“Remember when I told you that most people become cruel themselves after experiencing how cruel this world is? Most elders have earned their spots after learning to be cruel, and I don’t trust them, as a result. I’d rather have an ally like you, one who hasn’t learned that yet. Furthermore, with your knowledge of Chinese history, you should have at least a basic grasp of many of the elders’ abilities and traits.”
“Why would you trust me? We only just met a few days ago.”
“Don't worry, I know a good person when I see one.” Yue Fei slowly walked up to Baron and held out his arm.
Chapter 13
Attracting Attention
The two men went to get drunk together and inadvertently attracted a lot of attention from the other people at the bar. Rumors began to circulate and within a day of their talk, many in the Chinese community had heard about the unlikely alliance between Yue Fei and an unknown newcomer.
As an elder, Yue Fei was well known in the community, and had a bit of a reputation of never allying with others. In fact, he actively refused help and pacts with others. Now, though, he’d actually initiated an alliance with a newcomer. This was news to those in the community, and many went to see if the rumors were true.
Upon inspection, they were shocked to see the respect the two showed to each other. Even more rumors spread, most of which were highly exaggerated. The two paid no interest to these, though, and instead worked to transfer their respective knowledge and experience to the other.
In this manner, they were able to enhance their understanding of warfare tremendously in only a few days. They even ran a few more simulations to test a few of Baron’s theories that he couldn’t try when he was on Earth. This proved instrumental to Baron's development and within a short period of time, he had been able to confirm many of his theories.
Many people had heard of Baron by this point and so many of the younger generation decided to have a simulation match against him. Wanting to put his newfound knowledge to the test, Baron accepted all challengers.
***
The very first challenger was a fellow by the name of Xu Da, a military general who helped to end the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and instate the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Since Xu Da was the elder, he allowed Baron to choose the settings of the simulations. Baron chose to have a 50,000 vs 50,000 walled city siege, but as the defender.
Many watched this simulation from the sidelines. With how much attention Baron had received in the last few days, countless strategists wanted to gauge the newcomer’s ability for themselves.
On the first night, the two strategists prepared for the battle to come. Unfortunately for Xu Da, Baron had remembered an interesting point about his foe.
According to some accounts, Xu Da was allergic to geese, and rumor had it that he was even deathly scared of these birds. Baron had many plans that he had in his arsenal against Xu Da, but after remembering this piece of trivia, he really wanted to see if he could actually win the simulation with a goose. However, he had to bide his time.
On the first day of battle, there weren't that many interesting developments, and so only a battle with brute numbers ensued. At the end of the first day, even though the two sides had spent most of their time probing the other’s formations, both sides had lost about 3,000 soldiers each.
The second day of battle proceeded much like the first, with Xu Da opting war of attrition, but Baron toured the four walls, fighting alongside his men. At the end of the day, as Xu Da’s soldiers retreated, Baron sent out a thousand cavalry to harass them. Xu Da reacted quite slowly to this, so by the time he’d issued his orders, Baron’s cavalry had already returned to the safety of the city.
Baron’s efforts clearly paid off — at the end of the day, Baron had gained an advantage of roughly a thousand soldiers. Not a large difference, but Baron extolled this advantage as well as he could to his troops. Anything to increase morale.
Furthermore, in the cover of darkness, Baron ordered ten thousand cavalry to leave the city to prepare for something he had planned.
The third day of battle unfolded in quite an unusual manner — the two sides engaged in a battle of archers. Both sides positioned their archers behind rows of shield troops, and at the end of the day, little damage had been done to either side.
However, during the night of the third day, Xu Da sent a few hundred members of his cavalry toward the city. Unbeknownst to Baron, while he and Yue Fei were busy training against each other, many strategists of planet four had picked up the “Firecracker strategy” as a way for an offensive general to sap the morale and strength of the defending general’s forces.
Naturally, the use of firecrackers was far from the first method to keep defending soldiers awake through the night, but it was highly effective, with little risk. Even in the worst of circumstances, only a few hundred soldiers would be killed in return for a massive depletion of the defending troops’ fighting power.
Baron ordered triple the normal amount of wall patrol guards, and moved the rest of his troops closer to the center of the city, so that they’d be able to get a solid night’s rest.
But it seemed Xu Da had been expecting this. On the dawn of the fourth day, Xu Da surprised Baron by sending his troops to attack the city an hour earlier than the previous few days. As a result, Baron’s men weren’t even able to eat breakfast before having to rush to the walls — which were farther away, due to them sleeping closer to the center of the family.
Baron realized quickly that his troops would fatigue easier and lose morale faster due to their empty bellies, so he held some of his men hold back and eat breakfast first, then switched his famished soldiers out from the front lines and fed them.
This was a delicate task — so Baron handled it personally. If the slightest opening were to show itself as he swapped his soldiers in and out of combat, Xu Da would be able to gain a foothold on the walls.
And Baron could not let that happen.
Despite his best efforts, though, a mishap happened in the changing of the guard on the last wall, and Baron had to fight on the front lines just to hold the wall.
