I was a knight in the Middle Ages

"One to ten, ten intact knights for one person, or ten war horses for one person." What a huge request! How could the other party have such confidence?

"No, we have two thousand people and you only have three thousand, it's one to one at most." Alpha flatly refused.

"General, we are all smart people. You only have 500 people here at most." The bandit Arras squinted his eyes to identify them carefully, but unfortunately Alpha arranged the knights in a staggered manner, so from the front they looked like heads.

"I only have 450 people here, but you have two hills, and I also need to arrange people on the other side. At least half of the central army, and there are a large number of spies around. Two thousand people are not a lot." Alpha mixed the real and the fake to make the real thing look real.

"There are 10,000 people in our camp. Do you believe it, General?" The bandits also shouted exaggeratedly.

"Sir, there is no point in doing this. We might as well talk about everyone's limits." Seeing that Alpha was not in a hurry, the bandit Alas shouted again.

"One to eight."

"No, at most one to two." The two began to bargain.

In the end, the exchange ratio was set at 1:5. Alpha thought the bandits numbered 5,000, while the bandits thought the Alpha cavalry was at most 1,500. The more people there were, the less valuable they were, just like merchandise.

"How do we hand over the person?" Alpha asked loudly.

"You drive the men over here, and we will release the people, five at a time. If anyone goes back on his word, the deal will be terminated immediately." Arras suggested.

"Okay, we'll take the money and the goods." Alpha's expression was indifferent, as if he didn't take it too seriously.

"Go back." Alpha watched the bandits climb up the artificial ladder, and then ordered people to return to the camp.

"Lord Alpha, are you unwilling to exchange prisoners?" Fattam suddenly asked.

"Of course not," Alpha glanced at his knights, "but it seems that these bandits have ulterior motives. Their appetite is too big, they actually want to exchange ten of us for one. In this desolate mountain and wilderness, their troops are dozens of times ours. If we really fight head-on, we will definitely be eaten up without leaving any residue. The less we care, the less they can guess our actual number. Now our number is the key to everything."

Alpha turned to Fattam and Lilia, his expression solemn, "If anyone falls into the hands of the enemy, I will return them no matter what the cost."

Alpha looked at Fattam and Lilia and explained. After all, this was related to morale and had to be explained clearly.

"If I were captured, how much would Lord Alpha be willing to give in exchange?" Fattam approached.

"Don't talk nonsense, Fatam." Alpha laughed, then stopped smiling and said seriously, "If you are captured, I will do my best to rescue you, even if it means mobilizing my entire army. But I won't reveal all my chips. On the contrary, the more anxious I act, the less likely they will let you go easily. So, don't take my chips seriously."

"I know, Lord Alpha, I will not be captured." Fattam nodded.

"Don't say anything. I hope no one will talk about death lightly. We all need to live well. We all need to be big landlords, and you are all small landlords." Alpha comforted.

"Lilia, let Rowling stop collecting the prisoners and let Lina focus on treating them." These wounded prisoners are considered one-fifth of their own people, and Alpha will not abandon a single soldier.

"Fatam, Will, control the center army to retreat three kilometers." Before the cavalry had completely retreated, Alpha had already begun to arrange for the center army to evacuate. This place was too close to the front line, and there was no way to be mysterious.

"Rowling, Bach, the two of you ambush on both sides. Lilia, keep an eye on the enemy." The enemy has begun to doubt the number of their own troops, and the smoke and fog countermeasures used by Alpha may not be able to delay for too long.

"Alpha, we don't have a central army at all!" Will didn't know how many people he had. In fact, all of them were here, including the spies and the wounded, there were only fifty people left, so where did the central army come from?

"We want to show the enemy that we have a central army camp. The central army will move there now, making it appear that 800 people are moving, and will use war horses and scarecrows to cover it up. After we move there, we will prepare more tents and surround the area tightly with wood, so that the enemy will see that our central army has at least 800 people in size." Alpha was being mysterious in order to scare the enemy.

"Okay, I got it. I'll make sure to do it beautifully." Will heard Alpha's explanation and knew that Alpha just wanted to deceive the enemy.

……

"Arras, are you saying that the total number of their officers and soldiers is around 1,500, and the number of cavalry is around 1,000?" Truss looked at the men he had sent out to gather information. This data seriously exceeded his own calculations and was seriously inconsistent with the information he had received before.

