Yesterday's battle had been a profound shock to the soldiers of the Western territories.
That the barbarians who had plagued the West for centuries could be annihilated so easily.
And that they themselves now carried that same firepower.
Not a single soldier among the Western forces harbored any further resentment toward the Southern officers commanding them.
And so, roughly three days later.
Before news of the Aikamad Tribe's destruction had even reached the tribal council, the combined forces arrived at the gathering place of the remaining two tribes.
From the perspective of the Borkan and Serelkis tribes, the situation was nothing short of bewildering.
"What is the meaning of this? How did they reach the heart of the great steppe so quickly, and why has there been no word from the Aikamad?"
Both tribes had heard of the South-West combined army's invasion of the steppe.
Their plan had been to do as they always did — gather all three tribes and deliberate on how to resist.
But not a single envoy sent to the Aikamad settlement had returned.
In truth, they had been spotted and shot dead by the Western forces — but the tribes, knowing nothing of this, were left in a state of frantic confusion.
"Summon the tribes at once."
One thing, however, was clear.
Imperial forces had descended upon the heart of the steppe, and the silence from the Aikamad could only mean one thing — that they had been dealt with, one way or another.
"It has only been a few days since contact was lost. Even the Imperial Army could not have killed all of Aikamad's warriors in one stroke."
"Then what do you suggest?"
"We hold here. Call every tribe on the steppe."
For enemies who knew nothing of the Southern army's new weapons, it was a reasonable enough judgment.
"Some portion of the Imperial forces is likely still engaged with the Aikamad. If we strike them now and force a two-front battle, we can drive them out."
"Then we'll send envoys to buy time."
The Empire these barbarians had known was always a timid enemy.
A soft adversary that sought to secure territory while avoiding direct confrontation at every turn.
The Empire had never possessed the strength to conquer the steppe. And so they had always tried to appease the tribal peoples.
"This time will be no different."
The tribes thought as much, and moved to dispatch their envoys.
As they always had — feigning willingness to negotiate a treaty while quietly mustering their forces.
But this time, there was no need for any of it.
Before the envoys had even mounted their horses.
— BOOM!
From beyond the ridge, the sound of thunder rolled in.
A faster answer than any envoy could have delivered.
Moments later.
The makeshift settlement where the two tribes had gathered for their council was swallowed by artillery fire.
***
The enmity between the West and the nomadic tribes ran deep.
That enmity had been the very force that kept the West functioning even as the Empire's conscription system crumbled around it.
The peaceful, corrupt Empire had rendered conscription all but meaningless. Anyone with even a modest sum of money paid off the draft officers and walked away from military service without a second thought.
And so the Imperial Army had become a place where only the penniless underclass gathered.
An army without money and without proper education did not know how to fight.
But the West was slightly different.
The people living along the Western frontier harbored deep grievances against the barbarians. One in every two inhabitants of the Western borderlands had suffered at their hands.
They enlisted voluntarily — to protect their families, and to settle personal scores.
And this expedition's combined force was filled with men who had debts to collect from the barbarians.
The recruitment process had deliberately prioritized volunteers.
Soldiers with families at home had little desire to join a dangerous expedition.
The men who had stepped forward on their own were, for the most part, people who had something to repay the barbarians.
They were already champing at the bit, desperate to join the fighting before the artillery barrage had even finished.
"Ha! Get a look at that barbarian settlement. It's burning beautifully!"
"Bet they never dreamed their own village would burn when they were torching ours."
"It's great and all, but... aren't the artillery boys going to eat up all our kills at this rate?"
The shells kept raining down — so relentlessly that even the Western soldiers began to worry their enemies might all be dead before they got their turn.
The artillery of eight divisions, forty thousand men in total, had opened fire at noon and had not stopped for thirty straight minutes.
Not a single intact structure remained in sight.
Only after the settlement had been reduced to complete rubble did the order come down.
"3rd and 4th Divisions, clear the interior. The rest of the army, prepare for battle against the barbarians who will be converging on us shortly."
There was a reason the attack had been launched in broad daylight rather than as a night raid like before.
"Any tribe that comes here after witnessing this is an enemy that can never coexist with us. They think only of plunder. They are not men — they are monsters."
