Conrad's Last Campaign

by Leo A. Frankowski

  I decided it was time to visit city hall. Perhaps I could register my complaints about their treatment of Poles with the proper authorities. I had to sheath my sword and take up my Sten gun. My arm was just too sore to swing a sword. A couple of times, I had to remind troops that we did not kill traders, blacksmiths, and shop keepers but they were generally pretty well-behaved.

  The administration building was one of the few stone buildings in town. We couldn’t burn it and we needed at least a few of the inhabitants alive. I was too late to join in the assault. The first troopers on the scene had just burst through the doors and captured or killed everyone before they realized they were under serious attack.

  They had gathered the captives on the street in front of the building. While I was looking them over, troopers brought in several prosperous and important looking prisoners. We weren’t looking for prisoners, but the richer Mongols would be questioned. One particularly large fellow was dressed in rich furs and still wore a gold embossed breastplate. The troopers said that this was Batu, one of the head guys. They said they had jumped him as he left his bedroom and still had a damned hard time. To his credit, he was bleeding from several wounds and still had to be both bound and restrained. He didn’t go easy.

  We found a large room with a city map on the wall, set up a temporary headquarters, and sent messengers out to tell the officers where we were. Our lightning raid had conquered the city in a matter of minutes, but it would take hours to clear out the remnants of resistance.

  As reports came in, we identified the foreign enclaves and sent troopers out to guard the ones that were staying neutral and close out the ones that were resisting. Here, we would take prisoners, and rape was not allowed. We probably missed a few and would have to apologize to a few foreign powers later – if we ever got back to Europe.

  It was more important to send excess troops to the docks to protect the warehouses and organize fire fighting where necessary. This looked like a battle, but it started as a shopping trip and we needed the contents of those warehouses. The troops were given orders that no one was to enter the warehouse and that no one would be allowed to leave with any merchandise. Boats were also forbidden to leave.

  By ten, we were able to hold our first staff meeting. As I sat at the desk, a combat medic stripped my armor and began a painful examination. The first report was from the commander of the Wolves. “It took us over two hours sweep the walls. Most of the wall standers were Chinese troops who were impressed by the Mongols. As we agreed before, we let any Chinaman who dropped his weapons leave the battlefield. They didn’t want to be here, and we didn’t want to waste ammunition. By the time we had cleared the first mile, the other positions were deserted. One position was commanded by a real hardass who managed to get his piece turned around and got off one shot in our direction. He took out a nice civilian house before he croaked.

  “We control the entire perimeter of the city; our men man all the gates.”

  “How about the barracks?”

  “Komander Jazinski, your grace, representing Baron Krol. The baron was unable to come in person.

  “The battle is still in progress. Most of the Mongols were still asleep when we hit them and we fired most of the buildings. At first it was a turkey shoot. We finished them off as the fled the buildings and most of them were too smoke addled to get off a shot, but there were about a hundred barracks buildings and we couldn’t get to all of them before they woke up. We now control the perimeter but a few thousand have broken out of the buildings and set up a perimeter of their own.

  “They learned that they couldn’t pierce our armor and developed some new tactics. From inside the buildings or on the roofs, they aim for the face or joints on our troops. When they are out of arrows, they change to their muzzle loaders. They saw that a shot to the head with a large-caliber ball will kill a man even if his armor is intact, so they concentrate on head shots. We’ve lost about fifty killed and two hundred wounded so far and we will have to charge them before dark or lose them. We will lose more men when we do.”

  I signaled to the komander of artillery. “We don’t have our artillery, but there is a lot of Mongol ordinance on the walls, and most of your men used muzzle loaders before we got the new cannons. Get everyone you can find, impress civilians if you have too, and get some of the Mongol cannon pointed at those barracks. Most of even loaded already. A hundred rounds of cannon fire could soften them up nicely and make the clearance project easier. Go now! We’ll have to finish the briefing without you. Sir Jazinski will give you your targets.

  “Before you leave, Sir Jazinski, in your opinion, does Sir Krol need reinforcements?”

  “No, your grace. He has a dozen companies with him and the casualties have been light. There is no more room in either the frontline or reserves to use more men effectively.”

  “Who knows what’s happening on the streets?”

  A Knight glanced around for a moment and then stood. “Lord, I think I can address that as well as anyone.

  “The streets are as calm as could be expected with a battle going on. These people are aware of what happens to losers in Mongol wars. Those that aren’t cowering in their homes or running over the tundra are packed into churches or mosques, praying and waiting for death. My men are avoiding contact with civilians where possible because of their terrible panic. I suggest that we give them several hours to calm down before we begin house to house.

  “A few of the Chinese police put up a resistance, but as soon as they realized that they could surrender, they all went home or over the hills, except for the few that we held on too for to give us directions

  “Early on, Sir Ryszard’s command found an area of rich homes surrounding two rather modest palaces flying personal flags. The baron, as commander on site, determined that it was best to engage immediately, so they split into ten-man groups and stormed the houses, with larger groups assaulting the palaces. They killed about sixty Mongols, but even when it was Sten gun to sword, these boys are tough. They report fifteen wounded and ten dead. There were also a number of civilian casualties as it was hard to tell combatants from non-combatants.

