“You’re sure there’s no sign of anyone else?”
Chenzhou’s scouts shook their heads for the third ti since they’d co into report.
“What about any information on Yuze?”
“Nothing for sure,” the head scout admitted. “There are rumors Beng Shai is hold up in a camp just this side of the border with the central tribes. Sothing is keeping him there, but he’s surrounded by about thirty thousand warriors, so getting inside to find out what’s going on is a challenge.”
Chenzhou nodded in understanding. “Do what you can, but don’t take any unnecessary risks. Sothing is going on that we can’t see.” It was stopping Chenzhou from sleeping, ruining his appetite, and his ability to focus on anything else. It was like he could see the ga board but not all the pieces.
He was starting to see the effects of their presence, though. Their influence on the rest of the board. The burned tribal villages in the north and the south were in strategic locations that Chenzhou hadn’t put together at first, but looking at their location on the Atlas, it started to make sense.
The camps, while firmly within the tribal boundaries of the tribes they belonged to, were along pathways the Crimson Army had used during the previous war. It seed like that should have been a bad choice, but the Crimson Army had never attacked a camp full of won and children. They should have been safe, but why had they even taken the risk?
Beng Shai should have been too smart for that.
So who was it that Chenzhou couldn’t see?
And why weren’t they operating in the south? None of Mingzhe’s recent reports had ntioned anything like what Chenzhou and Eirian were seeing in their areas.
Was it the southern tribes? Normally, they concerned themselves more with their border with the Wasteland and the nearby Isles of Salt than they did with the rest of the borderlands.
And they hated the northern tribes. They’d have annihilated each other long ago if they didn’t have the central tribes between them.
He ended up ordering extra patrols while the scouts were out and sent smaller groups to each of the villages and outposts to check in. It ant half his force was out of the camp at once, but it also ant he had a much broader presence and a faster response ti should any of those forces encounter their mystery opponent.
Or Beng Shai.
Chenzhou’s father had been an overly cautious strategist who believed nurical superiority needed to be maintained at all tis. He’d spent his entire life trying to beat the tribes into submission by trying to amass a larger force than the tribes could, but while he’d grown the Calia’s force by nearly fifty thousand during his ti, he’d never managed to outnumber the tribes.
Eirian was turning out to be a sledgehamr in a similar manner, but also on an entirely different level.
Mingzhe operated more like Chenzhou, though before now he’d been the more aggressive of the two.
Chenzhou’s willingness to take a risk was growing as his health improved.
Instead of wondering, maybe he should just go directly to the source and find Beng Shai.
***
All three of his patrols that had gotten into skirmishes had encountered tribal forces moving north.
Reinforcents, Mingzhe mused. But why were they sending so many? Only those three patrols had encountered any of the tribal forces in the south. Eirian’s forces had fought far more, and there was no other sign of conflict in the south.
Why the focus on the central area? It was the smallest and least valuable overall. Its only major advantage was the Blue River, but the other areas had enough water to survive without it.
Hikari was convinced it was because everything was going north to support Beng Shai, but there’d been very few Bandri in the force that attacked Eirian. Mingzhe didn’t believe Beng Shai was so charismatic that he’d convinced all these tribes to die for his cause without going into battle with them.
Mingzhe wouldn’t do that for anyone who wasn’t planning to fight right next to him, especially not soone who’d been his enemy almost imdiately before.
Hikari had insisted on increasing their patrols, trying to find a burned village sowhere in the south. He was very determined, worried, and Mingzhe knew because of the rumors flying around the Calia.
Mingzhe’s reputation was taking a beating due to the initial ambush and the lack of action in his own area of responsibility now, when Eirian had already had a large-scale fight under her belt. Even though it made sense to target her first, logic and reason had little to do with rumor.
Lady Yang, Lord Yin, and many other mbers of the court had sent their own personal assurances that they didn’t believe the rumors and would defend Mingzhe should the subject arise.
They were empty words. Noble families lived and died on their reputations at court, and very rarely would they risk their own for soone else.
If the rumors grew too strong, if soone decided to champion them, even Chenzhou wouldn’t be able to stop Mingzhe from being brought in front of the High Court. Eirian’s king cousin might be able to step in, but kings who stepped in to protect favorites didn’t tend to keep their thrones for long. Eric and Chenzhou would be forced to abide by the High Court’s ruling, and even though Mingzhe hadn’t done anything wrong, perception could cost his family a significant portion of their wealth and power. Mingzhe didn’t care as much about that as he did about going down in the history books as the man who brought down the Zhao family.
~ tbc
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