The major sat there and looked at the two men, one he saw as a stubborn old guard, while the khan was himself work of barbarian art as he listened to his interpreter. Who would leave out things because as well to make sure a fight of any kind didn't break out between his commander and the others in the tent as so far the tensions seemed a bit high. 

"We have little idea of what is on the other side of that hill marching towards us, we have around ten thousand men against however many he brought up from the motherland herself plus the remainder of his army from when I was with him destroying the countryside and any city in the khans land. But, as the khan said we need to be prepared to evolve our defense of this pass quickly because we are already hard-pressed for time. I am going to go through with my plan of making whatever defenses I can to get a hold over our enemy's battery, and bombard whatever I can with my howitzer from behind the hill."

He stood and looked at the exit of the tent, "Khan, if would... could you send enough soldiers with my cannons, if possible we can try buying my train of misfit patriots time with a trick. I will send my cannon trains with a cart's wheel attached to act as a cannon if you wish to take enough cavalry you think will be necessary to shift his entire line for a short time while we shovel enough dirt to build on the face of the hill we are behind." 

He placed his finger on the ridgeline of the map, "if we dig up dirt, and have loose dirt behind the face of the hill out of sight, and get maybe ten minutes we can have a nice mount on the other side that we can dig behind even while being fired upon, we have maybe a five or ten-foot advantage over them in height. If they don't have howitzers ready, then we should be fine... if they do, defenses won't matter at all." He dragged his line a few feet from where his finger was, "I'll set my cannons here," his thumb went behind the ridge, "and my howitzer here, the other engineers I remember were fucking idiots and will wonder where our fourth cannon is if they didn't do inventory correctly. But, my train can have some mounts for cannons built in an hour or two, they are laborers so they are used to this kind of work. Redoubts might be hard for us with such little time, but I was just going to say small mounds to place men behind to protect them from some shot, but mainly from artillery. " 

He looked at the Duke, then the Khan, "Khan I would say only go for their artillery if they have howitzers or mortars, rockets maybe... Those we can't hide from, cannons we can get blasted by all day, we aren't in a fortress or open ground. But your plan to surround them might work, I know this may be hard for you but do not slaughter them outright. Let them retreat, wound them... and then pull back quickly with the Duke's men. If their first line returns broken and shattered, it might either throw the Emporer into a mad frenzy or make him rethink his ways and hold off for an attack until someone else comes to even the playing field with us. Now what we truly have to worry about is if he brings his full might upon us, if we line our soldiers and horses shoulder to shoulder, we can span the gap in the forest. If he outnumbers us with fresh troops, we may never be given an opportunity to fight anything but head-on with small gaps that can easily be shut by a second or third line reserve. He could easily just throw cannon, and howitzer shot at us behind a wall of men."

He started walking away, but stopped and turned around with his hands out to either side of him, "How about this, instead of looking at a map and bickering like a bunch of politicians, we go to the top of the hill and start our defenses, while we stare at whatever he has... I know this might be out of touch with your ways, but there is a reason I survived fighting your armies in the past and that was knowledge, instead of going in blind... We have an opportunity here to watch him while he marches closer before the night falls, I will get my signaling flag and glass, get some of your own and meet me there in ten minutes. We will see if this is even viable at the moment."