World Conquest Online

"General, Hua Rong is just ahead of us." A Scout informed Zhao Yun as he and the majority of the seven hundred Cavalry quickly rode towards the Sea to the south of them, the sky now full of swirling Sea Birds and the smell of salt water was fresh in their noses.

Zhao Yun had spotted Hua Rong himself, stood high on his horse with a small selection of scouts beside him as he looked onwards. Zhao Yun put his hand up to signal for his Cavalry to slow down, whilst he and his guard directed themselves towards Hua Rong.

The sight beyond them was as expected, There was a slight decline as they approached the coast, with the distant sea clear to their eyes. Around half a mile ahead of them was a sprawling camp with figures clearly running from left to right. Beyond them was the sight of ships preparing sails as another approached them at speed.

"A thousand, maybe a little more." Hua Rong commented as Zhao Yun appeared beside him. Hua Rong’s eyesight was amongst the best, and his aim with a bow even better. "Eight ships, each could carry around one hundred and fifty men. I see no Cavalry."

"What about weapons?" Zhao Yun asked, trying to work out a plan based on the information he was being given.

"Mainly spears, easier to use and deadly. Some swords, axes and bows. I doubt their range is as good as ours." Hua Rong replied, before turning to Zhao Yun and asking his own question. "How many Horse Archers do we have?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"One Hundred and Eighty, the rest are Lancers or Sword and Spear Cavalry." Zhao Yun replied as he continued to look on, the enemies had clearly noticed the enemies on the Horizon and some began heading towards them. "They are coming this way."

"Too many of them to be coming peacefully." Hua Rong replied as he looked at around one hundred armed enemies leave the formation and head towards them.

"Yeah, they are walking like we are prey." Zhao Yun laughed, before turning behind him and seeing that the majority of his forces were slightly downhill from himself. "They clearly haven’t seen our Cavalry that is gathered behind us."

"How do you want to do it?" Hua Rong asked with a smile, his hand resting on his bow as he counted the distance in his mind.

"I’ll run them through with the Lancers." Zhao Yun replied, "It’s the army behind that is the issue. We have much better forces and the advantage of good terrain for the Cavalry, but we will lose men pointlessly in the initial charge."

"Subutai explained a tactic to me with the Horse Archers." Hua Rong began with a knowing laugh, "They approach and loose an arrow, before continuing in a circle like motion, whilst those behind loose their own. It creates a continuous rain of arrows that can easily take out a much larger enemy force. He has used it a lot."

"Do our Horse Archers know this tactic?" Zhao Yun asked as he nodded in agreement, having heard of similar tactics of the northern tribesmen in his native home.

"They do, General Subutai has been working with Centurion Banas to have them all trained in this tactic. It’s been used before but not with so many of them on such a large open plain." Hua Rong replied with a grin.

"Very well, you take the Archers and follow this circular tactic, once their numbers thin, I’ll charge in with the rest of the Cavalry." Zhao Yun agreed, before trying to think through their plan a little more whilst they still had a bit of time as the Horses rested from their fast pace behind them. "Use the distraction of me clearing out those coming towards us to flank right and attack from that angle. I suspect most eyes will be on us at first, not that it matters."

"Our range is much better than theirs is I suspect." Hua Rong nodded in understanding, after seeing the enemies, both of them knew it should be an easy victory. They just hoped that Sun Shangxiang and the rest were safe back at their camp. "I will get my forces ready and we will start heading west."

Whilst Hua Rong departed, Zhao Yun called over his deputies and began spreading orders to them as the enemies that were heading towards them seemed to begin slowing their pace as they approached.

"Arrow formation, I want our White Riders at the front point of the formation and to clash through those enemies in front. The rest will travel around and create a new Arrow behind that will clash in to the main enemy formation after Hua Rong has engaged them." Zhao Yun ordered, with nods of heads from his Centurions and Deputies. They quickly fanned out, with the majority of the force hidden behind the front point of the Arrow.

...

"This way Lady Sun!" Centurion Geng bellowed from the front. They had left the mustering point of the Great Hall and followed the path in the direction towards the Cove. Centurion Linos had left them and headed in the other direction, whilst some armoured Civilians had began clearing the path to the surface and the Great Hall itself.

They had passed several buildings, with Zenodotus taking note as they passed of which ones would be prioritised for exploring when they had chance. All of the rooms had been quickly searched through to make sure they couldn’t be used as an ambush point, whilst the main force of the two Centuries continued to charge ahead towards the direction of The Cove.

Sun Shangxiang followed the voice of Centurion Geng who was out of sight ahead of her, beside her was Thucydides, whilst Centurion Decimus stayed back with his Century which was the more experienced Legionaries of the force. She pushed through the Legionaries that were stood in front of her, as they tried to make space in the corridor that had become progressively tighter the further away from the Great Hall they travelled. They hadn’t seen many rooms or offshoots for a while and it seemed they were just travelling underground in the dimly lit tunnel.

