CWE Book II Part 5

V

Braven

The last few days was a series of madness as my past caught up with me. But today, I have to contend with an advancing army from two sides. I have my plans ready and a dozen messengers are ready to move. They have their orders to deliver to the different leaders in the forest. I pray my plan well like the last one, and then I prayed that we never had to do this again. I know its a foolish wish but one I still wished for so the next generation will not have to under go this trials.

The word is out, and we are bracing for war now. I have the boats ready to dispatched the women and children to sailed to the other settlements where they can be safe. Five thousand Yellow Beards came today with their arms to help. They said many more can come if they are needed. I thanked them all and said the war is fought with the help of nature, and the sweet smell of the hot burning wild hog was what we need now; eat before we fight. I told General Damai to stay here at the settlement but he insist on joining in.

By dawn the next day, the settlement was short of five thousand men who went to the East led by me and another five thousand to the South led by General Damai. They are a mixture of my men and Yellow Beards, all equip with the needed tools and weapons. I can hear the women crying as many may not return this time, while many prayed we will win.

The first contact was with the army led by Camlash himself coming towards us from the south. He was heading for the same trail that the previous Column took. This time we will meet them after they moved into the deep forest. They don’t know the forest like we do and how the nature can turn it into natural disasters. The men from Camlash are used to fighting in the plains and they seldom come this far north. Here the forest is dense and thick with undergrowth, and during the hot weather, its very dry and fires are easy to start, and they do. But the problem with fire when unattended can be very dangerous. Section of forest has burned down before as it will happen today.

The column never saw the danger until they saw the smoke. Initially they thought it was our campsite so the scouts went out. These were taken care of with arrows so the column keep on marching on towards the smoke. Soon the dense smoke became too hot to handle they became confused and tried to retreat but by then we had created columns of fire everywhere, including their flanks. My men knew where to set these fire and how the winds will carry it to the army. Their experience in the forest fires handling so they know how to move in the correct directions. Then panic steps in and the column starts to move in different directions, with officers trying to control their men and also save their own life. We waited our opportunity to strike when the fire dies down. We took on the small detachments and wiped them out. For the bigger detachments, we took our archers to harass them and soon get them to retreat as we keep them on their legs. But I cannot find the Lord’s guards. Maybe he did not come in with the column. Or he is dead. Nevertheless we slowly dwindle their numbers and hopefully their morale too.

Lord Camlash

We were led in like lambs to the slaughter. If its not for my bad health, I would had been in the fire burned crisp by now. I had to stayed back with a detachment for my health to recover, and that saved me. I got the officers to regroup their men and reported back to me. We lost about five hundred men in the fire, but our wounded was about two thousand with wounds and burns. I had the chief scout executed and some senior officers who was in the front. They are gallant to saved their men, but foolish in moving them ahead without considering the danger. How can they tell me they mistaken the smoke for mist in these conditions.

In view of the attack, I decide to split the column into three detachments, with one going in after the other; with a gap of half a day in between. That is if one is trouble the others can still rush to assist in time. I let the lancers be with me for safety numbers and also the supply wagons. We are the last detachment to move forth. I saw the rumbling that was coming, so I had examples made on some men for their treason thoughts. We moved in again and I want to have a good fight, not some hidden ones.

Prime Leader Raihan

Whose idea was it to march through these lands by the east must be mad. This section of the land are marshes lands, soft on the wagon wheels and even horses; they had to be led by their handlers. I have dismounted and walked with my Seniors and guards. Its bad for my men as the amour they had also curtailed their movements. But its not so much the land which we had to endure, its the inhabitants; there are small insects which takes on our flesh, and snakes which roused from their holes can be nasty with their bites. In addition to it, i had to contend with mud pits which sink the wagons or men like a water well. I prayed we survive this march soon, as my column progress was slower than planned. I can sense the men wished for the solid ground soon.

It was then, we were harassed by the enemy who appeared out of the land or behind some trees. They target my officers and the seniors. They seemed to do good work as for every of them we took down, we lost five of ours. At this rate, I may soon lose all the officers in the column. I refused to send out my scouts as the ones which I did earlier did not come back at all. As we thought we were doing fine, I saw pots of oil thrown down by the dozens from the top of the trees; they were released by ropes attached to these makeshift platforms. When these oils hit the marsh water surface, more fire arrows was seen to land on it, lighting up the marshland. It was disastrous as the men tried to get clear of the spreading fire, but its soon engulf many of my men. This is not the kind of battle which we are used to fighting for. This is murder of the mass.

I called for the column to spread out and tried to circumvent the fire areas, but more were created and mayhem was on us when the horses trampled their way out. It also brought in the panic among the men, now with less officers. I called for them to move on and do recover as much as they can. It took us a whole day to regroup later at a point further up where the some pocket of solid lands can be found. There the officers rallied the men and soon order was in place. My loss was great; two thousand died that day, with another thousand wounded or missing. I cursed the Gods and the enemies who does this battle.

