by N. C. Reed
The ride was a swift one. Davies believed in being where he could see what was happening and his tent was less than a mile from the bridges. The three bridges across the Ohi at Loville were the weak point of his defense. Left from before the Dying, these bridges were the only remaining way across the Ohi for wagons and heavy equipment. When he arrived his first impression was not favorable.
“They’re crossing in boats,” he muttered to himself. “Under cover of darkness.” Colonel Pierce appeared out of the darkness, his face grimy with sweat and dirt.
“We can’t hold them, sir,” Pierce told his commander bluntly. “There’s just too many of them. We’re holding the bridges, for now, but it’s a near thing at times, and they’re crossing up and down stream by boats. Thousands of them.”
“Thousands of troops?” Davies asked, considering this news.
“Thousands of boats, sir,” Pierce corrected. “With anywhere from ten to twenty men per boat. There’s no way we can contain that sir. Sooner or later they’ll have enough men above or below us to trap us against the river.”
Davies was stunned. They had planned for boats, of course, but only for raiding parties or as part of an all-out assault against the bridges. The Nor, it seemed, had bigger plans for their boats.
“You see no way to contain them?” he asked Pierce.
“I’m sorry, sir,” Pierce shook his head. “They’re about to put more troops across the river in boats than we can muster against them—and they’re pressing the bridges hard. Very hard, sir. I just don’t think we have the numbers for a static defense. In the field where we can maneuver?” He shrugged. “Then we may have a chance to contain the attack.”
“Do you have any estimate of their numbers? Any feel for the pressure?”
“If I had to guess I’d say we were facing better than fifty thousand troops here, sir,” Pierce didn’t blink. “That’s counting the boats. As for how many may be behind? Waiting for the bridges to fall?” Again the shrug. “I don’t know.”
Nelson Pierce was one of Davies’ brightest, and hardest fighting, brigade commanders. There wasn’t an ounce of back-up or give in the man, Davies knew. If he thought their position untenable, then it likely was. Davies pondered for a few minutes, considering his options. Finally he nodded.
“Very well, Nelson,” Davies spoke calmly. “Hold for a few more minutes, if you can, and give me time to get the command organized for a retreat. We’ll form a mobile line behind you, giving you and your men time to withdraw and get mounted.”
“Yes, sir,” Pierce nodded. He hesitated as if weighing whether or not to speak.
“Yes?” Davies asked.
“Hurry, sir. I doubt we’ll be able to buy you much time.”
*****
As the most likely unit to face the Nor in any attack, 2nd Corps was one of the heaviest in the army. Most Corps in the Soulan army contained two infantry divisions and one cavalry division, along with attached artillery, quartermaster, and other support units.
2nd Corps was much stronger. Davies had at his command three infantry divisions, two cavalry, and one ‘heavy’ infantry division, troops specially trained and equipped for the hard combat associated with making or repelling assaults. His command had been further supplemented with three divisions of militia, but those units were spread out in penny packets, watching likely crossings along the Ohi, and scouting rural, sparsely populated areas where the Nor might erect assault bridges across the river.
Thus while on papyrus his unit was strong enough to contain even a determined attack, his strength was depleted by the various tasks he had to perform. His regulars had also been pressed into some of those same duties. As a result, he had scarcely three divisions to oppose the Nor onslaught.
While the Nor faced him with twice that many, at least.
Once his command was rejoined things would be different, he told himself. With his command unified against the Nor, his men would be able to withstand their assault.
But in order for that to happen, the men involved in this attack had to withdraw in good order, preserving their remaining strength for that better day, and they had to accomplish that while taking as much of their equipment and supplies with them as they possibly could.
With that in mind, he began barking out the orders he hoped would bring that about.
*****
Colonel Pierce watched cautiously as the attack against his force holding the bridge barricades seemed to intensify. Until now, the Nor had been content with keeping up a steady pressure against the entrenched troops around the bridge. Flights of arrows had wounded hundreds of his men despite their protective environs and a steady fire of flaming artillery projectiles had started a number of fires.
His men had been able to extinguish the fires, but the cost was heavy. While they were fighting the fires, his men were exposed to the seemingly endless waves of archery fire. The brigade entrenched around the bridges was slowly melting away.
“Sir, there’s a large force moving up on our western flank,” a breathless runner appeared out of the smoke filled gray of early dawn. “Captain Sands says that a number of the boat landings appear to have mated up and are moving on his redoubt in considerable strength.”
“What does he consider. . .considerable?” Pierce asked, almost laughing as he heard the words aloud.
“Around five thousand, sir, in this group,” the runner informed him. “There are signs of others behind them. Torch lights, lanterns and what have you. No way to judge what’s behind them, or how many.” Pierce nodded, noting the light. The sun would soon rise fully as dawn gave way to full day. What would the coming light reveal?
