Kingdom: Hyou Ren

Our lines crashed, and we were immediately put on the back foot, as our infantry began retreating slowly, pushed back by the sheer might of the Raiga Tai. But it wasn't a shocker, I´d expected us to begin to retreat, and I had added it to our defensive strategy.

However, as I expected. Our right flank began fighting a lot better, the appearance of Hozu, Kaen, and Tetsuji shifted the tide of Battle, the morale gain from the 3 officers being by their side was enough, and coupled with their immense skill, we quickly began fighting. Even pushing them back. 

But the centre and right units were still being pushed back, which we could not allow. I´d need to keep them steady. 

"Order Ryo to send a detachment of 100 or so riders, they are to attack the rear of the centre and right enemy units." I told a messenger, who nodded. Riding off.

I knew it'd take some time for the message to be given, but they just needed to hold on. 

"Inform the officers in the centre and right units of the incoming reinforcements, and the left wing's dominance." I said, and another messenger headed out. 

And with that, seconds turned to minutes, as time passed.

"A report." A messenger shouted as he ran up to me.

"Yes?" 

"Sir, Ishiro´s Cavalry has performed admirably, they've already pushed the Raiga Tai Cavalry back, and Ishiro is still engaging Shinrai." He said, and I smiled.

"Any notable casualties or kills?" I asked the man.

"Yes, the Ginryu Cavalry have killed about 2/5th of the enemy's forces, while sustaining 100 casualties." He said.

So we had killed about 200 or so, and lost about 100. 

However, my eyes turned towards their HQ Reserves, who were still marching towards the cavalry, and at the same time. The Raiga Cavalry was retreating towards them, luckily though. Ryo had slowed them down, his constant harassment had forced them to create a square of shield walls, lowering their travelling speed by that much. 

"Send Kaen to the our centre unit, Mozu and Tetsuji will head to the right, and order the left unit to switch back to defensive. The plan failed." I said, with a sigh. He didn´t send his reserves to back up his left unit.

Which had allowed us to kill 125 out of the 400 men, while only suffering about 80 in losses, a good trade. 

"Ryo is to ignore the enemy reserves, and charge upon the back of the Raiga Cavalry, complete the encirclement, and order the troops to fight with all their might, we´ll have them retreat before the infantry reach them." I said, and Genji nodded. Ordering a combination of flags to be waved, a strategy we used to redirect targets.

"Send the 100-man detachment to harass their reserves." I said, as more flags were waved around. 

Now, we just have to wait.

And with that, another 7 minutes passed, with nothing truly noteworthy happening, except the cavalry battle.

Their reserves were about to reach the Battlefield, but my cavalry had done their jobs. The 700-man cavalry, completely encircling the enemy cavalry, had decimated them. 

We suffered the loss of 150 elites, and 50 recruits, but we had killed 400 of theirs, and their infantry was about to reach us.

And so, the duel between Ishiro and Shinrai Kaku ended with a draw on both sides, while the cavalry battle ended up with only 100 Wei Cavalrymen surviving, retreating to their headquarters.

For they were utterly exhausted, and most of them wounded.

I turned back towards the infantry battle, to see nothing having changed. 

Jin Ko had seen the strength of my officers, and had accurately begun to counter us. Wherever my officers moved, he's strengthened the unit they faced and weakened those they did not face. 

Which had forced me to split the 3 men to their 3 respective units, and alone. They could not change the battle for the offensive, but they had assisted in keeping it together. And so, we had fought a battle of attrition. But, we had kept all fields relatively stable.

And we had traded blows, kills and wounded. Even with our inferiority in terms of skill. But our defense formations, and training had seemed worth it after all. 

"Roku is to take all the battle-worthy cavalry, and harass the enemy's backline. Ishiro will retreat for now, we can't risk him getting wounded. He's got a battle to face tomorrow as well." I told a messenger, who rode off. 

"What do you think, Genji?" I asked the man, who was sitting on a horse beside me.

"The Battle today will be relatively stable and unimportant, the Raiga Unit lacks the sufficient cavalry to suddenly gain a breakthrough, and they lack a sufficient figure to cause the same effect. They are lucky that this was a small battle, without a proper HQ. Or they´d have lost theirs by now." Genji said, and I agreed. 

All men were fighting now, only the Commanders stood on horseback in the backline, but we had no proper HQ, so I didn´t bother sending my cavalry there. 

"However, we have won a great victory. We still have over 600 cavalrymen, most of whom will fight again tomorrow, while they have 100. We can simply place Ishiro beside a hundred horsemen, and then the remaining 500 could run wild on their backlines." Genji said.

"I agree, but I doubt it'll be that easy. Jin Ko is no pushover, and he will come up with a strategy for tomorrow's battle. Our task will be to accurately read, and counter it." I said.

"I agree. I´ll make sure scout positions and signals are placed. You'll be informed of any movement within their camp." He said, and I nodded. 

And with that, the battle continued for a few hours.

The relatively uninjured Roku, led 400 cavalrymen to harass the flanks and backlines of the Raiga Infantry, which did not cause many casualties on the enemy side, and nor did it inflict any on ours.

But the loss of morale, and ever-looming threat of a potential cavalry charge, split their mind and consciousness, ever aware of cavalry. And therefore unwilling to fully focus on the battle before them. 

And so, after 7 hours of fighting, the day ended as both parties retreated with the dark looming.

And later that night, the casualty reports came through.

Out of the 800 Cavalrymen, the Ginryu Tai had lost 150 veterans, and 100 recruits. A total loss of 250, leaving them with 550 horsemen, 50 of whom were unable to fight, but they had inflicted 400 casualties on the cavalry, and an unknown number on the infantry.

Out of the 1200 infantrymen, during the first day of combat. They had lost a total of 250 men, reducing their force to 950, however, the Raiga Force had been assumed to lose a similar amount, reducing theirs back down to 1250 infantrymen, and 100 cavalry, with a total of 650 casualties. 

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