Varangian (Aelfraed) (23 page)

We spent the next hour going over the lists of officers and men we had at our disposal and planned a route to Dyrrhachium.
  I already had ideas in my head but I found that they became firmer as we trudged along the road.  The Saxons were doubly delighted with my promotion and Ridley’s.  They saw it as a vindication of their success and prowess.  They had grown since we had first walked into their barracks such a long time ago and, as I looked at the moon rising over the hills and mountains thought that they would probably have been similar to Alexander’s Macedonians who travelled across the known world following their star.

The first sight which greeted me the next day was a magnificently dressed Andronikos, dressed in full cataphract armour. He looked a little embarrassed but he looked, somehow more like a general.
  I had refused any other armour for mine felt comfortable and they all knew who I was on the battlefield without a feather in my helmet.  Ridley, however, had not been idle in Constantinople.  He handed me a leather covered tube and when I opened it I saw that he had had a Red Horse banner made for me.  “I thought it was time we showed them all who we were.” My men loved it and many remembered it from the battlefields of England where it had enjoyed so much success. “It will be a rallying point on the battlefield eh?”

When we were ready to march I took my place at the head of my men. I noticed Alexios and Andronikos laughing at me. “Am I incorrectly dressed?”

“You could say that.” Andronikos whistled and an aide brought a black horse. “You are a strategos now. No more walking for you.  You ride.”

My men gave an ironic cheer as I reluctantly mounted. My horse was no Sweyn, but he was a magnificent beast and they were right, a general should be seen. The aide made sure I was seated well and then said, “My name is Isaac sir and I am your aide and standard bearer.”

“Welcome Isaac.  I suspect I will have to get used to this now.”

“Yes indeed my lord.
  I am but one of your aides and servants.” He gave a sympathetic nod to my men.  “I believe they will miss you to my lord.”

“Never worry about that Isaac.
  They will always be in the thick of the fighting as will I.” His face almost went white with shock.  “I am afraid, my friend, that this strategos leads from the front.” I leaned over and said quietly, “You will need a good sword and an even better shield.”

We were lucky, the weather began to improve and our clothes dried out.
  Even more importantly, the roads became much easier and we made good progress. Our new strategos of cavalry was able to use his light cavalry as scouts for losing horse archers was unthinkable if we had the Pechengs to worry about.  I still remembered those fierce warriors from the river and how nearly we had come to grief.  We would need a good plan to defeat them. I found that I could think as well riding as walking and I came up with a plan.  As with all my thinking the plan I presented to Alexios was not the plan which started in my mind but was the one which evolved.

“Our weakness is our lack of numbers is it not?”

“Yes but how does that help?”

“We use that weakness.
  Let the enemy know how weak we are.”

“Why?”

“They will try to attack us and then we ambush them. Remember the Thracians who outnumbered us?  Well they were over confident but we won because we planned for that. We can do the same with this Bryennios. Make him attack but we choose the ground.”

They all liked the plan but Andronikos asked, “How do we let them know that we are outnumbered?”

“That is up to your scouts.  I want them to capture a couple of men and bring them to the camp.  Let them see our numbers but keep your cataphracts hidden.  We tell them we are sending them back to Dyrrhachium demanding the surrender of Bryennios.”

“Which they won’t do.”

“We don’t need them to although if they do then we have an amazing victory. They will be asked how many men we have and when they report how few we have then he will attack us.  Your scouts can follow the captives back so that they will know when they leave the citadel.”

As with all plans this one depended upon human nature and the enemy doing what we hoped.
  Most of it worked out but, unfortunately, not all.

The first part was easy enough.
  Our scouts were looking for the rebel scouts; they were looking for our army. The four men were brought in to the camp; we discovered later that three others had been killed in the skirmish.  They were brought before the Commander.  “You have been spared your lives so that you can take a message to your leaders.  Tell them to surrender Nicephorus Bryennios unconditionally and hand over Dyrrhachium and the rest of the town will be allowed to live.  They have seven days to comply.”

The four men gratefully galloped towards safety, no doubt delighted to be alive.
  The troops who had been in camp were the ones who had been campaigning over the winter and the cataphracts and fresh troops were hidden. We had given them a week in the hope that they would become over confident and assume that we would wait in camp.  As soon as they left we broke camp and head quickly to be within a day’s ride of the city. Alexios called us all together for a briefing. “I have decided to use the Varangian Saxons and the cataphracts in the centre where they can hold the line.  The Thema will be divided into two; one on each flank. The horse archers will be held in reserve to counter the Pechengs and the light cavalry will be placed with the cataphracts in the middle for they will be the last to arrive and I want them to lead Bryennios to our trap.”

I looked at Andronikos who looked as appalled as I did. ”But Commander we need the horse archers close to the Thema to give them protection.”

He shook his head.  “No, for the Pecheng warriors are the bigger threat. You, strategos, will command the centre for they will have to bear the brunt of the attack and I know how resolute you are in defence. Tourmache Cassius will command the left Droungoi and me the right.  The strategos of horse will command the horse archers for I know that he knows how to get the best out them.” He paused, “We need to nip this rebellion in the bud and do it quickly.  Whenever they come we must destroy them quickly.”

The plan looked sound and I could understand his need to watch out for the Pechengs but to keep our potent horse archers in reserve seemed too risky to me. The only saving grace was that I was, at least commanding the centre.
  Andronikos came over and confided to me that he too had reservations. Alexios seemed determined to prove that he was the supreme strategos but all of us benefit from some discussion. As we were choosing the battlefield I decided to improve my part of it as much as possible. My men were to be placed across the road close to the ford across the River Halmyros. On the other side of the river the commander placed both halves echeloned so that the enemy army would be drawn into my men and the river.  He was using the scrubby trees and woods to disguise our numbers.  The horse archers were arrayed behind me.  As we waited, I was reminded of the battle close to Osmotherly except that it was I who played the Aethelward role at the rear of the army and our dispositions were not as secure as I would have liked.

