“Oh, they’ll know,” Tavor said. “Eli’s father is the High Priest of Uzzah. He will be ready to help.”
Amon wasn’t sure how the priests of Uzzah would know, but he thanked the men for their confidence. Motioning the captains to gather closer, he bent on one knee and used a thin rock to draw in the dirt. He started with marks for the enemy.
“Rezon’s army is here. We need to give the appearance of numbers. Place your men along a line from here to here. This will also give us more room to fight. Ezra?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Take a rear-guard position and keep the women with you. I would like the balance of your horsemen to act as messengers. If the front line falters, send groups of ten and fifty as required to strengthen it.”
“And if the battle goes poorly?”
Amon paused. “Take the women to safety, back to Hasor or Saron.”
“I will keep them safe.”
“Very well. We still need to get a little closer before we can plan our attack. I want to see if I can figure out how Rezon plans to protect the siege engines. Are each of you in agreement?”
All captains present supported the decision. They quickly dispersed to retrieve their horses and gather their men. Amon gave orders to advance. Vigorously waving the banners of the Three Brothers, the army lurched forward, dust and the rumble of thousands of feet floating skyward.
As they closed on Rezon’s position, Amon gave the order for the bowmen to be at the ready for a volley into the enemy’s ranks if they charged. Spotters at the perimeters of the advance signaled that the way remained clear before them. The march slowed, but they pressed on until they came to a halt just outside of bow range for Rezon’s army. Companies of fifties and hundreds stood in their ranks and waited for Amon’s command to rush the enemy. Jonathan and Mehida dismounted and again stood at the front to observe the enemy Gideonites. Amon took the time to retrieve his own spyglass. Pekah saw it and commented on the workmanship.
“My field-scope and Jasher’s were made at the same time, by the same craftsman,” Amon noted. “They were presented to us by the emp.. I mean, Manasseh, when we embarked on this…”
Amon could not find the word he wished to use. “Adventure,” came to mind, which had been used by Manasseh himself. But the idea that this unwarranted aggression was an adventure now seemed a poorly chosen description.
He did not finish his sentence. Instead, he peered earnestly through his field telescope, hoping to discover some apparent weakness in Rezon’s organized ranks. Seeing nothing obvious at first, his gaze finally settled on one area of the battlefield. Trenches had been dug all around the hills, but the siege weapons themselves were stationed in a wide, central pathway between the trenches.
“Do you see where the siege weapons are?” the general asked.
“Yes,” Mehida answered. “They have prevented themselves from moving the engines in any direction but north and south.”
“I think we may be able to use those machines to prevent the army from assembling in a large body. Their own machines and trenches block the way.”
Jonathan tapped the general on the shoulder and pointed to a spot just past a wooden hut. “General, look- Rezon is pushing battering rams into position near the front gates, and sustaining considerable losses from the bowmen of Uzzah.”
Amon looked again and saw the advancing rams. Gideonite captains shouted, shields were lifted, and most arrows were deflected, but some were not. Amon’s gaze fell on the hut. He recognized Rezon and Jael standing with the others. Rezon continued to watch the rams, even though many of his men turned to look back at Amon’s army. Amon was surprised.
“Rezon seems to be ignoring us! Does he think we will not attack? ”
Disdain in his voice, Mehida said, “Rezon is arrogant. He knows we’re here. Perhaps he feels you’ll wait until he makes the first move. Or maybe he’s trying to cause us concern, making us wonder what he’s doing.”
“Perhaps you’re right. I’d wager he has other weapons we haven’t seen,” Amon replied.
Rezon did seem overly calm for being caught between a united army and the city walls. If Amon were in that position, he would turn and attack immediately. Rezon’s behavior made no sense. Amon shook his head.
“We should rush the location of the siege weapons before they can formulate a counter-attack,” Mehida suggested. “Then we’ll have a way to defend a central location from Rezon’s army-the machines and trenches can provide cover for our men.”
“That’s a good plan,” Amon readily agreed. “Pass the word among your men. Then let’s ride!”
Amon returned to his horse and watched as his captains immediately rode from company to company with specific orders for each group. When they returned to their places, Amon gave the signal. The Army of Brothers charged forward with swords glinting in the suns-light. Their unified shout turned to thunder, causing the Army of Rezon, many of whom had pretended to ignore them, to turn completely about to meet the charge.
“Bowmen at the ready!” Amon bellowed as he rose in his stirrups, his steed in a slow trot behind running foot soldiers.
The front line of footmen closed the distance by half.
Amon yelled for the bowmen behind the rushing soldiers to release, and a volley of arrows arced over the charging men toward their intended targets. Just as the arrows began their hurtling descent, the front line of Rezon’s men jumped into the trenches and pulled large shields above their heads. Very few arrows met their mark, but instead, bounced off the protective covers that had been deployed. Rezon’s soldiers then clamored out of the trenches again. They too charged with weapons swinging.
The two armies met, and the clash was deafening. Yells of anger, pain, and exertion shot up from the crowd amidst the clangs, pops, thuds, and booms caused by colliding weapons. Like the explosive spray from a high wave slamming into a sea cliff, the front lines furiously collided, the severity of the sudden encounter rippling outward into the ranks of both armies until all were engulfed.
Amon’s men pushed forward, trying to gain access to the war machines of Rezon, but were repulsed. They fell back momentarily, only to push forward again. Their second surge was even less successful than the first. Rezon’s men strongly leaned into Amon’s army, causing the line to break against a wall of resistance. The Brothers fell back once again, and Rezon’s troops rushed forward with their might. It was then that General Amon realized he had made a critical error in his planning.
The Gideonites of Rezon tumbled into the host of The Brothers like the boulders of a rock slide, and when they came to a standstill, only a careful observer could still distinguish them from the similarly armored Gideonites in Amon’s army. Chaos ensued. The battle slowed considerably as the soldiers hesitated at each confrontation to determine if the potential opponent was friend or foe. Captains on both sides continued to shout their commands, and in some cases, the differentiation between Rezon and Amon was determined solely by which command each man would obey.
It was at this point of great confusion that Captain Mehida lifted his sword skyward and yelled with all his vocal strength, “For Daniel and Uzzah!”
“FOR DANIEL AND UZZAH! ” came the thunderous echo from Amon’s army. They again charged forward, pushing Rezon’s troops back with such fury that the Gideonites who had been pledged to the service of Rezon and the late emperor began to melt before them.
Amon raised himself high in the stirrups so he could better see the battering rams near the walls of Ramathaim. He realized that all the Gideonites who had been moving the siege weapons toward their intended goal had abandoned their posts-now running down the slopes to join the raging battle below. To Amon’s great surprise, the unsuspecting soldiers of Rezon were being followed. Both the front gates of the outer wall and the sally port on the western end of the stone curtain gaped open, coughing up hundreds of Uzzahite warriors who gathered into tight groups. Amon sat back down in the saddle and called some horseback messengers to his side.
“Tell the captains to prepare a charge!”
The messengers rushed on their errand while Amon scanned the slopes. Wanting to be sure he kept track of Rezon’s whereabouts, he again scrutinized the center of the field. There he found the target of his own indignation.
His back to the hut placed there for his protection, Rezon stood next to the catapults, Captain Jael at his side. Both shouted commands at the rate of a flash flood. Rezon’s captains turned their troops from flank to point as if they were the spiked iron ball swinging from the end of the general’s long-chained flail. This change in direction
