World Conquest Online

With the recruitment of the new Warriors and Heroes, Dom decided to travel back with the infantry and stay with them for the return journey. The injured Tigers and Horses had been placed on a merchant ship and were travelling with Gan Ning and Tomyris in a small fleet of the Riverside gains.

Su Fei had used some of his connections within Jiangxia to gather talented civilians to join him in Riverside, as well as persuading some other crews to join. So as well as the merchant ship that was carrying the injured animals, and another with the injured Warriors from the Navy, Riverside detachment, Zhao Yun’s and Huang Zhongs units, there was also a few of the ships with confused families on them.

Su Fei had his family on one of the ships, and led the convoy of Civilian ships behind the Enyo and Calypso. Zhou Yu had also gifted them some Menchongs to support, which were crewed by some of Su Fei’s men and some of Dong Xi’s who had left his main ships behind to support young Gan Ning and Lu Meng. They had also dispatched a Sun Family rider to inform both Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun’s families of the situation and Dom hoped they would be brought to Riverside.

Dom rode at the front of the column as they retraced their steps and collected Cheng Pu’s men who were spaced around the captured towers and the Palisade Fort. He rode with a larger group, with the majority of the new Warriors captured at Jiangxia marching with them, their families promised homes in Sun Quan’s lands. Dom felt it was a good offer as the south was where Sun Quan was based and it was far from most of the chaos that would erupt in the near future.

Beside him was the Generals he had left with, such as Tomoe, Liao Hua and Subutai. Xun You and Sun Ce agreeing to head back with Sun Quan and his men to continue their tasks. As well as the original Riverside Generals and Cheng Pu and Cheng Zi, they were also joined by a relaxed Zhao Yun and a chatting Huang Zhong.

"I suspect Sun Ce headed back by boat to avoid me." Huang Zhong laughed, having learnt that Sun Ce was part of Dom’s forces.

"That wouldn’t surprise me, supposedly he has been complaining about it ever since." Subutai laughed.

"He’s a talented young man, but he has a long way to go." Huang Zhong laughed back, whilst turning to Zhao Yun. "However, this is a talented Warrior, I am surprised you were defeated, I have heard of your skills."

"You try fighting Tomoe!" Zhao Yun replied, causing a laugh to erupt from the others. "Give me a battlefield with hundreds of thousand on each side any day, but a duel against her, never again."

"I am always available for training!" She shouted from further back in the group, as more laughter erupted. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The journey south was relaxed and pleasant, and after several hours they came across their camp from a few days earlier before the assault. They had left some items behind such as items for tents and cooking and Cheng Pu had these all of these collected before they continued south to the southern shore where they would camp for the night and be collected in the morning.

Upon arrival at the location for the evening camp, Cheng Pu had his men show the newer recruits how to make a marching camp based of Subutai’s instructions. Whilst the rest sat by a fire, eating and relaxing, Cheng Zi came and sat beside Dom, his father noticing but choosing not to say anything.

"I’d like to join you." Cheng Zi declared, not to the surprise of Dom or Subutai who was sat on the other side of him. Where as some of the other officers shared a knowing look.

"You are more than welcome to join us, but are you sure that’s the best choice for you?" Dom asked him, glad the young General was joining them. He had led his portions of the detachment well and had earnt himself the respect of the more experienced Generals. If he could grow to be anywhere near his father in skills then he would be a strong asset.

"I am confident it is the right choice, the adventures that Liao Hua has told me about sound exciting, I think there is a lot I can learn and experience." He explained. "I enjoy my life here and fighting for the same cause as my father, however I can’t turn down an opportunity to explore new frontiers."

"I’m sure Liao Hua would be glad to have you join his group." Subutai added, "at the moment it is one of our most important frontiers. There is a lot of excitement at the moment and I am sure you can get involved quickly."

"What has your dad said?" Dom asked, agreeing with Subutai’s comment.

"To follow my heart." Cheng Zi smiled, "He’s too committed and past his prime to start something new, but this is my chance."

"Past his prime? He’s still young!" Huang Zhong laughed from the side, as the other officers gathered did the same thing. Whilst Cheng Pu also began laughing in mock hurt, having arrived after having the camp set up and hearing the conversation.

"Then welcome!" Dom replied clasping Cheng Zi’s forearm. He felt this was a signal from Cheng Pu that he wouldn’t be joining but wished he could and Dom respected that. Dom was frustrated that the system had not yet shown him any of the character information for his new recruits, but it was often silent when on these special quests. He didn’t expect Cheng Zi to be a high grade, but as he looked across at Zhao Yun and Huang Zhong he felt excited. "I would agree with Huang Zhong though, your father is not past his prime."

"He fights better than Zhao Yun does." Tomoe added, causing a wave of laughter as Zhao Yun rolled his eyes.

.....

The next day soon arrived and they were ferried across the river in multiple trips by a large transport ship detachment that was under command of Xu Sheng, one of the many Sun Generals. The ferrying across the river took around three hours and they eventually then travelled on foot back towards the original camp they had departed from.

The morale in the group was still high, as Xu Sheng and his ships matched their pace in the River as they travelled. Some of the legs had began to tire after a few days of travelling and fighting, however it seemed everyone within the Infantry was excited to return and have a few days rest, where as the new recruits were intrigued to see what their future held.

The sun was beginning to lower itself in the sky as they approached the camp, Dom noticed that it was a lot busier in the camp than when they had departed. There were lots of carriages that had been parked besides the gate and there was a much large presence of infantry patrolling the area. Those patrolling made space for Dom’s detachment, with many cheering the victors as they travelled past in a neat formation. Beyond the Infantry, Dom could see a large number of ships, much more than he expected as a lot of the Navy had been left with young Gan Ning and Lu Meng.

