Casca 22: The Mongol (16 page)

At sunrise the new army moved out of the valley and onto the plains. Once clear and they had room to move, Temujin formed up his new power. The Kereit Noyans had taken him at his word. Everything was organized, as he had said. By tens, hundreds, and thousands.

There on the plains he called another meeting of the Noyans, giving them his orders for the march: how to form in columns and lines, and how to maneuver in attack and defense.
This he demonstrated by using pebbles on the earth. The first lessons were basic, simply how to keep in formation when on the march and how to form up if attacked.

The Kereits he broke up into units, placing them at point and in the center, surrounded by his Merkits and Borjigin.
He was not ready to trust them completely. Not just yet. He had some time in which to gain their loyalty. At this moment they were lost, without any leader to unite them. He knew his words had brought many of the Noyans over to him. But that was a thing of the moment. The moment would pass if he was idle, and they would find a leader in their own ranks. That must not happen.

Overall training and discipline he turned over to Casca.

Every dawn before forming on the march, Casca took one man out of every hundred of the Noyans and gave them training in maneuver and tactics, discipline and obedience. Mock battles were staged in slow motion as he showed the effect of cavalry on different enemy formations. To their displeasure he also made them learn to maneuver on foot. It took only one reminder that the Merkits had broken the Kereit when their feet were on the ground.

Each of the hundreds were to return to their units and brief the commanders of tens. From them the new commands and formations went to the common warriors.
Mistakes were not tolerated. There were few, and no one ever had the opportunity to err twice. Several Noyans were removed from their ranks when they just could not grasp the new ideas. Their places were taken in some cases by common warriors in whose eyes or manner Casca thought he saw intelligence and a willingness to learn.

Temujin observed closely all of Casca's actions and his new selections. He made it a point to encourage Casca to appoint young men under thirty years, as were most of his commanders in the Merkit and Borjigin, to the new positions.
He spent much of his free time having the young Noyans visit with him. There they learned they could discuss things openly, present ideas and arguments.

Temujin never laughed or mocked. Everything they said he took as a matter of import, even if it was nonsense. That told him at least who could use their minds and who could not. And even these he did not replace at once. That was for Casca to do.
And there are times when men who are not very intelligent but very loyal also have their use. It is good to have some who are willing to die for you with no questions and consider it an honor.

True to his word from the beginning, Temujin rewarded excellence, This appealed to the common warriors who, before this, would never have had the chance to reach positions of command. All of
these actions were designed with two purposes: first, to make them loyal to him; and second, to make them more efficient in the hard days ahead. They still had many leagues to travel across deserts and plains.

The route of the march was straight across the plains and deserts of the Gobi to where the Khinghan Mountains watched over the barren plains and gave water to the thin green strips along the Rivers Shilka, Argun, and Khalkha.

It was the eighth day of the march before Temujin told his commander of his plans to go into the region of the River Khalkha and raid the Tatar camps. There were several walled cities near the borders of the Mongol and Tatar territories. It was to one of these that they would go. He knew which one, but that he did not choose to relate at that time. It was Khalkak, the strongest Tatar fort, which lay across the River Khalkha directly across from the lands of the Quonqurat. If, as he requested, Krichka had moved all to the summer pastures, the Tatars would be much more relaxed and less wary, their strong, known enemy across the river departed until the following spring.

His choice of a target pleased all. The Tatars had been the enemies of all one time or another for centuries, and usually they had the best of the fights they were in. The Mongols looked forward to the opportunity to kill and pillage in their lands. Normally it was the Tatars who raided and took what they wished, leaving widows and burned villages behind them to mark their passage.

Temujin was also pleased with the reaction of his warriors. Having a common enemy would unite them more than anything else, which was exactly what he needed at this time. From that day on, all worked and trained with a ready will. Complaints and grievances came to stop.

A three-week march brought them to where they were moving along the banks of the River Khalkha and into the Gobi Desert. The Khalkha was the line separating the Quonqurat tribes from the Tatars.

