Chapter 52:

My decision to put off the war until the beginning of the next month was a bit of a gamble. Technically, I was one short, but I would definitely be able to get twenty honorable kills during a small-scale war. If I was lucky, perhaps I could draw it out for a full month, covering my third month's requirement as well.

My meeting with the Baron went well, and it was just the first of the liege levies I had called up by my instructions. My four other vassal barons received calls to marshal their levies at a staging point not too far from a few fields that I had worked with the captain to pick out. The next morning, we were heading home. I wasn't looking forward to the trip, but at least I knew that I could make it while healing my injuries.

On the second day, I had a pleasant surprise. Checking my medallion had become a habit, and suddenly, it read as done for the month. What had happened? I worried about that the rest of the way home. As soon as I did, I checked in with reports of all incidents.

Apparently, the guards had interrupted a fight, and in breaking up the brawl, one of the men, while drunk, had attempted to fight the guards. The guards had beaten him senselessly, and he ended up dying. Apparently, that was close enough to honorable combat that the man's soul had counted, and I was actually settled for the month.

This was a huge weight off my mind as at least the initial investment had been taken care of. It was also good to confirm that just in the course of their duties, governing territory with the law enforcement on my side would provide enough souls for me to last a little bit. Of course, that number would become obsolete pretty quickly with the escalating nature of my payment. Still, potentially, it could even tide me over for the next month.

Looking at the records, that would have to be an incredible outlier, as all of my counties only saw an average of five to seven deaths per month that were not from natural causes unless there was some sort of massive event. It didn't appear that my vassals' states would count as directly either. Hopefully, their soldiers would if they were acting under my command.

The captain introduced me to his three commanders who would be taking mostly field command of the various units of infantry, cavalry, and archers. Max led the infantry, Douglas the cavalry, and Frederick the archers. The four of them stood in front of my desk as I laid out my plans.

"I want the terrain scouted and three candidate battlefields picked out," I said. "As per the rules of engagement, I will need to declare my intent to invade with evidence of the casus belli. I will send that out to all parties involved and surrounding parties so they know. I will declare a field of battle, a date, and a time. We will meet there, and the lines will charge."

That seemed to be the extent of combat. I, however, was not necessarily going to fight honorably as much as I wanted souls. I actually only needed twenty of them, and no matter what happened, we would definitely incur that many losses ourselves. So, it was best for us to win as efficiently as possible, especially if I were to need my soldiers for future engagements, as my time here would be anything but peaceful.

"Max, you lead most of our engineers, right?"

The man shrugged. "Mostly, though we do little more than set up palisades."

"Well, that's going to change. You're going to be doing a lot more. Douglas, I need a scouting force picking out all these battlefields. I need something with a clear advantage. I want to make sure our site has every advantage. I want the high ground.

I want our left flank in a position where they can be a little bit higher, maybe up a nice top step or a ridge that they can line up along and have lots of small boulders scattered in front of them so the enemy's charge is interrupted. I want to make it seem as if they're vulnerable so that they'll be rolled up, but I want to make it nearly impossible for the enemy to hit them all at once. On our right flank, I want to have a smooth hill. If necessary, move rocks out of the way and put them on the left flank so the right flank has a nice, easy charge down the hill."

"We're going to be using an uneven line, triple stacked on the right, to overwhelm their flank. I want towers ready for archers to be placed up, nothing super tall such that they couldn't survive jumping down, but good six to ten-foot platforms.

That extra height will give them a huge advantage. I don't want them built in place, but I want them nearby, hidden in the brush, ready to move out when we're ready. Kill any scouts from Roderick's forces that you can find, and prevent them from getting any information on any of the battlefields nearby, nor places to hide or set up ambushes."

The men nodded. They seemed a bit concerned about the tactics, but they were veteran soldiers who knew what it would take to survive.

The captain and his commanders left. Douglas stayed at the door for half a second before saying, "Your father would approve of this plan, sire."

I nodded. "Thanks, Doug," I said, shortening his name to something a little bit more manageable. "But I'm sure you have lots of work to do."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"That I do, sire," he said as he left.

I pored over the books again. One of the many things on my list was to train a replacement chamberlain. My current one was off languishing in the dungeon. His wife was in the next cell over.

My power of law enforcement was nearly absolute unless the subject was a member of the nobility. The imprisoning of my Chamberlin had raised some eyebrows, but no one had done anything about it. That the country was on the warpath insulated me from a lot of the ordinary processes that the King usually enforced.

