Western Delsai - Tenth day of Spring, 10th year after the assassination of the Emperor

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Subutai and Xiao stood watching the clean up efforts in the wake of the recent battle. Earth movers had been brought in dig massive trenches for the royalist dead to be piled into. He'd "requistioned" 2,000 of the royalist prisoners for the task, having convinced high command that national soldiers had better things to do than clean up corpses. After three days they were nearly finished and now the chain-ganged workers were throwing the last of the remains into the pits.

As the last head bounced into the charnel trench, the royalists were ordered attention and Subutai stepped forward as if to address them. Instead he nodded to one of his sergeants and his troops sprung into action. Striking the bound prisoners with rifle butts and forcing them into the pits atop their dead. A deafening roar filled the air when the earth movers started up and began covering the screaming prisoners with dirt. The howls of the machines mixed eerily with the shrieks and wails of the damned soldiers. Subutai stood watching it all, void of expression as if the scene before him was no more interesting or moving than supervising a latrine trench being dug. Necessary but boring to behold. When the ground was once again level there was nothing left to indicate that anything of note had happened except for a half dozen stretches of freshly tilled earth.

Later that evening when Subutai sat in his tent, his dinner growing cold in front of him a voice called for permission to enter. "Come in Xiao." The big captain sat down heavily in the field chair opposite his commander. For a while they both sat there silently neither really looking at the other. Xiao would eventually break the quiet with a deep sigh. "You were right that was worse."
"It needed to happen."
"[i]Really[/i], why on earth did that need to happen?"
"It was a calculated display of fearsomeness. In the next few weeks word of what we did here will spread throughout the factions. They will hear that the commander of the 12[sup]th[/sup] army is cruel and brutal. An attack dog barely on the leash. I want our great leader to think the same. When she wants no no quarter given and no questions asked I want her to think of us."
Xiao started and growled at his friend. "Why do want that? We'll get picked for all the worst kind of murder missions then."
"Better us than someone who really gets off on it. We'll be able to keep it by the numbers that way. As for our enemies, I want them afraid when they hear we're coming. I want them to worry about what aweful things we might do to them. That way when we do offer them the chance to surrender they'll jump at it to avoid our ire." Subutai slumped in his chair and pulled his hands down his face in frustration. "We need this war over quickly."
Xiao shook his head slowly "I'm not sure that's possible."