V111
Braven
Ten thousand marchmen with five thousand archers will march from here with me to meet the invaders, while Damai will take the same route through the east, with his ten thousand marchmen and ten thousand archers. We show them how it should be done. My spies tell me that Lord Camlash has massed up about his half men from the ten border camps. The men in the different forts are now massing to a total of twenty thousand with more to come in the open plains next to the border. I took Damai out of this column as he is facing his own men of previous command. Instead on Damai’s trail , he will facing be the Praetorian Guards; a buildup of currently now twenty five thousand men. But there are surprised in places; an event of careful planning over the last two completed seasons.
The current camp in River Ends is larger than before, with a strong commander, Lieutenant Signar. There is ten thousand men posted there now with its three layers of wall surrounding the camp. Of the ten thousand men; one third are archers with two hundred officers. Lieutenant Signar will be a a formidable foe when we clashed. He is advised by Lieutenant Canon; son of a council adviser and close associate of the Lord Camlash. Lieutenant Canon has his own squad of guards and reports to his father directly.
It was dawn when I looked across the cleared out land from my treeline to the outer wall of the camp. Its a galloping length of two hundred hoofs and a jump of three man’s height. They sure can built good walls now. I signaled to my men to marched out in formation of five rows each. Each and every one of my men are carrying swords and shields plus their pikes or spears. They also wear the colors of the Outsiders which is red to signify passion and determination. The colors are scaffs which are tied to their neck and this is the new Outsiders. No more animal skins but metal amour chest plates and legs paddings to counter any arrows or swords. But one thing which I cannot stopped them from applying is the dark streaks on their faces to make them look more fierce.
The alarm was raised in the camp and sentries can be seen to be banging the drums to wake up their friends. Soon the wall was lined with men armed with pikes an spears too. Just as we marched further up another fifty paces, the main door of the camp was open to exit a squad of soldiers accompanied by two officers.
Signar
I was there on my horse with the reluctant Lieutenant Canon and his squad. I find myself riding ahead of him and stopped my horse to look back;
‘ Lieutenant Canon, can you ride to my pace? You are a disgrace to the uniform.’ Lieutenant Canon took insult and rode faster while his squad did likewise. Soon we were at the midway point of the open field, and I see before was a long stretch of warriors with murderous intents. I moved my right hand to the battle axe attached to the saddle, and caress the faithful weapon of mine. Lieutenant Canon at my side was withdrawing his command sword, and placing it in front of his saddle.
‘You not giving that to them, I hope.’ My adviser and co-command officer gave me his rude stare and said; ‘no, I intend to use it on their leader.’
I liked fine words that comes from these officers, ut when fine time to fight, they are barking commands at the back of the column. I looked to see the leader of the Outsiders riding toward us. I can see he is the leader from his amour dressing. He has one is a red cape and hold a long staff with the pennant of the Outsiders on it; the roaring Lion on the shield stitched on a red cloth; the same color of the cape and also the scaff worn by his men.
‘I bid you welcome, Braven, leader of the Outsiders. You come with many of your men, I think its too early for the harvest festivals not due for another moon.’
‘How can you salute the savage.....’ My own Lieutenant voice was shorten with a slap across his face by me. The same hand which slapped him, held down his sword hand from raising his sword. ‘Lieutenant, your manners are unbecoming of an officer in a meeting. You may keep quiet or ride back.’
‘Commander Signar,’ he accord me that as he knows who is in command and he seen me before in the old days. ‘I believe you know the terms and do your men accepts it?’
‘We all do, except I forget to ask the Lieutenant here. Do you want to fight, Lieutenant?’ I looked back at the enraged man whom I addressed still by his rank. ‘Of course, I do. Lieutenant Signar is relieved of his command and my men will fight you savages.’
I liked these young officers, they are so predictable. I turned my horse and ride to be beside the Leader of the Outsider. I reach for my pouch on the saddle to removed the red scaff. I then tied it to my neck and tucked in the loose ends inside the amour. ‘Good to hold those sweats from going down my back.’
‘Lieutenant Signar, are you mad. Do you joined them to fight your own people?’
My reply was short; ‘aye and they joined me too.’ I pointed at the men on the walls which has all worn their colors of red now. Lieutenant Canon was getting worried and his horse starts to fret with uneasiness; animals can sensed when their master are uneasy or worried. ‘You may want to ride back to the next camp or the city to report this. We are coming to get your arse off those council’s seats.’
I do not know which direction the Lieutenant and his squad went, but they sure can ride fast when they need to. I turned to my new commander and said, ‘welcome back, Praetorian Genus.’
He thanked me but reminded me that Genus died a long time ago, and only Braven rides here today.
That morning, fifteen thousand men rode across the border but twenty five thousand rode on to the next camp.
Damai
I know the Praetorian is massing his troops at the plains of Cali on the eastern borders. He is training them and recruiting more of any volunteers. He started off with ten thousand of his own men and soon others pour in from all over the place. His commander, Prime Leader Rimua soon send wagons of supplies and gold for him to armed the new recruits. This has been going for the last three months; scores of men was there as the pay was good and so was the food.
Marius knows how to take care of his men welfare when he is not in his bad moods. Some of these men are good to be promoted to become junior officers as they come from other lords’ armies before. Soon the number build up to the twenty thousand as he requested. From my spies, I know that Marius declined the help of the other border army as he trusts not them and wants this victory be his alone. He also requested for one more moon cycle to form his column with good training and arms.