  “The area is secure. You have Batu as a prisoner and the man purported to be his brother lies dead in bed. A good Mongol now.

  “The baron could not break away from his command to report here personally, as he is still engaged in combat. Unfortunately, it was not obvious that the region to the east of the palaces was devoted to residences for the permanent garrison and civil servants. Unfortunately, these people had sufficient warning to act.

  “Most of their fighting men exited the palisade and rode east, probably planning to get reinforcements and counter attack. The others formed a battle group in one of the compounds. While the baron prefers direct action, he is mindful of your order to limit our casualties, so he has surrounded the compound with riflemen and is whittling away them away rather than doing a frontal assault. Time consuming, but effective.”

  I interrupted, “I appreciate the baron’s concern with casualties, as no man’s life should be wasted, warrior or not, but perhaps he could speed up the battle by burning the bastards out or bringing over some of the Mongol cannon to hit the compound.”

  “The baron is aware of those possibilities, but the Mongols are sheltering their families behind them. Burning or blasting would kill more women and children than enemy warriors.”

  “So what? They’re Mongols.”

  “My lord, they are also children and women. To kill them needlessly would be against the Warrior Oath that you yourself wrote. It is neither kind nor fatherly to kill children.”

  I could feel my temper rising again. This day was not going well. I planned to spend a good part of it joyously swinging my sword at the worst bastards in the world. Instead, the only fight I had was with a gate guard and my arm hurt too much to swing a sword. I was stuck here listening to the people who had the real fun – and now my army didn’t want to kill Mongols!

  Sir Ryszard
was one of few of the old nobility who actually believed in chivalry. His rank entitled him to command a battalion but he had accepted the leadership of a single komand in order to join the fight against the Mongols. He was a man who stayed faithful to his wife, his god, and his country no matter where he was. He was a competent warrior, a natural leader, and a man who made my teeth ache.

  My jaws were so clenched that I had a hard time speaking, “You will tell the baron that he has three hours to reduce that compound or, by the God Above, I will burn and bombard it to rubble, no matter who is in it, and if we end up having a few less breeding age Mongols in the world, I will personally have a hard time finding tears for them.”

  He was scuttling out the door as I asked, “Has anyone heard from Sir Gorski?”

  I spent another twenty minutes listening to reports and sending out orders, before my patience ran out. The medic had bandaged my broken ribs and taped extra padding over the one foot wide bruise on my chest.

  This battle was not going to pass me by, but I wasn’t sure where to go. The only good fighting was at the barracks, but someone needed to look over the dock area and see what the island fort was doing. The docks won out.

  When the medic finished bandaging me, I had him help me back into my armor. It hurt like hell where it pressed on my right side and chest, but it was the price of command, so I rested my right arm on the back of my shield, and led my lance out to the docks.

  A few people scurried from place to place, probably checking on family members or businesses, and small groups of our warriors were on the move. I saw a few Mongol and Chinese corpses, but there were fewer bodies no the street than usual in a battle zone, probably because of a speed of our attack didn’t give the enemy time to spread out. In one store front, our surgeons were tending wounded soldiers.

  I always found that odd about battles. In every battle that I have been in, there were hot spots and cold spots. I could be battling overwhelming odds in a fight to the death, so weary I was ready to lay down and die, and two hundred yards away, things would be so quiet a knight could enjoy a little wine and cheese. I could hear the fighting at the barracks, but here it was a stroll around town.

  There were soldiers at the waterfront, and they weren’t ours – or Mongols. In front of a couple of warehouses, men in crimson uniforms stood with crossbows, pikes, and a few muskets. They were Italian guardsmen working for the merchants. As we went by, a knight banner yelled out to them, “Get off the street, you idiots, there’s a war going on!”

  At the waterfront, one of my komanders had four of his six companies of mounted infantry dug on the beach in facing the river front. He kept two of his companies mounted and placed well out on the flanks, almost out of sight, in case the fort commander tried to bypass the beach.

  The komander smiled when he saw me at his side, and handed me his field glasses. “Your grace, I think that you are just in time. After all of these hours, it looks like the morons in the fort are trying to find out what all the gunfire is about.”

  Sure enough, three boats were setting out from the fort. Each seemed to hold ten fighting men, the standard Mongol squad. “Have you any orders, your grace, on how to handle this?”

  I shook my head. “You seem to be doing well, but I might suggest the Lost Legion tactic. The only thing scarier than seeing your buddies get blown to hell, is to never know what happened – to have them just disappear. Your men are so well dug in that the fort may not have seen them yet. You might pull back your men from the beach as soon as you can tell where they are going to land and then take them out of sight of the fort.”

  “A devilish idea, lord, if you will pardon me a moment.” He dismounted and went toward the beach and I decided to pull my lance back out of sight as well. I stayed to watch thirty surprised Mongols meet their maker after they passed by our hidden warriors. Yes, we shot them in the back after they passed our positions, but as the western hero said, “Of course, I shot him in the back. His back was to me.”

