Chapter 455: The Five Armies

Dom sat at the head of Table in the Hall of the Eruthros Fort. The Town Centre had been claimed as a temporary field hospital and hundreds of people had been transported to Eruthros to support with the rebuilding of the wall and the care of the injured Warriors. The captives had been seperated with those that were identified as officers being kept in a seperate guarded area to the normal Warriors.

Those who were not classed as potential officers, were currently dressed in rags and collecting the bodies of their fallen comrades, creating pyres or cutting up the corpses of the Elephants and Horses for either their meat or the other parts of their bodies that could be used. This was all under the supervision of the Warriors of the Lazarus Kingdom, that guarded the battlefield tightly to make sure none escaped. Sabre Tooth Tiger Cavalry patrolled the borders of the Battlefield, whilst Titanaconda units swam through the Calm River.

Xanthippus had sent his Trireme and some of Ling Tong’s Doujian further up the Calm River to where the enemy had broken camp and had fled. Whilst Zhao Yun’s men were under the command of Masistius currently, as they scouted the outer reaches. Units would be sent tomorrow towards the enemies now abandoned camp, to claim any potential loot, including resources such as tents or weapons. For now however, it was kept under watch by a unit of Cavalry.

Around Dom sat the senior Generals and Leaders who had either been involved in the Battle or had travelled to discuss the aftermath. Beside him was Xun You and Subutai at the top of the table, with Ptolemy, Xanthippus, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Pausanias, Tomoe, Xun Yu, Zhou Yu, Lucius and Shang Yang. Dom had wanted to meet straight after the battle, however Xun You had explained it would be best to rest and discuss in the morning, and that is now what they did.

Messengers had been sent back to Riverside in the night, informing of the Victory at Eruthros, and Zhou Yu, Lucius and Shang Yang had travelled that very night to see the outcome. They hadn’t sat around the table in relation to rank and had instead sat as a group around a map that was thrown on the table in front of them.

The other Generals who had been involved were currently doing other tasks. Ling Tong was managing the fleet of Xanthippus at the enemies Camp, Penthesilia was in charge of the camp and rebuilding the wall. Masistius was currently in charge of the Cavalry, whilst Megabyzus was watching the enemy Camp with the small unit stationed there. Arimnestos and Nicomedes were clearing the Battlefield, with various Centurions taking up other key roles in the aftermath.

Dom stretched his back, aching from the limited sleep he had in his Command Tent, with everyone having varying levels of tiredness across their faces. One seat had been kept empty on purpose at the table, as Gan Ning should have been here but was still unconscious in the Eruthros Town Centre, his temperature high as Hua Tou’s daughter, Hua Xiu, keeping a permanent eye on him.

"This map clearly shows the flow of the Calm River from the Tongpai Lake, through to the Fork and then westwards to the enemy lands." Xun You began as he pointed towards the map. The map was large and the space that the Lazarus Kingdom occupied was but the size of a small cup in the scheme of it. "The River then continues, splitting further as it enters in to the mainland. We can see from this that there are five distinctive areas that have been outlined on the map."

"These are either Cities or Kingdoms of their own. The nearest based on this looks to be at least ten to fifteen days march from here at a fast pace." Subutai continued, taking over from Xun You. Subutai also looked tired and had a bandage around his leg from a wound that Dom hadn’t noticed when they had spoken the day before. Most of the Generals had some form of damage on them and Dom could tell they had all tried to fight at some point in the Battle. Subutai pointed at the nearest Kingdom as he mentioned it, and Dom could see that there was at least the space of two or three Lazarus Kingdoms that separated them. "We can discuss them further shortly, I think the key is what the map does not show."

"It does not show the Lazarus Kingdom." Shang Yang stated, as everyone nodded at his point. This was the first time Shang Yang had seen the map, but it was clear to all what was missing. "It also does not show anything south of Eruthros in the South. So these had no visibility of our size or that of the San, or anyone further below."

"That also means that they are not connected to the Papaver?" Lucius asked, which was a valid question that none of them had an answer too. From what Dom could see though, unless they had inland connections, which would be vast and possibly weeks of travel away, it was unlikely.

"They do have Tongpai Town on the map though, and the two cities to the north of the Tongpai Lake. There is also the location of Banas’s original camp, and what seems to be a rough estimate as to where Riverside could be." Xun You continued, pointing to parts of the map that were more bare. It seemed that the enemy new about them, but not much more. The location of Eruthros wasn’t there, but the Fort that had been build a few weeks ago did show on the edge of the fork. "We can see that their information of us is partially outdated, but they did come in major force and we do know why."

"How did we get that information?" Shang Yang asked as he looked at the map, an deep exhale as he looked at all of the potential enemies they had on their wider borders. None were direct and would be worth invading, and for them to invade Riverside also made little sense.

