Good Strategy

There is large movement of people in the area of the Brolgadhr tribe, the Xewa and the Ghar tribe.

This movement of so many people alarmed the small clans and the small tribes that are around the area of these tribes. Many of them did not know yet what had happened.

When the people of the Great Steppe decided to seek out better conditions, each move involved hundreds of people and thousands of animals.

Migrations had to be carefully planned in order to be successful.

People, animals, and possessions had to be transported quickly and efficiently.

Their seasonal settlements had to be protected, and their next destinations and travel routes had to be scouted.

They had to map out precise distances and directions, and they needed to study the strengths and weaknesses of potential enemies.

Every man, woman, and child played a role in this complex operation.

This led the people of the Great Steppe to blur the distinctions between male or female, and young or old, to a much greater degree than did the more settled, farming societies that they encountered

the Great Steppe nomadic way of life promoted self-sufficiency and adaptability.

Unlike agricultural societies, nomads accumulate no economic surpluses to see them through hard times.

Their survival depends on their ability to respond decisively and effectively to sudden changes in climate

Someone sighed

'This is not an easy task' but the person who is saying this is smiling. The work is hard but he feels happy.

The one who is smiling has a fair complexion, dark hair, dark eyes, high cheekbones, a sharp looking facial feature. Some people said that sometimes he looks like a wolf.

He has a pointed nose. This person is none other than Mayeux

He is the one supervising the movement of so many people from the Ghar tribe and the Xewa tribe to the Brolgadhr tribe.

Mayeux knows that the moving of so many people is hard.

Even though he is not a Marynku people he had learned about this. And he is used to this as he himself had participated in many such moving

And he is now making sure that the people he had escorted back to the tribe would not suddenly attack or rebels against their new chief.

Fortunately, nothing like that happens.

They obeyed.

Most of them are children and woman.

There is many that died but there is also many that survived. Aeryon handling of the defeated captive could e said to be very generous and merciful

Mayeux told the Elders of the victory of their chief and told them of their war captives.

The order of the Chief is to expand the settlements and accept these people into the tribe.

The Elders shows a complicated expression but accepted the order

Mayeux did not want to burden himself with this kind of job.

Not because it isn't important but because this is not his specialties.

So, he gave all the task of settling these people to the elder while he make sure the livestock that they have grabbed from their enemy tribes distributed to the people

Because right now the tribe is very small, and the bounty is very large, Aeryon could reward every single family of his tribe.

But Mayeux could already see the problem.

He had seen and talk with the chief only a few times. But he could see that this chief of his is a very ambitious man.

This is just his feeling but he believe that his chief would not be satisfied with just having these many things.

He will want more. That is his feeling about his chief

Mayeux did not hate that. After all, only if the chief is like that, that he could show his talents. What use is it of learning all of that knowledge if he could not use it?

How could he know whether what he learns is right or wrong if he could not try it in the real world.

Just like Aeryon, Mayeux is also a man of ambition.

Just like Mayeux recognise Aeryon a man of great ambition, Aeryon also could see that Mayeux is someone who is brimming with talent and have great ambition

Aeryon send him to supervise this because he wanted to test Mayeux, to see whether he is really capable or whether he was lucky that time.

Mayeux did not only delegate the task beautifully he also chose a few dozen young men to become horse riders under him.

He did not lack horses now and he also did not lack weapons.

Both the weapons and the horse are things that Mayeux takes from the enemies.

By evening, he now have a hundred men.

Most of them young and never fought before.

But they have to accrue experience.

Only by fighting could they grow as a warrior.

Of course, Mayeux also knows that these people would not be as fierce or as powerful as the warriors of the Utgard tribe.

But give him enough time and he could drill these men into an effective fighting force.

'I should teach them and there is still old veterans among the elders that could point them the right direction to train'

Mayeux has the ambition to raise an elite unit

However, he also knows that this is not easy. To train an elite soldier takes time

But any tribes of the Greta Steppe would have their child learning to fight from a very young age.

