A large battalion of men in armor and holding swords marched through the grasslands of Kingdom Of Kantipur. They left a trail of dust behind with each step. From a distance, such a spectacle would only be described by the word intimidating. Not only were their marching footsteps in sync, they also wore serious expressions going into war.
This large march was being led by the second in command of the army, meanwhile some distance ahead of the march were four people: Nirpendra Malla, Ivan Tandukar, Jitamitra Malla, and the fourth person, an unfamiliar face.
"Your highness, I'm afraid to say this but once we arrive at the battlefield what shall we do?"
"Well, for starters, I'd like to kill every Patan soldier in the field first! To think that they would resort to ambushing my army while asleep… Have they no shame and honor?"
The fourth person spoke regretfully and playfully. He was a man around his thirties and the commander of Bhadgaon. Apparently, he had come to ask for Nirpendra's support along with Jitamitra Malla before but had to use the toilet urgently.
"Shut it, Rajendra."
"Yes, your highness!"
The king of Bhadgaon scolded him and the commander of Bhadgaon agreed eccentrically.
"Ivan, how much time do you think is left before we enter Bhadgaon?"
The stern looking man thought for a few seconds before responding, "Ten minutes."
Ten minutes was not a lot of time. Nirpendra and the others had left Kantipur just a few minutes ago and they're already approaching Bhadgaon. This was due to the virtue of living in a micronation. Actually, all three kingdoms inside the Kathmandu valley are micronations by modern standards. It took around 2 hours of time to traverse from one end of the kingdom to the other.
"That's not much time. We should probably have a plan before we get in there." Jitamitra said.
"But how are we going to make a plan without having any intel?" The commander in chief Ivan presented a valid point.
"That's right, but it would be better than rushing in there and losing lives. It's always better to prepare beforehand. Besides, we already have enough intel to prepare a good plan."
Rajendra said.
Nirpendra knew that out of the three kingdoms, Bhadgaon had the strongest military and the sole reason for that is this man. The commander of Bhadgaon was a brilliant strategist who only lost a single battle in his entire life.
Rajendra pulled out a scroll from his backpack, and when he unrolled it, all four of them could see a map of the Kathmandu valley consisting of all three kingdoms.
"We can figure out where they would position themselves from the geographical information we have at hand."
All three of them, including Nirpendra, were instantly interested. This guy speaking, although he might seem aloof and unserious at times is undoubtedly one of the greatest strategists alive right now in all of Nepal so nobody would willingly discard his words.
"If you look right here, next to the… Anantage… Antange…"
"Anantalingeshwor." Jitamitra corrected.
"That's right. This town here is actually very weakly defended. It's covered with plain grasslands from all sides and there is no city wall to protect it. It'll be easy for a force of a thousand soldiers to pummel through."
"I already suspected it… but you're right. They should already be done with invading Anantalingeshwor by now." Jitamitra admitted.
"Correct! After invading that town, they have a clear path straight to the capital of Bhadgaon, Bhaktapur. Ah, yes but don't worry. To reach Bhaktapur they would have to ascend and descend some hills so they should be slowed down enough for us to reach them in time. But the problem is…"
"The problem is?"
"We don't have enough men…" Nirpendra spoke in realization.
"Correct! If they are yet to reach the Capital by the time we encounter, we would have the upper hand as we hit their large numbers from behind. However, if they have already reached the capital, they would have laid siege by now and we possibly couldn't harm their greater numbers with our measly 1,500 especially when they're stationary."
"Is that really a problem?" Ivan said, "We have more reinforcements coming soon."
"No, that won't do. It's only a matter of time until they break through the city walls and if they take hold of the capital, it's over for Bhadgaon."
"Tsk." Jitamitra clicked his tongue in frustration.
At this moment, Jitamitra saw a small town in the distance that was slowly getting into view as they ascended the slope of a small hill.
"We've reached Anantalingeshwor…" He said finally once at the top of this small hill.
"This must mean there's 15 more minutes before we reach Bhaktapur… But what should we do? We don't have enough men to win." Ivan said.
Meanwhile, at the same time, Nirpendra was left behind as he stood still, his eyes unfocused and his mouth hung open as if the body had no owner right now. He stood like that for a few moments, some drool escaping his open mouth.
However, life suddenly snapped back to his eyes and he shifted in realization. He was already sweating for some reason as he muttered to himself, "I know… I know how to win!"
***
At the same time, in the capital city of Bhadgaon, there was a large-scale battle taking place in the outskirts of the city, where the large stone walls were not present for protection.
"Clang! Clang! Clash!"
A young man in his early twenties was locked in a fierce battle with a knight from the kingdom of Patan along with several other battles taking place at the same time.
The two traded several fierce hits with their swords before jumping back to catch a breath. However, his enemy would not allow him to rest even a single second as he rushed the young man ruthlessly.
"Crap!"
The young man was about to get stabbed by the enemy, but at the same time, one of his allies came from the side and tackled the enemy away. Both of them rolled towards the ground as the enemy's swords flung into the distance before hitting the wall.
"Now's your chance!"
On this signal, the young man rushed and made a clean strike to the torso of his enemy.
The young man's ally stood up, his clothes were stained from the blood of their enemy so he tried wiping them off with his hands but it only caused the blood to smear all over him. He realized it was futile so he sighed and turned to the young man and said:
"Good job there, Biraj."
The young man named Biraj who was panting for breath straightened and exclaimed, "Thank you, Captain!"
The Captain nodded and turned to look below from the top of the tower.
"There's still a lot."
Below this tower was a large number of battles taking place, much like Biraj's own battle. The enemies of Patan had invaded them… but they wouldn't go down this easily, not in their own capital city.
However, as his eyes drifted further away into the distance, his eyes widened on what he saw.
"No way… There's too many! We need to retreat. Retreat to the inside of the walls!"
The captain rushed while climbing down the stairs of the tower, screaming the same command he'd given Biraj.
Despite the orders to retreat, Biraj was unresponsive. He was looking at the spectacle of more than a few thousand soldiers in a single area marching with elephants into the town. It was almost as if he was taken by fear. Nobody could blame the young man if it was though. They barely had even a few hundred soldiers. How could they match their thousands?
However, in the next instance, he regained focus and said with urgency:
"Mother! Sister!"
With that statement, the man also rushed down the tower but he didn't retreat, rather, he ran straight towards the direction of the enemy forces and turned the corner into a small alleyway.