World Conquest Online

The forward enemy General and the elderly General with the bow, pulled their forces together, with Tomoe directing her Cavalry in to the remaining enemy Cavalry, whilst Banas directed her hundred Horse Archers towards the supporting enemy forces to thin them before they arrived at disrupted the carefully choreographed attack. Subutai was proud to see that his training and tactics were once again coming to fruition, but he longer to have a large force at his disposal again.

"We've got a battle on our hands now." Subutai grinned as he let loose an arrow towards the elderly General, who deflected the oncoming arrow with his bow, a look of surprise on his face at the power and aim of Subutai, whilst Subutai looked in impressed at the Elderly General's reflexes. A large grin appeared on Subutai's face as the two Archers exchanged more arrows.

"It would be handy if Hua Rong was here." Banas joked as she pulled in near Subutai, as he and the elderly General continued to let loose more arrows, "If we don't end this soon, we won't have enough arrows left for Jiangxia."

"We can collect the arrows from the enemy bodies!" Subutai countered as he dodged an arrow sent by the enemy General, which fell between him and Banas, before shooting his own in return. The two seemingly ignoring the battle happening around them as they aimed for each other.

"That takes time, Lord Lazarus will want us to depart after this at attack to Jiangxia before they have chance to recover and the sun begins to drop." She replied with a shrug of her shoulders as she directed her Horse Archers to take a different route and departed from Subutai again.

"Then he better do something or he'll have to wait!" Subutai shouted after her loudly, enjoying his duel across the battlefield and trusting in his commanders to do their roles.

As if Dom had heard him, the gates of the small palisade Fort opened, with Dom's large armoured Red Hare at the front, surrounded by around three hundred white armoured Cavalry, the rest of the survivors still recovering. Beside him was a recognisable White Armoured General who held a spear in his hand again and was ready to redeem himself.

"Sometimes I wonder how he does it." Subutai commented to himself with a shake of his head at the sight of Dom and another possible new recruit, as the enemy older General also noticed this new foe appearing. The sight of Dom, Zhao Yun and the internal forces caused a tremor of panic across the enemy ranks who were already on the backfoot from the ambush.

Dom led a charge straight out of the camp and headed directly to the enemy at the front, who had only just turned back to support the rest of their forces who were being ambushed. Dom's forces hit them heavily and caused chaos immediately, with shouts of terror reverberating across the battlefield. Tomoe now also circled away from the enemy Cavalry using their much faster horses to strike at the infantry. The smell of the Sabre Tooth Tigers unnerving most of the enemy Cavalry who refused their riders commands to chase, giving Tomoe's Sun Family cavalry the chance to push themselves after the Red Hare Lancers.

Liao Hua also appeared with the infantry behind Dom and Zhao Yun, around half of the camps Sun Infantry following him as he led them behind Dom and his Cavalry. The Swordsmen and Spearmen were in much higher morale than their enemies and roared loudly as they charged behind the Cavalry. The constant flood of enemies now hitting the disrupted formation caused chaos throughout the lines.

The enemy older General seemed to understand the situation that was growing out of his control, he began shouting towards the younger General with him to retreat, who seemed to barely acknowledge his warnings. He then turned towards Subutai, raising his bow in acknowledgement before turning his own horse and retreating with his units that weren't engaged, a warrior beside him signalling the order for retreat. Subutai allowed the older General to retreat, having enjoyed their duel for now and wanting to get all of their forces together before they attacked Jiangxia. Part of him was tempted to send Tomoe after them, but decided to rest and regroup.

The rest of the enemy tried to disengage, with the younger General creating a rear guard so the surviving enemy could retreat. Dom was surprised by the lack of enemies who had surrendered as he hit the rear guard from one side, his Slaying Spear taking a life in front of him as his heavy horse crushed those in front. Tomoe did the same from her side, sandwiching the enemy between them as the infantry under Liao Hua caught up to them. Three sides of the enemy were now covered, with the rear being left open so they could retreat with the rest of the forces that were now running from the field of battle.

"Throw down your weapons and surrender!" Zhao Yun shouted from beside Dom, eager to reduce the deaths on both sides.

"You Betrayer!" The enemy General shouted, whilst some of his forces began to throw down their weapons in surrender. The enemy General ignored that however, and charged towards Zhao Yun with his spear aimed at Zhao Yun's horse. Zhao Yun prepared to defend himself with the intention of exhausting his enemy so he could capture him, however Tomoe didn't give the enemy Commander the chance to cause any issues. She simply decapitated him with a swing of her Naginata as she rode behind him as her Cavalry charged through the gaps that were being formed by surrendering enemies.

"Your commander is dead! Surrender!" Dom shouted loudly, surprised by Tomoe's swift action, especially when the intention was to capture enemy officers. As Dom shouted his order; Subutai, Liao Hua and Zhao Yun echoed as those remaining enemies threw down their weapons swiftly, not willing to die for land that was most likely not even theirs.

"Capture the prisoners and take them inside." Liao Hua ordered to the infantry that had arrived, quickly taking the captives inside the fort where the others were gathered. A large number from earlier had already agreed to switch sides, rather than risk the alternative and had been reequipped and split across some of Cheng Pu's units.

....

The Commanders all gathered at the Cliff edge, watching over the battle below. Cheng Zi and his Archers had used up most of their arrows now as the battle moved away from their position and closer to Jiangxia. At one point rocks had been thrown, which had caused chaos on some of the ships below and Dom watched over the carcasses of many ships that had been sank. Bodies also floated in the River and Dom wondered what the cost to life was in this large naval battle.

