CHAPTER 127: FUTURE OF THE EAST

"Same to you, admiral." I replied with a small smile, my calm tone standing to great juxtaposition against his own, as I gestured for him to rise and take a seat in front of me.

"What would you bid me do, sire? The eastern armada is ready at a moment’s notice to set sail!" He excitedly said, as he sat down.

Amused, I replied "It seems this war has not managed to sate your hunger, admiral. The conflict has just ended, and you’re already itching for the next."

He paused for moment at the sound of my words, his constant smile slightly receding, before he said in resolute conviction "Please don’t misunderstand, my liege. I crave more battle not because I am blood crazed, but because I refuse to see my father’s legacy be brought to irrelevance and mockery by the empire."

I grew quiet for a brief moment, his feelings of paternal, not only love, but almost worship and idealization, completely foreign to me, as I asked "Your father was a former captain of the eastern navy, was he not?"

"Indeed he was. Captain of the thirty seventh swift assault galley of the fourth squadron of the eastern navy!" He declared with great pride, as if his father’s deeds were his own, before then he said with a tinge of regret in his voice "That was until he was forced to retire, after a certain ambush by three pirate ships left him with a lame leg."

Confused by this, I asked "What? Left with a lame leg? He didn’t receive treatment by the priests and military doctors?"

My question elicited a small laugh from him, as he explained "It’s not that he wasn’t offered to be healed, sire, it’s more akin to him stubbornly refusing to be mended, proclaiming that he was already old and that this wound was the last medal of honour he would receive from his beloved duty."

I stared at him for a moment, before a small smile graced my features "A true warrior."

"Indeed he was." Khairuddin affirmed, his usual smile now returned to him.

"But I am still perplexed about your enthusiasm, admiral. I understand your wish to honour your father’s legacy, but anyone who’s even slightly skimmed the battle report would easily discern that the eastern army only held on for so long, under the superior and more numerous enemy forces, partly in due to the navy’s masterful assistance." I calmly said.

"Yes indeed sire, you are absolutely correct. But how much glory is there to find in raiding supply routes and harassing the enemy’s backlines? How many songs and ballads would be written of such tactics and events, no matter how effective and significant they were?" He said lightly, with a nonchalant tone that tried to mask the dissatisfied whisper laced within.

A large satisfied smile emerged upon my lips as he finished his words, my mind already having connived a way to both secure this monster in the making’s loyalty, as well as prepare for my plans against the Yue Dynasty, as I said "I suppose that’s true, compared to the army’s colossal accomplishments, the navy’s presence in comparison would indeed seem lackluster."

A happy glint flashed through his eyes, as if he was delighted to finally speak to one who understood his struggles, as he exclaimed "Exactly! Your imperial majesty has truly grasped the plight of our navy!"

"A plight indeed, admiral. One that seems to be impossible to solve, despite our mutual desire to address it. After all, there are no more adversaries for the eastern navy to face anymore." I sadly said, a sly hint in my words, like casting a bait and awaiting the much anticipated bite.

And bite did Khairuddin, easily picking up on the sent of fresh conspiracy, as his large eyes narrowed in a cunning light, his words now oozing with intrigue "A truly pathetic tragedy, one that has plagued the eastern navy for a long time, sire."

Smiling, I casually stand from my seat, and make my way to the large eastward facing window that overlooked the docks of Appethus, where the navy currently resided "Tell me something admiral, during the time of my late father’s rule, you opposed the court’s decision to transfer some of the eastern navy’s budget to the western one, correct?"

The edge of his lips imperceptibly twitched, remembering a few unwanted memories, before he answered "Yes I did, sire."

"And why was it rejected at the time?" I asked again.

"Because they saw no reason for the continued ’inflated budget’, as they called it at the time, for my navy, so they planned to have many of our ships decommissioned, or to be transferred over to become trading vessels to help the empire’s economy." He said bitterly, his hands clenched "All because they believed that no use would ever come from my ships, as no enemies would face us there, meanwhile the western navy would need far more reinforcements, since they routinely have to face the forces of the Western Nations, the Pirate Kings and even the Luminous Navy on occasion." He finished with a depressed sigh, since he couldn’t argue against any of these points, not then and not now.

The western waters of the empire were plagued with unending turmoil, and if it wasn’t for my uncle’s fearsome presence and ingenious leadership there over the long years, then only the Gods knew what sort of travesty the western provinces would be like today; a den of poverty, piracy and destitution.

Meanwhile the eastern waters were practically a paradise, with peace and prosperity all year round, the seas basically becoming the safe haven for many tradesmen and merchants, who came in pursuit of honest living. And while there is the occasional ripple of disturbance from a few pirate ships here and there, it was still nothing compared to the tumultuous waves of the west, since those in the east were not unified under the rule of the so called pirate kings, but were at most a handful of lonely ships, drifting from island to island in search of some unlucky merchant vessel to prey upon and then quickly disappear again, before the navies of either my own Eclipse Empire or those of the Yue Dynasty came looking for them.

Undoubtedly a veritable malediction in the eyes of men like Khairuddin, who covet conflict and glory more than life itself, creating an ironic contradiction of the two, one was always on the brink of drowning in battles and skirmishes, practically up to their nose in unending strife, while the other was in a barren wasteland of wealth and prosperity, devoid of all means of war and bloodshed, like parched paupers, begging for a drop of enmity to wet their throats with.

"Then how about you and I change that fact." I said with a large grin, one that stretched unnaturally with a predatory design across my lips.

"You mean for us to fight against those in the south, sire?" He asked with his right eyebrow cocked in confusion, since he didn’t hear much of those tribes owning much of a navy, but there was still a level of glee to his words, finally he could achieve his dream and honour his father, but my coming words instead rattled him to the core.

"Naturally you will have to face those to the south eventually, but those of whom I speak of today are those to the north." I finished with a sly grin.

Khairuddin’s mind seemed to momentarily pause, before his voice exploded out, even jumping out of his chair "The Yue Dynasty?! Sire, that’s suicide!"

"Is it?" I asked in amusement.

"My liege, even if we somehow combine both the empire’s fleets, we would be left with a total of six hundred ships. That’s not even as much as their southern fleet, which holds no less than a thousand warships! Never mind their other fleets, which would almost reach a grand total of four thousand ships! Even..." He wanted to continue, but seeing the calm look on my face, he realized that I would obviously know all of this, so he quieted down and asked with a healthy amount of scepticism "What do you have in mind, sire?"

"You are correct in saying that facing the Yue Dynasty’s fleet in the open water is madness. In fact, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that they are the naval hegemons of the entire world right now. But as usual, their numbers are both their greatest advantage and most sinister hindrance." I cryptically answered, trying to further test my newest admiral.

And he didn’t disappoint, as he not only understood, but even shook his head, arguing "I have thought the same as you once, my liege. To use their own unmanageable numbers and cumbersome weight against them, but even then it is still hopeless, for such a war will absolutely last months if not years, and we would eventually be worn out by the sheer unending multitudes of their forces. We simply don’t have the men."

"You correct." I agreed, but then said "So that is why we have to slowly weaken them over time, while quietly building up our own power."

"How?" He asked, his face an animated mask of curiosity and elation, all tied together by a chain of impatience.

"Through the pirates." I calmly answered with a wicked smile, shocking his previously heated mask into one of pure astonishment.