7. Fools Errand

THE RUSSIAN advance had halted at a pass between two hills. It was a good defensive position, and by all accounts that Elizabeth had heard her soldiers had fought well. The question was what to do now. The Russians could not afford to advance their elephants until they knew the way ahead was clear, a sudden attack by a few archer units could cripple their attack. This unexpected resistance had stopped the Russian convoy. If she sent reinforcements she could choose her battlefields, and maybe even cause enough damage to stop the attacks. The Russians would not also be expecting these reinforcements, enhancing their effect. If however these mobile units were lost she would be hard pressed to guard against another attack. She took another look at the map. The Russians had to capture these hills. If she held these she could gain respect from the Indians and if the Indians continued into Russia she could send her units along and capture even more Russian cities than she anticipated. That clinched it, she would gather her horsemen and chariots and send the Russian units back from whence they came.
"Damn it, tell them to attack!"
"Well sire they have already been broken by the English catapult units"
Every moment that the Russian convoy halted allowed the Indian relief force to get closer to the English capital, York. Meanwhile the English defenders on either sides of the Russian attack had pulled back and out of the Russians sight, they could lay ambushes anywhere along the route. Now the only available unit which was in a position to attack had gone to the brink of desertion, they had already been broken by the defenders on the other side of the hill. It would be tomorrow before the next knight units would be in position to attack, and who knew what devilish surprises the defenders would have prepared.
"Sire, I suggest we attack with the elephants"
This interruption was by Petrovsky. He had been appointed chief military adviser to placate the governor of Minsk, who was getting very tetchy as he felt his good work was not being rewarded. Lenin had contemplated having him removed, but even his critical eyes could spot no flaws in his governorship, and the people recognized that too.
"Elephants have been proven to be useless against archer units, they have surprisingly thin skin"
This was Trotsky, Lenin's aide who replied, whilst only being an aide, Lenin respected his opinion more than anyone else on his staff.
A hurt look crossed the face of Petrovsky before he replied, although unconvincingly
"We could place armor plates on them??.."
"How many weeks exactly do you anticipate that taking, should we wait here for them to be made??"
Were Lenin a less diplomatic man he would have smiled at this comment, but he had to be seen to be above this politicking.
"I'm sure that elephants aren't totally repelled by arrows, and we have plenty of them milling about, it is worth looking into".
Petrovsky, not recognizing the molly coddling beamed, whilst Trotsky did all he could to stop from laughing.
"What the F*%^ was that?", asked Gandhi
"Well, this powder explodes when we set light to it"
"What are you calling it"
"How about Gandhi powder"
"Yeah...., I like that..."
And so the new powder named 'Gandhipowder', or 'Gunpowder' in short, had been born, and the world would never be the same..
The Russian knights crept into the pass, they could see no sign of the English, where had they gone?? Then the rocks struck. The English had placed the catapult over the crest of the hill, where they could move away quickly should the Russians attack in force, suddenly an archer unit emerged from the left, the archers fired hurriedly, attempting to kill all the horses as soon as possible. More Russian knight’s came into the killing zone, unsure about which target to go for. Meanwhile riders fell off their horses as the arrows struck. Finally the Knights turned to the only opponent they could see, the archers. The English archers retreated back over the summit of the hill. The Russians blood was up. They ignored the boulders falling amongst them and continued towards the summit of the hill. Strung out the knights suddenly found themselves in a position they did not want to be in. From nowhere an English legion unit was now facing them. The knights had to continue their charge, but a second detachment of English archers began firing, catching the Russians in deadly crossfire. The Russians turned and fled. But soon it appeared that even that avenue was not open to them, as the English legion charged down the summit an English chariot unit swept through the valley, cutting off the only line of retreat, meanwhile the boulders kept on falling. The Russians had no choice, they surrendered.
