The Long March - Plans and Schemes

(Source)

The village was in ruins but most of the fires had been extinguished, the Prince had been indignant at first. Then the column commander had pointed out that night was coming on and would the Prince like to sleep out in the open or in one of the still standing, semi-intact huts.

"I shall sleep in my tent tonight."

"Your Majesty, your baggage has yet to join the column." Neither man knew at the time that the Prince's baggage train had been waylaid by the militia.

"Ah, I see, very well, have the men extinguish the fires as best they can. I shall put my Imperials out as a protective screen."

The colonel ignored the Prince as he had some companies go to work quelling the flames in those dwellings that were yet salvageable while a number of others had already been thrown out in a defensive perimeter long before the Prince had thought of that.

"I shall expect your men to assist in collecting our dead."

The column commander pretended not to have heard the Prince, who repeated his demand. Turning his horse, the column commander drew very near to the Prince and leaned in ...

"We are a long way from the capital, Your Majesty. I suggest your people collect their own dead. My troops have to secure the camp and set up a proper bivouac. I suggest your Imperials stay out of their way. Collect your dead, strip them of anything useful, and I would recommend burying them as quick as you can. They will be most ripe, come morning."

"I'm not sure I like your tone, commander."

The column commander nodded, then rode off. He had thought to speak his mind, then thought better of it, even among his staff there were some who were supporters of the Ruler and his family. Discretion, he thought to himself, was often the better part of valor.

Daniel snapped his glass closed then turned to his companions. "It looks like the regulars intend to spend the night here. I want to set up a surprise for them, any suggestions?"

Rachel spoke, "If they continue down the road towards the river, there are one or two spots where we might be able to ambush them but ..."

Benjamin finished her thought, "There are too many of them for the force we have readily to hand. It will take three or four days to gather our strength in order to oppose such a force. They would be well over the river, if they intend to cross, by then. What if ..."

Mary joined in, "Small attacks from the forest along the way, draw them into the woods again. Our people are very adept at moving through the trees, I doubt that they are. Bleed them as they march, if they use their entire force to pursue into the woods, we won't need many people to cut them up. We needn't make the same mistake Adam did last year by attacking them in the open."

Daniel nodded, "I understand what you're saying, Mary. That was a costly mistake but the regulars had gotten far too close to the elders and the children. Adam felt compelled to attack to protect his non-combatants. We need not confront them directly, I like the idea of drawing small bodies into the forest, it's the way they like to operate. They'll throw out flankers to either side of the road, we'll draw them in and cut them up."

Daniel turned to Rachel, "Get back to the homestead, have Abel send out the word, all able bodied fighters to rendezvous ...," he had to think for a moment, "... the old Hempstead farm, it's central to where our people are and there are a number of useful paths to bring them into action at many points."

"Draw them into the swamp." Asher said it quietly, but everyone heard him. It gave all a chill to think of that dismal area. Low lying and marshy, it would present great difficulties to formed bodies of troops. While the regulars could fight in open order, in the swamp they would lose cohesion, giving the militia an advantage.

Rachel looked at Daniel, who said, "The swamp it is. We'll stay and observe for now, report back here when you're done. If needs be, I'll send a messenger if we have to move elsewhere."

"There's tea, Sir. If you want it." Joshua had put up a lean-to next to a burned out house which must have been a substantial home before they had arrived. Now the interior was a mix of collapsed walls, ceilings, and ruined furniture, some of it still smoldering.

The Major looked up, "I would like that. Don't you ever rest, Joshua?"

Grinning, his lack of rest was a running joke between them, Joshua said, "Whenever you're not looking."

"Sir."

"Cheeky bastard.

"I try, Sir."

At that moment the Sergeant poked her head under the lean-to, "Don't suppose you've an extra cup, Joshua?"

Joshua nodded, "That I do, Top, that I do," he then left so that the commander and his ranking noncom could speak in private.

"Problems, Top?"

"As you might imagine, the troops are rather disgusted by today's little display of savagery. No outright threats against the Imperials, but ..."

"Yes, if I was an Imperial, I wouldn't wander too far from my own bivouac tonight."

"Nor any night, Sir. The troops have long memories."

"Not an auspicious start to this 'punitive' campaign." The Major's tone left no doubt as to how he felt about the punitive aspects of this campaign.

"Think we could still talk our way out of this, Sir?"

After finishing his tea, the Major shook his head, "No, I don't. A lot of good people are going to die, one did today."

"Uh Sir, twenty-seven Imperials died today, don't you think ..."

"I'll deny it if you repeat this, but not one single man of those bastards can be called 'good.' Did you see any of them hang back after that hut went up? No, the Prince merely told them to do what they had already planned on doing. Did I think that they would hang that poor bastard? No, I didn't, that even surprised me, and I've seen these bastards in action in the capital. Very brave against those who can't fight back, they are. Very brave indeed."

The two heard Joshua clear his throat nearby and stopped talking.

"You can come in, Joshua."

Joshua came in and handed a cup of hot teat to the Sergeant.

"Thank you. Can I bring the cup back later? I need to walk the posts."

"Sure thing, Top. We know where you live ..." Joshua grinned at the Sergeant, he was very fond of her.

"She's like a daughter to me, Sir." Joshua said as the Sergeant disappeared into the darkness.

"What are you, ten years older than her?" The Major said, sarcastically.

"But those were a hard ten years, Sir, count as twenty in some people's minds, they would."

The Major shook his head, "Go, sleep, that's an order."

Joshua threw a mock salute at his commanding officer, then vanished.

The three men had ridden back down the road, in the direction of the Prince's baggage train. The men were part of the Prince's mounted body guard, men of long service in the regulars hired by the Ruler to watch over his numerous family.

It was getting darker and the wind had shifted into the riders' faces. As they proceeded down the road, a column of smoke could be seen over the trees in the near distance. All three men smelled it at the same time, fire, the smell of burning, painted wood.

As they rounded a bend in the road, there was the baggage train, burning furiously in the road. The men who had been driving the wagons and the baggage guards could be seen. Some lying in the road, some between the wagons. Some couldn't be seen but their presence was noticeable by the smell of burning flesh, they were in the wagons.

The leader of the trio held up one hand, "Easy lads, the bastards might still be about."

He nudged his horse forward, the animal was spooked by the smells wafting into her nostrils. The leader noticed one man in the road, he seemed to have something sticking out of his back. In that instant he knew they were lost, the whirr of an arrow announced itself just before thwacking into the leader's chest.

As he toppled from his mount, the other two men spurred their horses in a bid to escape the ambush.

One of them made it.