“The responsibilities laid down upon one who is placed into command are by no means a light weight. Not everyone could stand tall under such a burden.” - Liang Shi-Zu, famed tactician from the Huan Confederation.

“They are still shooting their arrows without a care. I believe that we must assume that these foes have enough arrows to last them a good while longer, General,” stated one of Lu-Shih’s lieutenants as they observed the ongoing battle from a safe distance near the back of the army. The lieutenant in question was from a similar background to himself, a former commoner who rose through the ranks by way of military achievements during the struggle for the throne.

“I have observed the same, and am of the same opinion, Yang-Li,” replied Lu-Shih with a nod. He had assigned more soldiers the task of wielding large wooden shields to cover the other members of the formation compared to before, which reduced the offensive power of the formation, but also kept them safer from the continuous rain of arrows.

The Imperial Army’s own archers did their best to retaliate, but their enemies were in well-made defensive positions, so the best they could do was to cause some lulls in the deluge of arrows that rained down upon the army. Since the archers similarly had their own cover to hide behind, casualties were low, but not nonexistent.

Every now and then some unlucky sod would step out from behind cover to loose an arrow only to find an enemy arrow already about to hit them, after all, though the general believed that the same applied to the other side.

Overall, the fighting was less intense compared to when it was under the High General’s command, which helped allow the soldiers to recuperate from the losses they had taken so far somewhat. Despite the shock brought about by the assassination, morale actually remained pretty stable, which just proved how much the High General was disliked by the common soldiers.

Lu-Shih could only shake his head at that. A large portion of the soldiers were of Huan ethnicity like him, often poorer people who enlisted with the hopes of attaining enough military merits or rewards to lead a better life. Granted, there were many Aqwas amongst the soldiers too, since while the Aqwa people were more dominant in the nobility, there were ultimately only so many nobles, while the rest would be below them.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The new Emperor had made great strides to call for unity between the people from the two ethnicities, which was quite a feat considering the centuries of bad blood between them before the eventual unification of the Empire as they knew it. Even so, friction between Huans and Aqwas were far from uncommon, especially in the army which had many hot-blooded and musclebrained people.

All that just caused Lu-Shih’s head to ache from all the potential troubles that he had to deal with as the current acting commanding officer of the army, which would likely be his role until the Dragon General who was leading the southern campaign heard of his plight and sent someone to relieve him of the responsibility. Of course, there was also the possibility that he might be able to make use of the situation to gain merits and cement his position, maybe even aiming for a promotion, but Lu-Shih felt that the current foes were not that easy to deal with, which definitely dampened his ambitions quite a bit.

While he could certainly aim for merits and even promotions that way, the risks were equally severe. For an acting commander to fail was a very punishable offense, and as someone without any true backing behind him, many would love to see his fall. As such, Kang Lu-Shih had always pursued more of a stable and secure route of progress rather than aiming for short-term advantages.

Other than increasing the number of sentries and patrols, Lu-Shih had also ordered for the soldiers to set up more permanent structures to serve as their base. Since he felt that the battle would likely devolve into a long one, his people would need a better base than the temporary setup they had been using so far. Others might have considered it a waste to set up a semi-permanent base barely a day away from a city, but he thought otherwise, since the enemy would likely retreat to said city when defeated, while the base could serve as their camp during the siege.

Fortunately the imperial army’s supply lines were safe, as they had taken the time to ensure that their backlines were properly garrisoned, even if that meant bringing less people to continue the offensive. Lu-Shih had been the one who argued for completely securing the back areas, one of the rare occasions where the late High General had agreed with him.

After all, they were meant to be the first wave of the attack, and when the Tiger General reached the new lands with the second wave, that was when they were meant to truly push forward and conquer in the name of the Empire. As it was, what regions the first wave managed to conquer would serve as their merit as vanguards, possibly even given to them as landholds as rewards, which was one of the main motivations for this invasion.

Lu-Shih himself was aware that there were other reasons for the invasion, namely that the struggle for the throne had caused there to be a great amount of military force raised in the Empire, a military force that lacked direction or a proper use, which threatened the stability of the new Emperor’s regime. The new Emperor had chosen to make use of the excessive military force he had on his hand to conquer more land for the Empire, which had to be beyond the archipelago, since the area was already united under the Empire’s banner.

Hence this invasion of a scale heretofore unforeseen in the Empire’s history. The Empire had always been a warlike people given the constant clashes between the Huan and Aqwa people prior to their unification under the Imperial banner, and that trend continued to the present day.