by Neo B.
The ruse of abandoning the palaces had worked well. Dinul and his men were angry. They did not know to react. They had expected to find some sleepy soldiers and some sleeping noblemen to kill and all they had got were empty hallways and emptier rooms. There was not even a man to kill.
As decided earlier Dinul and his men had gathered at the open ground near the north wall after the failed attack and all the five teams were standing there. Dinul asked each team if they had any luck, but he knew what the reply would be.
“Looks like they knew we are coming,” Dinul said, hardly able to control his anger, “How could they know?”
None of his men had seen him angry. In fact, none of his men had seen him betray any emotion and they were surprised.
“They think they can run away and escape us?” Dinul addressed his men.
“No!” The northerners yelled in unison.
“We will still get them,” Dinul yelled.
“Yes!” The northerners yelled again in unison.
A few hundred meters away Karkish and his 5,000 men strong unit had also formed an attack line. They were ready to defend their kingdom and their country against all attacks. The shouts coming from a few hundred metres away were rousing them into a fit of frenzy.
“It is the time to defend ourselves. What we do here will guide the fate of the war. Our brothers, sons, and even fathers are fighting a battle thousands of kilometres from here and for a change their fates lie in our hands. We will not let them be stranded. It is time we strike fear in the heart of these men who have come from the north to take what belongs to us. If they had come as guests we would have welcomed them with open arms, but they want to take what belongs to us by force and we will never ever give it to them,” Karkish addressed his men.
“They wanted to kill us while we slept, that is what cowards do. We will defeat them as brave men. We will show them how men fight. Today, let them know we are here.”
Karkish blew on his conch and all the men shouted at the top of their voices in unison. It was a sound that could be heard kilometres away and the men who were standing only a few hundred metres away were silent, but unfazed.
As soon as the conch had been blown the men lit up thousands of fire and torches that had been specially kept for this purpose. In an instant, the darkness of the night was replaced with the light of the torches. The torches had a miraculous effect on the morale of the soldiers. Not only did the lights chase the darkness of the night away, the light chased the fog of fear out of the soldiers’ hearts. There was another huge shout from the soldiers.
Dinul’s men did not know fear. In the wild, fear was your greatest enemy. You fought and you either lived to see another day, or you died. That was it. Being afraid did not help you. Dinul however realised that as savage and fearless his men may be, they were outnumbered. He had to quickly come up with another plan.
“It won’t be easy, but we have to beat them. Tonight is our night.” Dinul screamed at the top of his voice, as he moved forward to attack.
His men followed him without a doubt.
In a few seconds, both of the armies were standing man to man. Five hundred, against five thousand. With a huge cry, Dinul’s men fell upon Karkish’s soldiers. Fierce battle ensued for the next few minutes. Karkish’s soldiers had formed the best battle defence they could in the little time they had. The battle lines were holding. Dinul’s men had pushed them back, but where they had set their defences, they were fighting back hard. Karkish was leading his men and Dinul was leading his. It was a battle of the brave.
Slowly, but surely, Karkish was losing his men and Dinul’s men were evening the odds. Finally, Karkish and Agniputra took the head of the defence lines and they stopped the northerners. Dinul realised this and he came forward to fight Karkish.
A battle between the two followed. For a moment the rest of the soldiers stopped fighting and watched the two warriors fight. Both were on a mission and none was prepared to lose. When both armies realised that their leader was taking it upon himself to lead them, they fell upon the enemy with renewed vigour.
Karkish had begun to tire. He had never had to fight someone like Dinul and it began to show. Dinul could see that too and he knew it was only a matter of time before Karkish would give up. Karkish felt that he would not be able to continue like this for long and he had to look for some way to end the fight soon.
The sun had risen on the horizon and with the rising sun visibility became better. It became clear that the loss was greater on the side of Karkish’s army. This renewed the spirits of Dinul’s army and hurt the morale of Karkish’s men. The only thing that kept them going was the way Karkish and Agniputra were fighting. It was evident that the northerners were stronger than the soldiers of Pataliputra.
