Jahr Unseres Gründers c.854

Qing Province, Coastal Manzhōu

Dai Mheng was bored.

When he had enlisted into the Imperial Armies of Heaven, the Manchuri man had expected to be deployed westward to the border provinces, seeing as the the War in the East could potentially spill over into the lands of the Yujiin Dynasty. He had expected, should such a thing occur, grand battles against the Mid-Easterners. He had expected glory, prestige. Dai had expected to return home having made a name for himself, fighting for the glory of the Yujinn Dynasty and the Emperor on the Dragon Throne who ruled it!

What Dai had not expected, or wanted, for that matter, was to be relegated to the position of a glorified sentry, one amongst the thousands tasked with fortifying the Divine State's costal territories from… well, nothing, really. The various Mancherese ethnicities of the region remained steadfast in their devotion to the Emperor, the Hizurese population had been pacified for eighty years and knew better than to attempt any sort of rebellion, and the Subatii tribes of the Great Southern Snows tended to raid directly north into Central Manzhōu when they weren't busy fighting each other or the Shān-rén further to the west.

In short, there was no glory to be gained here. The only there was to be gained was the innate boredom, and Dai had that in droves. Lin-Jien was a peaceful city for the most part, and any criminal activity was dealt with quickly by the local law-enforcers, leaving the soldiers with nothing to do but spend their wages on back-ally men, women, and the city's best drinking bars, among other things. Dai would admit, those two things made his station a tad bit more worth it, as well as all the writing he'd done about his lackluster experiences in the army, but there was only so much one could take before it became repetitive.

Yet, with news filtering down the ranks that Marley was, once again, triumphing against her enemies, it became common knowledge that the war would be over before the year's end. And, when the prediction came true at last, the garrison of Lie-Jien, along with Dai himself, raised a toast to their great ally in the west when the word came of the Mid-East Alliance's defeat at Fort Slava before returning to the barracks to pack up. After all, with the War in the East done (what a stupid name that was, seeing as the Orient was the only East that existed in Dai's eyes) there was no need to keep the full might of the Heavenly Armies on standby in case the war somehow managed to spill into the Raaj and over the mountain domains of the Shān-rén.

Or, at least, what was the general train of thought within the barracks, which vanished just as abruptly as the sudden call for inspection was given.

It was during that inspection that Dai learned something that floored him.

The Hizurese were rebelling.

"As it would seem," Dai's commanding officer spoke, "the Hizurese have decided to shun and degenerate the light of the Dragon Throne, and have consequently raised their banners against the Emperor. For their insolence, we shall march to their 'stronghold' and raze it to the ground, with the rebels still within! Treason against the Divine State is to be punished with death, and we shall give it to them!"

By the gods, this is it!

Dai cheered alongside his fellow soldiers and grinned. At last, a chance for glory! Instead of returning home empty handed with naught but the wages he had earned whilst being idle, he would return having upholded the Mandate of the Emperor to his best.

Of course, marching to the rebel stronghold was just as dull as waiting for something to happen. Due to the how large the Heavenly Armies were, a good chunk of it remained un-modernized with the best technology of the era- at least, when it came to vehicle transport. Dai, unfortunately, was in the part of the army that had been left dry, seeing as the Jade Court had prioritized modernizing the armies in the border provinces first, and for good reason.

Not that it made marching by foot less tiring, but, well, what was there to be done? Turn back and go home? No, that was not an option that Dai would entertain. For the Emperor. For Yujin!

And Dai marched on.

They had been marching for several, rainy days when Dai saw him.

Rumors had began to filter down the ranks once more as the army began seeing more and more Manchuri fleeing west from the rebels, who had apparently managed to take two more towns along the coast and the city of Wuxian, somehow. Their commander had increased their marching time at that news, so on they went, stopping not even when it began raining. At the very least, they weren't tramping over mud. I much prefer the hills to the mud-

Then Dai stopped, catching something out of the corner of his eye, and he turned.

There, on a nearby hill, sitting atop an armored steed, sat a man in an outdated set of Hizurese armor, watching them silently.

The Manchuri man stood there a moment, stunned. A rebel?! What's a lone one doing here?!

Then he noticed the banner the man bore, and his blood froze.

Oh gods.

I know that banner.

Dai knew that symbol, of course he did. Every child worth a decent education knew that symbol meant, who it represented. The bane of the Dragon Throne, the wives' tale used to keep wayward children in line, the very lineage that Manzhōu had seen extinguished during the Invasion of the Islands decades ago.

Three curved, black blades set in a triangle, surrounded by a circle on a red field.

Dai felt fear unlike any he had felt before.

The Shogun.

Heaven preserve us, the Shogun lives.

By now, Dai was not the only one to notice the bushi watching them, judging from the way alarmed cries were springing up from across the ranks, but that did not soothe him.

For the mounted warrior unsheathed a curved blade, raising it into the air momentarily before pointing it at the columns of Manchuri soldiers.

And, to Dai's horror, the samurai screamed two, dreaded words.

"TENNOHEIKA BANZAI!"

Then the Shogun charged, and the might of Hizuru followed.

A/N: A sneak peak into the going-on's in the Orient. It's a bit short since it was supposed to lead directly into another segment of a chapter, but it didn't fit. So, here you go.

EDIT: Fixed a mistake. the Ackerman s have no reason to be feared in the Orient.

Yet.