"Your Majesty, the fishermen from the south have sent word through the palace guards that a large army is landing, and it doesn't seem to be our Masuliparinan's army."

Primi Walter said irritably to his courtier minister, "You believe the words of a lowly commoner? The armies of the nearby city-states have all gone to the local city-states, where would we find an army to come here?"

"Your Majesty, it is said that Huba's reinforcements are coming by ship from the east. We must be on guard!"

"Then close the city gates and welcome them back... and send messengers to contact our army."

Five days ago, Premi Walter's brother, Laputa Walter, suddenly stopped sending messages as usual. Premi had a bad feeling. Within five days, he sent three messengers but received no reply, which made him even more uneasy.

The recent rulers of Masuripatnam, who were also their "kings," were quite ambitious. They developed textiles using local cotton, treated artisans well to develop handicrafts, and opened up trade routes to sell their handicrafts to Southeast Asia and India, transforming a shallow port into a commercial center covering thousands of miles.

The surrounding neighboring states and tribes brought their goods to Masuripatan to sell, and then went to the commercial district in the east of the city to buy their favorite foreign goods. The coming and going of merchants and nobles made the city prosperous, and the city gate tax alone was a considerable sum.

The gates of Masuripatnam usually closed an hour after dark to collect a little more gate tax. But today they closed at noon. As the heavy gates shut out the merchants, the people didn't know what was happening, because war seemed so distant to them now. For decades, Masuripatnam had been the one attacking others, and no one had ever dared to attack them.

"What's going on? My goods need to leave the city immediately, or are you telling me to leave them piled up in the street and let them rot?"

A merchant dressed in a deep black robe drove a huge horse-drawn carriage, occupying most of the city gate. The slaughtered beef and mutton on the carriage emitted a strong smell of blood; these were all to be taken home and smoked into jerky.

"An order from the palace: from this day forward, the city gates shall be closed, and no one shall be allowed to enter or leave. Anyone who causes trouble shall be treated as a spy."

"A spy? What spy could there be in broad daylight? Spies are those who gather military intelligence. Without intelligence, what kind of spies are you and me? When did we, Masuri Patnam, ever..."

The merchant in black suddenly fell silent. Since they were so vigilant against spies, war must be imminent. The army in the city had been marching for nearly a month, yet no news of victory had arrived...

The black-clad merchant wasn't the only clever one. Rumors of the unfavorable battle situation quickly spread throughout the city of Masuripatan, and people flocked to the city gates, demanding to leave the city and seek refuge in the countryside. The royal palace had to send people out to refute the rumors, arresting many "rumor-mongers" to suppress them.

Primuel Walmart was extremely agitated by the chaos in the city. His paranoia had almost driven him to a nervous breakdown, and he finally fell into a deep sleep just as dawn was breaking.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty... Wake up, wake up!"

The eunuch minister's anxious shouts woke Premi Walter. His headache from lack of sleep made him extremely angry. He was about to pick up the porcelain pot next to him and smash it in the eunuch minister's face when a sentence from him startled him out of his wits.

"Your Majesty... the Great Xia army... has besieged the city!" Want to chat about "Sailing and Conquest" with more like-minded people? Follow "or" on WeChat to discuss your favorite books with other book lovers.