THE VANISHED EMPIRE by Andrej Koymasky (C) 2006 written on February 11, 1995 translated by the author English text kindly revised by John
USUAL DISCLAIMER
"THE VANISHED EMPIRE" is a gay story, with some parts containing graphic scenes of sex between males. So, if in your land, religion, family, opinion and so on this is not good for you, it will be better not to read this story. But if you really want, or because YOU don't care, or because you think you really want to read it, please be my welcomed guest.
THIRD - GANO'S CONQUESTS, AND ELIMINATION OF THE ORDER
3.1 - Gano eliminates Granla and Noma
On the following day they resumed their discussion. Then there was lunch, and after lunch Gano asked the count to introduce him all his family. The host, still without any suspicions, sent for his wife, his three children, his two brothers and his sisters. When all of them were gathered in the room, Gano said he was really glad to meet all of them. Meanwhile his generals had the servants and the ladies-in-waiting leave the room, and closed the door. At this point Gano extracted a gold chain and went behind the count, as if he wanted to girdle it on his neck and shoulders, but instead he looped it round his neck and tightened it, while Usae stabbed his chest. His generals, who had already unsheathed their swords unseen, and who had stood next to all the members of the count's family, at once killed all of them, before even one of them had time to emit a yell.
Then, piling up the corpses on the blood-soaked carpet, they covered them with other carpets. Gano, with Usae and Yude, escorted by ten of his generals, went out leaving the other five in the room. He reached the count's throne hall nearby, sat on the throne, summoned the constable and told him he immediately wanted to meet all the nobles and knights who were present in the castle. The man, slightly surprised, asked where the Count was. Gano quietly answered that he was now in the adjoining room, resting, and ordered him to hurry up to execute his order.
All the summoned people came. Gano told them that, being the lord of their lord, he wanted their allegiance. Even if somewhat hesitantly, they could only kneel. Then Gano asked them to surrender their weapons to his generals. Most of them handed over their swords and scabbards, but one of them stood up asking where the Count was.
"He is in the room behind that door, with his family, and they all are resting in peace, forever." Gano answered without getting upset.
That noble then unsheathed his sword, but he at once fell dead, pierced by the sword of one of Gano generals. Gano, still quietly seated on the count's throne, asked if any others wanted to unsheathe their swords. All of them handed over their weapons.
The constable, pale as a bedsheet, asked Gano what his orders were. Gano nodded - he asked for an oath of allegiance. Whoever didn't feel like giving it, would be put in prison for about one month, but then would be free to leave. But those who, after swearing allegiance to him, even slightly disobeyed his orders, would be executed on the spot, without mercy. Only three of them refused to swear. Gano had those three men tied up and then gave their weapons back to all the others. He appointed as the regent of the castle in his place the general Sami, ordering the nobles to blindly obey his orders, and ordered that no one, for any reason, be told about what had just happened, as long as a different order was issued.
He then went to take Keli and proposed to go away with him.
"My uncle the count..." the boy said, somewhat hesitant.
"He will not oppose you, don't worry. Do you want to come with me then?"
"With real joy, prince."
"Let's go, then."
"I've to take my belongings, to greet..."
"You don't need them. Come."
"I have at least to change these clothes..."
"Come as you are. Tonight you will be in my bed, in my castle. You will find changes there..."
All went as smooth as silk. They left, greeted by the constable, with all the honors. Back at Suki, he waited for two days as planned, just resting, eating and making love with the beautiful Keli. Then Gano left the boy there and went to Noma.
Here also they were received with some wariness at first. They repeated their story about the weapons. The count answered making him notice that it was Granla that specialized in the making of weapons. But Gano explained to him that, having in mind the construction of new models, he thought better to entrust the task to people not too much tied to the traditional procedures, to young people who wanted to experiment with something new. If all went in the right way, Noma could do good business with the new kinds of weapons. The count asked to have time to discuss the issue with his counselors, and Gano accepted.
The counselors said that the projects seemed realizable, that they were worth trying. They discussed, and made the count notice, that to start such a production from nothing, large amounts of money were needed. Gano made a sign to one of his generals who went to fetch a casket, filled with hold ingots.
