On the Rocks

by Peter Rhodan

  “Yes sir.” He waved an arm in a sort of a salute. “Right you heard the man. Let's go capture us some horsey boys!” He bellowed jovially and the militia men let out a yell.

  Arturo turned to where Meries was. “Form up your century and march to the crest over there.” He ordered pointing forward. “Two ranks, and get the drummers going. The more impressive the better!”

  Meries saluted and began issuing orders to get his men formed up. The militia men were surging forward between the stakes and Arturo cantered over to the other side of the field, swerving to avoid fallen men and horses. A couple of wounded Imperials huddled together at one spot looking fearful but Arturo did not stop. “My men will see to your wounds.” He yelled as he rode past.

  On the other side of the field Radovas already had his men forming up. “Good man.!” Arturo commented riding up. “Get them lined up along the crest on the left of the cavalry. Two ranks. Drums and flags. The more impressive the better.”

  Radovas saluted. “Primarius.” He was smiling. This had all been too easy. Arturo doubted that a single man had been lost. They had been certain that if Maximus did fall for their plan he would have at least advanced in an ordered manner with his whole two hundred cavalry in a compact mass. Arturo’s Agincourt vision had been replaced by something more akin to Admiral Intinov and the battle of Sartor where the idiot had kept shoving his ships through the wormhole in the face of an enemy strong enough to destroy his ships as fast as they transited. The carnage had only stopped when the Admiral’s flagship had gone through and been blown to bits as well.

  A soldier ran up carrying something bloody and reaching where Arturo had positioned himself turned what he was carrying to show it was a man’s head. “This is Maximus, sir. Radovas thought you would like to see his head!”

  Arturo tried not to visibly shudder at the rather horrible sight. Space combat was not so, um, graphic, he thought to himself. “Very good ah...?”

  “Davyn, sir.”

  “Excellent Davyn.” He paused and realised that maybe it would be of some use. “Mount it on a spear Davyn and follow me as quick as you can.”

  “Sir!” The man answered and ran off to find his spear, or at least Arturo assumed that was what he was doing. In short time Arturo crested the ridge as Oween rode up. Valerius had his cavalry in hand and halted part way down the slope. Across the creek several hundred infantry were attempting to form up, not with a great deal of precision. More men could be seen marching down the road behind the ones closest to the stream. At least forty cavalry huddled together behind the infantry in a disorderly mass, the few survivors of the reckless charge Arturo surmised.

  Arturo rode slowly down the slope, with Oween at his side and passed through his own cavalry and took up a position pretty much where they had waited the first time. Valerius rode forward to join them with a grin splitting his face. “That was unbelievable!” He laughed.

  Arturo smiled then waved at the enemy across the creek. “They won’t be so easy I don’t think.”

  Valerius sobered but refused to be disheartened. “But they are only Limitani.” He commented implying they would be no match for the Republicans for that reason. They certainly looked a disorderly mob. The second formation was trying to deploy to the left of the first and their poor execution of the manoeuvre would have driven Radovas and his drill masters to distraction.

  As if to highlight the point both of the Republican centuries came over the crest, drums ratta-tat-tatting loudly and the two flags billowing out in the wind. The men carried their shields and spears once more with crossbows slung on their backs and they advanced down the slope and formed up on either side of the cavalry in two straight lines, two deep, with a precision that made the mess on the other side of the stream even more obvious. The drums and colour party stayed up the slope a little behind where the lines formed up but the drums kept beating till the two centuries were in position.

  Davyn came forward with his grizzly trophy now mounted at the top of his spear. “Let us see how they react to the loss of their fearless if stupid leader.” Arturo commented and the three rode forward at a slow pace so Davyn could march alongside.

  They halted on their side of the creek and waited while there was some back and forth movement at the rear of the Imperial infantry. Finally three men rode forward. One was clearly a cavalry officer from his closed helmet and the bloody bandage wrapped around one arm indicating he had participated in the charge over the crest. The other two were dressed in silvered mail with a more open style helmet than the cavalry officer. The top of their helmets were crowned by red crests of some material, probably horsehair he thought from his admittedly limited local experience.

  “I am Arturo Sandus, this is my aide Oween and the commander of my cavalry Valerius Drusus Claudius. And you are?”

  The three looked at each other. They were close enough that the identity of the head on the spear should be readily identifiable. The man on the left, who was of middle height and appeared to be not much more than thirty spoke first. “I am Coel of the Carveti royal house. I command the Cohort of Limitani, this is Brennus who commands the Auxilia Cohort and Augustine Severus who commands what is left of the cavalry.”

  “Greetings. As I told your now deceased Dux I have no wish to fight fellow Romans. My aim is to restore the Republic. Not exactly as it was because the Empire is too big now, but as far as possible restoring the rule of the Empire to the Roman people, that is all Roman citizens throughout the Empire. The emperors have had several hundred years where they have done little except waste the resources of the Roman people in excessive pomp and fighting other would be Emperors. Yet have allowed barbarians to attack the Empire at will with little fear of any retribution. Their time is at an end!”