“Advise Captain Sands to hold his position for now,” he ordered the runner. “We need to buy as much time as possible for the General to get things organized.”
“Sir,” the man saluted and hurried back to his Captain. Pierce watched him go, hoping the young man made it.
“Sir!” another runner rode up, leaping from his horse. “Captain Early reports a large enemy force approaching the eastern redoubts! And his position is taking light artillery fire as well!”
That did it, Pierce decided. The Nor were now across the Ohi in sufficient numbers to make his position untenable. He motioned for his aide and a courier.
“Inform General Davies,” he ordered the courier, “that I intend to withdraw fighting, starting roughly fifteen minutes from now. We are about to be cut off. Staying here will not stop the Nor advance.” The courier nodded and hurried off. Pierce turned to his aide.
“I want the wounded loaded, ready to go, in ten minutes. I want no one left behind. Understood?”
“Sir, I don’t see how they can - ” the young man started, but Pierce cut him off.
“I don’t care how they do it! Just get it done! They have ten minutes. Take the reserve company to assist in loading. GO!” He shouted when the young man seemed to hesitate.
The aide went. Pierce turned to the runner from Early’s position.
“You heard my orders?” The man nodded.
“Then inform Captain Early.” Pierce dismissed the man, waving a nearby runner to him.
“Ride to Captain Sands redoubts and inform him to be ready to pull back in fifteen minutes. Go!” The man was off. Pierce wasted no time, instead ordering more runners off to his company and battalion commanders.
He didn’t want to lose any more of his men than the fate and fog of war would take from him.
Soulan would need them all. Soon.
*****
“Pierce is about to fall back,” Davies told his assembled staff. “He can’t hold the bridges and his brigade will soon become enveloped by troops that crossed by boat.”
“Tell him to hold to the last!” Brigadier General Ran Howard demanded. “We can organize a counter-attack and still. . . .”
“Ran, we’re beat,” Davies told him quietly. Howard was a good man, but he was too apt to sacrifice men under his command in the name of honor, rather than r
eason. “We can’t win this battle and that’s a fact. Since we can’t, there’s no reason to sacrifice Pierce and his men in a futile gesture. We’ll need every man before this is over, Lord knows.”
“But we can’t just abandon our. . . .”
“We aren’t abandoning anything!” Davies snapped. “And I don’t have the time, the Kingdom doesn’t have the time, to stand here debating it. Now I’ve given orders and I expect them to be carried out! Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Howard nodded, all business. He didn’t like it, but for all his misguided notions, Howard was a good soldier and officer.
“Now, I want 2nd Brigade mounted and the 1st Cavalry Brigade standing by to give Pierce and his men time to get their wounded to wagons and get mounted. After that, I want the entire 2nd Cavalry Division in position to screen our movement. Support them with our best mounted archers. Any questions?”
No one had questions.
“Then get moving. We’re out of time.”
*****
Across the Ohi Lieutenant General Gerald Wilson, the commander of Norland’s 1st Field Army, watched from a tower built for that very purpose as the vaunted Soulan Army scattered in apparent confusion. He turned to his Chief of Staff.
“We’re going to do it, Charles,” he gloated. “We’re going to trap them against the river and destroy one of Soulan’s best Army Corps on the first day of the war!”
“Perhaps, sir,” General Charles Daly replied, examining the far shore through his glasses, “but they are still fighting and our casualties have been higher than expected.” He lowered his glasses and faced his superior.
“Far higher.”
Wilson fumed inwardly at the laconic reply, but held his tongue. He’d chosen Daly as his Chief of Staff due to his kinship with the Emperor. It wouldn’t do at all to toss him from the tower in a fit of rage. Something Wilson was known for.
“Casualties were to be expected,” Wilson waved away the comment with a hand. “This is one of Soulan’s best units and it is led by one of their best field commanders. Expecting him to simply roll over and let us walk across the bridges unopposed is unsound thinking but our enemy’s position is tactically untenable. Our victory is assured.”
“Not if he withdraws,” Daly replied, still watching the battle. “If he manages to elude destruction and withdraw with the bulk of his command intact, then half of our primary objective will be lost.” He lowered his glasses once more and turned to look directly at his commander.
“The Emperor expects us to destroy this Army here. Today. If we do not. . . .” Daly trailed off, leaving the consequences of failure hanging unsaid.
“He won’t withdraw,” Wilson scoffed. “Davies has too much pride for that. He will stand with his command until the last man and die before surrendering. It’s his way.”
“Very well,” Daly shrugged, and turned his glasses back to the bridges. He stood quietly for a moment, examining the events just across the river.
