Chapter One Hundred and One: Complete Victory

  "What's going on? Don't waste my time! Speak up!" Nicholas said to the judge.

  "Ah! Since it's already dark now, Your Honor only knows that your troops collided with the wooden stakes while charging towards the enemy camp. The wooden stakes are 1 meter high and injured all of your cavalry horses, but none fell, they must have been buried very deeply!" said the judge.

  "How much?" Nicholas asked gloomily.

  "Disorderly and chaotic, with a spear every few meters, your troops rushed out less than a hundred meters and were completely unable to move, and the formation was also scattered. Now they are being stabbed continuously by the enemy's infantry with long spears. You know that cavalry without speed and formation is not as good as an ordinary infantryman! You'd better make up your mind quickly!"

  "Damn it, order the troops to advance slowly and probe the attack, see how deep this wooden stake zone is!" Nicholas was still not giving up.

  The two armies are now entangled, but I have the absolute upper hand. My infantry can quickly shuttle through the wooden stake array and also launch long-range attacks. Nicholas' cavalry has lost its speed, and due to the existence of the stakes, their formation cannot be neat, and they are suffering heavy losses. However, I did not press all my troops forward, I want to lure Nicholas in deeper, so his troops are still advancing continuously. The referee ruled that Nicholas suffers 500 casualties per minute, but because the incoming troops are heavily armored knights, defense is extremely high, and bows and arrows have little effect, such losses are still huge. My loss is determined at 300 people per minute.

  Isn't this a bit too much? Heavy cavalry doesn't have bows and arrows, and they can't catch up to me, so how can I die that many times? I'm extremely dissatisfied with the referee's unfairness, but since I've been winning by a large margin, I haven't said anything!

  Ten minutes later, Nicholas still hadn't received news of the end of the wooden stake array and had no choice but to reluctantly order a withdrawal. I won't let him off so easily, immediately launching a full-scale surprise attack, determined to entangle the nearly 20,000 cavalry that came in, while also ordering the 5,000 cavalry left behind to infiltrate through the gaps between the trap pits and earth walls, best if possible cutting off Nicholas' army at the waist.

  Nicholas ordered a desperate retreat and then smiled wryly at the referee, saying: "I didn't think he had such a move, it seems that only some despicable tricks can win him!"

  "You've lost so badly now, can you still win?" The judge asked in puzzlement!

  "Of course!" Nicholas said confidently, "He had 160,000 men in all, lost 30,000 cavalry, and tonight's battle has cost him at least another 20,000; he can't have more than 100,000 left now."

  "Yes! His troops are enough for one hundred thousand!" said the judge.

  "I had a total of 120,000 men. I lost 10,000 a few days ago and tonight I have lost nearly 50,000 more. So now I have only 60,000 left, is that right?" Nicholas asked.

  "You still have more than 60,000!" said the judge. "The enemy has almost twice as many men as you, how can you win against him?"

  "Ha! In the end, his food supply wasn't as much as mine. He had to use 160,000 people's monthly ration to feed 100,000 people, while I only needed 120,000 people's monthly ration to feed 60,000 people. Just with food alone, I can hold out for two months, but he only has one and a half months left. And I still have over 40,000 horses that I can slaughter and eat at any time. How many days do you think his 10,000 horses would last for 100,000 people?" Nicholas laughed and said: "So he's definitely going to lose!!"

  "But aren't you afraid he'll defeat you within a month?" the judge asked.

  "It's impossible! On the open prairie, if I were to be defeated by him with just infantry, I'd hang myself!" Nicholas roared.

  "I advise you not to think about it anymore," said the judge with a smile.

  "What does it mean!" Nicholas asked coldly.

  "Just received the latest news, your main camp is being attacked by a troop!"

  "How is this possible?" Nicholas shouted: "Are the hundreds of scouts I sent out all blind? How could I not know that there are troops attacking my camp?"

  "I'm not sure about the details, go ask the principal, it's up to him to decide that you can't find out about this unit!" The judge said: "Now you've already lost, even if you go back now, your big camp will have to go through a total of 1 hour of siege, with over 10,000 people, enough to burn all your food, right?"

  "I'm going to ask!" Nicholas stormed into the hall, saw so many people inside, and the king was there too. He quickly calmed down his anger, first paid respects to the king, and then asked Grandpa the question in his heart!

  "Respected Principal, may I ask, according to the rules, from the very beginning, our two camps have been monitoring each other, and whoever has troop movements, we can all be aware of it, right?" Nicolas asked politely.

  "Yes, sir!" Grandfather said with a smile.

