Chapter 101: Hamilcar’s Expedition 14
The Northern Coalition’s army rose with the dawn, and began their long awaited march east as soon as they could, yearning to teach these invaders, who were so rampant in their lands the price of their arrogance and barbarism.
Their enthusiasm fuelling their legs with such relentless vigour that they reached their destination a full three hours ahead of schedule, much to the glee of their commanders, who quickly ordered them to begin building the camp.
Though some of the warriors were disappointed, or even displeased by the fact that they wouldn’t be able fight today, as their entire bodies itched for vengeance, and they’d managed to convince themselves that if they reached their destination faster, then they’d be able to face these northern invaders today, if only for a brief few hours, but they would have to bear it for now, as they hadn’t yet spotted even a glimpse of their foes yet. Besides the sun had long since past it’s apex, and the day would soon end to welcome the ascent of the night, and it was obviously better to welcome it with a comfortable bed and a stomach full of hot supper than to do so tired and hungry on the hard ground, after a day spent fruitlessly.
So they began erecting tents, building fires and so on, all the while fantasizing of their day tomorrow, how they will rise early and rush off to face those slow bastards who spoiled their fun today, then they would face them in a great and bloody battle to determine the fate of their people, before utterly destroying them and then enjoy the glory and praise of a hundred generations to come, as they are hailed the heroes who vanquished the greatest threat their lands had ever seen.
But it is a dangerous thing to get drunk on the figments of your own imagination, as that would inevitably lead to a crushing disappointment, that most never truly recover from, under the merciless hammer of reality; and the first of these disappointments was about to strike them.
Scouts came rushing into the nearly finished camp loudly announcing the arrival of their enemies, and the soldiers rushed past them to behold their most hated adversaries only to see far in the distance, where the horizon met the sky, enormous dust clouds dyed red due to the setting sun, advancing towards them slowly, menacingly; as the booming sound of boots stomping the ground grew louder and louder, while the earth began to slightly tremble under their feet; for a moment making their blood run cold in their veins.
Yet that fear was quickly cleansed by the reignited fire in their hearts, causing them to unleash a deafening roar, as wide grins took hold of their features. They then threw themselves back into their few remaining tasks, their minds once again blissfully drowning in future glory they have not yet claimed and honour they have not yet earned, while simply thinking ’It’s good that they came, so we can kill them faster now and won’t have to bother chasing them tomorrow.’
But while the men were preoccupied dreaming, their leaders were busy at work, gathered in the tent of the Matriarch of the Enkada Clan, Tisiphina, listening to the latest reports of their scouts, which brought a relieved smile upon their lips.
"Thank the Gods. Our numbers are still superior!" One Patriarch exhaled.
"I would call them more than superior, if anything our numbers dwarf theirs!" Added another, his voice exploding from happiness.
"Aye, with nearly two hundred and fifty thousand men against our more than three hundred thousand, it wouldn’t be right but call them an ant before a giant!" A third chirped up.
Though the patriarchs seemed to be in a harmonious relationship, with their earlier quarrel now a thing of the distant past, an underlaying sense of vigilance still plagued the air in the tent, as subtle eyes continuously shifted from one to another discreetly, fearing another pair of equally cautious eyes to catch them.
"Numbers alone do not secure victory." Suddenly one calmly stated, breaking the tent’s previous sense of cheer.
Hearing his words one of the celebrating patriarchs contentiously snorted, and said "We are aware, lord Nikod. But is your aversion to joy so great that you can not even allow us such a simple happiness in these dire times of ours?"
This lord Nikod glared at the one who spoke and was about to retort, when the authoritative voice of Tisiphina sounded out "Enough. I did not call you here to bicker like children."
"Yes, my lady." Both men quickly apologised and lowered their heads.
"Amhain, bring forth your plan." Tissiphina called out to her son, who appeared from behind her with a large sand table, upon it drawn to exquisite detail the full landscape of tomorrow’s battle, which primarily included a vast plains separated into two by the Thiar River in the middle.
Amhain then grabbed a handful of wooden blocks and figurines and began carefully placing them on the sand table, before loudly clearing his throat to focus the patriarchs’ attention onto him, as he slowly explained "Tomorrow we will arrange ourselves in three massive columns. The first will be primarily composed of the small clans, the second column will be made up of the middling clans and finally the third column will be mixture of our Enkada Clan and the other large clans. It is also important to note that we must utilise our full numerical superiority, so we will stretch out our lines as far as we can, forcing them to do the same, thus by greatly thinning their ranks in comparison to us to make up for the extra distance they would have to cover."
