A
Battle in winter
The morning was a wintery white, snow
fell endlessly about the camp. The captain awoke from the rattling moving armor
marching around the camp. Still in his night clothes the captain stepped out of
his tent into the cold air. The camp was alive with men scurrying to their unit
formations. Four squires awaited him. One was leading his war horse. One held
his mail armor and another holding both his sword and helmet. His armor was
steadily slapped onto his body. Sword by his side and helmet in one arm the
captain mounted his horse. He paused before placing his helm onto his head,
looking into his men’s eyes he saw the sickness of fear.
This eighty man strong unit was not at all prepared to
march into battle. He knew these men did not come to fight for the glory of
their general. The captain ordered his men forward to form up with the other
units. The General approached the captain, looked at him with an angry glare.
The general must have been insulted seeing the captain waking up so late, later
than was planned. This insulted general rode off with his body guards leaving
the captain alone in the camp. He stared at the snow pondering as he watched it
fall. Looking back over his shoulder he gazed at the mountains to the west. There
were many places he would rather be than marching off to some glorious battle. A
glorious battle what glorious battle? More like a journey into the Jaws of
death awaiting them. Its mouth was certainly drooling for the flesh of souls.
Its teeth were sharp and deadly even to the already deceased.
“Why?” he said with dread in his heart. “Why should I
send these men to their deaths? No less than leading them myself to death even
my own life into the greedy jaws of death?” He envisioned this battle, his men,
all the men there would be massacred. As he returned to his unit the general
gave the signal to move on to the rendezvous sight.
For miles they marched in deep, cold snow, marching over
one another’s foot prints. It was noon when they finally reached their
destination. Stomachs of the soldiers began to grumble and moan with hunger.
Their allies greeted them with food and drink; they hungrily took the food with
both gratitude and greed. As the troops ate they saw a strange new ally had
arrived. These new comers seemed alien to them. They had never seen these
people before. They rode upon strange steeds with only two legs, wings and had
a bird like appearance. To the soldiers the steeds looked more like giant
chickens with golden feathers. Some laughed at the steeds mocking the knights
riding them. They were soon awestruck by these knights. Some of them were
women!
The soldiers and their captains were aghast to see women
riding into battle. The armies took a three days’ rest, so others could have
more time to join them. The force reached the millions as more armies came.
After the three days were finished the leading Generals planned out a perfect
battle strategy to defeat the enemy they knew nothing about.
Troops began to move out of the camps as they had been
order to. Soon the entire army marched out of their camps. With their halberds
upright, banners high in the wind, the large numbers of men moved like a flood
of steel. They marched to meet their enemy. None of them had any knowledge of
who their enemy was, what weapons they had, how they fought and what became of
their prisoners of war. His men marched
with the others as the captain lead them feeling depressed. Something told him
this battle would end the lives of every man here, no survivors. They would be
wiped out in an instant.
The only form of siege weapons they had were catapults
and ballistae. The movement was slow but by evening they had come upon an
entrenched group of hills. On the other side was a vast plain of snow covered
fields. On the other side of the plains was the entrenched enemy far off in the
distance.
The army of knights’ position was somewhat well-fortified.
Siege engines were set up on top of the hills and wooden platforms with dirt
piled around. The weapons had been fixed onto the enemy positions, with extra
horses and other steeds at least two and a half million mounted cavalry
prepared to charge. The captain and his unit were amongst many whom did not
need to join the charge.
The captain ambled his way through the fortifications,
winding his way to the front of the man-made fortifications. Walls and hills
made up their fortified defenses. He looked over at the enemy; he could barely
make out their heavy fortifications. Their red banners waving in the wind were
the only thing he could see clearly. Both fortified hills stretched nearly a
mile.
Looking all around he traversed up a hill, they had no
cannons or any modern weaponry. He stared at the back of their fortifications.
There were still reinforcements coming in by the hundreds even the thousands.
More knights, siege weapons and infantry came to their call.
“The appetite of death surely grows slowly.” He sighed
under his breath.
It was some time before the charging force made it to the
front of the lines. A force of cavalry men was converted to an armies worth.
The general marched proudly to the front as men hailed and cheered him on as he
passed them by. Then a trumpet sounded and the force began to march forward and
charged as they unsheathed their swords.