"Here, Count, this is just to start. Is this enough?" Gano asked with a smile.
The count widened his eyes and said that certainly, it was more than good, for a start...
Here a lavish supper was also held, where the count introduced his wife, his five children, his two sisters, a cousin... Gano, amiably, asked if there were other relatives at the castle. There was only the old father of the count, seriously ill, who could not participate to the supper. Gano asked if he could go upstairs to greet the old man. The count seemed pleased by this kindness and accompanied him. Then everybody retired to sleep.
On the next day, after lunch, the count led Gano, Usae and Yude to the entertainment hall. "I was informed that your excellencies take delight in looking at handsome boys, so I dared to offer you a reserved show..." he said making his guest seated.
He clapped his hands and six youths wearing warriors' attire, and six more holding musical instruments, entered the hall.
The count explained, "What I want to offer you is a set of old dances of my people, To start, a war dance, then a countryman's dance, and last a love dance, just slightly modified to please you." he said with a cunning smile, "You can start!" he then said to the boys.
The first dance was beautiful, subtly erotic, and in a whirling of swords, with jumps and twines, displayed the beautiful bodies of the youths, their gushing virility. The dancers were all between sixteen and twenty one years old, one for each year, the count explained in a whisper to Gano, then, pointing at one of them, he said that at times he too did take his pleasure with that boy... During the dance the six boys had pulled off their suits of armor, and their bodies, wrapped tightly in colored attire, now were showing their perfect shapes.
For the second dance, the six boys were with bare chests and feet. This was a dance for the celebration of the harvest, the count explained, where the youths of the village try too become desirable to the girls eyes. "But now they are trying to become desirable to your eyes, of course..." the count added with a conspiratorial smile.
In fact the dance was more and more explicitly erotic, and the three guest were visibly pleased with it. Gano asked the count if he often had those dances performed.
The count nodded, "Yes, for special guests like you, now, or for some good friends, like Sote's count..."
For the third dance, the six boys wore just a narrow and tight loincloth, generously full. This was a dance that countrymen executed for their wedding celebrations. Normally it was done by three boys and three girls, but for this occasion... the count said. In this dance the erotic content was explicit - the boys were touching, intertwining, and simulated coitus... Gano asked the count if Sote also liked handsome boys like him, in spite of being married.
The man smiled nodding, "And how! He likes a ripe, virile young man, like that one... In fact I always reserve that handsome and hot hunk for the count Sote, when he is my guest..."
After the dances, Gano made his compliments and asked if by chance the musicians were also available for the guests...
The count nodded, "Certainly yes!" he said and added that if they wanted to chose one or more of the boys for the night...
He made the twelve boys parade in front of the guests and introduced each of them by name. Gano made his choice, then also Usae and Yude. The count dismissed the boys and assured his three guests that during the night the chosen boys would be fully available for their pleasure.
Gano asked him how he chose those twelve boys. The count explained that they were the fruit of three years of research carried out by two of his more trustworthy knights, with that purpose. Gano asked to meet them and his request was at once satisfied. In the afternoon they discussed some more about the weapons and the new industry, then, after a lavish supper, they hit the bed.
When Gano entered in his room, the boy he choose was already there, waiting for him. He was eighteen years old, had luminous eyes, and when Gano started to undress him, saw that the boy was already fully aroused. He pushed the boy onto his bed, laid on top of him and started to make love with him. At first the boy seemed somewhat embarrassed, but gradually started to reciprocate with increasing passion and spontaneity. The boy was really hot, and Gano fully enjoyed riding him for a good part of the night.
On the following morning, Yude asked in a whisper to Gano if they could take some of the boys with them. Gano answered that they would surely take away all of them, and that he rather was thinking to give them to Yude, all twelve boys. Laughing, they went to resume their false negotiations. When it was lunch time, Gano asked the count to have a private meal, the three of them with the Count's family. The man accepted without any worry. When they were in the private dining room, Gano's generals went in the anteroom, and sent the servants away, telling them that it would be them to serve at the table. At first the servants were somewhat amazed, they didn't know if they had to comply or not. But in the end they surrendered their trays to the generals and left. Then the generals poured abundant poison onto half of the food on each plate and then entered to serve it.
