Liao Hua nodded and opened the lid of the box, inside the box was three heads. Two that Dom partially recognised whilst the third was one that he didn't recognise as a person, but had seen enough of them to not want to see anymore.
"What happened?" Dom asked, looking towards Xun You who was sat near him who shrugged his shoulders in response.
"Some good timing and some good luck." Liao Hua replied, the young generals tone serious as he explained. "The San leaders were returning south, whilst we were setting up the locations for the founding of the new cities and training our southern army. One of my scouts noticed some movement around the Red Hare Valley and noticed it was Laomedon and Antigonus. For those of you that do not know, Laomedon and Antigonus are the captured Captains from Papaver who joined us. They had been granted freedom of the city, but we hadn't yet allowed them to join the Navy."
"What were they doing?" Lucius asked, the Mayor of Riverside shocked that they had not only left the Capital but had reached the Red Hare Valley.
"That is what we wanted to know, my scout let me know and I followed them from a distance. They travelled south west of the Red Hare Valley and around the edges of the San Land, before they met with our third head." Liao Hua explained, some frustration in his voice. He grabbed the head by the very thin hair that was on top of it, and raised it so that all could see, especially the newcomers that looked on in surprise.
"Did they fight against the Type Three's?" Dom asked as he sat forwards, recognising the creature that they had fought against in the Silver Forest, at Tongpai Town and and Noctus.
"We do not believe this is a normal Type Three, as it could communicate with them to some level." Liao Hua explained, as Tomoe went towards the table where the new Generals were sat and grabbed a cup of wine and took a sip. Zhao Yun continued to stand straight, his spear and armour reflecting the light in the room, whilst Subutai leant against the Civilian Table where Crassus and Lucius were sat.
"What did it say?" Xun You asked, the Lazarus Kingdom Chief Strategist.
"We do not know, we were spotted and had to fight. We were ambushed by them but we fought them off with minor injuries. Laomedon died in the fighting, however Antigonus survived for a little longer." Liao Hua stated, as he turned to Subutai.
"A message was passed to me and I travelled with some of my fastest Archers to where Liao Hua was heading. Thankfully we arrived in time to help, I questioned Antigonus before I took his head when there was little left he could provide." Subutai explained, "It seems that these Type Three's had been providing the Papaver with slaves for their lands, Laomedon knew of a northern meeting point and was going to ask them to help return them to Papaver."
"So they always intended to return, I had began to believe their stories and wanting to reunite with their families?" Gan Ning asked, standing up with some frustration in his voice. "They could have brought information on our forces to the Papaver and increased the chances we would be attacked again?"
"Yes, but I am confident in our numbers. I assume the Quest went well and our Navy has increased?" Subutai asked, turning to Dom and lowering his head slightly to show the newcomers that Dom was the Leader and his Warriors respected him.
"Very successful." Dom replied, hinting they could discuss it later with a smaller group. "So I hope that was the bad news?"
"It is, Papaver have been communicating with the Type Three's, however we suspect that the Type Three's were to the West of Noctus, not the South West. Which means we will need to start using our Noctus plans soon." Subutai explained, before smiling. "The good news though, is that the San have began migrating immediately as they fear assault from both Papaver and the Type Three's. Their Leadership will be here in two Days and will formally merge in to us and become part of the Lazarus Kingdom for it's founding."
"That is great news." Shang Yang clapped, "Have them move the City Tokens to the agreed locations and we will begin sending more resource to the south to help bring them onboard."
"I have left Hua Rong and Qin Ming in charge to do this, whilst Huang Xin is setting up rotating patrols between the three armies." Subutai responded, with nods of acknowledgement from around the room. "The two Cities and their population will be resolved by tonight latest, if they haven't already."
Dom checked his system to see what Cities were currently placed in his domain and saw that all of them had been placed. He nodded at the efficiency and confirmed to the group.
"This is good, we can move population around within the week to increase our future growth. Crassus we will need to make more purchases to the north." Xun Yu, the Secretary of State trying to plan ahead.
"We have a lot of transport ships and gold, Kai has also topped up some of our expenditure. We will head further north and see if there are other trade opportunities, we'll just need a fleet to escort the ships." Crassus agreed, with Zhou Yu stating that he would arrange it once the calculations had been made, however he would need to put most of the Sea Fleet facing South to protect from any future attacks from Papaver.
"Does this mean that the Type Three's have been collecting slaves from or for the Papaver?" Cicero asked, the Head of Laws. He and Umako had been relatively quiet so far, but the two of them had been discussing things together about the large increase in population and how they could integrate them properly.
"Papaver needs slaves to grow, however I think that the Type Three's that we discovered at Noctus and Tongpai Town are doing it for themselves or someone else. They may sell some to Papaver, but they clearly need them for their own purposes." Xun You explained after thinking over it for a while.
"They only need females, the males they take are for food. They could sell the males and keep the females." Sun Ce replied, his words making everyone silent and the reason why they needed the females.
