13 Attracting a lot of Attention

The two men went to get drunk together and inadvertently attracted a lot of attention from the other people at the bar. Rumours began to circulate and within a day of their talk many in the Chinese community had heard about the unlikely alliance between Yue Fei and an unknown newcomer. Yue Fei had a bit of a reputation for never asking for help, in fact he had actively refused it when help was offered to him. Now though, he had actually initiated an alliance with a newcomer. This was indeed news to many, and many went to go check out if these rumours had any truth to it.

They were shocked by the respect and camaraderie both sides showed to each other. Then even more rumours began to spread, most of which were highly exaggerated. The two paid no interest to these events and instead worked to transfer their respective knowledge and experiences with each other. Enhancing both of their understandings of warfare tremendously in only a few days. Then they had a few simulations to test out a few of Baron's theories as he couldn't experiment when he was back on Earth. This proved instrumental to Baron's development and within a short period of time he had been able to confirm many of his theories. He now had even more tricks up his sleeve than when he had fought with Yue Fei the very first day he came to planet four.

Many people had heard of Baron by this point and so many of the younger generation decided to have a simulation match against him. Wanting to put his newfound knowledge to the test, Baron didn't reject any challenges that was made of him.

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The very first challenger was a fellow by the name of Xu Da, from his constant research, Baron instantly recognized this person. Xu Da was a military general who personally helped to end the Yuan dynasty in 1368, and helped the first emperor of the Ming dynasty that was established right after the fall of the Yuan dynasty. Since Xu Da was the elder, he allowed Baron to choose the settings of the simulations. Baron chose to have a 50,000 vs 50,000 walled city siege, but this time he would be on the defensive side.

Unbeknownst to both of these strategists, there were many pairs of eyes glued to their simulation. This was because with how much attention Baron has received in the past few days, many wanted to gauge this newcomer's ability for themselves.

On the one day of preparation, both parties would do what normally had to be done. This included the logistics of their respective armies, any points of interest of terrain that they could find on the map that would give them an advantage if used properly, and of course drawing multiple scenarios in their heads to see what was the best way to outsmart their enemy. Unfortunately for Xu Da, Baron had remembered an interesting point after researching Xu Da. According to some accounts, Xu Da was allergic to geese, and rumour has it was even deathly scared of these birds. Baron had many plans that he had in his arsenal against Xu Da, but after remembering the trivia, he really wanted to see if he could actually win the simulation using a goose. However, he had to bide his time.

On the first day of battle, there weren't that much interesting developments, and so only a battle with brute numbers ensued. At the end of the first day, even though there wasn't that much fierce clashing from both sides, both sides had lost about 3,000 soldiers each. So, Baron's army of 47,000 vs. Xu Da's army of 47,000is what the two armies are at by the beginning of the second day.

The second day of battle proceeded much like the first, with Xu Da only applying a war of attrition, but this time Baron actually toured the four walls giving his men morale and occasionally fighting alongside them. At the end of the day when the attacking army was retreating for the day, Baron decided to send five 1 thousand cavalry units to mess up the infantry's retreat. Xu Da reacted quite slowly to this provocation by Baron, but by the time he had come up with a solution the cavalry had already stepped foot back into the walled city. These two tactics employed by Baron today, raising morale by touring the four walls, and using well rested cavalry to hunt down the tired enemies' infantry proved quite successful. At the end of the day the results were clear in showing Baron's superiority in the battle today. Baron had 45,000 troops left while Xu Da had 44,000. Not a big difference, but any good news he had Baron would share with his men so that they could have higher morale. In the cover of darkness Baron ordered 10,000 cavalry to split up and begin working on something outside of the city that Baron had planned.

The third day of battle was completely different however, the two sides only engaged in a battle of arrows. Both sides' archers were behind a line of shield troops so there wasn't as many casualties as there had been the previous two days of fighting. The tally at the end of the day revealed that Baron's army had about 43,000 troops left while Xu Da had about 42,000.

However, during the night of the third day, Xu Da had sent in cavalry to deploy the exact same tactic that Baron had introduced when he used it against Yue Fei. Unbeknownst to Baron, while he and Yue Fei were busy carrying out experiments, the other younger generation and even some of the older generations had picked up the firecracker strategy to sap the enemy's morale and strength. This method to keep the enemy soldiers awake all night and in a state where their adrenaline kept pumping was not the first of its kind, but this method was the first to utilize such a small number of men while having an even greater effect than anything they had come up with before. Baron ordered the night patrol on the walls to triple in comparison to the normal amount, and had the rest of the men move closer to the centre of the city so they could get some peaceful sleep. The night passed just like that.

On the dawn of the fourth day Xu Da surprised Baron by sending in troops an hour early. As a result Baron's men didn't even get their breakfast in before they had to rush to the walls to defend them once again. Baron realized that the morale of his troops were slowly withering so he had to come up with something to save the situation. In the end he had the infantry and archers not yet on the wall to have their breakfast first, then switch out with the people who were fighting with an empty stomach. Baron knew this task could go very wrong if handled improperly so he carried out the plan himself and went to each of the walls to guide the process. After a mishap on the final wall, Baron had to fight personally to inspire his troops and regain the upper hand on that wall.

Just like that the fourth day of battle ended, but Xu Da's men once again set out to use the firecracker strategy to confuse their enemy again. However, Baron had long been prepared for this and immediately informed the cavalry he had sent out on the night of the second day. Just before the sun set for the day, Baron had some of the enemies' armour deliveredto his cavalry already outside the walls, he ordered some of them to put on this armour and to approach the people who were lighting up the firecrackers slowly and kill them with the least amount of noise possible. Wearing the armour acts as a disguise so that the enemy would not be suspicious of these men until it was too late. This plan proved really successful and Baron's men managed to kill over 450 out of the 500 cavalry sent out to light up the fireworks, they quickly retreated once the sun was about to come up.

Baron's 40,000 vs. Xu Da's 40,000 was what both sides had left on the dawn of the fifth day of battle. Just before the two armies clashed for the day Baron ordered one of his cavalry to ride straight into the enemy camp dressed as one of Xu Da's men to obtain intelligence deemed of the utmost importance to Baron.

Xu Da (XD) "Who are you and what do you want?" Xu Da said as he looked at what he assumed to be a soldier who had learned of something of great importance to the war.

Baron's spy (BS) "I have been given a message by one of Baron's men to send to you. It's in this bag here."

(XD) "Oh what is it?" Xu Da was visibly suspicious.

(BS) "Here it is." the spy reached into the bag and pulled out a goose then proceeded to throw the live goose at Xu Da.