Chapter Sixteen: The Eternal Storm and the First Empire

  Every night at this time, King Kroe and Gaia would discuss countermeasures based on the latest battle reports from the front line. Liu Yu had always admired the great achievements of Qin Huang, Han Wu, Tang Zong, and Song Zu, who shook the world with their power. He had a biased enthusiasm for military and national affairs. After being reborn as the prince of the Bi Mong tribe and thoroughly acknowledging this identity, an idea sprouted in his mind: why not use his own identity to achieve something, just like his idol Qin Huang Han Wu, "to wield a long whip to govern the universe, to hold a small hammer to punish the world, and to shake the four seas".

  So every night, he would seriously listen to his grandfather and father's discussion on the side, and sometimes he could even say a few valuable suggestions that made Kero King and Gaya very happy. Of course, Liu Yu was very clear that there were still many things he needed to learn about military and national affairs, and now the words he said that made Kero King and Gaya happy were only because his experience as a person in two lifetimes made him more mature and calm than ordinary people, but compared to his two closest relatives, he was still far from having true experience and wisdom.

  ............

  "Grandfather, Father, I'm here." Liu Yu bowed to King Kuo and Gaya, who were looking at a map. King Kuo smiled slightly at his grandson before turning around and walking to the desk, taking out an envelope from the drawer and handing it to Liu Yu. Gaya, on the other hand, continued to stare at the map as if lost in thought.

  "Alexander, take a look at this." A blood-stained sword emblem on the envelope indicated that it was a battle report. A rolled-up white paper with scattered bloodstains suggested that the situation reported was extremely urgent.

  "Minister Sarri Vadden reports, Fanord suddenly increased two direct affiliated legions from the north of the Rhine province to attack our tribe. We swear to fight to the death and will not let the enemy advance further, but the limited military strength within the tribe makes it difficult to win in a two-front war. Please ask Your Majesty for rescue."

  Sari Warden, the centaur chieftain of his generation, led the centaurs to garrison the northeast of the kingdom. From the situation in this war report, it seems that neither he nor the centaurs can hold on any longer.

  "Alexander, speak your mind." King Kro sat on the main seat, quietly looking at Liu Yu.

  "Yes, Grandfather." After a moment of contemplation, Liu Yu walked to the edge of the map and pointed to the northeast corner: "The Centaur tribe is facing the Rhine province, which normally has only one garrison legion from the Empire of Fanode and two direct legions. Now they have added two more direct legions, the Centaurs will definitely not be able to hold on, assistance is necessary;

  And of the ten legions we have, four are in the south helping the Wolf Tribe hold off the three Imperial Legions of Sas Province. Four more have been sent to support the Centaurs, leaving only two legions with a total of four camps. One camp will be given to Uncle Ptolemy for developing the Desa Mountains and guiding the Blood Refining, one camp will be used to safeguard the safety of the Imperial Capital, so there is only one legion that can be mobilized, which is definitely not enough. Therefore, Sunzi suggested summoning a large army to support."

  After hearing Liu Yu's words, Kero King and Gaia exchanged a glance, and Kero King nodded: "Not bad, there is progress. This afternoon, the elder and I will discuss the results of summoning the main army to support, and your father, as the great general, is naturally the best candidate to lead the troops. The summons order has been issued this afternoon, and tomorrow night, five regiments will be summoned to set out overnight."

  "Hmm, so it was decided long ago and you were just testing me." Upon hearing King Kuo's words, Liu Yu felt a wave of disappointment in his heart. He had been hoping for an opportunity to prove himself and experience the thrill of "pointing at the rivers and mountains, and stirring up the written word".

  Of course, he knew that this was not realistic now, because in the eyes of Grandfather Cro and Father Gaya, he was still just a thirteen-year-old child. Think about it, even if it were the 21st century, and a thirteen-year-old child who had received modern education, what could they possibly know? It would be good enough if they could basically distinguish right from wrong.

  So Liu Yu knew what conscription was at such a young age and already knew that the current task was to conscript, which was quite good. Just now, King Kuo asked him, his purpose was just to test this grandson's familiarity with state affairs, not really wanting to ask for any real insights from Liu Yu.

  "Alexander, this time your father will be away for at least half a year or even a whole year. You must take good care of your mother and younger brother in the Earthfire Fortress and work hard on your cultivation. Your talent is average among the Golden Mongols, but as a son of the Weilin family, you cannot fall behind others. Do you understand?" After King Kero announced his decision for the kingdom, Gaiya, who was about to lead the army into battle, had some additional words of advice for Liu Yu.

  "I understand, Father!" Liu Yu also knew that Gaiya had high hopes for him.

  King Kuo and Gaia continued to discuss the details of the expedition, while Liu Yu, who had never been on a battlefield before, listened with rapt attention.

  ............

  In the dead of night, Liu Yu's bedroom still had several candles lit. At this moment, a large map was placed on the ground beside his wooden bed, and Liu Yu took off his shoes and squatted on the map with one hand supporting his chin and the other pointing to the map as if he was really deducing something.

