No Fuomi received an invitation to the meeting.
At precisely nine bells, Culich rose from where he sat conversing with Yozef and walked to the front of the room.
“You all know the news. As bad as it is, it’s hardly unexpected. We knew one possibility was more Narthani would come, now that they see they can’t conquer Caedellium with the numbers they had. One reason all the clans were preparing for the eventual attack on Preddi City was to eliminate the Narthani foothold before more arrived. We now know our original plan is not practical. However, as easy as it is to drift into despair, we don’t have the luxury of losing hope. All our peoples are counting on us.”
Culich paused, taking in the countenances of those listening. Their faces encouraged him.
“I assert that while the future is even more difficult than we previously thought, it’s our duty to not give up. If our previous plan is no longer feasible, then what do we do in its place? Yozef Kolsko has been considering such an eventuality for many months, and he has shared his thoughts with many of us. I’d like him to tell you about his current thinking.”
Culich nodded to Yozef, who took a deep breath as he felt Maera give his forearm a reassuring squeeze. He rose to face the group.
“As Hetman Keelan says, there are hard times ahead for Caedellium. But, like Hetman Keelan, I believe it’s not hopeless, although it will require even more effort than before. So the question is, ‘What do we do?’ The first thing is to acknowledge that our previous plan, the one we just finished working on, is not going to work. Even if we gathered all the clans’ fighting men as fast as possible and launched that plan, it’s doubtful we could take Preddi City before the new Narthani army arrives. From what we have learned from escaped slaves and those whom the southern Rapid Reaction Force freed on the raid to the Preddi border, the Narthani have been constructing fortifications around Preddi City. The Narthani officers are professional soldiers, and there’s no reason to think those fortifications are not formidable. Yes, we could breach them and take the city. Yet the cost in Caedelli lives would weaken the clans so much, we would have no way to defeat the new Narthani army.”
Yozef could see from most of the faces that people accepted his words. A few—a very few, he consoled himself—continued to convey despair, so he hurried on.
“However, all this means is that we need to agree on a new strategy. I believe part of the previous plan is still viable—the part about cutting out Selfcell and Eywell, so they can’t support the Narthani, either those here now or the new ones coming. The same arguments hold. We need to prevent those two clans from providing seven or eight thousand men to the Narthani. It also pushes the Narthani border back to Preddi Province and gives us more warning when they make another move against us. Thus, whatever new plan we decide on must still begin with a quick invasion of those two provinces and pushing the Narthani border back to Preddi Province.”
“That’s all well and good, Yozef,” said Hetman Gwillamer, “but it still comes back to how do we resist that many more Narthani? I’ve known you long enough to assume you have a new plan?”
“I think Yozef always has a new plan,” said Mulron Luwis, to the grunts and snorts of many listeners.
“As it happens,” said Yozef, “I do happen to have a proposal. In broad terms, it comes in three parts. The first two are easy. The third is the crucial part. Let’s dispense with the first two.” He turned and pulled off a cloth covering a four-by-eight-foot blackboard. On it, written in chalk, were three lines he read aloud.
“One. Cut out Selfcell and Eywell. I’ve already mentioned that one.
“Two. The redoubts. All the clans have been working on establishing havens that most of their noncombatant population can move to, in case of large-scale fighting in their province. In some clans, the preparation is more advanced. In others, preparations have lagged. In all cases, we need to accelerate preparations as much as humanly possible. Before, it was mainly a contingency, one of those activities we saw as only a possibility. Now it’s a certainty. Once the Narthani are reinforced, they will move to overwhelm the clans. To resist, we can’t have each clan and clansman worrying about the safety of their families. There has to be reasonable assurance that the bulk of the population is in redoubts the Narthani can’t easily capture.”
“And how do we do that?” asked Aeland Mittack. “With that many men, the Narthani could capture any redoubt, no matter how inaccessible and defended.”
“That’s true,” said Yozef, “if they threw all their forces into redoubt capture. However, in that case, our forces would harass them and threaten their supply lines. Also, while capturing a redoubt would be tragic, they can’t conquer Caedellium without eliminating the threat of our fighting men. The redoubts should be such difficult targets that they’d require the Narthani to divert a significant part of their strength to that objective, which weakens or slows what they can do against our fighting men.
“To lessen the chances of them attacking our redoubts, we need to keep large numbers of our own forces in close contact with their army, in addition to appearing to threaten Preddi Province, if they don’t leave enough forces there to defend it.”
“All right,” groused Balwis, “so we remove Selfcell and Eywell as threats, and let’s assume most of the population is reasonably secure in these redoubts. That still leaves us with a huge Narthani army.”
“As my impatient friend notes, that still leaves a large Narthani army. In our previous plan, our choices were either a long siege or a quick assault that would have led to terrible losses for the clans. Now, I see it as a choice between direct field battles or having the Narthani attack us where we have the advantages. If the former, the chances of us winning are not good, and even if we did, the losses would be too great. On the other hand, if we can get the Narthani to attack us where we have chosen the battlefield, then our chances are greater, though not certain. As you might guess, I favor the second approach, and I’ll describe how I envision this happening.”