"That's right, Captain. The number of cavalrymen who will greet us is about five hundred. Including those stationed in Joyce and the knights in the center army, there should be about one thousand people." Arras, who went out for negotiations, did not go too far and could only estimate the approximate number.

"Is there no accurate data?" Bahom asked with a frown.

One thousand cavalry is not a small number. The cavalry of the four mountain strongholds combined is only two thousand cavalry, and the rest are infantry. Now another three hundred knights have been lost, leaving only one thousand six hundred knights. If they really fight, the outcome is unpredictable.

"They defended very tightly. I can't see what's going on behind me at all." Arras turned and looked at the enemy troops who were holding their positions.

"They are burning fires and creating thick smoke, so there must not be many of them. If we attack on all fronts now, we can definitely kill them." Bahom is a pure bandit. He doesn't like to use his brain and only likes to solve problems with force.

"What if they use cavalry to circle and drag us?" If they were regular knights, Truss would not be afraid at all, but from the current information, the other party was obviously not.

Especially for the exchange of hostages, the other party bargained. Under normal circumstances, even if it was a one-for-ten exchange, the other party would immediately agree. This time, they actually bargained, making it impossible for Trus to judge the other party's attitude. Trus didn't care about his own hostages. The negotiation was just to know the other party's attitude, so as to make a specific judgment and whether using hostages would serve as a threat.

"The enemy cavalry can leave, but the infantry camp cannot. We should attack the central army camp directly." Bahom was not a fool and would not be led by the enemy cavalry. In the dim sight, he could vaguely see the enemy camp, which tempted Bahom to send troops.

"Oh no! They are withdrawing their camp." Before Bahom finished his words, the enemy actually began to move their central camp.

"Captain Truss, if we don't take action now, we will have no chance." Bahom was anxious.

"Send out a thousand infantrymen to attack the enemy camp directly, and five hundred cavalrymen to wait for an opportunity to move." Truus knew that the opportunity was fleeting. As long as the cavalry losses were not too great, it would not matter if all the infantrymen were killed. Truus had the capital to try and make mistakes.

"Truss, we use the same method, push ordinary people to the front line, mix in spies, and surround the enemy cavalry as soon as we see them." This method was once used to deal with female knights and the effect was very good. Now Bahom especially likes this countermeasure.

"I'm afraid it won't work this time. The other party doesn't care about the threat of hostages at all." Truss was not sure about the other party's attitude.

"Who cares? There's no point in keeping these civilians who just eat and don't work." If Truss hadn't captured all the people around, Bahom would not have been willing to arrest anyone.

To Bahom, these people are leeks that can be harvested continuously. After what Truss did, no one will go to farm next year and how will he replenish supplies next year?

Unfortunately, the situation was not favorable and Bahom did not dare to turn against Truss.

In this way, 1,500 "civilians" and 500 cavalrymen took the initiative to leave the village and look for opportunities to fight.

"Lord Alpha," Lilia's message came, "The enemy is moving out, a large-scale operation, more than a thousand people."

"Fatam, speed up your relocation, Will, follow me." Alpha expected that the enemy would not be easily confused.

"Lowry," Alpha began to deploy the battle plan, "Disperse the team and go to the surrounding woods to create signs of an ambush. If the enemy gets close, shoot with bows and arrows. If the enemy is too numerous, retreat. Don't fight them head-on."

"Lord Alpha, how many people are needed?" Rowling understood what Alpha meant.

"Three hundred people will be enough. If you need anything, ask Fattam."

"Understood sir." Rowling immediately set off with the cavalry.

"Lord Alpha, why don't you pretend to be more people?" Bach was a little puzzled.

"According to the performance I gave them before, there are about 1,500 people here, so any cover-up cannot exceed this limit." Alpha did not have time to explain in too much detail.

"Bach, Will, the two of you should move back and forth. Don't engage the enemy head-on. Try to use long-range attacks as much as possible." Alpha gave the order again.

"Order."

"Alpha, what if the enemy uses civilians as the vanguard?" Will asked worriedly.

"There are no civilians now, only enemies on the battlefield." Alpha gave the order seriously, but seeing Will's expression, he knew that he would not strictly enforce such an order.

"Then don't make contact with the enemy, keep a distance of one kilometer, and don't let the infantry stick to your tail." Alpha knew very well that some things cannot be forced.

"Listen." Bach thought of his previous experience and would never let himself be surrounded by large-scale infantry again. It was too scary unless he had the majority of people.

"It's still the sixteen-word mantra. Don't engage the enemy head-on." Alpha finally instructed.

