Chapter 20

Author’s note: [ and ] delineate mind-to-mind dialog.

Damon began his attacks against the Corinthian Army as soon as they got far enough away from the city to keep them from turning around and racing back for protection behind the walls. That was to make damned sure that we did not accidentally wind up laying siege to Corinth. That would have been an embarrassing mistake!

We did not expect his attacks to make much difference in the war, except that we wanted to make the rank and file soldier as scared of us as possible. It would be great if we could get the kind of reputation that the Spartans had about never giving up a fight. It was our plan always to leave the enemy an escape route so that he would have escape in the back of his mind. That was something else I learned by watching TV.

All of this initial fighting was done by us using the crossbows, so the enemy lost about 100 or so dead and wounded before our cavalry withdrew. None of our men or horses were injured. A little while later, another part of the army was hit by crossbow bolts. This sort of thing went on for close to four hours, and the Corinthians lost somewhere around 350 soldiers. That shows what 32 men can do when they are properly trained and led. We found out about this when Damon’s men returned to the fort at Coronis to replenish their stock of crossbow bolts.

This was probably the last time for a while that the cavalry would return to the fort. Several caches of bolts were hidden away from the fort so that the cavalry could rearm when the enemy was between them and the fort. Hippolyte estimated that they could make one trip through the enemy and reach the interior of the fort in reasonable safety, but she was sure that they could not do it twice, so she ordered Damon to save that maneuver for when he desperately needed it. Damon agreed, so the matter was settled.

Damon took his men out early the next morning before the Corinthians arrived. Eight more men and horses were added to his detachment, but that stripped us of anyone who could act as a replacement for his command. He was just going to have to make do with what he had. I guess that I am naive when it comes to military matters, but I figured that he would be okay.

It was late in the day before the invaders started to arrive, and they straggled in well into the night. Our lookouts could see them putting up tents well after midnight. I asked Hippolyte, [Is there some way that we can take advantage of the lack of sleep that the enemy is going to suffer from? I could lob in several of the firebombs if you think that it would gain us anything.]

[No, let us give them time to settle down before we try anything. I was thinking of trying to hit them with firebombs during breakfast tomorrow morning if you can manage that. What do you think?]

[Other than needing about half an hour to prepare the firebombs, we can start shooting them whenever you want them. Just let me know with enough lead time.]

[Okay, plan on firing on them about half an hour after dawn. Aim for their fires and that should be perfect for your five-inchers. Sometime during the day, I would also like to hit their food storage areas. Say, do you have any of the 10-incher firebombs that could be aimed at their command tents?]

[There are about eight of those left that could be used provided that they are within range. I would like to save those gifts for when they could be the most useful. On the other hand, we have plenty of the five-inchers, and they do work at a longer range than the 10-inchers.]

[Jane, as far as I am concerned, you are in charge of the artillery, and I am leaving it up to you about what you shoot at, when you do it, and what ammunition you use.]

Oops, it sounds like I was talking when I should have been listening. That was a lot of responsibility, especially for someone whose military training came mostly from watching TV. Oh, well, if Hippolyte had that much confidence in me, I would do my damnedest not to disappoint her.

We went to bed that night after Janos had helped us “celebrate” the beginning of the “first siege of Coronis.” The next morning I ate a quick breakfast and hurried to prepare 15 of the five-incher rounds. I was going to shoot at the campfires as Hippolyte had recommended. Somebody would have to locate the command tent for me before I did anything with the 10-inchers.

It was about 30 minutes past dawn when we began to lob in the firebombs on the enemy camp. The range was a little to long for the Little Boy ballistas, but it was about 600 yards and ideal for the Big Boy #1 that was now located at the front of the fort roof. The first firebomb landed right on one of the campfires and blasted burning material somewhat farther than I had expected—the fire radius was about 15 feet. We were too far away to hear the screams of pain from the burns imparted by my version of napalm, but the results were evident from the way men were running around trying to escape the fire.

Our firing rate was about one shot per four minutes, which I thought was remarkable because the cocking of the Big Boy was done by hand cranks. Since it took an hour to lob all 15 firebombs into the enemy camp, we were shooting at deserted fires by the end of that time—all of the troops had run away from their cooking fires.

Nevertheless, we played hell with the campsite because we destroyed the tents near to where a firebomb landed, and we destroyed most of what was in the tents. I have no idea how many soldiers we killed during that hour, but we certainly wounded a large number of them. I was betting that most of the wounds were serious enough to keep the soldier out of the fight.

Also, we must have played hell with morale! Undoubtedly, the Corinthians had entered the war with the assumption that we would surrender as soon as we saw the mass of military might arrayed against us. Ha! I figured that most of the soldiers were ready to go home as soon as possible after we finished shelling. Late that afternoon, we saw a plot where a number of men were being crucified. Could these men be deserters who had been caught before they could get away?

I was sickened by the sight, and there was nothing that we could do for the men. They were going to die a horrible death lasting over 3 or 4 days. Obviously, these executions were to serve as a sign of what would happen to anyone else who tried to desert. Humph! I was sure that was only going to encourage more desertions, but the men were going to be more careful about how they ran away.

I asked the Little Boy aimer nearest the crucifixion site, “Do you think that you could put a bolt through those victims. We cannot rescue them, so I would like to give them a quick death. Is that possible?”

The aimer thought about the problem for a few seconds before saying, “Yes, it should be possible. Would you like for us to try?”

“Yes, kill them all if you can.”

The aimer talked to the rest of the crew, and they took a few minutes to set up the shots. They fired 10 bolts and killed all nine of the victims. I congratulated the crew on their shooting skill. The only shot to miss was the first one in which they had underestimated the range. The adjustment was made in the tension of the torsion springs, and the nine remaining shots all scored on the chests of the men hanging on the croses.

Hippolyte approved with enthusiasm because that served to show the troops just how accurate our shooting could be. That must have made an impression on the enemy, too, because they knocked down the crosses within a few minutes of our last shot.

The lookouts had now had enough time in daylight to identify which of the tents was the one used for C&C (Command and Control). That tent was definitely in range of Big Boy #1 firing a 10-incher. We set that up and fired. The firebomb did not hit dead center on the tent, but I excused that when I took into account the extreme range of the shot.

That firebomb was a world-beater compared to the five-inchers. The splash of fire encompassed a radius of about 30 feet and set several other tents on fire. The firebomb hit was such a surprise that the Corinthians never did put the resulting fires out. The fires just burned themselves out after about 10 minutes of intense flaming. Naturally, we never did find out how many of the enemy’s higher ranking officers were killed or wounded by the firebomb, but it had to be a major disaster for the Corinthians.

The next day, the Corinthians just packed up and left for Corinth. We never heard another cross word from them. We assessed the damage that the invading army had done and sent Agathon back to Corinth with a message from Hippolyte as the military commander of the Coronis Army. He took along an itemized bill with a demand that Corinth pay for all of the damage they did. Sure, it really was not much, but, again, it was the principle of the thing.