  He paused trying to gauge their response but so far they were keeping their faces bland. “The Empire was built by the Republic, not the Emperors. Of the three major conquests that were managed under the early Emperors, Britannia is the last piece left and even it has been cast off by Honoroius who has told us all to see to our defence here in Britannia.” This last statement did cause Coel to nod.

  “Yet does he do anything of real import? No. He lets barbarians wander around Italia, sack Roma, invade Gallia and Hispania as they please and does nothing except order his commanders to fight any other Roman commander who does try to stem the barbarian depredations.” This was a reference to Constantius the Third, last real Dux of Britannia who had taken the bulk of the remaining garrison to Gaul and fought there against the barbarians until Honorius had seen to his capture and death.

  “Well enough is enough. I will restore the Republic and replace these power hungry thieves with real generals who can carry the fight to the barbarians. I will restore the wealth of the towns and cities by encouraging trade and not impose impossible taxation burdens on them. I will encourage the small farmer and not tax them into debt and servitude and I will restore the schools so that our children will grow up able to read and write and run the Empire in their turn with some idea of what to do and how to go about doing it.”

  Their faces remained bland so he brought out the big stick. “I would rather integrate your forces with mine and have us go forward together but if you would rather join Maximus here that can be arranged too.” He beckoned back to the colour party where a man blew three loud notes on a horn. Shortly thereafter a horn sounded three notes off to the left behind the left flank of the Imperial force. Almost immediately it was answered by another off to the right.

  All three enemy commanders started at these unexpected sounds and glanced at each other although they quickly schooled their faces back into non-communicative blandness. The implication given out by the trumpets was that Arturo had more forces than just those here, arrayed on both their flanks. This sudden revelation had at least shaken them up a little, turning their heads to one side and then the other as the trumpets blew indicating the previously unsuspected Republican forces. Coel turned back to face Arturo apparen
tly considering things slightly differently. “What do you propose?”

  Arturo breathed a sigh of relief, secretly. All he had to do was make it reasonable enough. “Your forces and mine will be integrated. From the look of it my men are better trained and are well versed in the use of a new type of manuballista, the effectiveness Augustine there will attest.” He paused for a moment trying to construct in his head the right way to say the next thing. “All the senior officers, such as your good selves, will have to accept positions a little below what they have now so that they can learn our methods easily and so they can earn my trust.“ He looked hard at all three but they remained stone faced. He smiled at their hard expressions.

  “It will not be long before you will be promoted back to the current ranks I imagine. And further increases in rank will be dependent on ability more than anything else. Those men of yours who are not married or otherwise tied to Lugowalion will be merged with my first century and based at Dervent. The others, those who wish to continue as soldiers, will be merged with my second century and based at Lugowalion. The same with the cavalry, some of your survivors will be moved to Dervent and half of my men moved to Lugowalion.”

  The three officers remained blank faced and Arturo felt himself getting frustrated at their lack of response. He thought his terms generous enough and hopefully their lack of enthusiasm did not mean they would decide to fight after all. “All officers and men will be paid according to the pay scales my men have been under since their formations were created. This business of men being paid in food will be altered back to them being paid in coin.” This last appeared to jolt them.

  “You have enough coin?” Coel asked, apparently surprised that this would be so.

  “At the moment yes.” Arturo said although that was not really true. Still there was plenty of gold to be had on his ship and the battle armour reserve was immense, if only he could work out how to pry it loose. Now that they had resolved their problem with Maximus in such a permanent way he could investigate Oween’s assertion that there was silver in the mountains to the east. Besides, he had no doubt that once a monetary economy was re-established at Lugowalion, large numbers of hoarded coins would re-appear as had happened at both Dervent and at Wern once people saw his coins being used readily.

  “I intend to conduct a proper census before winter fully sets in and begin proper taxation of the local populace as well. At a much lower rate than they were taxed previously but with none of the exemptions that occurred under the old system. From what I have been told about it that system largely favoured the rich, absent landowners whose estates are worked by managers and slaves. Well no more. They will pay their share like everyone else.”

  The three men nodded although they did not appear totally convinced. Augustine spoke up. “We had heard you were minting your own coins. Is that right?”

  Arturo waved a hand in sort of agreement. “We have been minting coins, yes. But we have been using old Imperial designs to not cause too many problems and they are to a much better purity than the old coins. Now that things are settled with Maximus..." And he flicked his hand at the head on the spear still being held by Davyn next to him. "There will be a new issue of Republican coins which will form the basis of our economy. I will be blunt. There will be many changes under the new Republic. We have new ways of conducting business and many new ideas regarding industry and farming, for that matter. I am a foreigner as you may have heard and many of the new things are based on knowledge from my people which I am trying to pass on. As You can see, I am not an engineer or tradesperson, so it takes time and experimentation to things I know of into practical tools or devices, but things are changing now and will continue to do so.”

