Chapter 42: Final Conflict

The Shiloh troops are up before dawn and having breakfast. They get ready to do battle; the soldiers of the Second and Third Regiment have ten lances and four hundred arrows for their longbows each. They carry no short bows or arrows for them; they’re on the supply wagons to be safely out of the way since they won’t be needed in this coming battle. They mount up when two companies of the First ride by to head to the side valleys while the Rider Clan workers remove the barricades and load them onto the wagons that brought them. With the way open the Third leads the way into the valley with a company of the First and a group of Rider Clan migrants following in their wake.

Despite Kathleen’s protests Kyle leads the force. Once through the first area of restriction Kyle stands in the saddle and puts both arms above his head before lowering them to the sides while blowing the command to spread out. The platoons of A and B Company turn to ride to the sides while their Company Commanders move out to halfway between Kyle and the valley walls. Their companies spread out to form a line behind them and make a line from wall to wall. When they reach the same point the other companies do the same. The two regiments soon make a very deep solid block of mounted troops stretching across the valley while they ride forward at a slow walk. When they reach a farm the platoon nearest it rides forward to check it out. When they pass the side valleys the company from the First Regiment enters it to check it out. Some of the migrants from the Rider Clan check out the farms when they’re cleared, with many coming to some sort of an agreement with the women living on them.

The Shiloh force makes its slow way forward until they reach the point where they want to camp for the night. At that point the wagons with the barricades move through the lines and go to the valley walls. They turn and move back along the front of the lines of troops with work crews placing the barricades to protect the troops for the night. The layout is a full one with a half-length one behind, then both are followed with full length ones while full length ones are laid cross ways on top of them, and a third row laid across the top of them in the middle. They all have spikes sticking out the front and top, with legs two and a half feet long. The spikes sticking out the top are set such that others can be laid across them. This means the finished item is three layers that stands about four feet high by three feet deep and is very difficult to pull apart unless you’re standing on a wagon.

The Clan scouts report this back to their leaders, but the barricade is well up before they get the message and can react. Once they look at it they realize it’s a defensive measure for their overnight camp and the Clan leaders retire for their own night’s rest.

A few hours after sunset the dozen special Shiloh scouts from the First Regiment who hid on the other side of the barricade locate the Clan scouts and wait for their late night relief to arrive. After the scouts change and the old ones leave the new ones are executed by the Shiloh scouts, who then report back to Kyle.

Prepared gateways are opened and platoons of soldiers on foot move out to protect the one hundred Rider Clan people leading the five hundred horses with barricades that have arrived since nightfall. Four person work crews move out with each set of horses. Each has a plan of the plains and where their barricades are to be placed. The majority are to be hidden in the shrubs on the Clan side of certain rises. Where there aren’t enough local shrubs to hide the barricades in shrubs are removed from nearby and placed among the barricades to hide them, they’ll still be green until late afternoon the next day. The spiked barricades are set three deep, two high, and tied together. This makes a secure set of spikes a bit over three feet high and just over four feet wide. Because of their placement on the upward slope any attacking Clan fighters won’t be able to get up enough speed to jump over them.

Once they’re all set in place the work crews go back to where the night barricade is set up and dismantle it. They carry the barricades forward to new positions near to where the ambush is and set them up out in the open to protect certain positions. This will make it look like the Clan scouts were killed to stop them reporting the barricades being shifted. The enemy leaders will easily tell these obvious barricades account for all of the ones set up the night before. During the night the Shiloh scouts continue to execute the men who come to relieve the Black Forest Clan scouts. No one appears to miss the men who don’t return from scout duty.

Two hours before dawn the Shiloh force is up having a cold meal. They break camp and are quick and quiet as they move the trebuchets into positions just out of sight from the enemy positions, but well within range of them. The Shiloh soldiers set up with the Second Regiment on the left of center and the Third Regiment on the right. Half of each regiment are dismounted as they’re in kneeling positions behind their shields and the barricades with their longbows in hand and their arrows beside them; their horses are picketed in a nearby dip where the enemy can’t see them. The other half are mounted and near to the gaps in the barricades with their longbows in hand as well. The start of this battle will be at long range. The First is out of sight as a reserve.

When the dawn breaks the Shiloh scouts withdraw inside the Shiloh lines and go to have a meal. They’ll watch the battle from on one of the supply wagons. They’ve done their job and aren’t needed now, unless something goes very wrong or the enemy gets lucky.

