Chapter Five
The next morning he woke up nicely
rested. He visited the wounded, of which there were around a thousand. They would stay in the valley hidden in a
grove with 500 men to guard them; hopefully they would not be discovered. At Ten o Clock he went back to his camp to
head the preparations for leaving. Most
of the tents were already down and were being backed into sleds that would be
pulled by men and horses. By noon they
left, leaving the safety of the valley. Just as they did so the scouts at the watch
towers reported seeing the main enemy force about thirty miles away. Seeing the dust cloud it made, Jett thought
it looked huge.
After everyone had reached the
destination on the plane, half of Jett’s men left the main group and followed
Jett up into a steep trough cut into the mountain. When they got to the top, it sort of plateaued,
Jett and the other commanders had decided to rig a trap, so Jett’s men started
cutting down trees, these weren’t just some regular trees, some of these were fifty
to one hundred feet tall. They cut,
moved set up, and tied off all of these trees to form an elaborate contraption
that would release the logs, along with a few huge boulders, down on anyone in
the mouth of the trough. After all
afternoon, with ten thousand men working, they finally finished. They all marched back to camp, where the other
half of Jett’s men has set all of the tents up.
They even had ten watch towers built around the three camps.
The first thing Jett did when
they got back was climb up a watch tower; he wanted to get a good look at the
enemy. Once he got to the top, he could
see everything. A mile away, over a small rise, the entire enemy’s army was
camped. Looking out, it didn’t look
good. It looked as if the other army had a third again as many troops as their
combined forces, and losing the eleven thousand men earlier didn’t help. This would be no cake walk… in fact, even
with their supposedly brilliant trap, there was no guarantee that they would
win. In fact, it looked like the odds
were very, very, much against them.
Before the sun was up the next
morning, Jett snuck out to meet with his spies. They had sent spies into the
enemy camp months ago. Now that the army
was this close, they could contact Jett directly without too much hassle. They
would meet him just outside of the camp, so if they were discovered they could
claim that they were misleading Jett. There were three of them. Jett,
cautiously approached them and said, “Welcome men, it’s been a long time!”
The first man replied, “Yes, it
has been. Be ready, they will attack at dawn tomorrow.”
Apparently they weren’t in the
mood for small talk. “Thank you,” Jett said, “Could you start a rumor that
we’re smaller than we really are and that many of our men are wounded and thus
won’t fight? It might give us the
element of surprise in the morning.”
“We can try,” the lead spy said,
“but I don’t know if it’ll catch in just a day. We’ll do our best though sir.”
“Good,” Jett said, “Now go. You don’t want to be seen talking with me.”
“Yes , sir” They said in unison.
They walked into the darkness back towards the enemy camp. After returning, the day seemed very long to
Jett. He didn’t pass the order to prepare for attack until the sun had set that
evening. If the enemy had spies in his
camp, he didn’t want them to know that he knew their plans. He did tell Naphe
and Dan though. Right after the sunset, Jett walked to his second in command
and told him what was to happen. He would pass it down by word of mouth only to
those he knew, who would then pass to those THEY knew. Hopefully any spies
would be kept out of the loop. Everyone was instructed to get a good night’s
sleep, so they all went to bed early. The next morning Jett was up by 3
am. Jett did the rounds and made sure
that all of his officers were awake and readying their men. By 4:30 all of the men were ready and waiting
for an attack, the sun was due to rise any moment.
As the sun rose, Jett looked over
to the enemy camp from the top of a watch tower. He saw men just milling about,
not preparing for war, not charging… Nothing! And so, the army waited, and
waited… and they waited some more. It
was just about reaching noon when the watch horn was sounded. The enemy was on
the move. They all ran to the gathering place. Soldiers were flocking in from
everywhere; lining up and prepping weapons. The enemy was just a mile away, but
Jett’s army had dug a trench in between the two armies and filled it with
makeshift spears and such. So, rather than risking the trench, the enemies went
around and planned to fight them next to the mountain. Jett smiled. This was
exactly the response he had been hoping for. Now they could spring the trap and
perhaps that would help them defeat the enemy.
