A couple of weeks later, in a private room on the second floor of the academy.

"In the year 3298 of the Ashvahlen calendar, the Indolian empire sent out a fifty thousand strong army to conquer the Ambiox empire. General Odillion of the Ambiox kingdom quickly gathered his two thousand strong army and went to the three kilometer long Tinan bridge, sending out word that any civilian who would join his ranks would be given a bow and would be heavily rewarded for doing so. His plan was to stall the fifty thousand strong Indolian troops until support arrived." Nelly's sweet voice rang through the room and Noland and Jasmine listened to her with rapt attention. Nelly had a gift as an orator and was a diligent student. Nolan on the other hand was lazy and always made his sister narrate whatever they were learning at that point.

Currently, Nelly was narrating the legendary battle of the Tinan bridge, one of the most famous battles in the Ambiox kingdom. Even outside of the kingdom this battle was widely known. This battle dated back to before the Ambiox kingdom became the Ambiox empire and it was by many viewed as the pivotal point in the history of the empire.

"Unexpectedly, the citizens were more than eager to join the army for this battle and reports state that more than 8000 civilians heeded the call. Most of the civilians ended up bringing their own longbows. This could be due to the popularity of archery in the Ambiox kingdom at the time, which was most likely a result of the successful defense by civilian bowmen in both the Vigil and Serva cities in the years 3253 and 3254 respectively."

"The Indolian troops arrived on the third of July, a day after General Odillion. Their troops consisted out of twenty five thousand infantry troops, twenty thousand archers and five thousand cavalry. As per usual, the Indolians infantry consisted solely out of their famed scimitar and buckler wielding troops and their archers only carried flexible short bows. A combination which had granted them many victories on the battlefields over the years. The cavalry were similarly outfitted with a scimitar and a buckler."

"With the buckler only offering a limiter amount of defense, the Indolians always suffered massive losses before a melee broke out. However, the buckler's small size and low weight meant that their troops were more agile and it was this agility that became their biggest weapon during the melee."

"As for the flexible short bows, their low weight similarly allowed the archers the ability to move around on the battle field. While their range was even shorter than the average short bow, the increased mobility allowed them to continuously harass and rain down death on their enemies."

"With their high numbers as well as with their well known battle strength, the Indolian's victory was thought to be a certainty. However General Odillion still brought his men and halted the Indolian's advance. He stationed half his troops at the end of the bridge in a v shaped formation along with four thousand of the peasant longbow men. The rest of the troops were spread out along the nearby riverbanks."

"A regiment of the Indolian's famed infantry equipped with a buckler and scimitar along with half a regiment of their short bow men were sent out as a first probing attack. Once the Indolian infantry entered the range of the long bow men, they were instantly greeted with volley upon volley of arrows."

"Due to heavily being out ranged, the Indolian archers found themselves being absolutely slaughtered before they were able to even fire a single arrow. Without any support from their archers, the infantry suffered major casualties before even entering the melee."

"Blindly believing in their own strength and that they would crush the enemy upon entering the melee, the Indolian commanders did not order a retreat and instead commanded their troops to push forward. With a rain of arrows ceaselessly bringing death from above, none of the Indolian troops reached the other side of the bridge unharmed, which made them easy pickings for the kingdom's infantry."

"Moreover with the troops being in a v shape formation in front of the bridge and only twenty men being able to run across the bridge side by side, a bottleneck was soon created. Only after half an hour of their men being slaughtered did the Indolian commanders start to realize their foolishness. They ordered a hasty retreat, which resulted in many more of their troops being shot in the back or worse, trampled by their fellow countrymen."

"It was only after they returned to the other side of the bridge that the Indolians realized how bad the situation had been. More than half of their infantry had died, along with about a third of their archers."

"Seeing their troops return in a sorry state, morale dwindled among the Indolian troops. The ruthless general of the Indolian troops decided that he were to raise morale by ruthlessly massacring the defeated troops in front of his entire army. This decision however, caused his own army to revolt and it was the general that ended up being mercilessly slaughtered in front of the entire army."

"With heavy casualties, low morale and a dead general, the Indolian commanders saw no other option than to retreat. After clearing the bridge and river of bodies, the total of dead Indolians numbered over eight thousand while the dead of the Ambiox empire's troops did not even number over two hundred."

Nelly let out a long sigh as she put down her book and stopped speaking. After drinking a few mouthfuls of water she sat down on the couch next to Jasmine and slumped back.

Nolan and Jasmine both sat there and let the story sink in.

"So there will be a question about this battle on the exam?" Jasmine asked after a while.

"It is basically guaranteed! It is like, THE textbook example for why one should try to drag their opponent into a bottleneck battle and why one should avoid being drawn into a bottleneck at all costs! On top of that there are so many questionable decisions made by the Indolian general that there simply is no end of things you can learn from the battle."

"Just think about it, what would have happened if the Indolians had let their cavalry advance by themselves? They would have arrived long before general Odillion's troops would have. Without the bottle neck, general Odillion's troops would have lost."

"Plus, it is like a pivotal fight in the history of the kingdom. If this battle had been lost, the whole kingdom might have been lost! Then we would not have been citizens of the Ambiox empire but citizens of the Indolian empire. Moreover, after this victory we figured out how to deal with their troops. Afterwards, we were easily able to crush the Indolian empire in the consequent battles, which resulted in our kingdom conquering every last bit of their empire. Only after we took over all of their territory did our Ambiox kingdom become the Ambiox empire..."

"There is a whole book dedicated to analyzing everything about this battle. While junior students will only have to answer superficial questions, the senior students, junior apprentices, etc I spoke to all said that the questions regarding this battle became increasingly harder. They all recommended me to do a light reading of the analysis as it would prove to be very helpful for the exam."

"Right, right, so you will read the analysis for us next?" Nolan lazily remarked, slumping back even more, only the back of his head still leaning against the back of the couch. 

Nelly rolled her eyes and sighed. She could not really say no to her twin brother, but she never really liked his laziness. Nolan was far, far smarter than her, yet all he cared for was being lazy. If things took effort he just would not do them. Hell, he would not even have bothered to pass the exam if it were not for their father's stern warning that Nolan would be sent to the army if he did not pass. 

"I think I will read the analysis on my own." Jasmine muttered. "But I would like to discuss it with the two of you another time!"

"Oh, okay..." Nelly started. "Well, just let either of us know when you are done with the analysis!"

"Will do!" Jasmine hopped of the couch and ran out of the room. 

--

Meanwhile Rickert was reading a report in his study. Finishing the report he crumbled the paper and slammed his fist on the table. "Damnit! Guards!"

The door to his study opened and the captain of the guards walked inside. "Yes sir?"

"Prepare the fifth legion's horse archers and berserker's. We will march out at dawn!" Rickert yelled, his voice thick with fury.

Noticing that it was not a good time to ask questions, the captain of the guard saluted and yelled. "YES SIR!"

"Dismissed!" Rickert quickly replied. 

After the guard left, Rickert walked to the small war table in his study and gazed at the map. "Liana... why would they attack Liana of all places?"