The Clan’s dawn relief scouts move out and find those they’re relieving are dead. They wait to have a look at what their enemy is doing and some are sent back to report on the situation. The Clan fighters are up and ready for battle at dawn, as they expect to have one in a few hours. They’re almost ready to move out to their positions, to be there just before the enemy arrives, when the reports of the enemy night moves reach their leaders. They’re not concerned as the majority of their positions are out of sight of the enemy ones.

An hour after dawn War Leader Gunter is moving up to the top of a low ridge with the Blue Herd on his left and the Gray Herd on his right. In the depression to his right Battle Leader Kurt is starting to get worried. Their whole plan depends on the enemy coming to them so they can hit them from their fixed positions and force the enemy into trap areas, yet the enemy has set up just outside of all their traps and fortifications, it’s almost as if they know where they are. It worries him they might know, and if they do, what else do they know and what have they got that they can expect to take on such a much larger force.

Gunter looks around and smiles. The enemy force is well organized, but is only about two Herds in size, while he has two Herds with him on the ridge, another three behind him just below the ridge, another four in the concealed depression to his left, and four more to his right. The four Herds to his left and right are all battle experienced, as are the two on the ridge, and the two outside ones behind him. The Herd of young trainees is in the middle of his back up force, a place where they should get the most protection while still being able to use their bows.

Taking his time he looks over the enemy positions. They’ve set up on a ridge about one and a half times the length of a bow-shot away. The barricades protect their flanks and the area right in front of where their bowmen are kneeling. He sees they have shields in front of them and realizes this is a good idea, because it gives them some protection from enemy arrows. It’s clear they expect his force to attack. They also have about half their force mounted to provide a counter attack by cavalry. Now all he has to do is to get them to attack him. He turns to look at Battle Leader Eric and signals for him to join him.

Battle Leader Eric, Commander of the Gray Herd, leaves his position in front of his Herd to ride over to where War Leader Gunter is and asks, “What is your wish, War Leader?”

Gunter smiles and replies, “It seems our enemy wants us to go to him. See if you can entice him to come to us.”

Eric says, “Easily done, War Leader.” He turns and rides to his Herd.

The generals are with their regiments, ready to command the battle on their side as they see it should be done, subject to any other orders from Kyle. In the middle of the Shiloh line Kyle sits on his horse with Kathleen on War Bonnet at his right hand, an officer trainee on his left, and four junior officers behind them to act as runners as needed. It’s clear this is the main command group of the Shiloh force.

The entire Shiloh force is in position well before the Black Forest Clan arrives on the field, but from their position they can’t see where the side forces are, they just know they should be there when they see the enemy forces on top of the ridge where they’re supposed to be. The back side of the ridge is within range of their longbows, but Kyle is sure the enemy thinks they’re out of range. When one man leaves the left hand force, as per Kyle’s view, to ride up and speak with the man in the middle, he smiles and shouts out, “Expect a charge to entice us into a counter attack. All ground troops prepare to fire a volley of arrows on command, mounted troops to maintain station until further orders.” Voices ring across the Shiloh line while the officers pass the orders down the line. The ground troops make sure they have an arrow in place and ready with the rest stuck in the ground in front of them ready for them to grab when needed. The mounted troops have their bows ready, but keep them down at their sides where the enemy can’t see them at this range.

They watch as a thousand and one mounted Clan fighters ride down the ridge and into the flat in between them, spreading out a bit as they do. Just before they reach short bow range Kyle blows the ’Ready’ and one thousand archers raise their bows as they take aim. Each platoon of archers has a rough area they’re responsible for and their officers have designated rough targets for their men within that area. However, it’s just not possible to pick and assign men to individuals in a situation like this, so some men will target the same enemy. Thus they need to fire and get another arrow ready for a second shot as quickly as possible. Kyle has his bow beside him, but he doesn’t intend to fire unless he has to, he has a bodkin head arrow ready. The bodkins they’re using are over four inches long and just a bit wider than the shaft; they have a triangle shaped head with razor sharp edges and point to penetrate armor.

Gunther watches as the Gray Herd charges. He smiles when he sees the enemy bowmen ready to fire just before maximum range. His grin widens when he hears a whistle and the enemy fire right at maximum range, no arrows can kill at maximum range, Gunther knows this and is sure the enemy has just wasted a lot of time and arrows. The grin is very quick to leave his face when he sees more than three quarters of the Gray Herd fall off their horses with arrows deep in their chests.

