Chapter 586 Retreat
"General, the enemy is coming out to meet us."
As soon as I heard this, I gave a nod and said, "Hold formation and wait for them to come."
General Killock standing beside me had a very ugly and confused look when he heard this.
He could see that our troops were all placed on the plains in front of us.
The formation that we had taken was the most basic formation of all, the square formation.
This was a basic formation that every army was trained in because it was the most simple and effective method that any army could use. However, that was only when facing those that didn't have any strategy at all.
When facing another army that was also trained, this square formation wasn't as useful since there were many formations that could break it.
So as long as the other side knew what they were doing, it was easy to break this formation.
The worst part of it all was that their cavalry was kept far back, off the plains themselves where they would demonstrate the most power. Instead, they were so far back that the enemy would be able to easily react if anything happened, allowing them to escape if needed to.
So General Killock just couldn't help being confused as to what I was trying to achieve with this.
In no time at all, we could see the cloud of dust that was being raised in the distance.
This cloud of dust was being raised by the enemy army that was approaching us.
When they came closer, we could see what formation they had taken.
They were marching forward in a line, but they were in a much different formation from ours. This was a formation that seemed like it was very advanced, far beyond what our formation was.
It was a formation that was certainly for dealing with this square formation of ours.
The only thing that was missing from their formation were their cavalry that was placed in the back.
When General Killock saw this formation, he had a very ugly look as he explained, "The cavalry is being kept in the back because they know that the square formation counters it. They will be using shields of their own and sending out archers to deal with us. However, since we've sent our archers away, there's nothing that we can do to fight back."
He was right about that, there weren't any archers behind our shield wall, so there really wasn't a way for us to fight back if they were to shoot arrows at us.
But why weren't there any archers?
That was because I had placed them somewhere else for another matter.
I could tell what he wanted from me, but I just calmly shook my head and said, "It's not time yet. Just wait to see how they approach."
General Killock had an ugly expression, but he remained silent as he observed the enemy.
They slowly approached us with this formation and soon came closer and closer.
Once they were in range, the archers that were behind their shields suddenly raised their bows and started to shoot upwards. They weren't aiming for anything specific, they were just trying to send arrows at us.
Since it was just a wild shot, there wasn't much that they could do with these arrows.
Most of them came short of us and there were a few that landed on the shields that were raised.
General Killock narrowed his eyes before saying, "Get ready to return fire."
I raised a hand to stop him before saying, "There's no need, we're retreating."
General Killock looked at me with a shocked look when he heard this.
He took a moment to look at me as if he was trying to figure out if I was being serious or not.
Seeing that way that I just calmly looked at him, he figured that I was indeed being serious.
Taking a deep breath, General Killock asked, "General, are you sure about this?"
I gave a calm nod before saying, "We should retreat before it's too late."
General Killock's eyes filled with disdain the moment that he heard this, but he gave a nod in the end.
He seemed disappointed, but that wasn't strange.
After all, I was ordering a retreat before we even clashed with the enemy.
The way that I acted made it seem like I was a scared fool who was in way over his head and was running at the first sign of danger.
But this was what General Killock wanted to see in the end.
With a nod to one of the soldiers on the side, the flag was raised for our army to retreat.
The soldiers were all confused when they saw this, but they still followed orders since that was how they had been trained.
They broke formation and quickly turned to run.
It wasn't a normal retreat, but a full out retreat since that was what I had discussed with General Killock again.
The enemies were stunned when they saw us retreating, but then they started moving faster.
It seemed like they wanted to catch us before we could escape.
Seeing this, I said, "General Killock, get our archers ready."
General Killock was surprised by this order for only a second before he gave a nod in response. But before he could give the order for the archers to fire to cover our escape, I said, "Tell them to wait for an opportunity to shoot the enemy. One will be coming soon."
General Killock was even more confused when he heard this.
There was a part of him that wanted to ignore this and just give the order to fire, but he still followed my orders in the end.
As we ran, I was watching what was happening behind us with a calm look on my face.
It was only when I saw the faint tremble of the stones on the ground that I revealed an excited look.
It was finally happening.
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