  Then I left final instructions for the komander, “This will be your responsibility. If they do not send any more men over by evening, billet your men in one these warehouses and leave only watch on the beach. The men will fight better with sleep and we could have real fighting tomorrow. You know where the headquarters is. Send a messenger there if they come in force.”

  The word from the barracks was that everything was going slowly, but progressing, so I rode to Sir Ryszard’s position. He was still wasting time taking pot shots at Mongols hunched behind the walls in a large courtyard, so I called him over for a conference. “Baron, I realize that you don’t want to kill innocent people, but I need these men dead and I have an idea that will satisfy both of us. As I see it, most of the men are in that courtyard and on the rooftops of the building behind it. We assume that the women and children are in those connected buildings at the back of the courtyard.

  “Now, you will bring over some cannon – I don’t care where you get them - look on the palisade walls – and blow some holes in this side of that courtyard wall. Make an obvious escape route for anyone desperate enough to take it.

  “Then, go about a block up wind of these buildings and start the biggest fires you can. The Mongols will see, smell, and hear the fire coming. When it gets too close, they will panic and try to escape. The opening you make will be the only obvious exit for warriors and civilians. Kill those armed or armored as they come through and capture the women and children.”

  We both knew that it wasn’t going to work that cleanly, but it gave him an excuse to carry out the attack without being immoral and gave me a way to get him moving without humiliating him.

  The rest of the battle was routine. The troops on the island never attempted to relieve the city. We eventually bombarded the fort with all of the Mongol cannon and ball we could salvage and reduced it to rubble, without expending a single item of our modern ammunition. We did loose some buildings and suffered a few casualties when they returned fire, but, eventually, we won the duel. When the final troops tried to leave the fort, we changed to grapeshot and continued firing. They were so demoralized that our invasion of the island a few days later was only a cleanup operation.

  Sir Gorski showed up a few hours before dark, driving an angry mob of armed Mongols in front of him. He was damn near forcing the Mongols to flank us with a counter attack. Fortunately, the baron was able to send a Big Person ahead to warn us. By the time the Mongols got the gate, they were in crossfire from warriors firing from the homes that lined the road near the gate. Not one got through.

  The baron did report that it would have been harder, but most of the Mongol horses and a few of their guards had died in a vicious wild animal attack several nights before.

  Street patrols and house-to-house searches over the next two days led to small skirmishes, but the city was effectively ours the first day. As the fighting diminished, more troops were sent to the warehouse area with orders to billet there and maintain a tight blockade.

  By the time night fell, my bodyguards had cleaned Batu’s bedroom and set up my quarters in the former khan’s palace. The bastard had converted to Islam, so there weren’t any cigars or booze around and the servants, even the pretty maids, had all run away. I spent my victory night in a soft but cold bed comforted only by a little wine found in the Italian quarter and the warm bodies of my bodyguards snuggling on each side. Victory deserved more.

  The next day, we got down to real work. The city was calm enough to allow a staff meeting. We met in the same town hall meeting room as the day before. The military part was quick and simple, but we needed to start working on the next part of our mission.

  My original intent was to just sweep the grasslands, killing every horse we could find, since a Mongol without a horse was just a smelly little man with a bow and some arrows.

  What we had learned during the trip caused me to rethink that decision. The Mongols were decades ahead of where they should be technologically, even considering that they had
seen our equipment in Poland and the manufactory of the rifle we found indicated that they had conquered a large part of China and maybe even the Song dynasty. If so, they had plenty of resources and spare horses.

  That meant that killing their horses and burning a few supply depots wasn’t going to be enough to discourage them. We needed to make a big statement that it was dumb to screw with the Christian Army. After all, the Christian Army was basically a pacifistic organization, and the best way to get peace was to kick the crap out of your enemies.

  We were going to have to go Mongolia, and since Mongol armies often moved in the winter, we had to go now.

  The next day, I sent out an invitation to all of the trading houses to send representatives to at meeting a noon in the town hall. I might have saved my breath, most of them were already there bitching, complaining, moaning and demanding loudly. By the time we let them into the meeting hall, I had two large iron rings mounted about two meters high on one wall, with handcuffs hanging through the rings and whips hanging on the wall next to them.

  I began the meeting as diplomatically as possible by shouting, “Shut the hell up! This meeting is not an open forum and there will be no question and answer period.

  “I have no patience for traitors who trade with the Mongols and my first impulse is to lock you all up in your warehouses and set them on fire. Unfortunately, that would cause a certain amount of unpleasant talk back in Poland, so I am going to do business with you instead.

  “By nightfall tonight, you will present my quartermaster with complete inventories of all of your trade goods and supplies. Tomorrow, he and his representatives will inspect the merchandise in every warehouse and store in this city. They will verify the accuracy of the inventories.

  “As we have no time for lawsuits, courts, explanations, or recriminations, the penalties for lying to or misleading our representatives will be as follows: Any warehouseman guilty of lying to us will be cuffed to those rings you see on the wall to your left and be given twenty lashes. The merchant who employees him will be cuffed next to him for twenty lashes and the hidden merchandise will be confiscated without payment.