The Porfian Princess: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 4

by L J Dalton Jr.

  The three sergeants started to draw up plans for heavy patrols in the city. They made sure that there would be a strong presence in the mercantile area and where the Porfians lived. They didn’t want to see bloodshed and looting.

  In the South

  South of the city, Harlold and his men had established themselves. There were very few incursions by the Guard, and those were small and easily defeated. Unlike what Dedessus had done, Harlold kept his companies together. He wanted a large force to overwhelm anyone who came against him.

  Harlold was younger and more willing to take chances than Dedessus. He knew that and constantly wondered whether he was being bold or reckless. Two days south of the city, he found a perfect area to set up a blocking position. Two hills flanked the road. Harlold realized that if he fortified those hills, he would have a strong position. The fortified terrain would effectively cut off Koronus from most of the south.

  He had his men start to make fortifications on the hills. He also set up a roadblock so that it would be difficult to just charge down the road and get past his blocking position.

  Harlold had his men build palisades on both hills. They ran parallel to the road about twenty yards back from the road and thirty feet above it. They then angled slightly upward from the road towards the north. Finally, they ran perpendicular to the road. This gave the men behind the palisades the ability to fire at enemies approaching on the road and make it difficult for anyone to flank them.

  It took four weeks of hard work to finish the palisades. Harlold’s men used all the trees between the structures and the road. That provided building material and gave them a good field of fire. It also took away a lot of the cover that an attacking force could use.

  While building the fortifications, they also made a comfortable camp just south of their defenses. Harlold was pleased with this. He knew that there were only two villages between his positions and Koronus. He intended to move all the villagers out as soon as they harvested their crops.

  He had lookouts with horses stationed a half day’s ride from the fortifications. They’d give him plenty of warning of any approaching forces.

  When the bird from Dedessus arrived that announced his victory over a large force of Guards, Harlold was thrilled. That evening he called his company commanders and platoon leaders together for a conference.

  Harlold started. “I have great news, Colonel Dedessus has engaged a large force of Guards and soundly defeated them. He took casualties, but they were comparably light. He estimates that the Guard suffered at least forty percent losses if not more.”

  That brought forth some cheers and foot-stomping from the listeners. Harlold held up his hand to quiet the group. He noted the smiling faces all around him, and then he continued, “This could mean several things. First, I don’t think that the Guard is going to try that again. They can’t afford to keep taking casualties like that. Now, what that will mean, I’m not sure.

  It could mean that they will hole up in Koronus, and they will have to be starved out. That will take a good bit of time. It could also mean that they are near collapse and that we’ll be victorious soon.

  Now while I think that they won’t try and engage us with large forces again, that doesn’t mean I’m right. I could just as easily be wrong, and they will send a large force against us. So, we mustn’t let down our guard.

  We need to plan for the other two possibilities. If we must starve them out, we’ll need to make sure the two villages north of us can’t supply them with much. That means putting people near the villages and after harvest moving the people and the harvest south behind our lines.

  The more difficult task will occur when we take over Koronus. Baron Michael emphasized to me the critical importance of maintaining order. Not maintaining order is almost like losing. We’ll have to work with the Guard to ensure that the streets are safe and that there are no looting or revenge killings. That will be up to you and your people.

  During that, Colonel Dedessus, myself, and Prince Arken are going to have to negotiate with all sides to come to something equitable so that there can be as smooth a transition to us ruling ourselves as we can accomplish.”

  That engendered a lively discussion. As the hour got late, Harlold let them know that he wanted them to think about these things, discuss it among themselves, and then they’d meet to start making plans.

  The next day a small group of Guardsmen from Koronus stopped when they saw the fortifications blocking the road. They turned around and headed back north.

  That evening the officers met again. They discussed the scouting party from Koronus. The consensus was that if there was going to be an attack, it would happen in the next week.

  If there were no attack, then they would send a platoon north to secure the two villages. They were not to fight anything larger than a dozen or so Guardsmen. If they were confronted by more than that, they would retreat into the woods and not engage.

  The primary planning objective would be to secure Koronus after the fall of Skelous. Harlold detailed the development of those plans to his two best company commanders.

  Sandford

  When the bird arrived from Dedessus announcing the victory, everyone was ecstatic. Mike cautioned them to be careful about jumping to conclusions. He’d finished his analysis of the key players and convened the ‘war council’ to share his findings. He included Menounos’ wives and his eldest daughter Alla. Alla was included at Catrina’s suggestion. She suspected that the young girl would soon join Arken and Elizabeth’s marriage.

  From a dynastic viewpoint, that made sense to Mike. She was very easy on the eyes, and she and Elizabeth got along well. He also noted her flirting with Arken, and he seemed more than receptive. Mike was able to compartmentalize that eventually, he would be in the same position as Arken. It was something he consciously chose not to think about. It was simply too far outside his frame of reference. Two wives?

