The barbarians had been beaten back, street by street, house by house. Now, only fifty soldiers remained, and they and the civilians had been driven into a single clearing, and were huddling behind the barricades which separated them from almost five hundred celestial soldiers.
They were expecting to go out with a fight. Every man, woman, and child had grabbed a weapon of some kind, and were waving them angrily at the celestial soldiers. They were all waiting for Fierban to attack.
They were expecting, for some reason, to be treated with dignity and respect.
Fierban gave the order to fire. A cloud of arrows rose up and descended upon the barbarians, who could only look on in terror and disbelief as their warrior's death was denied them, in place of a dishonourable, uncaring execution.
There were no survivors.
There were no words spoken for their deaths. They were shoved, one by one, into a fire pit, until it was filled with bones, and had to be covered. The soldiers who were to stay behind as a garrison set to work locating and removing the corpses of the other barbarians from the houses around the city, and clearing their signs of occupation from the houses. Celestial citizens would arrive soon from Kojo, and they needed places to stay.
Fierban and Tsoi left the city, Tsoi leading the cavalry, and Fierban the infantry and archers, as was most efficient. They did not reach the water by the week's end, but they were close enough that they could see the fleet waiting for them at a beach below.
The least experienced unit of infantry in the army stays behind in Xaowian (the new city).
The rest (1 infantry, 1 archers, 2 cavalry) travel to 41,-3 in anticipation of boarding the fleet which is located at 40,-2 together with the unit of archers from shaocoun.
A unit of infantry is trained in Shaocoun for defense.
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Topic: Wars of the Celestial Lord - a game of intrigue, strategy and roleplay (Read 22126 times)