The gates were wide open as they approached and Dom led the group through the gate, with Subutai and Cheng Pu beside him. The rest of the Generals now spread across the formation so that the detachment arrived in the most grand style as possible. Each Warrior had been practicing marching in step as instructed by Subutai and Cheng Pu, based on Subutai’s experience with the Legionaries. It wasn’t perfect, but the unit looked elite in comparison to many others and there was pride on Cheng Pu’s face as other commanders seemed to be watching them enter.

Sun Quan quickly arrived in front of them with a large smile on his face. Beside him were Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Zhang Zhao, Lu Su and Xun You. Rather than the usual armour, they all wore more formal and comfortable clothes, whilst only Sun Ce had a weapon by his side.

"Welcome back!" Sun Quan welcomed warmly, as Dom dismounted and passed his reins to Actumerus the Batavi Guard. Dom clasped Sun Quan’s arm, before Sun Quan then clasped Cheng Pu’s and Subutai’s. "We have extended the size of your part of the camp, and your Trireme and transport ships are gathered there."

"Excellent!" Dom replied, before turning to Liao Hua, Tomoe and their new recruits. "Take our group to our camp."

They both nodded and directed Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun and their warriors towards the Riverside part of the camp. Cheng Pu then directed Cheng Zi to take their forces towards their part of the camp.

"Tonight we will have a feast to celebrate, and tomorrow we shall discuss the important things." Sun Quan stated, whilst Dom noticed Sun Ce grinning in the corner of his eyes. All of those beside Sun Quan seemed happy and Dom wondered what they had been discussing in his absence.

"Then I shall go and clean myself and join you shortly." Dom smiled, as Sun Quan beamed in happiness. Whilst Dom was happy to have returned and know that the mission was almost complete, part of him felt uneasy at Sun Quan’s overly happy attitude. The two had bonded, but this felt like too much of a change in personality for everything to be normal.

"That would be great, we have a lot to celebrate!" Sun Quan replied, before turning to Cheng Pu. "General Cheng Pu, could you stay behind and discuss something with me before you leave to get yourself ready."

Cheng Pu was surprised by the request, but was happy to follow the request. He had been part of the Sun family since both Sun Ce and Sun Quan were extremely young, with Sun Ce being only around seven and Sun Quan being around two. He had seen them grow up and they saw him like an uncle, along with many of the other old guard of the sun family.

"We’ll join you, it will be good to check everything is in order and prepare things for our upcoming departure." Xun You added from the side to Dom, elbowing Sun Ce to stop him from grinning, which was making Dom uncomfortable.

"Then we shall meet in around two hours when the moon begins to rise." Zhou Yu said to the group, one of the only ones with a normal look on his face, along with Zhang Zhao and Lu Su.

Dom and his group bid farewell and headed towards their camp, with Sun Ce and Xun You joining him and Subutai and the Batavi Guards that had remained behind. Dom could see that Xun You was in deep thought, whilst Sun Ce still had a smile on his face.

"What have I missed?" Dom asked in a nervous voice, which caused Sun Ce to laugh.

"I don’t want to spoil the surprise!" Sun Ce replied with a smile, "However, you will be happy. We have accomplished most of what we have set out for and Xun You has been very busy negotiating since we first departed to Jiangxia."

"That doesn’t surprise me." Subutai laughed. Subutai and Xun You had developed a very close friendship as well as being the chief commander and strategist for all of Riverside’s forces.

"I haven’t been that bad!" Xun You claimed in response, "I just wanted to make sure that General Sun Ce was provided with enough as the old leader of this clan. To be fair though, Lord Sun Quan has been very accommodating."

"How accommodating?" Dom asked, intrigued as to what they had gained from the conversations. They had already recruited a large amount of civilians, warriors and a small number of ships. As well as gaining two impressive Generals, a young aspiring General and an important naval General.

"They haven’t confirmed in totality yet, but we should be granted a share of the prisoners at least as well as a some trained Swordsmen and Archers from Sun Ce’s old units." Xun You explained.

"They may be older now, but they are loyal, trained and will bring their families with them." Sun Ce stated, his earlier a bit more serious now. "These are great guys who I think can become excellent centurions and trainers."

"How many are we talking about?" Dom asked in an interested tone, the professional warriors he had seen had been good, maybe not to the level of the Legionaries but they were still strong fighters. Where as the majority were more like peasant fighters who had been conscripted with little training or loyalty.

"Around one hundred of each, plus their families." Xun You replied, "So around eight hundred people in total. Lucius will complain we are bringing such a large number, but the Tongpai residents have had a month to incorporate and it is a good time to bring in additional people with the founding of our new towns."

"With all of these new people joining, we can easily have our new Town Renatus grow at a quicker rate, whilst some we can move to Tranquillity or Serenity." Subutai said from the side as they arrived back in their larger part of the camp. There were Civilians walking around in the guarded area that had been assigned as part of Su Fei’s convoy. There was around two thousand warriors gathered from the journey, either from Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong or those joining via Sun Ce.

Su Fei’s men were currently preparing the transport ships and Dom could see lots were being loaded with food, clothing and other items. There were also a collection of lightly damaged Mengchong’s that were being repaired, which Dom was surprised to see.

"We have been given some of the damaged ships as part of our merits as well." Xun You commented, "As well as some working ships from crews that have decided to come with us."

"Why would they decide to join us?" Dom asked, as he turned to Sun Ce who had a grin on his face again.