  At the meeting, Mike gave a summary of what he had found out about how Porfia had taken over Tantulus and his analysis of the major players. Menounos’ wives were able to confirm the situation in the capital. They also let everyone know that once their husband had assumed the throne and no longer needed a regent, he’d been surrounded by Porfians. With their seeming control of the Guard, he was merely a figurehead. Something he was not pleased with at all. The wives let everyone know that the Porfians had been killing any male children born to the harem. The killings caused a lot of anger. Killing children was one of the worst crimes on Cornu.

  Since the rebellion had started, Menounos had been slowly trying to ease the Porfians out. He had his own Guard commander, a boyhood friend, Jabaro. The Guard could now be counted on to support him. He’d also been trying to bring in more Tantulusians as advisors. In some cases, he had to set up separate organizations, and in other cases, they were inserted into the current organization. They were now in a position to run things, and the remaining Porfians were now superfluous. It was the threat of Porfian reinforcements and civil war that kept the King from doing anything.

  When Dedessus detailed report on the battle arrived. The ‘war council’ gathered again. There was some shock over the scale of the bloodshed. A battle of this magnitude had not happened in a long time. Even when Porfia overthrew Duke Sander, they avoided this kind of pitched battle. Mike was more used to casualties on this scale. He understood that nobody else on the ‘council’ was. In many ways, he was thankful for that.

  Mike pointed out the key factor. “It looks like the Porfians in the Guard were the ones carrying out this expedition. They’re beaten. They don’t have the strength to challenge either Dedessus’ position or Harlold’s without including the local members of the Guard. I doubt that they would be willing to get into that fight. Harlold has blocked the southern road, and Dedessus now controls a good bit of the northern road.

  I expect that this Colonel Petronas will reach out and try and cut a deal. He apparently was willing to promote promising non-Porfians to respons
ible positions in the Guard. I would take that to mean he’s not a fanatic, and I think he can be reasoned with. We hold all the cards, and unless he is very stupid, he knows that. I don’t think that this is a stupid man.”

  Menounos’ wives concurred that Petronas was viewed as a competent military office. He was not somebody that would waste lives needlessly. While he was a Porfian, he treated people as he found them.

  Everyone then discussed what should happen next. Mike said. “The key here is to make sure that Koronus doesn’t devolve into looting and revenge killings. That happened to my country when we overran an enemy, and it was a nightmare. I don’t think we ever recovered from that. Prince Arken, I would suggest that you be present for any talks. You’re an experienced ruler. You also represent the northern kingdoms. This alone will put you in a strong position.”

  Arturos spoke up. “I think I should go as well. The big question is, how can we disentangle ourselves from the Porfians running the economy because they control all the businesses? Emotionally, I just want to kick them all out and take over the businesses. But I realize that is not going to work. It’s going to take a plan to do that, and the Porfians will have to get something out of it for it to work.

  We’re going to find this in all of our cities. So, unfortunately, or maybe, fortunately, Koronus is going to be where we learn how to do this.”

  Arken added. “If we do this right, Tantulus will have control over its economy, which is critical. Also, if the Porfians are treated reasonably, it will lessen the resistance in the other cities. Although what’s fair is probably in the eye of the beholder. We will have to make the Porfians realize how they got these businesses in the first place and why there aren’t any of the original owners around to reclaim the businesses.”

  He looked around. “This is not going to be easy. I should probably leave for Colonel Dedessus’ position in the morning.”

  “Yes, and you should send for me when you are in the city, and it’s safe. I’ll meet you there. I’ll bring Alla’s mother and Alla with me and, of course, little Grace. Alla should add a little bit of legitimacy to whatever you do.” Said Elizabeth

  Catrina added. “I think Noria should go as well. Elizabeth, will you be the chaperon?”

  “Of course, that’s not a problem. Are you and Michael going to join us?”

  “Unfortunately, I’ve got to return to Nordport. My father and grandfather want our child to be born there. I need to get started before Michael has to roll me there.”

  That brought forth a few chuckles. Mike was pretty sure that this was all arranged beforehand. Alla was going with Elizabeth and Arken, and Noria was going to be with Harlold. Yep, this was a setup from the get-go.

  They agreed to send a bird to Colonel Dedessus, letting him know who was coming.

  Sorbor and Petronas

  Lieutenant Sorbor arrived at the Guard’s camp after a two-day ride. He was met by a sentry who had orders to take him directly to Colonel Petronas. Sorbor made sure that his corporal would get his men settled. He set off following the sentry to Colonel Petronas.

  As he was going through the camp, he was struck by how small it was. There weren’t near the number of people that had left Koronus to go out and rid the countryside of rebels. There was also something about the air of the camp. It wasn’t right. Then it hit him. This wasn’t a group that had won a victory, however costly. These were beaten, men. Men who wouldn’t want to go back and face the enemy again.

  While shocked, he kept his composure. When he came to where the Colonel was sitting, he snapped to attention and saluted. Petronas looked up and gave a small smile. “At ease, Sorbor. Thank you for coming so quickly. Most of the wounded are recovering, but the healers and medical supplies will be much appreciated.

