Travis Starnes
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The Plains of Pluto - Chapter 26 (Final)
🕑 Added 2025-03-23 13:00:06 +0000 UTCCamp Banwīhraz, Central Germania
Medb walked quickly toward the door to the walled prison building from her carriage. She had too much dignity to run, but the rain that had started the previous night had intensified, and was coming down in thick sheets.
She was happy to be out of it, inside the brick building that was used as administration, barracks, and interrogation rooms for the large prison camp. After her first week here she'd given up staying with the guards and had found more comfortable accommodations in a nearby village.
What she was doing took time, but she also had a standard she was used to, and needed to be at her best for this. It was her thirty-first sessions with the Eastern prisoner. So far it had been mostly language lessons, with no nothing beyond that learned. An important step, to be sure, but today she planned to take it beyond that.
Two Britannian guards straightened as she approached.
"Lady Medb," the taller one said. "Prisoner's inside. Been waiting about ten minutes."
"Good. I'll need at least two hours. No interruptions unless the camp's being overrun."
The guards exchanged glances, uncertain if she was joking. The room was the same one they'd been using every session. Familiarity, even hostile familiarity like a prison camp, made people let down their guard.
It, and a hundred other small actions, were all designed to one end. To get the man sitting at the small table inside to decide to talk.
Fa Jian, although for these people the second name was their given one, and the first was their surname, sat as he always did. Comfortable but aloof at the same time, hands folded on the table.
"Again today, we speak," Medb said, using the words in his language, which she found exceptionally difficult to master.
She set down a small basket containing a small bundle of dried meat, bread, and other additional rations that were his payment for doing these lessons, and took the seat across form him.
"Again today. More words, yes?" he said in latin.
After thirty-one sessions, she'd learned to read the minute shifts in his expression, the slight tightening around his eyes when he was actively engaged in something she said. The slight downturn of his mouth when he was frustrated.
The man was exceptional at controlling his features, which again spoke to his intelligence and self control, but everyone showed something eventually.
"More words, yes. But different today. I think you understand more than you show."
His face remained impassive, but something stirred behind his eyes.
"Small understanding," he replied.
"No," she said, switching to Latin. "You understand far more than you admit. You like to hide it, but you are very intelligent, and understand more than you let on. You've been pretending to learn slower, but you listen very closely when I talk to the guards. You've been watching and listening. I'm honestly impressed. I would do the same."
Jian tilted his head slightly, reassessing her.
"What questions today?" He asked, not dropping the charade.
"First, I want to understand something I've observed. You avoid the high-ranking prisoners, the officers and administrators at the center of the camp who've secured better food and sleeping arrangements. Why?"
"Not understand."
"I think you do understand. I've watched you for weeks. You deliberately keep distance from them. When food is distributed, you position yourself away from them. Them I understand. Such men are typically the same in every empire, those who order conquests while remaining safely distant from bloodshed, who demand tribute without labor, who impose their will on common people without suffering consequences. I've known their type my whole life/"
The prisoner's eyes narrowed fractionally.
"If I had to guess, these were the men that control your empire, just as they once controlled mine. Perhaps we share a common disdain for such men, despite fighting on opposite sides."
"How say 'season change' in your tongue?"
Medb ignored his deflection. Her instincts told her she'd struck a nerve, and thirty years of political intrigue had honed those instincts well.
"I haven't always done this job. Before that, I was a queen of my own people, until Carthage came to my island and convinced us to fight for them. And then abandoned us. I didn't see it at the time, but I think even in defeat, we were liberated. Freed of the yoke the Carthaginians put on everyone, friend and foe alike. I know what it means to hate those kind of men, and I recognize the look of a man who holds such feelings hidden."
Again he didn't answer, but she could see the understanding in his eyes. He was getting what she was saying.
"I'm sure you've figured this out, but prisoners who provide valuable intelligence receive considerations, better quarters, additional food, potential freedom. The more valuable the information, the greater the consideration. But I don't think that's what you want. You don't want better rations. You have purpose beyond survival. Men like you always do."
His eyes met hers directly now, calculated passivity momentarily set aside.
