The tide of victory

Chapter 25

Belisarius began his march to outflank the Malwa besieging Emperor Khusrau once the flotilla of small cargo vessels and river barges carrying his cavalry and field artillery was well past the great bend of the Indus. In straight line distance he was less than a hundred miles from the besieged city.

But Belisarius had no intention of approaching Sukkur either from the river or even directly from the south. He intended, once his troops off-loaded, to move almost due east. He would cross the Khairpur canal, skirt the hills directly south of Sukkur where the ancient fortress city of Kot Diji was perched, and find the channel of the Nara. Then, following the Nara just east of the Kot Diji hills, he would eventually reach the Indus again at Rohri.

* * *

Rohri, of course, was on the wrong side of the river for any army which proposed to relieve a siege of Sukkur-and Maurice had poured sarcasm and derision all over Belisarius' plan the moment the general started explaining it.

Sittas, on the other hand, was enthusiastic.

'Oh, be quiet, you old grouch,' he said, half-scowling. (Half-laughing, too, for Maurice's witticisms had been genuinely amusing. If grossly uncouth and disrespectful of an acknowledged military genius.)

'He's an acknowledged military genius, you know,' continued Sittas, with a sly glance at Belisarius. The Roman commander returned the glance with a glare. 'I'll bet all the history books will say so in the future.'

Then, more seriously, tracing the route of the Indus on the map with a thick finger: 'You should know his methods by now. Our young genius likes to force his enemies to attack him, not the other way around. 'Strategic offensive, tactical defensive,' he likes to call it, when he's in a philosophical mood.'

Sittas' finger slid past Sukkur and Rohri and moved up the line of the Indus until it reached the juncture of the Chenab, the first major fork in the Punjab. 'Right here. That's where we'll really hit them. If we can bypass Sukkur and that damned gorge north of it, we'll have a powerful force of cataphracts and field artillery in the Punjab, where the flood plain opens up again.'

' 'Punjab' means 'land of five rivers,' ' chimed in Belisarius. 'That gives you an idea of how much maneuvering room we'll have when we resume the offensive next year. We'll be in a vastly better position than trying to fight our way out of the lower valley. If we can keep pushing Malwa off balance and prevent them from stabilizing the front further south at Sukkur.'

Maurice did not seem mollified. 'You've already divided your forces into three separate detachments, as risky as that is.' He began counting off on his fingers. 'You left Bouzes and Coutzes behind to bring up the infantry, who are still far to the south marching up the Indus. You're peeling off Ashot to continue straight up the river and take up positions against the Malwa with your big guns and Felix's musketeers. And now, you're proposing a forced march of heavy cavalry and field artillery across hundreds of miles-'

'Three hundred, by my estimate.'

Maurice plowed on. '-through unknown terrain-poorly known, at best-with a fragile supply route and a pitched battle at the end where you'll have cavalry trying to fight on the defensive.' Stubbornly: 'It's too big a gamble. You should stick to the original plan.'

Belisarius gazed at his most trusted subordinate. His expression was attentive and solemn, not sarcastic. No one but a fool would dismiss Maurice's advice when it came to war.

But, when he spoke, his tone was as firm as ever. 'What 'original' plan, Maurice? The original plan to attack Barbaricum weeks after we did? We've already scrapped that plan, and-you know it as well as I do-I'm improvising as I go along. I was planning to concentrate on Sukkur, but now. the more I think about it, I've come to the same conclusion Sittas obviously has. We'll hit them at Sukkur, leave enough of a force to make them think we're stopping there, but keep going up the Indus. By now, Malwa communications have got to be tattered. They have got to be confused. Their command structure has got to be rattled, maybe even cracking. And don't forget that Link is still in Kausambi, not in the Punjab where it might rally them quickly.'

Belisarius leaned over the map and began making fierce little jabs with his finger. 'If I didn't have an army and officers I trusted, I wouldn't dream of trying this. But. ' Jab, jab, jab. 'While Bouzes and Coutzes bring up the main forces, I want to move as fast as possible, hitting the Malwa again and again. Pin them in one place, force them to attack the forces I leave behind in good defensive positions, while I keep outflanking them by moving east by north.'