This was his most important reason for going. If he defeated the Tatars on the banks of the river, he would remove a threat from the tribe of Bortei. Her father was close to recognizing him as overlord now, and this would complete it. The old man knew it was better to arrange a marriage with a power than to fight that power.

Casca had told him repeatedly over these last... how many years was it now? Fifteen, sixteen? "Never leave an enemy behind you." Now, if he destroyed the Tatar power base, and he would, he'd have a line drawn around the perimeters of Lake Baikal. Once the last of the Kereit tribes were finally subdued, and that should come in the spring, he would have almost all of it.

To the north of the Kereits were the Naimans. Then the Khirgiz, Oirats, and Buryats. Each would fall easier than the first, for as they fell, they would add to his strength.

He would have a secure base, with no enemies for a thousand miles in any direction. To the south were the Chin and Tanguts of Hsi Hsian. To the north there was nothing but the frozen lands of the Tungus. To the west lay the Empire of the Black Khitans, which had enemies in plenty on all sides. Beyond them were the sultanates of Persia and Iraq. To the east there was little, except forest and rocky mountains till one reached the sea across which lay the islands of the Nihonji.

The physical wealth of these lands did not matter. He wanted not gold and slaves. It was power for the sake of power. His riches and wealth he gave to those who served him well. And now, this one final move and he would be the first since Attila to have the power at his disposal to accomplish that which all warriors of the steppes dreamed of. The great conquest. The founding of his own dynasty, a line with him as the fountainhead of kings that would last through the centuries. That was a true dream.

In the shadows of the Khinghans, where the white waters streamed out to be absorbed by the sands and rocks, Temujin called a halt to rest the animals.

Casca took advantage of it to hold mock battles, first in slow motion then faster and faster, having them play against each other so they would know both sides of a situation. Then at night around the campfires, he would have the Noyans question and answer their actions of the day.

After three days of rest Casca pronounced them to be ready. If not perfect, they were better than before, and they would obey without question or hesitation. It was time for them to be bloodied as warriors of Temujin and become part of his nation.

Between these incredible peaks and ranges lay wide valleys protected from the wind and snows by the wall of mountains. It was into one of these that Temujin ordered his army to advance. His scouts had brought back word that ahead lay the fortified Tatar city called Khalkak, which had perhaps fifty thousand inhabitants. It lay on the junction of trade routes that led to Hsi Hsian and to the lands of the Chin, or by taking the passes between the Tanguts and Chin, traders could reach the southern Sung.

This made it a permanent place where caravans came and went with frequency, and some even had to spend the long winter months if they arrived too late and passes were closed by the snows. It was garrisoned by uniformed warriors who had been seen patrolling on foot in and around Khalkak, and on horseback on the approaches to the city. Their exact numbers, however, were not known.

Temujin ordered his armies to halt still three days' ride from the river. They found refuge away from the caravan routes that had grazing for their horses in a wide valley, where they would be sheltered from passing eyes. Here they would wait a while, rest, and plan.

As Casca advised, "Know your enemy. Take nothing for granted." To this end, Temujin sent spies in the city. There they were to note everything.
To cover their reasons for being in the city, he gave them a small herd of sixty good plains horses to trade and barter. Horse traders always know everything about who comes and goes. From them they were able to learn the strength of the city's defense. It was strong. Almost seven thousand soldiers, but only two thousand were cavalry. The rest were garrisons for the city walls.

Casca advised caution, If Temujin lost this battle, and he well could if he was not careful, those in defense behind stout walls are always stronger man for man those in the attack. Temujin could not afford a costly victory. If he only lost one for one, it would decimate the strength he had acquired at Baljuna.

When the spies returned, they met first with Casca, then with Temujin. At Casca's counsel they were sent back into the city to wait and observe. Casca wanted to know the patterns of everything: the hours at which sentries were posted and relieved; their actions while on duty; where they alert, did they sleep? He had the spies listen to the talk in the taverns where the officers drank. Wine had killed more than one man, and sometimes even cities.

As they listened to the reports, Temujin and his staff, overseen by Casca, planned. They would have to get inside the walls. A siege was out of the question. They would have to hit and take the city quickly, or allies of the Tatars might come to the aid of the besieged.

