Chapter Thirty-One - From the Observation Logs of Fenfang - Day 101

Fenfang Fang's Observation Log | Day one hundred and one

Everything is bad and I'm going to die.

I should probably explain from the start, but I feel exceptionally scatterbrained at the moment and I'm not sure I could be coherent even if I wanted to.

I'm going to take a walk.

Note

I took a walk.

Note End.

I think I'm calmer now. I'm writing this near the end of the day, which is cutting into my sleeping time. I usually keep my logs updated as I go, but I've been lax about that lately. It's a bad habit I know I'll have to kick, but that's easier said than done.

Oh well.

First, the good parts.

I discovered that there's an artisan's guild in Yu Xiang. They're mostly older men and women, and they're mostly used to being on the brink of starvation. I think the only reason they've kept their skills sharp is because they seem to genuinely love what they do for art, and there's a lot of internal competition to see who's best within Yu Xiang.

In any case, that's a huge boon for me. I discovered the artisan's guild and commissioned posters early in the morning. They returned by the afternoon with sketches and I picked out a few details. Then I got into contact with a banner-maker and cloth-weaver. We're commissioning enough uniforms for an army.

Hopefully, covering the zombies in a layer of padded cloth will reduce the smell. It'll at least give something for some perfume to cling to.

Also, I've ordered the making of six barrels of strong perfume.

The artisan's guild seemed ready to commission a statue of me by the end of the day for free. I'm mostly okay with that, I can sympathise with people who worked hard for a long time and got nowhere suddenly finding some success. I think they're really going to put their all into this.

And that's where the good news trickles out.

First, someone tried to assassinate me this morning.

It wasn't a very good attempt, but its failure did cause a heap more issues.

The assassin was a young man, the favourite nephew of a former member of the city council who was ousted from his position by my actions. So that's just karma, it seems.

The attempt was kind of sad. He ran at me with a knife. I had skeleton guards with me, and they were quick to subdue him, and he was quick to spill when I threatened to turn him into a zombie without killing him first (I don't know how to do this, but he didn't know that I didn't know, so it all worked out).

In any case, rumours are flying across the city, and people are protesting about what to do with him. I decided to hand him over to the constable and let the city handle it. I think it's the best way to seem fair and impartial? I really don't know what I'm doing, but I Imagined if I was a citizen of Yu Xiang and I overheard about the strong cultivator being attacked, how would I react to various punishments handed down to the attacker?

I hope this is the right action.

The attempt was less annoying, actually, than its aftermath. I lost two whole hours of practice! And it interrupted a meeting with the happier members of the merchant's guilds. I think I'm going to have to give them a slight concession as an apology to recover my reputation.

Note

Politics are evil and I hate every minute of it.

Note End

Right, there's more bad news. An army is heading for Yu Xiang. Not a huge one, but it's been dispatched from the Mist Gate to the west. The news mostly comes from some merchants that had dealings in that direction and who receive news by pigeon.

I have maybe a week to prepare. I have no idea if Master Harold will be back by then or not, but I have to assume that he won't be.

Which means preparing for a war that I'm not ready for in the least. A week!

I don't have an idea of numbers, and I have no idea if the city will even try to help me stop an invader.

But... well, Master told me to take care of this place, and I think that does include stopping invading forces. And I think I can do it!

I've sent out teams of skeletons out into the field already. They're under the command of some smarter undead the Seventeen promoted to the task of leading the squads. They'll be delaying the enemy as they can, then once they're relatively close, I think we'll be able to launch some night raids on the army.

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Next, the posters. Initially I just wanted nice, simple posters encouraging people to learn how to read and then I was going to set up night classes for literacy, writing, and eventually basic spell-craft.

I... don't know enough about magic to train others, so that's more of a long-term goal. Master mentioned mage towers and magical academies. It'll take a long time to get the foundations for that kind of thing set, but I think it's possible! I'll have to see.

But now I've changed the posters to be... basically propaganda, and me begging for people to join the city's militia.

Fortunately, I'm kind of still rich. Taxes are really great when you're the one getting paid, and with the undead doing a lot of work for free and no sect draining the city coffers, we're actually projecting to do pretty well here.

I intend to use that to create a proper armed force. A living one. Some skeletons can serve as undead training enemies, and I've already started to hand out contracts for the creation of basic armour and weapons for the undead army. It's just a matter of increasing yields in order to provide for the rest.

We are running short on iron and steel and leather, of course.

I have undead scavenging the nearby battlefield for arrowheads, and Seventeen has some more undead doing maintenance on our siege weapons.

I don't think Yu Xiang will be an easy city to take, but I don't know if we're going to have everything we need to keep it either.

Note

This city had the sect, maybe there are some former students around? We certainly have access to a lot of records from the sect. Maybe it wouldn't be impossible to spread some of the basics to the militia and soldiers we recruit?

I remember hearing that the Jade Throne's army are all lower-realm cultivators. Each and every one of them! That's what makes them such a formidable army. It should be possible to do something similar here, right?

End Note.

What else? I feel like I'm forgetting a few things...

Oh, right, my magical training!

That's basically stalled out. I'm only finding one or two free hours to train now, and that's while I dictate orders to a listening abomination who pens letters for me.

Master isn't going to be impressed at this rate!

I'll carve out more time tomorrow! Promise!

But I also need to see the posters (and make sure that the images they make of me aren't too... spicy) and then see if the City can help me organise barracks for a militia. Then recruitment and training schedules. I think I'll need to hire cryers to get the news out.

Oh! I can finally have an army recruit men and women! That'll be a nice change. Besides, I need more boots on the ground. Half of this battle, I suspect, will come down to posturing.

Oh Master... is this why cultivators are so obsessed about looking strong?

I've got to send runners to the other cities nearby as well. Shitake city is where Master and Cinder went, maybe they'll sell me their corpses and extra materials? Lave Fist city isn't in the path of this battle, they might be willing to have some crier recruit for the army there.

Oh! And I need to invest a lot into buying food from Seven Hills. That's right on the Mist Gate army's path! If I buy all of the grain and easy to produce foods, then they'll be running their army on empty stomachs. Unless they're carrying enough to keep themselves going from the start?

I need a better information network. I'm adding that to the list.

There's a lot on that list already, but I'm sure I can squeeze out one or two more things, right? Seventeen mentioned something about lessons on delegation, but I told him that he could attend those in my place. He seemed to think that was funny. I was mostly just happy that I have that many more free hours in the day.

At this rate, I'm going to go white before I'm thirty. Or maybe I'll be as bald as Master even sooner.

Well, that's assuming I live to be that old.

I can't wait for Master to be back, he'll know what to do!

***