Chapter 35

The expedition was turning into a nightmare for Ælfwig and the brothers. When they entered Marion’s lands, every village overflowing with wealth just a few weeks before was abandoned and burnt to the ground. Every head of livestock was gone or dead, while every kernel of grain was gone as well. Even the wells had been destroyed. Some of the buildings the army encountered were still burning, meaning they had been abandoned only hours before.

Worse yet was the fate of the foraging parties. They would go out in the morning and be dead by midday. Once in a while, their bodies would be found, and they would always be stripped of everything of value. Many had strange wounds that some of the men from the Lake District identified as gunshot wounds. Others had been cut down with a sword. Every bridge the army came to had to be rebuilt, and they would always lose a few men to skirmishing fire. When the mounted troops tried to catch the shooters, they would disappear only to start shooting from a different direction. Trees had been cut down over the road, and when the army stopped to clear the way, a few would be killed by gunfire or booby traps in the forest.

By far, the worst was at night. Sentries would be killed by having their throats slit, and the camp would usually be subjected to nightly cavalry raids. These raids never lasted for more than five minutes, but they were noisy and usually ran off some horses or other livestock. Tents would be set on fire, and a few dozen men would be killed. Sometimes, the invaders would be subjected to multiple raids per night. All this put additional strain on the men and officers of Ælfwig’s army. Nobody was getting much sleep, and it didn’t take many nights before every sentry was jumpy if they could even be made to stand guard; many refused because it was a death sentence.

Making matters worse for the invaders, supplies were destroyed or stolen in the nightly raids. Within a week, the noble’s army was getting desperate. Extra horses were killed just so the soldiers would have something to eat. Ælfwig and the brothers finally had to admit that they were just foolish to have even tried attacking Marion, and they were planning on turning around and getting the hell out of Marion’s lands. If the army didn’t need a rest, they would have turned around immediately, but the land behind them was easy ambush country, and the army would need some rest to make it through again. Many of the men could barely stay on their feet.

Then, one day, the attacks stopped. There was still enemy cavalry in the distance, but all they did was watch the noble’s army stumble on. This continued for about a day until the army reached a wide-open clearing. The army had been marching for 24 hours, and they were all exhausted. They hadn’t even stopped for the night. It wouldn’t have done them any good anyway since they had no food left, and almost all the horses had been killed. This field looked like a good spot to set up camp for the day. At least they wouldn’t be ambushed out in the open like this, and the nearest forest was at least a thousand paces away. A fast-flowing stream ran through the field, making this spot better since it provided water for the army. After the army had rested, they would return home.

It wasn’t long before the army knew it was in serious trouble. It started when a strange object was seen rising over the trees. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. It slowly rose above the trees, and then Ælfwig saw a flash of light from below the object. This was the flash of light being reflected off a shiny object. Then, movement along the tree line caught his attention. Whatever was going on, they were in grave trouble. It took him a couple of minutes to realize what was happening, but he swung into action when he did.

“FORM UP!” he yelled as he rode his horse through the army. “FORM UP, MARION’S BASTARDS ARE UPON US!”

Every soldier in the army started rushing around. Some were fighting to get their equipment on, but most were looking for their officers. The night march had led to confusion in the ranks, and they hadn’t yet had time to straighten themselves out. Things turned even more chaotic when the enemy artillery opened up. Worse still, the fire was deadly accurate, and they were firing some exploding shells. Within minutes, the army was reduced to a mob. At least Ælfwig and Osgar managed to get moving in the correct direction toward the enemy. If one could call it that, the plan was to rush the enemy and let the soldier’s anger finish things up. At first, things seemed to be working, for the heavy guns stopped firing, and Ælfwig could see them being hooked up to horses and withdrawn. However, the damage they had done was tremendous, with a large part of the army already dead or wounded.

The withdrawing artillery only caused the soldiers to rush forward faster since they thought the enemy was retreating. They wanted to repay some of the casualties they had suffered over the last week.

