10 The Start of a Great Brotherhood

As soon as Baron regrouped and reorganized the entire army he decided to not engage the enemy, and let his men have a day of break. Before he let his men off though he had to relocate his camp since Yue Fei knew where it was and could possibly launch another night raid. Once they relocated a little further away then they originally set up camp, Baron spent the majority of the day planning other strategies now that he had all of his army in one place.

A blue button appeared in his vision reading "Give the enemy a chance to surrender?" and a yes or no button right below it. Baron hesitated for a moment before leaning to hit the yes button.

(LE) "I wouldn't if I were you." Lieutenant En said seated in a chair still tied up by rope.

(BM) "Oh, how do you know what I'm about to do?"

(LE) "I am a part if the system, and I exist as a sort of advisor to the general, and other times I lead upon the general's orders."

(BM) "Thats quite interesting, so why shouldn't I give Yue Fei a chance to surrender?"

(LE) "Allowing a surrender is a sign of the ultimate disrespect to your opponent. Losing a simulation isn't that big of a deal, but surrendering is akito saying you have lost the will to fight. I'm sure you've heard of how merciless this world can be right?"

(BM) "Yes, but what does that have anything to do with it?"

(LE) "Even if I haven't been actually on planet four I have heard all sorts of stories. The saddest of which is if you even get offered to surrender, it will leave a big stain on a persons track record. Ultimately, everyone will look down on you, and shun you for being weak."

(BM) "Oh, well I guess that makes sense. Especially if you lost to a junior, that would be beyond embarrassing even if you were going easy on them." Baron slowly retracted his hand from the button, and it disappeared from his sight. "Yue Fei is just testing me to see if I have any ability in warfare, no point in ruining his reputation when he is just following orders. Then tell me Lieutenant En, is everyone here besides me and Yue Fei simulations?"

(LE) "Yes, why do you ask?"

(BM) "I'm just wondering...who on Earth made such an advanced system so as to allow war that involves millions of people? I've seen my soldiers, they are all unique and free willed, not one of them are the same person. Just this aspect of this game is probably hundreds of years away from what humans could achieve back when I died on Earth in 2020."

(LE) "I'm not too sure, I'm not authorized to know."

(BM) "This world just keeps on getting more and more mysterious the longer I live here." Baron sighed in resignation. After this conversation Baron continued to think about strategies in which he could beat Yue Fei with.

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Officer Mike (OM) "Sir, status report has come in and you will not like the results."

(YF) "What happened? I thought it was weird that Lieutenant En took the entire night to kill Baron. Seeing as I haven't been transported out of this simulation by now En must have failed."

(OM) "Lieutenant En has been taken as a prisoner by the enemy so as to allow the last 400 of the cavalry we sent out to return safely. The men that returned has had their morale absolutely crushed by Baron. According to our reports the other two officers fell in battle."

(YF) "Where are the men now?"

(OM) "Ten of the cavalrymen have come to deliver the report while the others have returned to their original positions right beside the infantry."

(YF) "Call all of them back to here, immediately." Yue Fei said with a dark face.

(OM) "Yes, sir" he said and quietly left.

Yue Fei realized almost as soon as he heard that En was captured, Baron was employing psywar (psychological warfare) tactics to rob his men of their already low morale. I will not allow you to use my own soldiers to do your bidding Baron! Yue Fei thought in his mind. By the time the soldiers were rounded up though, the stories and rumours that spread through his ranks were unstoppable.

He had lost most of the trust of his men, and why shouldn't they doubt him? When they were going against Baron's 5,000 in the first few days of the battle Baron had kept the upper hand even though Yue Fei had an army twice the size. Now that Yue Fei's hidden ace was revealed, and foiled by Baron he no longer had any advantage. Yue Fei felt absolutely terrible. Not only was he going to lose to someone much younger than him, but he will also get a lot of disdain from the elders council that he is a part of once he goes in to give them his report of Baron's abilities.

