Chapter 394 – Khan's Weakness
Silk Road, the famous trade route that connected China with the western empires, such as Persia and Greeks, since the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty (207 BCE).
Around 130 BCE, the West Hans expanded their trade routes toward the western countries as well as their military conquest into Xiongnu's territory.
Emperor Wu, the most successful emperor among the West Han emperors, wished to establish a trading relationship with the sophisticated civilizations of Bactria, Ferghana, and the Parthian Empire. As the emperor did not interest in waging wars against these unknown countries, he formed a friendly relationship with these western people while he concentrated battling the Xiongnu.
The trade route brought precious resources to China, such as glasses, silks, and spice, which brought prosperity to the country.
However, in this timeline, Khan not only took control of such a trade route, but he also imported mercenaries from the west to reinforce his armies, which was the main reason how he unified all Xiongnu tribes as one.
Parthian Empire's mercenaries were 5,000 Cataphracts. These men also prioritized on horses and archer tactics, which all horses and riders wore scaled armor. Their main weaponry was long spears, javelins, and short bows.
3,000 Hoplites also came from the Bactria Kingdom, working as Khan's mercenaries. All of them were spearmen who carried large round shields with them. They had hard leather armors while their general had an iron plate suit covering their torso. They also wore a round helmet, which only protected their head but not their neck.
These men enjoyed their lifestyle in Liang Province after Ma Teng had surrendered this territory to Khan. Their job was simple, being Khan's model for his copy skill.
Today as well, Khan summoned all soldiers to form ranks. He stood before all 8,000 men and cast his skill.
White light appeared behind Khan and 8,000 men, who looked like the original, manifested from the light.
Had anyone seen this phenomenon, they would have been shocked speechless. However, these 8,000 mercenaries got used to it now.
Four more groups of soldiers appeared, making it a total of 40,000 soldiers copied.
These new soldiers stared blankly at Khan, waiting for an order. None of them had a sign of life or individual thought.
Khan exhaled and relaxed, but his jaw suddenly dislocated on its own.
'Soul injuries. What a pain.'
Khan's soul still had a dislocated jaw from the fight with Lu Bu. As for other injuries, Khan had healed them a few months ago with the help of Liu Yang.
As Khan turned around and organized the newly recruited elites, the Parthian mercenary leader approached him.
Vida, a descendant of Persian, laughed at Khan.
"I never get bored looking at your skill, my lord."
"…"
Khan glanced at Vida in wary. This general was the only one among all mercenaries that he could not copy.
At the moment, China was not the only country with immortals. Several countries around the world had learned of these new mysterious forces, and they were developing their warriors.
Vida, too, had wings, devil wings.
Vida had obtained the boon from Lilim's immortality project as he had completed a quest for her, by killing power abusers who misused their immortal powers.
He was also smarter than Tong regarding the awakening process. By showering Lilim with millions of lifespan years, Vida gained tips and tricks from the 10-winged devil.
Behind his back, Vida had four black wings, the same amount of wings that Tong and Khan had. Furthermore, he had four more uncleansed sins to complete.
Khan snorted and walked away.
"Protect Wuwei County and the silk road. I'll be heading for Hanzhong."
"Going already? Why not rest a bit. I heard you've been injured, so you should rest more, my lord."
"I don't have times for that. Zhang Tong and Cao Cao are expanding their territories. I need to expand mine before they overwhelm us in number."
"You have those cheat skills. Why do you have to worry?"
"…"
Khan did not answer. He got on his horse and left without saying another word. As for the 40,000 newly created men, they turned toward Khan and marched along in order.
Vida looked at the parting Khan with a smirk.
"What a sore loser," He turned to other men in the formation, "Dismiss! Let's go back and drink!"
.
Khan was in a bad mood not because of Vida but his lack of lifespans. He had copied too many skills from all otherworlders that he suffered from the yearly upkeep.
Each year, he had to procure 200,000 lifespans for Lilim, or he would die!
Although he could easily obtain lifespans from absorbing life essence in the air, Khan tried his best to avoid cultivating all times.
He did not have enough time to cultivate. The more he cultivated, the more people would use the gap of his absence to rebel against him.
Khan had brainwashed most of his officers, including Ma Teng, Ma Chao, and many others. However, he did not have enough lifespans to brainwash his citizens because of his lifespan shortage.
As a result, many hidden scholars and ex-soldiers from Ma Teng and the locals would always try to riot, causing the order of his kingdom to fall like how Dong Zhuo had done.
Had Khan left everything to his men, those braindead officers would have started killing civilians, which was not Khan's goal.
'Annoying. So annoying! I should have known about this, but peasants are f.u.c.k.i.n.g selfish!'
Fortunately, Liu Yang solved most of the uprising issues and reinforced the city order. She even advised him to leave everything to her and continue to cultivate, so Khan could brainwash all of his citizens, city-by-city.
