French version: to be announced
(these events took place in the first days of february 2013)
Rice Eaters : World at War
His throat cleanly slit, the robber baron corpse was growing stiff on the ground. First Templar blood to run over chinese soil, but not last. Justice had been served... What now?
The emperor of Shu Han, Bagge was absent at the time, and so it was the advisors's duty to prepare for any retalation.
In the possibility of a war, the villages north of the bridge of Jelkala would be the first to be attacked by a counter-attacking force.
They were emptied of their population, army and everything that was not fixed to the earth to leave nothing for the future perpetrators.
The inhabitant of the region took refuge in the capital, ignoring why they had to leave their home behind them. Much tears and complaints were heard by the local nobles.
Their duty was to keep the people safe and protected, but they could not tell them why they had to bear such hardship nor share their woe : responsability is a cruel dilemma.
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loginThe road to hell is paved with good intentions. But staying on the right road can be hell itself...Jelkala bridge was yielding under the combined weight of the chinese civilians passing from the northern region to Jelkala, when the Shu Han emperor returned.
He promptly asserted the situation and called together the Shu Han officers and Rice Eaters top staff management : the Chinese Empire will enter into history!
Shu Han had legions upon legions of seasoned soldiers, stacked together in the epicenter of their country. They would pile on the neighbouring crusader's fiefs and take them by surprise.
The Rice Eaters recent struggles had pushed their war exhaustion high. They would support any actions the Shu Han undertook when they had armies ready to sail out.
Promising help, they still took immediate action in the form of the sending of many combat advisors. Badly veiled mercenaries...
For days, Jelkala's bridge was again the center of many crossed paths. Trodden by thousands of mailed boots, the building all but bucked with the rhythmic pace of the troops.visitors can't see pics , please
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loginCrossing the hilly country-side east of Yalen, the first Shu Han vanguard armies advances toward and beyond their own frontier...Using no artifice, Shu Han positioned themselves out in the open, in a great line of men, all moving in the same direction : due north-west.
They were still bound with non-agression pact with the Crusader Alliance factions, still they marched to their holdings.
Closing on Epeshe, Dumar and Etrosq, those military moves did not go unnoticed. Diplomats of all kind were sent hastily to reach out to the Shu Han and ask for explanations.
They received no welcome, nor answers. "Let the many envoys wait in my antechambers, while I organize the first strikes in the deep of their Rhodok Highland colonies..." Bagge told its advisors.
As the leading armies laid siege to the villages south of Etrosq and Etrosq itself, still there was chinese armed forces moving en masse out of Jelkala and crossing its river.
They were willing to go all out and only skeleton forces remained to defend the homeland.Now that the Templar's fiefs were under attack, Shu Han motives were made quite clear. Around six thousands of men were already in place, and six thousands more were on their way.
It was only a sense of decorum that pushed the Shu Han to officially declare war on the Crusader Alliance now that the surprise invasion was already ongoing.
Still it was written and displayed atop every embassies in the known world, and many were the outraging bursts of the factions friendly to the crusaders.
All pacts tieing the Shu Han to the Eastern factions were severed in rapid succession. No amount of words would undo what was done. If all roads leads to war, then the travelling was at its end.
Swords will clash, armours will break, blooded guts will drench the earth: "rip and tear!" will bellow the berserkers, while the less war-like soldiers will lay down their lives with only duty in mind.
Epeshe and Dumar fell in mere hours, while up in Etrosq Castle, the best of the best of the vanguard armies of Shu Han were preparing to rush to the walls...visitors can't see pics , please
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login"The whole world is putting together armies against us as I speak. And I say, let the three corners of the world come in arms, and we shall shock them! To arms brothers!" general Corsair roared.
Still, taken by surprise, the garrison was occupied with unprepared levies and the armoury was filled to the brim with rusty plates and half-broken swords.
Messengers were sent hastily past secret poterns to ask for reinforcements before the castle would be overrun completely.
Unfortunately, the corridor of earth between Etrosq and Culmarr had been invested by multiple ambushing parties. Most of the messengers were shot on sight or arrested and tortured.
Those that were lucky enough to go past never went back with reinforcements...
There was nothing left to reinforce.visitors can't see pics , please
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loginBagge strides atop Etrosq castle battlements, challenging Culmarr to come for help...
The walls were quickly destroyed by Shu Han engines of siege, at a weak point in the structure that commanded both the left and the right wing.
Unable to man every part of the walls equally, the besieging army focused its attack on one part of the castle wing with dozens of siege ladders. The effect was brutal beyond measure.
Without the mean to access to the side of the castle under attack, the defenders quickly lost its control.
More ladders were sent from this bridgehead to the other parts of the castle where the remaining Templar soldiers were awaiting their doom.
They were pushed to the corners of the castle and struck down without mercy, to the last man...Few accounts of besieged castles tells tales of a quick as lightning capture such as this one. Bolstered by this crushing victory, Shu Han eyes were already setting on Yalen, the capital of the region itself.
If it was to fall as this one did, this invasion campaign would become the most succesfull of all Calradia wars! Does this dream will come true?
It was decided that Etrosq would stay defended by those who took it, and will forbid any enemies to pass forth the newly conquered fief.
The Crusader Alliance will have to retake control of the fortress or avoid it and push directly in the Shu Han Lowlands in the south, and risk being cut off and destroyed.
Thus handing out missions, accordingly to ranks and leadership prowess, the bulk of the Shu Han horde marched out to Yalen, that was at the time manned with a mere militia of two thousands men.
Certainly, total victory was at hand?visitors can't see pics , please
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loginMeanwhile, in a clearing near the city of Veluca, men clad in black armours atop great horses negotiate the fate of the world...A helmeted figure speaks : "The Shu Han has no respect for honor, nor any knowledge of how the world should be ruled. We have to act, and we have to act fast. All in favor of a military coalition?"
"AYE!"
"AYE!"
"AYE!"
"AYE!"
To be continued...
