"Let's move on for now, the Southern Campaign has been a huge success." Subutai laughed, changing the tone of the meeting room as they discussed potential future foes that they may not have even met yet. "Liao Hua headed West and then South, whilst Tomoe headed East and South. As you can see from the map, a lot of land has been covered."
Dom looked and agreed, the amount of land that was covered in the Southern Exploration Campaign dwarfed that of the Northern. The Northern was to consolidate land that they had already claimed to be part of their ownership, with a deeper look with Sun Ce of the Eastern Coast, and a clearance of the Forest and Mountain of any potential dangers by Gan Ning and Tomyris. The Southern Campaign was different, with the target solely of searching the land for any potential interesting locations, and potential enemies, viable resources and potential future borders.
"As you can see from the Map, the Red Woods travel very far south, at least two days worth of walking, before we reach open land again. Tomoe had split her unit in half, with Qin Ming taking the forest, past the Underground Ancient City and the small lake that was behind it. Further south of that was more of the forest and some other landmarks with similar architecture to the Underground Ancient City, all in a poor state due to the time that has passed." Subutai continued, pointing at some areas that were marked on the tiles. "We haven't done a full exploration of these yet, but some notes have been taken down and they have been marked. We believe we have come across at least two small abandoned towns from them and have marked them as well, they are extremely overgrown with foliage, which is why we haven't explored them fully yet. One of them we don't have full confidence in it's size as they could only approach from the north, but we expect it is a small town like the other. We are planning to dispatch a full century of Legionaries with some expert Civilians to clear them in the coming week."
"We are hoping we can get some more Building Cubes." Xun Yu explained, "We do not have any expectations, but at least if we can find out some more information about these, it may help us develop ourselves in the future. There is a lot to learn about this World that we live in from the it's past."
"Both Thucydides and Zenodotus have requested to travel as well so they can document everything fully." Shang Yang added, "I have granted them permission, I am unsure if you would want to visit as well?"
"I definitely do, but I don't think I will have time in the next few days, can we push this to next week?" Dom asked, his mind planning the next few in game days. He planned to visit Gan Ning with Subutai, and he also knew that Meritamen was returning and would probably have more to talk to him about.
"Next week would be ideal." Shang Yang agreed, as Xun Yu took some notes down on some parchment that he had.
"I will sort the Civilians out if Subutai can get the Century arranged?" Lucius offered positively.
"That is agreed then. I think a lot of time will be spent in the south over the coming weeks, as we have only discussed a part of what Qin Ming has found so far, we haven't touched the rest of it yet." Subutai laughed, "Beyond the Red Woods was more open land, before we hit the sea beyond. From crossing the River at Riverside, to walking to the other side and reaching the sea takes four days. Tongpai Town from here takes two days, if we head directly north through the forest though towards Gan Ning it is closer to three days. If we can clear a path through the Red Woods, we may be able to reduce the travel time slightly, but the forest isn't overly dense like the Silver Forest."
"Does that mean we have reached the end of the continent?" Dom asked, surprised that there was a sea directly south of them, even if it was around four days away walking direct.
"No definitely not, the land heads inwards from that point onwards, but it also heads south as it does. We can't know for sure until we send a ship to scout, but I suspect that the eastern coast comes in land for a while, before heading outwards again. Or we could be at a more eastern point than other parts of the continent." Subutai replied with a smile, "Either way, it is a good thing for us, as even though currently it is an extremely large piece of land, it gives us another natural barrier, which is ideal."
"Land barriers are harder to control, we should prioritise having a small group of Trireme to head south and explore." Crassus added, "We may find other ports where we can trade with."
"Another one to add to the list then please Xun Yu." Dom agreed, turning to Xun Yu who was still taking notes. Dom saw the Southern Campaign as an opportunity to explore again and was excited at the opportunity. Andrew would be arriving soon and would be bringing with him his own small group of ships. He felt it would be a good chance to game with his friends again. "I'd like to join that exploration as well. When do you think we will be ready for it?"
"Not for at least three weeks." Subutai replied honestly, "There is a lot more to discuss, and I would like the next batch of Trireme to have been launched, as well as our current ships better trained. Especially if you are planning to join the exploration."
"That is fine with me." Dom agreed, "I do have a friend joining soon with a small fleet of his own, as well as a group of Mercenaries, they could be another two to three weeks away."
"More ships and troops is always helpful." Subutai agreed, "I will add it in to our planning, if you can get an idea of numbers, myself and Xun You will work them in to our strategies."
"I will speak with him by the end of the week." Dom replied, expecting Andrew would arrive at Central University in the next couple of days.
