And the bad news would not stop there. MacDonald had been on a reconnaissance ride and had seen a large army approaching.
He was talking of 250.000 soldiers marching in line as far as one could see.
In front of them were two distinguished persons: one was the Achaemenid king Xšaya-ṛšā of the River Lands, with his personal body guard of 2.500 men.
And the second one was Asterion II, marching in front of a large group of armed infantry. MacDonald's estimate was that they were at a two day's march.
Neo immediately started looking for a place with a tactical advantage, since he only had thirty thousand men against the 250 thousand of the coalition. At a few kilometers ahead he found a mountain ridge with a canyon. "This is were we will meet them."
Neo summoned his marshals in smaller groups. The first four were assigned to control the canyon. "You need to close off both entrances. Then I want you to work out a system like from a butter churn where you let controllable groups enter, then close the entrance, kill the enemy from both sides and open the canyon again.
Next he had to wait some time for Traum to fill him in on the plan.
Finally he arrived, which prompted Neo the remark: "Ha, there you are....finally."
He then took him apart: "I want your horses to wait up here. Do not intervene in the battles. You will trample our men, and you will be vulnerable. At a given moment the enemy will panic over their losses and run. That is when you come in. You chase the fleeing Achaemenides and kill as much of them as possible." "OK, I will hold my men, but don't stop us when the moment is there that I will let them loose."
Mecenas and Eau d'Auger were assigned to the center of the canyon and send their troops to whatever side needed them.
de Dieu and Lesire would take their troops to both tops of the canyon preventing enemy troops from attacking Neo's army from above.