A great army of ten thousand.
It was a force I'd scraped together, scraping and scraping again to command.
The cavalry, including the knight order, numbered just over a thousand, with the rest being infantry.
Someone might scoff that this hardly qualifies as a great army.
Indeed, for East Asians accustomed to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it's not a particularly impressive number. They've been conditioned by figures like 800,000 at the Battle of Red Cliffs or 700,000 at the Battle of Yiling.
But that's a misconception.
First of all, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms is full of exaggerations.
After all, it's a novel written by Chinese people who love big numbers, and its origins lie more in opera than literature. The tendency to throw around figures like 100,000 or a million to build atmosphere carried over into the novel.
Strip away those characteristic exaggerations, and the actual history never reached those numbers.
Of course, even accounting for that, their ability to mobilize soldiers was tremendous compared to other cultures of the same era, but in reality, most were just farmers barely given spears rather than proper armies.
In contrast, those following behind me now were different. Even if not complete elites, they were professional soldiers. Ten thousand of such men. More than enough force to challenge a decent kingdom.
Of course, mobilizing this many troops left our main base completely empty, but whatever.
If I lose here, that's the end for me anyway.
Ah, so my second life ends here—I'd either commit suicide or give up everything and go live in some mountain valley with Lise.
That's right. I was gambling with my life on the line.
But... the feeling of leading a great army was pretty damn exhilarating.
The sound of hoofbeats shook the earth.
Dust rose. The clang of armor, the rumble of wagon wheels, the rough breathing of warhorses. I finally understood what kind of sound ten thousand actually makes when it moves.
"Little Duke, at this pace we can arrive half a day earlier than scheduled."
I nodded.
We continued our march.
Something caught on my mana sensitivity.
"Halt."
At my command, a messenger waved the flag. The march of ten thousand stopped in unison.
"Something's coming."
"How many?"
"Just a moment..."
I closed my eyes. Concentrated.
Waves of mana approaching from afar. Not just one. Dozens, hundreds... no, nearly a thousand.
And the identity of that energy becoming clearer.
Cavalry.
"Roughly a thousand. All mounted."
Before long, a dust cloud began to appear. Above it, fluttering banners.
"Count Müller's forces."
Lise muttered.
No mistake. That tacky coat of arms. The symbol of a family that had sold out their allies three times during the rebellion twenty years ago.
"Trying to stop us with just a thousand. Very Müller-like. Can't tell if they're stupid or gutsy."
Sir Karl snorted.
"They're not trying to stop us. They're trying to delay us."
"Delay?"
"A thousand can't beat ten thousand. Even comparing just cavalry, we're equal in numbers. And in terms of skill, we're ten times better. Müller knows that much. But they can delay us."
I nodded as well.
They're all cavalry.
In a head-on clash, they'd naturally lose.
But if they don't clash directly and just circle around harassing us, we're pinned down.
Moreover, their cavalry were all light cavalry wearing almost no armor.
They had the mobility advantage over our cavalry, which was mostly heavy cavalry.
"But there's something strange."
"What?"
"Doesn't Müller lack that many cavalry?"
It was a valid question, but Sir Karl dismissed it with a single phrase.
"Mercenaries, probably."
There were two options.
Break through. Ten thousand pushing against one thousand wins.
But it takes time.
Detour. Go around them by another route.
But that also takes time.
And there's no guarantee they'll just sit still while we detour.
However...
"I can't avoid a fight that Müller picked."
"The problem is whether they'll accept the fight."
**
Her prediction was correct.
As we approached, Müller's cavalry slowly retreated.
Avoiding direct confrontation while maintaining distance.
Chase them and they flee, stop and they approach again.
The typical pattern of delaying tactics.
So they plan to drag out time like this.
Just as I was thinking that, my mana sensitivity caught another presence.
"They're doing something interesting."
I muttered, pointing far to the right toward the grassland.
"There's an army ambushed over there."
"How many?"
"About three thousand."
"Three thousand? Even for an ambush, that's too few. Even with a surprise attack, we'd take more casualties."
Sir Karl's words weren't wrong.
Krustein had never lost to Müller.
Of course, much credit went to that outstanding human weapon Walther Von Krustein, but even in battles without him, Krustein won handily.
More importantly, while many of Müller's soldiers were newly recruited, Krustein's were mostly battle-hardened veterans.
"What on earth are they thinking..."
Lise seemed to be pondering deeply.