"Can someone explain to me what a Type Three is? I seem to be looking at the head of a demon that Hades has sent to torment us." Pericles asked, the youngest person in the room currently. Dom realised that he and Lu Ji, the young assistant to Xun Yu and Shang Yang could become good friends with Pericles.
"We are looking at different Human Types, We are Type One's. We discovered the remains of much larger Human's with tusk like teeth and we call them the Type Two's. We believe that they may have been killed by the Type Three's or the Type Three's have scavenged the remains of those battlefields. The Type Three's are slimmer and extremely agile, they seem to prefer the night and have fang like teeth." Gan Ning explained, having seen all of them. "They are like Rat's scurrying underground and we have fought and defeated them several times."
"So we do not only have other Cities and Kingdom's to fight as we grow, we also have strange monsters that attack us at night?" Megabyzus exclaimed in shock, before laughing at himself, "It feels like I should have seen what Xerxes would have said instead!"
"You aren't wrong." Crassus laughed from across the room, "But you have definitely made the right decision, your opportunities for yourself and your family are much better here."
"I have an understanding of the Geography, can someone explain the main defence risks?" Xanthippus asked, seeing that the leaders of this new City he was joining were quite open to talk to.
"We have several fronts." Subutai said, as Liao Hua closed the box. Subutai looked at the map that was in the middle of the Palace floor and noticed the new Cities that had been placed there, a smile creeping on his face. "The Northern Front is our least worry, we are aware of the other Cities that sit on Tongpai Lake and have good relationships with them currently. The Mountain Pass is extremely difficult to cross and is a natural barrier. We also have a Navy and Land force stationed there, with quick access to reinforce with the Central Army. With Megara now on the East we also have a place to station our Navy in the north. I will have to get Su Fei to inspect it. So the Lake and Mountain Pass are both well guarded natural barriers."
"I have already sent word to General Cheng Pu." Sun Ce replied, with Xun You and Subutai both nodding in appreciation. Dom expected that throughout this meeting Xun You had been sending orders, as he had constantly been handing notes to a nearby guard who would quickly pass them to the door and return.
"Our Southern Front is our main battle line. We have the Shimmering Sea that we will need to reinforce and patrol, with a Naval base being built at Elpis. Gan Ning has also arranged for a base to be built on the remains of the Cove, which was a location we recently battled at in the South East. It is a secluded place to hide ships." Subutai continued, "The West of this Southern Front and the South West are unknown territory other than what the San who are joining us can tell us, We have three Armies stationed here and plan to be on the offensive to keep these lands empty until we intend to expand. The City if Vindicta is our main base here. We will most likely be sending some of the forces that have arrived with you all to that location as well, after they have been trained by Huang Zhong."
"It sounds like an exposed front, is this the newest land?" Pausanias asked as they all showed their interest. He also looked at Huang Zhong who he felt was a powerful warrior before and wondered what training he could give to the Hoplite and Spartans that had arrived.
"It is, the River that you see beside us was originally our Southern Border, so we have expanded south as much as we have expanded north, if not more." Subutai replied, before pointing to the west. "The Western Front is also unknown, we are protected from the Red Hare Valley that separates Vindicta and Eruthros. Eruthros is placed as a Military City and no one can pass to our west either by land or River without reaching Eruthros, or crossing the Red Hare Valley and reaching it or Vindicta. We do need to build a Fort to the north of the River Fork opposite Eruthros or a town in the future to fully block this access point."
"It does sound like a weakness, if a fleet comes down the River from either direction, the Kingdom is split in half and the Capital is at risk." Xanthippus agreed as he thought out loud, looking at the map and trying to see how he could resolve the issue.
"You are correct, which is why the Calm River Fleet is stationed at Eruthros, the fleet alone is big enough to sink half of it's ships and create a permanent naval blockade if needed." Zhou Yu replied this time, as Ling Tong nodded in agreement, his fleet being the most important from an internal defence perspective."
"We also plan to explore to the West, using Ling Tong's fleet and the forces hidden in Noctus." Subutai explained as Nicomedes began to speak.
"But Noctus is within the mountain, which is also a weak point if someone crosses the River from the forest on the north side of it." Nicomedes mentioned, with nods of heads in agreement.
"You are correct, we have a fort stationed at that location and there is always fast ships stationed there." Subutai agreed, before continuing. "Noctus has tunnels, many of them, that stretch under the river and beyond the forest in the North West. We will explore and take that land as we expand."
"Our weakest point was the Sea, if a fleet attacked at the mouth of the Calm River, our whole Kingdom would be at risk. That is why Serenity and Jia were placed where they are. With the arrival of Kos and Nicyros, we now have a four point defence at the mouth of the Calm River. Anyone who wishes to invade would have a hard fight on their hands." Zhou Yu added, "With Megara to the north and Elpis to the South, we will be well aware of any fleet. The chances of someone invading from the Shimmering Sea directly are small, as the water a couple of miles out is dangerous for our current level of seafaring technology."