“I always feel that war is the most honest way to solve our problems. One good, decisive battle and things would be decided one way or another. Politics on the other hand? Hah! It would already be a miracle if you can get anything done within a year of a decision being made!” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.
“What do you think, Marshals?” asked Estelle that same evening in the main building inside the fort south of the city. She was accompanied by her senior military officers, and were seated across a large table from the Caroman Marshals and their corps of senior officers. “Are we in a good position to break the siege on the city after today?”
“It depends on the exact circumstances of the enemy’s situation, which we have no way to gain a good look into at the moment, but we believe they might be hankering for a decisive battle with us sooner rather than later,” suggested Marshal Anni-Al-Bagh Barca as she pointed towards the Podovnian camp. “Today your mercenaries demolished half of their siege engines, which basically killed any chance for them to break through the sixth wall in any reasonably brief timeframe. From what we could tell, our enemies had planned for a swift resolution to the battle.”
“They probably planned to breach through a couple walls and then intimidate the people inside the city to surrender before you could return,” noted her husband, Marshal Publius Cornelius. “Thanks to the delays your mercenaries caused them, that plan died in the cradle, and we even got here in time to hit them while they were reeling from the losses they must have taken today. That was an inspired move, by the way, to collapse the wall on top of them like that.”
“We had long discussed the possibility of doing so as a contingency in this sort of situation, but yeah, this way that wall earned its keep rather than being just another obstacle in people’s way,” admitted Estelle with a nod of her head. “It’s not like the city would have enough populace to need the area beyond the sixth wall for another couple generations anyway. This way at least the demolition served a second purpose for us.”
“It’s why they never saw it coming. Your city happened to be in the unique situation that allowed you to throw away a wall as a disposable weapon at your enemies, something no strategy book would have recorded for people to watch out for,” said the Marshal with a chuckle. “At this rate, while the untrained soldiers in the city still wouldn’t be of much use in a field battle, our enemies are starting to run low on people to even maintain a serious siege. If they take more casualties they might as well turn back as they would not have enough people to force Levain into submission even if they broke the walls.”
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“So you think they’ll come for us soon?” asked Estelle as she asked about a scenario her commanders had deemed to be very likely at this point.
“They have to. They can’t afford to split off nearly half of their remaining army just to keep us at bay while the rest of them sieged the city. As it is, today’s losses will likely force them to try to remove us from play, as it would be their last hope to get the initiative of this war back in their hands,” noted Anni from her husband’s side. “It might be as early as tomorrow, but my expectation is that we’ll have one last battle to decide things within a fortnight.”
“Captain Edelstein sent word that he’ll be on the lookout for chances to hit where it hurts should such a battle come to be,” said Estelle with a nod. The way things had developed during the war so far had gone far better than their estimates, which had been on the more pessimistic end when they first heard the enemy’s numbers. “He also mentioned that the Podovnian heavy cavalry are, in his own words, as good as crippled.”
“That’s another piece of good news. Our enemies have less cavalry than we do. They probably didn’t bring as many since they figured they were going for a siege, so that’s something my riders can take advantage of,” noted Publius with a grin on his face. “Do we have your permission to borrow your riders once again for our future battles, Madam Chairwoman?”
“They’re yours to command, Marshal,” replied Estelle. In the interest of uniting their cavalry and making full use of them, she had ‘lent’ Levain’s two thousand – now two thousand five hundred after the detachment that went with Reinhardt rejoined the rest – riders to the Caroman force to work together with their larger cavalry force. The day’s battle had proven that the Marshal treated the Levainian cavalry like they were his own troops and had not placed them at more dangerous spots or anything like that, so Estelle was confident in trusting him with them once more.
“Thank you for your trust, Madam Chairwoman,” replied the Marshal. “We will need to see how the enemy reacts to today’s loss and how they arrange their troops tomorrow, but I have some confidence that I could use our cavalry force to distract and harass them once more. I would be warier if they still had their knights, but those are reduced to a minimal threat, so that definitely made things simpler.”
“In which case should we work out signals for when we would request a sally from Levain itself?” asked Estelle. A sally by Levain’s defenders could be considered their side’s trump card at this point of the battle, one that had the potential of turning the tables. Due to the rubble from the collapsed wall, however, such a sally would take time, and it would be difficult for the defenders to retreat in a timely manner once they sallied out. They would be committed to ending the fight right then and there should they be mobilized.
“Indeed, Madam Chairwoman. Let us discuss the contingencies.”