-Matsubi, western battlefield-

Commander Matsubi gulped as he saw the Zhao. Before them was a hill on which the Zhao had taken, and entrenched themselves. Yet from their movements it looked as that wouldn't last much longer. Soon they would be in battle Matsubi could feel it.

"A message from General Mitagi!" An officer yelled. Matsubi and Kagura turned to look. "The High General orders for us to entrench ourselves in the ruins." With the officer was a map of the surrounding landscape provided by scouts. They laid it out.

Matsubi and his ten-thousand were stationed at a clearing west of Ouki and Moubu. North of Matsubi was the western wing of Zhao on a hill. Between Matsubi and the Zhao was plains, but between the western and middle battlefields was a stretch of ruins and mountainous terrain. Matsubi had already felt he would be fighting for control of the ruins, but the Zhao had made no moves thus far.

The orders specifically was to send a part of Matsubi's army to the city ruins to hold it. Ouki predicted Zhao would move on it soon, and Matsubi needed to be ready to beat them to it.

"The Zhao have not moved yet. What makes him think they will now? And why the ruins? True, it offers some benefit, but it will leave us surrounded! The city is not walled. We will be beset from all sides." Kagura said.

"I do not know his thoughts, but he was the one chosen as High General. What more can we do but trust he knows the flow of war?"

"True, I speak not out of disobedience, but it will be difficult. We will be exposing ourselves while protecting the passage between the west and middle battlefields. It is risky."

Kagura stood and looked at the ten-thousand. He said, "Matsubi, may I make a guess?"

"Of course, you are my superior in experience!" Matsubi encouraged him.

"War is like a board game with moves and counter moves. Ouki is a player of the game, and as a player he has to perceive the moves his enemy will make. The most important move of any game is the first one, because it is the one that decides the flow of the rest as the two dance. It decides from the very start who sets the tempo, who is in control, or is the aggressor, who is the defender, and such a tempo is difficult to take when it is lost. It is clear to me the first move has been made, and it is based on that move that Ouki has predicted how Zhao will respond, whether to reclaim the tempo or the push it. Either way, positioning us at the ruins is a defensive move, not an offensive one... He wants us to prevent the Zhao from making a move. My best guess is that Qin has taken the first victory, and Zhao seeks to reclaim the offensive."

"An insightful guess. But I do not know if it is so or not, he tells us little."

"That is another thing that has left me curious." Kagura mused. "Why would he tell us to put ourselves into a defensive position? Being on the defense offers no gain for us but to hold them back. This tells me one very important fact: We are to buy time for the real offensive move."

"The real offensive move? What is it you are thinking?"

"I think Ouki seeks to make an offensive move, but needs us to act as the shield to his sword. Whether that is to surround, focus resources and men elsewhere, or what. We are the shield to his spear. As such, may I make a recommendation?"

"By all means! I rely wholly on your guidance, Kagura! You have taught me much, and your perception makes great sense."

"Then let us take the thousand Royal Guard." Kagura advised him. "If we send too many to the ruins, it will draw greater attention from Zhao. The smaller a force, the less perceptive they will be. The more they will underestimate us. The Royal Guard and I are trained to be the elite of the elite, to hold a single point against all odds. I think this is what Ouki has in mind, as surely our forces here have not gone beyond his knowledge."

Matsubi looked once more to the Zhao. He considered what Kagura said, and felt it was true. Perhaps it was a guess, perhaps that is all it was, but their orders were true. Ouki wanted them to hold the ruins, despite how much of a difficult position it would put them in. And Ouki was the greatest general in the world, he was the pillar of the nation, surely he had a reason.

"I agree." Matsubi looked back once more to the map. An idea came to his mind.

"What are you thinking?"

"Let us reform the ten thousand from ten units of thousand to ten units of nine-hundred, and them move the nine-thousand up a bit." Matsubi pointed to the map up a bit, not close enough to be the middle where Zhao would take it as a means for battle. If Zhao was to attack, they would have to pull themselves out further and expose themselves more. "Meanwhile we take the thousand Royal Guard unit around the back, hidden, into the nearby ruins. Then if the Zhao attack, pull the nine-thousand back to the original line."