This is the advantage that the people of the Great Steppe has over the people of the settled lands around them

Yan empire for example stressed the rule of the scholars

and while their scholars not exactly weak in fighting, most of them focus on scholarly pursuit or political manoeuvring. Even on the far north, where there is another Empire, even though that empire also have a powerful military, they are beset by internal problems

Mayeux had investigated this thing before and he knew some basic details

But, he also knew to take one step at a time. Even though he has vision, and a grand ambition, he knows not to be rash

'For now, I must train an army' This is his first objective. If Aeryon could give him the control of some men he would train them to have discipline.

Of course, he would not take away the flexibility of the cavalry but instil some tactics that would make the cavalry of the Great Steppe even more formidable.

Mayeux had asses most of the men he chooses to be horse riders and he could tell most of them could hold their own in a fight.

The only reason why they could not be an effective force is because they are too young and lack many of basic training.

Because they are inexperienced when they are facing someone that is, they would find themselves in a hard situation.

As for riding skills, the people of the Great Steppe rides the horse since they were a child.

They could jump with their horse and they have a sense with the horse that Mayeux could not imitate.

Even though Mayeux think of himself as one of the Brolgadhr tribe, he is not Marynku people who rides horses like they were the extension of their feet

He was not taught like a people of the Marynku

Children held an important role in Marynku society.

They learned at an early age how to ride horses and use a bow and arrow, to collect dry animal dung or firewood, to milk cattle, and to cook and sew.

The Marynku people believed that the children of allies who fell in battle should be well cared for, and they would often be adopted by other men in the tribe.

But adopting enemies tribe into one's own…..this is very unusual

This is the reason why there is so many people given to the tribe.

Garron simply wanted to sell the people of the Ghar tribe and the Xewa tribe. Some he would recruit to be his horse riders; some he would kill and some he would enslave to do jobs around his tribe

But Aeryon chose to take in the enemy tribe.

It is very unusual and and broke with Marynku tradition and decided not to decimate the Xewa tribe itself.

Instead, he spared the men and encouraged them to join his own force. The Xewa tribe killed his father and even if he kills all of the people of that tribe, no one would bat an eye

It is justified

And it is an effective strategy

Mayeux believe that his chief had two reason for not wiping an enemy of his father showing a generosity like no other chief in the Great Steppe had ever done.

Not only did he hope to increase his own strength by attracting former adversaries to his army, he also knew that totally eliminating the Xewa and the Ghar would serve to further empower his allies, the Utgard

The Utgard is a small tribe but their leader is a very charismatic man.

Mayeux had only heard the reputation of the Viper but only after he met with the man, he could say that the rumours are true. This is a man who is unpredictable

There is many parables and stories in the book of strategy that Mayeux had learned. And there is many stories about man like Garron.

A man who could endure loss.

A man who could bow his head and scheme while bowing.

A man like this is a threat.

This is the kind of man that one should take precaution against

if Aeryon had defeated the Xewa and the Ghar tribe and kills all of them, then not only the Utgard tribe would have no enemies around them, they would also have time

Time to reinforce their army, conserve their strength and when the time is ripe, they could burst with great vitality

Aeryon is one man. And Belarion is also one man

They could fight hundreds of men but that does not mean they are invincible.

The Great Steppe, the Yan Empire, the land on the north, all have people like this, born with innate strength

But they are few and the common people is the more numerous. With thousands of years people warred against each other, how could they do not know how to kill such monsters?

And it did not change the fact that the Brolgadhr tribe is still very small. Two men alone could not change the Great Steppe.

Mayeux believe that his chief knew that by maintaining balance among the tribes, he improved his own chances to eventually eclipse them all.

'It is a good strategy'

This kind of method will not only contribute to the rapid growth of the Brolgadhr forces; it will also have the effect to motivate opposing warriors to desert their own army and join his chief cause, rather than resist and probably die.

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