Raising Steam

by Peter Rhodan

  Parties of men out foraging had been shot up every day causing the pace of the army to be reduced from slow to a mere crawl. The action so far had only cost him two of his small force although six more were wounded to varying degrees. Others had done less well. Cryllyn had lost maybe twenty of his cavalrymen and taken an arrow in the arm himself. Fortunately, it was a simple clean wound, but it still hampered him a good deal. Two of Cluen’s sub chiefs were dead and several other important men wounded. Total losses were probably no more than a few hundred but the effect on the army’s morale was significant. Several groups of cavalry had charged after harassing Roman cavalry forces and simply not returned at all.

  No one could remember a Roman force harassing people the way this one had. And they were doing it in tribe’s own territory too. The Romans had not had it all their own way, losing several men themselves but the anger, chaos and, if truth be told, the doubts that were filling the heads of the ordinary tribesmen was a cause for concern, or at least so his companion Coeda whispered to him. Coeda had been in his father’s service since both Coeda and his father had been young men. Corotoc had always admired the older man and on this march had finally stopped treating Corotoc like a he was still ten years old.

  Coeda had been assigned by Corotoc’s father to teach the young Prince the use of arms and how to ride a horse. He was nearly as tall as Corotoc although he did not have the Prince’s fair hair and could be generously described as solidly built, especially now as he approached middle age. For all that he was an excellent teacher and Corotoc was pleasantly surprised that Coeda was acting more as an adviser than instructor to the young Votandi Prince on this campaign.

  Whatever doubts Coeda may have had about this adventure he kept to himself, instead proving invaluable in organising the small force Corotoc had led west. Corotoc was in no doubt about his father’s strategy either. If the raid went well then some of the glory would be reflected onto the next king of the Votandi who had accompanied Cluen in his grand raid. If it went badly King Owain could deny any direct involvement and dismiss his son’s actions as those of a young hothead going against his father’s wishes, the sheer smallness of the force Corotoc had arrived with being a clear sign of the prince’s unofficial status. Canny man his father, he thought to himself as he studied the Roman position. Corotoc had gone from a child’s hero worship to having a careful appreciation of his father’s many strategies to reach the ends his father desired and how he could vary or even completely change tracks at a moment’s notice.

  The men were tired and hungry, but not as hungry as most of the rest of army due to the dried rations Coeda had made them all carry from their own lands. The rest of the army was less well fed than the Votandi warriors because of the constant harassment of foraging parties by the Romans which had made the gathering of supplies difficult. The army was not actually starving but it was not happy either. Everyone was short of sleep from the night attacks, the cavalry were down to less than three hundred effectives and horses were becoming hard to come by.

  Corotoc was not experienced at fighting the Romans, he had been but a babe when the last great raid had gone south, which his father had not participated in, but none of the senior tribal leaders around Cluen could remember Romans engaging in this sort of harassment till after their army had inflicted a defeat on the invading tribesmen. Then their cavalry would harass the retiring rabble, but even then, things like these night attacks were totally new to their experience. It had turned what should have been a confident march south into a long tedious crawl no one was enjoying.

  What it said about the new Roman leadership, particularly this Arturo Sandus fellow, was manyfold. Coeda had pointed out the attacks had started on the second day of the march south. Which meant the Romans had deployed a significant cavalry force deep within Selgovae territory without anyone realising. Worrisome. On top of that they had either developed some way of very fast message travel to allow for the watchers to start attacking the next day or the local commander had been given orders to attack without waiting for orders. This implied a confidence in the local commander that was itself important information.

  The cavalry attacks had been light for the first two days but by third day there had to have been several hundred Roman cavalry involved the harassment. This rapid escalation sent its own message of how fast the Romans could react. The fact that the Roman commander would engage in hostile action before the Selgovae even reached Roman lands implied either a knowledge of King Cluen’s plans or willingness to fight regardless. The normal Roman response was to wait till the barbarians crossed the frontier, retire to their fortifications and then harass the barbarians when the retired back over the border. Sometimes followed by a punitive expedition when Roman reinforcements arrived, either from the south or from the continent.

  Arturo Sandus clearly had a different understanding of how to wage war because the damned Roman had surprised everyone by coming north to meet the invaders instead of cowering behind his walls like he was supposed to. And he had clearly brought his whole army north, or at least the whole of the available northern force under this new Dux. Which meant they had known the Selgovae were coming early enough to have been able to call up the troops from down the coast in time to march north of the Wall to this spot before the Selgovae could reach here. Not that the tribal army had been moving fast, in fact it had been dismally slow, but even so the fact that the Romans could react so quickly and come north to meet them without anyone knowing was quite an achievement. And not a little off-putting. Even Coeda was impressed!

