The Emperor of Nihon-Ja ra-10

by John Flanagan

  Beyond the lines of hedgehogs was the drop-off – a small cliff some four metres high, which put an extra barrier in the path of a flanking force from the left.

  He heard a slight noise behind him and turned to see that Will had joined him, inspecting the defences.

  'All in all, not a bad job,' Horace said.

  'I wouldn't care to be one of Arisaka's men tangled up in those hedgehogs,' Will said. 'Have you seen Mikeru and his dartmen practising?'

  'I have. They're frighteningly good, aren't they? Another one of Halt's better ideas.'

  Will was about to reply when they both heard the sound of distant shouts of alarm, followed by a strident bugle call ringing over the plain. They both looked in the direction of Arisaka's sprawling camp.

  'Sounds as if someone's seen us,' Will said. He gripped Horace's hand. 'Good luck, Horace. Take care.'

  'Good luck, Will. See you when we've sent Arisaka running.'

  'He won't run,' Will answered. 'But if we can settle with him before Yamada's army turns up, we're in with a good chance.'

  'And if we can't?' Horace said.

  Will met his gaze in silence for a few seconds. 'I don't want to think about that,' he said eventually.

  Horace nodded and unconsciously loosened his sword in its scabbard. 'I wonder where the girls are?'

  Will's expression, already grim, grew a little more so.

  'I'm guessing they didn't make it. If they'd managed to convince Nimatsu and his people to help us, they should have been here a week ago. I'm afraid we're on our own.'

  Arisaka's army assembled in their usual loose formation – a large curved front, three or four men deep. They moved steadily across the plain towards the silent, waiting ranks of the four gojus. Unlike the Kikori, they didn't march in step, but simply moved in a loose gaggle. The Senshi preferred to fight as individuals and they moved the same way.

  There was one change to their normal deployment. Arisaka had been told of the dangers of the Kikori shield wall and he knew he had to break that rigid formation. Will had surmised that he might use something similar to the Macedon Phalanx – a wedge formation armed with long, heavy lances, designed to smash through an enemy's line. His guess was a little off target. Arisaka knew nothing about the Phalanx.

  But he knew about battering rams.

  At intervals along the line were five young tree trunks, trimmed and sharpened, and borne by six warriors each, the men holding onto rope handles spaced along the logs' six-metre lengths. The sharpened logs, swung underhand at waist height by the long rope handles, would act as battering rams and smash great gaps in the enemy's defences before the Kikori could come to grips with their attackers. No shield bearer could withstand such a shattering impact. And once the integrity of the shield wall was breached, the Kikori lost their greatest advantage – their ability to fight as a team, with each man supporting and protecting his neighbour.

  'So that's what he's got in mind,' Horace muttered to himself. He watched as the Senshi line advanced, overlapping the Kikori line at either end. As the space available closed down, those outer wings would have to fold back in behind Arisaka's front ranks. They'd be poised three and four deep behind the rams.

  Will was running across the rear of the two leading gojus, shouting to attract Horace's attention.

  'Doorway! Doorway!' he called and Horace waved in acknowledgement. They'd practised to defend against a wedge of heavy lances. The rams were essentially the same thing, and they had a tactic they could use against them. Will continued to run to pass on the same message to Selethen.

  Horace hurried to join his goju. He moved quickly behind the second rank, calling to his men.

  'Use the doorway tactic when they get close!' he called and he saw section leaders in the front rank turn briefly and indicate that they understood.

  The advancing Senshi were fifty metres away now, almost within effective javelin range.

  'Second rank, open order!' Horace yelled and the rear rank responded as one man, stepping back three paces to give themselves throwing room.

  'Javelins ready!'

  Twenty-five arms went back, the javelins angled upwards.

  'Aim for the rams!' Horace ordered. He watched the approaching army, judged they were in range. 'Throw!'