Yozef deliberately used the word envision to invoke rumors he was a Septarsh to whom God whispered knowledge and advice. Although subterfuge bothered him, necessity ruled. If it took stoking such rumors to get the clans to operate together, then so be it.
He pulled another cloth off a second blackboard. The first thing people noticed was an odd-looking chalk sketch of two outward arched vertical lines mirroring each other and connected at the top by a thin green rectangle and at the bottom by a wavy blue line, below which was a longer, thin yellow rectangle. The second thing they noticed was that instead of the usual white chalk, as quarried on Caedellium, lines and rectangles were in color. Yozef had recruited a dye-maker in Caernford to figure out how to infuse different-colored dyes into mined chalk. The tradesman had discovered that the white, porous calcium carbonate version of limestone found in Pawell Province worked best, and he already planned to produce a dozen colored chalks as a novelty product.
“What you see is a rough drawing of the situation we need to look for. This is only an example to illustrate the features we have to seek out everywhere on Caedellium.” Yozef turned to the blackboard and picked up a two-foot-long wooden pointer he used to indicate features as he spoke. “This represents a battlefield, one where the terrain favors us over the Narthani. We need to find places where we can lure a Narthani army into an area with only two exits, one narrower than the other. Imagine the drawing represents a valley. At the top is a narrow entrance to the valley, where we would need to construct fortifications to block the Narthani. The sides of the valley need to be confining enough to prevent the Narthani from escaping.
“At the bottom of the valley would probably be a wider opening where the Narthani enter the valley. We don’t want the opening to be so narrow that it discourages them from pursuing what has to be a large-enough clan force to tempt them to follow. Once the Narthani force is within the valley, we’ll need to block the bottom exit. We’ll call it the blocking position. This is the most difficult p
art of the plan. Once the Narthani realize the situation, the blocking position has to be as impregnable as the fortification position at the other end of the valley. The Narthani would then have to attempt to breach one or both of the fortification or the blocking position. We would have to hold both positions, no matter what. It’s there that we need to destroy the Narthani army, as they are forced to assault our defenses.”
“I can imagine the top end of the valley being fortified enough to stop them, but what about the bottom end?” asked Denes. “There can’t be any sign of defenses of any kind, or they’d either hold that position or refuse to follow us into the valley.”
“You’ve seen the critical point and where the plan is most likely to fail. Once the Narthani are in the valley, we would have limited time to build defenses at the blocking position strong enough to stop them from getting out. To help, look at the wavy blue line. This represents some terrain feature that would be to our advantage but not stop them from going into the valley. For example, it could be a small stream or a decent-sized gulley. Our blocking position would include this minor terrain feature, plus defenses we had time to construct.
“Now, use your imagination and pretend you’re the Narthani. Our forces have been harassing the Narthani army as it tries to get us to stand for a battle. We keep withdrawing while staying in contact with the Narthani and not letting them cut us off and force us to fight until we’re ready. Even if they chase us for hundreds of miles, we keep withdrawing right into this valley you see on the board. Close your eyes if you have to. You’re on this ground. You come to a moderate stream that’s easy to cross. In front of you, a valley widens out, maybe to five miles. The valley walls are steep enough to impede troop movements. You walk or ride up the valley to the widest point and then on, as it narrows to an opening that is perhaps no more than a quarter-mile across. There, in the narrow opening, lie extensive fortifications,” Yozef touched the green rectangle across the valley’s upper opening, “that we’ve built without Narthani knowledge, because we’ve kept their scouts away from the area and because the fortifications might be camouflaged. At the fortifications await enough of our people and cannon to stop any army from passing. Many of these people might even be older men, boys, and women—anyone who can stand and fire at attackers or help those who are firing. The fortifications at the top end have to be formidable and the width of the valley narrow enough to funnel the Narthani into firing zones for our cannon. We can also set traps and obstacles to further hinder any attacks.
“When their entire army, or at least most of it, is in the valley, more of our fighting men move into the blocking position at the wide opening to the valley—perhaps twenty thousand men or more. Our men furiously dig in, using materials hidden nearby.
“The Narthani army now finds itself between our two forces in defensive positions. The Narthani would find themselves with five thousand Caedelli blocking the narrow opening of the valley and thirty thousand at the wide opening. Other thousands of islanders might be on the cliff-tops to stop any Narthani attempt to climb out of the valley. The Narthani are forced to attack one or the other of our forces at the two valley ends. In theory, they could attack both. However, it’s more likely they’ll concentrate on one end.
“I’ll stop for a moment to let you visualize all this.” After most of the people had turned their gaze back to him, he continued. “What we have done is lure the Narthani into a trap where all the previous battlefield experience and maneuverability of their army does them less good. They are forced to attack under the worst conditions for themselves and the best for us.”
An Adris aide stood. “Where is this place you’ve described?”