Lord Camlash

The land was harvested as expected. But we have reach them, and the war can start soon. I asked for the main camp to be set here with sentries posted around the valley and also on the hillside. Its a beautiful piece of land, with the high hills on both sides, with series of streams flowing into the valley. I may built my northern retreat here with the fresh air and cool breeze. Once the camp was set, I had the officers meet me in the main tent to strategize our next moves. From my estimation, with one week of marching we should be in very deep inland here now. Such a pity the maps which we had are not well charted on the land here. We came across rivers when there was none shown on the map and ravines when we expected rivers. Just as now, we expected peace and quiet for the discussion, the ground starts to rumbled and cup-lets of wine was shaking. Are the Gods unhappy with us or are we dreaming?

The water which hit was like a fierce rain storm except this one swept away the camp and the men. I was in the main tent when it hit us; I was swept along with my push cart. I managed to grab hold of a large tree branch and climbed up. The large tree held its ground over the water flow, while my years of building up my hand limbs saved me. I saw before me, wet fields with men and tents everywhere. I focused my stare to the hillside to see part of it was broken with the water now slowly flowing through. I be damned; I was hit by a dam of water; the same which are build and seen in my land. Why did I not think of it before in a war. No this is not war against the Outsiders; its against the Gods.

Prime Leader Raihan

We are out the marshlands now, and on solid ground of green pastures and rolling hills. As we moved up the trail, I can see the seas on my left; a picture worth a manuscript of words. But my main concern is supply of food. The trip across the marchland caused many fo my wagons to be lost and food was swept away or contaminated. The men are on half or quarter ration now, but they are not fighting among themselves yet. I lost half my experience officers, so I had to promote some new ones, but they are not familiar with the way of leadership. This war is becoming more disastrous than before. We are the forefront of any war with the Outsiders before, but its the army who do most of the fighting while we guard their flanks. We rarely ventured out to fight unless its a battlefield, but battlefields are large areas with army massed on both sides. This is not battlefield fighting, its skirmishes with hidden enemies and nature assisted disaster.

The first night was without any harassment, but the next morning we were treated to a sight which we did not believe. There on the horizon was the Outsiders with their colors and they stand firm without any sound. I cannot believed the sentries are doing their works as I had double of them out there. The alarm was raised and the men roused from their sleep. Formations was called on and they formed squares to faced the enemy, while my lancers lined up with their horses to gallop on my command. Just as they appeared, the line of Outsiders on the horizon was gone. Not one was standing up there.

I signaled the lancer Chief to see me.

‘Send in a detachment of 200 lancers up there and there, all three directions at once.’ He did as per instruction, and the men rode off. I can see the lancers in formation of a single file rode off in the three directions; a total of 600 men on horses. They all reached the top of the hill and then over the hill. Total silence except for the wind and the sounds of impatience men. Wanting to fight. We heard some rumbling noises and then there was silence. Then we saw one lancer galloping down in a hurry. He reached the main tent where the senior officers were.

‘They are all dead, killed by the Outsiders. They hid under the grass until we were among them, and then they took us with their pikes. Some of us tried to escape, but the bowmen took them all. Its a massacre.’

I signaled for a detachment of one thousand men to march ahead with another three thousand men with some five hundred archers each; at five hundred paces behind them. A total of twelve thousand men was on the hills was marching up. The rest of the men was formed as a square around the main tent. The reports came back; they found the lancers all dead but no Outsiders was found. They seemed to have retreated into the nearby forest or hills. They also found a number of dugouts which was covered by grass held together by planks or branches.

I lost over half my lancers, and one hundred marchmen in this hills. I am getting veery upset with this war. I told my officers to split the column into two; and we will march parallel to meet the Outsiders. The column with me consist of half the marchmen fighting fit of eight thousand marchmen and one thousand archers. The same numbers along with remaining lancers the will march under my Senior Praetorian Julius, while the remainder consist of wounded and maimed will stay here to wait for our return. They will have adequate guards from the men not marching on.

We marched north now to meet the Outsiders.

Lord Camlash

I lost over three thousand men and supplies in the flood. I lost my own push cart, and now I am sitting on a wagon modified for me to sit on. That is humiliating for me, to be seen by the men in this manner, but the war goes on.

I resumed my march with the men in three columns. The first column will consist of four thousand marchmen and five hundred archers under the command of General Issac, and the middle column now under me, with eight thousand marchmen, and one thousand lancers, while the rear will be the balance of three thousand marchmen and eight hundred lancers under General Dune. The rest are the wounded will remain in the valley to recover and will be picked up on the way back. And I prayed hard we come back this way. Each column is half a day behind at marching speed.