Ten minutes later, all fifty
thousand men were standing right next to the opening of the trough. Dan and
Naphe had elected Jett to be the general of the three armies, because he was
one of the best strategists. They knew
that he wouldn’t call the retreat again, he couldn’t this time. It was all or
nothing. The reason for having one main
general was for leadership. You couldn’t just have three people telling the
troops different things, it would be chaotic. So, Jett was the leader and would
tell everyone what they should do. He got up on a watchtower towards the back
of the army. It would allow him to see and make quick battle changes. They had many pre-rehearsed battle strategies
and Jett could change them with a blow of his whistle. There were also twenty
of the fastest men in all of the army working as messengers. They could tell
the generals what plans had been whistled, if the fighting got too far away or
if no one could hear over the din.
Suddenly, the enemy attacked!
Jett whistled out the three short blasts that signaled the infantry to get in
front and for archers to stand right behind them. Once the archers were safe,
they would start firing in rotation by companies and would be launching an
unending wave of arrows down upon the enemy.
A minute later the battle truly began.
The enemy hoards smashed into the line of soldiers. Here was the moment
of truth. If the line held, even for a minute, they might have a chance. They could then rotate the line safely
without breaking it. They could also be orderly and pass messages along. If the
line broke, all could be lost. Jett blew the whistle to send a group up to the
trap. He’d wanted to send overwhelming force, but knew that he couldn’t spare
even a single man. He’d been forced to send the ones who were unfit to fight.
He sent those who had injuries which prevented them from being effective. He’d
also sent 10 very fit men, just in case. They ran off to head to the top of the
trough, where the trap was ready to be sprung.
Jett figured that they’d do a good job; at least he hoped they would. He
looked back over the battle and was dismayed to realize the enemy must have
known just how many men Jet had had. How else could they have matched his line,
which they had done? So much for the false information he sent. Perhaps he didn’t give the spies enough
information… Perhaps, there was
something more sinister... Jett threw
out the idea and put his focus back on the army in time to see some of the
enemy troops break off the main group.
Where were they going? “Oh no…”
Jett murmured. They were heading towards the troops heading up the trough and
there were twice as many of enemies as there were Jett’s troops. They fell upon
the small band and slaughtered them. There was hardly any fight. Jett hung his
head. Though none of them had been HIS men, he still felt responsible. Perhaps
if he had sent more, or if he had gone with them, or, or, or… So many things he
could have done differently. He pushed it out of his mind. This was no time to
think about that.
Hopefully they could survive and
even conquer without the trap. Jett whistled for the next step in the
strategy; the feint. Jett’s men would turn and run as though they were
retreating. When the enemy broke lines to chase them, they would turn around,
already be formed up and hopefully scatter them. Jett gave the
signal. His men all pulled back, as if making a strategic
retreat. The enemy ran forward, anxious to attack their broken
line. Then, Jett’s troops pulled together to charge and broke the enemy
line! But, there was a second line. It was as if the enemy had known what was
going to happen… They shifted and the entire side that had feinted was shoved
back twenty feet! This was devastating. Taking out a side was an
excellent way to break a formation. Jett whistled for a push forward. It
was risky. If you weren’t careful, you could lose formation. But it was the only way to fix the
damage. It seemed to be working.
They were pushing forward! Then,
Jett’s line broke! The enemy came flooding through and it was a free for
all. Somehow the enemy must have KNOWN their maneuvers! Jett
couldn’t figure out how, unless someone with direct knowledge had told them.
The only people who had the ability to do that were the spies Jett had
hand-picked… He shook his head to clear his mind and focused on the battle.
Jett kept directing the other
armies. They were all holding their line pretty well. He looked at
his line. He could call a retreat.
Considering the enemies apparent knowledge of his plans, It would save
lives and maybe they could come back and help from another side. But the sudden change of plans would probably
break Dan’s line. He thought about it and was just about to give
the order when a thought came to his mind.
“Trust. Believe. They are
strong.”
Jett took the whistle from his
mouth. Why start something that you can’t finish? If he was fighting, would he
retreat? No, he would fight to the end, till death or victory. And he
would let them do the same. He ordered the 500 horses to charge into the
flank of the enemy. It worked
brilliantly. That part of their line broke. Now both sides were
sustaining heavy casualties. Ten minutes later the battle was not going well
for them. They had lost a fifth of their men. And, while the enemy
had lost at least that many, they had started out with more. Even so,
Jett would not give up, they could still conquer.
