The Chesian Wars (A Griffins & Gunpowder Collection) Read online

  * * *

  Kasimir's garrison boasted two regiments of infantry, a company of cavalry and a single artillery battery.

  Fort Demitas had been built from local gray stone at the peak of a line of hills that eventually led to the Crooked Mountains. The walls stood sixty feet tall and thirty feet wide; ramps provided access from the common yard to the ramparts. Towers had been built twenty feet taller at each of the corners and massive gatehouses protected the entrances. The northern and western walls were unapproachable, but the eastern and southern sides had smooth attack lines and would require the majority of the defensive focus.

  The fortress could have supported nearly double the garrison that Kasimir had been granted, but he knew that there weren't enough soldiers in the whole of the Malkalan army to fully garrison all of their fortresses. Instead, the Malkalan Army had to rely on superior training and weapons purchased from Andivar to hope to defeat any Chesian incursions. Kasimir had positioned four of his battalions, two thousand of his three thousand soldiers, on the walls of his fortress and had ordered the rest to act as reserves.

  He would have liked to set up a trap for the approaching Chesians, but without quality information about the organization or target of the approaching army, he would risk throwing his soldiers away for nothing. Kasimir knew that the army that had violated the territorial sovereignty of Malkala could only belong to the Emperor; no single Chesian warlord would have been able to muster or support a force that size.

  I guess they finally got tired of paying for our minerals, Kasimir thought as he climbed the ramp to the top of the southern wall.

  "Junior Commander Karasik, what is the report?" Kasimir asked as he stepped to the ramparts and lifted his looking glass to his eye.

  The Crooked Mountains pushed out to the south and cut to the east, creating a hook. On the other side of that hook was Aldris. Anyone approaching from there would have to march right down the sheer cliff face and into his fire. The forest to the east provided another avenue of attack, but it would take days to march around Fort Demitas to approach it from that direction.

  "We've seen nothing so far," Jarak Karasik reported. The commanding officer of the Fifteenth Malkalan Infantry Regiment was taller than Kasimir by several inches, and had brown hair instead of black; he wore a pair of glasses over his green eyes. He was leaning against the ramparts, cleaning his musket's barrel and bayonet. "The cavalry scouts rode out half an hour ago and we haven't heard back from them."

  "Is the artillery primed to fire?" Kasimir asked.

  "Yes, sir," Jarak said with a nod. The two five-pounders and four ten-pound guns were evenly divided between the southern and eastern walls. Against a force of marauders, those cannons would have been a serious deterrent; they'd be a mere inconvenience for the army that was marching to face them now.

  "Did the rider from Aldris have anything to say about the size of the artillery that's coming our way?"

  "No, just that they spotted forty horse teams. The Chesians favor the ten-pounders for their infantry, though."

  "Yes, I've read the reports."

  Kasimir shook his head.

  The ten-pound guns were the standard issue artillery for much of the world's infantry. It was a mobile piece that could still cause serious damage to the walls of any fortress that stood against them for too long. The lighter five-pound guns had better range, and were ideal for travel through the hills and mountains of Malkala, but their shells caused too little damage and were ineffective against a large scale attack.

  "What I wouldn't do for a wizard," Jarak said as he checked his haversack. He counted the cartridges inside and closed the satchel.

  "As long as we're asking for things that aren't likely to show up, I'm in for one of those Elven marksmen regiments I was reading about last week," Junior Commander Laslo Purden said with a chuckle. He carried an ivory pipe that oozed thick black smoke.

  "Is your regiment ready?" Kasimir asked.

  "And waiting," Laslo confirmed.

  "We're not likely to get any wizards, or regiments of Elven marksmen, in these parts," Kasimir said, turning back to their conversation.

  "All we can hope for is -"

  "Cavalry approaching from the east!" someone shouted.

  Kasimir hurried to the eastern wall.