  "So, my opponent, when did you send these over 10,000 people to my back? I really want to know!" Nicholas asked in puzzlement.

  "He's been making moves under your nose, I've told you too, but you didn't take it seriously!" Grandpa said with an innocent smile.

  "How could that be? Didn't he just dispatch the 30,000 troops to transport wood? But they all came back, and if even 15,000 were missing, my scouts would definitely know! They're not blind, are they?" Nicholas said in discontent.

  "He went out with 30,000 but came back with 27,000, leaving three thousand in the forest. Please forgive your scout, when they returned, they were in a mess carrying wood, and roughly estimated, it's really hard to distinguish between 27,000 and 30,000, isn't it?" Grandpa said with a smile.

  "Understood!" Nicholas slapped his thigh: "He divided them into five batches and transported 15,000 people right under my nose. How ridiculous that I only sent a few dozen scouts to investigate in the direction of the forest. Such a large forest can hide over 10,000 people, how could they possibly be discovered?"

  "Heh heh, what else have you got to say now?" Grandpa asked.

  "I doubt that the earth wall can withstand the cavalry, the earth wall is not solid at all. My cavalry will knock it down with a few charges, won't they?" Nicholas asked.

  "We've thought of that, my grandson's earth wall is reinforced with 1-person-high wooden stakes inside. Even if the outside soil collapses, it doesn't matter. That's the trap set for you, once you charge at the wall with your spear, you'll get stuck in the wood, can you easily pull it out? Cavalry without weapons are just waiting to die!" Grandfather said: "I think this kid is too sinister! What a despicable move, specifically designed to counter cavalry, how detestable!"

  "Then his work will be done a bit faster, but in six days, I estimate that he can complete the trap pit and earth wall at most. No, the earth wall is also difficult to complete, after all, it needs to dig holes and set stakes, and then cover with soil, can it be done in such a short time?"

  "Haha!" Everyone in the hall laughed.

  "What's wrong? Did I say something incorrect?" Nicholas said gloomily.

  "He actually didn't even have time to cover the soil before you arrived, and he still had several stakes that weren't driven in well!" Grandfather said.

  "What's all this?" Nicholas asked.

  "But when you broke through, it took a whole day. He simply gave up on the other sections and focused all his efforts on repairing the section where you were about to break through. We determined that he would be done in half a day. What do you think?" Grandfather asked back.

  "Yes! I forgot, actually I gave him a whole seven days, not six. This battle, Nicolas lost convincingly!" Nicolas then muttered to himself: "I didn't think that even Nicolas would have such a miserable losing day!"

  "Uncle, don't be too sad! I was just playing a small trick, and I didn't dare to compete with you. Your 'one person, two horses' pursuit method really scared me half to death! At the beginning of the battle, we lost nearly half of our cavalry, and I thought we were done for this time!" The poor Taoist quickly comforted him.

  "Wasn't that what you deliberately fed me?" Nicholas said

  "How could that be?" The poor Taoist denied: "With them blocking your breakthrough point for me, how much heart can I save!" This is my great real talk!

  "You're ruthless enough! You've killed all the horses at once, otherwise I could have armed at least 1,000 more cavalrymen!" Nicholas said helplessly. "With nearly 90,000 cavalrymen, maybe I would have left some to guard the camp!"

  "Alright, no more regrets, on the battlefield there is never 'what if'." Grandfather said solemnly.

  "Yes! You're right!" Nicholas replied succinctly. "I understand, this time I lost graciously, without any complaints!"

  "Great! You have brought us a truly wonderful military chess presentation this time, whether it's Nicholas' cavalry pursuit tactics or my grandson's strange fortifications, they all gave us a vivid lesson! Let's cheer for the great Han dynasty to have such famous generals!" Along with Grandpa's emotional words, the hall erupted in warm applause!

  "Please, Your Majesty, speak!" Grandfather said.

  "I declare Nicholas appointed as Duke of the First Rank of the Kingdom, Commander-in-Chief of the newly formed Lancer Storm Brigade!" the King shouted loudly.

  The hall immediately erupted in cheers, delighted that Nicholas had reconstituted the Lancers. As for his title, no one would question it; after all, he was a first-class duke in Varna, and now that he was in Da Han, he couldn't start from scratch, could he? Who else would be foolish enough to surrender?

  "I also declare that Long Qingtian will form a new Dragon Rider Legion! He will serve as the legion commander! However, he is still young, so the legion size should be limited to 30,000 people. (A normal legion has 100,000 people.)"

  The king's words stunned everyone, and even I thought it was unbelievable! Was his head kicked by a donkey?