At that point, from a valley behind
the enemy, came what looked like a few companies of horses. “We can take
them” Jett muttered. He ordered some spearmen from the back of his army
to go head them off. But then, from behind the horses, men started
appearing; line after line of men. There were thousands of men marching
towards the battle. Somehow, Jett had been misled as to how many men the
enemy had. Again, he thought about his
spies. After a minute, over thirty thousand men had appeared; all
marching towards Jett’s position. Jett could only watch them come, keep
on commanding and hope for a miracle. When the new army crested the hill,
they were in full view of Jett’s army. Jett waited, to see if anyone
would run. No one moved. They still fought. They still
died. These were men.
Then, to Jett’s disappointment, two
squads from his own army routed. The thirty soldiers broke off of
the main column and ran. Jett was disgusted. How could any person,
who did something like that, call himself a man? How could they…? In the midst of this thought, he saw
something. The routing men weren’t running away. They were running
towards the trough! They knew that it was the last hope. They knew
that anything else meant defeat, no matter how skillfully they fought. In
the distance, Jett saw something that almost made him want to sit down and
cry. A hundred men from the enemy lines had seen the quick rush. They had run to stop the two squads. It
was to be 100 verses 30; three to one. There was no way. It was
over for them and they would die, just like the others. Neither army was
close enough to help now… They would surely put up a good fight and
though they might not win, perhaps they would inspire the other men.
Inspire them to fight to the very last man trying to protect their
country.
Everything else seemed to freeze as
the small battle began. Jett’s troops formed up into the triangle he had
taught them. It was the best way to fight when one anticipated being
surrounded. Rather than just standing and awaiting the charge, they
started running. They would meet death straight forward, with their head held
high. Soon, the two armies crashed together. Jett expected to see
the line break and his army be simply run down like the others. But that
didn’t happen. Instead, they held their ground and fought bravely.
They fought with the strength of three times as many men. And they
were winning! Jett was confused. Simple, common sense didn’t explain
this. With odds of three to one, there is no way, (well, he
revised, almost no way) to win. But, he remembered something Keth had
taught him. In wars, one would think that two men of equal skills, who battled
each other, would be pretty equally matched. But often, that’s not what
happened. Usually, one beat the other, quite soundly. The reason,
he had said, was motivation. It was passion and their reason for
fighting. And sometimes, no matter the odds, the weaker man still
won. It was not because of luck; but because the weaker man knew that he
could NOT lose. He knew that he HAD to win. This, Jett realized,
was the reason for how his men were standing strong. They knew that they
could NOT lose. They were fighting for something bigger, not for money or
power, or even for their lives. No. They were fighting for their families.
They were fighting for their homes. They were the last line of
defense. What they did here would directly affect how many of their
family and friends died. No, they could not lose. They had to win,
for they were the final stand. It was obvious that Jett’s men had stopped
being pushed back. In fact, they started advancing! They beat back
the enemy, until finally, the enemy retreated. They ran to save
their lives. They simply ran back to their main army.
Looking, Jett could see that he had
only lost four men. Four men… Perhaps there still was hope
for them. The two squads ran towards the trough, not even stopping to
lick their wounds for they knew that time was of the essence. Jett gave a
whistle order: To stand firm no matter what. If they were pushed back far
enough, then the main enemy army would escape and the trap would be useless. As
long as they held firm, the enemy couldn’t retreat. If they retreated,
they would be overrun and would probably lose anyways. So the enemy pushed
back. Jett watched as his army held firm, but it was like holding back
the floodgates. It was like trying to stop the wind or a river. Wherever
they pushed, the enemy flowed around them, flanking them, forcing them to thin
out and push it back. This was casualty heavy to both sides, but the
enemy had so many more people that it didn’t matter. Slowly, Jett’s army
got pushed back; slowly they got further and further away from the mouth of the
trough. From afar, Jett saw a flash of light from the top of the
mountain, where the trap was. It was the signal. They were flashing
the signal to him with mirrors! He was about to call the order to push
ahead when he realized, it was the failure signal. Something had gone
wrong. Something was stopping the trap from working. This wasn’t going to
work. They would have to figure it out without the trap.
Jett spent the next few minutes
giving orders. Though they were losing, they were performing well.
They were putting up a good fight. Jett was about to give the order to
change to Dan’s army, when he heard someone climbing up the watch tower.
Assuming it to be one of his messengers, he gave the change order and turned
around. He turned just in time to see a man jump and lunge at him!
