Caesar Triumphant- Chapter 4 (Cont.)
"Comrades," Caesar began his speech in his customary manner, accustomed to the longer delay required for the interpreters to translate his words into the almost dozen tongues that his soldiers now spoke. "We have suffered a loss," he raised his hands at what he had known would be the inevitable howls of protest, "not a defeat! It would only be a defeat if we were to load up on our ships and return home," even as he uttered the last word, Caesar felt a pang of....what? Regret? Remorse? Could it be homesickness? He knew that as acutely as he felt it, his men would suffer from that longing even more, so he hurried on. "But we are not going to do that!"Immediately a hush filled the forum of the camp, the men needing no translation of his tone, if not his words to understand what he was saying. Without realizing it, almost every man was leaning forward from their position of intente, focusing on what Caesar was about to say. "We will not let this defeat us! No, my comrades, we have come too far, suffered too much, seen too many of our friends die to lose heart now! We must AVENGE those comrades we lost on the beach! And for the men of the 28th Legion," Caesar turned in their direction, his hand upraised, "there is a special debt that must be repaid in blood! You have lost your leader, the great Gnaeus Cartufenus, your Primus Pilus and a man who has served me well, going back to the difficult days when I was in Alexandria, besieged by Ptolemy!"Caesar's reference to those days struck Titus Pullus like a blow; he had been the de facto Primus Pilus of the 2 Cohorts of the 6th Legion that Caesar had brought to Alexandria in pursuit of Pompey, only to be trapped there for better than 7 months. During those days, Titus had become good friends with Cartufenus, and he remembered the trials that they had both endured when the 28th, then a green Legion, had almost mutinied because of a lack of water. Cartufenus had been steadfast then; in fact, Titus remembered, it had been Cartufenus who, leading 2 Cohorts of the 28th, had scaled the heights above the Egyptian camp during the battle that saw the final defeat and drowning of Ptolemy, breaking what had been to that point a bloody stalemate, with the day still very much in doubt. "Even now, I have sent ships scouting further along the coast of this wretched Island of Wa. Now that we are in their Inland Sea, I have it on good authority that there are large stretches of coast that are uninhabited. We are going to land again, but not until after we have regained our strength. Also, now that I have seen how these Wa fight, we are going to train differently. I will teach you the best way to defeat these savages, and show them that of all the soldiers in the world, those who march for Rome, no matter where they are from originally, are the greatest in the world!"Once his words were translated, the ground shook with the roars of the men, as Pullus thought, he's done it again. I don't know how, but he's managed to make the men forget how badly we were beaten just a week ago.
Later that day, Pullus and the other Primi Pili were summoned to a briefing in the praetorium, and as Pullus, Torquatus and Balbinus walked together to the headquarters tent, they discussed what they had heard earlier. "Any idea what this new tactic is?" Balbinus asked, not really aiming the question at anyone, but Torquatus understood that it had been aimed at Pullus, both men believing, with good reason, that of all the Primi Pili, Pullus was the one closest to Caesar. "Nope," Pullus answered, "and trust me, I had Diocles work his network of spies under the tentpole working overtime trying to find out. But Caesar's been playing this one very, very tightly." "Figures," Torquatus grunted, "gods know he's been withdrawn the last week."The other two Centurions agreed this was the case, but any more conversation was cut short by their arrival. Entering past the guards, they were waved immediately to the conference room, where about half of the other Centurions and staff had already gathered. Very quickly the rest arrived, and not more than a dozen heartbeats later, Caesar strode in, followed by Hirtius, Pollio and the rest of his staff. Waving his audience to a seat, Caesar began immediately by pulling the cloth off the tent wall that, as the others saw immediately, had been covering what was a surprisingly detailed map of the Island of Wa, with most of the detail concentrated on the vicinity of the Inland Sea. Despite themselves, most of the men made small sounds of amazement and surprise, showing how impressed they were that Caesar had been able to amass so much information in such a small amount of time. "As you can see, Volusenus and his staff have been very busy, with no small thanks going to Zhang," Caesar nodded in the direction of the Han emissary, seated in the first row, whose face as usual betrayed no emotion whatsoever, save for a small nod of the head in acknowledgement. Uppity bastard, Pullus thought to himself, acting like he's the one in charge. I'd love to gut that slanty-eyed bastard myself. Turning his attention back to his general, Pullus listened as Caesar continued. "As you can see, about a day's sailing west of here starts a number of islands as the coast swings to the south. Zhang has told us, and Volusenus has confirmed," Caesar's emphasis on this last part stopped the muttering of the assembled men, "that there is one very large island, then a very large bay, with perhaps two dozen more islands of varying size. However, there is one," as he talked Caesar pointed to a crudely drawn mass of land south of the main island that to Pullus looked a bit like the letter V, although the right arm of it had a protuberance that almost closed the top off, "that has a very protected harbor. It is uninhabited, but as you can also see, it is not far from the main island. And directly north of that island is a large settlement, with what looks like a fair sized garrison of troops. That, gentlemen," he finished, "will be our target."
