Call of the Navy
Meanwhile, the peninsula's defenses are becoming increasingly desperate.
The first attack of the Chakras posed no danger.
The general had sent five thousand mounted warriors ahead to sweep the peninsula. However, the horses could not get close to the defensive lines.
John filled the entire path on the peninsula full of nasty surprises. Potholes with stakes, wires across the road, falling trees. Anything he could think of. One of his beautiful and easy traps is specially designed against horses. A shallow and narrow trench has been dug along the entire length of the defensive line. It doesn't stand out among all the grass. The horses step into the ditch and break their legs. The screams of the horses are hard to hear, but it does cause chaos among the attackers.
After the ditch is a row of felled trees, over which the horses jump with ease. What the warriors didn't see is that there is a row of wooden stakes behind it. Several horses and warriors are impaled on the pointed branches.
After these two surprises, the rash attack is over. But as the cavalrymen try to help their wounded, and try to find a way back through the makeshift defenses, two platoons of soldiers from the New Legion march through the gate.
Although they arrive neatly in formation with their large shields and long spears, they stop at a good distance from the large group of enemy warriors.
As one, the soldiers of the legion grab their crossbows and, on command, shoot a cloud of bolts into the middle of the chaotic pack of warriors.
While several commanders of the Chakras call out to their warriors to climb into the saddle, the soldiers of the New Legion string their crossbows once more. This time they focus on the commanders of the warriors. Instead of a cloud of arrows, each soldier now shoots as fast as he can. Because of this, none of the Chakras know when he might be hit, and their small round shields are of less than no use. Several captains and even a single commander fall from the saddle mortally wounded before enough warriors are on horseback to attack the soldiers.
They quietly put away their crossbows, after which they return to the gate in formation with closed shields and spears.
The group of nearly 200 warriors reach the legion just before they return. The horses, however, refuse to rush into the wall spears. If the soldiers then step forward three steps at the same time, the warriors will even come within range of the spears! Before the warriors in the back realize what is happening, several of the men in front are already dead or wounded.
This is the last straw for the demoralized warriors, and all the while they retreat to the rest of the army. All in all, they leave behind almost two hundred and fifty dead and wounded, and they still have almost as many driving wounded with them.
As the Chakras regroup, the soldiers of the Legion come out of the gate again to collect as many weapons and bolts as possible. The horses that are still stray on the loose are also collected and led through the gate.
Although this first battle is a resounding success for Raidon and his men, they cannot congratulate themselves yet. This was only the first attack on their position, and most of their traps are now known, and the Chakra general will not be fooled so easily again by the seemingly small army.
Although Raidon and his men spend the rest of the day waiting for another attack, the Chakraan general limits himself to setting up camp, and removing any traps he can find.
When it looks like there will be no more immediate attacks, Raidon lets his men rest. He does, however, leave one platoon on the palisade to keep an eye on the enemy and to stop the enemy while the alarm is raised.
In the middle of the night, Raidon is woken up by the alarm. There is no time to put on his armor, because he can already hear that there is a lot of fighting.
Raidon quickly grabs his sword and shield, and hurries out of his tent. Although it is pitch dark outside, he can already see in the flickering light of the torches on the wall that the Chakras are indeed making a strong attack. Mateo's platoon is already heavily cornered on the wall, and the first Chakras are climbing down in three places where the soldiers of Mateo's platoon have been pushed back.
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Within moments, however, soldiers of the New Legion come rushing from all sides to stop these Chakras. Among the first of the rushing soldiers, Raidon recognizes Sergeant Liam. Raidon quickly rushes to Liam, but before he gets there, Sergeant Liam is hit by his opponent. Before the warrior can deliver the final blow, however, Raidon smashes his shield against the warrior at full speed. Immediately, other soldiers rush to kill the warrior.
Nearby, Raidon sees John approaching, with Sergeant Mark close behind. Raidon quickly points out John and a dozen men to quickly put on their armor. Meanwhile, he and Sergeant Mark divide the half-naked soldiers. Raidon takes one half up the wall, while Mark catches the Chakrans who manage to get over the wall.
When John returns a little later with ten fully armored men, Raidon immediately has them take over a piece of wall from his own men. The relieved men run back to the camp to put on their own armor. In the meantime, Sergeant Mark has also sent a number of men back to get dressed. Now that there are more men on the wall, fewer Chakras are coming over it. This gives the opportunity to send more men back for their armor.
Half an hour later it is clear that the attack of the Chakras has failed. Although it didn't look like it at first, the soldiers have regained control of the entire wall.