Before he even had time to think, instinct took over and he grabbed the man’s
outstretched wrist. He used the man’s momentum to throw him forward onto
the platform of the watchtower. Jett looked over the side to see
four more men standing on the bottom. He couldn’t tell see clearly since
they were underneath it. Then the tower started tilting to one
side. “Oh, blast it!” he said, while grabbing the railing. The man,
whom he had knocked down, fell off when the tower started tipping. Apparently
he hadn’t been warned of the next step in the plan. As the tower started
to fall faster, Jett remembered that they often folded in on themselves if
knocked over. In order to prevent himself from being injured or trapped
he’d have to jump off before it hit the ground. He timed it. And
just before it hit, he leapt free, tucked and rolled. Luckily, he was far
enough away from the mountain that there weren’t rocks to land on. He was
mostly uninjured. Though by rolling on his shoulders, he expected they
would be a bit bruised and quite sore by morning.
He drew his sword and prepared to
fight the four men who had toppled the tower. As they started advancing
towards him, he saw a spear lying on the ground behind him. He
picked it up and readied it to use. At least it would take care of one of
them. He raised the spear to throw and it was yanked away from him from
behind! Sensing this new danger, he immediately rolled sideways and
popped up to see that there were four more men behind him! There was a
chance he could have beaten four… especially with that spear… but eight?
He was good, but he wasn’t invincible. Looking around there was nothing
to do but stand and fight. There was nowhere to run since everyone else
was fighting. And if there was anywhere he’d like to die, this place was
as good as any and better than most. He would die fighting for his home,
his friends and his family. He looked around. There was no one else.
Good. No one to sneak up behind and finish him
off. He turned back to the enemy
soldiers and raised his weapon. They
each had a sword and a shield. Jett
carried no shield as he was far from the battle and had deemed it unnecessary.
They slowly tried to circle him, but he kept moving, flanking them, so that
they were all in front of him. Seeing
that he would just keep moving, they attacked.
They all ran, but one man was there first. Brave of him to lead the charge, but very
stupid. Jett grabbed his sword with both
hands and swung out, beating the man’s sword to the ground with brute
strength. Then he swung back the other
way, moved the man’s shield and stabbed him in the abdomen. He went down with a gasp. Jett then turned to the next man, blocked the
sword blow, then turned and hit another sword to the ground. He came back around for a swipe right across
the chest. That was two men wounded and
hopefully out for the count.
Since he was being overwhelmed
with people, he jumped back and reset his footing. If he could get hold of one of those shields,
his chances would go up dramatically. He
began luring them over, so that he could be in a position to grab one of the
downed soldier’s shields. They noticed
and held their ground, just rotating.
When Jet moved closer, they all attacked again. Jett just started blocking, his training and
muscle memory kicked in. Block, turn,
swipe, feint, block, block, and then one of the men scored a hit. The man nailed Jett in the helmet with the
side of his sword. Jett fell to the
ground, stunned. The men surged forward
to make a final blow, but they would have to do more than that to take him
down. Jett rolled and swung his sword
blocking the down strokes after him.
There were just too many of them.
One of them was going to score a hit soon.
Just when Jett thought that he
would be killed by a missed swipe, something happened. The men in the back were distracted and one
of them screamed and fell. This made the
men in the front line look back. Jett,
not knowing what was happening, took the moment to stand up, sword at the
ready. Seeing the men still distracted,
he stabbed one and slashed at the other.
The third turned back and blocked Jett’s next blow, but Jett disarmed
him and gave him a stroke as well. He
fell and didn’t stand again. The second
man was only injured, so was up fighting again.
Having only three enemies left, showed Jett who his savior was. It was Keth.
He had somehow shown up and taken out a man. Now he was fighting another man, leaving Jett
to deal with two. Jett sprang into
action, blocking and spinning between the two men. After twenty seconds, they were both dead.
Jett looked over to see that the man fighting Keth had disarmed him; his sword
rose for the killing stroke. Jett saw
this and started to lunge for him.
Unexpectedly, Keth flicked his boot and something flew out of it, right
into the enemy’s throat. It flung the man backward into the grass, dead. “Never
underestimate your enemy,” Keth said with a smirk. Then answering Jett’s unspoken question,
“Spring powered knife, made just for times like these. We old fellows have to rely on cunning and
smarts to win, since we aren’t so fast anymore…”
“Heh,” Jett chuckled, “You mean
cheating?”