Luke watched calmly through his field glasses as his guns shredded the enemy formation. The gunner’s accuracy was now such that they would only miss once in a while. The other gunners would harass the crew that missed twice in a row. They had been firing as fast as possible and truly loved their new guns. Before, they could only fire many once every two minutes; now, they could fire once every thirty seconds. Their fire was much more accurate, and they could reach out further.

When the enemy had closed half the distance, Luke ordered the artillery back. They would retreat to the edge of the woods, set back up, and load with canister shot if things went really bad. As the artillery got out of the way, the infantry came into position. Unlike the enemy soldiers, Luke’s troops were well-rested and well-fed. They had even gotten a hardy breakfast in their bellies that morning.

The lookout in the balloon reported that no other enemy troops were in sight, and indeed, there were no signs of any enemy cavalry trying to get behind them. Then again, very few enemy cavalry units were on the field in the first place. It looked like the only enemy troops that were mounted were officers. Luke still kept his best dragoons in reserve, just in case. He watched as his soldiers got into formation, standing quietly as they waited.

Ælfwig and his army were now closing rapidly on the enemy’s position. Osgar proved to be an excellent commander, and he was in the thick of things as he worked on getting the army organized as they advanced. Uhtric was killed when an artillery round exploded beside him. Osgar would ensure the enemy paid dearly for that if it was the last thing he ever did. By the time they had closed to within 300 paces of the enemy position, the army was becoming increasingly organized as the officers got the men under control. Ælfwig rode up to Osgar:

“Everything going well?”

“Aye, as well as can be expected. By the way, Uhtric was killed in that, whatever that was.”

“I am truly sorry, for he was honorable and quite intelligent. I think that it is about time to make these bastards pay.”

“Aye”

Ælfwig rode before the army, waving his sword and encouraging his men forward. As the army crossed the 300m mark, more smoke appeared from the woods. This smoke went upward, and everyone in Ælfwig’s army was puzzled by this. They had their answer within seconds when exploding shells came raining down from heaven. Many mortar rounds were loaded with shrapnel, making them more lethal to enemy troops. Luke had no problems with using shrapnel or fire on enemy troops. He was also a fan of landmines and claymore mines. Yet another difference between him and the time he came from. He hadn’t used landmines or claymore mines in combat yet because they hadn’t been needed.

When the smoke started, Ælfwig looked ahead, and his blood ran cold because he was staring at a large army in excellent formation. The strange thing was they appeared to be only two ranks deep. Then, flags appeared up and down the enemy line. Unknown white flags with a red cross through the center waved gently in the breeze. Ælfwig ordered a full charge because they had to close before those damned things could drop more death on them. His army responded and charged.

As the enemy crossed the 300m mark, Luke ordered the mortars to fire and follow the balloon observer’s directions. He knew nobody on the ground would be able to see a damn thing in a minute or two. As the mortars started firing, Luke ordered Marion’s colors uncased. Soon, her flags were waving gently in the morning breeze. The enemy army began to pick up the pace, which surprised Luke a bit, but as he thought about it, the enemy commander had no choice but to die slowly from ambushes and starvation or death on the battlefield. At least on the field, they had a slim chance of victory. Luke gave his mortars a few minutes to soften up the enemy. Finally, he turned to his bugler:

“Send the order to the infantry to open fire and continue at will.”

The bugler sounded the signal, and the infantry started firing within seconds. The battlefield was covered in a thick blanket of smoke as the troops fired as fast as possible. Luke still knew what was happening due to the observer in the balloon. Within a minute, all organization had broken down in the enemy ranks and returned to being an armed mob. Problems arose when the lead elements got into the smoke cloud. Now, the observer was blind as well. At least there were no other enemy troops in the area. Luke relied on his sense of hearing and previous battlefield experience to gauge how the battle was going. The sound suddenly dropped off at places along his line, meaning enemy troops had made it through, and his troops had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. Luke rode up and down the lines, encouraging his troops. Not that they needed it, but it did make them feel better.