Chapter 41: Clan Clean-up

A week after leaving the Second Regiment Kyle is again encamped with them at the same spot as where he left them. They’re taking a short break after cleaning up a few of the Clan caught in this valley and its side valleys before moving on to the next one.

The next morning they’re out and moving to the first of the hidden valleys. Riders went out to the nearby farms and communities two days ago to ask for workers to help with the forest and to meet them there later today. By mid-afternoon the Second Regiment is setting up camp a few hundred yards from the forest at the point of closest approach to the entrance to the hidden valley. A platoon of very experienced forest hunters are spread out as pickets about ten yards into the forest. The men are hidden in the trees and are watching out for others watching the Shiloh troops.

Just before dusk about fifty workers turn up to help make the road to the valley. Kyle will supply the tools and the food while they’re here and they’ll supply the labor to get the road made.

In the morning three companies of troops walk five hundred feet into the forest over an area five hundred feet wide. They check the area for others before they set up a line of troops in a curve around the initial work area as security for it. Two more companies set up security for the camp and work area on the plains while two companies pick up tools to help the civilian work party to cut down and remove the trees to make the new road through the forest to the hidden valley.

The forest below the mountain all along this region is between one and three thousand feet deep. This helps explain why few people have found the valley entrances, because people rarely go that deep into a forest without a special reason, like escaping pursuit or hunting. Kyle is clearing a space only fifty feet wide because the valley doesn’t have many people in it, but he’s taking no chances with his civilian workers so they’re proceeding as if this valley is loaded with Clan fighters.

The crew work so hard and fast it only takes them eight days to cut, clear, and level a fifty foot wide path through the forest to the valley entrance. During this time the troops rotate through providing the tasks of plains security, forest security, working on the road, and being the reserve unit. The Supply Company staff rotate the camp duties between their members as well.

When they reach the valley’s entrance Kyle leads two companies in and checks it out. They find lots of abandoned farms and twelve run by women with small children; their Clansmen husbands went off on a raid and haven’t returned. Most smile when Kyle tells them their men are either dead, or about to die because he’s wiping out the Clan.

On hearing about the situation in the valley a lot of the single men on the civilian work detail go into the valley to see about getting work on the farms. Some married men with no farm of their own go to look at the empty farms to see if they want to move in and work them. Kyle is very happy to see this happen. The other workers head home, taking a lot of the cut trees with them, while the rest of the trees are left stacked to the side of the new roadway; Nathan will have another work party collect them for use in some of the new compounds.

Kyle and the Second Regiment move onto the next valley.

Five weeks later they’ve cleared six more open valleys and another hidden valley. The situation in all the valleys is the same, abandoned farms and many abandoned or widowed women with small children. Many of the local work party single men end up staying at farms in the valleys. Kyle spots a lot of small parties that came up to check out the valleys when word of the situation in them spreads across the plains.

When Kyle leads his force around the ridge to the plateau where the last part built fort was he finds a large camp of people there and a new roadway being cut into the forest toward the two hidden valleys. They are close together so one road will do. It takes only a few words for him to learn this is a mixed group of single men and new families from the Rider Clan who are looking to settle on Shiloh land. Nathan sent them along to get started on this task and to help settle this area.

The leader of this group tells Kyle about catching a few watchers in the forest and how they’ve got people watching the whole forest edge for people leaving. Kyle tells him about what they’ve found so far and how some people are already moving in. He smiles and leaves to spread the word while the Second Regiment settles down for the night.

Over the evening meal Kyle gathers all of the leaders and they talk about the situation. He’s fairly sure when the work crews get close enough the Clansmen will either attack or flee to other places. Neither is acceptable to him, so they discuss options and action plans.

The next morning the Second Regiment moves out. Companies A, B, and C head a mile to the west to the road into the next accessible valley and dismount to form a line along the edge of the forest. Companies H, I, and J do the same along the edge of the next existing road to the east. Members of Second Supply go with them to bring their horses back to camp. The rest of the regiment spreads out on the southern edge of the forest for an area a mile wide, centered on their camp, with the Rider Clan filling the space between the ends of this force and the road edges.

Kyle gives a signal and the two lines of men at the side roads enter the forest. They go real slow with experienced forest hunters checking the way ahead before signaling to the force commander they can move up another five yards. It takes a long time to move a mile in five yard jumps every few minutes, but it’s needed to ensure the safe and secure advance of the lines, as they don’t wish to be ambushed by the enemy.