  The sun had finally crested the horizon, casting red glow across the open field before the castle. Riders were emerging from the pine forest by the dozens, riding hard toward Fort Demitas.

  The riders wore dull golden uniforms, accented with red tassels and piping. The first group that had emerged from the forest carried a pair of massive banners and Kasimir prayed silently while he tried to determine what sigil was on them. When he could make it out, however, he cursed: a red dragon on a gold field: the banner of the Empire of Chesia.

  "Please, not the dragon," he whispered as he waited for the second banner to unfurl. This one was black, a red dragon's head emblazoned upon it, its massive maw gaped open and golden teeth were set in its jaws.

  Kasimir’s heart fell. "The Dragon's Teeth," he said.

  Of all of the Chesian units that could have attacked his fortress, it had to be the best-trained, best-armed and most feared of them all.

  "Jarak, get one of your battalions to this side," Kasimir ordered as he pulled back his musket's hammer and pressed a percussion cap onto the nipple. "Enemies approaching! Artillery, fire at will!"

  The three cannons positioned on the eastern wall thundered in unison. Fire spewed from the mouth of the artillery and plumes of dirt exploded skyward when the solid shots slammed into the field near the edge of the forest. The rounds were poorly aimed and none of the approaching Chesians were hit. The artillerymen took to their sights to better their targeting.

  The soldiers on the eastern wall pulled their muskets to their shoulders and leaned into the ramparts. Their weapons would only be effective at a hundred yards, but the men felt safer tucked behind the stone ramparts.

  "They're carrying carbines, sir!"

  Thank the Ruler, Kasimir thought as he pressed his looking glass to his eye once more. The shorter barreled firearms served cavalry well for their mobility and lesser weight, but they had less than half the range of the muskets that Kasimir's men carried.

  The Chesian cavalry galloped toward the fortress. The thunder of their hooves echoed across the fields, and Kasimir watched with dread as more continued to pour from the forest. A full regiment had charged onto the field already, with no end in sight. The first riders were already halfway across the open field that Kasimir's troops had maintained for this exact purpose.

  The field was two thousand yards across, from the edge of the forest to the base of the massive stone walls. At their gallop, it would take the cavalry another several minutes to reach the Malkalan musket range and another several minutes before they could effectively answer fire. They would be exposed to artillery fire for the whole time and Kasimir restrained his enthusiasm when the second volley exploded. The explosions consumed a dozen riders and shrapnel felled another dozen.

  "Change the five-pounder to large canister shot!" Kasimir ordered, and the artillerymen dropped a canister down the barrel of their cannon. The canister contained a dozen smaller iron balls, meant to cause maximum damage across a wider area.

  The Chesians continued to charge forward, even as the Malkalan artillery refined their targeting and began firing heavy canister from all three cannons. They began to ride erratically in an attempt to throw off the artillery's aim, but canister shot had a widespread area of effect and all that they succeeded in doing was slowing their approach.

  Kasimir pulled his musket into his shoulder as the attackers crashed through the low wooden fence that had been put up a hundred yards away from the fortress. He flipped up the longer range sight on his weapon and began searching for a target. He was one of the most accurate marksmen in the fortress and wanted to make his first shot count.

  He found his target in a garishly dressed officer with a tal
l black hat accented with golden tassels. The man's uniform was covered in badges and awards.

  The cavalry was charging directly at the fortress now. Kasimir steadied his breath and focused the sight on his musket at the center of the man's chest. The man's body rose and fell with each long stride of his horse's gait and he made no attempt at making himself a smaller target. Kasimir inhaled and held his breath for a long moment. He squeezed the trigger.

  The officer slumped in his saddle for a moment before falling to the hard packed soil and being ridden over by the cavalry behind him.

  Kasimir would have allowed himself a moment of satisfaction, but the men around him had taken his lead and were firing as fast as they could reload their guns. Reloading his own, he pulled the musket to his shoulder once more and began again.