It was a glorious site to see, they all watched in awe as
the knights charged into the mist. Charging wildly the attacking force came
within yards of the enemy before something terrible happened. As they
approached the enemy opened fire with weapons they did not have. Machine guns
and artillery fired upon the cavalry devastating the entire force. The sight
was gruesome and terrifying, knights and horses fell as the rapid fire mowed
them all down. They tried to sound the retreat but the artillery and riflemen
picked them off in a swift rate that there were hardly any survivors. Right and
left they fell dead from the bullets. Within minutes the entire force was
massacred before the eyes of the knight army.
The captain stood there on the hill watching this
horrifying scene. He knew something like this was bound to happen. Something
told him that this would happen that they would never prevail. He continued to
stand there like a statue staring at the other side of the battlefield.
Siege engineers launched hundreds of flaming, projectiles
at the enemy in the hopes of intimidating them. Archers came running up,
stopped loaded their bows and commenced firing. At the command of their
officers the archers launched volley after volley of arrows to weaken the enemy
ranks. Crossbowmen rushed to the front to join the infantry. A general
confronted the captain whom remained standing. He watched as the flames emerged
on the other side as projectiles smashed into the fortifications.
He could hardly make the shapes of the men putting out
the flames and running for cover. A thick cloud of smoke engulfed the enemy
position. No sight could ever penetrate the dark thick cloud. It was impossible
to tell what was happening, whether the enemy was dying or retaliating. Flaming
arrows and projectiles continuously rained down upon the enemy.
The captain was ordered to join his men, he did so
without hesitation. It was his turn to jump into the jaws of death this time.
Only, there was no return, just the afterlife for eternity. His men looked
exhausted, he could tell by looking at their weary faces. The men had been
sapped of their energy. Their eyes had a look of defeat in them. He could even
see the fear in each of their eyes. These men were certainly not going to win
this battle. For this battle was already over, before it even began.
He stared into the eyes of one soldier; he was young,
younger than the captain. The lad had a look of dread in his eyes. The captain
then settled down with his men, preparing for whatever else the enemy threw at
them. Crossbows were distributed amongst the infantry. The Captain had orders
to ensure his men would defend the entrenchments.
Crossbows loaded with bolts, both infantry and archers
readied themselves for another onslaught. Every man that was armed with a
crossbow faced the enemy positions. The fog still covered the battlefield along
with the thick clouds of smoke. The captain observed what he could make out
through the fog as he awaited further orders. He could see nothing but a thick
sheet of fog and smoke. Suddenly he saw movement in the smoke, numerous shadows
were approaching. Hundreds of white shadowy figures crept slowly toward the
primitive army. Before the defending army could react the advancing army
started firing into the ranks of the defenders. The defenders were already
getting killed off before any crossbows could be fired. Very few were able to
shoot a bolt or two into the advancing enemy before they were bayoneted to
death. The massacre soon turned into a hand to hand skirmish with sword and
spear vs. bayonet and blade. The thousands of defenders were slaughtered as the
enemy jumped them, knifed them and shot them down. The captain managed to
killed several and make it out alive along with some other lucky ones.
Archers came forth to fire volleys at the enemy, but the
enemy’s superior projectile weapons were too quick for them. Pike men came
charging in with their long spears, attempting to push the enemy back. This
counter attack failed miserably, because the enemy had already positioned
themselves within the entrenchments. Bodies fell to the snow covered ground
like rain. Blood engulfed the white snow in a sheet of red liquid. The massacre
went from skirmish to massacre time and time again as many soldiers counter
attacked repeatedly. Archers and crossbowmen tried to shoot the enemy bolts and
arrows, but these attempts immediately ended their lives. They fired what arrows
they could, but the enemy gunned them down.
The captain watched the battle as he tried to get away,
he did not want to die in this massacre. His foolish brothers in arms charged
toward the enemy dragging him with them. All around him dozens fell to the
ground dead. Then he himself was shot several times. Fell into the snow on his
back and did nothing except watch as the other soldiers were butchered by the
enemy. Lying down on the ground, helpless, the captain was bleeding slowly. His
life began to fade away slowly. He was now dying as he watched his comrades be
killed by this ruthless enemy. Since his life was abruptly ending, he
would never be able to see his beautiful kingdom again. This was the kingdom of
Denoras.
No comments:
Post a Comment