It turned out that Guan Yu had spent the last year constructing many more garrisons along the beach, each capable of assisting Dieppe Beach from many kilometers away. His men had found more than twenty, and it was highly possible that there were still more, unfound.
Baron shook his head. “It looks like you've been quite busy, Guan Yu. How is it possible that you were able to keep all of this away from the prying ears of my spies?”
Chapter 40
Your Loss
Baron had expected Guan Yu to be able to construct maybe five to ten more coastal defense fortifications — but twenty was just… completely outside of his expectations. These new additions were not as strategically important as the original six, but they still posed a threat.
And as he hadn’t known about them, he didn’t have any spies in them, either.
This was a huge oversight on Baron's part — born from him underestimating his opponent. He made a mental note of this, to remind himself in the future. For now though, he had to think of a way to move forward in the simulation.
There were a few options that came to mind.
The first involved him taking out every single fortification that Guan Yu had constructed. This would make taking Dieppe Beach much easier, but dragging the mission out would lower his troops’ morale.
Another option involved only taking the most strategic positions, then proceeding to take Dieppe Beach, regardless of the others. This was possible, but riskier.
After thinking for a few more hours he came up with two more ideas, but they both had their flaws. The first was to launch a full-on assault as the Allies had, while the second was to launch a two-pronged attack, where he would attack Dieppe Beach and Guan Yu’s headquarters at the same time.
In the end, Baron thought of a few more plans, but he decided that launching the two-pronged attack was in his best interest. After all, if he gave Guan Yu more time to prepare, then who was to say Guan Yu wouldn't complete even more defensive fortifications? Taking it slow from the start had bit him in the behind already, after all.
But then, he received some terrible news.
“General Baron, Sir! We have some news to report to you.”
“What is it? If it isn't too important then tell me later. I need to work on the logistics for our next attack.”
“I’m sorry sir, but this is of the utmost importance. We have lost contact with all of our spies in Dieppe Beach and the enemy headquarters. It seems as though they were all apprehended at the same time.”
Baron scratched his chin. “Could Guan Yu have done something to all of our spies so quickly? It seems as though this is too much of a coincidence… but this will have to be put aside for now.”
Baron continued to make his plans, with new precautions in mind, now. As an extra step, he reorganized his forces into four groups.
The first two groups would attack Dieppe Beach, and this force consisted of tanks, infantry, a few bombers and fighter planes, and all the ships available to him. One of the groups would serve as the main attacking force, while the other group would serve as a sort of special operations unit. The special operations unit would receive direct orders from Baron during the battle, and its members were handpicked by Baron himself.
The other two groups were similar to the first two, but their main attacking force consisted of mostly fighter aircraft and infantry. One group here was also made to be a special operations unit.
The reason Baron had decided to create these two special forces was simple. The two-pronged attack would likely not work without his spies on the inside, Especially considering Guan Yu still had 20 plus batteries that could still defend Dieppe Beach. Without them, Baron had decided that he would need these two groups to infiltrate the two positions in their place.
They would proceed to sabotage as much of the enemy’s infrastructure and weaponry as they could. But this was highly risky. So, to increase his chances, he decided to send his men out on their tasks immediately after briefing them, so that any spies in these groups wouldn’t have time to notify Guan Yu of the attack.
They set out, and within a few hours, Baron received reports from both of his special forces units. The plan had worked out splendidly and they had caused a lot of damage to many of the enemy infrastructure and weaponry. Baron ordered them to return to the rendezvous point, and told them that they would all be airlifted back to headquarters.
With one of the pillars of his plan built, Baron focused on the other. In order to take Dieppe Beach, he would have to remove Guan Yu from the equation.
This unenviable task, he gave to his lieutenant. His lieutenant was to command the attack on Guan Yu’s headquarters. Almost immediately after their attack started, Baron would commence his attack on Dieppe Beach. At first, everything went well for the two-pronged offensive. Baron even received reports that the group targeting the headquarters was doing well, even holding a slight edge over the defenders.
But that in itself, told Baron that something was wrong.
If Guan Yu was at the headquarters, then Baron's army should be holding a stalemate against the enemy forces. If his side was winning, that meant that Guan Yu was not there — and was likely at Dieppe Beach.
This was not good news for Baron. He had designed this plan so that Guan Yu would be too preoccupied with defending himself to send any orders to Dieppe Beach. Instead, it seemed like Baron and Guan Yu would be facing off in the final showdown of this simulation.
Not one to panic, Baron moved swiftly. The first thing he did was to send a message to his other army, and have them return to him so that they could break through and seize Dieppe Beach from Guan Yu’s hands together. He also created a new strategy with new information in mind.
After quickly briefing his officers, they began to work on the plan. They started by creating a smokescreen on the beach, making it difficult for anyone to discern who was friend or foe. With this smokescreen, Baron’s soldiers would have a higher chance of making it to shore.
And this worked. As his troops took hold of the beachhead, the smokescreen lifted, and the battle began to rage in earnest. After the battle reached a stalemate, his other army arrived to tip the balance.
But it took Baron another while to realize that something wasn’t quite right. His strategy and tactics had been quite good, but Guan Yu’s men seemed to be mindless, running around without any sense of direction. Furthermore, the artillery on the other beaches weren’t firing at them.
Confused, Baron looked around — and noticed one final detail that he’d previously missed in the midst of the fighting. The smokescreen had been fading away. Had. Yet, despite all the time that had passed, certain sections of it were still there.
Just as he realized this, ships emerged from the smoke, and countless soldiers poured onto the beach.
The ships’ guns fired mercilessly onto Baron’s forces, while the artillery from the other garrisons finally began to sound. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Luftwaffe that was supposed to be grounded at Guan Yu’s headquarters, arrived on the scene.
Baron and his men had been surrounded, not only on land, but also sea and air. Realizing this, Baron knew that his only chance at victory was to move forward, and take Dieppe Beach in a swift blow, before turning around and becoming the defender.
And he nearly made it, too. But alas, Guan Yu’s cunning had won him the battle.
As the simulation ended, the two removed their helmets — and were bombarded by praise.
“Looks like it's your loss.” Said Guan Yu.
Baron sheepishly smiled. “Well done, Guan Yu. That was truly a great plan. How did you even get ships?”
Guan Yu heartily laughed. “Ah, I went to the German generals and convinced them to lend me a few ships. If I hadn’t succeeded, you probably would have won!”
“There’s no point in entertaining potential outcomes. You won, and you played me right into your hands.”
Guan Yu nodded. “Yes, you were a bit hasty when you decided to
attack Dieppe Beach. But still, you’re young and rather inexperienced. You’ll mature well with a few decades of work.”
“So have you decided then? About joining us?”
"... It would be my honor.”
Chapter 41
Blueprints Galore
Baron’s smile stretched across his face. After all this was the God of War. “Wonderful, wonderful. It’s wonderful to have another strong comrade. Elder Guan Yu, I’ll have to count on you from now on.”
Guan Yu grunted in affirmation. “Baron, I do have some questions.”
“Ask away.”
“It's about your future faction’s uh… what did Han Xin say… Under One Banner? What will the hierarchy of Under One Banner be?”
Baron hummed in thought before answering. “I'm afraid that what I'm looking to implement is not very conventional, or what you might be familiar with.”
“You mean, you won't be implementing the five class system?”
“No, I will not.”
“Is there a particular reason? The five class system of leader, inner circle, elder, inner disciple, and outer disciple has worked well for most of our factions.”
“I can understand your concern, but I assure you that the system I will be introducing is far more effective than the five class system. It will be a twenty class system of sorts, that will be undoubtedly better for the long-term health of our faction.”
Guan Yu was stunned. “Twenty classifications? Why so many?”
“Well, this ties into another thing that I will be changing. I understand the convention in the Chinese community is to have elders compete in simulations against potentially talented strategists. They then express their opinions and a decision is made from that. I will be changing the system so that each of our disciples has to report what they have achieved, through tournaments and other events, every decade. Their achievements will be assessed every decade or so to determine whether they deserve their rank, or a promotion.” There's actually one more aspect that I will be changing, and that's the promotion part.
“I see… Well, I will have to see this with my own two eyes. Let’s speak of other matters. How have you and your men been training for the upcoming Faction Selection Tournament?
Baron grinned. “Well, now that you’ve joined, I can show you. You’re an elder, right? Set up a simulation for this scenario...with...yep. Alright. Let’s enter.”
The two of them entered the scenario that Baron and the others had spent the last year or so in to practice their strategies. Guan Yu was surprised, to say the least. He had been on planet four for quite some time, and he’d never seen this scenario before. It was really quite a hidden gem, that perhaps only they knew about. Baron and Guan Yu entered the simulation on the same side, so that they would be competing against an NPC strategist.
Then, Baron began to show Guan Yu the tips and tricks he had under his sleeve for aerial combat.
“So I know that you are an adept aerial strategist, but I noticed during our simulation that your pilots lacked a bit of finesse. What I've found out, is that if you have the time, it is in your best interest to train your pilots in aerial maneuvers and drill them with planned maneuvers and tactics. This will help their comfortability in tough situations and they will be able to perform better when they have to perform these maneuvers and tactics.”
Guan Yu nodded. “That’s something I’ve done for my infantry, but I hadn’t realized I could train my pilots, too. Good thinking."
Baron smiled. “Well, it made sense. After all, the scenarios are heavily based on Earth’s laws and customs. Other than the strategists being fifty times stronger than normal, I guess.”
“Has no one told you about official simulation competitions?”
“What are you talking about?”
Guan Yu explained. “In any official tournament, like the Faction Selection Tournament, and Death Match Tournament, strategists aren’t given bonus stats. Thus, assassination attempts are more common and useful.”
