Orosz shook his head. “No, our goal is to prevent the Selfcellese and Eywellese fighting men from helping the Narthani. After that goal is achieved, the clanspeople will be left to themselves, since we assume those men too old to fight and the women and children will either be cared for by themselves or the Narthani. We would prefer the Narthani to spend resources on them, but that’s out of our control. The men of those clans who fight will be killed or captured. No man of an age and a condition to fight will be left behind. Seriously injured will be left for their families or the Narthani to care for, as long as they are unable to fight for at least many months. Any other men will be taken to specially prepared prisoner encampments deep in the Vandinke Province mountains and kept there until the fate of Caedellium is determined. As for our intentions for occupying the Selfcell and Eywell provinces, I’ll let Yozef explain.”
Yozef rose and stood in front of the blackboard. He drew an arc from halfway between Sellmor and the Selfcell/Preddi border on the western coast to where the Preddi/Eywell border ended at the shore of the Gulf of Witlow. “We don’t believe the Narthani will venture north or east of this arc until their reinforcements arrive. However, to encourage them to stay inside Preddi and to give us early warning, we will have company-sized units, about a thousand men total, stay along this arc and patrol.”
He pointed to a dot within southern Eywell. “This is the town of Morthmin—about fifteen miles from the center of our patrol arc. This will be the headquarters for our patrols. A semaphore line runs between Hanslow and Preddi City. Any segments that are damaged during our invasion will be repaired. A new semaphore line is being constructed from Moreland City toward the Eywell border. After our invasion, we will complete an active line from Morthmin to Moreland City and thus to the rest of our network. If Hanslow has been taken or surrenders, the line will go through that city. If not, we’ll reroute around Hanslow.
“However, we hope Hanslow falls to us quickly, one way or another, because we want to use the city as the forward staging site for six thousand men. Their purpose is to move forward, join the thousand stationed along the arc, and the seven thousand will maintain contact with any Narthani army that moves out of Preddi Province. They will keep the attention of that army and slow it as much as possible without major engagements. If the Narthani send out enough cavalry forward from their infantry to seriously challenge our men, they will retreat. We don’t expect a large Narthani cavalry force to get too far from their infantry and risk being defeated ‘in detail’ once we mobilize more men. If they do, then we will reconsider an engagement, but only if we feel we have an overwhelming advantage that justifies the risk in eliminating a large portion of their cavalry.
“What we expect is that the Narthani will advance out of Preddi. We can’t predict their route, but while this is happening, the clans will put in motion what all our preparations have been for. The noncombatant populations of all clans will begin moving to the redoubts, and the fighting men will form units and begin movements, depending on Narthani intent.
“If everything works as we plan,” said Yozef, though he thought the word pray but didn’t voice it, “twenty thousand men will join the seven thousand keeping contact with the Narthani. Their task is to suppress whatever patrols and reconnaissance the Narthani send out from their main force. Again, if conditions warrant, we will engage where we have significant numerical and situational advantage, but the primary purpose is to lure the Narthani army into chasing our main force. We want to draw them deeper into Caedellium and away from their supply base.”
Lordum Hewell raised a hand. “I know we’ve gone over this reasoning, but it still feels dangerous to assume the Narthani will do what we want. With as many men as they’ll have, they could use their ships to attack multiple places around Caedellium. It could be thirty thousand in two different places, both supported by their navy. Or they could use a similar reasoning on us as we hope to use on them. They could use thirty thousand men to keep the attention of our mobile fighters, while another thirty thousand attack any of the redoubts. That many would eventually capture a redoubt, and then they’d have tens of thousands of hostages. I’m sure there are other frightful scenarios I haven’t thought of.”
“I understand your concern, Lordum,” said Yozef. “But let’s consider just your two scenarios. They attack at two different places, but what are their objectives? The people will be gone. They could occupy towns and cities, even burn them, but their goal has to be to destroy the clans’ fighting ability. At some point, they still have to engage us in battles.