“Eh,” Keth said with wave of his
hand, “Call it what you will, I’m still alive aren’t I?”
“True, true,” Jett said, “and
thank heaven you’re here. If you hadn’t
shown up… I don’t know if I could have taken them.”
“You’re lucky I came. I noticed
that the orders stopped coming and there was only one thing that really would
have stopped you from leading your men.
So, I hurried over here to help you out.
Now, let’s get you somewhere you can help.”
They both ran to the last
remaining company of horsemen, where Jett acquired a horse. Keth jumped on
another and they rode to a knoll at the back of the army. Jett gave a few orders, adjusted things that
had gone wrong and then realized,
“This isn’t what they need…” He instructed
Keth, “Here, take this whistle. You’re
as good as I am at this. They need me
at the front lines and if we lose, I’m not going to be up here when it ends. I’m going to be down there, fighting. They need that right now.”
Keth replied, “Then go, have fun
down there.”
“I will,” Jett said, and then
started to ride off. “I will!” He rode
to the place where he had battled the small group of soldiers, grabbed a
shield, grabbed the spear and then rode off towards the front lines. As he approached, he called to the men, and
they made a gap for him to ride straight to the front at a quick pace. Jett knew that he was riding to his
death. There was no Keth to save him
now; no fancy traps; just fighting and dying.
Fighting for what they all believed in.
When Jett got close he gave a mighty war cry and hurled the spear at the
enemy’s front line. He leapt off the
horse and sent it back out of the battle.
He jumped into the line and started fighting. He heard generals giving orders over the
noise; the order to push forward. So
they did; Jett pushed forward with all his might, making a slight triangle
where he was. It bent the enemy line and
made it easier to fight, while at the same time making a good standing ground
for Jett’s army.
They would still lose. There were too many men falling. But perhaps
they would take down a few more with them. After just a short time, Jett almost
couldn’t hold out any longer. He was taking
the brunt of the point’s attacks, and still fighting. Then, a man from behind grabbed his shoulder,
yanked him back and took his place.
Until then, Jett hadn’t realized how tired he was. He almost fell over,
but knew he couldn’t. Someone passed him water and it helped greatly. After a few minutes he had recovered and was
about to take his place, when two things happened. The first was that he noticed that he was in
a group with only the men from his portion of the army. There were probably 50 of them in one group
and these were the men he could trust.
If he had to die, these were the men with whom he would most want to
fall with. Then, the lines further down
at either end broke. There was
chaos. But Jett acted fast and instantly
called, “TRIANGLE!!” His men,
conditioned by months of training, formed the protective formation. They were surrounded by enemies, but they
were still fighting. They were not
getting separated. Jett made his way to
the front and relived the man there. It
seemed hopeless, but still they fought on. The rest of the army was getting
pushed further and further back.
As the army was getting overrun
and the enemy was starting to break Jett’s triangle, Jett heard a noise. There was a great rumbling that sounded like
thunder, but the sky was clear. Perhaps
it was an earthquake, the ground was shaking.
Or, maybe it was the one thing no one expected, but the one thing that
they had all hoped for. Then, with a
crash, out of the trough came thousands of logs. Tumbling down, they smashed into the side of
the enemy soldiers, who had become very cramped with the newly added men. It took out the back half of the army, but
wasn’t done yet. The next thing that
came down were rocks; giant boulders flying down the canyon and smashing into
the remaining men. They took out
hundreds each time. All of this threw
the enemy army into a panic. With a
yell, Jett picked up a fallen flag and raised it high. They charged!
His troops followed him. The rest
of the army, strengthened by the blow, charged as well. They swept over the
enemy like waves smashing into a battered shoreline. Nothing could stand in their way. There were only half of them left, but they
charged the enemy and started winning.
They were unstoppable. The enemy was unable to make a good line, since
Jett’s company jutted out in front taking out any line that tried to form. All along their line, more of Jett’s soldiers
did that. It was like a wall of spikes
smashing through the enemy. When they
had killed about half of the remaining enemy, the enemy routed. They turned tails and ran. They ran back to their homes. They could not take a land protected by such
as these; by men with something to fight for; with other good men to fight by,
and with someone who led them well and who trusted them to do their jobs
well. That day was a victorious, a day
of glory and honor
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