Still, Khan refused to follow her suggestion. As he felt threatened by Tong's rapid expansion and Cao Cao's conquest, Khan wanted to dominate more regions so that his military power would be on par with them.
.
Gan Zhou County, west of Wuwei.
This county did not have a city wall like the others in China mainland. Instead, most populations resided in caves or clay houses as this region landscapes consist of a desert, steep colorful mountains, sandstones, oases, and wetlands.
This county was a part of Silk Road, which located west of Wuwei County of Vida.
A supply convoy from the west arrived at the mountain county, but they were stopped by the local guard that blockaded the valley passage to the east.
The caravan leader was a Xiongnu commander, a subordinate of Khan. He roared in frustration that they should have passed through here without getting an inspection.
"Scram! I'm the 5,000-man commander of Khan's provision department. Don't waste my time!"
The supply caravan consisted of wagons of dried food, spice, and cargo from the west that they could trade with the local Han citizens. Since they were within Xiongnu's territory, only five thousand soldiers escorted this group.
However, 20,000 riders surrounded them on the valley hills. The leader of the check-point was a tall man in red steel plate armor and a red muscular warhorse.
Lu Bu glared at the Xiongnu commander with a sneer behind his knight helmet. He waved his hand and gave his signal.
All heavy knights with red hares galloped down slopes, rushing at the Xiongnu.
The Xiongnu commander bellowed in anger, "Blasphemy! You petty thieves dare to rob the great me!?"
Lu Bu mumbled as he also rushed at the Xiongnu commander, "Meh, another pushover."
Steel crescent halberd cut the head of the commander in one swing.
.
While Khan was busy in Liang Province, Lu Bu and his Red Hare Legion traveled deep west, detoured around Wuwei to Gan Zhou, presently known as Zhangye in modern days.
All 50,000 soldiers rested in Gan Zhou, fortifying their new constructed check-point.
Ju Shou and Gao Shun were also assisting Lu Bu in this task.
Gao Shun acted as Lu Bu's right-hand man since he had been working with Lu Bu for decades.
Meanwhile, Tong assigned Ju Shou here to keep Lu Bu from making a rash decision. As Ju Shou's personality was conservation and reserved, he always advised Lu Bu about the matters that this god of war overlooked.
The combination worked well since Lu Bu listened to his subordinates. With his strength and Ju Shou's brain, no local forces could stop this legion.
Gao Shun and Ju Shou regrouped with Lu Bu after they had sorted their loots.
Ju Shou reported, "We got 1,000 wagons of food, 100 wagons of spice, and 500 of silk. No gold found."
Each food wagon carried 500kg of goods, so Lu Bu stole 500,000 tons of provision from this job.
Gao Shun laughed, "Our food issue is solved now. Even if his majesty doesn't send us food, we can still manage on our own."
Ju Shou nodded, "Correct. This also confirmed his majesty's theory about Khan's abilities and the Xiongnu's limit."
Before Tong sent Lu Bu here, Tong had obtained the Intel from Diaochan that Khan possessed a mimic ability that could copy all skills from all otherworlders. However, it had many backlashes.
First, Khan had to pay for all the expensive upkeeps each year. It became more expensive after Lilim raised the limitation of all cheat skills.
Secondly, all copied skills consumed ten times of lifespans that the original skill user had. For example, Tong's [Create food] cost one year per usage, but Khan had to pay ten years for the same skill and effect. It also multiplied to 100 years when Khan bypassed the once-per-day limit by using his soul to cast the ability.
And third, Khan was the only wing powers in his force, which limited his lifespan acquisition. As it took time to gather lifespans from the surrounding essence as an angel, Khan lost the majority of his time with his daily cultivation.
These three limits were the advantages that Tong had over Khan, and Tong wanted to sabotage the latter's armies further by withering Khan's food supplies.
Their legion's goal was to cut the supply line that connected the Xiongnu Capital to Liang Province. Once they regained the Silk Road and Wuwei County, these barbarians would be weakened because they would not be able to self-sustain inside Han's territories.
After that, Khan and his men would face a deficit in food harvest like Tong had been experiencing.
Lu Bu opened his face mask and turned to Ju Shou.
"What's the next move, strategist?"
"We hold our fort here and continue to expand our army size. Our goal is 100,000 manpower."
"We don't have enough gold, and this county doesn't provide taxes or food, can we make it?"
"No problem. Actually, I'm afraid of the opposite. We'll gather enough men in no time."
Gao Shun and Lu Bu were confused, "How?"
Ju Shou smiled, "Khan ignores his internal affair in his home country for years. Sooner or later, there will be ambitious young chieftains that want Khan's position during his absence. We'll find these people while we protect this check-point. Once we found them, we'll get that manpower."