Just preventing the loss of income from his fraud and not spending such a ridiculous amount of money on myself saved us a mountain of gold. I started penning messages to several of the mercenary companies that my father had records of dealing with. Best to use them rather than train up new troops. That would be even more expensive, and they would be lower quality. If they incurred heavy losses, perhaps I could employ those remaining to train the rest of my troops. Besides, the more men in the field, the better for me.

The rest of the month flew by with an incredible whirlwind of preparation. Supply lines were established, supply depots were set, and our staging grounds were mapped out. Scouts came back multiple times a day to report their findings. With as much information as I could get arrayed before me, I felt as prepared as I possibly could be.

We had the food, the coin, the pay, the men, the weapons, and the favorable ground. The messages calling my vessel's troops had been received, and they were on their way. We marched out to great fanfare as the entire county came to see us off. Many families were nervous, but our preparations had seen most of them comforted. The soldiers knew what it was like to go on a campaign. Being properly fed the first couple of nights on the road, without real concern from the quartermasters that they were running low on supplies, did much for morale.

When we arrived at the staging grounds, we didn't have to wait long for the rest of my forces to show up. They numbered several thousand, and by all accounts, I should almost outnumber Count Roderick's men two to one with the mercenaries I had hired bolstering our numbers.

We marched to the final battlefield, and I got my first look at the fortifications Max's engineers had managed to provide. He'd gone above and beyond. The left flank had a well-disguised palisade dug in with a slight dip before it hit an elevated platform, giving us the ability to stab down upon them.

Small boulders that had been moved from the right flank to the left scattered the approach up a slight hill. I hoped it would wear out and decimate the formations of the enemy before they even had a chance to hit our weaker flank. The center was on a slight slope upwards, making it hard for a real charge to hit perfectly. Still, otherwise, it looked rather inviting. This was perfect because the right flank had a slight gradient the other way for us to charge into their weaker left flank. With the rocks moved out of the way, it was as perfect as we could have made it.

Not only had all the preparations for our side been executed as planned, but we had also messed with the enemy's ground. Their side had been less than ideal for us because they had a sparse copse of trees that would potentially allow them to hide their camps. Also, to retreat into breaking up any real massed charge of our cavalry. However, a couple days ago, our scouts had set it alight the day before and burned the whole thing down. It was now nothing more than a bare, ashen wasteland where we saw Roderick's men coming up.

They looked confused, as this was not what their scouts had told them about the battlefield—one of the reasons they likely had accepted instead of proposing one of the alternatives. But I wasn't worried as we also had plans for all those.

It took some time, but the forces lined up in positions, and I looked as if we didn't outnumber them as much as we thought. Had Roderick also hired mercenaries, or had other allies helped? Had he brought in a lot of conscripts? If so, they wouldn't get him much, even though we were roughly equal. I couldn't see this fight going any other way.

When the trumpets blasted and his line charged, my right flank and center moved forward to meet him at an angle. His weaker left flank attempted to hold, but the heavy mass of deep lines of my right almost immediately started to bow his line backward.

His right flank of forces was also built up with cavalry. Still, once they started trying to pick their way through the boulders, their charge devolved into men carefully guiding their horses around rocks lest they trip or slam into each other. Their advance slowed to a crawl. Still, my archers held their fire until the men on the ridge were stabbing down at the horsemen, almost level with them, even on horseback.

Then, wave after wave of arrows landed on their elite troops on the right flank. The terrain prevented a fast withdrawal even more than it had slowed their advance.

Our elite troops rolled their line over, and we burst through their defenses. The first wave of cavalry charged past their line and attacked their camp, torches being lit as they prepared for this eventuality. Every tent they rode past was set aflame. The second wave of cavalry galloped closely behind. They stopped a hundred yards off before wheeling and charging into the rear of the opponent's center and their own right flank, crushing their lines between us.

The archers' fire from the elevated towers never ceased.

It wasn't quick, but a couple of hours later, the entire force of nearly six thousand enemies were fleeing half-dead, a quarter crippled, and a mere fifteen hundred men were running back toward Roderick County.

They weren't going to get away that easy, though. The retreat almost made it up to the right of the hill behind them. If they made it over, it would have been a straight shot to get them on the road heading back to Roderick's county seat.

To their horror, a cavalry troop crested the ridge and rode out amongst them.

Despite the easy targets, they didn't hit directly but harried their flanks and forced them to drop any burdens they attempted to carry. I didn't want any extra casualties that fighting them to the last man would cause. This was far more than I needed as it stood.

Checking my counter, I found that I had sent well over seven thousand souls to Valhalla, significantly over my total of twenty required. I cursed myself for not working out a deal with Loki about what I would receive for extra payment and service. Hopefully, he'd see fit to reward above and beyond service anyway. Next time, I would remember.