"Yes, sir." The two generals led their troops and rushed to the battlefield.

"Fatam, leave the relocation of the central army to Lina's troops, and you follow me to the front line." Due to the serious shortage of troops, Alpha had to abandon the previously set battle plan.

"Yes!" Fattam put down the work in his hands and followed Alpha's footsteps.

"Wait, Lina, you don't need to move the central army, just surround the central army camp with wood." Alpha came up with a plan. Due to the previous operation, a large amount of wood in the surrounding forests had been cut down, and now all they had to do was bury the cut wood back into the ground.

"Fatam, expand your heavy cavalry to two hundred people, use all those war horses, and pretend to be cavalry." Fake horse cavalry are easy to be exposed, and only Fatam's heavy cavalry can serve as a cover-up.

"Lord Alpha, the enemy's center has continued to advance, ignoring the ambushes set up on both wings, and is heading straight for our main camp." Lilia kept sending out alarms.

"Then let's catch the turtle in the jar." Alpha ordered, "Order Rowling, Bach, and Will to continue the action, snipe the enemy cavalry, and the infantry can shoot. Fattam's heavy cavalry must withstand the pressure." Alpha's goal was to resist the enemy cavalry and eat up the infantry.

"Order."

……

"Captain Truss, Chief Bahom, the enemy has set up ambushes on both sides of the road. In addition, two regiments have launched harassment attacks from both sides of the central avenue, and there is a heavy cavalry stationed right in front." Arras is now in charge of intelligence transmission, and information is constantly shuttling back and forth.

"How many enemy cavalrymen are there?" What Truss cared about most was the number of cavalrymen.

"The number of enemy troops in ambush is about three to four hundred, the cavalry carrying out harassment attacks is one hundred, and the cavalry in the center is two hundred, a total of about six hundred people." Arras continued to send back messages.

"Having abandoned our infantry, are they going to fight a decisive battle with us? Cavalry against cavalry, infantry against infantry?" Truss frowned, as if thinking about something.

"Then let's send out the whole army, the infantry and the remaining cavalry." Bahom was very crazy. There were still 1,000 cavalry and 2,000 infantry in the camp, and Bahom decided to attack all at once.

"Sir, there's news from Fordley that the entire enemy army has been dispatched, and about a thousand cavalrymen are gathering." The sudden news made Bahom dare not utter a word.

The enemy is attacking on two fronts. Once our entire army launches an attack, the enemy will go straight to our enemy, and the consequences will be disastrous.

"Impossible, the other side can't have so many knights." Truss knew the content of the intelligence clearly, and the number of the enemy was far less than this.

The enemy only had 3,000 people to suppress the bandits this time. Excluding the cavalry stationed around, they could only deal with half of our cavalry at most. This did not include the cavalry left in the area. Logically, the enemy could only suppress 600 to 1,000 of our cavalry at most.

But now the news has come that the number of cavalry around has reached two thousand, and with the assistance of infantry, the number is expected to exceed three thousand.

"What went wrong?" Truss kept pacing, muttering to himself.

"Should we give up the attack? Continue with our previous plan of lying in wait." There was a hint of timidity in Bahom's tone.

At the beginning, they made a plan to hold the stronghold for less than three months, hoping to wear down the enemy with time. But now the situation has become a full-scale attack, which is extremely dangerous. If there is a mistake, the probability of annihilation is very high.

"No, something must be wrong. The enemy's troops are small in number, and the troops in the north must not move." Truss understood the seriousness of the problem, but he did not dare to take risks, so he decided to send the existing troops to conduct a tentative attack first.

"Okay." Bahom thought that even if these soldiers were lost, it would not cause much harm to their foundation, so he didn't care too much.

"Tell the cavalry not to charge too hard and be careful not to get stuck in the enemy's formation." Truss gave an instruction and began to carefully observe the situation on the front line.

……

"Lilia, inform all cavalry units to keep a close eye on the enemy cavalry, preserve their own strength to the maximum extent, and eliminate the enemy's manpower. Leave the enemy's infantry to me and Lina." Alpha was calculating the enemy's infantry.

"Lord Alpha, what should we do if there are civilians there?" Lina suddenly asked, scaring Alpha.

"They are all bandits, there are no civilians." Alpha miscalculated Lina's kindness.

"Lina, do you want to see me die on the battlefield?" Alpha began to play the emotional card.

"Of course not."

"Then listen to me and kill all the disobedient enemies."

"Yes, I promise to obey your orders."