World Conquest Online

As Liao Hua and Tomoe took up their positions at the front and rear of the formation, the Sabre Tooth Tiger Cavalry flanked the Generals in the centre, whilst the Horse Archers created a loose square formation around them. Dom was soon joined by Subutai, Xun You, Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao in the centre, with the ten Batavi Emperors Guard that had joined the quest behind them.

"How do you feel Sun Ce?" Dom asked, seeing anticipation and nerves on his Generals face.

"Nervous, excited and many other things." Sun Ce replied with a laugh, "You have already brought me back to my wife, and now I can see my brother. How do you feel Xiao Qiao?"

The group all turned to the Military Hero that worked as a support for both Subutai and Xun You, not in a fighting role, but to support with Logistics and spotting error’s in wider strategies. She was intelligent and well educated, both by her father originally and her husband after.

"The same, it would be good to see my husband, I just hope he isn’t upset that I left." She replied honestly, but Sun Ce put his arm around her from his horseback in comfort.

"He’ll be glad to have you by his side." Sun Ce said earnestly as the group all turned to Dom to see what his plans were.

"So we have two quests, the first is to win the Battle, however we need to do it by gaining more merits than the original victors." Dom explained, which caused there to be some raised eyebrows.

"We have much less troops, bringing around eight hundred in total, it’s a minor number in comparison to the wider forces." Xun You replied, "So we will need to prioritise taking enemy generals if we are to gain more merit’s."

"With the Generals we have brought with us, I am confident in that." Sun Ce laughed, "Tomoe is a monster that does not need an explanation and Tomyris is fiercer than any of the Generals I know. That isn’t taking in to consideration any of the others with us."

"I can’t disagree with Sun Ce on this one." Subutai smiled, "What else is there?"

"We have to save the people of Jangxia." Dom stated with a serious tone.

"That will be a challenge, it means that we need to capture the town first so as to claim our victory." Sun Ce stated with his hand on his chin. "It would be difficult to negotiate that, but if my brother and Zhou Yu are here, they will listen to me."

"I suspect most of them will." Xiao Qiao commented seriously as the small Cavalry detachment continued heading down the wide dust road that followed the river’s edge.

Parts of the road were further away from the river with long reeds growing, whilst the other side ranged from open lands to small groupings of trees. After heading forwards for around an hour, with the ships keeping pace, they noticed a rider in the distance, as well as some boats in the water. The boats were double layered, with several oars in the water and a large sail on the front. There were around three of them and they were all dwarfed by the Trireme of Riverside.

"I’ll head to the front with General Tomoe." Xiao Qiao offered, "At least I am a familiar name and that should reduce any initial tensions."

"That would be appreciated." Subutai thanked, "When we first met the Egyptians, Tomoe ended up duelling them to prove our worth. As you can expect, she won."

"Doesn’t she always?" Dom laughed, before agreeing with Xiao Qiao’s request. She patted the side of her horse with her legs and the strong Red Hare pulled away from the centre of the detachment and headed to the front where Tomoe was stationed with half of the Lancers.

"I think they will think we are tribesmen or barbarians wish such a large amount of Cavalry and the Sabre Tooth Tigers." Xun You commented, before turning to Sun Ce. "It is a good thing that we have you both with us."

"I don’t disagree." Sun Ce smiled, "These Red Hare’s are something of legend, where as the horses the Archers are riding are so powerful and fast. We don’t even need to discuss the Tiger’s."

"It may be worth us all moving further up." Subutai commented as he noticed that some more riders had appeared in the distance. Dom turned to the Trireme that were in the water and could see that Gan Ning was stood on the prow looking down at the smaller ships below him.

"Have the column halt, we’ll wait for them here." Dom ordered as he headed towards the front on his own horse. Subutai shouted similar orders over the water to Gan Ning and Tomyris, who had their Trireme’s oars come to a halt. Dom could see the shiny helmets of the Forbidden Guard Archers that were on the Trireme’s head to the front so that even though they had lost the pace they could still easily eliminate the other ships if needed.

"Warriors of Riverside, prepare your weapons." Subutai then ordered as he followed Dom. They didn’t plan on this being a confrontation, but they had no guarantee on who they would be meeting.

Dom waited patiently with Sun Ce, Subutai and Xun You with the Batavi Guards. They were stood behind four rows of five Lancers with Xiao Qiao and Tomoe at the front. Behind them were a detachment of Horse Archers, followed by the rest of the Cavalry and Liao Hua and his Lancers at the rear. Dom could sense the tension in the air as more and more riders appeared in the distance.

Eventually after waiting for a few minutes, the riders began approaching them at a slow pace. Dom counted at least twenty of them, with more waiting behind them. Their horses were much smaller than the Red Hare’s used by the Lancers and even the horses of the Horse Archers. They majority of the riders work Lamellar styled armour which was made from rectangular sheets of iron that were laced together, with iron helmets that showed their serious faces. Half of them carried round shields and jian swords, where as the rest carried bows. Some of the horses also had rawhide armour that covered the front of them, but it was nothing in comparison to the armour wore by the Red Hare’s. One man who led them also had a layer of chainmail under his armour and carried a long spear instead of a sword and shield.

