watched from a misty hill. He did not see dirt; he saw feng shui . His peasants did not mine—they cultivated. Rice paddies terraced the wadi. A bamboo watchtower sprouted where Castellan would have built a gallows. Zhao’s strength was not stone but speed . His horsemen, mounted on hardy steppe ponies, did not carry lances—they carried flaming arrows and whistling darts. His elite unit, the Monkey Warriors , could scale any wall not covered in pitch.
The sultan had played them for fools.
From hidden cisterns, liquid fire poured down the inner walls. The Monkey Warriors shrieked. Two died in the moat. The rest retreated. Zhao’s assault broke. Zhao knew he could not take the keep. But he did not need to. The oasis was neutral ground. If he reached it first, the sultan’s gift would let him burn the Crusader’s towers from a mile away. stronghold crusader 2 vs warlords