The count was surprised seeing the generals serving at the table, but Gano explained him that this was just a sign to express how much he esteemed the count... The generals served the food, taking it from the poisoned part for the count and his family, and from the other side for Gano and his men. The count made a toast to the price's health, and Gano returned it, and everybody started to eat. The poison was totally tasteless, but really powerful. The first to fall was the younger daughter of the count. The man stood up, becoming pale, and his sister fell down. Then his son, and his wife. The count yelled and unsheathed his sword, but he too collapsed, while the generals were firmly holding the count's cousin who seemed still not to react to the poison. But finally he too, fell down, like all the others.
In a short time, all were dead. Then Gano went upstairs to kill the old father of the count. He went downstairs again to the count's hall where meanwhile his general had gathered the count's men. The men, at the news of the death of the count and of all his family and when Gano asked for their allegiance, at once rebelled. But after a short struggle they were overwhelmed by the generals and killed. Their shouts called other men of the count, but Gano, who went out to face them, managed to convince them to surrender their weapons and swear allegiance to him. As before, he offered them the choice to swear or to be imprisoned for a full month. Almost all of them swore. Gano also left one of his generals there as regent of the earldom, and put everybody under his orders.
They then proceeded to take the twelve youths and went back to Suki. Then they left again to deal with Sote.
3.2 - Sote's elimination and the attack on the Eightfold Order
Gano had brought with him a young soldier of extraordinary beauty, with whom at times he took his pleasure, and explained to him that he was to make love with count Sote for a couple of nights. The soldier obeyed without any problem.
Sote received them with more or less the same wariness as the others. They also gave him the same speech about the weapons. When Gano perceived that the mistrust of the count was lessening, he took him aside and, showing him the soldier he brought with him, told him that the youth was his personal present... The count's eyes lightened with greed and asked him if the present was forever or just for the days of the visit. Gano, with a smile, granted him that he could have the beautiful soldier for the rest of his life...
During the supper Sote introduced him to his wife and son. Gano congratulated him, then asked if there were other relatives... The count said that there were his two brothers, but that at present they were away hunting in the mountains and they would be back only three or four days later. After supper Gano asked Sote how he could enjoy that beautiful soldier he gave him without his wife knowing it. Sote answered that for years they really slept in separate rooms... just because he wanted to enjoy his sexual freedom. That's why, he added he didn't want guards on the corridor of their rooms and there was a special stairway connecting his room with his dressing room - it was from there that he had his lover come, at night time. Gano asked him if this arrangement was not dangerous... Sote smiled - for this reason, he explained, four of his more trusted men, well armed, slept in the dressing room, and they would open only to the person knowing the password, that is to his lovers, and that they searched them carefully before letting them go upstairs...
Good, Gano thought - four men in the dressing room, four more outside the door of the corridor leading to the count and his family's rooms... Easy like a childen's game. He waited for that night. The day before he had asked his soldier for the password he had to use the following night, and how the four men inside the dressing room were placed. During the day the discussions continued, and they spent the day pleasantly.
At night Gano divided his men in two groups - Yude and Usae with six generals would accompany the soldier to the dressing room and when the men inside opened the door, they would break into, killing the four guards. Then, led by the soldier, while four remained on guard in the dressing room, two would go the the count's bedroom, overcome him and kill him. Meanwhile Gano with the other generals would show up at the door to the corridor asking the soldiers to go and wake up the count. In the meantime, Usae and the other generals, splitting in two groups, had to look for the count's wife and son's rooms and kill them. Gano and the others had to kill the four men on guard and when the door could be opened from inside, they would take the four bodies inside, closing the door again and going downstairs through the dressing room stairway...
Everything went exactly as planned. In the middle of the night the change for the four men on guard at the count's appartments arrived. Not finding the four guards at their place, the chieftain gave the alarm. Gano and his men came out of their rooms, with their weapons, asking what was happening. There was confusion. Gano, being the prince, easily got the attention of the subordinates - he ordered that nobody should move from their assigned places, while he, with the constable and his generals, tried to understand what was happening.