  The javelins hissed away on their arcing flight. Several seconds later, he saw sections of the Senshi line collapse in confusion as the heavy missiles struck home. One of the battering rams crashed to the ground as half its bearers were hit and the others were forced to release their grip on the rope handles. The heavy rolling log caused more confusion among the attacking Senshi. But they reformed and came on. There were still two of the battering rams aimed at the Bear Goju.

  The nearest ram broke from the Senshi front line as its bearers went from a steady tramp to a run. They lunged forward at the Kikori shield wall, their sudden increase in speed catching Horace by surprise. The heavy, sharpened log swung forward on its rope handles, bludgeoning into the front rank. Three of the Kikori went down and the men on the ram moved quickly to consolidate their position. The second rank had closed up again after throwing their javelins. Now they used their reserve weapons to stab over the heads of the front rank, at the ram and its bearers. The ram swung back, then forward to smash into the shields again. More Kikori went down and the waiting Senshi screamed in triumph as they saw the previously impregnable wall disintegrating. The ram went back again.

  'Doorway! Doorway!' Horace yelled, his throat dry and his voice breaking.

  This time, as the heavy log swung forward, the Kikori facing it stepped back and to the side, opening a gap in front of it. Without any resistance, the battering ram whipped forward through thin air, throwing the men wielding it off balance. The second line of men opened as well and some of the Kikori grabbed the ram and dragged it through their ranks. As the men on the rope handles staggered through the gap left for them, the deadly stabbing blades of the Kikori went to work. The surviving ram wielders found themselves in the clear behind the second rank, bewildered and isolated. As they realised their predicament, ten men from the front rank of the Shark Goju moved forward and quickly surrounded them. Within a few seconds, Arisaka's men lay still. But, in the more open style of fighting, they had taken a toll. Five Kikori lay dead beside them.

  With a shout of rage, the Senshi line surged forward. But the doorway closed as quickly as it had opened and they found themselves facing that formidable line of shields. They cut and slashed ineffectually, denied the space they needed to wield their swords to best effect. The short swords of the Kikori flickered in and out between the shields, wounding, maiming, killing.

  The Senshi backed away, moving out of range of the shorter weapons. Now some of them began a more careful attack, lunging at the small gaps between the shields with their longer katana. This time, however, forewarned of the Kikori tactic of jamming shields together, they withdrew their blades almost immediately. It was an effective technique. More Kikori fell, their places taken by men from the second rank.

  Horace glanced down the line to see what had happened with the second ram. The men wielding it, having seen what happened to their companions, were more circumspect in their attack. They swung the ram in short, savage jabs at the wall. Shields split, men went down. Then the men on the ram drew their unwieldy weapon back and hurled it into the Kikori front line, immediately drawing swords and following it through the gap they had breached.

  For a few minutes, they had the situation they wanted – a disjointed Kikori line, which gave them room to use their long swords. They took a dreadful toll on the defenders. Then the second rank joined in, using their javelins to stab at long range, moving forward as a unit to fill the gaps in the front rank. Horace came charging down the line from his vantage point, his sword swinging and thrusting into the Senshi, his shield deflecting their katana. His speed, and the power of his sword strokes, took Arisaka's men by surprise and they began to fall back before his one-man assault. Seeing this, Horace bel
lowed to his Kikori.

  'Advance! Advance! Issho-ni! Issho-ni!'

  The Bear Goju, discipline and formation restored, began to tramp steadily forward, crowding the enemy, buffeting them, shoving and stabbing. But even in retreat, the Senshi's katana were taking a toll of the advancing goju's ranks.

  On the right flank, Selethen's Hawks were faring a little better. There had been two rams aimed at Selethen's formation and they were some metres behind the rams attacking Horace's section of the line. Selethen was able to order the doorway tactic when the first ram came forward. The Kikori peeled aside, letting the ram blunder through, while Selethen's men stabbed at them with javelins and short swords. Then the line closed again to face the following Senshi.

