Divine Luck: SSS-Rank Battle Maid Harem

Yan had naturally read up on military strategies and formations since he first stepped foot on the battlefield. He was not talented enough at wielding a weapon to make up for the time he had spent doing everything but training since he was young.

The only thing he could contribute with on the battlefield was his mind.

Phalanxes, arrow formation, spear formations, and so on were great. They were reliable. But they were also predictable. Moreover, as Yan studied different tactics, formations, and strategies, he noticed something unrelated to specific formations but connected to them all.

The formation he used or asked his troops to use wasn't important. What was important was the enemies' actions and reactions.

The war between generals and commanders was a mind game with the troops as pieces and resources.

Yan would never think of the soldiers fighting down there as pawns, mere pieces on a game board. He knew they were more than that. That was why he was confident he would win.

He knew his soldiers inside and out. He knew how they would react, how they would act, and how they would respond to his orders.

Yan watched without blinking as his troops advanced toward the stampeding barbarians. Since he knew how his troops would react, he only had to figure out the enemies' movements now.

After encountering the barbarians and skirmishing with the Byumil tribe a few times, Yan had a superficial grasp of the way they fought.

The Empire's troops valued structure, discipline, and order. They repeated the motions in training and practiced moves that had been honed through centuries of skilled imperial warriors lending their experience to the soldiers of the future.

The Empire's swordsmanship and spearmanship were built on the legacies of the soldiers and warriors who established the Empire.

Throughout the years, the Empire's rudimentary weapon arts and techniques had come close to perfection. By repeating the movements of their seniors, the soldiers would make an impact on the battlefield, regardless of how talented or untalented they were.

They only needed to put in the work.

The Eastern techniques had also been influenced over the generations of fighting against barbarians. It was quicker and more cautious than the standard techniques of the central region.

The Eastern troops had learned and adapted to the way the barbarians fought just as how the barbarians had learned and adapted to the Empire's plate armor.

The barbarians fought savagely and used their lightness to their advantage. They targeted the weaknesses and openings in the soldiers' armor to whittle them down. That was only possible when they had the leeway on the battlefield to fight almost one-on-one with the soldiers.

In theory, the Empire's troops fought in unison while the barbarians fought individually.

Since they were usually on equal standing, it was easy to assume that the barbarians' individual strength was greater than the soldiers'. It might be true. But it also might not be since in reality, far from the fancy theory, it was every man for himself on the battlefield.

Training, showering, and sleeping with your fellow soldiers built a strong bond. The harsher the training, the stronger the bond. If that bond held up during live combat, they would naturally be undefeated against any single opponent unless they were abnormally strong or skilled.

However, there was nothing as good at severing that bond as the fear of death and the blade of a barbarian a hair from the throat.

Only soldiers who didn't fear death and shared each others' thoughts would be able to fight as they did during training.

Soldiers like that didn't exist.

But the fear of death could be overcome with bravery. And they didn't need to share each others' thoughts to act like one. They could replace their thoughts with the orders of their commander.

The soldiers didn't think more than necessary. They marched forward. The ones in the front glared at the barbarians stampeding toward them.

Just like the imperial troops, the barbarians had a shield wall in the front. Shields made of wood, bone, and hide.

The imperial shields were made of wood and metal. Both sides supported the shields with spears, pikes, and halberds.

Yan signaled for the drummers to increase the pace. As they did, the booming drum beats filling the battlefield spurred the troops into a swift march. Again.

With less than fifty strides between them, both sides dove into a sprint toward the enemy.

"Third Division! Pull ahead!"

The troops were already sprinting. As if he didn't care about that, Yan ordered the third to increase their pace even further with his voice that covered the battlefield, temporarily drowning out even the drums.

The Third Division heard him. They listened. Their bodies grew lighter as a new source of strength fueled their pumping legs. The division in the middle of the imperial army pulled ahead.

It was a variation on the arrow formation.

The Third Division would bear the brunt of the barbarians' shield wall and push into it. It was a hard task, but the soldiers had no objections. The harder it was for them, the lighter it was for the others.

As Yan expected, the barbarians in the front reacted to the Third Division. They gathered more strength in the center of their troops. As the barbarians in the front moved, gradually the ones in the back did the same.

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While they fought individually compared to the imperial troops, they lived and breathed the same air. The barbarians still moved together.

"Third Division, halt! First and Fifth Division, advance!" Yan shouted five seconds before the soldiers and barbarians clashed.

It was the kind of micromanaging that was only possible thanks to Yan's voice reaching the battlefield.

His soldiers listened without hesitation.

The Third Division stopped almost dead in their tracks and braced themselves for impact. The Second and Fourth Divisions closed in and supported them from the sides.

The First and Fifth Divisions felt the same burst of energy that the Third Division had felt. It helped them pick up even more speed in the last few steps before charging into the weakened flanks of the barbarian army.

The war had begun.