General Dumai

We rode hard on the borrowed mounts of the lancers, some riding double for the seaside. When we had routed the lancers, we took their mounts to ride in a circular detour to avoid the marching columns. Our target was the camp where the wounded are resting. We are not doing mass murder, but we intend to capture that camp.

It was dark when we silenced the sentries and rouse up the wounded, although we were outnumbered four to one, we had the upper hand in control. I had the stripped of their amour and weapons, but we left them with the supply. Now we had one hundred mean dressed in the amour and soon rode off to joined the marching column. I left some of my people to guard them from the hillside as its easier to control them from that distance.

The one hundred men with their disguise riding hard soon caught up with the column under General Julius, newly appointed from Senior Praetorian. He is unused to the new men under him, as he is from the lancers, but he will do as requested. The one hundred men of mine slowly merged in by single or smaller numbers during the march or at camp. They tried to get close to the supply wagon and officers. When asked who are they, they just come up with statement of some other detachments and now absorbed in to this new unit. As this is common in the war, no one took notice of them.

I had ridden on to the next stage; where we had planned another surprise for them. On their trail, is a high range with many animals track to followed. But some are steep and dangerous, while some are led to dead ends. After all, the adept animals at his are mountain goats and they can leap far. From my vantage point I can see the column halting before the range. As planned volunteers will be send out to identified the trails that can be taken; its a dangerous work and only fools or spies like mine will do so. After all my spies are from this area and they k now the range well. Any unknown volunteers was removed or died in the trails due to careless stepping. This caused concern to the officers who decided to confer more on the issue. This was explained by my men, that they found trails of various lengths and can be traverse. So the column was broken into smaller detachments and send across it. Each detachment can be fifty or hundred strong and they moved in batches.

By the third day, only half the men climbed the trails and some of them did not make it. Some of the detachment find themselves trapped on the range with a dead end and missing guide. They either reversed their tracks and find alternative. But many actually got hit by loose boulders and ambush by the Outsiders. It was then General Julius was told that there is a trail not far from where they are which they can cross easily, found by the scouts. He called off the climbing and took the route, but he lost over a thousand men this three days. And a hundred missing volunteers.

But the other column found no such obstacle as they can cross over through the range with ease on a well tracked trail used by others. Its just that this trail runs along a deep ravine with steep walls of stone on both side.. Its big enough for a column of four men abreast to travel, but its tight. Prime Leader Raihan was wise to the tactics now, so he asked the column to be broken into of detachment of two hundred each. Each detachment will march through with the other to follow through some time later. Its slow but its safer and this time scouts are send over first. They came back to said the trail will take about a quarter day to clear by marching speed. So be it, I send off the detachment in sequence. The first two thousand went in and through, with another eight hundred inside the ravine, when it happened.

The eight hundred was trapped by the falling boulders while both entrance was also blocked.The ones at the other end was faced with a force twice their numbers and defeated in time. It took the Prime Leader a day to clear the boulder to free his men and reached the other side. This time he was allowed through with no more attacks but he lost time and men.

I looked at my odds and smiled; a total of over four thousand men taken of. Raihan will have a tough fight ahead.

Braven

I had let nature take on the enemy, now its my turn to do so. We planned it at the river crossing. At this time of the year as the snow capped mountains melt their ice, the rivers become torrents of strong currents. There are few long wooden bridges which you can crossed over, and we led them to one. It was the constant harassment which we placed on the forward column to follow us. Soon we had them at where we want them to be.

The first column went through untouched by any of my men. Once they cleared the long bridge, we got them to move more inland. I saw Lord Camlash in the second column, following suit in a hurry to catch my men who are harassing the first column. It was soon dark and his rear column has yet to catch up. So no we have two columns across the river and one before it. All we need not is to remove the bridge but we decided to do it when they are on the bridge.

As soon as dawn, my men was at their position by the bridge with the working bulls and cows on the leash to the lashing on the pillars for the bridge. Due to the on-crossing of both columns, the bridge itself is undergoing a lot of stress on its structure. On my signal the bridge pillars were pulled out of their foundations, partially loosen by my men earlier.

The bridge with its occupants of two hundred lancers and one general was swept into the currents. Horses and men were seen struggling in the river, but the lucky ones are the ones who was on the side of the riverbanks. The remaining column on the rear saw the commotion rushed forward to assist the fallen lancers.

It was then my full force of five thousand warriors charged at them. We got them by surprise and they did not have any capable officers to lead them. It was an intense fight between both sides who is tired from the marching and running but we outnumbered them five to three. It was over in a short time, and we took their colors. We lost over a thousand men with as many wounded, but we won the battle.  We stood there to mock the other column who tried to help their friends, but the river prevent them from crossing. Just as we appeared, we disappear back into the tree lines.

Soon we will meet each other on a close combat.