Karkish was also worried about the people of Pataliputra. He could not imagine their fate if these men were able to get past the army and attack the people. The cruelty of these men was evident in the way they were hacking the soldiers.
Karkish decided to throw caution to the wind and lunged at Dinul. Dinul was surprised by this move on Karkish’s part and he fell back, but the wild lunge had exposed Karkish’s left side and Dinul swung with his sword at his body. The armour was able to fend the attack, but the blow was heavy and Karkish fell. Though he was up in a second, the soldiers had seen him fall and they started to fall back.
A few soldiers attacked Dinul and gave Karkish a chance to get back. Karkish motioned to Agniputra, and Agniputra fell back too.
“This is not going well for us, is it?” Karkish said.
Agniputra did not say anything but he seemed impatient to get back to the fighting.
“It is not helping that we have come here,” said Agniputra.
“We must think of the war and not the battle. These men are turning out to be too much for our men. We are losing our men fast and if we don’t do something fast we will be left with very few men to defend the city,” Karkish said.
“What do you propose,” asked Agniputra, unwillingly agreeing with Karkish.
“We must retreat. We cannot die here. We cannot die today.”
“We cannot leave our soldiers to die here either,” Agniputra said.
“We will leave the city if Dinul promises to not hurt the people of the city,” Karkish proposed.
“Do you think we can trust him?” asked Agniputra.
“What choice do we have?” Karkish asked.
“To fight till we kill each and every one of those men,” replied an angry Agniputra.
Karkish looked around him. His soldiers were doing all they could to keep the northerners at bay. He was faced with a difficult choice. If he asked his soldiers to fall back, it could be devastating for their morale. He wasn’t sure if he could rally them to fight the northerners again. If he didn’t fall back there was a fifty-fifty chance that they could beat the army back, but if they couldn’t and they lost, everything would be lost. It was a choice that could never be undone.
“What are you thinking, my king?” Agniputra was impatient.
“Let’s fight, till either they are not standing or we aren’t,” Karkish roared.
Agniputra smiled and he joined Karkish’s war cry and they fell upon the enemy once again. Seeing their king and commander resume the war, new hope was infused in the soldiers, and the sun shining brightly on them added further fuel to the fire in their belly. They attacked the northerners with greater energy. Dinul’s men for the first time were forced to fall back.
Soon, it was obvious that even though Karkish’s men were getting the upper hand, both sides were not in a position to fight for long at this pace. Both sides had tired considerably, and it was difficult to say which side would give up first. Something had to give.
Karkish looked at his soldiers and he thought it would not hurt them to take a break. At this time, Karkish was once again in a duel with Dinul.
“I think we should take a break, if not for our sake, then for the sake of our soldiers,” Karkish
said between the sounds of clashing swords.
“Tired, are we, brother?” Dinul mocked. He was still wearing a mask, so his face was covered. He unmasked himself and for a moment Karkish was shocked at the resemblance. He had heard about the similarity in their looks, but seeing it himself was something different.
“It’s for the first time my brother has asked me for something. I must give that to him. Shouldn’t I?
Karkish was not enjoying the tone of Dinul’s voice, but he decided to ignore it.
“You should. Your soldiers aren’t going to be able to fight forever,” Karkish replied, “or are they made of something else.”
Dinul looked at his men. He could see that they were tiring and even though he did not want to stop, he realised it was in the best interest of his men that they stop fighting for now.
“We will take a break then.” Dinul said. At least they had the upper hand as it was Karkish who had proposed the rest. He also wanted some time to rethink his strategy.
Dinul and his men were in command of the palaces and the surrounding areas, while Karkish’s men were in command of the rest of the city. Karkish had for now managed to save the people of his city. But for how long, was the question.