  The second ram never made it to the Hawks' front line. Four of its six bearers were struck down by a salvo of black-shafted arrows. Halt, standing with Shigeru on a raised vantage point thirty metres to the rear, nodded in satisfaction as he saw the result of his shooting. The remaining two bearers, unable to control the heavy log by themselves, allowed it to fall to the ground. It bounced and rolled, knocking over four of the Senshi who were planning to follow it into the enemy's ranks.

  Seizing on their confusion, Selethen echoed Horace's order.

  'Forward! Issho-ni!'

  The Kikori, their fighting blood roused, took up the chant as they moved forward like a tide.

  'Issho-ni! Issho-ni!'

  They slammed into the Senshi and the slaughter began. But, like the Senshi facing Horace's men, these warriors knew better than to allow the Kikori to get too close. They gave ground, all the while stabbing into the gaps and over the tops of the shields. Men died on both sides, although the close quarter fighting suited the Kikori better. Selethen, like Horace, patrolled the line, dashing in where necessary to lend support with his flashing curved blade, using his small hand shield to deflect the thrusts and cuts of the katana.

  He glanced across at Horace's goju and saw that his men were moving ahead of Horace's, opening a dangerous gap. Instantly, he shouted an order.

  'Hawks! Halt! Withdraw! Withdraw ten paces!'

  Moving as one, the Hawk front line disengaged from the Senshi and moved backwards. As they had trained to do, the second rank seized the shoulders of men in the front rank. They turned to face the direction of the withdrawal, guiding the steps of the front rank so their comrades never had to turn away from the enemy. The goju simply moved backwards, formation still intact, any gaps in the shield wall closed by men from the second rank.

  Selethen gauged the distance to the Senshi force and glanced back to the Shark Goju behind his men. He signalled their commander and the man turned and bellowed a series of orders.

  Arisaka's men, their view obscured by the enemy directly in front of them, had no warning of the shower of javelins from the Shark Goju as they hurtled down over the heads of the Hawks. Senshi went down all along the line as the heavy weapons struck home. Selethen, seeing that the rams were all out of action, signalled for another volley and watched as great gaps were punched in the Senshi line.

  A Senshi commander screamed an order and his men, never knowing when a third volley might arrive, turned and ran clear of the killing ground.

  Horace now saw that his men were advancing too far ahead of the Hawk formation. He too called a halt and the two front lines faced each other. The Senshi weren't about to try another frontal assault that would take them within range of those stabbing swords. But now a group of fifty Senshi warriors detached from the main force and began to try to work their way through the wooden obstructions they could see on the enemy's left flank. They shoved and cut their way through the star-shaped hedgehogs, gradually forcing a path through them. Then several of them were pulled up short by the hooks in the tangle of light rope that covered the ground at knee height.

  None of them paid any attention to the horn blast that came from the raised ground where Halt stood watching. And very few of them saw the lightly armed group of young men rise from the cover of the rocks on their right.

  Mikeru looked to the distant figure in the grey and green cloak. He saw Halt raise his hand slowly, twice, then point to the rear. The young Kikori nodded, understanding, and issued his orders to his thirty dartmen.

  'Two darts,' he said. 'Then retreat.' Each man carried eight darts in a leather tube on his back. Halt was obviously aiming to conserve their weapons as far as possible.

  'Ready!' Mikeru called. He looked down the line of throwers, saw they were all prepared, and called the executive order.

  'Throw!'

  The iron-tipped darts, whipped on their way by the taut throwing cords, made a distinctive whistling sound as they flew. Some of the men struggling among the hedgehogs heard it and looked up, curious to know what it was. Then the thirty darts smashed into them and there were screams and cries as they fell, their armour ruptured by the iron tips. Before they could recover, another flight of darts savaged them.

  Fifteen of their number were left hanging awkwardly, draped over the hedgehogs. Eleven of the survivors made it through the tangle of obstructions and found themselves facing Moka's fifty warriors, who were eager to strike a blow for their Emperor. There was a brief, uneven battle. None of the attackers survived. Seeing the result, the remainder of the flanking force withdrew.