"That is great." Subutai stated, before continuing. "Now, Qin Ming had headed directly south through the Red Woods and has explored a large section of that area now, as you can see from the tiles on the map. Tomoe however explored the Eastern Coast and followed the land around to the Southern Sea where Qin Ming eventually met her. As you can see from the map, a lot of the land is similar to what Sun Ce discovered in the North. Most of it is Grasslands or Wetlands, with some small mountain networks that ran through. A lot of the land was fertile and it looks a great place to expand in the future. There has been talks about setting up a similar town to Serenity on the south of the River."
"It seems that Tomoe had a much easier time than Qin Ming." Dom laughed, happy to hear that the exploration south had been successful so far.
"Much easier." Subutai agreed, "However, she did discover a small village that seemed to be in it's early development stage behind a small mountain. They were secluded in a cove and she didn't progress towards them."
Subutai pointed to a small area that was marked on the map, the Village was only accessible by the water or by climbing through treacherous mountain passes. Dom wondered what the approach should be towards them, they had absorbed Banas's tribe, destroyed the Gluttonous Chief's Village and conquered Tongpai Town.
"She mainly had Cavalry with her, but she has sent two Spartans to spy on the Village and gather more information." Subutai continued, "They definitely are not a threat to us."
"We just need to decide if they are worthy of joining our growing Kingdom, or if they need to disappear as they are in the way of our expansion." Shang Yang explained bluntly. "The first is preferable, but they are within the scope of the land we want to claim."
"This is a lot of land to claim." Dom countered, "I am not sure how we can grow in to it all in a short period of time."
"We can't." Lucius replied honestly. "The sensible thing would be to claim the land north of the Calm River that we are confident in. Anything south of the River is a risk, as we have no foothold there and it seems to be an large expanse, we haven't even discussed Liao Hua's progress yet."
"We also need to decide our approach once the Spartans return." Xun Yu explained, "We either approach through the treacherous pass peacefully, or we arrive via Trireme. We haven't seen any evidence that they have any ships or naval presence as of yet."
"So another one for the list then? If we are to send a Trireme, we either want to seem peaceful or send a trained fleet." Dom commented before turning to Xun Yu again, who added it to his notes with a grin. "Anything else from Tomoe?"
"Nothing major, she has been working with most of the Lancers and training them, whilst working on tactics and training the majority of the forces that she took." Subutai replied, "I would say that her Army is currently the most well trained and fierce, I wouldn't recommend sending them to meet the Village. Her Bloodlust is spreading to her Warriors and they even frightened me a bit on my last visit. I can't wait to use them! Qin Ming had took the Legionaries as he was travelling through the forest, but Tomoe was mainly with Cavalry and a few mounted Spartans and Guards. They are all fearsome now."
"I will speak to her about that." Dom replied, "She is a mighty woman, but we need to keep some sense in her troops, has Banas had anything to say about it, I doubt Qin Ming has helped with this?"
"No, he is just as wild as she is." Subutai laughed, "They are the best Vanguard we could have. Banas is proud of her women, she is disappointed she hasn't had chance to join them herself as she has been supporting Liao Hua. Ideally I should have sent someone with a calm personality to support Tomoe, but I have made my decision and I will stick with it."
"Then what about Liao Hua?" Dom asked, moving the conversation on. He now had at least three tasks to complete over his next few log ins. Visit Gan Ning and Tomyris and explore the empty tile, whilst also coming up with a plan for the cave system. Explore the Southern Sea with his new Ships and Andrew when he arrived, hopefully mapping out the southern expanse of his Kingdom and looking for potential trade partners. Thirdly, visit this new Village in the Cove and the two overgrown ruins within the forest.
"Liao Hua has also had success. I made sure to include the Hoplites, Leon and Erastus, with him to direct him to where the Red Hare were discovered. The rest of his unit was Legionaries and Cavalry, similar to Tomoe." Subutai explained, "The East continues past the bend in the Calm River and continues in all three directions in to the main part of the continent. It would be good to visit it yourself if you get chance. Liao Hua had Huang Xin set up a temporary camp on the north shore of the River with the Legionaries as a forward advance point and a line of defensive retreat as they were exploring much further than anyone else."
Subutai then walked towards the south part of the map, that continued on a tangent to the rest of the map that was more rectangular. He area explored by Tomoe and Qin Ming was clear, matching a similar width to the north, where as the part explored by Liao Hua seemed to spread in different angles.
"He split his Cavalry forces across three to complete the exploration, Banas took the North West route from the edge of the River, Huang Xin took the middle route and Liao Hua took the South West route. He left the camp in the hands of Percennius who had travelled with them with his Century of Legionaries." Subutai continued.