Kagura perceived his plan. "You mean to deceive them. If we were to take away a unit, it would be noticeable. Instead you wish to redistribute the ten-thousand, so we appear no smaller than before, while moving the Royal Guard into a position they will not know we have taken! What of when the Zhao come upon us?"

"You are right... I had not thought of that. We will be in no better of a situation from before." Matsubi sighed. "It was a stupid idea."

"No! No it was not!" Kagura argued. "You have a mind for tactics, even if you do not realize it! Take your plan but a step further! They will come upon the ruins expecting it empty, but we will be there with the thousand. They will surround it to take it from us. That will leave the nine-thousand here to come upon them from behind!"

"I see now! How dumb of me!" Matsubi laughed. "I came up with three-fourths of a pincer stratagem without even realizing it! I was solely focused on the ruins."

"You have a mind for tactics, that has been clear to me this last year. You merely continue to think as a soldier, rather than that as a commander."

"I think both are necessary." Matsubi argued.

"Oh?"

"Yes. Is not high war dependent on low war? Is not units and formations dependent on the squad? What if one could take the strategy of high war and apply it to low war as well? What if every squad could be coordinated as one yet as individuals."

"What you speak of is strategy on a complexity and scale beyond any general. Even the most disciplined army cannot employ hundreds of miniature stratagems at once." Kagura waved it off. "Matsubi, you have potential. You understand the battlefield from multiple perceptions, but what you speak of is beyond you... beyond anyone. Focus on what you must learn, don't overreach yourself or you will find yourself exposing yourself to countless weakness."

Matsubi nodded. He frowned and bowed himself to the veteran's words. "I am sorry for my lack of understanding. You should be the leader, not I."

"Not at all. Zelda was right. I am old. I see in you far more potential than I have in my coming years. I am where I need to be, teaching the next generation."

With that said, Kagura rose and walked off to inform the former Royal Guard of their mission. Matsubi looked to the battlefield once more and considered possibilities. He hoped it would go well, and that he would not fail them all.

So it was that Matsubi and Kagura marched the ten-thousand forward up a ways, enough to draw the attention of Zhao. However, one thousand had stayed behind and hid themselves as they made their way to the ruins. Matsubi's plan would successfully deceive the Zhao, as they would not perceive that the ten units of thousand were actually ten units of nine-hundred.

Zhao marched forward to encourage battle, and as Matsubi had left as orders, the nine-thousand marched back, leaving the ruins exposed. In response, the Zhao took the initiative to seize the ruins. They left their entrenchment on the mountain, entered into the thinner passages leading toward the city, and then entered it.

The Zhao stopped as they found the city was already taken without their knowledge. A thousand Qin adorned in golden armor, with steel spear and sword, with heavy armor, and strong in formation, stood before them. The buildings were torn down and piled as barricades to deny them passage. The Zhao would have to work through tons of rubble or force their way through a thousand elite soldiers in a formation shoulder to shoulder and shield to shield.

Orders were sent from the Zhao command to engage, and so they did.

The Zhao threw themselves on the Royal Guard. They thought themselves victor, as they were in much greater number, but they quickly learned this was not the case. This was not a mere thousand soldiers. This was the Royal Guard of the Qin palace. They were each heroes in their own right, trained their entire lives for battle, and had formation training every day.

The Zhao would not gain an inch of ground from them, if anything, the Royal Guard would taunt them and push them back in a manner akin to soldiers of Sparta.

As Kagumi predicted, this would put his nine-thousand into a favorable position, so the nine-thousand ran across the battlefield and engaged the Zhao from behind. The Zhao, having been stalled by a mere thousand, had not predicted they would be so detained. The Zhao had believed they would take the city and cut off the western Qin forces from their vanguard, and so have a position in which to fight Ouki from the sides and put him on the defensive. They had not perceived they would fall into a position to be surrounded themselves.

And to top it all off, the Zhao commanders and officers on the battlefield received no further message from their command on the hill. Without orders, the Zhao were routed by the evening and fled. They fled to their command on the hill and despaired, for what they found was death. The general who had stayed on the hill was dead, his head missing and his guards slain around him.

Ouki could only grin as he heard the wailing on the distant winds, a noise so loud it would shake the earth. His plan had worked perfectly.