Aeryon walk around the tent and wherever he goes, the warriors bows slightly at him. Aeryon nodded at them.
Even though Aeryon is very young, the coldness of his expression negate the effect of youth. And those who are guarding his tent were all people who have witnessed him fighting.
They admire him and they fear him.
Aeryon after taking so many people into the tribe now have fifty men guarding his large tent.
His tent is the largest and there is fifty men around his tent doing nothing simply but to ensure his safety.
Since he is not as invincible like he is before he is afraid of being rushed by these people that he had subjugated.
But is that the only reason? Why would he waste manpower like this?
Aeryon had his own reason. He is not trying to be an enlightened ruler. He rules over nothing right now. The lands that he takes, the people that he subjugated, this are not yet firmly in his hand
If he makes mistake, if he shows weakness, he probably could not even grasp this stuff that he had
All of this is to make himself grand.
Why? Because he wanted to established his prestige. This might be a crude way of doing it but this way works for the people of the Great Steppe
Just by looking at his tent and looking at how many people guarded his tent, it shows his power.
On the other hand, to Aeryon this is the most economical method. He did not build new places or construct a castle.
Instead, he simply enlarged his tent, and put more people all around his tent, creating prestige out of nothing
Aeryon knows how important prestige are in the society of the Great Steppe. It is this invisible thing that is prized ever so heavy in the Great Steppe
With prestige he could do many things and have greater influence and it would even the loyalty of his people.
And a leader with great prestige have greater negotiating power with other tribes.
They would be seen as a more credible and powerful leader, which could give them an advantage in negotiations or disputes.
Right now, Aeryon need to establish his prestige. Of course, the primary reason why there is so many people around his tent is still and always will be, his safety
He could not do anything if he is dead.
However, since he now had the skill, he felt a little bit confident in himself
'Six tribes' he mutters to himself. He had subjugated six tribes.
'I should scout the tribes around me, get at least a sense of who's who in the area around me and understand the forces around me'
Aeryon then gesture to one of the guards.
The guard is a young man.
'Go call Mayeux to my tent'
The young man nodded and quickly execute his order.
Aeryon returns to his tent.
He sat down cross legged. He is quite amused at this. As James, he knows he could not sit cross legged.
He tried but it felt so weird and painful for him.
But for some reason when he sit cross legged in front of the small table in front of him, he felt that it is very natural for him
'Some habits and feeling lingered and some did not' he thought to himself. Like his familiarity with the horse
But, there is also some things that the original Aeryon had but he did not like his proficiency with the archery skills.
But now that he had the archery skill, he would not mind practicing it every day.
'And I also need to learn how to read' he mutters to himself. There is many things that he need to learn.
To conquer the world in this era does not require you to learn how to read.
To even find a person among the vast Great Steppe that knows how to read is very rare.
You might find some at the large tribe and even then some of the large tribe did not have people who could read.
Aeryon agree that in this era of cold weapons, to rule the world you do not need to know how to read.
But, for him that come from the future, it would feel very weird for him to not know how to read
'Maybe, I should create a language' In his memory, he knows that the people of the Great Steppe did not have a unified language and there is also no alphabets. The few that have alphabets of their own is hard to write.
Aeryon does not intend to teach everyone to read or write. He believes that even if he created new alphabets, he did not ned to be too detailed as language will evolve to become more sophisticated the more people uses it.
Aeryon then shook his head.
'Only three days had passed. I am thinking too far ahead' he mutters to himself. Aeryon is a history buff.
But that is his self-proclaimed title.
He knows history and he knows strategy of war. But it is different knowing the strategy and employing it.
The best way to win is always to accumulate strength and then break all schemes and plots. Genghis Kahn won through many great strategies but it is also because as his place of rule increases he has more manpower and so that effect double. It wasn't until his death that the passion of the Mongolian conquest stopped with his sons fighting for their fathers territories, carving up his empire among themselves.
Aeryon does not remember everything he reads and not everything he reads is suitable for his circumstances and conditions.
Some strategy could only work at those specific conditions.
'So, it is always better to be steady and stable' he close his eyes as he waited for Mayeux.
In the war games he played, there is an important truth that he had learned.
When your base foundation is sturdy, when your resources outdo your enemy, when your people surpass the enemy, then everything is easy
Even a mistake would not capsize your entire enterprise.
The wind from the outside sometime flaps the curtain on the front tent and then there is voice from the outside announcing Mayeux
'Come in!' Mayeux enters and quickly kneels toward Aeryon. Aeryon seeing this laughed
'Before, you did not kneel when you see me. Now you kneel before me.' Mayeux is silent for a second before he spoke again after sensing the silence
'That was then. This is now'
Aeryon hearing such a simple answer was not angry. Instead, he laughed
"You are a smart man"
"Thank you for the compliment, Chief"
"Dispense with such formalities. You are of my own." Hearing this Mayeux nodded
Unlike the people of Yan that will reject these kinds of things a few more times, the people of the Great Steppe is very direct.
And Mayeux could tell that Aeryon is not the kind of person who likes this kind of formality.
And Aeryon did not delay as he quickly tells him
"I have subjugated six tribes. The tribe under me in just three days had become large. There is many things that needs to be settled. I see that you are versed in mater of strategy. I wanted to know if you have your own thoughts on what to do?"
The wind blows, the curtain flaps and the coldness of the steppe enter into the tent.
There is silence between them.
Mayeux look at Aeryon and wanted to see whether this is him simply testing him or is he really wanted to hear his opinion.
Different tribe have different way. This is a famous saying among the people of the Great Steppe.
Some tribe have chief who could hear the options of other
Some believe that it degrade the authority of the leader.
Some hated others people words and listen to only their hearts. Aeryon could see the hesitation on Mayeux part and he laughed
"I am not like those men. I am sincere in wanting to know what you think. Fear me not. I guarantee this"
Hearing this Mayeux is a little bit relieved.
It so good to have a leader who is perceptive.
After all, it is hard for him to ask for conditions but Aeryon himself had put on conditions on himself and that made it easier for him to be honest
"I do have a few strategy"
Aeryon nodded, gesturing for him to continue
"First, I would like to ask how does the Chief feels about the Utgard tribe?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you want to attack their tribe?"
Aeryon ponder the question for a while and then instead of answering the question, he said something else
"What if I want to attack them?"
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