“In your second case, they might create the very battlefield conditions we hope to get them to, even if not at sites we’ve selected. The redoubts are strong enough to serve as the anvil—where they attack strong defenses. Not all of you have seen the main Keelan redoubt in the Dillagon Mountains. Trust me, it’s nearly impregnable by direct assault—the ways into the redoubt valleys are so narrow that even a few hundred men can hold against thousands. They would have to go over the mountains, a daunting task that would take months for them to succeed. All the while, we could attack their rear and supplies with our mobile forces. And, depending on their disposition, we could block their retreat, and they could find themselves between two formidable barriers—exactly the situation we hope to lure them to.
“No matter what they might do, eventually they have to pursue our main force and destroy it. Which brings us to the most difficult thing we must do—keep contact with their army with enough men and enough fighting so they continue advancing as we withdraw, until we draw them into one of the prepared battlefields we’ve selected. Which battlefield we end up at, we don’t know—too many variables are involved. The important thing is that we engage enough so they don’t realize our intent but don’t engage so much as to be drawn into major battles where they use their experience and numbers to destroy us.”
Yozef could see from the faces that not all of the listeners felt satisfied with the plans they’d heard. The least convinced were those not present the first time the War Council met. Those who had interacted before had heard all of the arguments and accepted that the plans remained their best chance. Either that, or they had become resigned to the implementation, no matter their personal opinions.
After everyone had heard the summaries and rationales, they used the rest of the day to go over details, but no major changes happened. Whatever the chances to save the clans, the War Council’s decision for the overall strategy and tactics was final.
CHAPTER 23: BATTLEFIELD CANDIDATES
The next day, the party to inspect potential battle sites left Orosz City: Yozef, Mulron, Denes, Gartherid Kennrick and four surveyors, Balwis and one of his platoons as escorts, Hetman Stent with three of his advisors and twenty guards, Owill Brell, and two of the Fuomi—Rintala and Kivalian. The rest of the War Council, advisers, other clan representatives, Maera, and Eina Saisannin remained in Orosz City to continue discussions on logistics, personnel, and intelligence.
Everyone in the party traveled on horseback—much of the terrain they would traverse had no roads and in some places not even trails. There were 83 men in the party, including eight horse handlers, local guides, cooks, and 116 horses carrying riders, supplies, and extra mounts. Yozef took both Mr. Ed and Man o’ War.
The first site was thirty miles due east of Orosz City at a pass flanked by sheer cliffs. Yozef took one look and eliminated the site, because it didn’t have enough room for the Narthani to maneuver. He was afraid they either wouldn’t follow the clansmen into the pass or would be so strung out for miles that the clans couldn’t trap enough Narthani to be decisive. They camped five miles on the other side of the pass and continued the next morning to the site Yozef had already seen after the conclave. He was even more intrigued than on his first visit. By now, Stent had had the area surveyed more closely and had brought in construction leaders to evaluate the potential for draining most of the lake at one end of the valley and damming streams that fed into the v
alley.
At the foot of the valley, they stopped at the edge of the lake. There, what Yozef believed was a medial moraine left by retreating glaciers had deposited gravel and rocks in a raised berm across what was now the middle of the lake.
“My people tell me it should be no problem blasting at this end of the lake to drain it,” Stent said. “The existing channel is over a solid rock shelf you can’t see from here, so the Narthani wouldn’t notice our work. We can include a gate that can be closed whenever we want the lake to refill.
“It’s harder to dam the water that comes into the valley. The large stream, the one running the length of the valley, is more difficult. My people think they can set off charges in the cliffs above the stream and drop enough rock to create a porous dam. Water will still seep through, so the stream will continue, just at a low level. The danger is that the blockage gets breached by the pressure of water rising behind the dam. However, they think it will hold for two to four months—they won’t predict further than that.
