The Lorope army waited on a vast grassy field for the Djinn Kingdom to either surrender or fight.

Emperor Lustratous looked at the confused Djinn Kingdom with joy. He had spent five years preparing for this war, and the progress thus far went according to his best scenario. The fruits of his long plan tasted so sweet.

Lustratous plan over the past five years was focused on three areas.

The first was to gather up spies within the Djinn Empire. It turned out to be a much easier task than what he had expected. Many Djinn citizens were very enthusiastic to spy for his empire.

Initially, Lustratous did not get it. Why is the kingdom's public that he defeated is so willing to spy for him? Usually, they should be enraged at such a request. But the answer was simple, they were afraid of Salamander.

The Djinn army was well-known before the Third-Year-War to be made of fire and iron. They were unshakeable.

Usually, soldiers flee once they realize that the odds are heavily against them. But the Djinn army had never done that. Instead, they had stood solidly together fighting the enemy until the last drop of blood. It made Lustratous jealous.

The only time the Djinn army fled was when they saw Salamander. Even the Lorope army, whom Salamander was friendly with, ran away from this mythical beast. A single look at him forced their bones to scream.

Luckily, the Djinn's fear for Salamander intensified, enough that people inside the Djinn Kingdom began to worship him. The best example of that was lord Salam. He was the most devoted human to Salamander and the best spy Lustratous had ever seen in his life.

Lord Salam gave Lustratous volumes of information about any person he requested. The information was so detailed that it went up to the private lives of these people. Lustratous even knew how often did King Justinian the Second sleep with mistresses, and the specifics of it. King Justinian the Second probably did not remember that much detail about himself.

But all of that still was not enough to win Lorope this upcoming war. Lustratous had one other difficulty to tackle, that is, the Castle of Remna.

King Justinian the Second faced three massive sieges around the Castle of Remna. The enemies in those three sieges each tried a different siege weapon.

The first siege they used was a catapult. It used a wooden winging arm to throw heavy objects like stones to topple the castle. The second siege weapon they used was a ballista. It was a giant crossbow, at least ten times stronger than a regular one. And the third siege weapon they used was a trebuchet. It was akin to a catapult but utilized ropes instead of wood as the swinging arm for the thrown objects.

Out of the three siege weapons the trebuchet was the most successful. The trebuchet back then had managed to crack the walls of the Castle of Remna. But that small crack took them many attempts and two weeks to achieve. Thus, the armies could not keep up the siege and retreated from the castle.

But all these failed attempts paled against the might of the cannon. It began when Lustratous sent two hundred men to search every country for a better siege weapon.

What one of his men discovered was a military genius known as Phinan. He proposed that concentrating gunpowder explosion in a large cylindrical tube would produce enough force to topple any castle. Lustratous liked the idea. He brought Phinan to his Empire and set him to work on what would be known as the cannon.

After four years Phinan produced first bronze cannon. Phinan made it with secrecy that only five people in the Lorope Empire knew his research.

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The cannons worked well but had a major issue. The gunpowder explosion shattered the whole cannon after the third shot. The people who tested the cannon also died from the heat of the explosion.

Phinan could not accept this. He spent the fifth year making the cannons useable for at least ten shots. By the end of the fifth year, Phinan found the solution; oil. By covering their inner cannon barrel with cold oil, cannons now could be used ten times before they shattered. The soldiers had to reapply the oil after every shot, but the trick nevertheless worked.

Finally, the last and final problem was the Chocked Villages. The five villages welcomed every traveler, and never entered a single war. But the villages were still under the protection of the Djinn Kingdom. Thus they posed an annoying threat they decided to defend the Djinn Kingdom.

After a thoughtful day, Lustratous decided to burn up all the Chocked Villages and kill all its males. It was the easiest and safest solution to ensure that they would not bother him in the war.

But the problem in this plan was his army. The veteran soldiers were all fine with the slaughter. But the new soldiers were reluctant to harm the innocent villagers. In any case, Lustratous knew a good solution for the issue.

Lustratous gave his soldiers full freedom to do whatever they wanted to the Chocked Villages. Absolutely anything, and from that point on one complained.

All humans are evil, Lustratous thought.

Lustratous received invaluable information when his troops eradicated the Chocked Villages. In despair, the villagers told him about a secret passage to enter the Djinn Kingdom without having to go through the Castle of Remna.

It was a narrow passage between the mountains that only a few villagers knew about. Barely two people could enter it at a time, that made it ineffective for large armies.

Lustratous brought three more legions once his troops finished pillaging the chocked villages. He thus accumulated an army of 35,000 men. Lustratous then moved 5,000 men through the secret passageway to block the southern gate. At the same time, his main army blocked the northern gate of the castle. With this, the Djinn army in the castle will be locked without any escape route.

When Lustratous' main army of 30,000 men reached the northern gate of the castle of Remna, he immediately ordered them to use one of the cannons. The cannon was aimed at the room of Vizier Kaljar. The primary goal of this move was to strike fear in the Djinn army.

Lustratous wanted the Djinn army in the castle to surrender. He did not want his troops to clash against the Djinn army this early. Lustratous wanted to save up the strength of his forces until he reached the capital of the Djinn Kingdom. This was where the main battle would start.

Thus when Lustratous gave his speech to the Djinn forces, he gave them a choice to surrender. And it seems that it worked well.

Lustratous did not expect that Lajek, the second-hand man to the Vizier of War, to be the first to surrender. Lustratous even noticed the soldiers behind him chuckle when they heard Lajek surrender. It was unbelievable. They expected the ordinary soldiers to yield first, but not Lajek.

It seems like the Djinn army had lost its edge, Lustratous thought. Oh, how I wish to fight the old Djinn army when it was made of steel and fire. It is sad that it is no longer there.

The Djinn army looked at Lajek as walked toward the Lorope army to surrender. Kaljar was enraged.

"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" Kaljar shouted. Kaljar then suddenly punched Lajek in the face with such force that it tossed him on the ground.

"BUT WE CANNOT WIN!" Lajek replied. "LOOK AROUND YOU, WHAT IS LEFT FOR US TO DO? WE CANNOT BEAT THEM, AND YOU KNOW IT... Any further resistance will bring unnecessary bloodshed."

Vizier Kaljar looked like his soul had left him. In response, Lajek stood up and likewise punched Kaljar in the cheek.

"WAKE UP," Lajek shouted at Kaljar.

The army of the Djinn Kingdom was in shambles. Their confidence got shattered.

"YOU ARE A DISGRACE," shouted Kaljar as he punched Lajek once again.

The two hit one another, while the rest of the Djinn army looked at one another. The army had no idea on what to do, everything around them fell into chaos.

This is where the individuality of the army showed up.

"I will surrender," said one of the soldiers.

"Me too," said another.

Other Djinn soldiers who disliked such words argued and hit those who surrendered. It was as if they mimicked what was happening between Kaljar and Lajek.

Kaljar's mind began to change.

"Who wants to surrender?" Kaljar asked his army as he spat blood from receiving many punches. "I won't harm you. Whoever wants to surrender raise your hand."

At first, they a few hands went up. Then more gathered up courage and raised their hands. In a minute the majority in the Djinn army had their hands up in the air. Even those who did not want to raise their hand did it to not be in the minority.

Lustratous laughed; he did not expect his plan to be so perfect.

Perhaps I have grown too wise now that I turned sixty years old, Lustratous thought.

"Very well," Kaljar said as he spat blood again. "Let's surrender. No point if none wants to fight. What a disgrace..."