As soon as Baron could see that he broke from the first entrapment right into another one, the realization that he might not even be able to escape with his army was a daunting one. They had essentially just traded a fight with an army in front of them and another from across the banks to having an even larger army in front of them and another army across the banks. Baron’s only hope in this situation was that the NPC Napoleon was nowhere near as skilled as the real thing. Unfortunately, just the presence of the enemy’s supreme commander might be enough to turn the tides of war.
There were now many more variables to consider. Since the rain just let up, the army led by Napoleon would likely not rush into any engagements for the remainder of the day. Another thing was which army would be better to engage with. If they fought with Napoleon, the NPC, then they would be fighting with tired soldiers. However, Baron decided that this was much better than the alternative. If they managed to break through his army in front of them, then they could leave Frederick and his team in the dust and win the simulation.
Of course, that was assuming Frederick did nothing but sit on the sidelines. Which was next to impossible. Time was of the essence. They needed to act quickly while they still only had to face one army. Facing both armies in their current status would undeniably mean certain defeat. Baron, Roxi, and Jaxon began to think of ways that they could get out of this mess.
A few reports came in while they were making their game plan. One of the most important being that the army led by Frederick was spotted further down the river trying to get their men across. Not only that, a few divisions from the army in front of them were guarding the crossing. Another one that caught Baron’s attention was the sudden reorganization of Napoleon’s men into a battle formation.
The trio decided that Jaxon would lead the remaining cavalry to charge in the opposite direction of both armies. Unfortunately, this amount of men would not constitute enough to warrant a victory. It was up to Jaxon to convince the Austrian, or anyone of her allies, for reinforcements. Meanwhile, the remnants of the army they were victorious against would be used as bargaining chips. Frederick’s team might not care about this, but Napoleon would.
Such a luck-reliant plan did not sit well with Baron. One of the innumerable things could ruin the entire thing, but there wasn’t anything else that they could do. Less than two hours until the daylight was to disappear. During this time, there was much to do. First order of business was to make sure that Napoleon knew that his soldiers were imprisoned in Baron’s camp. So a messenger was sent to deliver the news. This part of the plan was to stall for a day or two to give Jaxon enough time to seek reinforcements.
Secondly, Baron was preparing for a night raid with all of his forces. However, this was all dependent on Napoleon’s response. Frederick may be one of the most imposing men to ever roam the Earth, but Napoleon was no pushover either. Best case scenario, Frederick and his team disagree with Napoleon which would result in their soldiers to lose respect for them. After all, the soldiers were loyal to the mighty Napoleon.
Lastly, Roxi was to seek shelter in an area that had a great vision of all the armies and similarly far away. Her order was to snipe as many people as she could. It no longer mattered whether or not she would be able to target the strategists. With so many bullets flying in such a war, she would not even be noticed at all.
Everything was set in motion before the end of the day. Although the other armies saw Jaxon leave with thousands of cavalry, they did not give chase. The risks associated with this was not worth it considering the impending nightfall. Roxi found a great spot for her task and began to set up in near darkness to not give away her position. Baron decided that it was best to put these soldiers to rest first and post more soldiers on the lookout just in case the enemy decided to attack during the night.
Thankfully, the night ended without a shot being fired. However, the following day started with some startling, but predictable, news for Baron -Napoleon would be joining in on the fight. Of course, it must have been Frederick or one of his teammates who achieved this.
As soon as his soldiers had eaten their morning meal, Baron had to quickly reorganize his men into an appropriate formation. The reason behind this was the encroaching army in front of them. Nearly 20,000+ men strong, thousands of men more than Baron had.
The fighting began soon after and continued for a few hours. All this time, Baron could see his soldiers falling one by one in front of him. There was no way they could last much longer under these conditions. It seemed as if the message to Napoleon had been for naught. However, when Baron was thinking of ways to get past this enormous hurdle in front of him, an insanely brutal plan popped into his mind.
What if the reason that Napoleon did not care about the prisoners was that Frederick had managed to convince him that they were not important. Would that translate to the soldiers if they had a chance to save their fellow countrymen? Baron’s sudden realization was that there was more than one way to weaken the enemy at the moment, and they all involved the prisoners. All involved exploiting them by putting them through either torture or immense suffering.
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Baron was appalled that the idea even came to his mind, but he knew that the longest he could hold out for under these circumstances would be another day at most. If he leveraged the prisoners, he could extend that time or even escape altogether with a little bit of luck. He knew that there was no way Frederick would commit all of his forces to this side of the river. There must have been a small contingent hidden somewhere in case Baron’s forces tried to run. With the small distraction that would have caused, Frederick’s forces would have more than enough time to catch up and end everything.
