5 First Day of Battle

(BM) "....and once we accomplish this task, then everything else will fall into place. Remember, Lieutenant Ben, a huge portion of this plan relies on your precise timing. If I can't stall the enemy for long enough, then we can only retreat, regroup, and make another plan." Baron warned everyone in the room.

(LB) "Understood sir, shall we get ready to meet at the rendezvous point?" Ben asked in an impatient way.

(BM) "Have the men eat their breakfast if they haven't already and then have them take down the camp. We leave in 2 hours."

(LB) "Just leave everything to me." Ben replied before ordering the others to do their respective tasks. In a few minutes the officers had received their own tasks and left the big tent. They completed their jobs swiftly and two hours soon passed.

(BM) "All troops, forward march." Baron ordered as he whipped the reins on his horse. Thus signalling the begin of his army marching towards the rendezvous point. Baron, Lieutenant Ben, and the other officers were leading the army at the very vanguard. Given that not all the soldiers had horses, and they wanted the foot soldiers to conserve their energy they could only march at roughly the speed of normal walking. If they continued at this speed then they would reach their target location around noon, then march 2-3 hours to get to the city and start laying siege to it that very afternoon. They had just reached the halfway point to the city when a messenger whispered something in Ben's ears, Ben pondered for a moment before speaking.

(LB) "Sir." Ben said to get Baron's attention. "It seems our scouts have located a new point of interest in the terrain northeast of our current location, and the best part is that this one doesn't seem to be discoverable on the map." Ben exclaimed excitedly.

(BM) "A new point of interest? I'll have to go take a look then, you keep leading the march Ben."

(LB) "As you command."

(BM) "Messenger, lead the way. 300 cavalry on me!" Baron screamed before galloping away with the messenger accompanied by hundreds of horsemen.

Messenger (M) "Here it is General Baron." The messenger respectfully said to Baron as they arrived to the foothills of a U shaped steep incline only a few meters high, and surrounded by many trees.

(BM) "Mmmmmmm" Baron replied in satisfaction. "Excellent work, this discovery could very well lead us to the path of victory if utilized correctly." Baron continued to survey the land around it and played multiple simulations within his mind to see how best to turn this newfound discovery into an exploitable advantage.

Officer Rick (OR) "Sir, if this terrain is so advantageous, and the enemy is unlikely to know about it will we change our plans to include this steep incline?"

(BM) "No, not yet at least. We'll stick to the original plan and use this place as a backup if we have to." After another little while Baron had finally figured out why he couldn't see this on the map, it's because the other places he had visited was cliffs and medium sized hills whereas this place only had a steep incline. "Very interesting, all troops back to the main army" he shouted as he led them away. By the time they met with Lieutenant Ben they had already made it to the rendezvous point about 15 kilometres south of the city walls, neither side could see each other at this point. Baron approached Lieutenant Ben.

(LB) "Ah, there you are, how did it go?"

(BM) "It was magnificent, and i think you are right when you said that the enemy was unlikely to have discovered such a spot, when even we disregarded it upon looking at the map." Baron replied while scanning the army. "Have the appropriate arrangements been made?

(LB) "Almost sir, we are organising the last of the men as we speak."

(BM) "Good, when you are done take your men and get into positions I'll take the rest with me and lay siege to the city. If anything arises i'll send a messenger or two to your location to inform you of any changes of our plan."

(LB) "Understood Sir."

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(YF) "Why haven't they gotten here yet? They've exceeded my estimates by several hours. Wait a minute, could it be that Baron still hasn't thought of a strategy yet? He may be new to this simulation but he shouldn't be this slow could he?" Yue Fei thought aloud.

(LE) "Sir, we have received word that the army is fast approaching, but......" Lieutenant En trailed off.

(YF) "Speak up what is it?"

(LE) "Well..... it seems that this army only consists of about 5,000 soldiers, with enemy general Baron in the lead."

