Chapter 439: An Exhausting Day

Dom was almost back at Riverside now, the sky was dark and torches had been lit up and down the banks of the Calm River, as well as on the front of the ships, so that some form of traffic and safe passage could be used. They had passed several checkpoints where small Mengchong River Ships had been placed to patrol up and down the calm River. The larger Doujian were either on the Tongpai Lake or with Ling Tong at Eruthros.

In Dom’s opinion, it had been one of the longest days since his arrival in World Conquest Online. It wasn’t due to the time itself, he had much longer physical games, especially with all of the Battles that had taken place, but he had just spent five hours walking around a harbour, if you could call it a harbour.

Dom watched over the river, listening to the sounds of the crickets and other insects that were talking to each other at night. The sounds of a howl could be heard in the distance, whilst the cold evening breeze helped push the Trireme of Captain Eudoxus. Dom was a fan of the Eudoxus and felt that the experienced Captain could become a key leader amongst the wider Navy. He had met a few of the other Captains today, around half of the thirty new ones that had arrived with the Great Harbour of Carthage. Dom was grateful that Crassus had already departed to the north, as he suspected they wouldn’t have been overly pleased with a Roman as one of their main leaders.

Some of the crews that had departed with Sun Ce in the morning were Roman, but the Carthaginians that had arrived had seemed in good spirits. Especially those that worked within the Harbour itself. During Dom’s five hour tour of the Harbour he had met many of them. The knowledge all of the new arrivals had of the Harbour was fantastic, but they had made it clear that for it to be able to house the amount of ships it could potentially hold, a lot more people would be needed.

Artemisia had by that point already ordered for everyone to be registed, and the Doctor Agnodice who was not only the Doctor of Serenity but the Chief Midwife of the Lazarus Kingdom, was also outlining a session to register them all medically as well. A ship had arrived in the late afternoon from Riverside with some of Xun Yu’s staff and the Umako, who went around registering the Citizens and said he would be stuck in Serenity for at least a week to get through all of the new arrivals, both Civilian, Military and Families.

The best part of the tour had been seeing the Shipbuilders. They had all been gathered and Himilco had taken control of the situation as a Carthaginian himself. They had been working through the Schematics and he explained to Dom that there was enough materials in the warehouses to keep built Trireme, Bireme and Quinquereme for the next couple of years. However, he did say that Timber from both the Red Woods and the Silver Forest would be ideal to add in to the ships for both the individuality of the Lazarus Kingdom, but also because the Timber from their surroundings seemed almost perfect for shipbuilding.

They had seen Helena as well, who explained she would need to hand over control of the Riverside docks to her Daughter Ophelia, as she would need to base herself in Serenity for the time being. Dom didn’t mind and had full trust in both his head of Shipwrights Himilco and his head of his Harbours Helena.

"This is my office going forwards." Artemisia had declared to Dom and Zhou Yu when they had first entered the central Admiral Tower together. Dom had laughed, whilst Zhou Yu had made it quite clear that she could have it when he wasn’t around, but it was his office.

They had also toured the upgraded parts of the Harbour as well after looking in the warehouses and some of the taverns, bars and accommodation that were in both the Naval and Merchant quarters of the Great Harbour. Dom was impressed with all of the upgraded parts; the Naval Academy, Admiralty Offices, Training Ground and the Schematics Library.

The Naval Academy was a large building that was attached to the Great Harbour on the land side, it was around three floors high and had an auditorium that Dom felt wasn’t too dissimilar from that he had saw at the Central University the other day. Zhou Yu had commented on how they could search for rising starts in the different fleets and then send them here to learn, whilst promoting some of the older crew members who had joined Riverside but were near the end of the career, a role at the Academy.

The Admiralty Offices had many rooms, with more than enough offices for each of the Naval Admirals and any in the future. There was a large War Room which had a huge map of the Lazarus Kingdom, as well as the wider Sea’s that they had explored so far. There was a lot of space in the room and Zhou Yu and Artemisia compared it to the War Room at the Government Centre in Riverside.

The Training Ground was a small offshoot within the Harbour, with a door of it’s own. Inside were two Bireme’s that were fixed to different mechanism’s underwater, using different gears to move them in the water. There was many different mechanisms that changed the water level, created waves and even created wind. Zhou Yu said he would incorporate it as part of the training for both the Academy and ship crews. The two Bireme could be pulled alongside each other so ship boarding tactics could be practiced.

