by Barry Sadler
Casca called to him from the ridge, "How did it go?"
Temujin smiled back at him and cupped his hands to make his voice heard better by all. "It went well. We hurt the Kereits greatly. They lost five or more to our one. Right now Temuge is holding them, but I don't think he will be able to do so for very long. I would expect him to be coming within the hour. Is all in readiness?"
Casca yelled back at him. "As ready as we will ever be. Now it's up to Ong Khan and you. We will do our part."
"Good enough, Old Young One. Rest assured that we also do ours. Now, I have work to do. Also, I have changed the plan a bit."
Casca didn't like the sound of that. To change plans this late in the game could be very bad. When Temujin told him what he had in mind, Casca saw the logic of it immediately. It could work well to their advantage.
Now that Temujin was in the springs, Casca told Subetei to find Chagar and have him bring his Borjigin warriors to where they would be opposite Casca's on the ridge wall. He had held them near the springs in case the pursuit of Temujin had been too hot and he needed some ground support.
Now that Temujin was there and in good case, he could go back to his original plan. There would be two thousand warriors on the high ground. This was where horses would do no good at all. Temujin and the main body would keep them from the springs, which was the only place where large numbers of horsemen could dismount and climb the gorge walls.
To keep Ong Khan locked up once his troops were committed, Casca would block the trail behind with a landslide of boulders, which his Merkits had gathered. Temujin would then take the hundreds of chest-high stakes that Chagar's men had cut and stacked and form a palisade. When set into the earth, the stakes would reach at just about the exact height it took to enter the chest of a standing horse.
Behind this wall, his warriors would dismount and fight as infantry, and as at the first battle, lancers to the front and archers behind. It was time to find out if they had learned their lessons during the long days of training. Temujin had Casca run them through it. The Mongols had protested and cried like babies when forced to dismount and fight on their feet. A few quick executions by hanging and the rest obeyed. Now it would be to time to put it to the test. He had told Temujin that time and again. Well-trained infantry had defeated cavalry attacks when they did not have to fight in the open and had their choice of terrain. It would be interesting to see if they could hold the line.
But they wouldn't be alone. Once the trap was sprung, they would be complemented by the bowmen of the Merkits and the Borjigin of Chagar. They would have the high ground. Return fire from the Merkits would be ineffective, while their shafts would reach their targets with more than enough force to kill or maim.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ong Khan bypassed the cleft in the wall of the gorge. His eyes were on the retreating backs in front of him, for they led to Temujin – and an end to his worries for once and all. This day he would put all things in order.
Still, the tingle at the back of his neck told him to be careful. Temujin was clever, too clever – that is why he had to be disposed of before he grew too strong.
He did not like these sheer walls, which stretched high on either side of him. This was not ground for horsemen. The pass narrowed, then widened, then narrowed again, making it slow going for his warriors. But if Temujin could ride and fight here, then so could he. He had won more battles than the young upstart had had women, and never had he been defeated.
Temujin had his front ranks form fifty meters in front of the spring, the right and left flanks slightly advanced. The rest of his archers waited behind the spring on higher ground. From there they would have the advantage of distance, being able to fire over the heads of their own men in safety.
Ong Khan's lead riders came into the open ground of the glen and saw the Temujin's array before them. Not on horseback, they had been taken away to the rear. No, they stood on foot, with lances facing to the front. Smiles spread across gap-toothed faces. This was good. They were used to defeating those who fought on foot. Horsemen always won over those who walked.
Reining in their animals, they waited. The memory of those they had ridden over who had fallen to the Merkits was still fresh in their mouths, and the anger of Ong Khan for them for attacking without orders. They waited until the rest of their force, or what part of it could, entered into the glen with them. Over half of its main body remained behind then, between the narrow walls of the gorge, waiting their turn.
Jemuga did not feel so good. All this day he knew that they were being drawn into something. There was a very bad feel to this place. Ong Khan rode to the front, just out of bow range, and took his time. Jemuga stayed to his rear. Temujin was there. They could see him in the front lines of his warriors. The Merkits were steady, standing in orderly ranks. He recognized them by their standards and headgear.
But where were the Borjigin and the foreigner Temujin called the Old Young One? Perhaps they had deserted rather than face his wrath. That must be the answer, for he could see there was no way out of the box in which Temujin had placed his men. The others must have deserted. So much the better. That would teach Temujin to put his trust in foreign dogs. He would hunt them down later; meanwhile, their desertion reduced Temujin's strength to no more than three thousand. That he could easily deal with.
Jemuga also asked the same questions in his mind as Ong Khan. Where were the others? Temujin was up to something. Ever since he had come back with the scar-faced one, he had not been the same. The bad feeling sent shivers up his spine. He had not survived these many years by not listening to his instincts. He began to move away from Ong Khan Once he was clear of him, he rode through the bunched-up warriors to the end of the column.
Once free of the crush of men and animals, he moved more rapidly, spurring his horse into a gallop and then a full run as he broke out of the gorge into the open ground. He wanted only to put as much distance between him and the gorge as possible. Something bad was going to happen in there, and he wanted no part of it. He was not a coward, but he was also not a fool.