But.
"No need to think too deeply about what idiots are thinking."
I shrugged.
It's a mistake smart people sometimes make.
They assume the opponent is at least somewhat intelligent, if not as much as themselves.
But the world is a place where idiots also get by, and even the upper echelons of armies aren't exempt from this.
"Of course, there's no reason to play along with idiots' games either."
They might have a scheme.
But even if they do, they couldn't imagine I have the supernatural ability to detect ambushes. No reason to worry. Worrying would only mess things up.
I raised my hand and pointed toward the archer unit.
"Just burn them to death with a volley. Since they're hiding in grassland, it'll catch fire easily. With the mages we brought supporting, the fire will spread even better."
A simple solution.
Set fire before the ambush force emerges. When grass and trees burn, those hiding will have to rush out, and then they'll melt under the rain of arrows and magic.
"It might be better to play along a little."
But Lise offered a different solution.
"What do you mean?"
"The ambushed forces are sacrificial pawns anyway. Of course, eliminating just them would let the enemy cavalry escape, but wiping them all out here reduces variables. Look at this. It's terrain along a river. The cavalry that approached us can't easily escape either."
I nodded.
"Considering that, the enemy is luring us into this gorge, but we know. That there's an ambush over there."
Ah.
I understood.
"What if the enemy notices?"
Sir Karl asked.
"Then we just burn the ambush force as originally planned. Nothing to lose."
Sir Karl's lips curved upward.
"I like it."
I nodded as well.
Nothing to lose. That's the key.
Success means profit, failure means breaking even.
This kind of gamble is worth taking any day.
"Adopted."
**
We played along with the enemy's lure for now.
When we advanced, they retreated. When we stopped, they stopped.
Maintaining a constant distance as if tied by string.
I looked up at the sky.
The sun blazed. Being the north it wasn't hot, but it hadn't rained for days.
The grass would be bone dry.
The weather's on our side.
We continued marching.
The direction the enemy was leading us became increasingly clear.
A gorge along the river. A narrow passage blocked by hills on both sides.
When we exit that gorge, the three thousand ambushed in the grassland and the thousand cavalry following would join forces to strike us.
Sandwiched front and back.
A very orthodox ambush tactic. Basic of basics that would appear in chapter one of any military manual.
Would we have fallen for it if we truly didn't know?
Well. It's so blatant I'm not sure.
Even without mana sensitivity, I feel like I might have noticed, or maybe not.
I suddenly looked to the side.
Lise was quietly watching the front from atop her horse.
Even if it weren't me, she would have known.
Sensing my gaze, she turned her head. Our eyes met.
"What?"
"Nothing. It's nothing."
Lise smiled slightly.
Anyway, even if I wanted to fall for it now, I couldn't.
Western grassland. I could clearly sense three thousand troops hiding there. Through mana sensitivity.
I raised my hand.
"Halt."
The march of ten thousand stopped in unison. Tension spread among the soldiers.
Most didn't know why we were stopping.
I pointed to the western grassland.
"Archers! Mages!"
The relevant units snapped to attention.
"Attack the western grassland! Fire arrows and magic! The enemy is ambushed in the grassland!"
Some tilted their heads.
"Enemy ambushed in the grassland?"
"I don't sense anything like that."
But it was the Little Duke's order.
As the command fell, archers began lighting their arrowheads.
Incantations flowed from the mages' lips.
What the mages cast wasn't fireballs. It was magic that summoned oil in sphere form and launched it.
The summoned oil wasn't permanent. It would disappear after about a minute. Eating it would cause stomach upset.
But for now, that was enough.
Following the oil, flaming arrows poured toward the grassland in arcs.
Oil masses and fire arrows rained down, encircling quite a wide area.
Grass dried crisp under the blazing sun.
Whoosh.
It took less than a second to ignite.
Black smoke rose. And red flames.
Wind blew. The fire spread instantly. The dry grass was no different from kindling.
Screams erupted from within the grassland.
"Aaaagh!"
"Fire! Fire!"
"Run!"
Those who'd been hiding began rushing out.
Three thousand ambush troops.
Those who'd set a textbook trap and waited had fallen into their own trap.
Murmurs spread through our forces.
"They really were ambushed!"
"How did the Little Duke know?"
The knights who'd been briefed beforehand weren't flustered.
They just watched the scene with pleased eyes.
Sir Karl drew his sword.
"Now, it's our turn."