They went to the count's apartments where the constable, worried, knocked without getting an answer. Gano asked him if there was another access to the count's apartments. The constable hesitated, but then told him that, yes, in reality there was a secret stairway in the dressing room. Gano left six of his generals on guard in front of the door to the count's apartments, and went downstairs with the constable and the other generals to the dressing room.
When they entered it, the constable, seeing the corpses of the count's four trusted guards, turned pale and, looking at Gano, said, "This is your deed, isn't it?"
Gano unsheathed his dagger and pointed it at the constable's throat, "Sure. It's useless to continue in this pretence. The count, his wife and his son, all had the same end. Now we have to sort out the two count's brothers."
"You will never go out from here alive - the count's men will revenge him..."
"Are you forgetting that half of the count's soldiers are my men, constable? If you want to avoid a reciprocal massacre, you had better collaborate."
"But why? Tell me only why, Lord..."
"Because he was conspiring behind my back, together with Noma and Granla, after I gave them their feoffs. Anyway they are also no longer living because I cannot permit my men to plot behind my back."
"I understand. What are your orders, prince?"
"You have to say nothing to anybody, for now, and you have to gather all the influential persons at present here in the castle. I want to speak to them. I'll wait for you all in the count's great hall. But first I want your oath that you will not try to hinder my orders."
"Prince, I vowed allegiance to the count..."
"Right, as he vowed it to me. And then tried to betray me. As earlier he betrayed count Noma."
"I am not used to betrayal, Lord." The aged costable proudly said.
"That's why I'm asking you to give me your oath of loyalty."
"Don't ask me the impossible. I shall do everything you are asking me, prince, as you asked me... But afterwrds, let me put an end to my life..."
"If this is what you desire... But it is a pity, because I would like having you in my service - you are a honest man..."
"For that, Lord, don't ask me to do more than I can do."
"What's the sense in killing yourself, if now you obey me?"
"Lord... I cannot soil my hands with the count's brothers' blood; this is what will happen later, won't it?"
"Yes, certainly... I understand you. You have all my esteem and respect. But now go, do as I ask you. Then you are free to end up as you decide."
Gano waited, with his men, in the count's hall. The men summoned by the constable started to flow in, and were surprised at seeing the prince sitting on the count's throne. Last, the constable entered.
He knelt in front of the prince, "All the men you wanted to see, excellency, are here. Allow me, now, to... leave."
"Yes, you can." Gano said looking straight in his eyes.
The aged man drew out his dagger, kept it pointing to his heart and threw himself onto it on the floor, stabbing himself and dying with a start, without emitting a single lament. The men gathered in the great hall emitted a kind of chocked yell, stopped by a prince's gesture. Gano stood up from the throne, drew near the lifeless body and, pulling off his mantle, spread it on the body, in sign of great respect.
Then still sitting on the count's throne, he said, "This was one of the best men of all my domains. Peace be to his soul. Are you asking the reason of his gesture? I will explain it to you - I came here to punish my vassal for his attempt to betray me. And I punished him in the only possible way - taking his life, that of his wife and of his son. The constable, even though he recognized my right to do so, wanted to follow his lord. I regret his decision, but I respect it. I would have liked it if the count had the same loyalty for me, and I would not have been forced to take this step. The alternative to what I've done, would have been a war, where he would have met the same end anyway, but with him many of his and my men. Therefore I preferred this way. With the count's death, you all are freed from the oath you gave him. Now I ask you to surrender all your weapons to me."
For a moment nobody moved. Then one of the men took his sword from his side and went to deposit it in front of the throne. Then, all the others, one by one, followed suit.
When all were disarmed, Gano said, "Good. Now I ask you who want to, to make the loyalty oath to me - but remember, I am a severe lord. Before making your oath think well, I don't admit second thoughts, later. Who amongst you does not feel like vowing me obeisance and loyalty, will not be punished for that, he will be free to leave my domains with all his family. I respect honesty, I punish treason. So, then, who of you is ready to make me the solemn oath of loyalty, now has to kneel."
