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The four sergeants, Richard, Robert, Frederic and Bartholomew stood at a table in the sergeants’ command tent. On the table was the parchment of the deployment of their troops given to them by SilverFox. All four of them stared at it for a long time before any of them started discussing its ramifications.
Richard, being the highest-ranking sergeant, was the first to speak,
“My fellow sergeants, what I am concerned with is that we have made too many assumptions. It is all and well that we have been given this command together, but I do not trust our lieutenant’s command ability.
“After all he has only been in the military for no more than two years. On the other hand I have been here for more than fifteen years and they have only made me lead sergeant.
“The first assumption that we should not have made was that there was a river behind our enemy. What will we do if there is no river? Well for one thing we could have the heavy lancers spill into the back covering the enemy flank with half of their force and the other half would cover the back.
“Our second assumption was to believe that reinforcements would not arrive in time to assist our enemies. This assumption could cost us this small battle and result in costing us the war.
“Basically, we would lose the war, but not only that we would also be massacred. To this event, which would be unfortunate, we will have to reserve a third of our total force.
“This will allow us to attack the reinforcements after they have engaged us. It should prevent them from surrounding us. Half of these men will be horse archers and the other half will be heavy lancers.
“A tactic taught to me by my father long ago will be employed whereby our men will send volleys of arrows and bolts followed by a charge by our heavy lancers. The heavy lancers will pull back to allow our horse archers to send another volley.
“This will continue like this while there is still a threat from the enemy forces at the edge of the river. Once we have our expected victory over them, we will attack the reinforcements head on.
“At no time should our forces disperse or become disorganized. We must not engage the enemy reinforcements until such time that the other body of enemy forces has been dealt with.”
Richard paused for a moment to look at the shadow that the moon had cast on his rudimentary sundial.
“We have time for about thirty minutes more of discussion, anyone have anything they could add to this already brilliant plan?”
Richard scooped up a dangling hair placing it behind his right ear and then folded his arms with a sigh that was almost comical. Everyone knew that this was a good plan, but did not like Richard all that much. In actuality no one liked him at all. It was unfortunate that they had to be under his command.
He was known to be a blowhard and it was known secretly by all why he had not been promoted from sergeant in any of his fifteen years of service. The story or rumour that has been started about him of his career as a soldier is in varied detail depending on who was telling it. It has been said that he does not deal well with superior officers, which meant that he would always be beneath them.
Richard did not take orders well. If SilverFox had have had more experience with him, he would not have left him in charge of such a large force or any force at all for that matter. His incompetence grew as time went by and along with it came arrogance towards his superiors.
SilverFox was not the first superior that he had disliked, in fact he hated nearly all of them because they advanced in their military careers a lot faster than he did. Richard just should have stayed at being a farmer like his pa instead of enlisting.
All in the army would have been a lot happier. Some of the other sergeants could be up for a promotion, but Richard would remain a sergeant because that is what he did best. In training men to be in the army, he was not bad. Most sergeants were better than him, but if they were better at being a superior officer that is what they would end up being.
Promotions passed him by the way black flies passed one on a hot summer’s day. Some bit him, he nearly squashed a few, but he never really made any headway. Most of those promotions that he might have been up for could not wait for him to fix his attitude with his superiors, so he ended up just being a lead sergeant. The sergeants with him this day had to be the only sergeants that kind of liked him.
What they mainly liked was his tactical ability. He usually called the situation right, but even they could only take so much from him as his arrogance was plain for them all to see. They happened to like the lieutenant even more than him and it was not right to insult someone when they had told him to study the plan. Robert, Frederic and Bartholomew made a silent nod of their heads signifying that they agreed with the plan.
After everything was agreed upon, it was noted that two sergeants should lead the force that was to attack the enemy force at the edge of the river. The other two sergeants should lead the force that was to hold off the enemy reinforcements. It was agreed that Frederic and Bartholomew would lead the second force that was to hold off the enemy reinforcements and Richard and Robert would lead the first force, the primary force. Frederic and Robert were leaders of horse archers and Richard and Bartholomew were leaders of heavy lancers.