Caesar Triumphant- Chapter 6

The ruins of the town smoldered for two days, days in which Caesar kept his scouts very busy while the men recovered from their exertions, such as they were, in taking the town. Their biggest problem came from the massive headache from the stores of rice wine they had found, as they also discovered that it was much more potent than what they were accustomed to in the land of the Han. As the men lounged about outside their tents, playing the inevitable games of dice, along with some games that were imported by the polyglot of nations that comprised the Legions, Caesar's mounted scouts were ranging far and wide, scouting the terrain and looking for signs of a concentration of the enemy. It wasn't until the third day that the first of them returned, and while they didn't report any sightings of an enemy force, the news wasn't good as far as the terrain facing the army. Neither was there good news about the possibility of food being available, as the land was too mountainous for the growing of rice, at least in any quantity sufficient to feed an army. There were small terraced farms, but they were designed to feed very small villages of less than a hundred villagers, and there were precious few of those. This forced Caesar to make a decision. "After receiving the reports from the patrols I've sent out, it's clear that we won't find enough rice to feed the men. In addition, the terrain to the east is very mountainous. We would do well to make 20 miles a day, if that."Caesar was addressing an assembly of the officers of the army, including the Primi Pili, who had gathered in the praetorium to hear what their general had to say.  "But I'm not blind, nor deaf to the complaints of the men about getting back aboard the ships to travel," he continued. He paused, letting his officers digest what he said before he pressed forward.  "However, I'm not willing to sacrifice the speed that we would gain by moving by sea, so we're going to be boarding the ships to continue moving eastward. According to Zhang, the farther east we go, the more populated we will find the island. He also says that what passes for their capital is still several days sailing away, and the closer we get, the more likely we will be to meet resistance from a much larger army than what we've faced to date. Once we defeat that army, the island will essentially be ours."Once more, he paused and waited for the men to digest this, and while he wasn't surprised, he was somewhat disappointed at the looks of doubt and uncertainty that some of the men had on their face, and those looks weren't confined to the Centurions. Hirtius, Pollio, and the less senior Legates also looked distinctly uncomfortable, but since Caesar had made up his mind, he didn't give them the opportunity to raise whatever objections they may have had, dismissing his officers immediately. A couple of them, notably Pullus and Hirtius, stood there, not moving for several moments, both of them looking at each other, waiting for the other to speak. But using their hesitation, Caesar turned on his heel and left the meeting room, leaving the two of them open-mouthed.  "I thought you were going to say something," Hirtius fumed, but Pullus was unapologetic, as irritated as Hirtius.  "It seems to me that rank has precedence in a situation like this," the Primus Pilus shot back, to which Hirtius had no real reply, understanding that Pullus was right in this instance. Both men left discontented, but Pullus had the more immediate problem of passing the word to the men of the 10th Legion, and he better than anyone knew that they weren't going to be happy. 
Before he summoned the men, he met with the Pili Priores to let them know what Caesar had decreed. Almost in unison, the Pili Priores sucked in a breath, each of them immediately thinking about the reaction of their respective Cohorts, and none of them felt sanguine about how the men would take this latest order.  "We'll be getting the loading order later today," Pullus informed them, and like Caesar he wasn't in the mood for questions. Unlike Caesar, however, he had nowhere to go, since they were all crammed into his tent. "And what do we do if they don't get on the ships?" This question came from the Pilus Prior of the Fifth Cohort, Gnaeus Macrianus, who Pullus considered to be a candidate for his own post at some point in the future, although Pullus was nowhere near ready to step down. If it had come from someone other than Macrianus, and perhaps Scribonius, Pullus wouldn't have entertained the question, but with them he felt compelled to answer. "We stripe as many backs as we need to," he answered harshly. "But I'm counting on each of you to keep that from happening." "How, exactly?" This time it was Scribonius who asked the question, and he refused to flinch at Pullus' angry glare, not cowed in the slightest by his friend's bluster. Expelling a harsh sigh, Pullus was forced to think for a moment. "You need to convince them that staying here isn't possible, and that if they want to spend all day scrabbling up mountains and making 20 miles a day, that's what's in store for them if they don't get aboard the ships. Also," he added, suddenly inspired, "let them know that there's no food in the area, and we have to find more food than the surrounding countryside offers."He paused to let this sink in, somewhat pleased to see that the Pili Priores seemed to accept this reasoning, mulling it over and not rejecting it out of hand.  Finally, Scribonius spoke. "I think we can make that work with them, although I can't guarantee it. But none of them want to go hungry." "Or climb these fucking mountains," Metellus, the Pilus Prior of the Third Cohort, added. "Well, go do what you need to in order to make sure they're ready to board in the morning."
Pullus, and if truth were known, Caesar and the rest of the Legates, were vastly relieved to see that in the morning, the men fell to their tasks of breaking down the camp and readying to board with just a bit more grumbling and discontent than was normal. Because of so much practice, the men were ready to go well within the time Caesar expected, and the boarding process commenced without delay. By the middle of the day, the fleet began moving out of the harbor, sailing west first, in order to clear the large island to the south that was their original anchorage. Once past this land mass, they turned south, making good time, clearing the southern tip of the island in less than a full watch, before turning east. Although most of the army was aboard, Caesar had taken a gamble, leaving almost his entire mounted force ashore to move eastward overland. Their orders were specific; keep close to the coast, staying within visual sight of the fleet whenever possible, while Caesar had informed them he would send the Liburnian scout ship ashore twice a day to pick up any reports they made. In this manner, Caesar hoped to be informed of the presence of either larger areas of arable land that could be plundered for their harvest of rice, or a large armed force. 
Caesar's plan, like all of his plans, was both simple, but sweeping in scope. Sure that there had been some survivors of the assault on the town who escaped, his hope was that they would spread the alarm, and give the Wa sufficient time to muster a force that represented the bulk of their army. The real reason Caesar chose the sea route was that, given the success the Romans experienced with this last beach assault, his hope was that word of his fleet would reach the Wa commander, whoever that may be, and the Wa army would choose the same tactic as the last two times, to meet the Romans on the beach. To that end, Caesar had ordered that all the bolts possible be salvaged from the site of the last fight, along with the rocks, but he had also had his men scrounge up as much raw materials as they could in the time allowed. As the fleet sailed eastward, his immunes were hard at work, repairing the scorpion bolts and making new ones, along with shaping the hundreds of rocks that had been gathered. Caesar was counting on the idea that, moving with the speed for which he was famous, his army would show up at a place that was strategically important before the Wa had a chance to reflect on what changes needed to be made in their tactics. If he could have his artillery do the brunt of the work as the last time, Caesar was sure that his army could vanquish any foe before them. 
Caesar and his army, heading east, were bringing Rome deep into the land of the Wa, still seeking to conquer one last land, and one last people. 

All posts by R.W. Peake on blog.rwpeake.com are copyrighted by the author, 2012.