Battle Leader Eric is still charging for the enemy leader and has three enemy arrows stuck in his battle armor. Gunther smiles while he watches the enemy leader raise a bow and fire straight at Eric at the same time the rest of the enemy archers fire again. He can’t believe his eyes when he sees Eric drop his sword and fall off his horse with an arrow deep in his chest despite his battle armor of mail. Two flights of arrows and the entire Gray Herd is dead, not one reached the enemy line alive. The riderless horses and horses with dead charge through the enemy line and are allowed to go until they slow down while they go up the ridge beyond the enemy force.

Gunter now has a better understanding of how this enemy has done so much damage to the Clan, they have stronger bows, but the range seems to be about the same as normal. He signals for the other Herds behind him to join him in the ridge, and they do. The four Herds make a very impressive sight when they form up along the ridge.

Kyle waits and blows the ’Engage’ when the enemy charge is just inside normal bow range. When he sees the man leading the charge is hit three time and the arrows don’t penetrate Kyle raises his own bow and waits until his men are ready to fire again. He fires at the same time as he blows the whistle for another volley, and he smiles at the shocked look on the face of the enemy leader as he drops his sword after Kyle’s arrow goes deep into the man’s chest. Three quarters of the enemy were killed in the first flight and the rest are killed in this one, some with three or four arrows in them. The horses are allowed to charge through the line. They’ll get tired, slow down, and be collected later. Kyle looks up to see more enemy cavalry move up onto the ridge.

Turning around Kyle looks across the whole battlefield, and smiles. Just on this side of some bushes at the top of the ridges behind which the enemy forces are hiding on the sides are a couple of men from the Gunnery Platoons of each regiment, they’re hiding there to signal range changes for the trebuchets, others are kneeling on the ridges above the trebuchets to relay the directions as required. Kyle calls out, “Gunners, ready your loads and fire with the next volley. All troops ready to fire arrows at those on the ridge in volley fire.” He waits while the officers echo the orders across the whole line.

For a minute or so both forces sit and stare at each other. Kyle knows at this range the longbows won’t penetrate any decent armor, but he also knows only the senior leaders of the Clan wear any armor, since it’s too expensive to provide to all and few of the general Clansmen bother with going to the trouble to make their own stiff leather armor, so they should get a high kill rate at this long range. Anyway, even a low kill rate means less to worry about in the long run.

Putting his whistle to his lips Kyle blows the ’Ready’ and all two thousand soldiers raise their bows. He blows the ’Engage’ and watches as two thousand arrows rise into the air at the same time as eight swarms of two hundred small stones rise up from behind the ridges protecting the trebuchets, the men prepare more arrows and turn to engage their secondary targets. Seeing they’re ready Kyle whistles the ’Engage’ again and another two thousand arrows rise into the air just as the first start to fall, the trebuchets take longer to reload and will fire when ready. All wait to see what happens.

The arrows reach their targets and hundreds of Clansmen are killed or wounded by the arrows falling among the two outer groups. Kyle smiles when he sees so many of the enemy cavalry on the ridge killed or wounded by the first and second flights of arrows, so he blows for a third flight to be sent on its way. As per their plan, when the enemy withdraws the archers aim to fire over the ridge to fall among them on the back side as indirect fire. This won’t be as effective, but it will have some effect. As the men lower their bows to grab a fourth arrow Kyle blows the signal for the mounted troops to make a lancer charge.

Gunter can’t understand what the enemy expects to do with firing arrows when his people are well out of range. He also can’t understand what caused those swarms of insects to rise from behind the ridges to the sides. Then they fire another flight of arrows while the first is still in the air. Seeing the first flight land among the two outer Herds to cause a few hundred men in each to fall from their horses dead or wounded shocks him so much he doesn’t say a thing.

Hearing screams off to the sides Gunter turns to see four areas in the Herds hidden in the depression where men have fallen from their horses or are fighting hard to control their horses. He’s just coming to terms these men have been hurt somehow when the second flight of enemy arrows arrives to kill more men among the Herds on the ridge with him.

