The Empire's northern border was home to one of its twenty great strongholds.
It was called Youzhou City. (I found the Akame ga Kill! map, but the place names were always impossible to locate. Since that world was modeled after China, I'll use terms everyone can understand!)
Of course, aside from Youzhou City, the northern border also had four major strongholds, including Bingzhou City, Liaodong City, and Liangzhou City.
They were ordinarily used to defend against foreign invasions. Liangzhou's troops were fierce, while Bingzhou and the Liaodong Commandery under its jurisdiction could rely on the terrain for defense.
Thus, Youzhou City had become the primary direction from which the Northern Foreign Tribes usually invaded.
Of course, rather than calling them foreign tribes, Falan really wanted to complain that they were nothing more than a pack of dogs raised by the Empire.
Leaving aside the foreign tribes of the west and south, as far as Falan knew, the Northern Foreign Tribes now used a language and script no different from the Empire's. Even the customs they had passed down had faded away over the erosion of a thousand years.
They could be called "Imperial citizens" who roamed the Empire's northern lands. The reason they had continued to exist was because the Empire wanted to keep bandits alive to bolster itself and to train its troops. Otherwise, over the Empire's thousand-year history, there had not only been periods of decline, but also times of prosperity. Those foreign tribes could never have remained until now.
"General Stamp."
"Mm." Falan glanced at the officers welcoming him at the northern border, then jumped down from his horse.
Seeing this, Mikael dismounted as well. After all, they were not currently in Youzhou City.
They were farther north of Youzhou City, at the Great Wall that guarded