  * * *

  The Chesians had retreated after nearly an hour of attacks, retreats and feints. They had lost more than a third of their number. The dead strewn across the field had already begun to smell and the cries of the dying could be heard even within the walls of the fortress.

  More than one hundred of Kasimir's soldiers had been killed and another fifty were too wounded to fight, but the enemy's shorter ranged carbines had been their downfall. Kasimir said a quick prayer to the Ruler, thanking his god that the attackers had been true cavalry rather than mounted infantry armed with muskets.

  "Riders!" a sentry shouted, and Kasimir spun around and brought his looking glass up.

  "They're ours," he said when he had confirmed the banners. "Two scouts."

  The riders galloped across miles of open fields and reined up at the foot of the fortress walls. The gates swung open and the men rode through the gatehouse to give their report.

  "General Hollatz is about to round the hook!" one of the riders reported. "They should be at the walls in an hour, maybe less."

  "How many troops?" Kasimir asked.

  "Two full regiments of regular infantry and two platoons of skirmishers," the other rider said.

  "I want the rest of the cavalry deployed to screen the General's march!" Kasimir shouted to his commanders. The rest of the Dragon's Teeth had retreated to the safety of the forest, but they could emerge at any moment.

  * * *

  "General!" Kasimir saluted when Niklos Hollatz swung down from his horse.

  The commander of Fort Aldris was an inch short than Kasimir, with brown hair and green eyes. He had served in the Malkalan army for as long as Kasimir had been alive and had commanded troops against marauders from half a dozen Chesian warlords. He was also the most arrogant person that Kasimir had ever met.

  Niklos Hollatz was a decorated and battle-tested officer in the Malkalan army. His victories carried significant weight in the traditionalist structure of the army. One of his very first commands had seen him repel an attack by a Chesian warlord with a force twice the size of his garrison. He was also a talented logistics officer and many of his plans were religiously followed by the Malkalan army.

  "This fortress is a disgrace," Niklos said as he pulled off his gloves. "Where is your artillery complement? And why don't you have any skirmishers out in the field to slow the enemy advance?"

  "General, sir, my artillery complement is on the walls. Four ten-pounders and a pair of fives. I have no complement of skirmishers, sir," Kasimir reported.

  "Then send some of your damned regulars out there," the general snapped. "Ruler save us, you fresh blood commanders think you know what's going on and you can't find your ass with two hands and a map."

  "Sir, we had not yet recovered from an attack by Chesian cavalry, and I was following standard deployment commands," Kasimir said defensively.

  The Malkalan army issued very detailed deployment plans for nearly every situation, even a situation as dire as the one that Kasimir found himself in. The orders were revised nearly every year by the Malkalan War College and every officer was required to memorize the five most common scenarios; invasion by Chesian forces was considered the number one most likely event.

  Kasimir thought that it said something about the way that his nation's best military minds considered their largest neighbor and trading partner.

  "The first thing you need to learn about those deployment plans is that they were written by professors at some war college, not by generals who have been in the field. The other thing you need to learn about them is that they can be modified or broken if need be." The general passed the reins of his horse to a private. "The cavalry attack was just a feint to try to get you to send your troops into the field. They likely had several regiments hiding in the forest. You'd be wise to have scouts out to make sure you don't run into a trap like that."

  "Yes, sir, I'll keep that in mind."

  "Well you won't have to keep it there very long," Niklos said as he barreled through the door to the officers’ quarters. "There's more than a hundred thousand Imperials marching this way and they are not here to have a smoke and walk home."

  "How far behind you, sir?"

  "They'll be here before dark," Niklos said as he poured a glass of Jarin whiskey. He took a sip and spit. "Damned Jarin piss. Why can't you commanders get some Welosi whiskey out here?"

  Jarin Whiskey was aged for ten years before it was sold and the brewery only released a few hundred barrels every year. It was considered one of the best alcohols brewed in the southern territories. Welosi whiskey, on the other hand, was aged for fifteen years in some of the best oak barrels and was limited to a few dozen barrels very year.

