World Conquest Online

Laomedon and Antigonus answered a few more questions and were soon escorted back to their tent, whilst Xun You proposed that he would have all of the Prisoners sent back to Riverside for questioning, those that were useful such as Laomedon and Antigonus would be kept secured until a long term plan could be agreed. The rest would either be sent to work in one of the mines if they were able to communicate with them, or unfortunately executed if not.

The San delegation were given their own temporary accommodation for the evening, with the plan to travel back to their own forces in the morning, however Elder Kabbo and Chieftain Kung had been invited to visit the Capital Riverside and discuss their proposed alliance further. The other Elders had agreed to return to their forces with Liao Hua, with the temporary proposal that Liao Hua would take over the command in that area. Centurion Septimius of the Praetorians had escorted the San to their own area, whilst Dom and his commanders stayed to discuss the situation.

"Pirates turned Kings." Gan Ning laughed as they sat there, with some basic food having been provided by the camps cook. The food was of a much lower standard than what Dom was used to however after the long day he was happy to eat anything.

"It could have been you in another life." Sun Shangxiang teased from beside Dom, causing those in the room to smile in response. Gan Ning laughed along with her, the ex Pirate could have done a lot of things, before he decided to join Liu Biao and Huang Zu.

"I wouldn't have made a good King, I'm happy being a General for a much better one." Gan Ning replied, winking at Dom who just shook his head in response.

"The part that surprises me is their ships, if these are Cilician Pirates as Laomedon and Antigonus have explained, then I would have expected a fleet of their own Trireme, or Bireme at least." Xun You put forwards, changing the conversation back to the serious topic in front of them. "I do not know much about them, but from the part of the world they would have been situated, it's what I would have expected."

"They also have a kingdom that is an extremely subservient militaristic dictatorship, with the people controlled through the measure of threats to their families and a reliance on opioids." Subutai added from beside Xun You. "Whilst their quality in battle was low, it seems they are in a position to expand their land and forces quite easily. I don't think they will have any longevity with the current King and they will most likely implode on their own in the future."

"They are definitely our largest competitor that we are aware off. They make all of our previous competition almost negligible." Tomoe stated as she took a piece of bread and began to eat it. She looked relaxed in the room, whilst some of the others had tired looks under their eyes as the adrenaline from the day of unexpected battle started to wear off.

"So we have a large state two days to the north of Serenity and a large state four days south of Jia?" Zhao Yun asked the group, a nod of heads in response as they began to put together a wider image of the surrounding geography. "It's a very large space of land in between them that we can use as a buffer."

"We just need to explore further down the Calm River and see if there is any of a similar size inland. I feel that we can deal with individual towns such as Tongpai Town if we need to, but these are much larger and currently beyond our strength." Dom replied, they had two towns to the north of Tongpai Lake that they yet had to involve themselves with, as well as many unknowns in between. Whilst they had a large army now, Dom still didn't feel it was worth attacking the two competing Towns to the north and would use them as a natural defence line to the north instead.

"I can take a ship south and explore the coast and see if I can find them." Gan Ning offered eagerly, "We could go undercover in a merchant ship, they can't be insular enough to turn down exotic trade? I can speak with Crassus and find some interesting things to take with me."

"Or you could take a Trireme which is much faster than their transport ships and show that there is a military strength to the north?" Liao Hua replied, not wanting his friend to take the unnecessary risk.

"The whole of the south and the north needs exploring, we need more trade partners and there may even be island slightly out to sea." Gan Ning explained, a slight level of excitement in his voice at the thought of the adventures.

"We need to do that, but we need to secure the southern coast first. Especially with the upcoming Battle Map." Xun You agreed, "We need Forts setting up across the coast as well as watch towers. We need Towns building based on any rewards we can find to feed the Military and then another expansion of our Military."

"Just when we thought our Warriors was a good size, we discover that it isn't." Dom laughed at himself, knowing that the scale of the game was slowly increasing.

"You can never have enough Warriors." Subutai countered, "We also need to decide on our response. There are a few options for us, but we need to show our strength."

"Or keep ourselves hidden for longer, they did not know of our existence and no enemies from the land escaped, only ships." Xun You explained, "Whilst we strengthen our south, I think this is a time to use our new allies."

"How do you propose that?" Dom asked as the Heroes all looked towards Xun You.

"Crassus once mentioned a solution he used to instil fear in to his enemies. He defeated a Slave rebellion led by some escaped Gladiators. He crucified the slaves on to large wooden crosses across the main road that led in to his capital city." Xun You explained, as Dom sat with a raised eyebrow along with Sun Shangxiang. Zhao Yun, Liao Hua and Tomoe also looked on in surprise. Whilst Gan Ning and Subutai seemed to be nodding in understanding. "I am not proposing we do the same thing here, but we could do it across the southern and coastal lines of the San. I know they are peaceful, but it pushes the enemies to believe the location of the San is the issue and not us. It will also cause fear that they lost four thousand Warriors and that was what happened to the survivors."

