367 The Trys (1/2)
Chapter 367: The Tryst
Translator: TransnEditor: Transn
After the last line of cruel and muddle-headed kings of the Land of Fragrance had passed away without leaving any offspring behind, its citizens cut off all ties with the outside world. More than 100 years had since passed, and its people thought that outsiders had already forgotten about them.
It was a vast, isolated and peaceful place which was sparsely populated. Its citizens were free to choose the ideal locations for their homes, and only the royal palace was left untended to. The glory of years past was long gone, and only vast patches of weeds were left. Now, it had become a place for beasts and children to prowl.
The citizens had long since stopped electing a King. Instead they were separated into 10 different tribes and practiced self-autonomy. Each tribe had a leader, and the post was rotated amongst all the members of the tribe.
The sudden arrival of a large army of close to 2000 soldiers from the forest immediately caused immense upheaval in the Land of Fragrance. The 10 tribal leaders, who were usually idle, were now faced with an immense task of handling the visitors. After a long discussion which lasted throughout the night, the 10 of them decided to represent all of the citizens in negotiations with the foreign army, who looked barbaric and hungry.
About three miles from the capital of the Land of Fragrance, Gu Shenwei ordered his troops to set up camp with their back facing a small river. He then received the messengers in the main tent.
They could be considered as the most gentle and cultivated people in the world. All of them were uniformly dressed in long robes of light color which were loose fitting. Other than ornate belts, they did not wear any other accessories but gave off fragrances. Their mannerisms were poised and proper, and their voices soothing and clear. Even though they spoke a foreign language, one could immediately sense their goodwill.
There was a large disparity between the ages of the ten tribal leaders, and the youngest of them was only about 20 something years of age. He was inexperienced and seemed a little nervous. The eldest had white hair and a white beard, and he was holding onto a crutch of about the same color.
There were of similar status, and normally the eldest tribal leader spoke on behalf of the others.
After listening to a few sentences from the tribal leaders, Gu Shenwei could only understand one phrase - that the eldest tribal leader was called Shili Molo. As such, he summoned a machete man who was multi-lingual to act as his interpreter, and after much guessing, some of it wild, compounded with all sorts of complicated hand gestures, both parties came to a rough understanding of what each other's intentions were.
Shili Molo said that his country was sparsely populated and that its citizens amounted to less than 6000. Over the previous centuries, the country had rarely got in contact with outsiders and had especially never seen warriors and so many kinds of weapons before. As such, they were susceptible to shock, and the tribal leader urged the Dragon King sincerely to control his soldiers. He wanted them to be prohibited from entering the capital, but they could set up camp anywhere outside of the city grounds and were free to stay as long as they wished.
As a token of appreciation for their cooperation, the citizens were glad to provide sufficient food every day.
Gu Shenwei agreed to their terms; it was a mutually beneficial deal - the citizens wanted to be safe, and the soldiers wanted sufficient rest.
Gu Shenwei then asked his interpreter to ask Shili Molo the way toward the Xiaoyao Lake, but the old man knew nothing about it. However, he said that there was an old map passed down from generations of kings past, and he would send his men to bring it over to the Dragon King once he went back into the city.
Just like this, the negotiations were concluded.
There were many soldiers crowding around the outside of the main tent, watching the strange men who were giving off a nice fragrance. After the messengers left, Shangguan Fei, who was watching from a corner, twitched his mouth and laughed. ”What a convincing act,” he said.
Gu Shenwei understood what he meant. Out of the 10 messengers, including Shili Molo, at least three of them could understand the Central Plains Chinese language. However, they acted as if they could not, but they overdid it, and naturally, this could not fool the Dragon King and Shangguan Fei, who were embroiled in conspiracies all the time.
Shangguan Hong, who was also standing outside the tent, did not manage to detect any abnormality in the messengers. At a loss, he asked, ”What act? Are you saying that they smell as good as women?”
The other two did not bother replying him. Although Gu Shenwei could see that that the people of the Land of Fragrance were not as simple as they portrayed themselves to be, he did not wish to uncover their secret immediately. He thought that perhaps they were only fearful of his army and were trying to use the lack of mutual understanding of each other's language as a way to not let the visitors know too much about them.
However, the presence of Central Plains Chinese speakers in their population showed that they were not entirely isolated from the rest of the world.
Later during that day, Shili Molo kept to his promise and sent people carrying an old map over to the Dragon King. Pests had bitten many holes in its fabric, but the map was still largely intact. However, it was marked in a strange script that even the translator could not understand.
There was a large lake marked out on it, and it was very possibly the Xiaoyao Lake from its position on the map. However, there were no paths leading from the Land of Fragrance to it, and the other areas of the Western Region were marked extremely inaccurately on the map. As such, it did not have much value.
Gu Shenwei felt that something was not quite right. The citizens of any other nation would definitely be in a hurry to send a foreign army away from their land, but Shili Molo and the other tribal leaders did not seem to be impatient.
He temporarily cast the thought aside and turned his attention to security. Even though he had found an ideal hiding place for his army, as the Golden Roc Fort was busy with its campaign in the Western Region, he still ordered his men to set up a few more sentries both inside and outside of their camp, to prevent sneak attacks.
Both parties lived in peace over the next fortnight. The citizens from the city kept to their promise and sent their visitors huge amounts of fruit and food made from wheat flour every day. Even though there was no meat provided, it was enough to keep all 1600 of the soldiers fully fed.
Gu Shenwei kept his side of the bargain as well. He gave strict orders to his men and forbade them to get near to the capital of the Land of Fragrance. He then sent out dozens of scouts to venture in a northeast direction, hoping to discover a path to the Xiaoyao Lake.
He spent most of his free time training the conscripted savages, who amounted to more than 300 people.
The savages were far from their natural habitat and relatives and found it hard to adapt to their new surroundings. The food did not suit them and they also had difficulty accepting regimentation in the military camp.
That said, very few of them deserted, as they were enticed by the incredibly sharp metal weapons that they were given; they would rather die before giving them up.
Few of them had seen steel before, and when they realized that even the most ordinary steel saber could effortlessly slice their wooden javelins into two, they immediately grew to love their new weapons so much that they could not part with them; they even had to hug the weapons to sleep.
At first, they were repulsed by the idea of protective gear. They were not used to being encumbered by gear and thought that it was cowardly to require protection. It was only until when they witnessed a personal demonstration by the Dragon King, where he put on a breastplate which blocked attacks from wooden and even steel arrows, that they began scrambling to wear armor.
As Tuo Nengya's wounds were nearly healed, Gu Shenwei directed the old machete man and the chief of Small Sword Peak to teach the savages how to handle sabers and swords. He also had other people to teach them to speak Central Plains Chinese.
The savages were trained in archery from a young age, and after they were given bows and arrows of better quality, their shooting power was greatly increased. Few among the machete men and swordsmen were their equal.