13 The Silent Night

The world is a complex place. There is all kinds of weather and all kinds of terrains.

Temperatures range from bitter cold to searing heat.

Majestic mountain ranges soar into the sky in some places, while seemingly limitless flat plains extend off into the distance in others.

Dark storm clouds soak dense rainforests while, elsewhere, a merciless sun bakes dry, barren desert.

Life thrives in some parts of the world; in others, humans spend each day teetering on a thin precipice between survival and death.

All of this, the weather, the terrains, the place have driven human history

Places offering fertile soil, abundant resources, plentiful water and good weather attract settlers, farmers, miners and craftsmen.

Other areas, with extreme temperatures and little water, remain largely uninhabited and hostile.

And then, there are areas that fall in between the rich and the barren.

Lands that, while they can support human existence, offer their limited resources in such a manner that they force their inhabitants to live constantly on the move, always searching for enough food and shelter to survive, one day at a time.

The harsh grasslands of the Marynku stand out as such a place. These grasslands, or steppes, shaped the culture of the tribes that lives in it

these grasslands go by many names.

Some called it the prairies.

Some called it the savannas.

But for the people of Yan, for the tribes that lives on it, they called it the Great Steppe

This land is a harsh land

there is not enough regular rainfall to support the growth of tall trees, much less a forest, but there is still enough water to support some hardy plant life and prevent the area from becoming a desert.

Aeryon thought of all this in his mind.

There are many plans in his mind.

The Great Steppe that he knew of is different of the Great Steppe that he is in.

The world that he came from and this world has some similarities but there are more differences than similarities

The Great Steppe of central Asia in his world is also vast. This is the inspiration for this Great Steppe in the book

But from the knowledge that he had from the original Aeryon, the Great Steppe of this world is even more vast

Hundreds of tribes and hundreds of settlements, some large and some small are all scattered all over the Great Steppe.

It stretches thousands of miles across continents.

Aeryon sighed.

There is not many knowledge he could get from the memory of the original Aeryon.

This is not surprising.

After all, Aeryon world is limited to the area of his tribe and to the area surrounding him.

His world view is shaped from what he had learned and from the knowledge he learned from his father and his father before him.

A frog does not know the vastness of the sky if it looks at the world from the bottom of the well.

Aeryon on the other hand see more and imagine more. In his world, the Great Steppe is one of the paths for trade.

Through the history of his world, the Great Steppe of the Central Asia is an important route for travel and trade.

Even though this world is a little different, from what he remembered from the book, the author modelled the Yan empire to a bit of combination of many cultures and empires.

Aeryon remember that the Three Jiang brothers is one of the main characters in the story.

In the opening scene of the book, it almost looks like the author ripped off the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

But turns out the author even ripped off a page of from the Sengoku Period of Japan. The Three Jiang brother is basically modelled after Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei of the three sworn brothers in the Romance of Three Kingdoms

The three brothers in the story were so united in the book is because before their mother died, their mother teach them the Lesson of the Three Arrows

And that is how Aeryon knows that the author also incorporates the story of the Sengoku Period in the book

And what is the Lesson of the Three Arrows?

The story goes that in the twilight of his life, Mori Motonari, the chief of the Mori clan and one of the greatest strategists of his time, called his three sons together.

He took three arrows from a quiver and gave one arrow to each of them.

He told them to go ahead and break them right in half.

The three bamboo shafts bent and broke easily in the sons' samurai hands.

The father took out a new set of three arrows and tied them together with a bit of straw.

He handed the bundle to one of his sons and ordered him to break it.

But despite all his efforts, the bamboo shafts did not yield to him, even when he tried to break them over his knee.

The bundle of arrows went from hand to hand, from the eldest brother to the youngest, without any of them being able to break it.

The sons were crestfallen at their failure, but the clan chief gave a mocking little laugh and had the following to say:

"I hope you won't forget this little lesson. If you remain united, our clan will survive, but if you become divided, it will perish."

The author uses that as an event that united the three brothers and to explain to the readers why the three brothers love each other so much

And there is much more like this in the story of this book.

It is a mixed of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Sengoku Jidai (Warring Period of Japan) and a few other periods of warfare mixed together in a story full of schemes, plots, intrigues.

Of course, when Aeryon read it, while the author use of words was not that masterful, He has a way of making the blood pumps and James always likes a little bit of plots and intrigue.

The book was originally a web novel and the author was not that popular and James read it simply because he wanted to support that author.

Some chapters he skipped and some chapters or arcs he followed

The story itself is long, which is quite normal for a web novel

'Of course, when I read it, I never thought that I would be going inside the book' he thought to himself.

James has many questions about his current existence.

Is he really in a book? Or is he in another world entirely? Because in the book there is no such mention of system.

There is some magic but not of the high fantasy kinds. There are no people flying in the sky or hurling lightning bolts and fireballs from staff.

The magic is mostly tame and causes the readers to question whether it is really magic or simply some kind of science.

He also thinks back of the memory of him reading this story.

He remembers that this writer did not have many people reading it. But the writer keeps churning out chapters after chapters…

And when he tries to think about what happen before he enters the book, his memory draws a blank.

