Guardian of Heaven and Earth
-
New Yogo
Part 1 - War
Chapter 3 - The War Begins
If Tokkasam had known that the main Talsh general had already taken the field, he might have had something else to worry about. They crossed over the Tohata Mountains much faster than he'd anticipated.
The Talsh general, Shubal, had played a significant role in conquering Yogo and Orm on the southern continent. He was so famous that everyone in Talsh knew his name. He sat on a folding chair that was simple to carry, surrounded by about fifty men, all with trimmed beards and neat-looking mustaches in the Talsh style. Most of the men were Talsh; they were strong and tall and deeply suntanned from their long travel to the northern continent.
Shubal gazed through a magnifying scope with one eye; the other was shut. The scope was called a Toka Ah Gul, and could be used to see distant things clearly. He surveyed the state of his army on both sides.
Shubal's lieutenant was Ormese; he was looking through his own Toka Ah Gul at his side. The lieutenant chuckled. “A splendid show. Reminds me of the tactics we used in Yogo when they revolted.”
Shubal didn't smile. “I can't believe how antiquated their equipment and formations are. Is this what happens when a country doesn't go to war for two hundred years? I shudder to think what would happen to Talsh without war.”
Glancing over at his lieutenant and spear-wielding guards, Shubal rose to his feet. Sunlight glinted on the spearheads of his allies. “We'll seize our opportunity soon. Pray for the great god Areh to warm our backs and encourage us as we engage.”
His army would have the sun at their backs, which meant that the Yogoese army would be staring directly into it. They'd be blinded.
Shubal closed his eyes for a moment, then muttered something under his breath. The men surrounding him rose from their own chairs, awaiting the words that would formally begin the war.
Shubal opened his eyes, then nodded. He took a red banner flag and raised it aloft.
The man standing on top of the ogal, the siege engine that the Talsh had decided to field for this battle, saw General Shubal's signal flag. He raised up a similar red flag in his right hand. The men on the ground saw the flag, too, and let out a sound like a roar. The Talsh war drummers quickened the beat, playing in perfect time with one another.
Tanda and the others heard the drums as distant thunder, but the meaning of the sound was as clear as words.
“Ready the catapult! Prepare to fire!”
The Yogoese hadn't been certain about the nature of the siege engine. While General Tokkasam understood its basic design, the soldiers on the ground knew nothing about it and were shocked when huge rocks started to fall and crush parts of their line. The stones were lifted with great effort into a strong netted rope, then flung at high speed toward the Yogese army. The inexperienced soldiers trembled in fear.
The Talsh soldiers all took turns hoisting the stones into the catapult and firing it so that they wouldn't suffer fatigue. After exhausting their supply of large stones, the Talsh loaded in enormous arrows and spears that fell in volleys on certain parts of the battlefield. The catapult increasingly focused its fire on the Yogoese cavalry units.
“Bring out the others!” An army engineer called.
There was a terrifying noise, followed by three more catapults springing up, seemingly from out of nowhere, smaller in scale than the first but no less effective. They were set up hastily and fired more and more projectiles toward the distant enemy.
The Yogoese soldiers had no idea how to combat these catapults. They stared at the sky in shock; several were frozen to the spot. There was no place for them to run where the catapults wouldn't reach them.
The men entrusted with shields gripped them fiercely and tried to reform the lines set at the start of the battle, but they were crushed as easily as everything else. Most of the soldiers were out of range of the catapults, but all of them were paralyzed with fear at seeing their comrades decimated so easily. The men who didn’t freeze started running away in droves; the battlefield was complete chaos.
The first catapult released another large stone. The second released a volley of giant arrows at the same time. The projectiles whooshed through the air as they arced toward their targets: the Yogoese cavalry units.
The cavalry units were also stunned; they’d been ordered to stay back to keep them out of danger for as long as possible. No one had imagined that the Talsh would bring catapults or use them in this way.
Many more cavalrymen and horses were cut down as the stones and arrows landed. The Talsh army came up to surround the Yogoese army on the left and right sides while the catapults attacked from the front. It was only a matter of time before the Yogoese force would be utterly destroyed.
Standing atop a plateau in the Yaul Mountains, Tokkasam shouted, “Form up! Attack! Archers, attack those manning the catapults!”
Tokkasam’s lieutenant stood next to him and said, “They’re out of range of our archers!”
“Then advance!” Tokkasam yelled. “Charge the enemy! Use the shields to defend you as you push forward!”