The jabbing turned into a more thoughtful drumming of the fingers. Belisarius' eyes seemed slightly out of focus, as if he were trying to visualize enemy armies like a clairvoyant. 'They'll be doing the same thing I am, right now, except I'm willing to bet they're less organized and not moving as quickly. And don't have commanders as good as Bouzes and Coutzes. They'll be bringing big forces down the river from the Punjab, just as I'm bringing them up from the lower valley. A race to see who gets to Sukkur first.'

The drumming ended in an sharp, emphatic slap of his hand on the map. 'But I'm not going to play their game. I'll let them get drawn into Sukkur while I move around them to the northeast. Then, if we can reach the fork of the Chenab and set up our own field fortifications, we'll have broken into the Punjab.'

Maurice tugged at his beard fiercely, reluctance and eagerness obviously contesting within him. The grizzled veteran understood exactly what Belisarius was counting on. The chaos and fog of war. If the Romans could ride that chaos while the Malwa floundered in it.

'If we can end this campaign with a foothold in the Punjab,' said Belisarius, 'we can avoid entirely the problem of fighting our way out of the Sind through that damn bottleneck at Sukkur. And you know what a bloodbath that would be! We'll need some time to refit and recuperate after that, of course, but once we're ready to resume the offensive we'll be in a far better position to do it. We'll be attacking the Malwa in the Punjab, which spreads out before us with five rivers to serve as supply lines and invasion routes. As good a terrain as you could ask for, even given that the Malwa will have the Punjab covered with fortresses and lines of fortification. And- and-by then Kungas might be threatening them from the northwest, which will force them to fight on two fronts.

'I know it's a gamble, Maurice,' concluded Belisarius quietly. 'But I think it's not as risky as you do, and the payoff would be gigantic.'

A crooked little smile replaced the solemn expression. 'I can also remember a veteran telling me, years ago when I was a sprat of an officer, that the stupidest thing you can do in war is let the enemy regain his balance once you've staggered him. 'Knock 'em off their feet entirely, and kick 'em when they're down,' as I recall his words. And I recall them perfectly, because he repeated them, oh, maybe a thousand times.'

Maurice scowled. Belisarius continued.

'Moving up the assault on Barbaricum surprised the Malwa. Khusrau's strike out of the Kacchi caught them completely off guard. Now they're staggering, off balance, trying to restabilize the front lines. That's why they'll be so completely preoccupied with crushing Khusrau at Sukkur. If we can hammer them hard enough at Sukkur to keep them pinned, then make a lightning strike into the upper valley and establish a stronghold at the fork of the Chenab, we'll force the Malwa-force them, Maurice, they won't have any choice-to lift the siege at Sukkur and try to bring their entire southern army back into the Punjab. An army which will be caught between us and Khusrau, and forced to march along the Indus where we can control the river with our river fleet.' Shrugging: 'They might be able to escape the pocket, but they'll suffer big losses in the doing.'

Belisarius' eyes ranged over the map. 'Of course, we'll probably encounter other Malwa armies on the way. But I'm willing to bet the Malwa forces converging from everywhere their commanders can scrape them up on short notice will be coming in ragged and disorganized. We've got a powerful and concentrated field army here, with a cohesive leadership. We can probably defeat them in detail and complete the march to the fork of the Chenab with enough of our army intact to hold it.'

'And then what? You're sliding over the fact that we will also be caught between two armies,' countered Maurice. He set his feet like a wrestler beginning a match. 'You can be certain that the Malwa will bring every soldier they've got in the upper valley to hit us at the Chenab-keep us pinned down-while they bring that army up from Sukkur to crush us. And they've got a huge army in the Punjab, all the spies say so. Leaving aside the fact that by the time we get to the Chenab our logistics train won't be 'fragile.' It'll be in complete tatters. They don't even have to crush us. They can starve us out.'

As if they were one man, the eyes of Maurice, Belisarius and Sittas came to rest on the figure of Menander.