However, Baron had thought up a plan to make sure that Frederick’s forces would not have the luxury of catching up. It would be inhumane, to put it in simple terms. But if nothing else, then it would buy some time while the enemy forces contemplated what to do. Even if that did not go as planned and they did decide to pursue, then the soldiers under them would be horrified and second-guess their allegiances.
With a heavy heart, Baron took one last look around the battlefield. The enemy was fast encroaching on his position. No formation or tactic could turn the tides and win this battle, it was as hopeless as trying to walk through the Earth. However, this was war, and Baron was certain that what he was about to do would pale in comparison to some of the other strategists in this tournament.
The first thing that Baron did was to rally his soldiers and announce that they would have to fight even harder than they had to push back the enemy just a little bit. Baron needed a bit of time to set up his plan, but it would certainly not work if the enemy was this close. Then, he took the prisoners under his care and had them all blindfolded with whatever scraps of cloth were laying around and tied their hands together with a single line of rope in groups of 20 or so...
Following that, he formed a few teams to lead these prisoners into the water under the cover of a few lines of trees. As their hands were still tied up and they were in groups, staying afloat would be difficult. However, if one person were to drown, then they would pull the others down with them, or at least become dead weight and make it a lot harder for the others.
With this heartbreaking scene complete, Baron ordered the retreat of his troops. Though it was still a few hours until night fell, this was the perfect opportunity to run away. Baron knew that his men did not support this plan of his, but they said nothing as the constant battle for survival had drained their thought processes to nothing more than when the next meal was.
Only a portion of his overall army retreated first, the ones that were injured and could no longer fight. They would cross the river first as they required the longest amount of time, even if many people were helping them. Then the next group, and the next group. By now, the encroaching French forces were making massive gains thanks to reduced resistance.
The troops at the front came bounding over the final hill before the river and were shocked at what they saw in front of them. Their allies tied together with only their heads bobbing up, going by the spacing of each head, it seems as if a number of them were already submerged. Also, the Austrian forces tried to get across the river as quickly as they could. A quick relay was sent to the commanders about the situation at hand.
Napoleon wanted to desperately save his men, but Frederick, Eugene, and Friedrich wanted to give chase with all their might. For if they wasted time rescuing the men in the water, the chances of Baron and his army getting away was significantly higher. More French soldiers passed the final hill and saw the horror that was unfolding in front of them.
Their first instinct was of course to disregard the fleeing army and to help save their fellow countrymen. However, the order was given to ignore their dead and dying brothers and to pursue the enemy. A few soldiers did as they were told, but even more scoffed at the order and proceeded to untie the prisoners.
Baron’s soldiers were able to cross the river with minimal distractions. As the French were not able to just shoot all willy nilly since the Austrian soldiers were escaping in between the rows of bound French soldiers. Those who pursued Baron’s army had to swim past their comrades before they could make it to the other shore, which must have been a difficult decision to make. Sounds of their brothers choking and gasping for air, the constant kicking of their feet to try and keep afloat. War is often devastating.
A few of Frederick’s men that were still stationed on this side of the river were vastly outnumbered. They scrambled to meet the Austrian corps, but it was to no avail. What little resistance they could manage was smashed through in minutes and Baron’s men ran towards their freedom. Not enough time for the French army behind Baron to catch up to them.
A plan was devised while they were making their escape to have the highest chances of men surviving. The end goal was to have the majority of these men make it back to Austrian soil. Though they did not have horses to speed this up, adrenaline was running high. It would certainly be a time-costly endeavor, but to win this was what they had to do. The army was split up into the corps that they were before they began the battle, then divided even further to ensure ease of mobility.
All the groups already had appointed leaders. These individuals were given appropriate rations depending on the number of men they had under them. All of this was done in secret between all of the most trustworthy men, and no one knew what path any other corp would take just in case there was a spy. Everyone was ordered to keep marching through the night and only to rest until morning arrived to put the most distance between them and the French as possible.
As soon as the groups splintered in different positions, Roxi decided that she would play the sacrificial pawn and take on those who would come after them. She seemed so adamant to do this that Baron had no way to convince her otherwise. As a way of extending what possible time she could buy for the army as a whole, Baron gave her a few thousand more rounds for her sniper. This way, she would be likely to be captured before she ever ran out of bullets.
The two bid farewell to each other before Roxi rode back the way that they had come. This was suicidal, but she knew she could stall the enemy effectively. All she needed to do was to find a vantage point where she would have a great shot over the enemy while being concealed at the same time. It took her the entire night to find two such places, suit it to her advantage, and hide in one of them. It was a gamble whether the French would be coming this way or not, but Roxi estimated that this would be one of the likelier areas.