinking of standing out during the compet.i.tion.
When the soldiers were intensely training, Aiwa often sent a group of soldiers to inspect the situation at every mountain pa.s.s.
By a week, he already knew all the regions around Favargo from the inside out, especially the southern mountain pa.s.s terrain near Tanzya.
After a week, Aiwa took half of his infantry visiting every mountain pa.s.s, making them make grotesquely shaped things from the trees and mountain rocks. The soldiers all didn’t mind this, believing this newly appointed senior officer was an immature child, merely wanted to have fun, however as Aiwa was a swift and decisive man, no one dared to disobey his order.
During the time the soldiers were undergoing every kind of training at Favargo city walls, the Tanzyanians once again plundered the Ha.s.s Empire’s frontier population, those frontier people could only organize a self-defense organization and resist the Tanzyanians, however they could only run away while fighting the Tanzyanians, without having any other choice.
The reason why the Tanzyanians only fought over their things and never injured a person was that they had strict discipline, during the course of plundering; they only took what was absolutely essential, not allowing anyone to injure a Favargo person’s life. Therefore, each plunder didn’t cause any casualties to the staff of Favargo. This was also the reason Ha.s.s Empire hadn’t sent troops to attack Tanzya.
After half a month of training had pa.s.sed, the skill of many officers and men made a quant.i.tative leap forwards, their hands started to itch, because the ex-commander was afraid of the soldier’s casualties and was met by the Queen’s blame, he didn’t dare to send troops out, making the soldiers fighting strength decline. And after Aiwa took the commander post, he began to bitterly train them, making the soldier’s secretly scold Aiwa in their hearts, but gradually, after they found their fighting strength increase, their hearts admired this newly appointed senior officer.
As a result of their confidence increasing due to Aiwa, some officer’s thought of striving for Aiwa’s first cla.s.s merit, hence a hundred man general called Samo led a squadron of troops to loot a Tanzyanian stronghold. However, they suffered an ambush by Tanzyanians on their way back; Aiwa led some troops to save Samo still suffering more than half casualties and returned. Aiwa had previously sent an order, without his order, no one was allowed to act blindly without thinking; violators would receive a heavy punishment. The officer Samo thought this time’s attack would increase his deeds, but he didn’t expect Aiwa to make him get hit by a rod hundred times, those hits made his flesh lacerated. Since then, the discipline within the army became more firm, no one dared to hold Aiwa’s order as a joke.
After a training of 1 month finished, the compet.i.tion also began. Aiwa personally looked at the fights. Majority of them were sporting events, cavalry had equestrian archery, waiting to a.s.sa.s.sinate on horseback, the infantry compared their sword teachings and marksmans.h.i.+p, doing battle with the a.s.sa.s.sination pike was also popular becoming the infantry’s main sporting event.
Especially within the equestrian archery, a large number of experts who could shoot with great precision were fished up. Aiwa asked the chamberlain at his side: [When compared to before, haven’t they made progress?]
The reply was: [Not at all the same! They cannot be compared!]
[If this army fights again with the Tanzyanians, what are the odds of success?]
Aiwa proudly asked.
[If we use our current military strength to attack Tanzyanians, then it was sure to be like pa.s.sing a hot knife through b.u.t.ter, sweeping everything before us!]
That chamberlain wasn’t speaking senselessly; rather he was shocked seeing the martial arts compet.i.tion before his eyes. Those soldiers’ each had their own abilities, relying on their current fighting strength beheading those Tanzyanians was like a small appetizer. Aiwa made a slight smile, he had seen the strength of those Tanzyanians with his own eyes, when he rescued Samo, the opponent was merely the rank of a chieftain, those roundabout spears and rain of wooden arrows had already made Aiwa extend his scope. According to his judgment, these soldiers current fighting strength was still insufficient to contend against the Tanzyanians. Because he knew, Tanzyanians only killed as a last resort, only if to guard a life would they openly kill. If the counterpart didn’t have the skill, this bit was impossible to do. During that first fight, even disregarding their lives the Favargo soldier’s couldn’t even injure a single Tanzyanian. This point was most clear in Aiwa’s heart. Therefore, he once again transmitted the order that without his order no one was allowed to go out to fight.
However, the troops garrisoned at Favargo weren’t like soft mud anymore, if a Tanzyanian saw them, they would surely be surprised.
Aiwa didn’t think of immediately going out to fight, rather requested the Queen to dispatch troops as reinforcement, also specially mentioning to send Junior Officer Federer who was very familiar with this region. He had to let that youngster Federer get humiliated again, tear down his overweening att.i.tude.
After a week, Federer really arrived at Favargo town under the Queen’s orders carrying 2000 troops with him. In the capacity as the supreme commander of 2000 troops, it was inevitable for Federer to act high and mighty in front of Aiwa. [Aiwa, don’t you have any abilities? How? Just arrived at Favargo and so quickly asking for the Queen’s help? The counterpart are only a few women, at once making you so much frightened, hehe, this really is not worthy of a General’s later generation!”]
Federer looked at everyone here condescendingly, after suffering two continuous defeats at the Tanzyanians, he still wasn’t ashamed standing in front of Aiwa, making Aiwa baffled. After so long, he had found such a scapegoat like Aiwa, at long last he could recover a little face, therefore, he wasn’t going to miss this opportunity.
[Junior Officer Federer, my hopes rest on you, I have suffered the hara.s.sment of those Tanzyanians here every day, especially I heard that their soldier hoot that if they could boil and eat my good friend Federer, it would increase their vitality, they are very aggressive, therefore I specially requested the Queen to send your group to humiliate those Tanzyanians!]
Aiwa knew that what Federer most disliked were negative remarks about him, if he s.h.i.+fted the thoughts Federer had in his heart towards the Tanzyanians, which would provoke Federer. As soon as those words were finished, Federer’s face became completely red.
[Aiwa, don’t worry, I don’t need even the least bit of your soldiers a.s.sistance, I’ll make those group of Tanzya s.e.x slaves obediently lick you foot, wait and see!]
Federer said fuming with rage.
[You’ve come to help Favargo, in the capacity as this region’s senior officer, how can I not help you? If the Queen knew that I was watching with folded hands, then isn’t it asking me to get punished?]
Aiwa intended to make Federer think that he himself refused Aiwa’s a.s.sistance, and take a good look at the moment he is humiliated, therefore Aiwa deliberately incited him.