“The smaller of the two streams, the one coming in from the western side of the valley, is similar, but there they have more confidence, because they plan on lowering the gorge cliffs at four or five places and forming a series of small lakes. It makes resuming the water flow more complex, but they think that once the first two blocks are breached, it won’t take as much to breach the lower dams, since the water roaring down from the upper breaches will help break through.”
“Sounds good,” said Yozef, “or at least as good as we can expect. Let’s continue and look at the other end of the valley to make better assessments of how the terminal moraine there can be fortified.”
Stent smiled. “Since we’re supposed to be picking three to five sites to prepare as a trap, and since this one looks so promising, I’ve gone ahead and started working on it. Holes have already been drilled into rock faces above both streams in preparation for inserting charges, and the gate and channel below the lake have been started. You’ll also see progress at the other end of the valley.”
Yozef slapped Stent on the back, to the frowns of the three Stent officers. “Outstanding, Welman. “I think you’re right about this site. We may not find a better spot. Besides its features, it isn’t too far from flatter, more open land and it’s not yet into the higher peaks. We don’t want to make it too hard for the Narthani to pursue our force.”
They rode two abreast along the medial moraine dividing the lake, then off the moraine as it turned to the gorge on the left side of the valley and onto flat land. After two miles, they reached the terminal moraine, where the valley narrowed to five hundred yards. The fifty-foot-high moraine stretched across the valley from wall to wall, with the larger of the valley’s two streams flowing through a gap at the east end of the moraine.
“We haven’t started fortifying this end yet,” said Stent, “although we’re bringing in timbers and the cloth bags for Yozef’s sandbag idea.”
Yozef had arranged a demonstration of using sandbags in fortification to form vertical walls. He had a vague memory of two fellow gamesters talking about sandbags’ first known use somewhere around 1880 on Earth.
“If it’s decided this will be one of our possible battle sites,” said Stent, “I’ll have five hundred men here working in a sixday.”
“I like the setup,” said Yozef. “The entrance to the valley is wide at the lake. If we can drain much of it and it dries enough, I can envision the Narthani chasing us into the valley. Once all or most of their army is in the valley, we close the lake outlet and breach the stream blockages. Water will rush down the valley, recreating the lake. There’s no problem with the smaller stream, but the larger one that cuts through the terminal moraine will have to have a solid channel built through the gap, so the water doesn’t wash away the moraine we’re standing on. This end of the valley should only take a few thousand men to stop any attack, since the frontage for the attack is so narrow. One thing you’ll have to do is hack a road up behind the moraine so our men the Narthani are pursuing can get out of the valley and circle behind the Narthani. They’ll be needed to defend the other end, and they won’t all fit here behind the moraine.
“You’ll also have to have cannon batteries covering the stream cutting through the moraine, but I don’t see how the Narthani can fight through the current. The Narthani would also have to fight their way up this 45-degree slope in the face of cannon, musket, and catapults and mortars, if we have them working in time, and we’ll be tossing explosive charges and napalm over the moraine and into the attackers. It’ll be impossible.
“Still, with that many men, they would try to find ways up the slopes of the valley sides, but the going would be so slow, a few hundred muskets would pick them off. The weakness in the plan is the entrance to the valley. If the reflooding doesn’t work, they’ll just retreat. So the only scenario where this site will work is if the flooding is successful, and we can put enough forces on the other side of the lake.”
“The reflooding doesn’t have to be complete,” said Stent. “Under normal conditions, the water is only one to three feet deep, but even half a foot will slow them down, and they won’t be able to bring their cannon into range easily through the water and mud. I foresee two thousand men manning fortifications at this end of valley, with another three thousand in reserve and as replacements for casualties. Another one to two thousand men will defend the tops of each valley side, and fifteen thousand men will block the other end beyond the lake or mud flat or whatever it turns into.”
“If you could hold them for even a day,” said Denes, “another ten to thirty thousand men could be here from the rest of Caedellium. The valley would turn into their graveyard.”