He had bypassed the cleft in the wall of the gorge where Temuge waited with his force. Once more luck was with him: They let him pass. Temuge could not take a chance on killing him and having their position exposed too early. He saw Jemuga but he had to let him go, and the letting-go ate into his soul like acid. Another day, Jemuga, another day. Your luck will not hold forever. One day my brother will take you.
Ong Khan didn't notice Jemuga's desertion, and if he had, it would have meant nothing to him. He had told him to go if he wished. Now he had more important things on his mind. For the first time during all the day's activities he was going to let his sons go into battle and command the first and third ranks.
He moved from one side of his ranks to the other, watching the Merkits closely. Still wary but not knowing of what, it looked as if Temujin had made a great mistake by placing his center in front of the springs.
If he pushed hard enough, the main body of Temujin's force would find themselves in ass-deep water. Ong Khan laughed for the first time that day. He had them, and there was no way out. To his trumpeters and Noyans he gave the orders. On the first blast the first rank – under the command of Jirchi, his eldest and heir – would charge straight for the center and Temujin. Kill him and the heart would go out of the rest of the men he led.
Behind them, the second rank was to split and take on the archers on the flanks. The third – under Karlas, his youngest – was to ride through, support his first element, and reinforce them. This would create room at the rear for more of his men to come through the narrow pass and form new ranks.
Crying out for all to hear, his words echoed back and forth off the stone walls. "Whoever brings me the head of Temujin shall have his pick of fifty horses from my own herd, and ten bashliks of good Persian silver!"
With that, he signaled the trumpeter to sound the attack. The first wave surged forward. At the orders of their Noyans, they
had lances in their hands instead of bows; they would charge down and let the weight of their horses carry them into the Merkit ranks. The Kereit in the main body advanced to bow range behind them, giving them support from their bows. The second rank split, taking on the archers of Temujin on the right and left flanks.
Ong Khan saw that his first wave was advancing in good order. The solid line of Merkits facing him did not move. They were shoulder-to-shoulder. Stupid! He thought. His men would trample them underfoot. He waved the third rank into the battle; they were only seconds behind the first. Their added weight would surely force the Merkit center back into the springs. Then it would be only a matter of dispatching them at his leisure.
The Kereit swept down on the Merkit, who stood as if they were frozen to the piece of land on which they stood. Their comrades to the rear had to stop firing for fear of hitting their own men.
Temujin stood in the center of his first rank, sword raised. Behind him, Merkit archers began to fire in volleys. His archers on the flanks were not able to render much support as they were hard pressed by Ong Khan's second rank. But those behind the spring on the high ground did deadly good work. But it would not be enough to stop the Kereits from reaching them. It was not intended to.
When the first wave of Kereit horsemen were no more than thirty meters from his front rank, Temujin's own trumpeter, who had been watching for the signal, sounded a single flat, wavering oblast on his ram's horn trumpet.
The first rank of Temujin's warriors stepped to the rear three paces. Each man had been standing in front of one of the hundreds of sharpened stakes that Casca had prepared for them. Their bodies concealed them from the view of the Kereit and Ong Khan.
The Kereit were too close to stop their charge, and the second wave behind them was at full gallop. They had to go on to where those terrible pointed stakes the thickness of a man's arms were waiting to disembowel their horses.
Waiting above, Casca saw everything. It was almost time for him to act but not quite yet. Ong Khan had to be fully committed.
The first wave rushed onto the stakes. The horses screamed and tried to shy away but couldn't. They were packed too close. The stakes reached deep into the chests and shoulders of the horses, driving the animals insane with pain. Three hundred went down in the first rush, littering the earth with the kicking, jerking, bleeding bodies.
As the first charge came to a standstill, the second wave crashed into their own men. It was mass confusion – those behind wanting to close with the enemy, and those in front trying to get away from them.
Ong Khan lost control of the battle in those first minutes.
From the sides of the gorge and the high ground behind the spring, Temujin's archers kept their shafts flying with deadly efficacy.
Ong Khan was in a blind, bloody rage. It was to grow worse, for this was the time when Casca gave his command to act to Subetei and Chagar. A triple blast from his trumpeter's horn and the Merkit and Borjigin who lay in hiding came out to do hell's work.
Stacks of boulders gathered by them earlier and stacked up to where they were restrained from falling by logs camouflaged with brush were set free. Tons of boulders fell down on the Kereits from the crest of the gorge. Brains were crushed out of their bony pans. The spines of horses snapped like dry twigs. And with the boulders came clumps of dry brush tied to stones and logs, set on fire to spread the confusion.
Over six hundred died in the avalanche, and as soon as the boulders were done, Casca's men went to work with the bows and lances. Their orders were to shoot for the Noyans of the Ong Khan first. Try to kill the leaders. And they did. All Noyans were distinctly marked by the colors of cloth or feathers on their helmets; this was done so their own men could recognize them from a distance. It also served Casca's purpose quite well. The Noyans went down one after the other.