The other problem was they knew that sooner probably than later their presence would be discovered. It was difficult to keep nearly ten thousand men and their horses a secret for long.

"I think, Temujin, that I may have a way." Casca walked with Temujin in the shadows of the valley, away from the rest of the men and prying eyes and ears.
"Send a caravan into the city. Let them have only the arms they would normally need for an escort. I suggest a caravan of one hundred packhorses. Fill them with the booty taken from the Kereits, but not with weapons. If they are searched, our trick will surely be discovered. Only the guards a caravan would normally employ to protect it, some twenty in number, will have arms of war-bows, lances, and the like. The rest will have only personal weapons and can buy what they wish one at a time in the bazaar. But not before they are ready to use them.

"From there they will move to the gates, the one facing the river and the other the open ground. At a signal they will attack and open the gates. Then our men will pour through and secure the parapets and strong points while most of our enemies are still in their dreams."

Temujin sucked his lips. It was not fancy, and it wasn't bad, but simple, easy to understand. The Tatars here had been secure for many years. True, there were always a few skirmishes between their bands and their neighbors, but nothing had been attempted on a large scale for over forty years. "All right, Old Young One. We will try it. But how are you going to get horses around on the river side without being seen?"

"Simple. We won't bring the horses. We will come down the river, taking cover in the night and in the water. We will attack on foot. Horses aren't going to be of much good on the parapets
.

"That will be our main concern. That and preventing the Tatar warriors from being able to mount a counterattack. We will hit them while they are still in their sleep. The night and surprise will give us the advantage if we move quickly and plan carefully."

Temujin called a staff meeting. After he permitted them to rise, he told them of his plans to take the city. "As the Old Young One has suggested, we will practice the attack." To Subetei he ordered, "Prepare for me in this valley a copy of the city – its boulders and strong points, the barracks of their warriors, the stables and the marketplaces, all buildings that can serve as landmarks so our men will know their location and where to go. Use rocks and boulders to simulate these things for me. We shall  rehearse as for a play."

Rising from his saddle chair, he pointed a finger at the faces of all. "Yes, we shall rehearse for a play and let no one forget their part, for I surely shall not."

With that he dismissed them, Subetei to arrange the layout of the city, Casca and Temuge to prepare the warriors for their roles.

Casca would lead the Kereits and Temuge the Merkits. The Borjigin would be under Subetei. The Merkits and Borjigin would enter through the front gates, and Casca would take the river route.

Temujin was about to attack his first fortified city.

It was the next morning before the caravan of "traders" was ready to go. From their valley to Khalkak normally took three days. But Casca told them not to enter until the fourth, to take their time. He would need time for the training of the attack forces. They would enter the gates on the afternoon of the fourth day. They would have that night and the next day to prepare.

Casca had personally selected the eighty-three tribesmen for their roles, picking the least warlike-looking. There were not too many fat men among them, so he picked those who looked the most dishonest.

There were numerous objections to having scalp locks removed and mustaches shaved. He almost had to have several executed when they found they would not be able to take their bows and swords. Wardrobe presented little problem. After a long crossing of the deserts and mountains few, if any, wore good apparel. Robes, trousers, and turbans were the norm.

As they were not prepared with an inventory of many trade items, they filled the packs with whatever personal items the tribesmen had among them: trinkets of gold and silver; pieces of amber and jade; amulets; and spearheads that had to be removed from their shafts.

Temujin ordered a firm accounting to be kept of all items and who contributed which, for there would be a reckoning after the city was taken. If anything was lost or had to be used as a bribe to the officials at the gate, its value would be added to the owner's share.
It sounded more difficult than it really was, for they had ten thousand men to pick clean. The horses' packs were full.

The caravan, under its escort of twenty fully armed warriors, was sent off with much whistling and jeering. All knew that if just one made a mistake, they would all be put to death, most certainly in an exceedingly painful and unpleasant manner. Casca had repeated this to them several times, till he was certain that everyone knew the fate for failure.

