Chapter 34

When the brothers got to Earl Ælfwig’s castle, they found it in an uproar. The earl was mobilizing his forces as he prepared to strike at Marion. Ælfwig was reluctant when the brothers offered an alliance because he wanted all of Marion’s land. However, he agreed when the brothers told him they didn’t want land; they wanted Marion and Gabriella for their whores. They then described how she embarrassed them, and they wanted revenge.

“Can you two have your forces here within a week?” Ælfwig asked Osgar.

“Not a problem. We gave mobilization orders before we left to meet with that bitch. If one of us can get out of here within the hour, we should be able to start getting troops here within a day or two.”

“Good. That wench cost me over 500 pounds, and my people didn’t even manage to accomplish anything. I learned this morning that the guard my men had been able to buy off was discovered and executed before he could strike. I’m going to take extreme pleasure in punishing that wench.”

With that, Uhtric took off to ride back to their castle and get the first units on the road. While doing this, Osgar reviewed the plans with Ælfwig and the other commanders. So far, it was proving impossible to get their hands on whatever devil weapon Marion’s forces had been using, and worse than that, they still hadn’t found anyone willing to give or sell them the secret of how they worked. The workers were either scared to death of Marion’s husband or extremely loyal to her. Osgar confirmed her husband was indeed one terrifying person. Ælfwig didn’t care about the husband; he was more worried about Marion’s firearms even though he knew they were coward’s weapons.

After hours of debate, they finally came up with what they thought might be a workable plan. They would lure Marion’s army into a trap and catch them off guard. Then the cavalry could ride down those worthless peasants, and those not killed would be put back to work on one of Ælfwig’s or the brother’s estates. It took almost a week to get the army ready, and it took that long to gather all their spies’ reports to draw maps of Marion’s lands. Once they were in her lands, they could use her road network to travel much faster, and with the rapidly concentrating wealth in the area, they would be fixed for supplies and might not even have to pay their men. This was a good thing for the nobles because they had just over 10,000 men when they had finished combining the armies. Six thousand were levy spearmen. The other 4,000 were housecarls, with a few housecarls mounted and some minor nobles thrown in. This was a massive army for the period, but they had managed to get extra recruits by promising them large amounts of loot from Marion’s lands. What the army didn’t have was a genuinely unified command structure. Ælfwig insisted his forces stay under his command, and Osgar demanded the same for his troops.

Marion’s army commanders all met the morning after the brothers were rejected. They reviewed their spy reports and concluded this would be their most brutal battle yet. At least this time, they had even more advanced weapons. They now had breech-loading artillery made of steel that fired explosive shells. They also had mortars capable of firing out to 300 meters, and once smokeless powder became more available, the range would double or triple. The most significant thing they had this time was almost 6,000 men and women in uniform, with nearly 1,500 being cavalry. Dragoons would have been a better term because their primary weapon was their carbine rifles. They all carried swords but were not well-trained in their use.

Marion and her commanders waited as Ælfwig mobilized his troops, and the brothers combined their forces with Ælfwig’s. Fortunately, they had taken Luke’s advice to heart and didn’t just assume they would win because they had superior weapons. If they needed reminders, they would have to face Luke on the training grounds, where he played the OPFOR commander.

Luke would win about half the time and wasn’t using firearms. He won with ambushes and forcing Marion’s commanders to engage him only under conditions that heavily favored him, with his favorite conditions being nighttime or in heavy vegetation. With the constant training, Marion’s commanders were learning fast and were relieved of command if they couldn’t learn. Through these war games, many people could work their way up the chain of command, including many women and commoners who wouldn’t have had the opportunity in standard armies of the time.

The commanders planned to use their dragoons to run circles around the enemy troops and raid constantly. The orders were to hit and run. Under no circumstances were they to let themselves get bogged down. It was far better at this stage to run away and be able to fight again than it was to stand and fight and die. The commanders developed plans for all kinds of situations, including an ambush. This was how Luke guessed the enemy would try to neutralize their firearms, and he had done the same thing on the training grounds. By now, Marion’s commanders knew how to defend against ambushes.

After almost a week, the spies reported that the combined enemy army was on the move. Their supply lines were much thinner than they should have been, and it didn’t take an expert to figure out why. The enemy was planning on raiding and living off the land. Marion immediately sent word to all villages in the enemy’s path to evacuate. Anything that couldn’t be taken with them was to be destroyed. Nothing of value was to be left for the invaders.