Something terrible has truly happened, you see, in my so-called 'race for India' I have completely neglected the fact that merchants like to carry information.
On its own not a big deal.
What is, is the fact that I wished to conquer India, and sadly this Information has reached Pala, which isn't a big deal.
What the fuckers did is a massive deal.
The Raj of Pala 'kowtowed' to the Tang dynasty, as such, if I were to attack the Raj of Pala I would be declaring war on the entirety of Tang.
Then something even worse happened, the southeast Asian tribes also knotweed to Tang.
This has surpassed the original Qing dynasty who in my home universe was the largest dynasty.
So now, if I want to finish my conquest I'd have to fight modern day China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Loas, and Vietnam.
This had made my original very joyful day into a very horrible one.
I simply wanted India and now, my entire goal was simply ripped away from my hands like I was a toddler and it was bedtime.
Unfortunate.
However mama didn't raise a quitter.
As such I just needed preparation.
I could in theory flex my magical powers and take the entirety of the Tang dynasty from the hands of Emperor Taizong.
However the entirety of china and its merit based administration would simply not be compatible with anyone of my, technically feudal government.
A complete and utter clash of government would only mean extreme conflicts of interest, culture, religion, and would no doubt shatter like glass upon the very moment I turn my attention anywhere that isn't scheming courtiers.
So what do I do?
I'm still getting Pala, just not right now.
"My Prince, something else you should know about" I wanted to hit my head on a table.
"Yes?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The… the Indians are beginning to worship you."
Oh.
That's not good.
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"So I will repeat this once again, I am not a god, I am a man, I bleed, I shit, I mess up, as any wise man would say 'to err is to human' as such I am not a god, do not consider me one, do not worship me as one" it was late night, and I gotta say, doing this same little speech I made up on the spot for the sixth time is exhausting.
"No wonder no one likes long speeches"
"But Pashu, you killed Shiva!" One of the females spoke out, her eyes bright with a light I simply couldn't stand.
"Banished? Yes! Killed? No!" I shook my head "I did not kill Shiva, I simply banished him back to where he belonged."
The people did not listen.
"My Prince if this continues on, even with your laws, it'll be sacrilegious to everyone involved" the Adviser spoke up with a frown on his face.
"Oh really?" I blinked at him.
"You brought down meteors!" A man shouted out.
"You revived the dead!" A woman raised a spear up.
"Only a god could do that!" A monk this time.
"A messiah!" A child screamed out
Now they're chanting my name.
All I wanted was to be powerful, conquer land and enjoy my life.
Not charge your religion.
Stop!
Stop converting to a religion that doesn't exist!
"CEASE!" I commanded as I placed both my hands up "since you all foolishly attempt to continue with this endeavor then let me end this here and now; if you attempt to worship me as your god, then you will face prosecution, as I am not a god it'll be with both my rights and within the laws to do so!"
The chanting finally stopped.
"I am Afsaneh, I am the only Prince of Persia, I am not a God" I nodded at my own words.
"Say your human"
Son of a bitch!
I looked at the person who said it and it was a Chinese man, it was easy to figure that out as he looked distinctly different from the people around him.
"I am Xuanzang, I am a monk, you claim you are not a god, and you do not call yourself human either, so what are you?" The people gave way as he walked forwards.
"So claim your humanity before us"
"I am human" I lied as easily as I breathed, I didn't expect to be called out by anyone here in all honesty.
The monk seemed to smirk at me.
I do not like the look on his face.
Ain't no way he knows.
"So, do not worship me, understand?" I saw nods around me and I silently breathed a sigh of relief.
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"…P-Prince the harvest hasn't been well since the Monsoon two years ago" a local village chief spoke as I looked around.
The fields are obviously barren and the malnourished people do make my heart ache a bit.
"I noticed, why hasn't the debris been moved?" I gestured to the still fallen trees and broken homes nearby.
"We… we haven't been doing well with the spirits either" the young chief spoke with shame, he was only appointing the title after his father passed due to illness.
"What do you have?" I asked as I walked to the grainy.
"Not much! B-but we can give you five barrels!" I opened the door and the emptiness was only emphasized by the echoes of his voice.
"Five barrels huh? Looks like you can't even get one" I pointed inside it as he looked like Shaw was covering him like a blanket.
"How can you promise me something when you literally don't have it nor anything to back it up?" I shook my head.
"My Prince, forgive me!" He fell to my knees, was he thinking I was going to execute him for this?