When the side lines come up to the ends of the men of the Second on the southern edge the Rider Clan members withdraw to the camp area. The men keep moving inwards, as they pass each platoon of troops on the southern edge the platoon moves to a new position in the center.

A few hours after they start the side lines are about five hundred yards apart while the southern force is very deep. Kyle orders the side forces to halt and the southern force moves into the forest in the same way as the side forces did with experienced forest hunters checking the way for traps and enemies before advancing in five yard movements. As they move in the platoons they pass break off to move to the northern end of their line to strengthen it. By the time they break for lunch the southern force has penetrated far enough for C and J Companies to be redeployed north. The Rider Clan work party is now busy cutting trees and removing stumps again, since the Second is well past the end of where they stopped work yesterday. They’re working faster as they now have more axes and saws the Second brought along, also some of the Second Supply Company are working with them.

After a quick lunch of cold meat the southern force starts moving north again. A little later reports are coming back from all the forest watchers of individuals moving between the trees about ten to twenty yards deeper into the forest. Kyle suspects the enemy knows they’re here and are checking out what they’ve got to deal with. He issues orders for the men to take more care and to keep behind cover as much as possible. They continue to move in. By mid-afternoon the side forces are only one company wide, but are now triple the depth of when they started. More movement is noticed in the trees opposite the middle of the southern line, so Kyle stops them and has the sides close in some more. The side forces move in and make another fifty yards before the reports come back about the enemy in the trees moving about to meet them. The center of the southern line is strengthened by the troops moving in from the sides. Both sides move in another twenty-five yards and the southern line is now only three hundred and fifty yards wide. But there’s a lot of enemy movement along all fronts.

Kyle stops the force and turns to two of his assistants, ordering, “Bo, go to the west and tell everyone on both this and the western line to take combat positions and to open fire when I blow the ’Engage.’ Tim, you do the same to the east. Both of you take care and hurry back.” Kyle watches when they move off, passing the orders to the senior NCOs and officers while they go, letting them pass the word to their troops.

About half an hour later both of them are back and report all troops in good combat cover and ready to attack. The whole line is between three to five troops deep, due to having to spread out a little for cover. The rules of engagement in this situation is for those right at the front to hold their fire until they get direct orders, so they’ll be ready if the enemy charges the line. While waiting Kyle watched the officers and sergeants move among the men designating target areas.

Kyle raises his whistle and blows the ’Engage’ as loud as he can. He’s stunned by what looks like a wall of arrows moving into the forest in front of him. He knew the coverage would be thick, but he didn’t expect it to be that thick. Because the range is extremely low, only about fifteen to twenty yards, the arrows soon reach their targets and many of the enemy die while many others scream in pain when they’re wounded.

Back at the roadworks the Rider Clan people all stop to look at the forest when they hear the whistle blow. They turn to the Second Supply people working with them when they tell them it’s the command to fire at the enemy, so they now know combat has commenced. They go back to work, but all keep a wary eye on the forest now.

Although the Black Forest Clan fighters saw the enemy carried bows they weren’t expecting them to open fire with them within the forest yet. Thus many are easy targets and killed while a lot more are wounded. The main result is the preparations to charge at these men moving in on their valleys is disrupted. Another flight of arrows kills many more men, including a lot of those wounded in the first flight. The leaders call for the men to pull back, which they do, leaving lots of friends and relatives behind them among the dead and dying. More are shot in the back as they withdraw. Only when they get deep enough into the trees to be out of sight do the arrows stop killing them.

Three minutes after blowing the ’Engage’ Kyle blows the ’Cease Fire’ and sends his third assistant back to order the Second Supply to send people and horses to remove the enemy dead for disposal after taking all useful items off them. Kyle has no idea where to dump the dead, but he’s sure the Company Commander will find a suitable place for them.

As they move through the enemy dead they put an arrow into the throat of each dead enemy from a few yards away and also recover the arrows they fired. The Second starts forward in a new pattern. The southern line advances twenty-five yards in five yards hops and stops, then the two sides move forward the same way and stops. They keep this up until the southern line is only two hundred and twenty-five yards wide. That puts the sides just twenty-five yards outside the valley entrances. The southern line now moves forward in five yard hops and the troops on the sides move to the middle of the southern line.