"I’m here." She replied as she approached the front, where Centurion Geng and Zenodotus were stood at a blocked gateway that seemed to have been created naturally.

"There is air coming from between the gaps, so we believe it is traversable." Zenodotus explained, "The rocks also seem easy enough to move with little risk of further collapsing as of now."

"I would definitely look to reinforce it in the future, but I believe that the tunnel beyond could lead towards the Cove." Centurion Geng explained, after calculating how far they had been walking.

"So what are we proposing?" Sun Shangxiang asked, knowing her own intentions.

"I think we should clear these rocks and see what is beyond." Zenodotus replied with a knowing grin.

"That sounds like a great idea Zenodotus." Sun Shangxiang replied, knowing that Zenodotus said that so she could take less of the blame if anything went wrong. The opportunity to potentially attack the Cove from behind was in front of her and a chance to prove herself.

"You heard the Lady!" Centurion Geng ordered, as his men began removing the rocks from in front of them and passing them backwards towards Decimus and his men.

.....

"Loose Arrows!" Hua Rong ordered to his unit, made primarily of Female Horse Archers and some of the newer recruits who could use an bow on horseback.

His Cavalry began loosing arrows from the right flank of the enemies broken camp, in the distance they had some ships anchored, but Hua Rong wouldn’t give them the chance to get on them. The arrows came constantly as the horses circled, allowing the Archers to fully prepare a second arrow before they came round to launching distance again.

They had waited patiently, taking a long flanking route whilst the main force under Zhao Yun had charged straight towards the enemies that had left the camp and headed towards them. The small enemy unit had been crushed quickly by the swarming Cavalry who continued in an Arrow formation at a canter. Once the enemy had been crushed, Hua Rong had ordered his own unit at full gallop to get ahead and create some initial damage before Zhao Yun’s Arrow formation fully arrived.

"Keep loosing!" Hua Rong ordered again, the enemy unable to defend against the constant flood of arrows that came at them. Hua Rong wished he had more under his command as even though nearly two hundred Arrows were being launched by the minute, he knew that Zhao Yun would arrive soon and take the majority of the credit.

The enemy forces didn’t know if they should move forwards or move backwards, what ever direction they headed in, an arrow took a life. It seemed that their command structure wasn’t fully in place or didn’t know how to deal with a large Cavalry attack. Hua Rong thought to himself that he himself wouldn’t know how to react either. He had heard the stories from the Legionaries on how Crassus had originally lost his life, and he could understand how that happened.

"Stop!" Hua Rong shouted as at least half of the enemies thousand warriors were dead or dying from his arrows, as Zhao Yun and his Cavalry charged in to the remaining Warriors who were gathered loosely.

...

"Quiet!" Centurion Decimus hissed as one of the Legionaries caught a small stone that now rolled down a side pathway. They had cleared the tunnel and continued their march forwards, before coming in to an open space in what seemed to be a dark cavern. There were some ancient buildings of similar architecture to that in the Great Hall that they had seen and the Ancient Underground Kingdom. However a lot of the other buildings, whilst newer, where of poor quality.

The two Centuries had spread out to cover more ground, walking side by side. Decimus had taken control over the force, with Lady Sun beside him. In the distance where some more light could be seen, the echoes of battle could be heard.

"It seems that Lord Lazarus and General Subutai have started their attack at least." Thucydides commented quietly from beside them.

"We need to get past that first to help them though." Sun Shangxiang replied, as before them was at least three to four hundred enemies who seemed to be gathering their weapons or spreading out through buildings.

"We don’t have the terrain advantage or the numbers." Decimus explained, they had one hundred and sixty trained men, but they were slightly downhill and the terrain was loose.

"There are a lot more enemies than what was in the scout reports." Sun Shangxiang stated with a serious tone. "If these enemies join those fighting my husband, they may struggle."

"Lady Sun, they took over a thousand of our best Warriors. They will be fine." Thucydides agreed with Decimus. "It would be best if we can wait here and support them when needed. Time is on our side."

"Everyone, get down!" Decimus hissed as the two units lowered their heads lower as a small group of enemies headed in their direction to empty their bladders. The three of them looked up and could see that the enemy was almost within touching distance above them, however the darkness from where they had come from made it almost impossible to see them.

One of them men above them lowered his pants and began to empty his bladder, with the hot liquid heading in the direction of them. Decimus could take it landing on himself, but he wouldn’t allow it to land on one of his Lord’s wives. Thucydides saw his face and shook at him, telling him to stay still, but the thoughtful Centurion had to act.

"Charge!" He suddenly ordered, loud enough for his men and the enemy above to hear. His voice soon caught both sides off guard as he drew his sword and stabbed at the enemy with his pants down, the men beside him reacting and taking down the others.