Book 1 - Reap the East Wind Read Online Free PDF Page A

west?” The Tervola feared the west more than the numerically stronger south.
    “I’ve told Hsung to normalize. To avoid confrontation. To shift his emphasis from the military to the political. They’re vulnerable in their disunity. Intrigue should be his weapon of choice. It could be decades before we avenge our dead. We have to digest what we’ve taken.”
    Lord Kuo impressed Shih-ka’i now. His inflammatory demagoguery had been, apparently, a device to push Ko Feng aside. Today he was talking a more realistic response to the empire’s problems. Maybe he could reverse the trend toward chaos that had set in with the deaths of the Princes Thaumaturge.
    Their swift parade of successors had shattered stability by warring among themselves while launching unwise foreign adventures.
    “I’ll be pleased to command Eastern Army. I’m honored that you think me competent. I’ll begin selecting staff today.”
    A faint irritation flickered across Kuo’s face. He was being dismissed—he. Then he smiled. Ssu-ma could not shake old habit. Younger men were trainees... He rose. “I wish you luck, Lord Ssu-ma.”
    “Thank you.” Shih-ka’i wasn’t really listening. He was engrossed in his work once more.
    He had to hide in the training reports for a while. This stroke of fortune would take some digesting.

    Shih-ka’i found that he had to guard thirty-four hundred miles of border with thirty thousand men. The eastern legions were, at least, at strength. None had been involved in the ill-starred western campaign.
    He also had to govern and keep the peace in the military frontier zone.
    His predecessor had done the obvious and employed local auxiliaries. They weren’t much. The peoples of Shih-ka’i’s new proconsulate were all savages. Only a few tribes had a Bronze Age level of technology, though storytellers spoke of a past age of greatness. They had revealed a few ruins in support of their claims.
    Shih-ka’i followed the lead of his predecessors and made his headquarters with the Seventeenth Legion. The Seventeenth’s zone of responsibility faced the questionable desert. The legion had taken all the reported losses.
    The Seventeenth had raised a stout new fortress just miles from the edge of the badlands. Shih-ka’i arrived to find the commander engaged in a vigorous program of exploration. One wall of the fortress’s main hall had been plastered smooth. Legionnaires were painting in a huge map, bit by bit, as exploratory teams contributed details. Shih-ka’i did not bother visiting his new quarters before going into conference.
    He strolled along the one-hundred-fifty-foot length of the wall, studying and memorizing each detail. At one point he asked, “Does it truly begin this suddenly?” He indicated a line near the floor, where green gave way to brown along a well-defined line.
    The commander of the Seventeenth, Lun-yu Tasi-feng, replied, “Virtually, Lord Ssu-ma. It fades from forest to grassland to dust and sand within a mile. Were the wind not blowing consistently eastward, the desert would crawl this way like an unstoppable army.”
    “Rainfall?”
    “Considerable, Lord. Both here and there. In the desert you can watch the clouds pile up against these mountains, but nothing grows.”
    “Uh-hmm.” Shih-ka’i studied the sketchy outline of the mountain chain. “Rivers?”
    “Several flow out. The only life we’ve found is a few fish that have swum upstream. They don’t travel far. They find nothing to sustain themselves.”
    Shih-ka’i let his gaze wander. In time, he asked, “Elements of the Seventeenth were involved in the war with Escalon, were they not?”
    Tasi-feng replied, “I was there myself, Lord.”
    “Does this compare to the desolation created there?”
    “It’s even more thorough, Lord. The thought occurred to me too. I’m operating on the assumption that the land was smitten by the Power, though we’ve yet to find certain proof.”
    “Historical research?”
    “Nothing