The Second Supply collects the dead enemies, strips them of useful gear, and dumps all the bodies in the gully where the road crews have been dumping the cut off trash from the trees while they turn the trunks into good timber and firewood. Major Riley intends to burn it all later, so the bodies of the one hundred and seventy-eight enemy will get cremated at the same time.

The southern line keeps moving in. They see the odd enemy scout, but no resistance in force again. They move in until they’re only twenty five yards from the northern edge of the forest. They expect more trouble soon. The forest goes right up to the steep cliff all along here, which is why no one thought there was anything worth finding. But they now find there’s a path about ten yards wide right up against the cliff for the full hundred yards between the two hidden valleys.

Kyle moves the Second up to the northern edge of the forest, but they can’t see any enemy troops. He looks at the cliffs and the top of the cliffs, but no enemy is in sight. The sides are pulled in and the edge of the forest here is now a veritable wall of Shiloh archers with their bows at the ready. It’s getting late and Kyle doesn’t want a night fight. So he has the men erect simple barricades with outward facing spikes for a height of six feet and a depth of twenty feet before pulling the men back another ten feet behind that. Guards are assigned to rotate through the night, some to keep watch from the ground and some from up in the trees. The men find places on the southern sides of trees and set up to settle down for the night. Kyle sends word back to the camp of his intention to stay the night here and to continue in the morning. Before the night falls the Second is settled down for the night.

In the western valley the remaining two leaders of the Black Forest Sub-clan for these valleys are talking over a hot meal while they try to work out how to deal with the large force of enemy troops on their doorstep. They both now regret having sent three thousand of their fighters off to the senior Clan leaders several weeks ago. With today’s loses there are only three hundred and twenty of them left in these valleys. While they talk about their troubles the women go about their business of feeding the men and looking after the children.

When the men retire to the front porch to drink their home made wine and beer the seven women of the house gather in the kitchen to talk. The eldest says, “From what was said at dinner there’s only a few hundred of the men left in these valleys now and all of them are in this valley. The troops coming to kill them have them boxed in and are at the entrance to the valley for the first time. If we’re ever going to be free of these men this is the time. Let’s talk to the other women and do this.” The women talk some more before five of them leave to go talk with the other women. The men see the women moving between the houses in this clump of houses that’s the headquarters of the sub-clan, but think nothing of it because the women are always going back and forth doing things and talking about cooking, children, etc.

After returning from the abortive attack on the enemy closing in on them most of the remaining men have been drowning their sorrows in the home made fermented drinks on hand. By a few hours after sunset many are asleep in a drunken stupor. None of them thinks anything of the women coming out to help each other while they carry the men off to their beds, as this is what they’ve been trained to do. Nor do any of them see what the women do when they put the men to bed.

Five women come out with a blanket and roll a man onto it, four carry it while the fifth directs them as well as opening and closing the doors to the buildings. They carry the man into either a house or a bunkhouse, whichever is relevant for the man and his position in the Clan and roll him into the bed. As they do this the fifth takes his belt knife out of his belt and when he’s positioned on the bed she plunges it through his throat and into the bed, cutting his spine. Most don’t wake up, but the few who do wake find they can’t move while they stare at the smiling women looking down at them while they die. There are many groups of women busy at this task of putting the drunks to bed. Once that’s done they deal with those not passed out drunk by leading them off to bed, where others wait to hold them down when they’re killed. By midnight the only men left alive in the valley are the twenty on watch and they’re all angry they’ve not been relieved. Five leave their guard posts to go back to the main house to complain. The women are expecting them and greet them with knives when they enter the house. None get a chance to call out. A dozen of the women who can use bows set out to relieve the lookouts, ten minutes later they return with big smiles, having killed the last of the Clansmen here.

The women spend another hour’s hard work dragging all the dead out into the middle of the road after stripping them of valuables. After that they go to bed and sleep well for the first time since they were grabbed and dragged off by the Black Forest Clan as young girls.

The dawn brings expectations of being attacked, but none comes. All the troops of the Second get ready to face the day and they pull apart their night defenses. General Phillips takes command of Companies A to E and moves into the eastern valley while Kyle takes command of the rest and heads into the western valley. The men take care as they move forward, using the skills taught them by Larry, Nadia, Kyle, and many others. About ten minutes into their advance they find the guards with arrows in their backs and they can’t work out what’s going on. When he hears about this Kyle goes forward, looks at the situation, and smiles.

Captain Smith asks, “Lord Kyle, why are you so happy about what’s happened here?”