When Raidon consults with Mateo, Mark and John, who has temporarily taken over Liam's team, it turns out that this victory has been an expensive one.
In Mateo's squad, three soldiers are dead, and seven more are wounded. Five of them have broken bones, one has lost an eye, and the last one is missing two fingers.
With that, Mateo has come off the best. Although his men fought the longest, they did have their armor on. Mark has eight dead and fifteen wounded, and John has counted five dead and eighteen wounded, with Sergeant Liam being one of the wounded. Both expect that several more injured people will not survive. Most of their soldiers were wounded at the beginning of the fighting, when they had to fight without their armor.
"This shows how important the harnesses are. Most of Mateo's injured have broken bones, while the rest of us have mostly suffered cuts and stab wounds. Although we are great fighters, it is clear that the warriors of Chakra, and therefore also those of Falwyn, are a lot better at one-on-one combat. From this moment until the Chakras withdraw, I want everyone to sleep in their armor."
"Are you sure they're going to pull out?" asks Mateo, "I think they'll keep coming until none of us will be standing."
"Normally you'd be right, but while we've been working here, Morris hasn't been idle either. If all goes well, it won't be long for the Chakran general to be told that the second half of his men, the infantrymen, will not come. Morris and the others attacked Fort Shi while we were playing the bait here."
"What! You mean this whole operation is just a diversionary tactic? Why couldn't we leave when we had defeated that garrison?"
"Because I'm not going to give up this place. Although this is indeed a diversionary tactic, it is also intended to take over this peninsula. This place is too good to pass up."
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Aulis is busy. Although he is still mayor of Arana, he has not been to the town in days. And yes, he thinks, nowadays you can call it a real town.
A few weeks ago there was a revolt among the workers of one of the nobles in the west of the empire, because that man was treating the people on his land as slaves. After years of exploitation and not enough food, the people had revolted. Instead of waiting for the nobleman's warriors, they moved away. The people had heard of how the province of Aran was getting back on its feet after all the bandits had been driven out, and of course it also helped that there were no nobles who owned land in the province, and they had decided to go there in the hope of a new life.
Eventually, many of those people ended up in Arana, although a lot of new land was also cleared in the province itself.
Lately Aulis is mainly busy building rest areas along the main road. The two mayors, Crow and Mark, have already settled in their future villages a while ago, and the time has come to take care of the rest areas as well. Hopefully, Aulis will also be able to find people who want to run the rest areas as an inn, but that is of later concern, he thinks. As long as the buildings are there now, at least it is safe to travel by road.
The first resting place was finished a few days ago. This consists of a two-storey building, at the bottom of which is a communal dining room and kitchen with sleeping quarters above, a stable and a canopy where firewood is stored.
Aulis and a group of ten men have already made a space next to the road for the second resting place. The trees and shrubs that were in the way have been removed and the ground has also been levelled. The next step is to install a foundation of wooden poles that are partly buried and thus form the framework of the buildings.
However, the delivery of those poles, which have to come all the way from the city of Aran because they warp if they are not properly dried, has still not arrived. Aulis had wanted those poles here almost a week ago, well before they would start this second construction.
In the two days that follow, the eleven men can do little more than dig the holes in which the poles are to be placed, and build the roof for the firewood. Of course, that structure does not have to be as sturdy as the other two buildings.
Finally, the cart with the poles arrives halfway through the third day of waiting. However, as soon as Aulis inspects the cargo, he exclaims:
"Where's the rest? This is not even enough for the stable, let alone the inn."
"I'm sorry, sir. This is all the merchant could send from Aran without getting paid first. I think you were lucky that he wanted to do this. Most of the time, the merchants want to see money before they even want to deliver a nail."
"Now that you mention it, I don't think the nails were delivered either, did they?"
"No, I only got those beams"
"Then I'll have to go and see the man myself. We have paid enough to set up all five rest areas on this side of the mountains, so I expect him to deliver what he promised."
"Like I said, sir. The dealer insists that he has not yet received a copper piece. Every you've gotten so far is because he's confident that you or the legion will pay."
"Nothing at all? That means that the materials for the villages have also not been delivered either. The other mayors will not be happy about that. Four of them have already started setting up their new villages, with two on this side of the mountains and two on the side of Arana."
"That's right, from what I hear, one Mayor Crow has already sent an angry message to Arana."
Aulis out of a deep sigh. "That man will be my death one day. You know what, I'm coming with you to Arana. Then we
will find out once and for all what happened to the payment.