It took all the self-restraint that Lenin could muster to avoid clouting Petrovsky. Two of Lenin’s best and latest knight units had surrendered. The English would get the horses and the armor, the English army was big enough without his armies adding to them. The fact was that this pass was untakeable. They could not hope to get any units over these steep hills, not with any equipment, and even if they did they would only be on a level footing with the English. If they tried to go around it would take a great deal of time, and even then the best they could hope for was a narrow pass for the elephants to get slaughtered in if anyone in English high command had any sense. He failed to see how his commanders had not seen this flaw before. How they could not have noticed that this was a perfect site for the ambush. First he had blamed Trotsky, but Trotsky pointed out to Lenin that this section of the route was planned by one Alexander Petrovsky. Now Petrovsky had asked if the armor for the elephants was ready yet, and claimed that if his plan had been followed they would not be in this mess. Finally it all became too much.
"Petrovsky, who organized this part of the military operation?", Lenin asked. Petrovsky who had been hoping that no-one would notice his little faux-pas was taken aback,
"I believe I did Commander"
"And just what did you think would happen once we reached this path"
"Well, if we could seize it early on in the campaign then I thought we  could place a feint here and attack further to the North", Petrovsky  hoped he had given the right answer, he wasn't sure whether the bit about the faint wasn't embellishing the plan a bit, but he thought it might impress Lenin, who didn't seem to be angry at all, if he had been standing closer, he may have noticed one of the veins in Lenin’s temple throbbing, but he wasn't.
"Intelligence reports told you that the enemy had a sizeable presence here though"
"Well yes, but you know how inaccurate intelligence reports are sir"
"Well, they proved to be rather accurate this time, wouldn't you agree?"
"I suppose so"
"You suppose so, in fact, have you ever known the explorer corps to be wrong"
"No commander"
"So you assumed, that for the first time in it's history the explorer corps was wrong, just at the time we were planning the most important campaign in our history"
"Errm, yes, I mean.." Petrovsky paused to consider, he did not like where this conversation was going. "Well, I expected us to sweep the enemy aside without difficulty"
"You expected us to 'sweep aside' veteran troops, fortified, with reserves on call, in the best defensive terrain this side of Moscow", spittle emerged from Lenin’s mouth
"Errr, that is, if we'd had those armored elephants-"
Lenin had turned white at the mention of the word, as if choking, and barely able to speak, then the color began to build at his forehead, and slowly spread throughout his face. Petrovsky had stopped, believing Lenin to have some kind of seizure, this myth was quickly dispelled as the words began to flow
"ARMOURED ELEPHANTS- DAMN IT, YOU INCOMPOTENT ARROGANT FOOL, YOU STUPID IGNORANT BASTARD, I'VE LISTENED TO PRATTLE ON ABOUT YOUR BLOODY INSANE IDEAS, AND I'VE LISTENED, BECAUSE I HAD TO, BUT THEN I GIVE YOU THE EASIEST TASK IMAGINABLE, AND YOU F*&k IT UP, YOU IMAGINE YOURSELF TO BE A GREAT GENERAL WHILST YOU SACRIFICE MY TROOPS FOR NOTHING, LOOK, LOOK DAMN YOU, ALL THESE ALTERNATE ROUTES, THESE THREE AREN'T EVEN DEFENDED, LOOK AT THEM. LOOK AT THEM DAMN YOU. I SHOULD HAVE YOU EXECUTED, BUT I CAN'T, I WANT TO KILL YOU, BUT I CAN'T, BUT I CAN F&$*ING WELL THROW YOU OUT OF MY ARMY, AND IF I EVER SEE YOU AGAIN ILL RIP YOUR INTESTINES OUT AGAIN.
Petrovsky ran out of the room, a few seconds later pop his head round the tent-flap. He was about to ask for a note to give to his father, but this didn't seem like the right time, best be heading back to the tent

PREVIOUS(6. Old hatreds) | NEXT(8. Chariot anyone?) |
INTRO | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |