Warfare's Final Frontier

Chapter 9 Either Way, Victory is mine

Lieutenant En was naturally not aware of this disastrous result that had befallen his army. Once Officer Gordon caught up to En and briefed him on what had happened he knew that he had royally screwed up, and was horrified upon hearing what those dying men had achieved. En entered a state of deep thought.

(LE) "It doesn't matter, if we can kill Baron Magellan then I'm willing to sacrifice another thousand. However, the loss of our other officer is quite regrettable."

(OG) "Quite, sir," Gordon said grimly. "What's the situation with killing the enemy general?"

(LE) "Pretty good actually, from what I gather we'll have trapped him in another 30 minutes"

(OG) "Oh that's excellent news"

A few moments later, to the surprise of Lieutenant En's army, Baron suddenly stopped in front of a U shaped mound and turned around to meet his enemies.

(BM) "Welcome, you must be the lieutenant of Yue Fei's army. Might I ask for your name?"

(LE) "I am lieutenant En"

(BM) "En is it? I'll give you two choices, maybe a third one later if everything goes according to plan. The first choice is that you leave immediately and you will take no further casualties."

(OG) "Lieutenant En, he's not serious, is he? I mean he expects us to leave given the fact that we have him trapped?"

(LE) "No matter, we've got time. Might as well humour him for a bit." He told officer Gordon as he let out a quiet chuckle. Then he yelled to Baron "Oh? And what's the second option?"

(BM) "I like this second option and I'm sure this is the one that you'll pick."

(LE) "And that would be...." En started to get a little annoyed at how Baron seemed to drag this encounter on.

(BM) "Or you can rush at me with all you've got and I'll make sure to give all of you a proper burial," Baron yelled back with a face full of mocking intent.

(OG) "You... You dare to joke in such dire circumstances?" As soon as this sentence left his mouth En stopped him with a simple gesture and gave Gordon a dissatisfied glare. Seemingly saying why are you falling for such obvious gimmicks.

(LE) "Oh, that's quite amusing General Baron, then please, pray tell, how are you going to achieve this task? You are alone against a vast army, you've got no reinforcements, no strategy can help you now." En bellowed.

(BM) "So I take it you've made your choice, Lieutenant En?" Baron asked in an anticipating way.

(LE) "Yes, I have. All troops this is an order bring me that man's head!" En signalled his army to advance by pointing at Baron.

It's an awe-inspiring sight, having one single horseman go up against an army of almost 1,500 horsemen. Out of the blue, his lieutenant Ben had appeared right next to him.

(LB) "Sir, the preparations are complete, whenever you feel like it give the order and we will massacre them," Ben whispered in Baron's ear.

(BM) "Don't use that word" Baron stared at Ben with a look of disgust then shifted his gaze back to the fastly approaching enemy. Ben didn't know what to say so he remained silent as he too stared at the enemy. Baron slowly raised his hand up and shouted: "all troops, surround the enemy."

What had originally been En's army cornering Baron into the terrain where he had to dismount in order to advance had swiftly changed. Now, En's army was surrounded to the back by thousands of cavalrymen and mounted archers, and to the front of them rushed forward thousands more shield troops, archers, and infantry.