  "Welosi is expensive," Kasimir said.

  "Ah, piss," Niklos said and then swallowed the rest of the glass.

  "Sir, your two regiments-"

  "My two regiments are going to bed down until the Chesians get here," Niklos said. "When the time comes, I will command the defense of this fortress. Is that understood?"

  "Yes, sir. I wouldn't have expected otherwise," Kasimir said.

  The general nodded and then dropped into one of the chairs. He pinched the bridge of his nose and kicked his feet up on the table.

  Kasimir had served under Niklos Hollatz directly when he had been a senior officer and Niklos had been a commander. As one of three senior officers under Niklos' command, he had always felt that he took an unusual amount of the criticism. He was now beginning to get this feeling again as he waited for the general to give him orders.

  Kasimir wondered, not for the first time, how Niklos had gotten as far in the Malkalan army as he had. Unlike Chesia, the Malkalan army tried to keep nepotism or favoritism out of the military structure – although that didn’t prevent it from occurring. While he was wasn't positive on the connections, Kasimir had learned that Niklos had some well-placed family members in the government. Family members that weren't afraid of pushing promotions that would have been unwarranted otherwise.

  "What are your orders, sir?" Kasimir asked.

  "Get back on the walls," Niklos ordered. "Deploy a battalion of your regulars as skirmishers."

  "Yes, sir." Kasimir saluted sharply and turned on his heel.

  * * *

  The first elements of the main Chesian army marched into view a few hours after midday. A wave of skirmishers moved ahead of the regular infantry and the crackle of gunfire echoed off the cliffs when the two forces collided in the open fields below Fort Demitas. Kasimir watched the movements of both forces as the Chesians pushed closer to the fortress and his skirmishers tried to hold them back.

  The boom of artillery fire soon joined the chaos and Kasimir watched as the rounds slammed into the dirt ahead of the approaching forces. His skirmishers retreated to the safety of the fort's walls and the Chesians spread to encircle the fortress.

  The Chesian infantry marched under a gold banner with a red dragon spread across it. Their uniforms were a darker shade of yellow with red accents, and they wore tall black hats with black plumes sprouting from those the officers wore.

  "It looks as if this is just their forward element," Kasimir said when he and his junior commande
rs had gathered on the rampart walls. "I estimate three regiments of regulars, two regiments of skirmishers. No artillery."

  "That won't be far behind," Jarak pointed out.

  Chesian draft horses were popular throughout the area for their speed and strength. They were not as fast as the horses that the Chesian cavalry used, but the Chesian artillery regiments could use two of them instead of four smaller, faster horses to pull their cannons. They saved feed and were still incredibly mobile.

  "I would expect to have a messenger soon," Laslo said as he looked at the enemy forces through his looking glass.

  "I can just imagine how that's going to go," Kasimir said, his voice low enough that only the two junior commanders could hear him.

  "Is old man Hollatz the same bastard he was a couple of years ago?" Jarak asked. Kasimir smiled. Jarak had been a junior officer the last time that he and Kasimir had served together, and it had been under Niklos Hollatz.

  "He's a handful," Kasimir admitted. "I don't see any kind of negotiations going very well if he's involved."

  "Maybe we should just not tell him when they send the messenger," Jarak said. His tone indicated he was only half-joking.

  "If it were just him, I could see that working," Laslo said. "But not with two regiments of soldiers and officers running around, even if half of them are asleep in the barracks."

  "We'll handle this like officers," Kasimir said and the others nodded.

  Kasimir didn't want to tell his fellow officers that he had considered not telling their superior when the messenger arrived from the Chesians, or that he had considered sending a messenger out pre-emptively to get a feel for the commanders on the other side of the battlefield. In the end, he had realized that even if he were able to successfully negotiate some sort of surrender, he would have to answer for it before whatever government was left in Malkala after this war.