Book 11: Chapter 26: Readiness

“Are they ready?” Sen asked.

He feared that he knew the answer already, but he had to ask anyway. He’d been feeling increasingly on edge as the time trickled away. He’d also been feeling increasingly boxed in by the demands of the capital. That cluster of messengers and servants after his brief training session with Jin Bohai a few days earlier had just driven that point home. If he didn’t get things in motion soon, he’d end up bogged down by a government that increasingly relied on him for every decision. He’d done what he could to discourage it and redirect people to more appropriate decision-makers. However, it was obvious that as long as he was here, everyone was going to keep coming to him to ensure their choices didn’t offend him.

He understood it. In a very real way, he was the supreme power in the kingdom for all practical purposes. Other cultivators might be more powerful, but none of them were commanding armies or had demigods saying that they were the new king. He just hadn’t realized exactly how suffocating that power would end up feeling. The truth was that he didn’t understand the complexities that went into the administration of a kingdom. That was why he hadn’t purged the bureaucrats in the first place. He didn’t want to

have

to make every decision, nor was he qualified to make those decisions. It would be a relief to leave and drop all of those problems back onto Jing’s plate.

General Mo’s face scrunched up a bit as he tried to decide just how to answer that question. They were making another impromptu “inspection” that mostly consisted of wandering through the many tents and asking the occasional question. There were many things in the camp that Sen was equally ill-equipped to judge. In truth, about the only thing he was fit to evaluate was the fighting prowess of the soldiers. Even there, though, he doubted himself. His training had been very different and for very different purposes.

He had been trained to fight other cultivators, who would be attacking him with countless unfamiliar styles and weapons. There had been a lot of focus on flexibility in his forms and his thinking. The soldiers, on the other hand, were being trained to fight in exactly the same way. To work as groups. There was very little in the way of flexibility, and individual prowess was, if not frowned on, not especially rewarded either. It was only among the officers that individual ability seemed to matter, and even that struck as more a matter of pride.

As to the logistics of moving large numbers of people, he was wholly at the mercy of what others told him. It was going to be a problem for a while until he could catch up on all of the things he simply didn’t know to ask about. His reading of historical scrolls had taught him a lot about the historical wars and even why they were won and lost. However, they hadn’t focused on the details of getting all those bodies from one place to another, aside from obvious issues like food. Sen wasn’t even sure how far an army could realistically move in a day. The only time he’d traveled any distance on foot as a mortal was going up the mountain with Master Feng. Somehow, he suspected that was not a good frame of reference. Those uncertainties were the reason why he and the general were sitting in the cook’s tent, eating some noodles that Zhang Bai had made for them personally.

“Ready is a dangerous word,” General Mo finally said. “A lot of these men and women are new recruits who have never been on a long march. It’s something that you have to do to understand.”

“So, they’re not ready?” asked Sen before pushing more noodles into his mouth.

“I didn’t say that,” answered the General. “They’re not as ready as I’d want them to be, but I don’t know that anything could make them that ready. They’ll be fighting spirit beasts. I know the cultivators will also be there, but the casualties will still be high. It’s hard to stomach the thought.”

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Sen grimaced and said, “I know. There’s also nothing to be done about that. There just aren’t enough cultivators to fight this war by themselves. And, even if there were, I wouldn’t ask them to. The spirit beasts aren’t just coming to destroy the cultivators. They want every human being dead. Mortals have a stake in this war and will have to fight in it. Yes, they’ll largely be there to serve as a distraction and to hold positions. No, I don’t like it. I’m not thrilled about spending their lives that way. It doesn’t make it any less necessary.”

General Mo seemed to decide to buy himself a little time to think by focusing on finishing the last of his noodles. Sen didn’t push the man to respond. He wanted honest answers about the state of the army. He didn’t believe he’d get those honest answers from General Kang and his allies. If he asked them, the army would never be ready. For all of his earlier harsh words implying otherwise, he wouldn’t mindlessly set out with an army that was unprepared to endure the rigors of marching and war. That would just be him killing people slowly and for no good reason. Spending lives was one thing. Wasting lives was something different. He’d do the former, grudgingly, but he wouldn’t be the kind of leader who wasted lives if he could avoid it.

General Mo finished his noodles and set aside the bowl. He gave Sen a very long look before he finally spoke.

“I don’t think they’re ready. Not enough of them. The experienced soldiers could likely handle it, assuming you’re right about them not all freezing to death. But all the new people are just too new. If we march them right now, too many of them will never reach whatever place you pick as their first destination. They’ve made a lot of progress. I think they’re close, but it’s still too soon.”

It was what Sen had expected to hear. He’d just been hoping he was wrong. Still, he knew as well as anyone that training didn’t produce results overnight. He’d spent years and years training before Master Feng had been ready to let him leave the mountain by himself. While every week felt like an eternity to him, now, he couldn’t lie to himself. The army had gotten an absurdly short amount of time to even start instilling basic combat skills into the newest additions. What they had achieved was astounding and likely a testament to centuries of refining their training methods. Still, he had to be realistic with this. He couldn’t let his impatience overcome better judgment.

“I won’t hold you to this, but what’s your best estimate for how long it will take before enough of them are ready?”

The general was once again quiet. Sen couldn’t tell if he just hadn’t considered the question, or if he was weighing what number Sen would find acceptable. The man had made it abundantly clear that his first priority was making sure as many people survived as was reasonably possible. He wasn’t afraid to send people to die if it was necessary. Sen had seen and heard enough about what Mo had done on the city walls during those days of battle to know that. He’d just rather not do it if there was another way to accomplish the same goal with more time or planning. It was one of the things that Sen liked about the man.

“Ideally, we’d get a couple more months of training before you leave,” said Mo. “I know that’s not realistic for a lot of reasons, but it’s what we ought to do. If we get very lucky and nothing happens to force everyone’s hands, a few more weeks. It won’t be pretty. The march itself will kill some people and likely cripple others. Their feet will give out. They’ll blister, bleed, and get infected if people aren’t careful. There are some things we can do to help with that, but not everyone will speak up. Some won’t realize how bad it is until it’s too late. Others will be told to stop complaining by some of the people above them. It shouldn’t be like that, but it is.”

Sen winced. He also knew that there were things that could be done. There were things that he could do and would do in the coming weeks to prepare to treat those problems. Of course, as MO pointed out, all of that depended on people drawing attention to the problem.

“How bad will it be?”

“There’s no way to know for sure. More than you’ll want. I can promise you that.”

Sen nodded and started trying to steel himself in advance for those losses. From what the general was saying, all they could do was try to mitigate the worst of it. The problem itself, much like the war, was unavoidable.

“Alright. Let’s call it a month for now, and hope that the heavens keep the spirit beasts preoccupied in someone else’s kingdom for at least that long.”