  Across the field, the same thing was happening. Arisaka's men, thwarted in their attempt to force a way through the shield wall, were drawing back to take stock of the situation. They left a lot of their comrades on the field of battle but they were by no means beaten.

  And they had taken their toll of the Kikori. Knowing what to expect, the Senshi hadn't attacked blindly as they had done before. They were more disciplined in their approach and knew when to withdraw.

  Now, by mutual consent, the two forces backed off and faced each other, each assessing the damage they had done, the losses they had suffered. Halt looked up as Will approached. He saw that his former apprentice's quiver was half empty. Obviously, Will had accounted for some of Arisaka's men as well.

  'How's it looking?' Halt said.

  The younger Ranger shook his head. 'It's not great. We've lost over twenty men. And there's another ten wounded.'

  Halt whistled slowly. That was a third of the men who had been engaged in the two leading gojus. 'Can we stand another attack?'

  Will thought about the question before he answered.

  'I'd say so. Arisaka lost nearly two hundred men in that attack. We've got two gojus intact and ready to fight. They're fresh troops. I'll push them forward to replace the Hawks and the Bears.

  'In addition, we've got Mikeru's dartmen. They did a great job. Plus we've got fifty Senshi ourselves.

  'I think we can handle whatever Arisaka throws at us – so long as those reinforcements don't turn up.'

  The moment he said the words, he regretted them. The superstitious thought occurred to him that by mentioning the possibility, he might make it a reality. Then he shrugged the thought aside. Things didn't work that way, he told himself.

  Across the field, from Arisaka's army, he heard a sudden burst of cheering. He looked up.

  'What have they got to cheer about?' he asked.

  Halt pointed grimly to a file of men, just visible in the south-west corner of the plain.

  'It's Yamada,' he said. 'He's arrived.'

  Stony faced, Will watched the new arrivals approaching from the south-west. They marched in a large, irregular gaggle and the weak midmorning sun glinted off their weapons and armour. At least three hundred of them, he thought.

  Halt's voice snapped him out of his grim reverie. 'You'd better get moving if you're going to reorganise your troops,' he said. 'Or do you plan to surrender?'

  Will shook himself angrily and ran down from the slightly elevated spot where Halt and Shigeru stood. He sent a detail to recover as many of the javelins as possible, and ordered the Wolves and Sharks forward into the front line, replacing the two badly depleted gojus who had borne the brunt of the fig
hting so far. Horace and Selethen would command the two new gojus in the front line. The three friends had a hurried consultation.

  'They won't have any rams this time,' Will said, 'so I guess it's business as usual. Use your javelins. Two volleys each, no need to save them for stabbing. And close with them as soon as you can. Our men did well when they got in close – and the Senshi don't like it.'

  His two commanders nodded. Horace glanced to where Shigeru stood, in full ceremonial armour.

  'Any chance you can convince Shigeru to get away?' he said, lowering his voice.

  Will shook his head. 'Halt tried. He'll stand by his men, win or lose.'

  'I always thought he would,' Selethen said quietly. All of the foreigners had come to respect the strength of character and the quiet dignity of the Emperor.

  'In that case, we'll just have to win,' Horace said. But the very fact that he'd asked the question showed that he didn't believe that was possible now. They all knew their best chance had been to smash Arisaka's force before Yamada's men arrived. That opportunity was gone.

  They could hear the irregular tramp of feet and rattle of equipment from Yamada's force as it drew closer. In a few minutes, they'd be fighting for their lives again.

  'All right,' said Will, 'I guess this is it. Time we -'

  'Chocho! Chocho-san!'

  The clear young voice carried to them and they all turned to see Mikeru running towards them. The tube of darts slung across his back slapped up and down as he ran, setting up a rattling counterpoint to the thud of his feet.

  'What is this chocho business?' Will muttered to himself. But his friends overheard the comment.

  'It's a term of great respect,' they chorused, and he glared at them.

  'Oh, shut up,' he said. But now Mikeru had drawn up with them. He leaned forward, regaining his breath, heaving in deep lungfuls of air, his hands on his thighs.