Behind the Serpent Throne (CK2)

Turn 12--The Battle, Part 1

A fight began before the first blade was drawn, before the first made thought of murder. Or if not before it, with it. A man thought that he would murder, he knew or didn't know if he could put that thought into action. Whether it was an ambush or not, each man trained themselves to kill, and prepared their mind and soul for the moment of violence.

A battle began when the forces were too far apart to fight, when his scouts ranged ahead and Kiralo began drawing the camps closer together, began to make sure that the men had double, even triple rations, the better to stoke their bodies and prepare them for the clash.

For the average soldier did not eat well. A little rice, or even millet, a little bit of vegetable and meat. It wasn't much to keep a starving body together, and war would devour anything in a man's stomach. He wouldn't feed them so well on the day of the fight, not because he believed, as some generals did, that an empty stomach strengthened the resolve to live to fill it again, but because he'd seen men eat too much out of nervousness only to throw it all up on the battlefield.

Regular rations, no more and no less, and no double-ration of rice wine, not when it was needed.

Which wasn't yet, because there were still days until they clashed, and those days would stretch out, because the army was not so much marching as crawling. Perhaps Jinhai's agents would be so dumb as to think that it was a result of cowardice, or perhaps exhaustion. Perhaps Jinhai would make enough mistakes, would march his men too hard and too fast to meet him.

Perhaps he wouldn't. He knew the route Jinhai was going to take, had stared at the map until his bleary eyes had watered, until his stomach, still ill, had turned with the inaccuracies.

But then he read reports, reports that told the same story. This was ground that was familiar to his scouts, and he'd done well to make sure he had a full screen of talented scouts, not just on foot, which was important too, since knowing how a man would walk over the ground mattered, sometimes. A marsh that might seem impassable, given to collapsing a horse into mud, might be just barely navigatable by a human, which opened up possibilities.

But it was the boys on horses, and his scout-specialized Rassit, that paved the way and won the day, and it meant that he knew each battlefield, was aiming for some very good ground if he could get to it.

Everything was down to timing, and the days passed slowly. They dragged when every single minute mattered, when all the world was hanging in the balance.

He breathed, and that was a good thing.

Plenty of people didn't, already. Somewhere the Typhoon was rampaging across Csiritan land. Somewhere the Bueli were at the edge. Somewhere beyond the border to the north, there was an entire people that had been destroyed, but survived.

There were Anlan, and there were Southlanders, there was an entire world, and it was true that more of it than one might imagine didn't care. Or wouldn't know what happened.

But then, there were a hundred thousand and more men with him now, and that was just the fighting men, not the cooks, not the hostlers, not the ladies and men who catered to the needs of the soldiers. If he lost, they would die. Not all of them, but enough.

And he would die. And his father would die, and his mother would never be buried beneath a lake in Csirit, in a place of honor. Her ghost would not rise up, she would not scream and wail, she had not been dishonored, she had been buried as best that her money and situation could afford.

But there was so much more he could do.

Kueli, too, would die. And who knew who else would be purged?

He was the man on horseback if he won. He was a small note at the bottom of the page in the annals of the history of an Empire if he lost.

…

And there was a child who would no doubt eventually suffer an unfortunate accident. Jinhai was of the blood of Emperors. He would not stand to be anything less, would not consent merely to stand behind the throne with a dagger, a smile, and power.

And would Jinhai be the worst possible Emperor? If Kiralo discarded his faith, then he could say honestly that there were worse men. But there were better, and done on the back of so many dead, it would weaken and tear the Empire apart.

It was unholy, too. The Gods had chosen the Emperor, had placed him there, the son of the previous Emperor, when everyone knew that a soul could be cast about anywhere. That a man could be born as a potter or born as a lord, and it was the Gods and the Judges who knew what might happen to him.

To overthrow the Emperor was to declare war against Heaven itself.

He wanted to stand in front of Jinhai. He wanted to talk to the man. He wanted to make treason and heresy all at once have a face.

But it was likely he'd never see the man alive, win or lose. Jinhai was a man of action. He would know what capture meant, wouldn't he? And he would fight.

There were many things one could say against the Prince, truly there were, but he was brave. People marveled at the stories of his youth, at his riding and his high spirits, at his intelligence and proper poise, at the foes he had routed. They said that he'd even once, in the "barbarian style" that was the only style Kiralo knew, fought at the head of his army, had risked his life in battle instead of standing back.

He was too important for that now, though. He'd only fight if there was no other choice, because if Jinhai fell, then no victory would be enough.

Had he a brother?

Yes.

His brother, a young boy who idolized him, perhaps fourteen now, would possibly be executed, or perhaps not. Perhaps he'd merely die, or commit suicide out of grief with a knife that had somehow found its way into his confinement.

Everyone had someone they cared for.

What made him and Jinhai different was not their ability to create, it was their ability to destroy. Lives, hopes, dreams.

The armies moved closer. Closed the distance.

And now Kiralo had a decision to make.

Release the Rassit?

[] Yes. Have the Rassit move out now, to harass the supply line of Jinhai, and his troops as well. He might have forces designed to try to stop that, so there is that danger, and even if it's a complete success, it will wear down and exhaust the Rassit before the actual battle. But there are definitely morale and logistical advantages to sending them out now.
[] No. Keep them back and rested, mostly, for the battle. Use them to guard against any of Jinhai's attempts at doing what they might have done, but to Kiralo. And use them as extra scouts for now.

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A/N: So, here we have a vote. Either way, the battle won't begin quite yet, but we're moving closer to it.