Many knelt, only seven remained standing up. Gano had them tied by his generals, "For the moment you will be kept in custody, for a few days, then you will be escorted to the boundaries of my domains, with your families. Don't be afraid, nobody will harm you, you have my word. You others can take back your swords, I give them to you again and confirm you in your previous roles and functions. General Tannj will be my regent in this castle - you have to take orders from him in all and for all. Tomorrow you will meet with general Tannj. We will stay in this castle for a few more days. You can go now..."
Gano summoned the beautiful soldier in his bedroom - he needed to relax for a while, before sleeping. After making love with him, he asked, "Tell me, how was the count?"
"In bed, you mean?"
"Yes..."
"Passive."
"You mean that he liked being a bottom?"
"Not only that. Passive, in the true meaning of the word - he laid down motionless and let me do everything..."
"But... did he come?"
"Yes, as soon as he felt me having my orgasm inside him, he came, without touching himself. Something like that never happened to me before."
"Then it was not so agreeable, for you..."
"Not very much, prince... But you repaid me, now..."
"Even though you had to receive me inside you?"
"Sure, even now. Because in you there is life, fire, passion..."
"What a flatterer you are!"
"No, prince. I like being a top better than a bottom, honestly, and yet I enjoy being the bottom for one like you rather than being the top for one like the count..."
When the two count's brothers came back to the castle, as soon as they got down from their horses, they were escorted without explanation to a room where they were stabbed to death.
Gano went back to his Suki castle. His men, coming back from the borders, told him that no messengers were sent from any of the three castles. Then Gano, taking a map of his territories, planned the extermination of all the monasteries. On the map, for each of the monasteries he wrote with red ink the number of the monks living there. In the eleven territories that were in his hands, excluding the capital and the Yomi territory where the Octagon was, there were fifty-nine monasteries, with a total of about 9620 monks, varying from about twenty in the smaller monasteries to about four-hundred monks in the bigger ones. Calculating for safety's sake four of his men for each monk, to attack all the monasteries at once he had to move 40,000 men, a difficult but not impossible task.
He then decided to proceed at three separate times - using only 15.000 of his men for the cleansing operation. They would first suppress the monasteries in Siba, Gami, Dote and Noma. Then those in Rass, Eki, and Assa; and last, those of Granla, Ina, Seko and Noch. If everything worked smoothly, in a few days, two or three weeks at most, it would all be over. But because unavoidably the Octagon would come to know about the matter, very soon he would have to face the very same Octagon.
Usae pointed out that possibly the Octagon would form a coalition with Keta, Soga and Suna. Keta was the one to be feared most; with his ships and those of the Order he could certainly attack Siba coasts to get hold of Suki. Therefore Usae proposed that Gano move his his quarters from Suki to the great Granla castle - far from the coast and near the capital.
They studied the times for the various displacements carefully, trying to limit them as much as possible. Then in great secrecy, he moved his headquarters to Granla, leaving a general regent in Suki. On the nineteenth day of the fifth month of 1472, the current attacks on the monasteries of the first area started at sunset. Some monasteries fell at once, almost wihout resistance, others on the contrary were the scene of furious battles, but all the monks succumbed, with no survivors and very little loss on Gano's side. On the twenty-fourth of the same month, the same thing happened in the second area. But in the meantime, people living near the monasteries of the first area, finding the monasteries bloody and filled of corpses, or set on fire, went in haste to inform the Octagon. On the twentyninth there was the attack on the monasteries in the third area - and here the battles were more bloody, as some of the monasteries had been warned a little in advance, but all of them succumbed.
The Octogon immediately sent messengers to all the lords of the empire, asking for a general rising against Gano, now defined as an enemy of the Order and of the empire. The majority of the monks being relatives of noble or warriors' families, energetic protests and strong pressure were exercised on the emperor, who at last declared Gano an outlaw.