It was, in effect, an order to take no prisoners.
For the Western soldiers who had so much to settle with the barbarians, it was an order that sat very well indeed.
"Enemy at three o'clock! Large cavalry formation!"
The rage accumulated through years of raids and plunder.
The frustration of watching a full hour of bombardment and being desperate to get into the fight themselves.
All of it, unspent — and now directed squarely at the tribes bold enough to charge openly at the Empire.
And this time, the Southern officers had no intention of holding the Western soldiers back.
"All units, open fire!"
"Give back everything they've taken from you!"
The Western soldiers, with so much stored up inside them, pulled the machine gun triggers without a moment's hesitation.
The cavalry that had charged so boldly collapsed.
The shamans' spells that had once seemed so terrifying. The barbarian cavalry charges. The blades they swung. None of it was frightening anymore.
The shamans' spells meant nothing. No matter how much pain a man couldn't feel, there was no way to resist having his body physically torn apart.
Cavalry charges? The machine guns' overwhelming firepower shredded them before a single rider reached the line.
Hit-and-run tactics, encirclement hunting — none of it appeared.
Against firearms with an effective range of two kilometers, cavalry tactics were nothing more than a spectacular way to die.
"The enemy is retreating!"
That day, the Western soldiers witnessed something they had never seen before — barbarian cavalry turning and fleeing.
"Victory... was this easy all along?"
"Feels like we barely did anything."
"The South's new weapons are genuinely absurd."
Compared to the old days — fighting barbarians who kept charging even with spears through their skulls, swinging hammers until your arms gave out and taking hits in return — this victory was incomparably easy.
However heavy the machine guns were, however strong the recoil, however loud the noise.
Sitting down and pulling a trigger was overwhelmingly easier than fighting with your own body.
And then there was the artillery — the sheer, crushing firepower that had leveled the barbarian settlement entirely.
It was too much power to believe it was being wielded by people who couldn't use magic.
A handful of ordinary people operating a machine, and every ten seconds the firepower of a 4th or 5th-tier mage went downrange.
"What on earth is the principle behind firepower this strong..."
The ordinary Western soldiers, who had only seen modernization trickle in gradually, couldn't wrap their heads around it.
And the awe born from what they couldn't understand quickly became admiration.
It was a feeling slightly different from how they looked at mages.
A mage is a chosen being.
If you cannot wield mana, if you have no talent for magic, you cannot become a mage. It was a tower built for them alone — one no amount of effort could reach.
But the artillery was different.
The fact that it was a power wielded by ordinary humans, no different from themselves — that was what captured the Western soldiers' attention.
*An era where even ordinary people can become great.*
The ordinary soldiers from the West found themselves quickly drawn in by the South's rallying cry.
When they returned home carrying everything they had seen and experienced on the steppe, they would become the finest spokespeople imaginable for the merger with the South.
The true objective of the Western expedition had been achieved.
***
It did not take long for every tribe on the steppe to submit.
The Borkan, Aikamad, and Serelkis tribes were all wiped out, and the ground where they had stood was left as ash scattered across the plain.
The few tribes that refused to submit until the very end?
"This is for my family!"
"This is for my friends who died at your hands!"
They were erased by Western soldiers burning with vengeance.
The chieftains of the remaining tribes, who witnessed those scenes of carnage with their own eyes, could not bring themselves to even consider defying the bright sun that was the Empire.
These tribes would be absorbed into the Empire going forward — through cultural assimilation, strategic marriages between prominent families, and similar means.
So that they would never again think of raising a hand against the Empire.
Before a new cycle of hatred could begin, the goal was to integrate them into the Empire as quickly as possible, even if it required somewhat forceful methods.
Several months had passed since the steppe campaign.
With the railways completed and factories built, public opinion in the West had shifted dramatically.
"Lucilla, what's the mood in the West right now?"
"Quite favorable. The fruits of modernization are beginning to show, and the barbarian problem that had plagued the Westerners for so long is being resolved."
"Then... I suppose it's about time we started preparing."
The declaration that would end a false peace that hadn't even lasted a year.
"The annexation of the West."