ALL NOVEL
Chapter 56: Death!
In Athens…
“Those ignorant people refuse to bow down to the Son of Heaven!” Shu Yichao pointed his finger at the city ahead of him.
The ferocious Elite Horse Archers replied with a resounding roar, “Kill them!”
Following their war cry, the Elite Horse Archers charged forth like ravenous beasts released from their shackles, pouncing at nearby garrison troops who obstinately resisted them.
It didn’t take long for the Athens’ garrison troops to suffer a crushing defeat. The Elite Horse Archers first charged them down and rendered them helpless before slitting their necks.
Shu Yichao got high from all the fighting.
You dare block my way?
Kill them!
Still fighting back?
Kill them!
Trying to block my path of retreat?
Kill them!
Oh hoh! Thinking of escaping now that you realize you aren’t a match for me?
Kill them!
“So exhilarating!”
Seeing how the Balkans had almost all turned purple on the big map left Shu Yichao with a profound sense of satisfaction. “This looks much better.”
This didn’t mean that there were no survivors on the Balkans.
“We surwender (We surrender)!” One of the buildings flew a white flag, and the people inside spoke in Mandarin, albeit with awkward intonations. “Pleash dorn attek us (Please don’t attack us)! Tek awything yu want (Take everything you want)!”
These people turned from red dots to white dots on Shu Yichao’s minimap, so the Elite Horse Archers ignored them and galloped right past. It was Sophia and her people, who trailed behind the main force, who dealt with them.
Those soldiers had to toss aside their weapons and were tied together, yet they cried tears of relief at having survived the ordeal.
So there are benefits to learning foreign language too.
If not for one of them picking up Mandarin from his visiting relatives, they might have all been dead by now.
“This feels good.” Shu Yichao was delighted. “The mod is done very well.”
The biggest gripe with such coloring games was monotony and repetition in the late game, but this mod ingeniously introduced the element of cultural revolution to add a breath of fresh air to the world view.
As the map slowly became dyed in his color, the NPCs, who initially spoke a different language, began speaking in the same tongue as the players, albeit disfluently. This greatly enhanced the player’s experience, as interactions felt much more meaningful.
Shu Yichao was getting more and more into it. “The ‘Mobilization of the Imperial Army’ talent is incredible!”
“Esteemed Caesar, we have conquered Athens,” Sophia walked up to Shu Yichao and reported. “What should we do next?”
While Shu Yichao was busy conquering lands, she diligently studied the Mandarin books Constantin XI had given her. With her intelligence, she gained a decent grasp of the language, allowing her to converse normally with Shu Yichao without relying on Madam Marti.
“Let me check your stamina bar…” Shu Yichao eyed Sophia. “You don’t look fatigued. Not bad, you are growing pretty fast.”
He was initially worried that this expedition would be tough on Sophia, since younger NPCs tended to have lower stamina bars. That would have made it hard for her to catch up with him and his troops.
Still, he brought her along because he couldn’t resist her boost to the rate of cultural revolution.
She held on surprisingly and didn’t slow them at all. She even took charge of cleaning the aftermath, specifically negotiating the conditions of surrender with enemy forces. Furthermore, she was able to bring in many of those who wanted to survive.
As Constantin XI said, even the toughest human would eventually have to cave in.
As expected of my future overpowered underling! Shu Yichao nodded in satisfaction.
Sophia didn’t really understand what Shu Yichao had just said, but she decided not to harp on it.
This journey hadn’t been easy for her, but listening to the screams of the Venetians gave her the motivation she needed to push on.
Vengeance is a dish best served cold? My apologies, Venetians, but my vengeance is a dish served blisteringly hot!
“For now,” Shu Yichao looked at the map, specifically the last piece of land in the region that jarringly hadn’t been dyed purple yet, “let’s fit in the last puzzle piece.”
Morea, is it? Sophia’s eyes were blazing.
…
It was nighttime at the Isthmus of Corinth.
Sleepy Venetian mercenaries held onto torches as they yawned. It was about time to change shifts.
This was a vital choke point leading into Morea. The Venetians dispatched most of their mercenaries here, hoping they could exploit the treacherous terrain to fend against Shu Yichao’s invasion.
Usually, an elite force stationed here could drive off a hostile army ten times larger.
It was just that mercenaries of this era weren’t known for their loyalty to their employers, and there was no guarantee of their military prowess either.
“Do we need so many torches at night?” a young mercenary grumbled, “That’s so wasteful!”
“I heard it’s a countermeasure against the Khitans’ night assault,” a bearded mercenary with a sword scar on his face replied. He took a swig of coarse wine before further adding, “I heard the Khitans boast night vision, so they are fond of night attacks. Many cities and fortresses let their guards down and were taken just like that.”
“But there’s no need for us to be so uptight, right?” The young mercenary watched as his intoxicated comrades swayed around. “Isn’t there Athens in front of us? The Khitans will need some time to conquer Athens. It’s not too late to put up our guard after Athens collapses.”
“It’d be too late,” the bearded mercenary tossed a few branches into the campfire as he replied with a livid face. “The Khitans are absurdly fast. It’s rumored that they have conquered tens of cities without taking a rest in between, and they have never lost a battle so far.
“None of the cities lasted more than a day before them, which means that if they reached Athens this morning, they could be at our doorstep by night.”
“Chief, if the Khitans are that formidable, why aren’t we running?” the young mercenary gulped in fear as he asked, “So many people have escaped. Two more don’t make a huge difference.”
“…” The bearded mercenary stared at the young mercenary as if he was a fool. “Do you think it’ll be that easy to take the money of those shrewd businessmen? Don’t forget that we still owe them a lot of money. Our families will be goners if we escape.”
“But chief, I don’t want to die.”
“You don’t want to die?” The eyes of the bearded mercenary gleamed. He slowly stood up and retrieved what appeared to be a dirty piece of white cloth from where he was sitting.
“Chief, where did you get that white cloth?” The young mercenary was astounded. “Didn’t the Venetians confiscate everything white? How did you manage to slip it here?”
“Why else do you think I’m the chief?” the bearded mercenary scoffed. “My brothers who came here to visit me a while back secretly taught me a few lines. It might save your life, so you better remember them by heart, no matter how slow-witted you are.
“Come, recite it with me! Wii sir-ran-gar.”
“Wii sir-ran-gar.” The young mercenary struggled to pronounce those unfamiliar words.
It could have been because the young mercenary’s voice was too loud, but moments later, another bunch of mercenaries surrounded them with menacing eyes.
“Oi!” one of the mercenaries said, “Don’t you think you’re too much? How can you keep such good stuff to yourself!”
—
Starve’s Trivia:
Morea is almost an island, linked only by a bridge to Greece (or Athens) by the Isthmus of Corinth.