But still, he and his soldiers survived the day. Come nighttime, Xu Da's men once again set out to use the firecracker strategy against Baron. However, Baron had expected this, and had his men send flare signals to the cavalry he’d send out on the night of the second day of battle.
Just before sunset, Baron had his men in the city strip dead enemies of their amors, and deliver them to his cavalry waiting outside.
Then, he gave the order for his cavalry to don the armor of their enemy, and approach and kill the soldiers lighting up the firecrackers with the least amount of noise possible.
This proved highly successful — Baron soon received a report that almost four hundred enemy soldiers had been killed over the course of the night.
On the dawn of the fifth day, Baron had one of his men, dressed in the enemy troops’ armor, ride straight into Xu Da’s camp to obtain a key bit of intelligence.
As this soldier walked into Xu Da’s tent, Xu Da grumbled, “What’s the report?”
He’d naturally assumed that the soldier was a messenger, sent to report on some development or another.
“I have been given a message by one of Baron's men to send to you. It's in this bag here.”
Baron’s soldier reached into the bag he’d been carrying, and pulled out a goose by the neck, flung it at Xu Da, then ran from the tent as quickly as he could.
Chapter 14
Let’s Have a Chat
Upon leaving the tent, the soldier immediately mounted his horse and rode as quickly as he could. Behind him, though, he could hear the commotion in Xu Da’s tent, and grinned.
As he rode out of the enemy camp, a few of Xu Da's men gave chase, none were able to catch up to him.
As soon as he was sure he was safe, the spy grabbed a messenger pigeon from a cage tied his horse, tied a small parchment to one of its legs, and let it fly off toward the city.
Upon receiving the message, Baron nodded and went to change his strategies, when a messenger arrived at his room’s door, heaving for breath.
“Sir, the enemy has launched their offensive for today. It seems that they’re looking to go all out, as we’ve sighted fourteen siege towers. Two are heading to each of the north and south walls, and five are heading to each of the east and west walls.”
“Oh? They’re betting everything on today’s results, are they?” Baron was quite concerned. “Has anyone seen Xu Da?”
“No, sir.”
Baron scratched his head. “What are they planning? Their formation doesn’t make much sense to me.” With no better ideas in mind, he moved to the west wall and pulled men from the south and north walls to reinforce the eastern wall.
After a bit of fighting, another messenger made his way to Baron’s side. “Sir, I have a report. The eastern wall has reported that three more siege towers have appeared and will latch onto the wall in a matter of minutes.”
“So that's what Xu Da had planned.”
Baron now realized what Xu Da had done — by placing the majority of his men on opposite ends of the battlefield, he’d made Baron choose to help one or the other. And whichever wall Baron didn’t choose, Xu Da would attack. It was an exceedingly basic, but effective strategy. After all, Baron couldn’t very well divide himself up.
If Baron chose to stick to the west wall, then the east wall would likely fall, especially if Xu Da went in person. However, if he went to defend the east wall, then Xu Da could send more troops to the west wall. Xu Da had gained priority, which was to say that Baron now had to react to Xu Da’s moves before he could make his own.
Baron racked his brain before responding to the messenger. “By my calculations, they shouldn’t have had enough time to soak all of their siege towers in water, at least not properly. Tell the other walls’ officers to do their best to burn down the siege towers. That should help. Also, round what soldiers that we can to the eastern wall. No matter what, it cannot fall!”
“Yes, sir.”
Baron moved forward aggressively on the wall — he had to finish matters here quickly before he could go and help the east wall. Thankfully, his predictions were correct. Xu Da’s men had indeed not been able to properly soak their siege towers, and three that had been attacking the west wall burned to the ground, leaving only two.
After pushing the enemies back, Baron made his way to the east wall, where he fought for the rest of the day. Miraculously, they’d managed to push back Xu Da’s men for the day. Though, both sides had sustained heavy casualties.
When all was said, though, Baron had gained another advantage — most of the enemy’s siege towers had been burned to the ground, Xu Da wouldn’t have the resources to summon any more.
Baron had also gained something important that day. As he had heard, Xu Da seemed to, indeed, be deathly afraid of geese. With that information, Baron had a rather...interesting way to end the simulation.
He then sent a message to his cavalry forces outside the city to scout the area around the city to make sure that nothing had changed from the previous day. After completion of the task, they were to return to their previous position and to report to Baron.
When they returned to their base of operations outside of the city they were surprised to see Baron there. After all, it made sense for the strategist to stay in the city he was supposed to defend. Officer Sol, the commander of the cavalry forces, quickly greeted his superior.
“Sir, why are you here? The city, it — "
“Don't worry, I’ve already drawn the plans for tomorrow’s skirmish. At the very least, the forces in the city should be able to last until we’re able to deal the killing blow. Have your men prepare themselves — we’ll be setting off in an hour or two.”
“Yes, sir. Go on! You heard the boss, go get some rest.” Sol relayed to his men.