Dinul decided to take refuge in the palace of the king. Though he did not know that, it was the strongest fort of the city and 500 men could defend the fort against thousands. Dinul had lost almost a 100 men and with 400 men he was sure of a victory. What he was counting upon was the victory of the five kings, and he was waiting for the message to arrive from the front that the war had been won there. A message to that effect from the fronts would break the morale of these soldiers fighting here and they would easily surrender. Thinking this and not wanting to lose any more of his men, Dinul had readily agreed to the cease fire.
39. The Tides are Turning
Ajaya, Dhartiputra, Angad, Daksha, Jawahar had been sending messages to each other through the special pigeon messengers and they all brought the same news. The war was going in their favour.
The only troubling news was from Agniputra who had written to the generals about being careful. He had warned them not to be overconfident as the enemy could be planning something. He had asked them to do as they deemed fit, and he had informed them that he was in consultation with the king regarding the next move. There had been no further message from the kingdom.
It was Ajaya who got the message from Pataliputra first. Agniputra had clearly warned them to be careful as they advanced. Ajaya was not sure what to make of the message. On the ground they were able to move forward quite easily and he did not see any reason to stay back, He felt that he would be careful, but the time was right to make the final attack on Devendra’s army. The elephants they had, seemed to have lost their way in the jungle.
On the sixth night of the war, as Ajaya and his soldiers were resting after a hard day’s battle, they were surrounded by elephants from all sides. King Devendra sounded his conch and Ajaya’s army was under attack. It seemed that they were surrounded from all sides and they were in unfamiliar territory. King Devendra’s army had waited till nightfall and attacked them from all sides, and there was no way Ajaya’s men could get out of the trap.
Ajaya felt foolish for walking into such a trap. Within seconds soldiers were attacking them from all sides. Ajaya’s soldiers were not prepared for such an attack. The easy victories in the past few days had made the soldiers complacent and this sudden attack had taken them by surprise.
Within minutes the soldiers were scattered all over. Ajaya was a fearless leader and he tried to rally his troops around him.
“Take a stand men, take a stand,” Ajaya was on a horse riding among his men. A few horsemen had gathered around Ajaya and slowly the other soldiers began to take a stand behind them. The darkness was a foe and an ally at the same time. While it made it difficult for the soldiers to get back into a formation, it was also saving them from marauding elephants and enemy arrows.
“We have been beating them these last few days, we will beat them again. Running will make us easy prey,” Ajaya was screaming and getting his soldiers to take a stand.
Arrows were flying at them from all sides. Most of them were missing their mark, but the volley of arrows was scattering Ajaya’s soldiers here and there. The enemies’ soldiers were also attacking them by now. Hardly had they formed a small group, the enemy came at them with double force. There was no way to save the situation. Ajaya was leading the fight back. The whole war was focused on one man. It was the will of one man and the might of an army, that ware fighting against each other. However strong the will may be, it has to give in to a strong army. A strong will can only take you to a certain place, after that you require a strong army and tactical advantage to win a war.
Ajaya soon found himself fighting a losing battle, and he realised that he was losing his soldiers for no reason. He decided that it was time to surrender. He asked his soldiers to give up and stop fighting, if they wanted to do so. He had himself decided that he was not going to surrender, and would rather die fighting. There were a few other soldiers who had decided to go his way. If this was going to be the end, then they would make it a memorable one.
Ajaya and the band of men who had remained with him fought a battle that would have been the stuff of songs and legend, but no one was there to watch it, or write a song about it. The battle was over soon, but not as soon as king Devendra had wished. In his heart, he had to admit that he had met his match in the field. He was also glad that they had chosen the strategy proposed by Dinul, otherwise it would have been difficult for them to defeat the enemy. Seeing his bravery king Devendra had tried to capture Ajaya alive, but there was no way they could do it, as Ajaya would not be taken alive at any cost.