  Brennus spoke up for the first time at this point. Arturo decided he was a German of some type from his accent which was very similar to that of Radovas. “I saw one of those new ploughs you have been making down there. Very clever. Just where are your people?” He said suspiciously.

  “Well not anywhere around here. I was shipwrecked here by accident.” Arturo said then paused a moment before continuing. “My people are more advanced in many ways than you Romans and I have been trying to introduce some of the things we have to help improve not just the economy but also people’s lives. It is not easy as I am just a ship’s captain and in many cases I need to develop the tools needed to make the tools to make the thing I was originally aiming for. It is a long and slow process I have discovered.”

  He paused then smiled. “But in the longer term it means that this part of the Empire will be the beneficiary of my knowledge first. Things will spread from here to the rest of the Empire as the Republic advances. And it is not just our economy will be made better. In time there will be better weapons, better ships and better training for our military, better health care and transportation for the people and a sense of belonging to something again like in the old days when being a Roman meant something.”

  “And you will pay for this how?” Asked Coel who still looked suspicious.

  “To a large extent it will be self-funding. Those ploughs Brennus mentioned will allow farmers to plough their land in maybe two thirds the time it took before. They can either use that extra time to bring more land under cultivation or work on some other project. Either way they now produce more for the same given time. We produce cloth a good deal more efficiently than anyone else locally now too. You can see the uniforms of my men. The women who wove it are now selling excess cloth to the Votandi and the Scotti who trade along the coast and the local trading ship is selling our stuff further south as well.”

  He studied their faces. “This is just the start. The cloth those women sell to the barbarians is bought with silver, gold or other valuable commodities. Taxes will be paid out of those sales and the army paid from those taxes. Economic theory and understanding monetary matters seems to be something you Romans have been very poor at and it is something I will use to give the Republic a decided advantage as time goes by.”

  Coel looked at him strangely. “Economic theory.” He said as if studying the words. “And this theory will let you conquer the Empire?”

  Arturo laughed. “No. But it will provide a stable base that can produce the means to conquer the Empire. And even more importantly people will come to see that the Republic is the side to be on not just because our armies are better but because people under the Republic are better off. Or people will be richer, healthier and with generally better lives than those who remain under the Emperors. The future starts here gentlemen. Do you want to be a part of it?”

  The three officers looked at each other without actually saying anything. Augustine turned back to Arturo. “Your cavalry have their feet in something attached to their saddles. I am assuming that it enables them to wield those kontoses one handed while carrying a large shield in the other. Is that right?”

  Arturo nodded. “That is one advantage they give yes. They also help new riders to learn quicker. My men are also better trained at other things. For instance are you aware your army has been shadowed by my scouts since it left Lugowalion?”

  All three appeared startled at this. “Truly? We saw no one.” Augustine said.

  “I was informed by rider in Wern before lunch yesterday that you had left Lugowalion. I was kept constantly updated as to your movements the whole time since. Because I knew which road you were coming and how fast you were marching I could prepare my little surprise here. This is just one of the things you will need to learn serving the Republic. The Republican army will be the best equipped and most efficient force there has ever been. The question is, are you prepared to bring yourselves and your men in?”

  Augustine nodded but held his peace, obviously deferring to the other two more senior commanders. Coel studied Arturo closely while Brennus looked at Arturo’s infantry on the other side of the creek. Unlike the Imperial troops who were slouching and starting to get restless, the Republican infantry continued to stand at parade rest ready to fight instantly.
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  Coel turned to Brennus. “What do you think my friend?” He asked.

  Brennus turned back from his contemplation of the Republican infantry. “I think we outnumber them about four to one and that they would probably whip our arses despite that.”

  Coel raised his eyebrows. “You think?”

  “Yes.” The German answered. “Look behind you. Our men are little more than militia and have no interest in this fight. They are dressed like regulars but I have seen real Auxilia Palatani in Gallia. They.” And he waved at Arturo’s men. “Have that same look. Trained and confident.” He shook his head. “Can you make these.” And here he waved at the Imperial troops behind him. “Into real soldiers like yours are?”

  “We can but try.” Arturo replied smiling. Brennus smiled back. Coel looked from one to the other then nodded, muttered something to himself and then rode forward. “Done. Republicans we have become.”

  Arturo rode forward to meet him and clasped forearms first with Coel and then the other two. “Good. We will camp up there tonight.” He said pointed back up over the ridge where the battle had been fought. “My militia will have cleared the battlefield by now. We can have a good meal then tomorrow sort out transfers and command positions.”

  Coel smiled. “So you have more troops still over the crest?”

  Arturo nodded. “I brought the militia of Wern and Dervent as well.”

  “See Brennus. It would not have been four to one anyway.”

  Brennus nodded grimacing. “And how big are your flanking forces?” The German asked.

  “The truth?” Arturo enquired with a smile. Brennus nodded as did Coel, so after a moment gauging the humour of the three men in front of him he decided to tell them the truth. “A cavalry ensign and maybe six troopers are behind you. On the flanks, well they number a cavalry man with a horn and a mate to keep him company.”