"Someone with the right information could ask for more than mere comforts," she offered. "They could name their true desire, however ambitious."
"What promise would person have? Words between enemies mean little," Jian said, the sudden stilted version of latin gone.
There were still small errors, but this was the real man, at last. A least a taste of him.
"True. But some enemies share greater enemies. Some conflicts mask opportunities. A man I know once told the 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Perhaps we are friends, after a fashion."
"That kind friend is dangerous."
"Indeed. You know, I think there are moments for some people when they see an opportunity, but fear takes hold and they let it slip away. Other people, though, they see the opportunity for what it is and do not let the fear take them. These people are the people who get things done. I think maybe you are the second type of person. For people like that, these moments create possibilities. But only if we're willing to risk something of value in exchange."
He didn't say anything, but she could see he was very interest in what she was saying.
"The time for dancing around each other has ended. I need information about your empire. You need something from me. Let's speak plainly."
Jian sat motionless, weighing his options. Outside, rain pounded against the roof.
"Ask your questions. Why have you pulled me from sleep thirty-two days in line?"
"Part of it was the language lessons. We needed to communicate to get this far, after all. But you're right, my interest goes beyond vocabulary. I want to know about your people. We know next to nothing about you, except your homeland lies out to the east."
"It is."
"Where?"
"The main part of our country is very far. It takes weeks and weeks to get here. Many week groups. Something…"
"Months," she offered.
"Yes. Months. It takes more than two months to get here from the capital, although the edges of the empire are only a few weeks travel."
"It expands that far?" she asked, surprised.
"It does."
"Show me the area your empire covers," she said, pulling a paper out of her pocket and unfolding it, showing a hand-drawn map mesaned to her by the consul.
She had been shocked when she'd seen what the world actually looked like, not that she doubted him. But comparing the areas she did know such as Britannia and Germania to the parts to the east, beyond Sarmatia, she knew how vast that land could be.
"Where did you get this?" he asked, showing true surprise for the first time.
"That question is for another time. First, show me the extent of your people's lands."
Jian hesitated before placing his finger on the eastern coast of at the far end of the land mass and then tracing a boundary that stretched all the way to Sarmatia and the far edges of Alexander's empire. From the north of the land mass all the way to the south. They essentially controlled everything west of Anatolia, Sarmatia, and Persia.
A truly terrifying amount of land, vast beyond anything they had estimated, easily triple the lands once controlled by Cartage. maybe even more.
"How can any single authority administer such vast territory?" she asked, astonishment breaking through her control.
"We have many people like you. The empire is five rings? Levels? Parts maybe the right word. The center part is Nei Du, the region of capital at Chang'an. It is ruled by the emperor and his people personally."
He put his finger on a part of the map to the far east, not at the coast, but close to it. He then circled a wider area, although still much smaller than the area they controlled as a whole.
"Second part is eighteen pieces, the Zhong Zhou, where big men, I do not know the word for them in your language, but important men maintain rigid control in emperor's name. Third part is thirty-two army sections, again not right word but close, called Bian Jun. It is where people and army combine to control area. Those are the three main part of empire, controlled directly by emperor's men. Beyond these are the … I don't know the word, but places ruled by men not of the emperor called Feng Guo. Although other people's rule these area, they do so with the emperor's men at their elbows. The last part, farthest out is the An Di. They give honor to the emperor, and money, but do not have the emperor's men at their elbow. Although emperors men only a short time away if they do not pay what the men and gold they owe."
The language barrier was becoming something of a problem here. She thought she understood what he meant, but there was almost certainly nuance in the system of administration being lost.
"There must be tensions between these farther out places and those places with the emperor's men telling people what to do. I assume, like the Carthaginians, the things provided by these outer parts all flow into the … you called it Nei Du."
"Yes. All goes to the emperor. All comes from the people."
"It must take a large army to control all of this, yes? Are they all conscripts?"
"Most yes, but not all. there are … Qi Jun, I do not know how to explain. Soldiers trained to be soldiers, yes."
"Professionals."
"If that is word. Good training. Good arms. They stay in teh central areas. They protect, and msot the men in them, come from those areas directly controlled by the emperor's men. The Nei Du, Zhong Zhou, and Bian Jun. Each area controls and gives things to the the Qi Jun from this area."