Gano descended in force on the capital and the emperor and the nobles fled, fearful, taking refuge mainly in Suna or in various feoffs. Gano declared the emperor dethroned - in his flight, in fact, he didn't take with him the four imperial symbols - the gold crown, the silver sword, the bronze axe and the copper sickle, that were now in Gano's hands. He didn't think, even for an instant, to assign the title of emperor to himself but, having in his hands the emperor's grand-child, an eleven-year-old boy called Nazuno, Gano made him emperor. For the crowning of an emperor no fewer than twelve nobles had to attend in person. Gano, besides the imperial territory and counting Yomi territory that was really not totally and securely in his hands, as it hosted the Octagon in its southern part and included Noch territory where Kiai was, could say he represented twelve dominions.
It was a risky situation, but to Gano it was more a symbolic matter than a real one. Thus, Nazuno was crowned as the twenty-second emperor. But after his coronation in the imperial palace, Gano moved him with all the imperial symbols to his Granla castle - the capital was anything but safe and easily within reach of the armed ships of the Octagon, that had only to sail up the river...
3.3 - The Octagon capitulation
Eighteen of the twenty-four dominions answered the appeal of the old emperor and the Octagon, but the only lords who undertook a genuine engagement, were the duke Daket, the prince Keta, the prince Soka, the prince Suna, the duke Ikoi and the count Rimo. Daket, in the eleventh month, moved northward heading 30,000 men, invading the southern part of Assa and aiming to the capital.
Gano and Usae tried to stop him at the capital gates, but soon had to withdraw and just by the skin of their teeth escaped capture and had to seek refuge in Granla. Kiai, as he was the Great General, tried to intervene proposing a compromise, but his offer was refused by both Gano and Daket. Rather, Daket, with the pretext of protecting the weak Kiai, invaded the Noch. Here he forced Kiai to issue a document containing accusations against Gano - high treason, unlawful interference in the Great General role, slaughter, and so on. When Gano heard about this, he became furious with Kiai and vowed to take his revenge. He made the child emperor issue an edict in which Kiai was dismissed from his position of Great General.
In the first month of 1473, Daket launched an attack against Granla, but the bad weather conditions made his manoeuvres extremely difficult and he had to withdraw to the capital. Meanwhile Kiai, disappointed by Gano's recent move against him, started to tour the various provinces to gather funds for the war against Gano who, passing through Seko, launched a sudden attack on Kiai's castle in Noch and set it on fire, and then withdrew immediately.
In the sixth month, Kiai managed to persuade prince Suna to give him men and weapons and count Rimo to finance his expedition, and then marched on Ekin, where Yude was. But in the meantime Gano had busied himself too - fully armed he again descended on the capital and forced Daket to flee. Yude, on his side, succeeded in blocking Kiai and repelled his assult. In the eight month Gano again took full control of all Assa territory, of the capital territory and of Noch in a firm grip, and he could also allow his foot soldiers and countrymen to reap a very good harvest.
Meanwhile Gano also suppressed all the monasteries in the capital territory. He published a decree in which he declared anyone among the small landlords who had been found in possession of safe-conduct letters issued by the monasteries to be a traitor, and therefore to be put to death without a trial.
In the seventh month of 1474, passing through Assa and Ekin, Gano attacked the duke Misaga, the brother of the Prince-monk. This at first generated fierce resistence, holding Gano in check for several weeks, but Yude went to Rone island, which was divided into two earldoms, and persuaded the two counts there to attack Misaga from the sea. Misaga's forces barricaded themselves in the two greater castles of the duchy, leaving the rest of the territory practically unprotected. The two castles were overcrowded: in one there were 9,000 men and 11,000 in the other. It was an absurd move, a kind of suicide.
Gano, in fact, besieged the two castles. Besides the fact that they started to suffer hunger, Gano had cut down all the conifer trees of the surrounding woods, having both the territory inhabitants and his men work nonstop, and had all the trunks put around the two castles making big pyres against the walls, so that in the eight month, in a period of severe drought and strong heat, he had the pyres set on fire, practically roasting alive a great number of the besieged soldiers.