  He sat on his horse on the far left of the Selgovae army and studied the Roman position. The left of the Roman line, as he looked at it, rested on a rugged, rocky outcrop that ran for a thousand paces or more away to the east before merging into rising ground. It was covered in scrub and trees and would be difficult to get over quickly. To the right they had a narrow gorge where the stream that the Selgovae had been marching south alongside cut through the rise the Romans were sitting on. It was a good position in the sense that it prevented the Selgovae from using their advantage in numbers to simply flow around the flank of the small Roman force. It would be too difficult to try and put large forces through the rough ground in front of him and while they could try and flank the Romans by crossing the stream further back where it was shallower, the Romans would see and no doubt counter them move or retire.

  He had tried to do a count of the Romans but it was difficult at this distance while looking into the sun. Was it chance that this rise they were on faced rather more east west than north south so that the rising sun was behind the Romans and shining in the in the eyes of the Selgovae? He guessed they had maybe a thousand infantry, possibly a little more, which was, well more than had been estimated they could field, but it should not be enough to make a difference. There was no sign of the damn Roman cavalry except for a couple of fellows up on the rocky ridge about two hundred paces along from the rough ground ended and the Roman line began.

  The Roman infantry where maybe a hundred paces or more down from the top of the rising ground which surprised Corotoc as he felt the whole point of being on a rise like that was to wear the enemy out slogging uphill to reach you so the further back you were the better. Behind the Roman line was a group of mounted officers in the centre with two smaller groups that were each roughly centred behind the left and right wings. Corotoc could see large flags being carried by men in each of the command groups, much bigger than the ones the Romans normally carried and unlike those, which were fixed to face forward, these appeared to stream away from the tall poles in the light breeze.

  There was something about this well ordered formation that sent a chill down his spine. His father had warned him that a real Roman army was not something to face lightly but the troops the Dux had left were supposed to be merely Limitani. These did not look like part time soldier farmers and border guards to Corotoc. They appeared to have big solid shields resting on long spears thrust into the ground, which w
as a clever way of keeping the men’s arms fresh and presumably they had the metal crossbows everyone had heard about. At least the rain of the last two days had stopped and the sun beamed down on the field of battle. Still the slope was going to be soft underfoot when the Selgovae charged.

  He turned to Coeda alongside him. “Well, what do you think old friend?”

  Coeda grimaced and spat in the other direction. “These look to be real Romans my Prince, despite their strange formation.”

  Corotoc kept his eyes on the Romans. “Strange formation?”

  “Aye, my Prince. They should be six or eight ranks deep to face the Selgovae charge. Even with the tribesmen charging uphill the warriors will simply punch through such a shallow formation.” He paused and continued. “I can see why they are formed up only two deep. The position is too wide for anything deeper with only that many men, even though it is an excellent defensive position. But whoever commands up there must realise the Selgovae are going to roll right over that Roman line.” He scratched his head looking puzzled.

  The Prince continued to study the Romans. “Perhaps they know something we don’t?” He shook his head. “They are apparently armed with some new bow weapon that is more effective than a normal bow. If the stories are to be believed.”

  Coeda frowned. “Yes, I’ve heard the stories too but even if they were twice as effective as normal bows we will probably still win, just from sheer numbers, but if they fight as well as they look it is going to be messy.”

  “True. That is my take on it as well. You have more experience than me. Why are they lined up so far in front of the crest? I would have thought the further back the better.”

  Coeda scratched his ear. “Aye lord. That be true. I have been puzzling over it myself. However, if you look to this end of the line can you see the mound behind their line? It has artillery on it.”

  Corotoc looked where his man pointed and now that it had been brought to his attention he could see a raised mound with men and maybe five or six large objects set up on the flat area on the top. He peered hard at the machines as it was the first time he had seen the Roman ballista but at this distance he could not make out much.

  “You know sir, if we was to work our way through the rocky ground we could come out behind their line and take those artillery in the rear.” Coeda suggested in a dead pan voice, his blank expression merely emphasising his effort in obviously keeping any excitement out of his tone.

  Corotoc and his small force had been placed way over on the far left because as a prince of the Votandi he could not really take orders from anyone other than Cluen. At the same time the tribal sub-chiefs of the Selgovae would not take orders from a ‘foreign’ prince so he could not be put in charge of any Selgovae troops. By rights he should have been in the centre of the army like Cryllyn and his Damnoni but Coeda had quietly suggested that as their force was so small they should be on one flank or the other so they would not get swallowed in the masses of tribesmen in the centre. He had left unsaid the fact that being on a flank meant they could retreat much more easily if things went wrong.

  So Corotoc considered his liegeman’s suggestion while the long horns blared and the Selgovae tribesmen psyched themselves up to charge the Romans. A succession of warriors ran forward and launched loud insulting tirades at the Roman forces arrayed in front of them. Most consisting of a long list of ancestors, each of whose main claim to fame appeared to be the killing of a Roman and then numerous crude and often physically impossible acts they would inflict on the Romans arrayed in front of them after they were defeated.

  After the third one did this there was some sort of stir in the Roman ranks and a small number of them stalked forward from their fellows and took up kneeling positions somewhat in front of the army. The next tribal warrior to run forward and begin his tirade was met by several arrows fired from the crossbows these men carried and the fellow collapsed having been hit by at least two arrows in the chest.