"We don't have that many survivors." Sun Shangxiang replied, whilst others seemed to understand the fear factor he was trying to use.

"I propose we use those that are already dead, rather than the small group who are alive. Whilst I agree with executions, low level warriors don't deserve such an end." Xun You explained, as she nodded in understanding.

"And what about the San?" Dom asked Xun You. "As you said, they are a peaceful people. They won't want bodies spread across their land."

"They should temporarily relocate." Subutai responded, taking over from Xun You with understanding. "We move them to the South, we show them the benefits of merging in to us, the safety and the future they could have together with us. We train their warriors as our own and we have some population for our new Towns."

"The Infinity plains are full of wild animals and fertile land." Liao Hua agreed eagerly. "It is much better than their current location which is much more arid."

"I think this will be a task for Xun Yu, Meritamen and Crassus." Xun You nodded in agreement, "If they can show the benefits then I expect they will be more easily persuaded."

"There warriors have already fought alongside us, I can do some low level training and show them our professionalism." Liao Hua offered, as he looked towards Dom and Subutai for confirmation.

"I think that would be a great idea, I wanted to use them as a buffer in the south, but it seems that may become our own expansion direction now instead." Dom replied, before looking towards Tomoe and Subutai. "We need to defend the south, but aggressively expand before Papaver does. Whilst they are four days away by ship, we do not know how long they are by foot due to the lack of terrain knowledge."

"I'll have Centurion Meng Ai of the Wudang Archers set up an exploration team with the Spartans. Between the two of them, we should be able to cover a lot of ground stealthily." Subutai replied, whilst Tomoe began thinking of how best to work with Zhao Yun and Liao Hua to plan their next steps.

"Scout for now and then we can make a final plan once we know where the San fit in to our plan better. Both Elder Kabbo and Chieftain Kung seem more aligned with our plans after the battle than before. Liao Hua you have done a good job, this battle could not have come at a better time for those negotiations." Xun You praised, before he turned to Dom. "The Battle Map will be an important recruitment exercise. Even though we have gained a lot of crews through the last quest, they are mainly aimed at our inland expansion and not our sea expansion."

"We need to prove ourselves to the crews and hopefully capture some enemy ships, the Bellona will be key and hopefully the we can take the Sibylla." Dom replied in agreement, the Battle of Mycale was becoming more important for their wider situation. Dom was just grateful that he had the forces he currently did and wondered how other Lord Class Players were coping with the expanding map. "Did gain any rewards through these battles?"

Subutai turned to Xun You, who had been gathering reports from the Generals and their Centurions that had returned with them. Some reports had been sent by messengers throughout the evening and he had been taking notes as they came in. Zhao Yun, Liao Hua and Tomoe also looked at him, whilst Dom waited patiently.

"Other than a few thousand weapons, including Swords, Spears and Bows of varying quality. We also have the two Captured ships, which did include some of the Opium. I propose sending that to our Head of Medicine Hua Tou for testing. We also gathered some of supplies and war materials from those battlefields." Xun You explained, before he began to smile. "As well as The Cove, Lady Sun also discovered the new Ancient Underground Location which needs more exploring. We also know that this Town that we are currently camped at has some buildings that can be converted. I suspect the other Town may be similar, with potential underground links of its own. Zenodotus has said that he believes the Underground Cities are the originals and the Towns above are when they expanded outwards or later generations."

"So between three and four possible Town Cubes?" Dom asked in surprise, a substantial growth and an unexpected boon for them.

"Between zero and five." Xun You replied, "but even if we do not get Town Cubes, there will be lots of new buildings and some key bases we can use to expand on for our natural growing Towns, rather than the Cube based ones."

"I would like to keep The Cove." Gan Ning interrupted, "Similar to Noctus as our underground base for our army on the Western front. I believe we can use The Cove as the Serene Sea Fleet's headquarters. I know it needs renovation, but if we can expand and potentially build a dock here for repairs, we can make the Serene Sea Fleet more independent."

"There is merit to doing that." Subutai agreed, "Especially if we are needing to react fast to potential dangers. Let's discuss this after the Battle Map."

The meeting soon came to an end, with Dom heading back to a tent with his wife Sun Shangxiang. She excitedly recounted the battle and her exploration, whilst Dom listened to her attentively. He was happy to share her joy at her first battle, and soon fell asleep from the exhaustion of his own.