"Some of the Legionaries and Wu Dang have had busy evenings questioning." Xun You replied honestly, before looking towards Gan Ning’s empty seat. "The rest of the information, including this map, came from Gan Ning’s daring raid on the enemy main camp. His men have told me the story and it seems he is back to his old tricks of attacking enemy camps with few men. We believe the damage he caused was extensive and he brought us back these five key items. There are also others that we shall discuss shortly."

Zhao Yun placed five flags on the table, each one smaller than that of a banner, and had originally been placed in the Enemies Main Command Tent, signifying the seats for each of the Leaders. Dom didn’t recognise any of the symbols that were on them, but it seemed Xun You had done research throughout the night. The different flags were also on the map that he had shown earlier and it seemed Xun You was planning to talk them through from the most northern location which was way out of their reach by land or river, to the closest which was slightly south west of them and around ten days of forced march.

"We believe this is where the majority of the heavily armoured Celts came from, it is either a small Kingdom or a large collection of Cities. The Leader of this group is called Viriathus, he is a leader from a land called Lusitania and had a varied force including many Celtic and Iberian’s Infantry and some Cavalry. He had provided the smallest number of forces due to the travel time and had sent a deputy to the battle. We believe that deputy fled." Xun You began, outlining the first of the enemies. Dom had never heard of Viriathus, and it seemed those in the room were the same. Xun You then continued, pointing to the second area, which was still a long distance away. "This is the lands of a young Carthaginian General called Hanno, son of Bomilcar. He flag will look familiar as it is similar to those of our new navy at the Great Harbour of Serenity. We believe he would have been the strategist of the Battle and would have pushed for the Vanguard to pull out all of our traps before sending in the main force. It seems they had underestimated our numbers, which I will explain at a later point. He is also not seen amongst our captives and the men we questioned believe he would have escaped."

"Is that were the Elephants came from?" Xanthippus asked, having been made aware of a lot of history from the different Generals since he had arrived. Whilst he hadn’t been here long, he had spent a lot of his spare time in the Library and had learnt a lot of what could be learnt.

"No, they came from the third force." Xun You replied, pointing to the map a large territory that dwarfed that of the Lazarus Kingdom. They were distant and it seemed some of the others bordered their territory closely. "They were a small force from an Emperor Samudragupta. This vast area belongs to them, however we believe this is a portion of what his empire originally was. It seems his Cities have arrived as have many others in this World in the early days and therefore not as powerful as he once would have been. A majority of the Infantry and Elephants came from his forces. He was also not at the Battle, seemingly involved in others further west, but his General was killed in the Battle."

"I am sure that will make him very happy." Zhou Yu commented, which received a few laughs at the table, even though he hadn’t meant it as a joke.

"It is what comes with war. I feel positive that we will be able to reconcile with them, but I will explain why later." Xun You continued with a smile. "The fourth area is probably the most interesting after the last. The leader is called Emperor Huvishka, and some Infantry and most of the Cavalry came from him. We captured one of his advisors, who unfortunately didn’t make it through questioning. They are in a similar situation to Samudragupta, and the two seem to be rivals that are temporarily allied together due to other circumstances that as I said, I will come on to."

"Did he survive or did he also send a General?" Zhao Yun asked, a bandage wrapped across his shoulder where he had also taken a glancing blow in the battle. Dom had heard that after Gan Ning had fell, Zhao Yun had charged through the Melee to rescue his comrade who had only been injured in coming to his own aide.

"He also sent a General, this one escaped unfortunately. We do not have many captives at that level, it seems most were killed or fled." Xun You continued, before turning to Xun Yu, prompting his younger uncle to explain the last one.

"This is the flag of a small Chieftain from our own home, called Shamoke. Is is little known, but based on what we have learnt from Gu Kaizhi and others whilst we have been calling Riverside our home, Shamoke fought for the Shu against the Wu. He also is the man that killed Gan Ning." Xun Yu began, as those in the room all looked at him in surprise. "It seems fate was laughing, but this time it seems Gan Ning is not dead yet, so we can all hope that he can avenge this close call in the future if he recovers. Our assumption based on these flags was that Shamoke was a Chieftain of a small collection of towns that had come to attack us. However, that is not the case."

"It seems, that when Shamoke arrived here, it was because he was conducting trade with another State in our former home. That State was brought here and Shamoke joined them as a General as he had little choice. He is a lord of a frontier town to our closest of the enemy attackers, who surprisingly only supplied the ships and a small detachment of Cavalry and Infantry. The land on the map we see of theirs isn’t all of their land and they look to be the most recent joiner of this impromptu alliance." Xun You continued, seemingly rubbing his hands between his fringe as he spoke. "When you originally recruited us, I was on the way to join a Warlord called Yuan Shao. It seems fate is laughing again, as it is his land that Shamoke joined."