Dom asked Ou Yezi to his apprentice to wait beside Hypatia as he used his final Elite Villager Spawner.
[Rolling for Elite Villager.....Villager Chosen]
The doors opened again and a Woman from Asian decent appeared, she wore a Hanfu, which had red and white layers. She had a white headband that helped back her jet black hair. Beside her walked two other women dressed similarly. The Lead woman was slightly older than the other two, most likely in her late thirties, where as the others were in their early twenties.
They all bowed their heads very low, before the lead one raised her head and spoke.
"I am Lady Ban." She said gently. "These are my ladies in waiting. We have come to serve the Lord and the Lord's family."
Dom smiled back at her as he checked the System's stats.
[Consort Ban, Ban Jieyu
Villager Grade - S
Consort Ban also known as Lady Ban, was a Consort to Emperor Cheng of Han during the Western Han Dynasty. She was originally a Junior Maid before being taken as a Concubine to the Emperor.
She was a renowned Scholar and Poet. After not giving the Emperor a living heir, alongside his Empress, she was replaced by two dancing girls. She was accused of Witchcraft and defended herself by quoting Confucius, which brought her high acclaim from the Emperor and the Court.
From this she became a Lady in Waiting for the Empress Dowager and removed herself from the Emperor's side.]
Dom read her background and was impressed, she was different in skillset from both Hypatia and Ou Yezi, but she was helpful in more than one way. Firstly she could become the Head of the Household and run the day to day of the Town Centre, taking that job away from Meritamen, Lucius and Xun Yu. Alternatively she could work in the School and help with the education, as she was both a Scholar and a Poet.
"Welcome to Riverside." Dom replied kindly, "I am Lazarus, the Lord here, I am happy to have you here with us."
Lady Ban bowed again, as did her two ladies in waiting, as Dom directed them towards the Town Centre and his other new Elite Villagers. He was sure that they would soon be invited to be part of the council where the family heads and other Elite Villagers were involved in.
.....
Dom soon settled his new Elite Villagers and had to accost Shang Yang, to do the introductions, tour and discuss where they would be best placed, as Lucius was still busy taking Hatshepsut for her tour.
"We have gained a lot in a short period of time." Shang Yang had commented after he had settled them in. "We should use the most of the time before the departure to Tongpai Town to solidify our base. If we grow too fast, we will struggle to control and manage ourselves."
"I agree." Dom replied, "Meritamen and Xun Yu mentioned some minor disagreements earlier, she is looking in to ways to keep the Civilians together and feel at home in Riverside."
"I will do what I can do help her." Shang Yang agreed. "Togetherness is important. What is Meritamen's plan?"
"She is thinking of doing a competition of fitness and athleticism, where anyone can compete." Dom replied.
"That is a good idea for the more athletic Civilians, and for those who are not, to find someone to support." Shang Yang agreed, "However it won't pull everyone together. I think we should maybe do a founding Festival near the Market, where we can share different culinary styles and have different entertainment from the different cultures showed."
"We could also open the Gambling House and Tavern to the citizens and make it in to a family affair." Dom replied, "Let's get it organised, and have the message spread so that everyone has something to look forward to."
"I'll speak with Meritamen shortly and we will pull together a group of organisers and have it arranged for before the Tongpai excursion." Shang Yang stated.
"Thank you." Dom stated seriously, looking forward to what ever entertainment and celebrations were put on. "We need to make sure we do something for the Military as well."
"We do, but on a calmer scale as we need both the morale and command to be in good form." Shang Yang agreed.
....
Dom had returned to his room and donned his black armour, grabbing his slaying spear and placing his crested helmet on his head. He then headed towards the Military Zone where his horse was prepared and waiting for him.
Xun Yu soon joined Dom, also wearing battle armour that had been prepared for him by the Forbidden Guard and together they mounted a Red Hare horse each, and set off towards the Military Training Area that Subutai had set up in preparation for the departure to Tongpai Town. They were escorted by fifty Forbidden Guards, a handful of which were mounted on Sabre Tooth Tigers, one hundred and twenty Balearic Slingers, ten Hoplite, ten Horse Archers and thirty Legionaries from the Ninth Legion also joined them.
The large group of over two hundred warriors made the long march towards the east of Riverside, towards the original location of Banas's camp. Previously this march would have took them almost a day, however the Legionaries had been busy with some of the construction teams in building the start of a simple road to the east, that would link Riverside with the sea.
Dom rode his horse at the front of the column, with Xun Yu beside him. Behind him was Balius the Balearic Slinger Centurion and Chen Lu the Leader of the Forbidden Guard. Following them were the ten Hoplite, with their long spears held high, followed by the Legionaries and then the Balearic Slingers. The Forbidden Guard walked on the flanks, and the mounted Forbidden Guards and Horse Archers were either slightly ahead or slightly behind the column.
"When will you depart?" Xun Yu asked Dom ask they marched.
"Three days. Tomorrow we will spend with the Military, I will then be gone for a day as usual, and then the following day I have another Auction." Dom replied, "We will depart after the Auction, as long as Subutai feels we are ready."