  We have a lot to talk about. We’ve reached a crossroads, and we need to make plans to navigate the future without too much bloodshed and loss of life. I’m hopeful that you will be instrumental in reaching that goal.”

  Sorbor took a seat. “That objective sounds good. What exactly do you have in mind, Colonel?”

  “As you can probably tell from the number of people in the camp and the attitude of the men, we were handled roughly by the rebels. They are far more formidable than any of us could have imagined.

  This puts the whole Porfian position in Koronus into doubt. There are not enough Porfians left in the Guard to withstand the rebels. Will the Tantulusians stand with us against the rebels?”

  Lieutenant Sorbor remained silent.

  Petronas read that for what it was, a no. “I thought so. Don’t be upset; if I were in your position, I wouldn’t be all that eager to fight my own countrymen to aid an outsider.

  We are going to need to maintain order in the city and the countryside. If we don’t, there will be blood in the streets, and I can’t predict where that will lead. Porfia would be hard-pressed to standby while its citizens are being killed in Koronus. If Porfia moves, what will the northern kingdoms do? It could be the cause of a wider conflict. We need to avoid that at all costs.”

  When Petronas stopped speaking, Lieutenant Sorbor was quiet for a minute. He hadn’t considered the greater ramifications of the situation. Yes, if there was violent retribution against the Porfians in Koronus, it could lead to a much wider conflict. He looked at Colonel Petronas.

  “Yes, Colonel, I agree that would be catastrophic. We need to do everything that we can do to avoid that situation. I will support you in that wholeheartedly, and I can assure you that the Guard will back that position. None of us want to see this end badly.

  I can tell the rebels handled your men. What happened, and what can you tell me about them?”

  Colonel Petronas sighed and then told the story. “For the first couple of days, we didn’t meet any resistance. Then we ran into our first ambush. It was very well done. They had somewhere between thirty and thirty-five men, at least that’s my estimate. Some of them hid just inside the tree line and fired at our column. They were a couple of hundred yards away and using rifles. They hit about a dozen of our people. A good number of my men charged them across open ground. They managed to get off one more volley. It didn’t do as much damage as the first, but we still took casualties.

  Then they retreated into the woods. Our men dismounted and entered the woods. That’s when the rest of them opened fire. We took more casualties. Then they moved back behind the first group. We just didn’t have the men there to do much damage without being bled. So, our men retreated.”

  As he paused, Sorbor said. “This is a very effective tactic. I don’t believe that peasants could have come up with this on their own. I’m not sure that I would have thought of it. It’s very detailed, the choice of weapons – rifles, not muskets. That by itself is brilliant. These peasants can engage the Guard at a distance and outside of the range at which the Guard can fire back. If they used muskets, it wouldn’t be an even fight, and the Guard would win. The deployment of the men and the leapfrog maneuver that they used. Somebody with a lot of experience was behind this.”

  I assume that you found a way to defeat this?”

  “That somebody with a lot of military experience is behind this worries me. But yes, we did come up with a way to defeat them. Let me explain.

  Our biggest problem was that we didn’t have enough men to overwhelm them when we engaged them at close quarters. The solution was not to send just part of our column against the ambush but as many men as we could. We’d still take casualties, but we could just overwhelm them with numbers when we got in close contact with them.

  That’s precisely what we did the next day when we were ambushed. Almost the entire column charged up the embankment at them. Once we engaged them in the woods with our superior numbers, they took heavy casualties. Very quickly, they broke, and we killed most of them. We took the bodies and hung them by the road to let everyone know that we’d defeated them.”

  Sorbor then asked. “How did you suffer so many casualties?”

  “Just
as we could adjust, they could as well. The next time we were ambushed, we did the same thing. This time the open ground we had to cover had various traps. Holes and ditches that would cause the horses to stumble and throw their riders. Sharpened stakes to impale those riders.”

  Sorbor grimaced and Petronas continued. “When our men finally got to the woods, they found not a small number of men but a palisade fronted by sharpened stakes. There were a good number of men behind the palisade, and they fired into our ranks. At that range, we lost a good number of men. Oh, we fired back and hit some of them, but they were well protected. Then the first group moved back, and another equally large group moved up and fired. We lost even more men. They threw something that exploded and threw musket balls around that wiped out a lot of men. Anybody within a few feet was either killed or severely wounded.

  It just took one more volley after that, and our men broke and ran. It was a rout. It took a lot of work just to get my men organized once they were out of range of their rifles. I know right then that we weren’t going to attack that position again. If I ordered it, I suspect one of my men would have shot me. I know I would have considered it if some officer told me to go back into that meat grinder.

  That’s what happened. Now here we are. It’s clear that the rebels are going to win. We just need to get good terms from them.”

  Sorbor nodded. “I took some precautions before I left. I ordered a small reconnaissance force to scout down the southern road. If they found rebels, they were not to engage but to return immediately. I have no idea what they found. I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a significant force south of the city as well.”