60 - Logistics Part Three

Just after lunch, Raidon is walking around the new camp to let his food settle, when one of Morris' cavalrymen rushes towards him.

"Captain! Fort One is under attack!" shouts the man while being out of breath.

"Right, thank you soldier. I'll take over now. You just sit down and relax. There should still be something for you to eat and drink in the mess hall."

As the cavalryman slowly trudges towards the mess hall, Raidon looks after him for a moment. It is nice that everyone is doing their best, but this goes a bit far. If the man had slowed down just a bit, the news would have arrived only a minute later, but the man could be deployed again immediately. Now he must first recover from the effort.

Raidon walks slowly to the gate. Like the legions of the past, the New Legion makes well-fortified camps. Not only does the camp have a wooden palisade, there is also a two-meter-deep moat that has been dug around the camp. The earth excavated is used as an earthen wall on which the palisade is built. The moat itself has been dug into a V-shape to make it extra difficult for attacking infantry to get over the moat. Between the moat and the earthen wall, pointed stakes have been planted that make it very dangerous to climb the earthen wall.

All in all, the camp of the New Legion is even more secure than the forts of the front line.

When Raidon arrives at the gate, he finds the sergeant on duty with several soldiers from his platoon. At any time of the day, one of the five platoons is standing guard.

"Sergeant, would you be so kind to sound the alarm? I want all our soldiers to be ready to march in ten minutes in full armament."

While the sergeant rushes to sound the alarm and pass on Raidon's orders, Raidon goes to his tent to look at the maps again. Their camp is set up in the middle of the southern front line, and even with a quick march it will take all day before they can get to Fort One.

Well before the ten minutes are up, the entire company is ready to leave. Less than five minutes after Raidon's command, the first platoon arrived. Since this is the platoon on duty, it doesn’t surprise Raidon at all. A few minutes later the next two platoons arrive, with a third shortly afterwards.

Everyone has been in position for a long time when the fifth and final peloton arrives.

"Apologies for the delay, Captain." Reports Sergeant Liam, "one of my squads was unable to show up in good order, so we had to wait to determine their punishment."

"Right, but why didn't you do that while we were on the road?"

"Uhm, good question captain. I'm afraid I didn't think of that."

"Doesn't matter, you were still on time. But let's get on the road now."

That same evening they arrive at the fort. It is clear that a battle has raged here, but now there are no more Chakras in sight.

The walls of the fort are heavily blackened, and here and there are the bodies of some Chakras. However, there are far fewer than Raidon expected. A real major attack on the fort would still be going on now. Although there are few troops present in the fort, the defenses ensure that each attack would cost a lot of troops.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Well Raidon," Morris reports, "I'm afraid we walked all the way here for nothing."

"Walked? You and your men could take it easy and then catch up with you on your donkeys. We are the ones who had to walk until we had raw feet."

"Donkeys? These are thoroughbred horses. Their family trees probably go back further than yours."

While bickering, the two commanders go to the commander of the fort to find out what exactly happened here.

The commander of the fort is a captain of the regular army. Apart from bags under his eyes, the man looks like he is going to a ball.

"Gentlemen, thank you for coming. As you can see, we have everything under control here. My men easily repulsed the enemy, after which they fled."

"Is that so?" Raidon asks, "We did see some traces of the battle, but it didn't look like this was a large-scale offensive. Can you explain that to me?"

"But of course. The attack here consisted of a few thousand warriors. When my lookouts saw that we were being attacked, I put all my men on the walls. The enemy had braziers with which they tried to set the walls on fire. When that didn't work, they tried it with grappling hooks. During this second attempt we killed many enemies."

"What do you call a lot, Captain? We saw the bodies of at most a dozen dead."

The captain is now starting to blush a little.

"We killed fourteen men."

"Fourteen, and how much have you lost yourself?"

"Six of my warriors lost their lives in the defense of the fort."

The captain seems to be proud of this number.

"Six, that's almost half of the attackers. With the walls and other defenses, you should kill at least three times as many enemies as they can do to you. Two on one is not very good. Certainly not since this was not a real attack."

"What do you mean not a real attack?" The captain now really seems to be lost.

"This seems more like a test of our defense. With a few thousand men, they can never completely break through our line. With these numbers, they could only commit a few raids before our troops would catch them."

The next morning Raidon and Morris leave again. Before they leave though, Raidon impresses something on the commander of the fort.

"You understand that we expect you to repel the next attack better, captain. Remember that it can be helpful to keep some warriors on hand as a reserve. Don't put everyone on the walls at once. And make sure there are enough ranged weapons on the walls. Spears, stones, arrows, anything that can make casualties without them being able to hit your own men back. You do not have thousands of troops to ride towards the enemy like in the past. You will have to act defensively until the rest of the armies are back."

"But captain, when we hide behind the walls we seem cowardly in the eyes of the Chakras."

"Well, man, it's about keeping this border secure until the reinforcements arrive. Or do you want to give away half the empire to Chakra?"

"Well no, but I have to think about the honor of my family."

"Rest assured man, I will make it clear to my replacement that you have followed my orders. There's nothing dishonorable about that."

By the time Raidon, Morris and the rest of the New Legion are almost back at their camp, it's almost noon. Everyone looks forward to an extensive lunch and soft beds.

Then, however, one of Morris' cavalrymen meets them. Half of the cavalrymen remained in the camp under the command of Captain Harris to guard it and to serve as messengers, and apparently one of them has been sent to meet up with them.

"Commander, our captain informs you that Fort Four, the next fort to the south, is under attack by thousands of Chakras."

Raidon looks at Morris. "Well, there goes our lunch, I think. Shall we?"

When they arrive at the fourth fort, it turns out that this time they are still on time. Even before the enemy comes into view, they hear the sound of the trumpeters blowing the retreat.

The road winds around a hill here, so the enemy has not yet noticed the New Legion.

"They are withdrawing. Let's try to catch a few of them." Raidon calls out to his men.

Immediately, the sergeants order the marching order be changed. The front soldiers keep the same pace, while the others run a bit faster. As a result, it does not take long before the five platoons march side by side.

When the enemy comes into view, they see that most of the Chakras are already on horseback. Only a few hundred are still in the process of returning to their horses.

When the Chakras see the company of the New Legion, a thousand storm towards them.

However, this attack does not last long. The Chakras have not even covered half the distance when they see that this is not a regular company.

They quickly turn around to return to their own army group. Here and there collisions occur due to the rapid turning, and a single warrior even falls from his saddle.

Raidon and the soldiers of the New Legion, meanwhile, continue to march unmoved. Just as they get the enemy within reach of their crossbows, the last Chakras spur on their horses. Raidon quickly orders the crossbows to be fired, but at most a dozen of the arrows reach the target, with only three warriors falling out of their saddles due to their injuries.