Once they were gone, he put the rest of the men to work climbing the mountain sides and cutting timbers for scaling ladders. Lariats were modified to be used with grappling hooks, which were forged from the surplus weapons. And there were the rehearsals. Over and over again he and Temujin, with Subetei and Temuge observing, had the Mongols practice their movement and approach to the city.

Scaling the walls was rehearsed on the faces of some of the more convenient cliffs. Casca had to demonstrate over and over again how to climb the ropes. Three of the Mongols fell to their deaths, and eight more broke bones, which meant they would be left behind with the spare horses.
It crossed the minds of those who would not be going that if all the others were killed, they would be very rich men.

They left on the second day after the caravan, moving at night. They would have only cold camps till they were through with the attack. There could be no chance of fires being spotted.
Outriders were sent ahead to watch for Tatar patrols. If one was spotted, they were to go to ground, make no move to arouse suspicion, and report back to the main body as soon as possible. All contact was to be avoided.

From the beginning Temujin divided his force into two commands: the one under Casca; and his, which consisted of the Merkit and Borjigin and two thousand of the Kereits.

The scaling ladders were broken down into sections, to be reassembled the night of the attack and loaded on horses. For the rest, every other man carried with him a rope made from their lariats with which to climb the walls.

During the long nights they rode quickly, till they reached a point from a rise where they could see the walls of Khalkak thirty miles away. That was at sunset of the third day.

When night fell, Casca took his force and moved to the east, circling far around to avoid detection. Three times their outriders had seen Tatar mounted patrols. Now that they were close, the risk of detection was increased at least tenfold. Casca had to push it. He couldn't spare the horses, as he had farther to go to be in position by nightfall of the fourth. This didn't bother him. Once the horses delivered him to the staging area, they wouldn't matter much.

When they made it to a deep gully running along the banks of the river, it was five hours after sunset the night of the fourth day. They were only an hour's march on dry land to the city walls. The way they had to go in out of the banks of the river it took two. Casca was concerned that they would be late, and that Temujin would start the assault before they were in position.

Sending out scouts to the front and right flanks, he moved the Kereits out immediately. He had to admire them. After weeks in the saddle, any warrior from the west would be totally exhausted, but it didn't seem to affect these bandy-legged, flat-faced barbarians any more than an hour's outing with the ladies. They fell to with a will and followed orders to the letter. There was no talking; no one was doing anything except exactly what he was supposed to.

The defenders were as Temujin thought, very slack. When the Quonqurat pulled out, they relaxed their vigil even more. They were confident in the strength of the wall and their defenses.

The Tatars had learned some things from the time they had spent in Chin. They knew how to set up fortifications and man them. But they had lost the edge, which was something that came from years of walking up and down walls that were never attacked. Men got careless. They took turns sleeping while one watched for the officers.

Every tower and the number of men in it was known, as well as the location of the barracks and the hours at which the guards changed shifts.
On the walls at night there were normally six hundred and thirty men, half of which were normally outfitted with crossbows of the Chin pattern. There were some arbalests, but they would be of little use close to the wall.

According to his spies, there were other machines for defense, but they were in bad repair. And they doubted from conversations they had overheard that the defenders were even well enough trained to handle them. Out on patrol were at least another two hundred horsemen.
All of that reduced the odds considerably. But if they were not able to get inside and scale the walls rapidly, the alarm would be sounded, and it was well known that Tatar women fought nearly as hard as their men. There were still nearly fifty thousand people in the city. How many of them would come to its defense was open to conjecture.

From the north, clouds moved in patches overhead, blocking out the light of the quarter moon, harbingers of the great cold that would soon set upon the land. Casca took advantage of them to move his men close to the wall facing the river, where the gate was waiting for them.

The Kereits, as they had been instructed, spread out along the wall, grappling hooks at the ready. They were eager for this night's work. It was an opportunity for them to recover their pride. One Kereit began to cough and couldn't stop, so his younger brother strangled him with his lariat. He had just been made by Temujin a Noyan of a hundred, and it was his responsibility.