The first scout arrived just before noon announcing that the whole rebel army was heading towards us and the Droungarios was drawing them on. I rode to the river and turned to face the men.
  “Today we are the anvil upon which the enemy will beat and we must be as the anvil and take whatever punishment is offered.  Cataphracts, you will be the reserve but when I order you forwards you must be decisive for we are the smallest part of this army and yet the heaviest.  So the heaviest burden will be upon us.  No matter what the others do we cannot, we will not retreat one step.  We stand and we fall where we are!”

To the surprise of the armoured cataphracts my men began banging their shields and chanting, “Aelfraed! Aelfraed!”

I saw Ridley grin and he looked like a boy again.  The dark days following the loss of his beloved Coxold were gone and Anna had given him a new lease of life.

The thunder of hooves alerted us to the arrival of the light horse.
  They rode straight into the river. The Droungarios reported.  “They are behind us; there are fifteen thousand of them!”

He
was
excited
but before I could calm him Ridley said,
“ Excellent
! More for us to kill!” The men roared their laughter and cheered.

“Put your men on the flanks this side of the river.”

When they crested the rise I could see that this was no tribe of barbarians.  This was an army armed and armoured much as we were. They had spread out in a long line so that I could barely see the
ir
flanks. Alexios
’
plan was doomed from that moment. 
His plan had been to
attack the flanks of the enemy but they
had
outflanked him. I turned to shout
to Andronikos
. “Take the cataphracts and the light horse, you will need to attack the enemy flanks, and drive them in.”

“You are right but that leaves you with barely six hundred men.”

“It will have to do.” He saluted as he rode off to divide his forces. I shouted. “Shield wall! Three lines.” I dismounted and handed Isaac the reins. “Watch my horse for me there is a good fellow.” There was a huge cheer as I took my place next to Ridley.

The enemy had reached the other side of the river and they w ere adjusting their lines to match ours.
  I could hear the fighting in the woods and hoped that the Commander
of the Army of the West
was having a better time than the one I imagined him to be having. Suddenly everything happened at once . The line of spearmen trooped across the ford and the men of the Thema fled in terror across the water pursued by the enemy.  I could see that Andronikos ha d divided the archers and cataphracts equally and he waited for as many of the army to retreat before attacking.  When I saw Alexios and his staff fall back I knew that we had lost.  As soon as they were across I heard Andronikos signal the attack from his cavalry; at the same time the line of spearmen crashed through the water to hurl
themselves
at us. They must have thought that they would have an easy victory for there were two Tourmai, almost five thousand men
,
attacking my six hundred but they had not met our axes before and the sharp blades tore through the spears leaving their owners struggling to get their swords out.  We gave them no opportunity and hacked through their shield s which were thin and poorly made.  Their bodies were hacked into pieces by two hundred men.  Andronikos had not left us alone for, on our flanks were two Kentarchia of horse archers
,
who dissuaded the rebels from trying to flank us.  I could see the enemy flooding across the river in pursuit of the Thema but our situation meant that we had to just keep killing. They must have hoped we would tire of swinging the deadly axes but we did not. Whoever was commanding them realised the futility of their action and he withdrew his men back across the river.  The waters flowed with brown slurry which was the blood of their dead. I took the opportunity of placing the front rank at the rear and bringing the rear rank,
which
had seen little action, to the fore and we waited. I
turned to Ridley.
  “If I were the enemy I would use my archers now.”

“Me too.” He turned, “Ready with your shields.
  They may try to use arrows.  They look like sneaky bastards don’t they?”

They all laughed.
  They were confident. Sure enough a flurry of arrows came but we had practised this often and we had a protective wall of shields above our head . Suddenly I head Isaac’s voice, as they readied for a charge. “Sir, a message from the commander!”

“Take charge Droungarios.” I made my way through the ranks
to the rear
.  “I will be back so don’t kill
too
many just yet.”

There was one of the Commander’s bloodied aides.
  “Strategos, the Commander has rallied the men and he wants you to pretend to retreat.  He has set up another ambush down the road.”

“And the archers?”

“They will also feign a retreat.”

I hoped he knew what he was doing this time.
  “Very well. Isaac
,
ride to the strategos and tell him the retreat begins when I dip my standard.”

I made my way back through the men and shouted
.
I was fairly certain that our words would not be understood by the Greeks across the river.  “We are going to pretend to retreat.  We do this in waves.  The rear two ranks will retreat and form a line two hundred paces back
from this position
.  The front rank will then go one hundred paces behind them and so on.  The signal will be the dipping of my standard.
” I sensed despair creeping in.
  “We have not lost.  The Commander is using us as bait.  Let us hope we can catch a big fish eh?” I could see the enemy readying for a charge and I said to the standard bearer, Karl, “Now!” He dipped the standard and I heard the sound of hobnails running along the cobbles.”Steady lads.”I was watching for movement.  The river was forty paces wide and they would be slower running through that than we would be on the road. As soon as the first spear moved I shouted, “Retreat!” We all slipped our shields on to our backs and walked quickly backwards.  As we did so I saw Andronikos’ archers loosing volley after volley into the advancing line as they rode backwards.  I saw Edward and the others in their lines.  They had left gaps for us to slip through.  We kept going until I had counted one hundred and then we turned.  The second rank passed through our ranks and I yelled, “Retreat!” Edward performed the same manoeuvre. I turned to Egbert.  “Take your line back one hundred paces.  The Commander should be there.”