The plan, as Caesar outlined it, and like most of his plans, was simple. While there were a number of small craft in the area of this city, none of them were warships, at least of a sufficient size or in number to stop Caesar's fleet from investing the island to the south. This island would be the base of all operations from this point forward, he told them, and the harbor would be heavily fortified. The entrance into this protected bay, because of the knot of land that Pullus had noticed, narrowed it down to less than a half-mile, and with artillery emplacements on either shore, there would be no way for any hostile force to enter without being raked by fire. The land in the pocket of the V was flat enough for a camp spacious enough for the entire army, and according to Volusenus, who had landed on the island, there was wild game and plentiful fresh water. After establishing a defensible position on the island, Caesar had made it clear that the first target was the city across the bay where, he had told his officers with a wolfish smile, the Legions would be turned loose to exact revenge in a way that the Wa would never forget.
All that remained was this new tactic that Caesar had promised, but he had refused to enlighten his Centurions about what he had in store, saying only that once things were settled in their new position, he would make his plans known. But, he assured them, neither they nor the men would be disappointed.
All posts by R.W. Peake on blog.rwpeake.com are copyrighted by the author, 2012.
Later that day, Pullus and the other Primi Pili were summoned to a briefing in the praetorium, and as Pullus, Torquatus and Balbinus walked together to the headquarters tent, they discussed what they had heard earlier. "Any idea what this new tactic is?" Balbinus asked, not really aiming the question at anyone, but Torquatus understood that it had been aimed at Pullus, both men believing, with good reason, that of all the Primi Pili, Pullus was the one closest to Caesar. "Nope," Pullus answered, "and trust me, I had Diocles work his network of spies under the tentpole working overtime trying to find out. But Caesar's been playing this one very, very tightly." "Figures," Torquatus grunted, "gods know he's been withdrawn the last week."The other two Centurions agreed this was the case, but any more conversation was cut short by their arrival. Entering past the guards, they were waved immediately to the conference room, where about half of the other Centurions and staff had already gathered. Very quickly the rest arrived, and not more than a dozen heartbeats later, Caesar strode in, followed by Hirtius, Pollio and the rest of his staff. Waving his audience to a seat, Caesar began immediately by pulling the cloth off the tent wall that, as the others saw immediately, had been covering what was a surprisingly detailed map of the Island of Wa, with most of the detail concentrated on the vicinity of the Inland Sea. Despite themselves, most of the men made small sounds of amazement and surprise, showing how impressed they were that Caesar had been able to amass so much information in such a small amount of time. "As you can see, Volusenus and his staff have been very busy, with no small thanks going to Zhang," Caesar nodded in the direction of the Han emissary, seated in the first row, whose face as usual betrayed no emotion whatsoever, save for a small nod of the head in acknowledgement. Uppity bastard, Pullus thought to himself, acting like he's the one in charge. I'd love to gut that slanty-eyed bastard myself. Turning his attention back to his general, Pullus listened as Caesar continued. "As you can see, about a day's sailing west of here starts a number of islands as the coast swings to the south. Zhang has told us, and Volusenus has confirmed," Caesar's emphasis on this last part stopped the muttering of the assembled men, "that there is one very large island, then a very large bay, with perhaps two dozen more islands of varying size. However, there is one," as he talked Caesar pointed to a crudely drawn mass of land south of the main island that to Pullus looked a bit like the letter V, although the right arm of it had a protuberance that almost closed the top off, "that has a very protected harbor. It is uninhabited, but as you can also see, it is not far from the main island. And directly north of that island is a large settlement, with what looks like a fair sized garrison of troops. That, gentlemen," he finished, "will be our target."
The plan, as Caesar outlined it, and like most of his plans, was simple. While there were a number of small craft in the area of this city, none of them were warships, at least of a sufficient size or in number to stop Caesar's fleet from investing the island to the south. This island would be the base of all operations from this point forward, he told them, and the harbor would be heavily fortified. The entrance into this protected bay, because of the knot of land that Pullus had noticed, narrowed it down to less than a half-mile, and with artillery emplacements on either shore, there would be no way for any hostile force to enter without being raked by fire. The land in the pocket of the V was flat enough for a camp spacious enough for the entire army, and according to Volusenus, who had landed on the island, there was wild game and plentiful fresh water. After establishing a defensible position on the island, Caesar had made it clear that the first target was the city across the bay where, he had told his officers with a wolfish smile, the Legions would be turned loose to exact revenge in a way that the Wa would never forget.
All that remained was this new tactic that Caesar had promised, but he had refused to enlighten his Centurions about what he had in store, saying only that once things were settled in their new position, he would make his plans known. But, he assured them, neither they nor the men would be disappointed.
All posts by R.W. Peake on blog.rwpeake.com are copyrighted by the author, 2012.
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