Mountain War Strategy

"So as you can see, there are an estimated 1,000 Fan Kingdom soldiers stationed at this location. We have the high ground, but this alone will of course not be enough, so we will be attacking alongside the 5th and 62nd units. The attack will commence at midday tomorrow at the sound of a bugle horn. Any questions?"

The commander laid out all of the information on the table, showing the enemy location, their numbers, the layout of their base and so on. Deon scanned the details and nodded slowly, it was a good plan. The enemy had only just arrived at this location and didn't have time to make good enough preparations to defend against a surprise attack consisting of the 1,200-1,300 soldiers in a unified assault across three units.

Every single soldier in this battle would be a shaman. The current situation was such that only shamans were occupying the upper half of the mountain, making these battles extremely elite and difficult.

The goal was simple; kill as many enemies as possible and take their camp for the Kingdom of Restari! In all likelihood, most of the battles over Jing Mountain would be much like this.

Despite the apparent huge advantage that they held over their unknowing enemy, a frown surfaced on Deon's face.

"Do you think the plan is bad, Vice Captain Deon?" Commander Reana noticed the change in his expression and asked.

"It's not a bad plan commander, I just feel that it's too perfect." Deon replied.

"Haha, you're overthinking things Deon! How could a plan be too perfect?" The burly man whom Deon had come to know as Captain Eric, laughed.

However, the commander's eyes lit up.

"No, the vice captain is correct. I also feel that the timing and placing of this enemy camp is suspicious. They have positioned themselves in an area which makes them perfectly susceptible to an attack from three of our camps."

"Isn't this just a coincidence?" Captain Niko, a petite woman with messy blonde hair and shining blue eyes asked doubtfully.

"I don't think so." Commander Reana shook her head. "Their camp was most likely placed here as bait."

"Doesn't this mean that we're walking into a trap?" Captain Hondo's skinny face darkened as he realised.

"We are walking into a trap, the only unknown is whether or not this trap is good enough." Deon spoke up again.

"Care to expand vice captain?" Commander Reana showed intrigue.

"Of course." Deon nodded, then stepped forwards and pointed towards the map.

"The terrain surrounding the enemy camp, combined with our own three camps nearby, makes it near impossible for the Fan to launch an attack against us from outside. Their trap can only exist within their camp, but we already know of their numbers and defences. This leaves one option…the 1,000 soldiers in the enemy camp are all top level elites, fully confident in breaking our attacking force of 1,300."

"Well said vice captain." Commander Reana praised. She had known that Deon was a talented shaman and a hard worker, but his innate understanding towards battle tactics went beyond her expectations. Thinking about it, this kind of forward thinking from a child was a bit terrifying…

But in a war, terrifying characters were the most valuable assets.

"Indeed, it is most likely that the enemy already knows of our camp's locations, and thus they placed their own base in this seemingly precarious location. It is almost certainly a trap. However…"

Captain Reana mouth twisted into a smile.

"I believe that they have underestimated us."

Deon shared the same feeling. Whilst the enemy had likely discerned their camps' positions, he doubted that they knew much else besides the location and number of soldiers in these three camps.

The 37th unit was already quite an elite unit, but they would also be joining the 5th unit, a unit containing the best of the best. Even if the enemy was filled with elites and laying in wait for them, they would still fall to the Kingdom of Restari's assault.

**********

The entire 37th unit moved out towards the enemy camp an hour before the time of attack. They stayed silent along the way, everyone fully focussed on the task at hand. Not a single person was left behind to guard the camp, but nobody cared much about this. There was not much purpose in the enemy attacking an empty camp, and they would struggle to sneak into this camp due to the coming battle anyway.

The plan was to attack the enemy camp from three directions. The 5th unit would be attacking from higher up the mountain, the 37th unit would also have the advantage of progressing along a decline, whilst the 62nd unit would move in from the west. The concentrated attack would seal off a full corner of the enemy's camp, if this really was a trap, then Deon wanted to see just how they planned to deal with this.

In his eyes, the only way for them to escape was to flee. He was still feeling cautious though, could it really be that the Fan Kingdom had simply underestimated their enemy so badly?

The 37th unit soldiers were brought to a halt at the peak of a hill, then Commander Reana signalled for the captains and Deon to follow her over. Deon had to admit that being included in the planning for the attack was much more enjoyable than being a foot soldier left in the dark.

A couple hundred feet downwards in the trough of this hill, the enemy had already erected a wooden fence. Guards patrolled around the area, and a bustling scene could be seen within. As Deon observed the surrounding terrain, he realised that having the high ground might not actually be preferable in this battle.

The hills were too steep, it would be difficult to maintain their footing when descending, this would be true for both the 5th and 37th units. If it was just this though, then their chance of succeeding was still high.

As for the 62nd unit, they could already be seen approaching from the lower ground, travelling slowly around the narrow rocky path which only allowed them to walk five in a line. Seeing this, Deon scanned his eyes across the path that the 62nd unit was about to traverse.

The path was curved around the hill that the 37th unit currently occupied, so the enemy could not yet see their approach. When he saw that the path was so narrow, even going right up to the enemy's camp, Deon frowned slightly. It was one thing to read about it on paper, but seeing it in person changed his perspective slightly.

If the Fan Kingdom troops holed up in their camp, it would be difficult for the 62nd unit to make much progress when they could only fit 5 to 10 people side by side in this path.

"Commander Reana…" Deon began, but she seemed to already understand his concern.

"I know. Captain Niko, take 10 men and stop the 62nd unit. They need to reroute at least half of their men to join us on this hill. Make sure to tell Commander Leonard that the path is too tight and curved, they can't fit any more men side by side on their current route."

"Yes commander!" The small captain saluted and quickly carried out her order.

As Captain Niko rushed away to explain the situation to the commander of the 62nd unit, Deon and the others continued to observe the enemy camp. There wasn't much time before they were due to begin the attack, the 5th unit would signal for this beginning with the sounding of a bugle horn.

The idea was for all three units to rush at the enemy simultaneously to catch them off guard, but Deon was still doubtful that this would work, since this definitely looked like a trap.

It wasn't just the positioning of their camp and their timing either. This enemy camp was so close to the Southern side of Jing Mountain, they should definitely be aware that the Kingdom of Restari troops were nearby…so why were they not constantly sending out scouts to examine the area?

Commander Reana also realised this and her expression became more serious.

"Commander, I've returned with 300 troops from the 62nd unit, including 12 of their captains!" Captain Niko returned and immediately gave her report.

Commander Leonard was quite easy to talk to and knew how to adapt to the situation. Hearing Commander Reana's relayed assessment, he agreed to send 300 of his troops with captains to assist the 37th unit. He himself stayed behind with his remaining troop in order to attack through the valley.

Commander Reana knew that time was of the essence. She quickly explained the plan to the 12 captains, who then repeated this to each of their 25 men.

"Awoooo…"

A faint noise that could easily be mistaken for an owl echoed throughout the region. Everyone tensed up, knowing that this was the signal to start the battle!