It will be a new precedent if he actually lost this simulation, even if he was holding back from the very beginning. His position on the council right now was very precarious, he had spent over a thousand years and he just barely managed to get on the council. He was the 98th elder out of a total of 100, and that might change soon if he didn't make any alliances with anyone soon. He had managed to get this far on his own but this seemed to be his limit. He remained in deep thought for the remainder of the day.

At the end of the sixth day there was no clash, and since Baron didn't make another squad to scare Yue Fei's troops in the middle of the night the night remained peaceful as well. Baron's roughly 7,500 troops against Yue Fei's roughly 4,000 will duke it out on the seventh day of battle.

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As the first rays of light touched the ground, a thundering sound could be heard marching towards the city wall. This army was naturally the army at Baron's disposal, they numbered 7,500 and almost outnumbered their enemies by twice as much troops. Their morale was sky high. The assault this time was different than the previous ones as Baron planned to use all the resources to break through against the West wall of the city. He had figured out that as of now the East wall was the wall that put up the most resistance, so if he himself attacked the West wall then the East wall would not be able to send any reinforcements to help. Baron figured if Yue Fei hadn't changed anything in the past day or two then Yue Fei would still be personally leading the defence on the East wall.

However, Baron wasn't completely sure Yue Fei hadn't changed his plans so he just had his army continue on the assault like normal and sat back to observe the situation on the walls. After gathering the necessary evidence he ordered the siege engines to be soaked in water and to set out immediately. There was a change in how he had the siege towers approach this time. When he brought it out last time he had two towers for every wall, now he had sent three to the west wall (so they can break through), three to the east (to stall Yue Fei from coming over to help the west wall), and one each on the other two walls.

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Yue Fei soon realized what Baron was planning when the messenger had told him of the situation. Without his help the west wall would certainly fall, but if he left his position at this wall then he would definitely lose the east wall. He knew he had lost this simulation, however he wasn't going to go down without a fight.

(YF) "Tell the officers at the other two walls to send as much reinforcements as they can spare to the west wall. That should be able to solve this problem for a little while." Yue Fei said as he plunged his sword into one of Baron's men instantly killing him. "Go now, there is no time to waste."

(M) Yes, sir" the messenger hastily told another messenger the situation and both of them split up to get the message to each wall much quicker.

(YF) "It's easy to kill, Baron, but it is quite difficult to end a war." Yue Fei thought aloud.

The battle dragged on long into the afternoon, and just as the sun was about to set Baron and his men finally managed to break through the west wall, go down the stairs leading up onto the walls, and opened up the gates to let his cavalry in. After this point, many of Yue Fei's men gave up and threw down their weapons in utter defeat. As did Yue Fei.

Going by Baron's calculations if every wall had only focused on their own walls without giving support to the west wall, then the west wall would've fallen a few hours after noon. However, with the intervention of the reinforcements his estimation was off by a couple of hours, almost taking the battle into night when no one dared to fight. Not even Baron.

According to Yue Fei's calculations he believed that the west wall with the reinforcements should've held on until night fell. Unfortunately, he miscalculated how tenacious and victory thirsty Baron's men had become after an entire day of fighting. Yue Fei realized that in every aspect of this simulation he had been completely oppressed by Baron in every single calculable way.

A message popped up for both of the strategists when the bulk of Baron's army entered into the city. It read "Congratulation Baron Magellan on your overwhelming victory in this simulation." Then that message was replaced another that read "Play again?" Both players hit the no button without hesitation and both was transported back to the hall where the others were. They took off their helmets to look at each other.

(YF) "Well played Baron Magellan, you are quite a capable strategist, it's also nice to see that you don't shy away from battle." Yue Fei reached out his hand to shake Baron's.

(BM) "You played very admirably as well" Baron also reached out his hand to shake Yue Fei's.

The silence of the others in the room said it all. They were dumbstruck by the overwhelming show of respect Yue Fei, an elder in the community, was showing to Baron an absolute greenhorn who hadn't even been here that long. This handshake represented that Yue Fei recognizes the ability of Baron, which none of them had received. It also represented the start of a brotherhood between Yue Fei and Baron.