(YF) "5,000? What can they accomplish with 5,000 against my 10,000? Is Baron underestimating me..... or is it something else....." Yue Fei trailed off as he looked out into the distance inside the central strategy lookout room. Returning to his senses he said "well no matter, if Baron has a strategy to pull off i'd very much like to see what he has up his sleeve. Lieutenant En, prepare the soldiers for battle even though its past optimal hours for a fight its best to be cautious against an unknown enemy like him."

(LE) "Leave it to me sir." En replied and left the room to organize the troops.

(YF) "Let's just see what you can do to my army of 10,000 with your measly 5,000."

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(OR) "General Baron sir, will we launch an offensive today?" Officer Rick asked as he finished up ordering the army to set up camp, this time they chose a location about 3 kilometres outside the city walls.

(BM) "Yes, i'd like to test out the waters before we begin our true offensive." Baron replied. "I want you to split up the 3,000 infantry troops we brought with us into 2 groups, 200 of them will stay up with me to execute one of my plans in the night, while the other 2,800 will siege the city with me during the daytime." Baron said to Rick. Through his day and a half of experience in this weirdly futuristic simulation Baron had realized that he didn't need to eat anything, drink anything, or sleep he just needed to rest. This meant he could make preparations 24 hours a day 7 days a week, this naturally meant that Yue Fei had the same advantage as him. This did not transfer into the troops though so he had to carefully consider how much will be enough for him to successfully carry out his plan.

(OR) "As you command" Rick said then immediately proceeded to carry out Baron's order.

(BM) "Now..." Baron thought to himself as he looked at the comparatively small sized city in front of him. "Let's see how you will stop me, Yue Fei." A moment later Officer Rick returned.

(OR) "Sir, the preparations are complete"

(BM) "Alright, have the 2,800 infantry, 500 archers, and 500 mounted archers surround the city walls and begin attacking. The infantry will rush up to the walls and climb up the ladders we've prepared to try and get a foothold on the wall. The archers will begin shooting at the soldiers on the walls and tell them to shoot as fast as they can, we have no shortage of arrows."

(OR) "Yes, sir."

(BM) "Be quick about it, we have at most 3 hours of sunlight left before we have to call it a day."

(OR) "Of course sir." Rick left and immediately barked orders to everyone. Within a short 30 minutes they had surrounded the city, and began laying siege to it.

The sight of thousands of soldiers rushing to their locations caused the many soldiers' hearts to tremble in fear, and that led to the soldiers on the wall to be extremely cautious in their movements. Once the soldiers on the ground were in range the archers on the walls let loose an uncountable number of arrows into Baron's army. Similarly, once Baron's archers were in range they too let loose numerous arrows into the ranks of people on the wall at an astonishing rate. One arrow is unlikely to kill someone, unless it hit them in vital organs, but with this many arrows whose to say? The two sides clashed for two hours before Baron sounded the retreat signal. The sun was about to set, and their opening clash had made Baron grasp a characteristic of Yue Fei's.

Baron realized that from what he saw just now, Yue Fei did not partake in any of the battles on any of the four walls, Baron reckoned that since he had the stats equal to 50 regular men then Yue Fei should too. This meant that Yue Fei was only concerned about being the strategist and not about thinning his enemy's army. If this continued to be the case, then Baron's initial plan was a total waste of his time. "Not good" Baron thought to himself. Baron entered the big tent where all the officers were gathered.

(BM) "Night is about to set, have the 200 infantrymen you picked out earlier to meet me at the front of the camp, and prepare 200 fresh mounts" he ordered Rick. Rick quickly nodded and left to gather the 200 infantrymen and horses. Soon the 200 and Baron set off quietly from the camp all of them on horses rushing towards the walled city.

On the eve of the first day of battle, Baron's attacking army clashed with Yue Fei's defending army, and both sides suffered some deaths and many, many injuries. In the two hours they had clashed each side lost about 300 soldiers. At the end of the fighting Baron's surviving army totalled 4,700 to Yue Fei's 9,700. That night a few more people died due to their injuries.