“Is that so? Looks like official tournaments are more realistic than what I’m used to. Let’s talk about this more, after. For now, focus on taking down as many of the enemy’s planes as you can. I’ll spectate on the side.”
Guan Yu was no slouch when it came to aerial combat, and now that he knew to train his pilots, he was even better. In his first simulation, he was able to down more than eight hundred enemy aircraft before losing the simulation. Keep in mind that even Han Xin and Yue Fei were only able to take down six hundred in their first individual tries. With such an impressive result, Baron couldn’t help but feel a chill down his back.
The God of War, indeed.
“Well done, Guan Yu. You’ve quite impressed me.”
“You flatter me. I've managed to down about eight hundred aircraft, so how many can you guys down?”
“Unfortunately, we have hit a bit of a bottleneck in our training. We can typically take down about sixteen hundred planes, but that’s about it. The limiting factor is that after we only have about five or six pilots left, they give up on fighting. They’ll still follow orders, but their skills and flying prowess are clearly lower.”
“Oh really.... Hm. How about I have another go at it? If I figure anything out I'll be sure to inform everyone.”
Baron nodded. “Alright, you used a bit over a month in the simulation just now, which correlates to about four days. The longest we’ve stayed is about six months, or twenty-four days. My advice to you is to endure the lack of potential action in the later stages of the simulation, and focus on taking out enemy aircraft.”
“Thanks for the advice.” Guan Yu moved to put his helmet back on, but then he paused. “Will you be doing this as well?”
Baron shook his head. “No, I’ll be busy for a few more days. Our faction needs to make a bit more money, as we’re running low. I plan on making blueprints for the next few days. Which reminds me — here.” Baron handed Guan Yu the blueprint for the radio that he had also given to the others.
“You have a radio blueprint? Ha, no wonder. Thank you, I’ll be sure to use it well.”
Guan Yu left to practice the simulation, and Baron left to his room to begin drawing blueprints. No matter how many he produced, though he didn’t feel that it was enough.
After three months of being locked up in his room, Baron turned into a source of worry for the others. So, one day they decided to breach his privacy and enter his room.
Yet, he didn’t look up as the others entered.
Han Xin approached him first. “Baron, we may not need food or sleep, but you shouldn't stay cooped up in here. It’s terrible for your mental and physical health. We’re still human, even if we’re dead.”
Baron weakly nodded. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m almost done. Why don’t you guys take a look through the blueprints and see if there’s any you like? There are many copies of the same things, so could you guys also help me tidy it up?”
Guan Yu nodded. “I shall help you. I am exhausted from practicing the same scenario for so long. A change of pace will do me well.”
“Same here.”
“I’ll help too.”
As a team, everyone sorted through the giant mess surrounding Baron. They found many great toys, but most weren’t too much of use on the battlefield. Most blueprints were of basic weapons, a few rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles. But most of these were meant to be a strategist’s personal weapon, but designed for mass production. There were some good ones though, such as war chariots, overshoes, and basic surveillance drones.
War chariots were horse-driven carts that typically sported blades stuck to the wheels, and were very effective against unarmored infantry. Overshoes were shoes that left prints that resembled bare feet. This was useful if one was fighting in a guerilla warfare scenario. The surveillance drones were self-explanatory, but only a select few in the Chinese community were familiar with them.
So, they would be Under One Banner’s secret weapon.
Baron was technologically ahead of most for now — but how long would this be the case? Soon enough, a new generation of strategists would arrive on planet four, to take his place.
Chapter 42
Three Great Factions of China
After everything was sorted, Baron gazed upon the results of his blood sweat and tears. “Now that we have an abundance of blueprints, I think we should pay a visit to the auction house again.” Baron said with satisfaction.
Guan Yu stroked his beard. “I believe there is going to be an event soon held by the Chinese community heads that will be better for selling commodities such as blueprints.”
“Oh? When is the event being held?”
“In about two years time.”
Baron softly groaned. “Two years, huh. I’m still not quite used to what people here consider ‘soon’. Anyway, I still think that we should sell a portion of these blueprints now. Then, we’ll have enough money to shop around in two years' time. Once that event starts, we can auction off our more advanced blueprints.”
“Yes, that also works, but why do you want to sell the blueprints now? We aren't exactly short on money” Han Xin asked.
“Remember what I told you guys about increasing our individual standings in the Chinese community?”
“Ah, so that’s why.” Yue Fei nodded.
“Wait, this is news to me. Why do you guys need to increase your standings?” Guan Yu asked.
“You see Guan Yu, we don't plan on just becoming another faction. We seek to be the best faction on planet four. So, we need a strong base. This means that to start, we need to have as many elders as we can.”
Guan Yu nodded. “Well, that goal in itself isn’t exactly special. Every faction is working towards it. As of now, the factions to beat in the Chinese community are the Yellow Wang Alliance, the Middle Kingdom, and most importantly, the Sun Coalition.”
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