"There is Zhou Yu's Capital Ship." Cheng Pu stated as they watched the Sun Navy push forwards, two large enemy Louchuan had been beached and many damaged or abandoned ships had been pushed aside, with smaller crews trying to tidy up the rear.

"It's been a deadly battle so far." Cheng Zi commented, "When the two Louchuan surrendered, most of Huang Zu's navy attached to those units followed suit and surrendered. The enemy rear have began a slow retreat, but are being put under pressure by the Riverside ships and the Vanguard. It looks like Gan Ning and Dong Xi are close behind them and picking up anyone in between."

"Then we better get a move to Jiangxia or we will be behind them." Dom stated seriously, surprised by the pace of the battle below, "How long until we can depart?"

"Banas is clearing the battlefield now, gathering Arrows and moving the wounded here." Subutai replied, "We can go in a few minutes, we just need to gather everyone and a few more arrows."

"Are there any Arrows in the camp we can use?" Dom asked Subutai.

"My men are already gathering them." Cheng Zi replied, which received a nod of satisfaction from his father.

"Do you want me to try and recruit some of the new prisoners?" Liao Hua asked, having moved them to a different part of the fort to those that had refused to swap sides earlier.

"Do it, promise them that if they survive as the vanguard they will be rewarded." Dom replied honestly as he turned to Zhao Yun and Cai Mao. "Will you be joining us?"

"I will." Zhao Yun agreed, "A promise is a promise."

"I will also join you, it will be interesting to see how this battle unfolds. I would appreciate it if you made it more clear that I was a prisoner as we approached, otherwise it may cause me issues afterwards." Cai Mao agreed with a laugh as they gathered the forces ready to depart.

Having lost a small amount of Warriors so far in the previous battles, as well as recruiting a large number of prisoners, they now have nearly eight thousand warriors from the original five thousand two hundred. Dom was impressed with the number, but was also wary about the quality of their newest recruits. Zhao Yun's Cavalry were solid and their morale seemed to be returning after the switch in forces, especially when there had been promises of new armour and a better future for them. However the Infantry were much poorer than Cheng Pu's trained units. Tomoe led the vanguard with Zhao Yun and the Cavalry, whilst Liao Hua, Cheng Pu and Cheng Zi led the main infantry force in the centre. Dom, Subutai and Cai Mao followed on three horses as they discussed the attack on Jiangxia which they hoped would commence within the next hour.

"Before we start, how did you persuade him to join?" Subutai asked Dom in surprise. Dom turned to Cai Mao who replied for him.

"I explained that the benevolent Lord he has joined is actually not so benevolent. He has already been making some subterfuge attempts at recruiting some of Liu Biao's men and push Liu Qi as the heir. However, anyone could tell that this is just a power play of him and his new advisor Zhuge Liang." Cai Mao explained, "I had plenty of evidence of some of the other back handed things he had done, how he joined Tao Qian, just to take the land from him, the same he intends to do here with Lord Liu Biao. He also is indecisive on who the villains are in the land, originally he declares Cao Cao a demon, but then joins with him to fight against Lu Bu to reclaim his own land. He finds villains when it benefits him. He is a snake and an opportunist, not a benevolent Lord."

"You don't seem to like him very much." Subutai laughed in response.

"I do not, I am not innocent, but I don't hide it." Cai Mao stated, "He is dangerous and I explained that to Zhao Yun. His old master Gongsun Zan could still be alive if Liu Bei hadn't abandoned him. That Zhuge Liang isn't to be trusted either, what sort of supposed genius allows a Lord, a member of the imperial clan, to visit him three times! He's got his own ambitions for an upstart hermit, mark my words."

"I do not think he was fully sold, but I promised him and his men a fresh start. On the promise that I will spare the innocent people of Jiangxia and the life of his fellow General Guan Yu." Dom continued for Cai Mao as he began to unleash his fury.

"Is this the General that will be impossible to beat?" Subutai asked with a laugh, before looking in front of him at the backs of Tomoe and even Cheng Pu, "I do not massively worry."

"Nor do I." Dom replied, "I also promised Zhao Yun an opportunity to speak with Guan Yu first, promising him similar things that Cai Mao promised us. If Guan Yu takes it, it proves that what Cia Mao said about Liu Bei is true."

"What did you promise him?" Subutai asked, looking at Cai Mao.

"That if you take Jiangxia, it weakens Liu Biao and gives a better opportunity for Liu Bei to take over." Cai Mao laughed, "So Zhao Yun will explain this, and see the truth behind the lies."

"And if Guan Yu refuses?" Subutai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Then he'll attack Zhao Yun as a traitor and he is pushed further in to your arms." Cai Mao replied, Subutai looked at Dom in surprise who shrugged his shoulders.

"It's a good plan." Dom stated, "It's something Xun You or Xun Yu would have come up with."

"No, this is dirty play, a much different tactic." Subutai grinned, "Zhao Yun is trapped in his own mind, and regardless of the outcome he is now a part of us, which I am definitely grateful for. This is a tactic I would rather employ."

Dom and Subutai shared a look as they continued, with Cai Mao moving slightly ahead of them with the Batavi Guards. Cai Mao was not a good person, they agreed on that, if anything he was a bad influence and could not be fully trusted. He was working fully for his own family and their goals, ignoring that of his Lord and those around him. However, he definitely brought skills and governance from a totally different direction to anyone else in Riverside, a thought that nestled in both of their minds.