Lo Fat cursed as his bootlaces broke in his hand. Never again, he swore to himself, never again trust an Arab middleman. Grimacing, he kicked his footstool across the tent, and picked up the scroll of Imperial Direction, checking for the hundredth time that this horror was true, that he was condemned to attack this hellhole in Greece.
The tent flap opened, and Hau Hai, the army quartermaster, scuttled in, with another bag of scrolls clutched to his chest. Lo Fat took the summary scroll from the top(1) and snarled at what he saw when he read it. "I know the Arabs invented the zero - but did they invent the next six or seven after that? eh? eh?" he cried, striking Hau Hai about the head with the crumpled scroll. "The quality of this stuff is insupportable - where were your men and why didn't you check them? eh? eh?"
Hau Hai fell to the floor under the rain of blows, and begged for forgiveness. Lo Fat scowled out the open tent and, seeing a Pu Ping archer marching past, called him in. "What's your name and rank, soldier?" "Senior deputy squad assistant, Ai Noh Pei, sir!" "Congratulations, you've just been appointed Quartermaster - take this offal out" - Lo Fat kicked his former quartermaster in the ribs - "and have it assigned as a recruit to your squad instead." (2) The newly promoted soldier saluted smartly, and dragged the recalcitrant away.
Lo Fat sighed. Of course, with the same bureaucrats doing the job, nothing would actually change, but it felt good to vent his temper, and - who knows? - maybe the example might frighten the pen-pushers into a moment or two of competence. He slumped into his camp chair, which promptly broke apart, depositing him on the round. Looking at the ceiling of the tent, he muttered his secret mantra(3) over and over to himself.
Two scouts entered the tent, calling "General? General?", so Lo Fat stumbled back to his feet. "Lord, we beg to report the hill-bandits have sallied forth to challenge you in battle. They have a forest of pikemen, supported by excellent cavalry and some elephantry, and are taking up position east of that big wood to the east." Lo Fat lapped his hands together, crying "At last!!". Summoning his trusty aide, Pu Ki, he rode off to examine the ground and the enemy army.
He didnt much like what he saw.
"See, Pu Ki, that wood on our left will be filled with hill tribesmen - they breed like rabbits after all, disgusting habits and all, and the path around it just leads to another wood and that rocky hill. They look like they're resting their pike flank on that, with the other flank drawn back in echelon towards the rear of the field. If they get aggressive and come for us, it should be ok - we can get around them and surround them then. But if they stick to their round and hold that perimeter, then it'll be a long bloody slog to extract them."
Pu Ki assessed the enemy lines expertly, pausing only to vomit neatly on the grass. "They've got their cavalry neatly tucked in behind everything, so we can't count on over-riding it." He cleared his throat, "I dont know what we can do about those elephants, though - perhaps the Pu Ping(4) might handle them, but ... "
Lo Fat scowled at the ground. "You've been eating too many diced carrots again. I think we can tease the elephants with some horse archers - keep them in play but don't close with them. I'll take the left here, and handle that - if I can force a path around that wood, I'll have a crack at it, but otherwise I'll just hang back and make sure the tribesmen are kept pent up in the woods. You take the centre - put your bowmen up against his pike, and use your horse archers to tease any flanks that come loose. The Turks can go to your right - they'll ride up nd around, attack the end of his line, while the Turfan can go beside them, and follow up. Perhaps if we hammer away hard enough at the corner, something will give - and if not, well, it's only a few allies we've lost." He gave a short bark of laughter, and summoned the messengers.
As the Chinese army arrayed itself, a messenger from the Sultan of Turfan rode up to Lo Fat. "With great respect, Lord, my Sultan declares that his troops cannot fight without weapons - and the Arab lances they have been provided with are pitiful reeds, useless in combat." Lo Fat scowled again, saying "Go to your master with my greetings, and bid him ride forward behind the Turks - I will scour the camp and dispatch the best weapons I can find." The messenger rode off in a flurry of dust.
The Turks showed their zeal early, racing forward whooping, their trail describing a vast semicircle as they rode around to threaten the flank of the Macedonians. The Macedonians showed little disposition for offense, drawing their pikemen gradually backwards, near to the edge of the field, while the Turfan, true to their message, proceeded in a stately column, heading to support the zealous Turks.