"Who are you!" The man demanded as he approached, his tone was respectful but authoritative.

"He’s always been like that." Sun Ce whispered to Dom as Xiao Qiao rode forwards with the imposing Tomoe beside her.

"Has it been so long that you do not recognise me Zhou Tai?" Xiao Qiao teased from her horse, that towered over Zhou Tai’s as he approached.

"Lady Qiao?" Zhou Tai replied in surprise, before politely asking, "What and why are you here, who are these Warriors behind you?"

"I have come to see my husband, I have brought him some reinforcements and a surprise." She replied kindly, whilst the Warriors on both sides began to relax their weapons.

"And the strange Ships in the water?" He asked, the surprise not leaving his face at her arrival.

"They are also part of the reinforcements." She explain politely, as she noticed the blur of one of the Titanaconda’s moving around on the back, she quickly turned back to Zhou Tai to distract him away.

"I will need to speak with the Commander!" He replied politely, "I am sure he will be extremely happy to see you, and grateful for the reinforcements. But I can’t just allow strange Ships and Warriors in to the camp without permission. Please can you wait here for a while?"

"Are you sure?" Sun Ce asked as he rode forwards, with a bright grin on his face. "I am not sure if I can wait that long?"

"Who are you, wait are you a ghost?" Zhou Tai exclaimed loudly, so that even his own warriors lost control of their horses slightly in shock. "Lord Sun Ce?"

"No, I am definitely not a wandering ghost. Let’s just say that some things have happened and I have a new home now." He explained calmly with a grin, his inside trying to hold back the laughter at seeing the response of one of his old commanders. Zhou Tai quickly dismounted from his horse and dropped to one knee.

"I believed you were dead, eight years gone, yet you do not look a day older!" Zhou Tai exclaimed, as the other warriors also dropped of their horses. "The Lord will be so pleased to see you return!"

"I said there was a surprise." Xiao Qiao added, which caused Zhou Tai so smile in response.

"I think it is best that we head straight to camp!" Zhou Tai responded eagerly as he got on to his horse, unsure how to deal with what had happened.

"Well, let’s make our way to my brother then." Sun Ce replied joyfully, before turning to Dom and Subutai. Dom gave him a playful nod in response and Sun Ce rode ahead to join Zhou Tai and his group as they followed them towards the camp.

"Follow us with the ships!" Xun You shouted over the water, as the small ships began following Zhou Tai’s unit.

"So far so good then." Subutai whispered to Dom as the two of them and Xun You followed behind the Lancers as the detachment followed Zhou Tai’s men.

...

After travelling for another thirty minutes and passing several groups of scouts that all parted for Zhou Tai and those following him, they came across a sprawling camp below the hill that they were currently passing over. To their left was the water still, where the two Trireme followed the smaller boats from earlier.

The Camp had a small wooden fortification built around it, and easily housed several thousand Warriors. However, the part that caught Dom’s eye was the long sprawling navy that took over the huge River in front of them. There were a combination of different ship types, but some of them looked like moving fortresses.

"What are those ships?" Dom asked as he turned to Xun You, with even Subutai’s looking shocked at the giant fortresses in the River.

"I don’t have much experience with the water but I am have read the basic strategies. Those are Louchuan the Tower Ships. They are moving fortresses that are full of crossbows and in some cases trebuchets. Most of the Naval Battle will be aiming to take the enemies Louchuan." Xun You explained, before pointing at some of the others. "There are also smaller ones such as the Doujian that we saw earlier that are faster and are normally used as quick assault ships, with either Archers to attack from the flanks or swords and spearmen if they are used for boarding. There are also Mengchong which are used to ram other ships, similar to our Trireme in tactics, just not of the same level, Mengchong are the main assault ship and are the majority that we can see, full of Archers, Crossbows and Marines."

"For someone who doesn’t concentrate on the Navy, that was a good description." Subutai replied with a laugh.

"Gan Ning has been very helpful if expanding my naval knowledge." Xun You explained honestly. "It will be interesting to see how the Titanaconda’s perform in the upcoming battle, when we talk strategy, it ill be key to protect them and our Trireme.

As they began to make their way down the hill towards the fort, the gates swung open and a large group of Cavalry appeared that headed directly towards their contingent. Dom tightened his grasp on his reigns in preparation to react, but Sun Ce seemed relaxed at the front with Zhou Tai and Xiao Qiao.

"Tomoe, relax!" Dom heard Subutai command and Dom looked to see that she was currently grasping her Naginata tightly, with her Lancers behind also preparing to charge. She seemed to relax her arm slightly after hearing Subutai.

"I think it is time we head to the front." Xun You stated as the large group approached them. Dom agreed, and with Subutai and Xun You they slowly made their way through the Lancers, passed Tomoe and towards Sun Ce at the front.

Zhou Tai noticed their arrival, and became slightly tense, however when both Sun Ce and Xiao Qiao explained that there was nothing to worry about he relaxed slightly. It was clear that whilst excited, Zhou Tai was also aware that Sun Ce’s arrival wasn’t normal, if not for the fact that Xiao Qiao was the overall Commander’s wife, he wouldn’t have believed his eyes.