The final part was a miniature version of the Library in Riverside, in it was many books related to naval skills or historical novels. They had been broken in to sections, with Ancient Works such as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad, or the navigation books written by Periplus of Scylax or Periplus of Hanno. There was the stories of Jason in the Argonautica, or the natural histories by Pliny the Elder. There was a section dedicated to warfare, such as the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, which had made Dom laugh as the Author of it was currently in the south of his Kingdom. There was also books in this section by Herodotus, Caesar and Plutarch. One of the sections that had seemed to have taken Zhou Yu’s attention included the Records of the Grant Historian by Sima Qian and the Book of Han. There was also the Ramayana and the Mahabharata from Ancient India. However this building wasn’t supposed to just be a Library and at the rear was multiple large rolled sheets which had the schematics of every ship that Dom’s forces had come across so far, including the variety of Transport Ships from the Battle of Mycale.

"If we can build multiple Long Ships, we can explore further out to sea." Zhou Yu had explained, the low crew needed to manage the fast ships made him excited at the possibilities.

"We are nearing Riverside King Lazarus." Eudoxus said to Dom, snapping him out of his reminiscence of the day. Zhou Yu was currently sat at near the centre of the ship writing some notes and plans, the mind of the S Grade Hero working fast, whilst Dom stood at the prow and had been in his thoughts.

"Thank you Eudoxus." Dom had replied as the familiar sites of the City came in to view, the now seemingly small Harbour of Riverside full of ships that would depart in the morning full of supplies to Eruthros.

...

"They have already left?" Dom asked Meritamen as he headed upstairs in the Palace, his two Wives seemingly relaxing on a Chaise Lounge each and eating some grapes. The City had been surprisingly peaceful as he had walked through it, with many sleeping after the celebrations throughout the day before.

"The Portals have come and gone." Meritamen replied, "My brother asked me to thank you for allowing to visit the Underground Ancient City, he had a lot of information to take away with him. Hua Tou had also provided him with copies of his own research. Whilst they are different to what they have been fighting, he is reassured that they are not the only ones in this situation."

"He seems a good man." Dom replied, thinking to the experiences he had with all of Meritamen’s family so far, he felt that they would all be high grade Heroes if he could recruit them.

"I would say he is interesting, but one of my favourites." Meritamen smiled in response as she ate another grape, whilst Sun Shangxiang giggled to herself.

"They all left us lots of gifts though, Warriors, Civilians and Materials." Sun Shangxiang stated with a smile. "They have come at a good time as we need to increase the size of Riverside."

"I agree, our Capital can’t be smaller than one of our other Cities or it will lose it’s meaning." Meritamen agreed, "I know we want to redistribute our population to the newer Cities, but Riverside needs to be at least a third larger than it’s competitor. We need to increase by around twenty thousand."

"Another Conquest, Battle Map or some severe recruitment is needed then." Sun Shangxiang replied as she ate another Grape. At this point Dom sat down and just listened to his two Wives as they discussed how his Kingdom would grow.

"Or, if another Major City is defeated then there could be those seeking refuge and a new home." Meritamen stated, as Sun Shangxiang nodded in agreement.

"That is a good point, maybe we should step back in the Tongpai Lake conflict and absorb the losers in the northern conflict." Sun Shangxiang replied, with Dom looking at her as if he had seen her for the first time.

"That’s a good idea." Dom agreed, as the influx of people from Tongpai Town had been a great help in their own growth.

"I am worried that we have dispatched most of our forces to Eruthros. If we are attacked in the south or north at the same time, we will loose a lot of territory before we can respond." Sun Shangxiang added.

"Then with all of the spare weapons, maybe we should put all Civilians on a mandatory course so they can learn basic formations and fighting skills. Then if something happens in the future, we can raise a temporary civilian army of tens of thousand that whilst they won’t be fully professional, can at least defend our borders." Meritamen replied, before turning to Dom. "How many Civilians do we have now?"

Dom quickly checked the system and saw that with the arrivals from Khaemweset and the arrival of the Great Harbour of Serenity, the number had somehow increased to over eight six thousand people.

"Just above Eighty Six Thousand." Dom replied, seemingly taken aback by his wives.

"If we could move even a third of that, it is nearly four Legions worth by Crassus’s standards." Sun Shangxiang nodded in agreement, "They may not be Legionary Trained, but if we send men to each City to train people once a week on a rotating basis, we could have an emergency home defence army quite quickly. Be it Man or Woman."

"I think I need to go to bed." Dom replied, already exhausted from the day and now listening to his two Wives come up with ideas that were much better than his own.

"See Shang Yang has been teaching us well." Meritamen laughed, as Dom acknowledged that when he departed to Eruthros tomorrow morning, the Kingdom would be in very capable hands.