"So the central parts provide professional armies made up of I'm guessing citizens."
"That sounds correct, if I understand words."
"You said the other parts had to pay money and men. Men I assume means soldiers."
"Untrained soldiers. Farmers given swords."
"Conscripts," she offred.
"We call them Yi Jun. They make up most of our armies, and are who are sent to die first. Every man in every region except the Nei Du must put name on list, although names from the outer areas are chosen much more than those from the inner two areas."
"And you were a member of this Yi Jun?"
"Originally, yes. As a boy, I was taken from family farm to serve Yi Jun, but I did well and was from a Zhong Zhou, so they make me Qi Jun, the professional as you say, and pay me to fight."
"Can you tell me about what your army can do? How you get your new weapons?"
"I am just soldier nad your leaders do not tell us these things. Until three years ago, I used spear and bow. Three years before now our spears and swords were taken and given rifles, like ones your people use. I do not know where they came from or how they were made."
"I thought that might be your answer, but I wanted to ask. And what about the man who rules you. I assume he's the emperor."
"Yes. Emperor. Zhengdi, the Son of Heaven, latest in an unbroken line of divine rulers."
"Tell me about him."
"He is Zhengdi. What is there to tell."
"Anything. What he looks like."
"No one knows. No one see him. Ho one hears him except for most important men. His word like word from gods. Only trusted manless men put his voice to words and spread them."
While she got the gist of that, it was maybe one of the most confusing sentences he'd uttered.
"A convenient arrangement for those who might wish to rule in his name."
Jian didn't contradict her.
"You have told me a lot, for which I'm grateful, but you still haven't told me what you really want."
"Maybe I just want food."
"I don't think so. The way you speak of your empire doesn't suggest loyalty to its cause. You don't strike me as a man hoping for TianYou's victory."
"Words that would take my head."
"And yet I still think they are true. You have no love for those people from Nei Du, at the center of your empire."
"I do not."
"I told you that our people once suffered under similar arrangements."
"The Carthaginians you mentioned."
"Yes. Near the end of Carthaginian rule, before we overthrew them, they were working with your masters to the east. Did you know that?"
"That is often how they work. Let a people defeat themself."
"Is that what you want? To remove your overlords as we removed the Carthaginians?"
For over a full minute, Jian didn't answer. He only stared into Medb's eyes. Studying her. She stared back in silence. If she pushed, he would retreat.
"Yes," he finally answered.
"We could help with that."
"I don't seek to replace one overlord with another. Eastern lands have no want to become western."
"We don't want you to. You know, we didn't come east. We've only defended our territories against your empire's expansion."
"True. And no, not everyone in the empire wants to conquer forever. Not everyone thinks that giving up young men to make our lands bigger is right. But it is as it is. Zhengdi will not be full until he eats the world."
"Unless he's stopped," she said.
"Unless he's stopped," he agreed.
"These people who don't want the empire to be at endless war. Are there those among them who are trying to stop him?"
"Yes."
"An organized group of such people?"
"Yes."
The revelation sent Medb's mind racing through potential implications. If dissidents existed within TianYou's structure, especially those with military connections like Jian clearly had, then there was a real chance to do more than just gather intelligence.
"That's very interesting. Tell me more."
***
Greece
Ky sat on a small folding chair inside his command tent and took a moment to close his eyes and center himself. After so long in the trenches, it was good to be on the move in open fields again. The army had set up a fortified camp for the night and had scouts out, and he could smell the wood smoke from cooking fires as men enjoyed a break from the long days of marching and fighting.
The last eleven days had moved increasingly fast ever since the breakthrough that had collapsed the easterners’ trench line. They had pushed the enemy back nearly eighty miles. Every time the easterners had tried to stiffen their resistance, the volume of their firepower and the ability to load quickly from cover allowed his men to push through them before a new trench line could emerge.
He knew it couldn’t last, but for now, they had the upper hand.
Ky waited for the camp to settle into nighttime routine. Sentries posted, watches set, men in their tents. Privacy was rare in war, but these quiet after-dark moments sufficed.
