Gaileo had lost a bit of his steam after his disappointing outcome with Ma Chong, but he had regained a bit of his bravado by the time that Great General Tenjin and his men had made their way into the city.
"What do you think of my victory? We won with only 15,000 men while you were afraid to attack them with 55,000." Gaileo said with a self satisfied grin.
"Hohoho, were we afraid to attack? I don't seem to recall that." Tenjin said wistfully as he twirled his mustache. "So, how many?" The Great General said as he took a more serious tone.
"How many what?" Gaileo asked with a puzzled expression.
"How many men of your 15,000 did you lose during this battle?" Tenjin asked.
"About 7,000." Gaileo reluctantly replied.
"I see, and what happened to Ma Chong?"
"I executed him."
"That's all well and good, but where is his body?"
"Well… some prisoners escaped and took his body with them."
"Ah, a convenient bout of incompetence." Tenjin said as he started twirling his mustache again. "Hohoho, so let me get this straight. First, you ruined one of the 4 Great Walls of the continent. Then you charged a bunch of peasant soldiers and when you met some real warriors you lost almost half your men. And to top it off you managed to lose the thing the Imperial court wanted the most, the commander of the rebellion himself. Dead or alive we were supposed to bring him back to the capital. Now after all of that, you were expecting what? Me to pat you on the back and say good job? Hohoho! You really are quite amusing sometimes young lord."
Gaileo was quite embarrassed by Great General Tenjin's downplaying of his accomplishments, and his embarrassment quickly turned into anger.
"I conquered the city, so what does the rest of it even matter?"
"Please don't ask such silly questions young lord. Don't you think that if I wanted to conquer this city through brute force I would have done so from the very beginning?" Gaileo silently pondered the Great General's words as Tenjin continued speaking. "I wanted to maintain a siege around the city. Most of the rebels were just peasants they would likely have just surrendered after seeing our mighty army surrounding their city day after day. In the end we'd just have to fight the roughly 20,000 professional soldiers that Ma Chong brought. The casualties would have been significantly lower on both sides, and the wall would still be intact."
"You better watch your mouth old man! Don't think you can talk down to me like I'm a child!" Gaileo shouted as he brandished his spear and his anger reached its boiling point.
"Hohoho! It seems you've lost your temper again! Now why don't you just put that down before you get yourself hurt?" Tenjin said as he smiled and casually drew his sword.
"You think I'm scared of that flimsy paper thin sword?" Gaileo said as his bloodlust started to rise.
"Hohoho, flimsy? Yes you may have a point." Tenjin said as he wiggled his sword as if it was made of paper. Then, in a flash he ripped through his Gaileo's shoulder with a swing of his sword that slashed like a whip. "Hohoho, though, from here it's your armor that seems to be paper thin."
Gaileo dropped to the ground as his wound incapacitated him. Tenjin just chuckled and twirled his mustache.
"Great General Tenjin! He may be a prince but he just made an attempt on your life. This is a very serious issue. Since he's the Emperor's son I'd assume that execution is out of the question but a court martial at least-" His officer said but Tenjin's laughter cut him off.
"If I called a court martial for the young lord every time he lost his temper and took a swing at me he'd have been kicked out 13 years ago when he first joined my army." Tenjin said as he laughed the incident off. "Someone tend to the young lord's wounds. We need to start making our way back to the capital."
The Tenjin Army proceeded to make its way back to the Imperial capital, Zhenqi, where the Imperial Court was awaiting the news of their battle at Gangwon. Along with the court, The Arikasian Emperor would be in attendance as well. In other words, Gaileo's "father" would be awaiting him at the Imperial Palace.