Amhain then paused and looked at the patriarchs, checking if they had any questions before continuing, and seeing that none spoke he continued "Previous battles have proven that we are not their equal in ranged combat, so to neutralize this advantage of theirs, the first column will immediately commence a full frontal assault on the enemy, this will constitute as our first wave. An hour or so later, the first column will retreat and in it’s place the second column will advance, beginning out second wave; and then finally, three or four hours later, the third column will attack thus completely crushing the last remaining enemies, which is also the third and final wave. Any questions?" Amhain ended his explanation and asked.
"What will the warriors of the first wave do once they’re had ended?" One patriarch from a small clan asked, trying his hardest to hide his discontent at being used as basically disposable meat shields.
"They will rest for a few hours to regain their strength, then they will be used as reinforcements if needed for the second wave, before finally joining the final assault of the third wave." Amhain calmly stated, which did not help much in quelling their anger, but they had no strength in which they could empower their words, as they are naturally the weakest and thus their voices carried the least amount of weight.
"Would it not be better to utilize them as flanking forces?" Another patriarch suggested.
"I’m afraid not my lord, as that would simply spell their end, since the enemy possess fearsome cavalry that they call the Diaomedes Knights, which are far and above the capabilities of the first wave’s men ability to handle. And if these elite cavalry were to catch a whiff of our men, especially in the open field, it would a slaughter, even if we greatly outnumber them." He quickly reasoned.
A few more patriarchs asked for more clarification on some other issues they perceived, before they were all satisfied with the simple, yet effective plan; since for an army as large and hastily assembled as this one, simple and straightforward were the best option.
The patriarchs then began to leave one by one, excusing themselves to inform their officers of tomorrows plan and to prepare the necessary arrangements.
After they all left, Tissiphina looked at her son and asked "Diaomedes Knights? Did you finally manage to loosen the prisoners’ tongues?"
After the initial invasion and subsequent betrayal of dozens of clans, the patriarchs realized something was amiss and subsequently launched an investigation on the matter, and discovered that their lands had been infiltrated for months.
So they rushed to apprehend the perpetrators, unfortunately these ’rats’, as they called them, were far too cunning to fall into their traps and fled, disappearing with little trace. Thankfully two of the rats were not as clever as their other kin, and were caught by the men of the Enkada Clan.
And ever since then they’ve been subjected to every cruel trick in the book to force them to reveal all they knew about the invading army. Yet they kept their mouths shut, and whenever they did open their mouths to stop the pain, they would claim ignorance, saying they did not know anything about any forces or generals the empire has sent; which was true as Alexander would never allow his plans to be ruined by such an over sight, so he purposefully hid any and all information about the invasion from all the diplomats that were sent.
Eventually Amhain began to believe them, and started asking different questions, which finally provided some results. Such as how he knew about the Diaomedes Knights, he went to the two malnourished, half dead prisoners and described to them one of the forces his enemy held, and when they heard his words, the two diplomats, tortured and humiliated beyond all reason bellowed out in ecstatic laughter, proclaiming that the monstrous Diaomedes Knights would make fodder of them all.
Hearing this, Tissiphina looked fondly at her clever little boy, even though he was already a man in his late twenties, and asked expectingly "Did they mention anything of their commander."
But to her disappointment, he answered by shaking his head and saying "Nothing we don’t already know. His name is Hamilcar Seth, he is called the Martial Demon and he’s supposedly the greatest warrior of their so called Eclipse Empire. They made no mention of his martial rank or weapon of choice." He finished with what he knew his mother was most desperate to find out.
Hearing his words, Tissiphina grew quiet yet again, and mentioned for him to leave her alone. Her face was as cold and inexpressive as ever, yet her eyes shone with a complicated light, before they again regained their resoluteness.
Meanwhile in the camp of the Eclipse Empire, an hour after Tissiphina ushered away her son, Hamilcar was still wide awake pouring over various reports, the ink on the paper turning into thousands of men fighting in his mind, when a tall, cloaked figure silently entered his tent.