“Only two kinds of people cannot learn from their mistakes: The Useless and the Dead.” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.
“Apologies, Long Jiangjun,” said Zhong Jiangjun Zahira Al-Nairi as she led the remainder of her cavalry troops back to the main body of the reserves of the Imperial army. Nearly half of the two thousand cavalrymen she brought with her failed to return, cut off and pincered as they were by the enemy’s own cavalry strike. “We took far more losses than expected.”
“They had an impeccable grasp on timing. I doubt I would have fared any better were I in your position, Zhong Jiangjun,” replied Leung Hua-Jeong in an unexpectedly consoling manner to Zahira’s proclamation of guilt and failure. “I saw it happen with greater clarity from here. They sent those riders out to intercept yours at the perfect moment.”
“Had they sent them out a little too soon, you would have noticed their presence and likely adjusted your tactics accordingly. Had they sent them out any later, more of your troops would have slipped past the killing zone already. But they did neither of that,” continued the old general. “Instead even I only noticed their movement right around the time your frontmost riders finished your attack run and turned around. You lead your troops from the front so you couldn’t have noticed their approach at all until it was too late.”
“Did you think it was a lucky coincidence, Long Jiangjun, or…?” asked the younger female general with a worried look on her face.
“It most likely is a lucky coincidence of timing on their part, yes,” said Hua-Jeong with a shake of his head as he did not like the alternative either. “But should similar cases happen again, then our opponent this time might possess a clairvoyant capable of grasping the situation of a battle at a far greater degree than any we previously encountered.”
“Should that prove to be the case, we will single out said clairvoyant, and in the worst case, I will make sure that they meet their end with my arrows, though of course we should attempt to capture them first. Such a talent could be put to great use in the Empire’s service, assuredly,” added the old general. “Of course, we are talking hypotheticals here. People with such talents are rare and only spoken about in legends.”
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What Hua-Jeong said was mostly true, as even in the Empire’s history they only noted one person who was suspected of such a talent, a famed tactician from the pre-Imperial days who worked for the Huan Confederacy and was known for their miraculous use of timing and maneuver to claim draws and victories from the jaws of defeat.
No small feat, as it was during a time when the Huan were on the backfoot and almost exterminated, even. Said tactician could be said to have bought the Confederacy the time it needed to gather itself and fight back harder, prolonging the fighting in the pre-Imperial era by several centuries more. All because of one man at the right place at the right time.
Even in the Imperial era, the legends of Liang Shi-Zu and the feats he was supposedly able to achieve during his life was something anyone associated with the military was likely familiar with. The tales and legends were so widespread and many of his recorded maneuvering was taught as examples to officer candidates, so it was not strange for Hua-Jeong to have thought that way.
Precise use of timing to eke out the most results out of a maneuver was one of the feats Liang Shi-Zu was most famous for, and was also one of the reasons many suspected that he was a clairvoyant who grasped a view of the battlefield unlike any other.
Little had either of them expected that a combination of relatively common functions one could find in enchanted spyglasses, combined with some creativity and happenstance, might be able to replicate such a view using tools and personnel instead.
Perhaps, given more time, with more of Hannah’s kin flying out of their nests to look for a different life in the outside world, others might come up with similar ideas. Still, it would take some time before that happened.
As it was, it was Erycea’s young flexible mind, taught in tactics and strategy by her father since young, that caught on to an incidental comment from Alycea when they were planning the birthday gift with their grandfather, combined with her skill to engrave glass so finely that the resulting artifact could be created in an easily portable form, that made it possible to begin with.
It could be considered a fluke.
A very lucky combination of factors, abilities, and mindsets that brought about the idea to begin with, by people who could bring it to reality in a practical manner. Such lucky coincidences could not exactly be called upon at one’s will, and would only happen when the whims of luck called for them to take place, after all.
“Don’t put it to mind for the time being, but keep an eye for other such extraordinarily good timing on the enemy’s part,” said Hua-Jeong after some thought. “If our foes truly possessed such a talent, then the loss taken by the northern detachment was not an unjust one, especially if they failed to notice it in time. Combined with the assassination, it was no surprise they lost so badly.”
“As you will, Long Jiangjun,” stated Zahira beside him.
Other than the unexpected surprise and forewarning of the unpleasant possibility that their enemies might possess a legendary clairvoyant, the rest of that day’s battle went on uneventfully. The infantry forces that clashed eventually retreated when the sun started to set behind the horizon, each returning to their respective camps.
Deaths were low, and each side only took a few thousand casualties, mostly injuries, from the fighting, which was well within expectations. No more surprises had reared their heads unexpectedly… for the time being.