  The whole army raised a shout at this impious act and surged forward. The spontaneous action become a general one as the horns blared and the sub-chiefs urged their men on. Corotoc looked at Coeda who shrugged. There had supposed to have been a speech by Cluen before the army charged but hey, these things happen. He signalled his remaining mounted men to dismount and they told off a couple of junior fellows to hold the horses while the rest of his little army moved forward on the left flank of the Selgovae host at the edge of the heather and stunted tree covered rocky ground.

  Being on foot limited his visibility and the deafening roar the thousands of Selgovae warriors bellowing as they charged made speech almost impossible as well. They had gone barely a hundred paces when they heard the screams of wounded men over the tumult. Coeda raised an eyebrow at Corotoc in surprise but they continued forward. Then there were more screams of pain and they began passing over dead and wounded men with arrows sticking out of them.

  The roar of the charging Selgovae began to quieten Corotoc could now clearly discern the yells of encouragement from the nearest sub-chiefs. He also heard the shouted Latin command to fire and suddenly a storm of arrows flew around them. Several of his men went down but even more of the Selgovae warriors they were alongside. Being right at the edge of the line made them less of a target apparently. Glancing at Coeda who nodded, apparently reading his mind, he led his troops into the rougher ground the rose to the left. Their progress slowed but he could soon see over the heads of the nearby warriors.

  The whole army was charging forward and was less than hundred paces from the Roman line which was still surprising only two ranks deep. And then the whole front of the charging warriors disappeared into the ground. The men behind tried to stop but the pressure from further back pushed them forward into the hole as well. Corotoc could feel the line shudder and then another volley of Roman arrows sliced into the troops trying not to get pushed into the ditch killing hundreds at such a close range and causing their bodies to fall into the ditch on top of those already in there scrambling to get out.

  The carnage was tremendous. The entire mass of charging warriors had been stopped dead in it’s tracks in a moment although as he got a bit higher he could see a couple of points where the Romans had left gaps in the ditch through which the tribesmen were flowing forward despite the casualties. Then they ran into another ditch barely thirty paces in front of the Roman troops and the advance was effectively stopped completely. At that range the Romans could barely miss!

  The Romans kept up their steady volley after volley. Now he was closer he could see they were not only formed up in two ranks but their firing was staggered so that each rank fired a volley in turn then reloaded while the other rank took aim, fired and began reloading in their turn, by which time the first rank was ready again. The rate of fire was not all that fast really, certainly not as fast as ordinary bowmen could shoot, that was for sure. There were two things he immediately became aware of though. First, the fire was steady and aimed. The Selgovae were losing warriors hand over fist as they tried to get past the ditches. Secondly the arrows struck with extreme force. At close range they could punch through a shield and hit the man behind!

  Corotoc and his men struggled up through the rough, rocky terrain and finally they crested the top of the rising ground. To their right they could see the two armies laid out. The Selgovae had fallen back a little from the ditches and were getting prepared to assault again. The ground was littered with the bodies of the tribe’s warriors, the long ditch in particular being filled with bodies. At no point had the Selgovae got closer than about thirty paces or so to the Roman line.

  While he and his men were busy looking at the battlefield they were surprised by arrows suddenly falling among them. They shuffled backwards while looking around which revealed a small number of Romans who were spread out in the scrub and attempting to deter Corotoc and his men from proceeding towards the flank of the artillery which would also allow them to get on the flank of the whole Roman line for that matter. Glancing to
his right while he took cover behind a boulder he could see beyond the ridgeline at the rear of the Roman position and to the two columns of cavalry that were formed up there each in a four rider wide formation. This was a puzzling formation till he realised this narrow column formation would allow them to flow around the ditches and through the gaps that had been left.

  Glancing to his left he caught Coeda’s eye and pointed at the Roman scouts in front of them. Coeda nodded and ordered the men to advance. Bringing his shield up to protect himself Corotoc with Coeda at his side led the Votandi warriors in a charge against the Romans. He felt an arrow thunk into his shield and sensed more than saw several of his men go down but then they were amongst the Romans and a short fight ensued. The Romans were outnumbered and although courageous were no match for Corotoc's picked band. Much to his disgust he somehow missed getting in even a single blow before all six of the Romans were down.

  Collecting themselves together they moved to the right and scrambled down into the rough ground again. The trees and shrubs were thicker here with boulders and outcrops of stone forming narrow passages that constricted movement and vision. They could not see exactly where they were in relation to the artillery position until he and Coeda came around a particularly large rocky upthrust and found they had emerged on flat ground beyond the artillery position and almost at the top of the rise.

  The Roman artillery was different to what his father and others had described. They had spoken of wooden machines powered by wound ropes but these were more like giant crossbows and were cocked by two men, one on either side, pumping up and down on levers. Also, they were firing what were obviously metal balls not stone ones nor large arrows as was the norm in the stories he had been told. Corotoc and Coeda collected their remaining warriors and advanced on the rear of the Romans but before they gone a couple of paces there was a yell and turning he saw twenty or so Roman cavalry riding up, armed with the yet more of damn crossbows.