Tokkasam’s lieutenant repeated these orders, giving signals to the other generals and unit captains using flags.
Shubal’s eyes widened in surprise when he caught sight of the enemy’s signal flags in the Yaul Mountains. “Right, they’ll charge straight ahead just like we thought. Ignore the shield-bearers; the cavalry are our target. Let’s show them our claws, men.”
Shubal’s messengers went off to relay his orders. The rhythm of the war drums changed again, letting the Talsh soldiers know that they would soon be changing formation.
There was nothing the Yogoese force could do now that it had committed itself. They’d had an advantage that morning, but now, the Talsh forces surrounded them on every side but one. The cavalry were blocked in and couldn’t move. The men carrying shields moved to protect them while archers scrambled for cover. More than an organized line, the Yogoese army resembled a dense clump in the center of the battlefield.
The rhythm of the Talsh war drums changed, telling the army to attack the Yogoese archers and shield-bearers. The Talsh army rushed forward like an advancing wave.
The Yogoese generals couldn’t see as far as the Talsh ones, so for a few desperate moments, they had no idea what was happening. The Talsh soldiers advanced with their shields held in front of them in a strict formation, with each soldier holding their shield to the left to make an enormous wall. The shields were made of leather and wood and not metal, which made them lighter to carry. The sound of the Talsh advance was a deafening roar that shook the earth.
It was the beginning of a long and bloody assault. The sound of the Talsh war drums were joined by flutes and whistles relaying different information. Tanda’s unit could see the Talsh coming; people were screaming everywhere. The Talsh soldiers washed over the army unit like the wave of a tsunami. The ground shook like an earthquake; many men lost their footing.
When the Talsh army came within range of the Yogoese archers, Tanda heard whistles and commands ordering the archers to fire. The arrows whooshed through the air, thousands and thousands of them, whizzing toward the Talsh army like a thundercloud. There was a tense moment when the Yogoese soldiers held their breath; then Talsh soldiers started to fall out of formation, pierced by arrows.
The Talsh soldiers did as the drums commanded, marching forward without even looking where they were going. When the rhythm of the drums changed again, they stopped and got down on their knees so that the mounted archers behind them would have a clear shot at the enemy army. The foot soldiers arranged their shields in formation again to protect themselves as a rain of arrows flew directly overhead.
The Yogoese army released another volley of arrows. The Talsh shield-bearers scrambled to protect their mounted archers, surrounding them on every side. Some arrows did pierce through the shields, but most of the shields held.
The concerted assault of the Talsh archers opened a gap between two parts of the Yogoese army. The mounted archers rode into that gap, accompanied by their shield-bearing defenders.
Tanda heard thunder again and looked up. Arrows traveled in a black sheet across the dark gray sky. The shield-bearer protecting Tanda went down screaming when half a dozen arrows pierced his shield. There were more screams and shouts as arrows found their targets.
The ground rumbled beneath Tanda’s feet. The Talsh spear-wielders were coming; the tips of their weapons shone in the morning sun. The Talsh army marched relentlessly forward, led by the mounted archers and the shield-bearers.
There had probably been some kind of whistle or signal to field the spear-wielders, but if there was, Tanda hadn’t heard it. The men surrounding Tanda were pinned to the ground by enemy spears. There was a terrible crunching sound, then the sound of metal contacting metal as the Yogoese spearmen engaged the Talsh in battle.
A bearded Talsh soldier leaped on the broad shield of one of his comrades. He carried a small buckler and his blade was unsheathed. The soldier called out commands, separating the Talsh spearmen into three separate ranks so that they could attack different parts of the battlefield.
Tanda observed the soldier with an expression of horror. The sun was behind the soldier, so all Tanda could see of his expression was the murderous gleam in his eyes as men to Tanda’s right and left were butchered.
A spearman thrust his weapon and Tanda. Tanda tried to duck behind a shield, but as he moved he felt a sharp pain like fire coursing through his left hand. The spear’s point hit bone. The spearman had been aiming for Tanda’s neck and grunted in disappointment.
Tanda tripped over his own feet and collapsed, choosing to play dead. The small shield that he held tumbled to the dirt along with his pike.
Tanda felt too heavy to move. Men trampled over him without a care, advancing onward to kill others. Tanda couldn’t breathe; everything hurt. He heard the sound of his legs breaking as they were trampled on and felt blood dripping down his muddy face before he finally lost consciousness.
No comments:
Post a Comment