Aeryon shakes his head.

'This is not the time to think about such thing' he reminded himself. These kind of question does not have an answer.

So, thinking of it right now, has no use.

He shakes his head and with it shakes the thought away from his mind

The sound of the fire wood cracking brings him back to his current situation.

He is sitting on a stool. On his four sides are fabric covering the entire area of him. This is a simple military tent.

The Marynku people is used to building tents. There is even moving tents with wheels below it.

It is night and the moon are shining bright. Belarion is outside of his tent.

He is sitting and thinking of his next move.

He had already sent scouts and he found that the subordinate tribe of the Xewa tribe had occupied their area.

Aeryon is confident he could win even with only a hundred people. But…the timing…. the timing is important.

He got the scout report on the evening and so, he told his warriors to sleep. And now they were awakened.

A night attacks. That is Aeryon plan.

A simple but effective way. But is also could backfire. However, Aeryon is sure that this move would not backfire on him.

There are many factors why this is not only effective, he is sure to win this battle easily.

The first reason is that the Ghar tribe and the Xewa tribe believe that his tribe had gone to the Northern Pass.

Of course, some smart person in the Xewa tribe might think of it as feint and probably sent people to make sure that Aeryon and his tribe really did go to the Northern pass.

This actually helps Aeryon plan

That is fine because in the beginning, they were really going to the Northern pass. But now they are back. Aeryon could tell that the Xewa tribe and those who takes the area of this tribe never expected him and his tribe to come back

Their defences are lax and there is no scout to look out.

And Aeryon understand why they would think like that.

Aeryon basically only have fifty people that could fight them. And out of that hundred people, only a dozen few that could fight effectively

With that kind of army, who could he fight?

That could not be considered an army but a gang.

This unpreparedness should be used to the max.

And the second one, at night, visibility is down. For both of their forces. Whether it be his forces or the enemy forces, attacking at night decrease the visibility

But there are more weaknesses than strength in doing a night attack

Aeryon knows.

To command a large force in the dark is very hard.

Signalling becomes a nightmare.

Identifying friend and foe becomes much more difficult. But that is if they are fighting a large army.

But they are not. Aeryon thinks of his men as special forces that disrupt the enemies.

Of course, what he is doing right now has many more point of failure than a point of victory.

Night battle can sometimes be effective.

But the difficulties it presented meant commanders often had minimal control over the battle.

It often came down to laying out a plan in advance, and then hoping everyone managed to follow orders effectively.

In that sense, training and familiarity with the terrain played a vital part, since the troops are going to be relied on to do more than hold or attack a line of men.

However, this is the perfect time for him to use that card. He also doesn't know the effect of the card

Will someone who stabbed him found that his skin is as tough as steel? Or will the weapons bounces off him?

Aeryon has his reason for wanting to hide the fact that he had such an ability

Of course, he could use such thing to drum up divine support, saying that he is chosen by the Heavens or some tall stories like that.

But that is a double edges sword

The thing about using faith like that, is that someday, they would require proof. This card of invincibility only has a three-day limit.

After that, he would not be able to do it again.

If he was asked to do it again, and not being able to do it, he would be labelled a liar and his men would lose confidence in him.

It would be like a cult leader who is being exposed. The other reason is that he did not want his men to think that he is invincible when he is not.

That is a recipe for disaster.

It is fine if he is really invincible.

But he knows he is not.

And to deceive them like that, would only give false hope and might lead them to be overconfident

So, even though a night attack is not the best choice to win.

He could still win.

Because he has the card and the use of night battle could also hinder people to see how he survives such battle.

The wind changes and Belarion enters his tent

'Brother, we are ready' Belarion eyes is full of determination.

Aeryon look at Belarion and spoke

'Do you think we could win?'

Belarion shook his head

Aeryon was surprised at this honest answer. He was silent for a few second before he asks

'Then, why do you follow my orders?'

'You are the tribe leader. Whichever way you pointed; I will go. Whichever enemy you want me to kill, I will kill'

Then he paused for a second and then added

'And you are my Andawan'

Aeryon heard this was stunned for a few second

'Hahaha, I got such a loyal brother. There is no need to worry about the world if I have you by my side!'

He laughed

He grabs his bows and three bags of arrows and put it behind his back. He also brought out his sword.

He is the only one that use sword

Because he knows his way of fighting would be different than his men.

He walks out of the tent and outside fifty men in horseback is ready.

They wear leather clothes made from wolves and Aeryon smiles.

A horse is brought towards him and he jumps on top of the horse

He rubs the neck of his horse and then look at his men

He smiles and laughed

In the distance, the fires have been extinguished and only the wind of the prairie could be heard, pushing the grass and the occasional sound of birds and howling of wolves

'Let's go!' and he kicks the side of the horse and his horse rush forward. Behind him fifty men rides the horses, the dust of the earth rises up and shakes.

The grass trampled under the hooves of the horses and a quiet tent in the distance. A battle of destiny is about to unfold in the Great Steppe!

This is the first chapter of the rise of this tribe!

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