Then, leaving that devastated land, without even bothering to occupy it, he went to attack the Octagon. Attacks and counterattacks at the Octagon continued nonstop for all 1474 and 1475, but the Octagon resisted strongly, as they received, gold, wheat, barley, oil, supplies and clothes by sea from the various monasteries.
But meanwhile Daket penetrated up to Seko where he was clashing against Usae who was in increasing difficulties. So Gano rapidly went up to the north. Yude moved to Granla, where new weapons were ready. Daket, who had now to struggle on two fronts, started to use the traditional square technique - at the center there was the cavalry, surrounded on all four sides by the infantry - the square adavanced in one of the four directions, protected at once on the sides and the rear, while the infantrymen in the front passed behind, then the cavalry attacked in mass in a wedge formation, to then go back inside the square which reabsorbed it.
But Gano's soldiers, more lightly equipped, rapidly swerved letting the charge pass, to then counterattack in the return phase. These opposing techniques gave neither great advantages nor disadvantages, they seemed more temporizers than useful. But Gano had received a message from Usae, therefore he employed new techniques. The weapons brought by Usae were of two kinds - one was a repeating crossbow that sent volleys of five arrows, the other was big rolls of barbed wire.
If with a traditional bow it was rather difficult to hit the side of a horse launched at the gallop, with the crossbows it was almost sure. Moreover, spreading the big rolls of barbed wire, when the knights, not knowing of that new device, tried to jump over them as they were used to jumping over bushes, would find themselves ensnared in the elastic thorny coils that would tear the horses hocks.
Gano had the coils of barbed wire spread during the night and covered them with sprigs, then at a short distance behind them he emplaced crossbowmen. He then, with the infantrymen, teased the square provoking the awaited reaction - the square opened, the cavalry attacked and Gano's infantrymen rapidly withdrew. The cavalry charge found the unexpected bushes behind which still more infantrymen were waiting. They jumped and fell into the trap. The crossbows at their sides shot and the cavalry was heavily mown down. Meanwhile, more long coils of barbed wire, spread between two pairs of horses launched at a gallop, surrounded the rearguard infantrymen. The ones who managed to escape were confronted with Gano's infantrymen and those who tried to flee in the opposite direction were quickly chased by Usae's men.
Dake ordered to sound the retreat and managed to flee going back to his territory, chased for a long time by Gano's men, who inflicted more losses on them. But Keta was moving from his Fago island, to invade Siba by sea. Gano sent Yude with the new weapons to intercept him, leaving Usae to control Seko and he, with his men, went down to Yami to start once again the siege of the Octagon, which meanwhile received reinforcements from the red monks of Ikie duchy. The duke Enshi decided to move the battle to Gano in the tenth month of that same year, but when he was about to move, a long and heavy snowfall persuaded him to wait for a better season.
When, in the following spring, Enshi was about to move again, he suddenly died of a hemorrhage; he was twenty-eight-years-old. His son was just thirteen-years-old and at once the duke's brothers started a struggle for the succession. Meanwhile Kiai didn't cease travelling from province to province to get reinforcements for the war against Gano. His ancient love had changed into a wild hate.
Meta also started to travel, at Yude suggestion, and began to seek support amongst the pirates who often attacked the empire's nort-west coasts - they had light ships, very fast and well armed, and were more than strong in sea battles. Meta persuaded them of two things - first, that they had to make a coalition to compete with the Octagon and Keta's ships and, second, that they could get a rich booty atacking them.
So, in the spring of 1476, when Keta's ships were about to launch their second attack against Siba (the first having been repelled by Yude thanks to the new weapons), this time backed by the monks' ships, at their back, doubling Fago island, the pirates' ships appeared. The monks' ships which, although armed, were mainly transport ships, and therefore slow and difficult to manoeuvre, found themselves in distress. The light pirate vessels reached and boarded them. The battle raged on the monks' ships but before Keta's ships, turning their prows, could arrive to rescue them, the pirates had overcome the monks' resistance, looted their ships, set them on fire and rapidly made off with their booty. Keta's ships decided to go back to their Fago island.