Gunter orders the men on the ridge to fall back behind it. As he turns round he sees four swarms of insect fall among the Herd hidden on his left and many men are knocked off their horses while others rear up and dislodge their riders. He rides down the slope to get away from the enemy arrows that can fire this incredible distance. He’s having a hard time grasping the fact of the over five thousand men he lead up this ridge nearly four thousand are already dead or dying.

Another flight of arrows falls among his men, but only a few hundred are hit because the arrows fall all over the place since they can’t see any specific targets. At least Gunther now has time to try and work out how to deal with an enemy with such a long range with their bows, although he can’t work out how they do it. Another flight of arrows arrives and does next to nothing. Gunther is still trying to think of a plan when some loud whistles nearby make him look up. He’s shocked to see the enemy cavalry charging down the ridge at his troops and they have long spears in their hands. He grabs his sword to attack, and he’s soon falling from his horse with a spear through his chest. As he falls he watches the man grab another spear from beside his leg and attack another of his Clan fighters.

When the signal to mount the cavalry charge is given Phillips leads the charge and Dana rides at the back, as per their preset plan. The men are quick to form a line in platoon and company groups while they charge across the flat after galloping through the gap in the barricade. They’re one long line when they cross the ridge top to charge down the back side. Phillips blows his whistle to raise lances and the other officers echo the call. He sees the enemy leader look up at the whistle and reach for his sword. But it’s too little and too late as Phillips runs him through and lets go of his lance to grab another to take out a second enemy. As he grabs a third lance he looks around. All of the enemy on this ridge are on the ground, dead or dying or badly wounded. Dana blows the signal for the force to wheel left.

The men turn and move to form a new line when they ride toward where a large enemy force is in the depression off to their left. The enemy are in disarray with many on the ground or on foot and some still fighting for control of their horses. Only about half the enemy force is still mounted. They charge through them. This isn’t as easy as the last lot, as many have their swords out and are ready for them; but the extra reach of the lances make a difference. However, some men are cut by the enemy while they’re rearming after lancing one enemy.

When the lancer charge starts the supply company people bring up the picketed horses of the ground troops. When he sees the charge near the top of the enemy ridge Kyle gives the order for the rest of the men to mount up and prepare for mounted archery. In just a moment he’s leading their mounted charge across the flat and up the ridge. They top the ridge to see the mounted enemy from his right moving to attack the lancers from behind while they’re busy with the enemy on the left. Kyle blows the ’Engage’ followed by ’Rapid Fire.’ The men raise their bows and start firing on the enemy cavalry at top speed.

The enemy looks up at them on hearing the whistles and hardly have time to register the fact they have a new force on their flank before the arrows start arriving among them. Hundreds die in the first flight and many hundreds more in the next.

Battle Leader Hans is the senior commander of the force hidden on War Leader’s left hand. He watches as the Gray Herd rides off in a charge, but he can’t see what happens to them after they leave the ridge top. He watches as arrows arrive among the Herds on the ridge to kill hundreds. He’s shocked the enemy has that range, as he saw how far away they were before he took up his position. Then there’s screams and yells among his force. He turns to see many men on the ground and others fighting to control their horses, he can’t understand what’s happened because he was looking up toward War Leader when the rocks arrived to hurt his men and horses. He watches War Leader pull the remains of his force off the ridge and behind it to safety.

While turning to talk to his senior Combat Leader Hans sees the swarm of rocks fall on his men and the damage it does. He’s calling for his men to move back when he hears whistles up on the ridge. He turns to look that way and watches when the enemy kills the remains of the men with War Leader by using long spears while in a cavalry charge. The enemy turns and heads toward the hidden troops on the other side with Battle Leader Kurt, so Hans issues orders for his men to move out to attack the enemy cavalry from behind.

Hans is leading the men across the bottom of the ridge War Leader’s force had been killed on when he hears more whistles up on the ridge. He looks up to see mounted archers ready to shoot at his men. The range is only a few hundred feet, but from here it’s all uphill. He knows his men will nearly all be dead trying to charge up that hill from here, so he gives the command to fall back to Sanctuary. He knows once inside and the gates are shut the enemy can’t touch them. Battle Leader Hans ignores the screams and yells of his men that are killed by the archers and he also ignores the shouts of the men of Kurt’s force he can see being killed by the enemy while he tries to get what he can out of this fight to safety in Sanctuary so the Clan can survive. As long as enough of the men live they can rebuild the Clan. While he rides to safety he can’t understand how such a small enemy force was able to kill so many of the Clan fighters, and so fast.