He could have taken Ong Khan out several times, but Temujin had asked that if possible Ong Khan was to be taken alive. He had plans for him. Smoke filled the gorge, blinding, choking, driving men and animals crazy.
Ong Khan didn't know what to do. Some of his men were still trying to force their way over the stakes to get at Temujin. Others were trying to fight their way to the rear through those still trying to advance. The men in the narrows of the gorge were equally as bad off.
Another trumpet blast from farther down the gorge and Casca knew that Temuge was on the scene. Even without him coming at this critical moment, Casca thought they might have had a more than even chance of winning.
The losses suffered earlier, which Ong Khan had taken from the attack on the stakes and now the deadly toll falling on them from the cliffs, had brought the numbers on both sides to equal nearly six thousand men on each side. But with Temuge and his men bottling up the rear and they holding the Kereits to the front, it was going to be a slaughter.
And a slaughter it was. Temuge's men held the only way out of the pass. They blocked it with their bodies. Ong Khan tried four times to break through to the rear. But the smoke and panic among his men made it impossible for him to gain any control over the battle, and nearly all his Noyans were dead.
From the dead Temujin's men gathered more shafts and spears, using their enemies' weapons to finish them off. There was no way for them to miss as they shot at the milling mass of terrified warriors, who saw themselves as dead if they could not get out of the cauldron the springs of Baljuna had become. The grass would grow dark, lush, and green here for many years to come, fed by the blood of this day's work.
The battle was drawing to a close. Ong Khan had lost the day and six thousand five hundred of his men. Those who were not dead were blinded by terror.
Ong Khan saw his world being destroyed. But it would not end for him at Baljuna. Rallying to him the men of his guard, his sons, and several Noyans, he cut his way through his own men back down the gorge.
In the smoke and confusion Temujin and Casca couldn't locate him. They were involved with the killing of their own. Ong Khan came through the last of his men; who were hand-to-hand with Temuge's. Cutting, slashing, and crying out as they killed each other.
Temuge did not have power to stop Ong Khan from breaking through with his sons. Spurring their horses mercilessly, Ong Khan and the few survivors of Baljuna sped away and there was nothing that could be done to stop them.
One thing about the barbarian: when he is winning, he is confident there is no one more dangerous or valiant. But when he thinks he has lost, he just quits if he cannot run. Ong Khan's warriors had quit and were awaiting their destiny.
Temujin ordered his men to cease firing. With their men, Casca, Subetei, and Chagar began to climb down onto the floor of the glen. Temuge and his force came in from the rear, slicing open the throats of those wounded but not yet dead. A Mongol mercy.
To the survivors of the Kereit he gave them one chance. "There are only two choices for those who oppose me. Submit or die. I make this offer to you. Make your decision now. Bow down before me as your lord and master and live to serve me.
"I will give you your lives. But know that they no longer belong to you. They are my property. I merely lend them back to you for a time. Now tell me what is your choice. Your master has run away, leaving you to your fate. I am your fate and your new master, and like dogs, you cannot live without one. Submit or die!"
Awkwardly, slowly, the Kereits who were still mounted left their horses to join those on the ground. They knelt upon the earth, then bowed over their knees, touching their heads to earth in Temujin's direction.
All submitted, and such was the discipline of Temujin's men that only two had to be killed for raising a complaint about sparing the Kereits.
Temujin and Casca were both content with the day's work. They had replaced their own losses, and the survivors of Ong Khan's horde had become Temujin's property. Temujin knew the next move would be to take the lands of all the Kereit of Ong Khan under his arm. He would ride there immediately, and as he had dreamed, all that had been Ong Khan's was now his.
But at least he still would have the pleasure of looking forward to the day when they would meet again. It was always good to have an enemy who was implacable in his hatred. It kept one constantly on his toes and alert.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
To the Kereit warriors who had pledged fealty it did not seem strange to have a new master. After all, their old one was dead, and so were his sons. And as Temujin had said, "All dogs want a strong master."
He wanted to move on the homelands of the Kereit immediately but it was not yet time. As of this moment, most of his warriors were Kereits. He needed to bind them to him, and there was nothing like a small war to do that. Give them some bloodletting and some plunder and they would soon fall into line, even if it meant fighting members of their own clans and tribes.
Indeed he had a respectable-sized force at his command now. Men who were fit for the ride numbered nearly four thousand of his own and a few hundred less than six thousand of the Kereit – nearly ten thousand warriors. Many empires had begun with much less.
To all he cried out, "Rest this day. Bind your wounds, for on the morrow we ride--"
He was about to say "...to the lands of the Chin." But a signal from Casca stopped him. He therefore said only, "We go for glory and plunder. All Noyans, present yourselves to me this evening. This includes the Noyans of the Kereit. There is much for you to learn of how I do things, and this you must inform your warriors of. At sundown come to me."
There was a silence spreading over the battlefield as the warriors who only seconds before had been trying to kill each other now found that their master wished for them to leave immediately for a campaign against an unknown place and people. And each of the new factions was not yet sure of the other. The Borjigin and Merkits had shared bread and blood together. Till they proved themselves, the newcomers would be watched closely.