25 The Victor is....

The battle day began with Xu Da and his Fatimid Caliphate defending inside the city. Meanwhile, Han Xin just stood there thinking of what the best way for him to invade the city was. He did not think much of it, but on the way here he had noticed a bunch of trees being clear cut like no tomorrow. He knew that this was no coincidence, he just didn't know why Baron and Xu Da had decided to spend so much time and effort to do such a demanding task.

Now he understood part of the reason, it was to make weapons. He wasn't big on talking gossip so he didn't know that Baron had such a fearsome blueprint as repeating crossbows to his name. However, the repeating crossbow had limited effect here, since all of Han Xin's elite units were equipped with heavy armour, while his foot soldiers were loosely equipped with sparing metal armor laying around. The repeating crossbow couldn't even damage his elite units, and it would take quite a few shots to kill one of his foot soldiers.

However, he was faced with a problem. He had no wood to use to build ladders, trebuchets,and siege engines to lay waste to Jerusalem. Since Jerusalem was a walled city these objects of warfare was essential. He had to think of something before his men started to lose morale. This was his and Xu Day's first time on this map so they had no clue of the certain little tidbits that each map had.

He was no fool either, if he tried to rush the castle with just his men, then that would just be delivering the victory to his opponent. After all, his soldiers weren't invincible, and neither were the armor that they were wearing. They could only take so much punishment before being broken. He decided that his army should not advance on the very first day, and he plus his 10 capable commanders went into a tent to strategize on what could be done about this seemingly daunting situation.

Just like this the first day of battle concluded with no casualties on either side. By the second morning they still had not figured anything out so they continued to wait and brainstorm. However, Baron was aware of the reason that the crusaders managed to win this battle in history. They had gone to the nearest port city to destroy the ships and take the wood from that. So Baron, knowing that Han Xin would think of doing this very thing eventually, decided to march a few thousand of his army to recruit the citizens of the nearest port and then set ablaze their ships.

Unsurprisingly, the people agreed. These people were after all part of the defending side although they didn't like each other very much. Baron's efforts bore fruit and within a short half day he had managed to get a few thousand more foot soldiers. All of this was unknown to Han Xin until he led a fairly large detachment to personally take over the nearest port city. The only thing that awaited him was an abondoned port with everything either looted or burned down.

The logical explanation for this would've been to assume that this port had been ransacked, but Han Xin knew better. He had experienced many strategies and this move from Baron and Xu Da did not surprise him. However, the speed at which they executed such a task was impressive to say the least. The problem still remained though, he needed to lay siege to the city, and going by his estimates the land around Jerusalem was terrible for foraging and getting clean water. He only had limited supplies for his men. What was he to do?

He also needed wood to build the proper weapons for a siege. Would he risk it and attack other cities or ports for their wood? Or perhaps he should retreat back to where he knows there will be wood. He chose neither of these and instead decided to prep his army for an all out assault against Jerusalem.

Han Xin did not have any clue as to what made his soldiers want to participate in this battle. The reason was that this was part of the crusades that had a lot of religious backing behind it. These soldiers were no different, many of them were Roman Catholics and had a desire to free the holy Capitol of Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Had he used a speech that included this factor, he may have stirred up more courage from the men. Then he sent them to attack the walled city and use the few makeshift battering rams they did bring.

No matter how experienced he was, there was no way that he could've predicted Baron and Xu Da jad obtained the blueprint for the repeating crossbow. He didn't issue a retreat and instead watched as literally thousands of arrows hit his men.

Han Xin had arranged men so that his elite knights would be at the very forefront, and the foot soldiers at the rear. His crusaders had a few archers too, but against the might of the repeating crossbow what could they do but shoot back in vain? The only thing the enemy did was to shoot these arrows and taunt the crusaders. At the end of the third day, the crusaders were nowhere closer to bringing down Jerusalem than they were yesterday.

They had sustained many casualties, mostly injured but quite a few deaths too. The crusaders had lost about 300 soldiers today and many, many more were injured. On the other side the Fatimid Caliphate led by Baron and Xu Da had less than 50 deaths and even less injured. The opening clash had gone to the defending side and Han Xin had seen enough to realize that repeating what he did today wan not going to be enough to break through.

Han Xin spent an entire night concocting a plan to claim the city, and by morning he knew exactly what he should do. He spent the next few hours preparing his men to carry out his newly formulated plan. The situation was not completely against them, he had a few options he could use to overtake the city.

Going by his estimates, going back to gather wood and make the necessary siege weapons would take quite a while. By midday he had decided, and within a mere few hours he had ordered a full retreat so fast that Baron's scouts lost sight of them.

Baron was shocked by how effortlessly Han Xin had ordered a full scale retreat, so much so that none of his men knew where the crusaders went. He was suspicious, to say the least, of what Han Xin was thinking. Why did he order a full scale retreat, was it to launch a surprise attack at an obscure time, or was he just trying to buy time for something else entirely? In the end he and Xu Da could only guess as to what Han Xin had planned for them and could increase the lookouts posted on the walls.

Baron and Xu Da waited for news. One day passed, two days, three days, a week, two weeks. At this point Baron was getting extremely cautious and ordered that multiple ditches be dug around certain areas around the city. These were strategically placed to cover up the weak spots on the walls.

It would be after an entire month before the two of them got any news regarding Han Xin and the crusaders. They had finally just completed their ditch building project and were awaiting Han Xin to make the move.

However, although Han Xin could've chose to attack at any time, he chose to study the area with the newly dug ditches and forming a plan. He noticed that although Baron and Xu Da had managed to overall increase their defensivecapabilities, they missed out on every single one. Han Xin's incredibly sharp eyes saw 2 openings in which his siege towers could advance. Within the last 6 weeks of preparation, he had made 12 siege towers, 20 catapults, a few trebuchets, and hundreds of ladders. All of them basics of siege warfare.

After formulating his plan he spent no time ordering his troops to get into formation and await further orders. He first had his catapults and trebuchets pelt thr city non stop for close to a day. Then ordered his men to advance with the siege towers going down a specific route that Han Xin had told them before hand.

The rate at which the catapults and trebuchets destroyed the city walls were frightening. The charge by the siege towers and crusaders right after it was even more so. Although the defending army managed to hold on until nightfall, they had close to no morale. What little they had after the biblical nightmare that was the catapult and trebuchet assault, was completely shattered after the crusaders began attacking themselves.

By this point Baron and Xu Da saw no point in continuing this simulation so they just up and surrendered. Han Xin had claimed victory from the two of them despite all of Baron's careful planning and better knowledge of the map. Han Xin had turned it all around with even better preparation and in an absolutely dominating way. Clearly, Baron had much to learn before he could enter into the tournament that would get him back to Earth.