"It will be interesting to see what plans Subutai and my cousin have come up with." Xun Yu said with a smile as he looked around them. They passed multiple fields, some of which had farmers planting on the land, or others where Ox were pulling tools through. There were also some small wooden shacks that had been placed here and there, where Farmers were using as temporary accommodation as the districts slowly grew.
"Those look like new trees?" Dom stated as he looked at a large field of small trees being planted, with a merchant ship anchored in a small bay in the River.
"They must be some that Crassus brought." Xun Yu replied, "Riverside is growing nicely, I'm happy that I came."
"So am I." Dom replied with a smile, patting Xun Yu on the shoulder as they continued to march.
As they marched, they passed several Watch Towers that had been built on the back of the Schematics that Sostratus has pulled together. They were smaller than Dom expected, but they were being used as quick messaging stations so that messages could be pushed forwards quickly. At each station was a Horse Archer, their only current Cavalry unit, who all greeted the passing convoy.
Dom decided that he would invest in having some of the youth of Riverside taking these posts eventually, but they would need a valid mode of transport. Currently he did have some spare Red Hare's that were primarily used by the Commanders and Spartan's. Red Hare's were a mighty horse and too much for a novice rider, so Dom needed to find something smaller.
.....
The sun had began to set as Dom's convoy approached the camp, they were still around fifteen minutes away and Dom's rear was sore from the slow riding with the Convoy. He could have ran ahead, but had decided to keep with his men and talk with Xun Yu. They had met an outlying scout party, who had fed back to Subutai of their arrival.
Subutai had decided to give Dom a surprise and had prepared the men, who had just returned from a day's training, in to formation at the entrance to the Camp. The mass of Warriors, their different armours shining in the setting sun caused Dom to breath heavily in awe at his growing army.
In the centre were one hundred and forty Hoplite, with a mixture of Spartan's who were leading each row of eight. A large amount of these Hoplite had come from the daily spawns, and the reallocation from Gan Ning's group who were now primarily the Sacred Band of Thebes. On each flank were forty Legionaries, with an additional forty Praetorian's behind them. On each flank were forty Horse Archers, and behind the Hoplite were the three hundred Celts that Crassus had brought along with him. To the far right were also a contingent of thirty Lancers from the Horse Archers Warriors Hall.
Subutai was clad in armour in the centre, with a small group of mounted Guard, a mix of Praetorian and Spartans. Beside him was Xun You who was wearing his robe, with some light armour covering him. In the front row, stood beside the Hoplite was Abubakar who was also heavily armoured. Dom found it quite funny to see Abubakar in that situation, as he had previously seen him primarily on horseback, and wasn't sure how he would do in a ground offensive.
Dom halted his column and shouted out to Subutai.
"General Subutai, your Army looks fierce in the sun set. I am proud to call them Warriors of Riverside!" Dom shouted loudly.
"For Riverside!" The Warriors chanted back, smashing their weapons against their own shields.
The Balearic Slingers behind Dom all looked on impressed at the small force in front of them, much smaller than the armies they had fought beside, but impressed to see such an organised and fierce army in front of them.
Subutai rode his horse forwards, and the lines separated so that he could walk through without any issues. As soon as he passed, the warriors reformed their ranks, the hole from Subutai's passing disappearing.
"Thanks for the reinforcements." Subutai said with a smile as he looked at the Balearic slingers and additional Warriors that Dom had brought.
"This is Balius, the Centurion of the Balearic Slingers." Dom introduced, "They will give you a light footed ranged force."
"Those slings look impressive." Subutai acknowledged, as he blew a whistle and Genghis his Eagle flew down and landed on his hand.
"How are the Mercenaries?" Dom asked as he looked passed Subutai to the line up behind.
"They are better than I expected." Subutai replied eagerly. "They can cause some serious chaos on a battlefield, and I expect they will be great at climbing over enemy walls as well. I need to do some more drills tomorrow, I can incorporate our new Warriors before then."
"We are looking to depart in three to four days." Dom said seriously.
"If you could send me some more reinforcements before then, I will be confident in our chances." Subutai said honestly.
"Three days, we can probably get another one hundred and fifty warriors if we send the majority here. A mixture of Legionaries, Hoplite, Horse Archers and some Forbidden Guard, if Xun Yan is happy with that." Dom replied, "We now have two Legionary Warriors Halls, but I'll tell you about that later."
"Two Legionary Warriors Halls?" Subutai questioned, "That is great news. I think it is best we keep as many Forbidden Guards in defence of Riverside as possible, we haven't cleared enough forest to keep Riverside undefended. I am sure that Tomyris and Tomoe will be keen to keep some form of unit whilst we resolve Tongpai Town."
"How has my cousin been?" Xun Yu asked, bringing his horse beside Dom.
"Amazing." Subutai replied seriously. "My expertise is Cavalry, but he has some great ideas for different formations and tactics for open field battle. I think it may be apt we bring Tomoe up for the Vanguard and potentially Tomyris or Liao Hua for additional support as well."
"Let's head to your command tent and discuss." Dom replied.