Suddenly, wave after wave of mounted horsemen appeared in his view. As Daly watched, half of them dismounted and formed a shield wall in front of those who remained on horseback. Daly almost smiled as he switched his focus to the bridges.
Sure enough, the Soulan troops manning the bridge barricades were falling back, covered by a few last artillery rounds and flight after flight of arrows. The Soulan General had saved his men, and their arrows, for this moment.
“I think you may want to see this, sir,” Daly commented over his shoulder. He managed not to smile as he spoke. He didn’t even sound too smug.
*****
“By the unit!” Pierce called loudly, then waited. Soon he heard his command being echoed up and down his line.
“Fall back!” he yelled, and half his men withdrew at a run for one hundred feet, forming a new line. As men fell wounded, others grabbed them. Those who died were left behind.
Pierce walked slowly back to the new line, knowing his men were watching him. It was important that he not look rattled. Hearing what sounded like a covey of birds overhead, Pierce smiled. He looked up in time to see a second flight of arrows, thousands of them, sail overhead. General Davies had promised him cover, and he’d delivered.
“Second rank READY!” he cried over the din of battle. As the new line settled in, those remaining on the line prepared to leave.
“FALL BACK!” Pierce ordered, and again the call was echoed over the field. The second rank turned tail and ran for the shield wall. Pierce watched in grim satisfaction as his men managed to withdraw in the face of such overwhelming numbers, mindful of their comrades, helping their wounded brethren. It pained him to see so many laying on the ground, beyond any earthly help.
That’s war, he thought darkly. It’s costly.
As his men continued to pull back, Pierce followed, walking calmly. He arrived at his horse, held by his aide. He swung into the saddle, followed by the aide. There were five men around him as a guard.
He waited until his men were all mounted. He was proud of them, sitting there calmly. They’d held out against staggering odds for almost an hour and left many of their friends on the field of battle, yet they were still strong. They were still willing and able to fight, but they were done for today.
There would be another day, however, and another, and another. Pierce wondered for a second how many of them would still be alive at war’s end. He was glad he didn’t know, he decided. Better that way.
“By column!” he ordered. “Move OUT!”
The Army of Soulan’s 2nd Corps was retreating for the first time in memory.
Pierce knew it wouldn’t be the last time. This wasn’t like previous invasions by the Nor. They weren’t sloppy, disorganized bumblers as the histories had always portrayed them. Either the histories were distorted or this time the Nor were ready.
Pierce didn’t know which was worse.
*****
War would come to more than just 2nd Corps today.
General Roland Raines rode along the defenses of the Great River Bridge in Shelby, surveying the handiwork of his troopers. When warning had reached him from Nasil that the Nor and the Wildmen had struck a deal of some sort, he had immediately went to work strengthening the aging defenses along the Great River.
Shelby was a teeming river port, the largest inland part in all of Soulan. Both imports and exports passed through the dock on almost any given day, but it was long since there had been a credible threat to the mighty city and Raines admitted, if only to himself, that the fault was at least partly his own.
His men had worked steadily for the past weeks, strengthening, rebuilding, and adding to the defensive line. This bridge was the only link between Soulan and the Wild Lands of the West. It was one of only a handful of bridges across the Great River that remained from before the Dying and had once been a major trade route according to historians.
To Raines, it was an invasion route. One that his men had worked diligently to plug. True, a determined enemy with sufficient strength might still force his way across it, but the price would be horrible. Raines’ artillery was well placed and already zeroed on the bridge. Any force that tried to force such a crossing would find the going difficult, and costly.
He didn’t know if that would be enough, but Raines also had other problems. While the bridge might be all but impassible to an enemy army, the river was another matter. Boats could easily transport enemy troops to the Soulan shore and there wasn’t much he could do about it. He had been granted one division of Militia, one each from Tinsee and Misi provinces. Thankfully both had been cavalry divisions and he had placed both of them to patrolling the shores north and south of his position in Shelby, on guard for any attempted crossing.
But those troops could only monitor so many miles of shore and there was a lot of shore. The enemy could easily cross over deep in Misi province, or north of him, into the upper Tinsee. If they managed to gain a foothold then Raines would be forced to weaken his defenses at the bridge to try and smash that
beach head. To the north the terrain was on his side and there simply weren’t all that many places for a successful crossing in large numbers.
The south, however, was another matter. For hundreds of miles the river rolled along Misi’s western border, with few bluffs or other obstacles to stop them. Local militia’s had been alerted to watch for signs of crossing but, again, there was only so much that could be done by so few men.
Raines sighed, rubbing his temple as all these thoughts threatened to erupt into a headache of gargantuan proportions. His companion noticed this action and frowned in concern.
“Sir, are you alright?”
“Yes,” Raines nodded. “I’m fine Billy. Just thinking on how many things could go wrong…and how little I can do about it.”