Gano, profiting from the fact that Dake was still licking his wounds, and that in Enshi the battle for the succession was raging, decided to launch the decisive attack to the Octagon, which was defended by 15,000 warrior-monks and their allies. He choose the most nimble amongst his light infatrymen, forming a new corps of 3,000 men.
On the third month of 1477 he gathered his generals in the capital, where he made the young emperor return, and drafted a temerarious plan. One of the main supporters of the Octagon was the strong monastery of Ikie, on the southern headland of the empire. Reaching Ikie via the west route was difficult - even though he could easily pass through Enshi where a civil war was spreading like wildfire, and other territories, there was Suna to pass through, with its formidable defences, and riches of men, weapons and other means. Gano didn't yet feel ready. So he decided to reach Ikie from the east coast - he had to pass through six enemy territories, but by fighting or coming to terms, he was sure he could pass - none of them was really to be feared. He would pass through the Assa mountains, going down to Ekin, then along the coast.
But just on this occasion he felt the importance of having a strong fleet. So he again sent Meta to contact the pirates - what price would they ask to teach to Gano's men to build and steer their kind of ships? He left Usae to protect the capital and its territory and took with Yude him. He descended on Elkin, occupied the devastated Misaga then, getting the authorisation to pass through prince Waka's territory, he faced duke Ikoi and, after defeating him, let Yude complete the occupation. Duke Yaha prefered to let him pass and so did the principality still dividing him from Ikie. So then, he swooped upon Ikie and, after only ten days of battle, he destroyed the monastery, slaughtering all the monks.
Seizing their spectacular treasure, he went back at a forced march, used part of the treasure to pay an indemnity to the lords who had granted him passage, and left one of his generals in Ikioi with a force of a few thousand men and, with Yude, went back to the capital. All this took him only two months.
Gano's enterprise struck terror into count Rimo, who urged Suna, Soka and Keta to stop trying solitary expeditions against Gano, and to unite all their forces under a sole command, and march in force into the heart of Gano's territories. "If we are not united", count Rimo wrote, "one after the other we will fall into the traitor's hands!" Also the several monasteries spread in the dominions, fearing to meet the same end of the other monasteries, were urging their respective lords to unite in an effective coalition.
The last to suffer prince Gano's "coup de main" was the Octagon, which ran out of one of its most formidable reinforcements. And when the pirate ships also reappeared to patrol the Internal Sea where the Octagon was facing, the Prince-monk understood that their supplies via the sea were effectively barred. Gano, with his 3,000 chosen infantrymen, adopted a different technique for his attacks to the Octagon. Leaving the main body of his army to carry on the siege and to keep the defenders busy all long the border, he assaulted a small sector of the external defences at a time, making it fall into his hands. In the meantime the besieged men were running out of their stocks of supplies as well as weapons for launching.
Then Gano sent a message to the Prince-monk in which he said that if he capitulated, he would spare the lives of all the monks who wanted to follow him and allow them to choose where to take refuge. The Prince-monk gathered the Great Council of the eightfold order, and then asked to be allowed to send messages to some lords asking them for hospitality. Gano asked to read the messages then, seeing that they didn't contain other requests, let them be sent.
Sige, Keta, Suna and Rimo, all offered hospitality to the monks. Then the Prince-monk surrendered to Gano and after years of war, the Octagon capitulated. The Prince-monk went to Suna, where the old emperor was already; the other monks and their followers dispersed in the various dominions that offered them hospitality.
Thus Gano could totally control Yomi and from there he decided to give the final stroke to Enshi and Dake. The count Ario, who had his territory uphill from Dake's, voluntarily submitted himself to Gano. In 1480 Gano had reached the boundaries of the fierce Suna principality and controlled, directly or thanks to his allies, seventeen provinces of the empire. Being also an ally with Ario, he was now at the border of the more and more scared Rimo, from whose territories he was now separated by only a mountain pass.
Meanwhile Meta came back with some ship technicians from the land of the pirates. They were welcomed with all honors by the young emperor, then installed at Ikioi port, where they made their shipyard.
CONTINUES IN CHAPTER 4
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