Yuze and Fox had turned up communications between Beng Shai and the southern tribes. They hadn't managed to find anything very detailed, mostly vague suggestions and possibilities, but the level of communication, and the fact that some of it was clearly in a code Yuze hadn't broken yet, meant they could at least be assured that for the first time in their history, the northern and southern tribes had allied to fight the Camelia together.
During the previous conflict, many tribes had banded together; they'd even built the largest tribal alliance in the history of the borderlands, but there had still been a significant distance between the tribes of the northern plains and those of the southern plains.
And there was a very specific point of demarcation that neither tribe crossed.
The Blue River twisted its way down from the mountains that made up the Spine of the World, far to the west through Sorrow, the borderlands, and then the Land of Song and Snow before emptying out into the Deep Water. It cut through all areas of the borderlands, as it twisted through the world like a snake, but it spent most of its time in the central plains, where it flowed at the border that the tribes of the north and south did not cross.
It was the biggest terrain landmark in Eirian's area of responsibility in the coming campaign, and it split it in half. There were crossing points, but not many, and none of them were big enough to allow a company of a few thousand soldiers to cross quickly. Eirian and her commanders had already started trying to find ways to mitigate the limitations the river represented for their forces, and one of their first goals was gaining control of all the established crossings.
"The level of communication we found heavily suggests they've established some sort of formal agreement." Yuze briefed Eirian and her commanders once they'd arrived at the night's campsite, while the rest of the force worked to set up tents and lookouts for the night. "Even during the last war, they refused to officially ally against us, and it helped ensure we could always keep their forces separate and prevent them from gaining numerical superiority to a degree that we couldn't offset. If they've finally gotten past that, then there's likely southern forces in the north and vice versa." Yuze rubbed his temples. "Which means we need to adjust our expectations on who we're expecting to fight and what tactics they'll be using."
It would be a significant adjustment, and Eirian could feel her own headache building. Chenzhou and Mingzhe had built the three forces based on the tribes they'd expected to face in each of the specific areas; they'd even chosen the commands based on their experience fighting those tribes and those who had experience with those areas of the borderlands. Eirian, as the only one without fighting experience against the tribes, had taken the center, which was filled with smaller tribes and more villages under the protection of the Camelia than the north or south.
It wasn't that it was expected to be the easier fight, but that it was more like the situations the Imperial Army faced when it deployed from the capital to protect specific interests under threat from non-established threats, like roving bandits or mercenaries.
Eirian was essentially a sword for hire, except she was also Lady of the Camelia now, and Chenzhou was making a huge gesture by giving her an independent command and the freedom to fight her portion of the war the way she pleased.
And Eirian knew not everyone in the court was happy about it. Her four sub-commanders all came from different commands and owed their loyalties to different families in the court, and only Vitali Colfax was from a family that was openly supportive.
"This is a lot of change in a very short amount of time." Wayland frowned. "The tribes haven't changed in hundreds of years, why now?"
"Beng Shai's father almost managed it during the last war." Vitali pointed out. "It's not like it came out of nowhere."
"Even if you include that, it's still a short period," Wayland argued. "Significant changes take decades and generations to take place, but Beng Shai's father didn't start trying to gather the tribes until halfway through the last war, and even if Beng Shai is carrying that out, it hasn't been an entire decade. It's only been six years."
"Seven." Tanning corrected absentmindedly, staring down at the map spread out between them of the central prairie lands.
"Still not a decade," Wayland growled.
"There has to be a catalyst," Eirian agreed, mostly to keep the peace. "Something triggered it."
Wayland and Wen Chunhan looked surprised at her insight, but Vitali smirked.
Tanning was too distracted to notice.
"The Rock changes as it wishes, nature changes with the seasons, but humans only willingly change when forced to, so something triggered the change in the tribes. The bigger the change, the bigger the catalyst." Eirian explained. "What happened during the last war that made them change that much?"
None of them had an answer. Not even Yuze, who racked his extensive memory for something that would have made sense.
"It seems impossible that we would have missed something that big," he admitted.
"Or we didn't, and we just didn't attribute the same value to it that the tribes did." Vitali mused.
Yuze and Eirian groaned. "That means it could have been anything and it could have happened at any time, because there's no telling how long it took to get that kind of change underway."
"Regardless," Eirian pulled them back on track. "We need to be flexible with our plans moving forward and expect to change at the last minute. We have two more days before we reach the main camp, and we don't even know if that's still a viable location for headquarters for the campaign."
"I haven't heard of any specific tribal movement in that area." Yuze offered. "Most of their travel is further east, near the border with the Land of Song and Snow."
Something about that stuck with Eirian, but she wasn't sure why, and she didn't have the time to dwell on it now. She turned her attention back to the map and the route for the next day.
~ tbc