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 humor him for a bit." He told officer Gordon as he let out a quiet chuckle. The 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. Bring me that man's head!" En signalled his army to advance by pointing at Baron.

It's an awe inspiring sight, having a single lone horsemen 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 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 cavalry men, and mounted archers, and to the front of them rushed forward thousands more shield troops, archers, and infantry.

(BM) "Attack." This one simple word from Baron caused many of the soldiers in En's army to be completely stricken with fear.

After all, this new army that had emerged was the perfectly untouched 5,000 men that Baron had sent away at the first day of battle. Their existence had been totally forgotten by Lieutenant En and Officer Gordon. This time their screw up was at a monumental scale, not only did they lead 1,500 troops to be slaughtered but just the low morale of the troops overall was rock bottom. This lack of morale meant that they wouldn't be able to achieve the awakening effect that Officer Phillips had managed just a few hours prior. En could only grit his teeth as he give out an order as he looked at his army that had stopped dead in their tracks.

(LE) "It doesn't matter how many enemies come at us, kill the general Baron and this trade would be extremely worthwhile. CHARGE AT BARON"

(BM) "This fool....has chosen to fight head on instead of trying to break out?" Baron questioned as he looked at the few thousand troops now stationed in front of him. All of them were on foot so they could descend the steep incline relatively easily. "Shield troops, form a defensive blockade and wait for them to come to you. Infantry, you are to kill any cavalry that manage to make it through the blockade. Cavalry, get into multiple small groups, form a wedge formation, and nip at the heels of the army since you are behind them. Archers, and mounted archers just focus on shooting." Baron swiftly gave the orders and the enemy offensive almost immediately crumpled under the overwhelming coordination of Baron's army.

The battle continued on long into the night. When the first light of daybreak came, the results were clear. Under Baron's flawless leadership his army suffered minimal losses while almost all of En's troops had been eradicated. Now, only 400 cavalry remain of the original 2,000 sent out to kill Baron just a few hours ago, and in the chaos Officer Gordon also fell on the battlefield. Seeing that the enemy troops became more and more savage as another one of their brothers fell, Baron decided to finally propose the third option that he had told lieutenant En about seemingly an infinitely long time ago.

(BM) "Cease fighting" Baron ordered as he guided his horse towards the location of enemy lieutenant En. Everyone was confused. Just what was Baron trying to achieve by this crazy act?

(LE) (panting heavily) "What is the meaning of this?" En questioned Baron as the two finally met face to face. He had attempted to raise morale by fighting alongside his men only to minimal effect. He would naturally be fatigued after fighting for so long.

(BM) "I'd like to cease your pointless struggle" Baron said indifferently "How about a trade?"

(LE) "A....a trade, what kind of trade?" En was super suspicious of this so called trade.

(BM) "I don't care too much for killing, but I do like to win. With this in mind let's make a deal. You become my captive, and I'll let all of these men go."

(LE) "Me? Become your captive, in order to let these men get out alive?" En was still skeptical. "How do I know I can trust you?"

(BM) "....you are going to have to trust me." Baron said after a small pause. "The choice is yours, either become my prisoner or all of these men will die here right now."

(LE) "I...." En started before he stopped to weigh the pros and cons of each decision. He realized that in both circumstances Baron would come out ahead either way. If he chose to become their prisoner, these people could easily kill him and parade his head on a stick to the rest of Yue Fei's army. Thus lowering a huge amount of morale. However, if he chose to continue fighting then just how many present would support this decision? In the end he stayed quiet.

Baron chose to approach the enemy at this moment because the enemy was starting to get into that awakened state of throwing their lives away just to take out as many enemies as they could before dying. Such a vicious mentality even Baron wasn't sure he could use tactics to overcome such ferocity without taking a lot of casualties on his side. This option he had given En was also meant to divide, and separate the remaining 400 cavalry and render them unable to get into that demonic state of mind again.

(LE) "I think..."En inhaled deeply, "I think its best if I hand over myself quietly."

(BM) "Excellent choice Lieutenant. Now get off your horse and put your hands behind your back." Baron ordered. "You there, tie him up with rope."

(LE) "Remember your promise" En said feeling defeated.

(BM) "Don't worry, I won't go back on my word. All troops make a path for the enemy to escape."

The soldiers of Baron's army complied and soon the 400 left without another word spoken. Once the enemy left the soldiers left remaining was feeling on overwhelming sense of relief. They had continuously fought through the night, and came out victorious.

(BM) "Let's get back to camp, we need to regroup with the others. After a few hours of rest we will once again do battle on the wall. Put Lieutenant En in a wagon and drag him back to camp."

(LB) "Can i ask, why did you let those 400 men go just now?" Ben was still shocked at the turn of events that Baron Magellan had created.

(BM) "Oh that's easy, since these guys have free will, they will naturally tell stories of their encounter with me tonight to the other soldiers. With the way I handled them they are bound to see me in an unbeatable light. This fear will transfer from the cavalry to the rest of the troops and impact their morale for the upcoming battles. This is a form of psychological warfare. Victory is close, we will have the city within two days time.

On the morning of the 6th day since the battle started Baron's total army numbered 7,500 to Yue Fei's 4,000. Using unconventional tactics Baron managed to deal more than twice as much deaths to the enemy than his army.