Within an hour, Xu Da's men had already left camp to once again lay siege to the city for the sixth day in a row. They’d left some soldiers back at camp — mostly ones who wouldn’t be needed for the fighting that day. This was common for strategists on the offensive side, as it allowed them to rotate fresh troops in and out of combat.
But today, this practice would come to bite This was when Baron chose to attack the enemy camp. With the full force of ten thousand cavalry, Baron and his men crashed through the enemy camp and made quick work of the five thousand or so infantry Xu Da had left behind. Having hardly spent any time massacring the camp, Baron and his soldiers soon set out for the city, but not before a few thousand of their cavalry donned the enemy’s armor.
Just before they reached the city, his cavalry split into two groups. The first group consisted of Baron, and the two thousand cavalry that had donned the enemy’s armor. This group, led by Baron, would head to directly engage Xu Da in combat. The second group was led by Officer Sol, and they were to flank Xu Da’s soldiers on the other side of the city. Ideally, the two forces would reach their targets at the same time.
As they approached Xu Da’s temporary command tent, set to the north of the city, Baron commanded his men.
“Alright, you.” He said pointing to one of his soldiers. “Bring me to Xu Da's command tent and say that you caught me lurking around the camp. Everyone else, stand by unless you hear a fight break out between the enemy general and I. In that scenario, try to find me in the confusion and we’ll need to retreat at our fastest speed. Understood?”
“Yes, sir!” Everyone shouted.
Baron and his soldier were quickly given access to the command tent, and Baron and Xu Da quickly saw each other.
Baron was the first to speak.
“I think we should have a little chat, Xu Da.”
Chapter 15
Yet Another Challenger
“Talk? We're at war, what could we possibly have to talk to each other about?” Xu Da couldn’t fathom why Baron would be in his command tent — this was probably the most dangerous place for Baron to be.
“Well, I thought we could have a nice, peaceful talk about how we should end this simulation peacefully.”
“What?” Xu Da was truly confused.
“Remember the person who assaulted you with a goose?”
“Did you send him as a spy?”
“Yes, I did. You should have realized by now, that I plan to use the bird to force you to surrender this simulation.”
"...” Xu Da’s face blackened. Nobody liked being threatened, nevermind when the threat was...geese. “I applaud you for your bravery, if nothing else. But, just because you know my weakness doesn’t mean that I’ll bow down to your will.”
Baron sighed. “I thought you were a strategist, but you can’t even understand my motives. I expected more from you.”
Xu Da frowned. “Enlighten me.”
“Now you're asking your enemy to reveal their plan? Well, alright. Let me give you a bit of help. I haven’t just spent my first days on this planet laughing and drinking it up with Yue Fei. I’ve also amassed information regarding the best strategists of the Chinese community. I’ve heard you enjoy a nice life here. You aren’t quite at the level of the hundred elders, but you’re close.”
“Yeah, so what's your point?”
“My point is that this world is cruel. You already know that much. It would be a shame if word got out that you were afraid of geese.” He spread his arms. “It’d be a pity if your future opponents were to exploit this weakness of yours...endlessly.”
“Are you threatening me, boy?”
“Oh, not at all. In fact, I have something even better planned.”
“And what would that be?”
Baron glanced at Xu Da’s guards, spread about the tent, weapons pointed at him. “How about we have our chat in private?”
“Very well.” Xu Da waved at his guards, who promptly left. “So, what is your proposal?”
“You and I put on a grand show for the people watching our battle, but you’ll ultim
ately fall to my blade. Afterwards, you’ll be my follower.”
“Shameful. Too shameful. I’d be throwing away my face.”
“Would you rather I reveal your little secret to everyone?”
Xu Da had to think long and hard on this decision. On one hand, he would be losing much of the progress he’d made on planet four, and he would lose his freedom.
On the other hand, if he didn't take Baron's offer then he would be ridiculed by the Chinese community for having such an easy and exploitable weakness. He’d then have to fend for himself against his enemies… and he would be permanently at a disadvantage, with such an exposable weakness.
In the end, he chose to swallow his pride and follow Baron.
“You win. I’ll follow you.”
“I assure you, you made the right choice.” Baron remained stoic on the outside, but he was overjoyed that he’d acquired such a powerful tool as Xu Da. “One thing, I hope you’ll trust me as much as I’ll trust you in the future. Furthermore, don’t tell anyone that you’re one of my men. I want to keep it a secret for now.”
“Alright, whatever you say. So how do we go about the rest of this simulation?”
“You and I will begin dueling, until sundown. Then I’ll escape with my men and you’ll not give chase.”
“What of my men on your city walls?”
“Just let them fight it out with my men. All that matters is that you and I put on a good show to give to our audience.”
"...Very well.”
In an instant, the two unsheathed their weapons, and let loose on each other. Rather, Xu Da vented his frustrations unto Baron, as he defended himself. After all, despite making his decision, Xu Da was clearly frustrated with having lost his freedom. Having been immediately given a chance to vent his frustrations on the cause of his feelings, he let loose a flurry of blows.
The duel quickly rose in intensity. As it did, the noise of their weapons clashing reached the ears of Baron’s men.
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