“Lucilla? Are you there?”
“I’m here.” Her voice came through clearly despite thousands of miles between them. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.”
“Never. Just needed to wait until things quieted down. How are you holding up?”
“Well enough, all things considered. The Senate continues to be a collection of petulant children, but they’re at least cooperating with the conscription efforts now. Titus asked about you today.”
Ky smiled. This was a game she liked to play. Their son had said a few words, but mostly he still only babbled. She had done this since he was a baby, filling in his side of the conversation when Ky was away.
“Did he? What did he say?”
“He wanted to know when father would come home to play horses with him. He says he misses being carried on your shoulders.”
“Tell him his father misses him just as much, and I can’t wait to see him. Did he get the legion figures I sent?”
A gift from one of the more talented men in the army. Ten little legionaries carved from wood with a surprising amount of detail.
“He sleeps with one in his crib and cries when he’s not allowed to have it. Pretty soon he will have them all out, lined up for battle,” she said, before her voice turned serious as she got to business. “How does the breakthrough progress? Sophus was light on details when I asked.”
“Probably because things have changed rapidly. Right now, the advance has stalled a bit as we’ve outrun our supply lines and are starting to spread thin. The initial push went well, thanks in no small part to the new rifles. They were completely unprepared for the rate of fire. We’re entering a new phase of the war, I think. At least until the Easterners copy the design.”
“It seems that way. I received an update from Germania. Where they’ve just had a breakthrough themselves, after getting their first shipment of rifles.”
“I saw that. I think he’s going to have a bigger issue as he starts to push them back than we did. We’re in a compressed area, but most of his line is protected by riverboats. He’s going to have problems once he’s moved past the river system. Even with the better rifles, their larger armies will flank us. I trust Bomilcar to not let that happen, but it means we will only advance so far. I think that will be what ends our advance as well. Once we swing up and hit the Black Sea, we will have to pause until we have the manpower to continue beyond. We’ll need to consolidate our position, bring up reinforcements.”
“The new conscripts should be out of training in a few months. That should give you the manpower you need to push further.”
“I hope so. Although by then the Easterners might have copied our weapons and we will be back where we started, held at trench lines. It’s bothering me how fast the Easterners have been copying our designs. From when they got the smuggled shells to when they had their own version was only a few months. Our rifles, our cannons, they’re replicating everything at an alarming rate.”
“It is an unexplained complication. A civilization without direct access to the knowledge base I possess should not be able to look at a finished product and then reverse engineer it in less than a year,” Sophus interjected. “Even accounting for captured examples and espionage, the speed of technological adoption suggests outside assistance or pre-existing knowledge.”
“I know, but that has always been an unexplained issue,” Lucilla said. “But we might have some movement there as well. I received a telegram from Medb yesterday. She says she’s starting to make headway with one Eastern prisoner. She’s started to learn some things about their empire and she believes he’s part of some internal resistance movement within their empire. If that’s true, we might finally find out what we’re actually facing.”
“We might.”
“But?” She asked, hearing something in his voice he could not mask.
“But it still bothers me that there’s a Chinese kingdom that stretches as far as this man says it does. In my history, China remained fragmented for centuries during this period. Even when it unified, it never projected power like this.”
“You always said this time was different than the one you knew. So that should be different too, shouldn’t it?”
“Yes, but there are a lot of reasons they never got that large in my time, and those reasons should still remain true. Geography hasn’t changed. The logistics of maintaining an empire across Central Asia are almost insurmountable with pre-industrial technology. Even with later technologies, it wasn’t possible. The fact that they also had cannons seven years ago, even crude ones, has always bothered me. None of it makes sense.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I don’t know exactly. But there’s more going on here, and until we find the answer, there’s still a chance there’s something out there that will be an issue. Possibly a fatal one.”
“You are too much of a pessimist. We’ll deal with that when it comes just as we always have,” Lucilla said. “For now, the war goes well and we are winning. You’ve pushed them back in Greece, Bomilcar has them retreating almost to Sarmatia, and Valdar controls the Middle Sea and has taken Alexandria. We are winning.”
“Yes,” Ky admitted. “For now.”
To Be Continued…
