A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1795 - 1795: Supposed Victories - Part 6

As the last of the wooden beams were set upon the ground, Oliver felt a smile grow on his face. He knew it to be the height of stupidity, but for the feeling in his chest, that was a terrible certainty in him. A trap Tavar made this to be, but it was not the sort of trap that, knowing it existed, Oliver would allow himself to fall to.

"OPEN THE GATES!" Oliver demanded, loud enough that he supposed the enemy could hear.

Once more, the men needed the benefit of ropes to see them drawn. Normally a team of mules would work together to do the deed, but instead it was a team of twenty men on each side that Oliver had do the honours.

They opened the gate wide enough that ten men could fit through the centre, side by side, and beyond them, finally, Oliver could see the battlefield open up, and he could see Tavar's formations properly now.

Three catapults were pointed his way, further away from the wall than they would normally be. If they were to fire at their maximum trajectory, then they'd just barely scratch at its base. It was subtle, but it confirmed to Oliver his suspicion. The catapults being as close they were was intended as an illusion. It was a trap from the start.

He saw with them a detachment of a thousand archers that he had not expected, with their bows drawn, ready to shoot him down should he charge. Then, to the left, hanging around innocently enough, there were two thousand cavalry, standing simply waiting, as if they had no place at all in the battlefield that was going on.

But the second that Oliver revealed himself, it was as if a fuse had been lit. Evidently, their orders had been given in advance, for that cavalry detachment was already charging – and then there were five thousand infantry sitting right in front of the gate, where they had been operating a battering ram, seemingly waiting to come straight in.

The infantry were as close as they could be without arousing suspicion, or the bowfire of Nila and her soldiers, but that still put them too far away to make anything of the open gates without the help of the cavalry.

The purpose of that cavalry was to buy time, then it was for the archers and the infantry to see the finishing blow done.

If they were not enough, then there were the men around the gate, busily operating their ladders. They weren't nearly as numerous and uniform as the formations that Tavar had seen otherwise placed, but even above the cavalry, they were there, exactly where they needed to be, to rush the gate in a single instance.

Already, those men were abandoning their ladders and rushing for the open gate. A few hundred men at a time they were, but that was more than enough to buy time – as if they even needed further time – for the cavalry to come rushing.

It was a perfect storm, a trap of the most deadly sort. If Oliver had left those gates at a charge, intending to rush anywhere, he would already have been defeated. But he had opened the gates with the intention of retreat. When the soldiers from the ladders found Oliver and his men, they found them positioned behind the gate, waiting watchfully, like hungry wolves.

A few hundred disorganized scraps of men – and Oliver saw them torn apart. Their lack of formation made their enthusiasm seem a foolish thing. They met a solid wall of soldiery that was more than ready to do battle. Oliver had moved his cavalry towards the rear, and pulled Blackthorn spearmen to the front. It was against such a brick wall that those soldiers found themselves shattered.

"CRUSH THEM FOR THEIR ARROGANCE!" Oliver demanded of the Blackthorn men. "THEY DESERVE NOT MORE THAN A FEW SECONDS OF YOUR TIME!"

They made good on that demand. It was ruthlessly efficient the way they operated. Such a position was practically designed for those soldiers. It was something that the peasantry would not be able to emulate for a good while. It was the results of strong training and drilling, and an incredible individual strength. With their long spears, they did not merely wait for the enemy, they timed a thrust to their charge. A whole line of men, and they'd thrust, then toss the enemy off their spears with the same timing. It was a machine designed exclusively to hold a position, and it did so with perfection.

Corpses were all that awaited the incoming cavalry. Those eager ladder climbers that had spied opportunity at the gate had only found death awaiting them. Now the detachment of cavalry, so courageusly streaming forward, found much the same.

Pre-given orders were what they operated on. If Tavar had seen the way Oliver emerged from the gate, he likely would have known his trap to have been foiled. Yet his trap would never have worked in the first place if he had not seen it closed instantaneously. Now Oliver stood his ground valiantly, and with certainty. There was a potential force of nearly ten thousand men there gathered, once they saw themselves positioned properly, and Oliver and his thousand still dared to declare that they were no match.

Oliver wanted to see that gate held for as long as he could. If he could have simply stood there, and defended the funnel that he had created, he would have counted himself a lucky man. But those catapults were designed to break walls, and with the wall that Oliver had created, he found himself as a target. They readjusted their machines to match him, and, just before the cavalry hit, they fired, running boulders through Oliver's rank, and flattening all that came in contact with them.

He'd half-debated simply drawing back when he saw those weapons pointed his way, but he knew that would have been to seal their fate. The cavalry were far too mobile to be allowed uninhibited access to the city. Even if it was with broken ranks that they had to meet them, they would meet them regardless.