In a sentry tower, a Tibetan soldier widened his eyes in shock when he saw a cloud of dust heading in their direction.
“What’s that?!”
“That looks like cavalryn?” the soldier beside him murmured in uncertainty.
“Is it the Karluks? I didn’t hear anything about them dispatching troops here.”
While the two soldiers were discussing the matter, their commander rushed up the tower after hearing the sounds of the horse hooves. His eyes imdiately widened.
“Tang?!” Unlike the illiterate soldiers, the commander, as a slave owner, was still learned to so degree. “Is it the Tang bandits?!”
The commander felt like he had been struck by a lightning spell.
“Why are they suddenly popping out again?”
While the commander was in shock, sothing even more terrifying happened. The earth started quaking. Little pebbles on the floor wouldn’t stop jumping up and down. Dust rose from the earth as if a prelude to a catastrophe.
“How many people do they have?” The commander was flabbergasted.
Even though the enemies were hidden amidst the cloud of dust, he could tell with a brief glance that the enemy was at least 100,000-n strong!
“…Quick!” the commander exclaid with a hoarse voice. “Release the pigeons! Tell them that the Tang army is back with 100,000 troops! A whole 100,000 troops!”
The soldiers quickly got to action. They ran down the sentry tower, headed to the stallions, and leaped onto a horse each. They even fought over who should ride which horse.
“What are you doing?!” the commander roared.
“Commander, this is an urgent matter! We have to report it to the vice city lord in person!” a soldier replied.
Report in person your head! You’re obviously trying to escape!
“Hold it right there!” the commander roared in anger.
But not a soldier listened to him, which further fanned his anger.
“Atrocious! Those cowards! They are deserters! At least leave a steed for !”
The commander was too engrossed with cursing the soldiers that he didn’t notice an army of ghost horsen swiftly approaching them. Neither the fleeing soldiers nor those who remained would make it back to Shule alive.
Of course, not all the sentry posts were as cowardly as this one. Quite a number of them sent the intelligence over via pigeon.
That confused the vice city lord, who had temporarily taken over in Rajmaya’s absence.
“Why are all the sentry posts reporting that a Tang army is approaching our city?”
It didn’t help that the reports varied greatly.
So said that the Tang army had 30,000 n. Another claid that the Tang army had 50,000 n. And so declared that the Tang army had 100,000 n!
And the most baffling thing was that these sentry posts were stationed in different directions!
“What a load of nonsense!” The vice city lord tossed aside the letter and massaged his pulsating temples. “Are they saying that a Tang army of 300,000 has split up and is heading toward Shule from multiple directions?
Are there even that many Tangs in the Western Region?!
“It’s ti to teach those people a lesson,” the vice city lord murmured.
Just then, the vice city lord heard a euphonious voice, “Father, did you et with a problem?”
The vice city lord looked over and saw a vibrant young ‘woman’ with a flower wreath sitting on his head entering the room. “Asudo, my most precious pearl! What brings you here? I thought you went to Khotan to et your friends?”
Asudo used to go by a different na, but an archmage from the Holy City saw his beautiful visage and thought that he was a woman, which prompted him to take him in as his disciple.
Well…
An archmage could make no mistake. Even if Asudo wasn’t a woman, he had no choice but to be a woman now.
So, Asudo usually dressed up as a woman.
“Father,” Asudo joyfully pranced over to the vice city lord’s side and hugged him by the waist. “Aren’t I back now? I heard sothing happened recently and got worried, so I ca back.”
“Haa…” The vice city lord patted Asudo’s head as he said, “If only my other children are as obedient as you.”
“Hehe!” Asudo smiled before asking, “Father, did sothing happen? I heard your earlier outburst outside.”
“Outburst?” The vice city lord shook his head and sneered, “How can I not have an outburst? Look at this! What kind of nonsense have they sent ?”
Asudo took those letters out of curiosity. Monts later, his face darkened in astonishnt. “Father, did you receive further reports from those sentry posts?”
“Not yet. Is there a problem?” the vice city lord asked.
“Shule is in danger!” Asudo said affirmatively. “Father, you need to put up a defense right away!”
“Huh?” The vice city lord frowned. “Asudo, you are my favorite son, and the Holy City’s archmage has a high opinion of you, but you should know better than to speak carelessly.”
“There’s a reason why I said that!” Asudo analyzed the situation on the vice city lord’s behalf. “It’s unthinkable for so many sentry posts to lie at the sa ti. Soone may utter nonsense, but there’s no way all of them would say the sa thing. They must have seen a Tang army, and it’s probably at a scale that frightens them.
“And the fact that there’s no follow up suggests that…”
A tragic fate might have befallen them.
“Also… Father, we should take a trip to the city gates.”
…
At Shule’s gates, a few Tibetan guards stopped a line of carriages.
“What are you doing?!”
Before the rchants could say a thing, the guards rushed to the carriage and sliced open the bags with their spears and swords, causing the goods stored within to spill onto the floor. Then, they started taking those spilled goods for themselves.
“Sir, p-please don’t do this!”
The rchants were on the verge of crying. They even kneeled down to beg the guards not to steal their goods.
However, the guards took out their whips and clubs and started beating up the rchants.
“Sir, please spare us!”
The rchant leader quickly took out their money to bribe the guard leader. He had to top up the amount twice before the guard leader was finally satisfied.
“Mm, all right. You may pass.” The guard leader propped up his chin and gestured for the soldiers, who had made away with bags of goods, to stop. “Guys, let’s call it for the day.”
“Hehehe!”
The guards were joyfully returned to their posts, having earned a huge sum. Before leaving, they didn’t forget to either spit on the rchants or give them a good kick.
“Tsk! You’re sturdier than I thought!” one of the guards cursed as he shook his leg that had gone numb after kicking a rchant.
The rchant leader pulled up the rchant who received the worst beating as he asked, “Brother, are you fine?”
“I’m good. Don’t forget I’m half Khotanese!” the rchant replied with a smile. Beneath his clothes his skin shone with a jadelike luster. “Those Tibetans will only hurt their legs kicking .”
“That’s good to hear.” The rchant leader nodded. “I’ll find a physician for you later.”
The storm blew over like that.
While the rchants were staggering into the city, Asudo, who was watching from the city walls, smiled. “Just as I thought. Father, my judgnt was right.”
“Is there sothing wrong with them?” the vice city lord asked.
He didn’t think that there was anything amiss. Such things happened often.
“Father, don’t you think that there are more youths entering the city than usual?” Asudo asked.
“…” The vice city lord thought about what had happened before widening his eyes in realization. “Ah, I see!”
Reviews
All reviews (0)