Samvrata was more than happy to follow Dinul’s latest instructions. He had fallen back and Jawahar and his army had done the natural thing. They had followed them into their territory. Samvrata could see that Jawahar and his men had made the mistake. Samvrata and his men had got the time to lure them into a part of their territory that was full of quicksand. The soldiers of Samvrata’s kingdom were well acquainted with the lands and they had carefully avoided the areas that were populated with quicksand.
Samvrata was sure that when they would attack them in the middle of the night, Jawahar’s soldier in order to escape the onslaught would run here and there and many of them would be falling straight into the quicksand. In his heart, Samvrata did not wish for such a death for Jawahar’s soldiers. It would be better for them to die a soldier’s death. But like always, he realised that he was duty bound to the task at hand and he had to do what needed to be done, however ugly that thing may be.
Jawahar had also got the message from Agniputra warning him to be cautious, but he, like Ajaya, felt that they must strike while the iron was hot. Most of the war was being fought in plains and Jawahar could see that Samvrata’s army was not as large as theirs and he felt that the reason they were falling back was that they had not expected such a large army from Pataliputra’s side. Jawahar felt that perhaps Samvrata had underestimated the army of Pataliputra. What Jawahar did not know, was that Samvrata had not called his entire army to the fields. Half his army was waiting right beyond the plains, in the forest, and they were ready to attack at a moment’s notice. For five days Samvrata’s army had been slowly falling backwards and Jawahar’s army had been moving forward.
On the night of the sixth day, all of a sudden in the middle of the night, Samvrata’s men invaded the tents of Jawahar. Samvrata wanted to avoid as much bloodshed as he could, so he decided not to make a noise before the attack. At night the army in its full force crawled through the plains. The visibility was poor at night because of the fog that had started falling with the night.
A few archers had been sent ahead to take care of the scouts and the night watchmen. One by one the archers fell the watchmen, and once they had been killed, the archers signalled the rest of the army to move forward. Jawahar’s army did no
t realise what had happened. Half of them were asleep when the enemy captured them. A few tried to run and they were chased until they ran into the quicksand.
Jawahar who was not sleeping along with a few selected men and was working on a strategy for the next day was shocked to hear about the attack when a soldier came running to his tent. With a few men he chose to take a stand, but they were quickly overpowered. An arrow hit Jawahar straight in his heart and he died a quick death. Jawahar had not got the time to wear his armour when the attack had happened.
Samvrata felt sorry for Jawahar and his men, but he had done the needful and almost half the army had been captured alive. He had tried to shed as little blood as possible. This was the best he could have done.
When Govinda had finally got the chance to attack Daksha, he did not have the advantage that the others had. Because of the terrain and the cautious nature of Daksha, Daksha’s army had become aware of the attack well in advance. They had got a chance to brace themselves and counterattack when the attack happened.
It was the fiercest battle out of the five battles. Men on both sides were ready for battle, and were fighting for pride. Govinda’s men had not been too pleased with the idea of falling back for the five days. They were eager to lock swords and axes with Pataliputra’s men.
When they had got the chance, they made the best use of it. The first wave of their attack had been successful. Daksha’s men had been beaten back, but soon Daksha had led them to the front again and Daksha’s horsemen had pushed Govinda’s men to the back. It was then that Govinda himself had come to the battle to take on Daksha. He had brought his best horsemen and foot soldiers with him.
In the battle that followed both Daksha and Govinda got injured. A stray arrow hit Daksha on the side of the neck. The arrow had lost much of its potency but it had done enough damage. Govinda had been injured as he had taken a hit from Daksha’s sword that had cut him deep. But his wound was not of a serious nature. He fell back too, but he could continue to motivate his troops from behind the lines. Daksha’s wound was of a serious nature and required immediate medical attention. He was in no condition to fight, but he knew that if he withdrew himself from the battle at this moment, his forces would not be able to take on Govinda’s army. He had to be there to guide and lead his army.