Chapter 386: The first March

Rudra met up with the first division for the first time after the meeting with the emperor was over. The first division had 100,000 soldiers , divided into 20,000 infantry , 20,000 archers , and 50,000 cavalry and 10,000 specialists. 

The choice of steed was the Royal Black stallion , as it was a fast and reliable battlemount that could bear the weight of millitary supplies. The average level of soldiers was around level 90 tier 2. Which was extremely high compared to the neighbouring nine-cloud soldiers at around level 70. 

Only now did Rudra start to realize that Cervantez 's plan to take back Hazelgroove's territories was not a impulse of him reaching tier 5. Rather a planned decision over years. To nurture such a terrifying army , it would take a lot of time and resources. 

There were 4 commodore in his army , under whom there were 25,000 soldiers each. All of them showed appropriate respect to Rudra , however all 4 of them were early tier 3 NPC. 

This greatly surprised Rudra , with his increased eye of truth , he was comfortable knowing his power level would not be easily divulged and the soldiers would not be impudent enough to ask it themselves. 

It would be shameful for Rudra to admit that yes , he was indeed lower in level and tier than them. Because , Rudra's level and tier did not accurately represent his combat prowess at all. He was easily a tier 3 mid levelled power. 

Rudra , had a short planning session with the commodores as they surveyed their first target , the Mercury village , which was roughly a 15 day March alongside the massive army from Purplehaze city. 

Rudra planned the best and safest route of transit that took 3 more days than the shorter path , however after being ambushed once on a road where the forest was on one side and a hill on the other , Rudra did not want to walk into such terrain again. 

Choosing a flat land for travel , Rudra wanted to always be on alert for ambushes , as there was nothing as being too careful in a war. 

The Elites never had such numerical strength , Rudra always had to make schemes after schemes to fight wars. However this time it was different , he had the numbers to deploy proper war tactics and fights , he could actually choose from the wide range of millitary tactics from geniuses like Napoleon and Alexander the Great and the Roman legions of the mediaeval times to crush his enemy. 

His first target was the village of Mercury , a small village with only 20,000 soldiers left to defend it. However Rudra had news from the Elite player he sent as a scout there , that there were additional 30,000 mercenaries securing the village. 

These mercenaries were all under the triads and their ruled sub contractors. In one sense Hao Mi's forces. Hence why Rudra 's hands were even more itchier for action. 

The village had a rudimentary wooden wall built around it , and the huts and houses inside the village were also a mixture of stone , wood and dry hay stacks as roof. 

That instantly translated to Fire , Fire , Fire in Rudra's mind. Unlike guild wars , this fight did not have to be a one day ordeal. He could launch fire arrows on the village daily , for weeks to terrorize the residents and cause civil unrest for the residing army. 

Untill one day he storms their gates and captures the village. Rudra was going into the fight with a 2:1 numerical advantage in his favour. This was a very different feeling for him. However that did not mean that he could afford to recklessly loose even a tenth of his force. Because, the prize was not Mercury village , but fort Magma which would need every man he had to capture. 

The March began , and Rudra's mind started to spin at full speed , trying to come up with strategies and counters and all possible scenarios. 

Rudra engineered a plan , then changed his perspective to a defender inside the village mercury and think about how he would defend the village should he be in the defenders position. Then reverse engineer his own plan , and find the flaws in it. 

He would do this continually , untill one plan satisfied his taste , to take down the village. It was the most unconventional method of doing things , however that was Rudra's style of doing things . 

Little did he know , years later , the history books would remember this method of capturing a village as a work of pure genius and it would be taught to children as a part of their academic curriculum. 

The master manipulator was about to use his schemes to manipulate hundereds of thousands , for his own advantage. 

The biggest witch hunt was about to begin! 

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( Meanwhile , in China ) 

Sitting in a bar , was a English man , eating peanuts as he drank whiskey , trying to look like a traveller and reduce the vigilance from the others around him. 

Asking the bartender in broken Mandarin about where to buy drugs , Jhonny looked like a man undergoing his mid life crisis. However it was all a hoax , all a sham to try find out the supply chain of druggies , from then on out it was only a matter of climbing the supply chain from the seller to the distributor to the manufacturer to the factory owner the triads. 

Pretending to be completely sloshed , Jhonny gave the man 1000 yuan instead of 100 , as he walked shakily out of the bar. And just like he expected 2 youngsters followed him out . 

Either they would try mob Jhonny , or sell him drugs , either way , the youngsters were in for a rough night of beating. 

As Jhonny walked into a narrow dark alley , clenching his stomach as if he would puke , the duo found the time appropriate to ambush Jhonny English. 

When morning rolled by , the two woke up in the same alley , smelling like urine , as they shivered remembering the terrifying details of the previous night.