A still grinning Kyle replies, “There’s nothing so deadly as an angry woman. The females of any group are usually the most deadly.” The men give him odd looks. “We know most of the women the Clan have are kidnapped from the plains and they aren’t treated well. I think our being here has given the women their first chance to rid themselves of their kidnappers and they’ve taken it. But take care as you move forward.”

Half an hour later they learn the last of the Clansmen this side of One Dog Creek are dead. Kyle sends messengers to General Phillips and to Second Supply. He wants some horses so men can quickly check out the farms in the two valleys. While waiting for their own mounts some of the men take the horses of the now dead Clansmen and go check out the other farms. Both valleys are soon declared free of enemy troops and the men of the Second start their walk back to their camp.

Before they leave Kathleen talks to the women and explains about the Rider Clan men and families looking to settle in this area. Her last advice is, “The single men are all good, loyal, and hard workers. I’d be on the lookout for a suitable new husband, if I were you. Take them on as farmhands so you can evaluate them. Please pass that along to the other women in these valleys.” The women all smile. Although they’re not sure about getting new men straight away they do realize they need men to work the farms properly and the concept of a good man is something new to many. However, a few can remember what their fathers and older brothers were like and are considering the idea.

By lunchtime the Second is out of the forest and resting up for the day. They’ll move out in the morning to check the remaining valleys in this area, then they’ll cross over One Dog Creek and start in there.

Another two weeks sees the Second crossing One Dog Creek after checking all of the valleys east of the creek and finding no more Clan fighters in them. They do find another group of Rider Clan immigrants at work cutting a road into the last hidden valley east of One Dog Creek. With the knowledge the men are not there they move in to check the valley out while the work party is busy on the road. They take all care and go in force, but find only women and children in the valley.

Four more weeks sees the Second riding up onto the plateau where Shiloh East is. All the valleys to the east have been checked and found free of Clansmen. There’s only this valley and the three hidden ones near here to go. Kyle knows this as he can see the Third camped outside of Shiloh East. General Phillips leads three companies into the valley to confirm it’s clear while Kyle takes the rest to set up camp further in.

When the Second sets up camp Dana and a few others come for a visit. Kyle greets them and they sit down to talk while the camp is being set up around them.

Dana opens the talk by saying, “Lord Kyle, I don’t know where you got that information on possible numbers in the valleys, but we only found ten men, the rest were women and children. All the hidden valleys west of here now have roadways to them. Also, many of the new immigrants and the men from the plains are checking out the valleys for farms and possible wives. We’ve even got a large group of Rider Clan immigrants to work on the roads here and to settle in the valleys as well. Some have already reached an agreement with some of the women in the valley just to the west of us.”

Kyle and KK both laugh. Kyle replies, “Yes, I’ve run into a few of the Rider Clan migrants. I wonder if your father has any cousins left in Rider Clan lands!” They all laugh at this question like statement.

Dana gets serious, “Lord Kyle, since the entrances to these three valleys here are close together I think we should make the one road to the cliff and then run a spur along the cliff face.”

“Dana, the spur may already exist. As you know, we had two close together valleys on the other plateau. When we closed in we found the Black Forest Clan had cleared an area about ten yards wide between the two valley entrances for their own use. I’d be surprised if the same isn’t true here. The total distance between the outside entrances is about a hundred yards, so we can easily treat them as one big one. The worry is we don’t know how many are left in there and the numbers can be anywhere from four to seven thousand of the Clan fighters left to deal with. Nor do we know which valley or valleys they’re in. We have to treat the three as having them all, until we clear them. Then we have to add in the four side valleys too. That’s a lot of area to check.”

“Not a nice set up at all, Lord Kyle. But I feel confident we can deal with what’s left of the Black Forest Clan.”

“Dana, I’ve no doubt we can deal with them, but at what cost to us?”

Kyle is very concerned about this coming battle, or set of battles, as his troops have won the past conflicts due to superior weapons giving them a longer reach on the enemy and a quicker response to act as one. These two capabilities have been major force multipliers in their past encounters with the Black Forest Clan and enabled them to beat larger numbers. However, none of those advantages apply to the upcoming fight. The close range of the forest rules out the use of the longbows and the lances, as well as making a mockery of the rapid response to orders. Once the two forces meet it’s going to be a huge melee at twenty-five yards or less, most probably under ten yards. He’s thinking hard on how to find some new advantages for his troops, or new ways to make the best of their existing advantages to keep his own casualties down.