"Get up, you're just new to this, honesty is the best way forward. I need you to be honest with me. Whatcan you give me?"
He stood up "n-nothing My Prince."
"…you are excused from the taxes for two years, when the damaged is fixed you will repay 10% more to make up the difference for the next two years" I spoke as my advisor gave my th parchment and my seal.
"Your village is excused from taxes for two years and then after that you will pay 10% more for the next two years and then return to normalcy, am I understood?" I asked as I wrote it down and handed the rolled parchment to him.
"Y-yes! Thank you, My Prince!" The village Chief knelt before me.
"That's the fifth village you've excluded this week, My Prince" my Advisor spoke.
"What would you have me do? Have them pay me with their blood? They simply do not have it, as such I cannot tax them" I sighed as I mounted my donkey.
Yes, I own a donkey, and if you must know his name is Mule.
I am funny.
"Aren't you being too forgiving, My Prince?" The adviser asked as he got on his own horse.
"Yes, I could've had that chief whipped for lying to me, but what would that have gained? My wasted time, and an angry village?" I asked him.
"I'll tell you what that gets, revolts, and revolts lead to the death of an empire, as such I will rule with kindness and understanding" I spoke as we continued to the massive camp we've constructed to house our growing army.
Nearly 50,000 men and women have joined my force, and training them was initially difficult, but then once I had my first 1,000 get into the roles of training it became actually pretty easy.
Over 17,000 were heavy infantry, over 12,000 were a mix of light infantry and spearmen, 10,000 were bowmen, and finally nearly another 10,000 were Calvary.
Calvary is to be my secret ace, as Calvary weren't widely used as much as foot soldiers were, even in this day and age.
So the plan was this: pelt the enemy with the bowmen, lead them on with the Calvary on a mix of both day and night cycles so they won't get sleep.
The good 'ol trauma by horsie!
In the days where battles were happening entirely at day I needed something entirely new to defeat them.
It was difficult to organize let alone for the troops to understand.
"Tell me, generals, do you know how many troops Tang will have?" I asked as I met with my generals and commanders and poised small figures on a map to symbolize everyone's forces.
"More than us" smart ass.
"Try close to 500,000" I spoke as I finished up our war table.
"That's…"
"Ten times more than us, yes" I spoke as I sat on a pillow.
"We shouldn't, my Prince, Pala is lost" a general spoke with a frown.
"That sounds like the talk of a quitter and a loser; luckily I am neither" I spoke as I shook my head.
"We attack at night, not only that, we will split both our Calvary and our bowmen to distract and kite them to tire them out, do we have the horses from the steppes?" I asked as one of my generals nodded.
"We do, however, the Tang's horses will be faster no?" The general mentioned.
"Yes, however, they won't have the endurance the steppe horses do, we shall do a mix of both, the endurance horses in front and and the faster horse poised to be behind" I moved the figurines.
"It'll work like this: the endurance horses will lead on, and when their Calvary is far enough away, our faster ones will trap them into our kill box with our bowmen" I pointed at a ravine.
"At night this will work greatly, at day we will terrorize them with hit and run tactics that'll have them shaking" I spoke as I grabbed our light infantry figurines.
"First our light infantry will cut off supply lines, we will raid the Tangs' villages, we will burn villages, we will not kill civilians as we burn."
I grabbed the heavy infantry figurine "our heavy troops will be our 'shock' troops, small, and fast encounters; they will be using small ships, only the size of about a three tents they will raid farms, coastal tribes and towns will be taken by them"
"The goal isn't to kill innocent people but rather burn Tang's infrastructure and economy into nothing but mere copper, they will be forced into submission not with direct conflict but with attrition."
"…genius" oh yeah, they never heard of this.
"We are outnumbered 1:10, but with my tactics they will believe they are outnumbered, stick with the ideas, plan around them, and in a years time I will march to Chang'an with food and the civilians will let me in willingly" I spoke as as took a step back from the war table.
"Decide who's going to be night and day, I will show our men how to make the ships, follow me and I will break any enemy" I spoke.
I needed to install loyalty very early if I want to keep anyone by my side, victories will keep them loyal longer than most.
"We will not poison anyone, we will not kill anyone who doesn't have a weapon, am I clear?" I got nods all around.
"Good, now go, I expect good news every day." I spoke as they dispersed.
I needed this to only stay in this area or else I will have Charlemagne fighting the Arabs with a M42 and getting the Trench Crusade that I'm going to be forced to fight in when I get summoned in the future.
Fate gets weird like that.