“Remember,” said Yozef, “this is only meant as an example of the type of sites we need to find. Is there a place on Caedellium exactly like this? Highly unlikely, but we need to scour the entire island to find places that meet the general criteria I’ve described. The key features are a confining terrain that gives the Narthani only two options: one position we can pre-fortify to be impregnable and a second position where we can use existing terrain features and hurried construction of defenses to stop the Narthani.
“I’ll continue meeting with our map-making and surveying teams and everyone else necessary. Once people understand what we need, they’ll go back out to look for sites. I might go with them at first to be sure they understand what we’re looking for.”
Maera had kept an eye on other people’s reactions—without being too obvious. She saw their expressions become more attentive and firm the more Yozef talked—as if visualizing a new plan helped push away their discouragement and despair. She also noticed how often Yozef spoke as if the plan was, as he used the phrase, a fait accompli. Whatever that meant exactly in English. He also called it a “done deal” or a fact describing a decision already made. When he began, she first worried that the hetmen and the advisers would take umbrage at his assumed control of the plan. They hadn’t.
Not that they didn’t have questions.
“What if we can’t find such places as your example?” asked Denes.
“Then we are back to fighting small to large battles against the Narthani,” Yozef said.
Denes grimaced.
“What if they don’t fall into the trap?” asked the Mittackian adviser, whom Yozef didn’t recognize.
“The Narthani can’t take control of the island until they eliminate most of the clans’ fighting men. While they may hesitate to pursue us and could even burn cities and towns, they have to force a battle,” said Yozef, reiterating the point he’d already made.
Culich looked troubled. “Yozef, the redoubts bother me. If Keelan sends tens of thousands of people, including most of our women and children, into the Dillagon redoubt, part of me remains afraid the Narthani might think it worthwhile to attack the redoubt, if only to use our families as hostages.”
Yozef understood the hetman’s worry. He repeatedly beat back the same concern. “Let’s assume that’s what the Narthani do. They try to attack the Dillagon redoubt. Most of the Keelan men will be east of the pass, where they can move freely to wherever they might be needed on Caedellium. If the Narthani attack from the western end of the pass, we’d have time to get enough reinforcements there to stop ten times their number. If their army is operating on the eastern side of the pass and they attack the redoubt, they would have to commit a large part of the army against the redoubt, and we could attack their rear.
“No, I think they’re stuck with the main objective of destroying the clans’ ability to fight, which means killing so many fighting men that the remaining clanspeople are enslaved at Narthani leisure.”
Aelard Mittack raised a hand.
“Aelard, you have a question?”
“Yes, Ser Kol . . . er . . . Yozef. With this many men, couldn’t the Narthani attack in multiple places? A large-enough army could march into the middle of Caedellium, while one or more smaller groups attack individual clans from the sea?”
“Of course. If they did, each force would be subject to our attack in detail. Ah . . . you understand what I mean by in ‘detail’?”
Aelard shook his head.
“It means a piece at a time. Let’s say forty thousand Narthani invade Moreland and drive to cut the island in half, like the Narthani tried before. At the same time, they land ten thousand men in Keelan and Pewitt. Depending on where our main forces are, we might attack one of those troops of ten thousand with three or four times their number and destroy them. Or we could still trap the forty thousand and have better chances to defeat them than if it was sixty thousand.”
Yozef didn’t elaborate on this as he brushed off an all-too-possible scenario and the complications it would present.
Yozef and others in the group answered questions for an hour, until Culich drew a close to the discussion by summarizing what he’d heard.
“I believe that what Yozef proposes may be our best plan, based on the Fuomi news of more Narthani coming to Caedellium. A
s many details as we have to work out, the major issues of planning and acting will have to wait until the conclave and input from all the hetmen.”
The meeting ended, and the Keelanders moved to a smaller room in the MIU facility and sat in no particular order on wooden straight-backed chairs turned to face the center of the group.
“I wanted to meet briefly among ourselves before we go on about our duties,” said Culich. “I’ve decided to call a Gathering of the Clan for when we return.”
Many eyes widened at the news. “A Gathering!?” exclaimed one boyerman. Several boyermen nodded, as did Kennrick and Luwis.
Yozef and Maera already knew Culich’s intent.
“Whatever happens at the conclave, every Keelan clan member deserves to know what we face. I realize there’s a danger of panic and despair taking hold, but after the initial shock, I believe knowing the truth will have two longer-term effects. One is that we’ll get the best possible effort from the most clanspeople, if they realize the severity of the threat. Yes, there will be those who collapse and become less productive, but overall it will get the most effort out of the entire clan.
“Second, it will eliminate questions or grumbling about the necessity of actions we must take. We can’t spend time arguing or convincing. The people just have to do.
“Kennrick, I’ll leave you in charge here when the rest of us go to the conclave. You’ll need to make the arrangements to send out the formal notice of the Gathering, as well as prepare to feed and house those thousands coming. Naturally, we don’t expect every single clansperson to attend, but we can squeeze many thousands into the Great Hall. Although it won’t be comfortable, packed together, we need as many as possible to hear what I’ll say. It also won’t hurt people to feel other clan members pressed against them to reinforce that we’re all in this together.
Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4) Page 12