With ample time, Lo Fat tried to draw out a body of horse archers from between the woods - after some skirmishing, his men trapped one company of them, but the rest scattered, some into the woods, the rest between the two woods into safety. Lo Fat examined the disposition of the hill-tribesmen carefully, but there was no chink in that armour - and Lo Fat was determined to keep it that way :)
Meanwhile, the Turks, still vibrant with battlelust, fell ululating on the end column of pikemen - these had neglected to turn to face the Turks, deeming them no threat, and Llap, the Turkish chieftain, led his men into the charge, driving them back on the silver shields of their compatriots, so both battalions cast down their weapons and fled, screaming.
The exuberant Turks then flowed around the remaining two battalions of silver-shields, and struck against the Bactrian horsemen sitting in reserve, leaving it to the Turfan to ride down these two battalions. The Turfan had arrived at the edge of the field, to find a few extra lances that Lo Fat had scraped up, and deemed these enough to assail the enemy - after seeing the Turks destroy so many Guards so easily, they became eager for their share of glory.
Pu Ki meanwhile, was manouevreing his archers around, trotting towards the echelon'd pike blocks of the enemy. As the Turks broke upon the Bactrians, the archers reached a comfortable range, and dismounted. Their initial volleys drove back several battalions of pike. Following up, they kept driving the pike slowly back, group by group, but never making enough of a mark to break any battalion.
Meanwhile, the over-eagerness of the Turks had landed them in an awkward position: threatened to be driven back on the enemy guardsmen by the superior numbers of Bactrians. Fortunately the tightness of the position prevented the Bactrians deploying their strength to the full, but three times Chief Llap was surrounded, only to fling back his attackers every time, and bring forward his own men to rejoin the attack.
The Turfan drove forward against the Silver shields, but to no avail - their lances shattered in their hands, and one wing of them fell back. The rest rode past, seeking to support the Turks. A second assault on the Silver shields was no more successful, and one company of the Turfan was riven by the expertly-wielded pikes. A third assault was led by the Sultan Ri'in himself, only to be broken as well, the Sultan being spitted by a pikemen. The Turfan redoubled their assaults, now burning with a thirst for vengeance(5).
The Turks, strengthened by support from the Turfan, made some headway against the Bactrians, striking down several of their squads, until the end files of pikemen were forced to turn and support the Bactrians.
This allowed a gap for the Pu Ping archers to swing through, concentrating their fire, and blasting apart two battalions of the enemy(6). Some horse archers sallied through one of the gaps this opened, but to little event, while the Turkish assault was renewed again, and the Turfan flung themselves in yet another fruitless assault on the silver shields.
With the widening gaps in the pike line, the archery became ever more deadly and concentrated - another battalion succumbed to the onslaught, and the whole line of pikes crumbled. At the last, the Silver shields smote another company of the Turfan who in turn broke and fled the field, while the Bactrians, fighting to clear a retreat for their army, killed enough of the Turks to dissuade them from pursuit (7).
Lo Fat, having had the most peaceable battle of his career, calmly checked the casualty rolls. "Only 200 casualties!" he exulted. When Pu Ki looked at him in disbelief, he explained "Only 200 Chinese casualties, anyway", and merrily set about writing his epistle to the Dragon Throne.
(1) A bureaucratic device that we have inherited from the Chinese, the
summary of course _never_ bears any relationship to the underlying detail.
(2) Seeds of the Great Leap Forward, presumably...
(3) "I need to kill something"
(4) Mounted Bw(X)
(5) i.e. they didnt fail their morale roll. However in the whole battle,
no Turfan element managed to roll more than 2 in any combat.
(6) DBE"d pike - definitely a mixed blessing
(7) i.e. the Turkish ally broke as well
The Macedonians were in an awkward position, having terrain enough only to secure one flank. However, their decision to sit back and defend permitted the Chinese to choose the weak points - notably the flank/corner, and hammer away at it with concentrated force.
Having the Pike DBE'd was of some use to the Macedonians - if they hadn't been, the Turkish LH would have used the floating zone-of-death to greater effect and killed a lot more Pike: but it cost them dearly once the BwX started shooting.
Having the Pike echelonned back was, I feel, a grave mistake. It made
it impossible for the Pike to manouevre as one bloc, and also BwX to deploy
on a slant, getting overlaps shooting at the corners of the echelonned
blocs (not that any of these shots actually killed anyone, but the principle
remains...).