135 Preparations (1/2)
Although he had received the message about his uncle's mad charge into the south, Corco wasn't all too worried for now. They were mere days away from winter and Pacha still hadn't assembled all of his troops either. For now, their intelligence network had done its job, and they had time to prepare. Thus, Corco made his way out of Chukru Island to check on his new troops.
”King Corco, this servant truly needs to protest. Beyond the walls is no longer safe, not without any further protection,” Quato said as he followed along.
”Nonsense. This here is my land, and all the warriors on it are sworn to me. Plus, don't I have you guys around? The ghost warriors protect from the back, the wolf mercenaries from the front. If that wasn't enough, I wouldn't even be safe in the castle.”
With confident strides, Corco marched through the gateway of Chukru Island and past Rapra Castle. On their way, Quato waved the two guards at the bridge towards them, as additional protection. Of course Corco knew that the ghosts didn't think much of Dedrick's mercenaries. Not only had some parts of the wolf mercenaries shown signs of insurrection before, they were also open about their loyalties to the king's money, rather than to his blood. To be honest, Corco would have rather seen either of them be loyal to his ideals.
To him, there wasn't much difference between the groups. Still, the differences in culture and attitude had created tension, and Corco could see those tensions in action now. By the time they left the outer city gates of Saniya, the king's entourage had increased to twelve people. Some of them were even dressed in simple commoner clothing, spies strewn into the city by Tama.
Although Corco was pretty sure they were doing their jobs wrong at this moment, he really didn't mind. At least this would give him a better idea of where 'his' ghosts were hidden in Saniya. Beyond the dry papers with names, addresses and missions he had received from Tama before, he could even put proper faces to names. As a result, he made sure to greet every last one of them. He would be damned if he would allow some unknown force to control his people.
By the time they were done with introductions, the air was filled with shouts and grunts, a field of soldiers before him, fresh for the picking. At last they had arrived at their goal, the physical training grounds of Corco's new armies. Since not a single place within the walls was big enough to house thousands of soldiers and their training regimen all at once, this place had been erected as an impromptu boot camp.
When the first batch of recruits had arrived outside the city, their first order had been to erect the wooden palisades which would limit them in scope and shield them from stranger's eyes. Even as someone with vague, amateurish knowledge of ancient warfare, Corco would always put emphasis on the engineering and construction abilities of his soldiers.
When they passed the entryway, the wolves of Dedrick returned a stare at the mass of intruders. Only when they spotted Corco did they calm down, and returned to their duties after a nod and a ”boss”. Truth be told, he felt far more at home here than with the ghosts, many of whom were still strangers to him. With the warriors here, Corco had fought several battles back in Arcavia, while the new recruits in the camp were commoners elevated to the status of warriors by him, reason enough to demand their loyalty for all their life.
As they marched along, a group of fresh recruits jogged past, sweat and gasps abound. Soon they saw other groups lined up in formation, as they learned to march and turn as a unit. If they wanted to keep rhythm in larger groups, they really needed some instruments.
”Quato, help me write something down. We'll need some instruments to help them with the march.”
Of course Corco kept quiet about his own personal preference for the sort marching music in his memory. He had always liked the idea of marching music.
At last Corco's group marched up to an elevated square of earth, one among twelve in the center of the camp. Atop, two sons of Saniya stood opposed with gloved hands. While one circled the other, they threw jabs and feints, to gauge the other man's distance and reaction. Stood before the arena, he found two men. One was a sturdy looking Medalan, the other a tall Arcavian, the man he had been looking for.
”Hey Nahlen, how are the recruits doing?” When the mercenary turned, he held a frown on his face and breathed in, ready to attack whoever would dare disturb his duties. However, once he saw the king, his expression relaxed. For now, Corco wouldn't dare guess if the mercenary had been fine with Corco's interruption, or if he hid his true feelings.
”Greetings, King Corco. Sire's new training regimen has shown some very good effects on the new recruits. The men are also very quick to pick up on the unarmed fighting techniques King Corco has taught before. Still...” Again his frown returned, as he looked at another group of recruits who marched past with wooden sticks in their hands.
”Still what?” Corco smiled as he looked at the two fighters on the stage. The faster still circled around, in constant search of openings.
”Wouldn't it be better to have the commoners learn some cultivation instead? We spend most of our time trying to get the commoners up to speed. I mean, if they can't keep up with the rest of the army they'll be useless. And while the training and food are working well for normal folk, it still wastes more days than I'd like. Would be much faster if we could just bring them up to speed with cultivation... sire.” Corco raised his hand to interrupt Quato's complain before the warrior could utter a single word. For now, they were close to war. For now, he had no time to deal with Nahlen's attitude.
”Yeah, that'd be the easy method, huh?” the king mused. ”Still, this will have to do. At this moment, I can't allow any more cultivation. I can't take that sort of risk, not with my own people, and with my own lands.”
”Why not? Wasn't sire very eager to teach the techniques to our men before?” Nahlen's eyes narrowed.
”Right, in small numbers this isn't a problem. The trouble comes when cultivation is the standard in our armies, and the number of cultivators increases too quickly.”
”But when this servant was trained, King Corco spoke of the might of cultivation all the time. How the world would change should everyone learn it. What changed?” the man besides Nahlen said, despite Nahlen's frown. Paec had been part of the first batch of new recruits, the only batch Corco would allow to learn cultivation for now. Although Nahlen had been opposed to a Medalan assistant, this alone Corco had insisted on. He couldn't have every officer in his army be an Arcavian, could he?
”I had time to think, is what changed,” Corco said. ”I doubt I'm the smartest man alive. All in all, I wouldn't even make the top ten percent world wide. I'm nothing special, so how could I be the first to come up with this idea of universal cultivation?”
For a moment, the people around lowered their heads in thought, no doubt eager to overlook Corco's own admission of fallibility. In the end, Nahlen was the first to speak up.
”People are greedy after all. Probably a lot of people have come up with this, and decided that they'd rather only have their family be cultivators. I don't think anyone's ever tried this kind of 'universal cultivation'.”
”No, some have. The great ancestors who crossed the seas were cultivators, one and all,” Quato said.
”Yeah, but their society wasn't like that.” Corco raised a finger. ”Before they were driven out of Arcavia, they were just another Arcavian society, with a ruling class of cultivators and some commoners underneath. When they fled, they only took the cultivators, so far as we know.”