  When he left the Beast King's Palace, his mind was filled with the situation on the mainland and the internal affairs of the kingdom. He had been in a state of excitement all along. After returning to his bedroom, he took out this map of the mainland and squatted on it to find the feeling of wielding power.

  At first, Liu Yu learned from Weilin's mentor and relied on his own memory to memorize the map of the mainland. Later, he asked a fox painter from the Wang Palace to draw the map for him. Although this map was not as detailed or accurate as the original version shown by Weilin's mentor, it still met his simple needs.

  At this moment, Liu Yu's finger was pointing at the Beastman Kingdom and the Fano Empire, and his mind recalled the wars between the two countries in history.

  Ten thousand years ago, the Beastman Empire was defeated by a coalition of nations led by Fandor and forced to withdraw from the central and southern parts of the continent. The branch led by the Bimon tribe retreated to the Cordillera Highlands and established the Beastman Kingdom.

  At that time, the Beastman Kingdom was far more powerful than it is today. The two provinces of Rhein and Sas in the current Fana Empire were still under the control of the Beastman Kingdom. The Beastman Kingdom called these two provinces "Visuwei". Although the land of Visuwei was not as fertile as the central continent, it was much better than the barren soil layer of the Cordillera Plateau, and the amount of grain produced every year could support a large population of beastmen.

  With this good granary, the Beastman Kingdom began to accumulate its strength and attempted to restore the once powerful Beastman Empire. In the first one or two hundred years, it had launched several large-scale eastern expeditions in an attempt to retake lost lands. However, the Fanaud Empire emerged from the many contending heroes and occupied the central and southern parts of the continent, establishing the current Fanaud Empire.

  This empire has the most fertile land and the largest population on the continent, with these two advantages it defeated all the eastern expeditions of the beast tribe. After that, the increasingly powerful Fano Empire began to suppress the beast tribe, whether it was the tiger tribe attached to the Mengfeng Empire or the lion tribe hiding in the Yason Forest, they were subjected to the heavy attack of the Fano army.

  As the former "royal family" of the Beastman Empire, the Bimon tribe naturally received special care. Especially a thousand years ago, when the Fano Empire rebuilt the Beastman Kingdom, Vesuvius was taken away by Fano, and the two provinces of Rhine and Sass were established. The Beastman Kingdom, which had lost its granary, had to retreat further to the plateau, and the Fire Fortress became the capital of the Beastman Kingdom, before that, the Fire Fortress was just a military fortress of the Beastman Kingdom.

  However, the beastmen did not give up their efforts to restore their country, and Fanoth also did not relax its military pressure on them. One hundred years ago, under the leadership of the Beast King Otto Saurer, the beast army successfully recaptured the provinces of Rhein and Sass, and almost annihilated several garrison legions in western Fanoth.

  But afterwards the Beastman Kingdom welcomed an even larger scale of revenge, Fanord concentrated the power of the whole nation to gather hundreds of millions of troops to counterattack, and the beast tribe's strength was still too weak, not only being beaten back to the highlands but also being attacked by Fanord's army under the Fire Fortress.

  The Beast Tribe launched a nationwide resistance, and several other empires on the mainland took advantage of the fact that Fandor's main force was fighting against the Beast Tribe to attack Fandor. The Fire Fortress of Fandor, which had been under siege for a long time, was forced to retreat. Later, because several major empires occupied a large amount of Fandor's territory, it triggered a decade-long war among the major empires, and Fandor once again repelled various powerful forces, proving that it was the strongest empire on the mainland for thousands of years.

  The Beastman Kingdom was severely damaged in this war, although it escaped the fate of destruction and extinction, but could only take a defensive stance against the Empire of Fandor. Fandor would occasionally send troops to harass the Beastman Kingdom, and there were few periods of peace between the two countries.

  In the internal strife of the Beamon tribe, Otuo Wang was dismissed by the Council of Elders, and the Suo Bo family lost its position as the first family. The kings of the beastmen in the following generations all came from the Di La and Wei Lin families, but the Suo Bo family's strength was still unmatched by other small families, and it still maintained its status as one of the three major families.

  Liu Yu stroked the map, recalling the contents that were not recorded in the history books of Bi Meng. He felt somewhat oppressed in his heart. Compared to today's Beastman Kingdom, Fanoed was indeed too powerful, with its vast population, numerous armies, and fertile land, all of which were beyond the reach of the Beastman Kingdom.

  If there's one advantage to the Beastman Kingdom, it's that they have two points of superiority. Firstly, the Beastman Kingdom has racial talents like the Minotaur, Centaur and Werewolf which far surpass those of humans, so their armies also possess combat strength that far exceeds that of ordinary armies from Fanaheim.

  In such a difficult situation, the Orc Kingdom is still relatively united internally, although there are some competitions, but situations like mutual slaughter have never appeared since the retreat to the highlands. The internal struggles and rebellions of various kinds that have been going on for thousands of years in Fano will occasionally appear, and it can be said that its internal situation is not very peaceful.

  Liu Yu knew in his heart that these were still insufficient to help the Beast Tribe escape their predicament and defeat the Fano Empire.

  "If only the Lion and Tiger tribes could be gathered under the banner of the Bear tribe again." Liu Yu sighed.