Strategists Reincarnation Death Match Chapter 32: Siege of Baghdad part 2

The time finally came for him to use these weapons so he had his men line up the all of the cannons around the city and ordered them to be shot at the same time. However, when the cannons were supposed to fire shells at the city of Baghdad the only thing they did was explode where they stood. Many of the soldiers that were standing within a few meters of the cannon were instantly killed or mortally wounded. This surprise that Baron had left for Han Xin had quite a huge impact on both sides.

On Han Xin's side, the reaction after the explosion was one of pure mortification. After all, no one was expecting such a result, this lead to a decrease in the army. While on the other side, Baron's men had their otherwise grim atmosphere lighten up immediately. The men at the front began to chuckle then spread the story of what happened, and soon half the army was heartily laughing at the misfortune that befell their enemy.

Once Baron saw this scene he felt quite relieved that his men had even more morale to boost off of than their previous day's victories. Baron had estimated that the exploding cannons would incapacitate close to 1,000 men and deal a number on their morale. Baron had chosen to carry out his plan not to kill however many it managed to kill, but rather because he was testing his inner circle of lieutenants, engineers, officers, and others to see if any of them would inform Han Xin of his little exploding canon surprise.

Therefore since Han Xin had used them today then that meant he didn't have a spy in his inner circle. He also knew that Han Xin wouldn't purposely use this trick to trick Baron because the loss in men and morale outweighed the use of everything else. No matter what, now Baron could rest easy knowing there were no spies around him.

After that little incident, the two armies clashed again for the next few months with neither side gaining any advantage in terms of number. Now that the attacking Mongolian side had Han Xin to command them once again both sides entered a war of attrition with both sides not gaining much of an advantage. They both teetered at around the same number of soldiers with both sides men constantly decreasing. After a few months of lackluster fighting on both sides, Han Xin revealed his next big move.

Han Xin had been preparing for this day for a long time. There was another reason that he went back to Mongolia for such a long time. He actually had one more secret blueprint that he hadn't mentioned to the others. Han Xin had actually started this blueprint when he had a simulation against the other three as well but didn't show them this since he was able to best them without needing it. However, the situation was different with Baron. Baron was a bit of a trickier strategist than even Yue Fei, not necessarily better than Yue Fei just trickier. This blueprint was always built in some obscure location so that not even the spectators were able to see what it was.

This special weapon was none other than the Mark 1 tank that was the predecessor to all modern tanks. Through some miraculous luck, Han Xin had managed to get his hands on this fairly modern technology's blueprint. This was his absolute last resort weapon. Even in the entire Chinese community this blueprint could be considered quite modern and was an object of envy. Yue Fei, Xu Da, and Ban Chao were all completely flabbergasted at the sight of a tank because this was the first time that they had witnessed such an impressive blueprint come to life.

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(M) "General Baron sir" the messenger said to get Baron's attention.

(BM) "What is it? Hurry up and speak so I can get back to planning for the enemy's attack."

(M) "The enemy has brought forth a new type of weapon, I'm not too sure what it is but it is a large mobile metal shielded thing that moves along two belts.

(BM) ".....Did Han Xin just bring a tank? into. the. 13th. century? Wow, I've got to see this. Lead the way messenger."

The two walked to a vantage point overseeing much of the city and outside the walls. Indeed as the messenger had said there were quite a few tanks of the simplistic design. The Mark 1 tank was the earliest tank design used by the British in World War 1 in order to better fight trench warfare tactics used by many nations at the time. There were many flaws with this machine, but the big drawback was that it did not work when there was mud around.

Baron was definitely surprised that Ham Xin had something like the Mark 1 tank in his arsenal, but not so much that he couldn't think properly. Since the Mark 1 tank could be defeated with some mud, Baron had a way to deal with this obstacle that he had encountered. Here's a little lesson in Baghdad's geography. There is a decent sized river running right through it. What do you get when you mix water and dirt? Mud, you get mud.

The only thing stopping Baron was how he was going to move such a large amount of water onto the ground around Baghdad. This plan would have to be given more thought later as he had to repel them first. He ordered the messenger to spread the word that all weapons were to be aimed at the advancing tank army. From Baron's estimate, the enemy had about 100 of these tanks, but it was possible that they were hiding even more. Therefore, it was in his best interest to destroy as much as possible before the others, if any, did come.

With the strategy of only targeting the tanks, Baron's army was able to fend off the enemy for the time being. During these few days of fighting the tally for both sides were about 55,000 each give or take a thousand. However, the emergence of tanks signaled a change in this dynamic. The simulation time was nearing November and things were not looking good for Baron. Although he was able to repel the tanks, there came a huge cost. That cost was the number of men needed to destroy just a single tank. However, Baron was unwilling to yield to Han Xin like Yue Fei, Xu Da, and Ban Chao before him. He would fight to the bitter end if he had to, it helped that the enemy was running low on provisions. The longer he was able to delay, the larger his chances of success were.

Another week or two passed until Baron's worst nightmare came to pass, Han Xin did indeed have more tanks in reserve. Han Xin showed up with close to 1,000 new tanks ready for battle. This no doubt made the morale of Baron's men plummet to a new low. By this point the first 100 tanks that showed up were almost all destroyed, this gave them some hope. Seeing 1,000 new tanks come into the fray gave all of Baron's men depression. Baron had been working on transporting water from the river Tigris that ran through Baghdad by means such as irrigation or diverting parts of the river to new paths. Sadly, Han Xin knew all too well this weakness of his prized tank. So every time Baron sent some men to do these tasks, they would immediately be captured by Han Xin's men and they were never to be heard from again.

November 1st was about when Han Xin used his full fleet of about 1,000 tanks to utterly crush the city of Baghdad. Although Baron was an excellent strategist, he could only have minimal effect when going against this vastly superior weaponry. Baron managed to hold out for 1 day. During this one day, he had suffered numerous casualties on his side. It was unlikely that they were going to be able to hold out one more day. They could only pray for a miracle since Baron still wasn't ready to yield to Han Xin. His defeat was imminent, they had one day if even that long. Their morale was so low, no matter what speech Baron gave them it would have virtually no effect. They were on their last leg. These soldiers had basically all given up and so started getting drunk and having parties. Although Baron tried to stop them he knew that defeat was just a day away so he didn't pursue the matter for very long.

Then later that night when everybody was sufficiently drunk, a miracle occurred. It started raining heavily, so heavily it immediately managed to sober up Baron immediately. This was the chance he needed. This was the miracle he was hoping for. This was the turning point of the war. Then Baron looked towards his men only to see a bunch of men drunk off their asses dancing in the pouring rain.

(BM) "Now that all of my men are drunk, even with this miracle of rain I won't be able to do anything against Han Xin. I guess I'll just try to issue a draw tomorrow."

That's exactly what Baron did, and Han Xin actually approved of the decision of a draw and that's how their simulation ended. Both sides had their reasons for wanting a draw. Baron's men were basically at their wits end not to mention drunk. Han Xin's men were getting restless because the provisions got smaller and smaller everyday, and although they were about to win the war, many soldiers started to desert. At first, it was only a few, but after a while, it became tens of people in one night, and plus with the heavy rain that occurred that last night, Han Xin would not be able to mobilize any of his tanks due to the mud that formed overnight. This showed another weakness of Han Xin, logistics and the many finer details of keeping an army. Which Baron noted for later.

When the two of them came out, Yue Fei, Xu Da, and Ban Chao all came to cheer for Baron. After all, Baron had managed to achieve a draw against Han Xin, which none of them had managed to accomplish.

Chapter end