That same morning, we formed two columns with rows of five and marched out from the forest onto the plain. The second column was halted to move further east and await my command. Its intimidating to wake up from your tents to see the column of twenty thousand men marching towards you. Marius immediately sounded the alarm, and his men formed into columns as per training. Marius likes to form the pincer move, where he puts his own division of ten thousand men in the middle and the balance five thousand each on the right and left sides. He thinks that will break any formation coming at him and he outflank them. So I counter my formation to grouped in and form a rectangular formation, shaping it like a wedge to hit his men in the middle as they are the better trained ones. For some reason, Marius read my strategy and moved his pincers further out so they have more rooms to move.
I signaled the march forward with my marchmen towards the solid middle section as my archers who formed the rear starts to spread out in a circular move, forming a concave formation towards the middle section of the enemy. My rectangle of marchmen began to spread into an inverted rectangle with the broader side facing Marius center mass. For some reason, the two pincers of Marius soldiers retreated further away to the sides to allowed my men to come in. Marius send out his messengers but they never made it across to the pincers section as they were shot down by well placed archers. That was the signal for my archers of nearly five thousand arrows to sailed in like raindrops on the middle section. After three volleys of these arrows, my marchmen was soon charging at the remaining Praetorian section. We must had decimated about one third of the section before we attacked with the marchmen. I fought my way to the rear of the section to faced Marius, who is wounded in the chest and still holding onto his sword, and protected by a handful of his men. I halted the attack and walked up the survivors.
‘Praetorian Marius, do you yield or shall we continue?’ Marius looked at me with his angry stare and asked for released of his men including the wounded should he surrender. I agreed to his terms and he threw his sword down. I know Marius is a good soldier but an arrogant one; but beneath all of it, he care for his men. So the battle ends today, with victory by deceit.
‘Before you walk away, General. May I know your name, and when did my men defect over?’ I looked at the proud officer and soon replied.
‘I am called Damai, ex-general of Lord Camlash, now with the Outsiders. I was accused of crimes which I did not commit. And your men are actually the the oppressed people of this land who now supports our war against the Lords’. Praetorian Marius, I thanked you for training them, but they fight not you but your master who oppressed them all these years.’
‘Damai, you are still a traitor to your Lord. And you tricked me. I will see you hanged.’ I dislike the officers who knows no logic and only blind obedience. I told the men to handle the wounded and as for the officer, Marius; he is to be under care too. Once they are treated, they will be allowed to travel back on their own pace. We will marched on to our next target.
I now have an additional eight thousand marchmen, trained by the Praetorian Guards for over two moons.
Commander Signar
This next border camp has a division of Praetorian here; numbering about five thousand of them ,among the total of ten thousand in the camp. The men here are not all for the Outsiders, only a section so we had to be careful how we do this attack. The Praetorian are in the inner Camp areas while the army occupies the outside perimeter, as in the case of any attack its the army who will be in the forefront. Of course this makes the two sides very unfriendly and fights do occurred between them.
I marched in with a hundred of my men on the wagons bearing supplies for the army. As we were unloading the supplies, I was asked by the commander why and where this supply came from. I told him, there was excess in my camp and so I decided to send some over. Our supplies includes barrels of wines and food, in which the Praetorian got to know of demanded we also sent it over to the Inner Camp. While they were having their treat, during the night a series of small group of my men came riding in. Most of the army men were drunk or fast asleep at their tents, so were the sentries. The men also also moved into the Inner Camp and stationed themselves around the sleeping Praetorian Guards. These forest herbs work well and we managed to subdue the ones which was not affected by it.
At dawn break, we had control over the border camp with three thousand of my men including the handful of those who was implanted earlier. Soon the Praetorians were escorted out unarmed to the outside the walls, and kept there as prisoners. As for the army units, I had a chat with them on their works and loyalty. I offered them the chance to re-occupy back their land and kicked out the Praetorian. And also the Lords’. A majority agreed and the ones who did not was placed with the Praetorian. That soon changed their mind and more came over as volunteers before sundown.
The remaining Praetorian Guards was sent marching back to their original base without their weapons and amour. It was the only decision which we can make as we do not want to wage war if need against our own people, even though they served the Praetorian.
But what amaze me was the Lieutenant Canon did not come here for help. It looks like he must had rode all the way back to the city after all. Probably feels safe with his father at his side.
Braven
Our force grew to nearly forty thousand strong and its time to fight now. My targets are the border camp in our track. As Damai come from the east, I moved west from here. Soon we accomplished our first objective with the capture of five of the ten outpost camps along the route. We did not have to fight with all of them as some were deserted or left with a small squad to manned it. The Lord has withdrawn his troops on advise of our strength and now is forming a second defence line, and the strength is about thirty thousand men of marchmen and one division of twenty four thousand Praetorian. But they are spread out over the length over some land including the Shon Ridge and Green Plains, while we have captured back half a days ride of border land from east to west. I have reinforced all the outposts with my men and more fortified defenses were put in. I also have more pit holes dug in and around the fort to delay lancers attacks, and stationed archers in every outpost.
The war continued as I was told another column marched against me,and my people. Lord Camlash army is led his son, Conal; while the Praetorian is led by Senior Praetorian Emric, the third horsemen of Romus. Marius was put to death on his arrival back at the city. And Emric took on the seat, but he has to prove over the coming war.
As for Lord Giantus and Micha, they are not getting involved as they have their border to take care of. Since the takeover of the other Lords cities, the spread of the border is longer and hence more is needed to control it not in men but in authority and management. Besides the Outsiders from the South and West making raids, some of the armies are getting to thinking of autonomy over certain areas. So they have their own small battles to contend with.
And we have renewed the old war again.
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