Yozef slapped his riding gloves against a pants leg. “Okay, Welman, let’s assume this is to be one of the selected sites, and you start full-scale preparation. Particularly important is to drain the lake so the ground dries enough to be ridden and marched on. We have other sites to inspect, but as soon as we’re done here, let’s get a larger team of surveyors in and create maps of the valley and the surrounding five to ten miles, as detailed as possible. They’re also to produce reports about what’s on the terrain: what kind of trees and how tall; what’s the brush and grass like; are there springs coming down the valley walls? No detail is too small.
“I’d also suggest widening the path down the medial moraine. We don’t want the Narthani to get suspicious, so let’s turn it into a better road. You should be able to simply flatten the top of the moraine and use the gravel, rock, and dirt to widen it.”
The two Fuomi hadn’t offered comments on the Caedelli conversations, nor had their input been solicited. Both men noticed the omission.
“I would have thought they’d ask us our opinion of this site and this plan of theirs for trapping a Narthani army,” whispered Kivalian to Rintala, when they were temporarily out of the clansmen’s hearing range.
“I get the impression some of them are waiting for Kolsko to ask us, or maybe Stent,” replied Rintala. “I suspect they would rather not have our input where the others can hear us.”
Kivalian turned sharply to look at Rintala’s face. “Huh?”
“Think about it, Reimo. What is your opinion of their basic plan to lure an entire Narthani army into a trap where they can be destroyed?”
The other Fuomi thought for a moment. “I guess I see your point, Jaako. If this is what their leadership has committed to, no matter our opinion, they wouldn’t want outsiders publicly saying it won’t work. Oh, it’s a clever-sounding plan, but there are too many unknowns. There’s no way to know exactly what the Narthani intentions are. They might be satisfied with only controlling part of the island. A few bad defeats in the field or taking a couple of these redoubts might convince the clans to cede a large part of the island to a permanent Narthani presence in exchange for promised peace—not that I’d trust the Narthani as far as I could throw one of those balmoth beasts found on the island.
“And if they wa
nt all of the island, who’s to say how they’ll go about it? Kolsko argues the new army will move to the interior and try to destroy the clans’ forces, but they could as well use their navy to destroy everything within a hundred miles of the coasts and eventually wear down the islanders’ ability or desire to resist.
“Then, to top it all, even if the clans succeed in getting the Narthani army into one of these traps, the worst I’d expect, from the Narthani view, is taking high casualties before they win. Look at this one site we’re at. Draining the lake? Damming streams and releasing the water with just the right timing? Repelling a professional army with inexperienced and relatively unorganized forces? No, far too many unknowns.”
Satisfied with the plan, the clan inspection party continued north out of the valley. The next potential site was also in Stent Province, near a four-corners area where the Stent, Vandinke, Pewitt, and Swavebroke provinces met. They had ridden only three miles out of the valley when Stent slowed his horse to come alongside Mr. Ed.
“Yozef, last time we were here and heading back to Orosz City, you mentioned an interest in Flagorn Eggs. We’ll be passing one of the two in Stent Province in about eight more miles. It’s only two miles off the road we’re on. Do you want to stop?”
Shit! I forgot what Stent said last time. It’s hardly a priority, but if we’re that close . . .
“Yes, Welman, thank you for remembering my interest. If the egg is in a reasonably accessible place, I’d like to have it dug up and shipped to Caernford where I can study it.”
“Uh . . . that won’t be possible,” said Stent. “My great-grandfather gave the nearby village property rights over the small piece of land where the egg rests. The villagers saw it as a point of local pride and income. It’s only twenty miles from our capital, Clitwyth, and the villagers charge a small fee for anyone wanting to see the egg. They also sell trinkets of artwork, such as miniature Flagorn Egg replicas.”
Forged in Fire (Destiny's Crucible Book 4) Page 32