From their position close to the walls, he wouldn't be able to see the signal from Temujin. He hoped he would see the response from the Merkits inside the city walls. If not, the first he would know about it was when he heard either the sound of men dying or the gate creaked open to admit them.

Inside the walls, the "traders" had formed up into their two separate units. Weapons were hidden beneath long robes as they moved out in groups of three and four.

It would soon be the hour for morning prayer among the Moslem population. Even now, behind some of the walls, they could hear the rustling, coughing, and farting sounds that said people were rising from their slumber to face another day. They had to hurry.

The streets were bare, even of patrols. Only the scurrying of rats – and sometimes of a starved cat in hot pursuit of one –  made any sound. The only winds this night were high in the skies, moving the northern clouds overhead.

Each of the gates was manned the same: four men on permanent station by the gates to lift the bars securing the gates if they had to be opened in an emergency. Above them, in guard towers on each side, were four more men in each. Farther down on the parapets, sometimes the heads and shoulders of the guards could be seen as they walked, talked, or slept to fight off the boredom of long hours staring out at nothing.

The "traders" were pleased. All had been able to barter goods for bows of the Tatar style, which, though they hated to admit it, were superior to those of the Mongols.

Moving steady, not rushing, they spread out to cover the gates. One detachment of ten men each was to go for the gates and open them. The rest were to kill or keep the other guards from interfering until the raiders had passed through.

Earlier in the day, they had placed two of their number on a rooftop to watch for the signal from Temujin that all was in readiness. When they saw a single flaming shaft in the night sky, they would each turn and fire flaming arrows from all four directions at the edges of the city and keep firing them, setting fire to as many buildings as possible.

To the east, one of the sentries on the wall saw for a long moment a glowing streak of light through the night sky. Touching the amulet given to him by a Persian qam, he said the words to ward off the evil that lights in the sky are known to bring.
That is odd, came the thought, as another burning streak of light flew over his head, landing outside the walls in the dirt. In the time it took for him to register that what he had seen were fire arrows, it was too late. A shaft from the Merkits below struck him in the base of the neck above his padded tunic.

The infiltrators hit the men guarding the gates with all they had. The sentries went down, looking like pincushions. One had to be dispatched with a knife to the throat, opening up the jugular. Before his heart ceased pumping blood into the dust, the Merkits were raising the bar and swinging, the gates open.
As they did this the rest of the group went for the towers and parapets. They did not have to take the entire wall, just enough to secure the gates for the main body of Temujin's army to enter.

They did, with Temujin in the lead. He had slow-walked his men to a low place in the fields outside the city where they would be unseen from the towers and walls. He took with him only one thousand. The rest were to come after the gates were secure, or to use their grappling hooks to scramble over the walls.

The same actions were taking place on the river gate. When Casca saw the fire arrow streak overhead, he gave the order. His Kereits went into action, as they had been trained. Grappling hooks were thrown up to snag whatever they could on the wall.

Like ants, they scrambled up the walls. The sentries on watch were stunned. They tried to fight back, but the Mongols swarmed over them, mindless of their own losses.

As the first hook hit the lip of the parapet, the gates swung open. Casca and the main party surged inside over the bodies of the guards. They spread out to the right and left to attack the walls. Casca took one detachment with him. He had the job of tying down the barracks, which was only two blocks away from the wall in a lightly guarded compound.

The sentries were sleepy and bored. They heard muffled sounds and what sounded like a scream but thought nothing of it. Screams were not uncommon as some husband beat his wife or a group of late-night revelers often fought among themselves.

From the time the gate opened to when the Kereits came to the barracks was less than one minute. They swarmed over the man-high, ornate gate that served as the entrance to the barracks area.

The sentries went down, but not before one of them sounded the alert. His cry was stopped when Casca stuck the blade of his kindjal through the man's mouth and out the back of his skull, twisting the blade as he passed him to break it free of the bone.

Into the barracks streamed the Kereits. For the first time they gave war cries. They struck like demons in the dark among the sleeping or half-asleep Tatars. Eight of their own men went down from wild blows swung by their comrades.

The Tatars were completely unprepared. This was happening in every barracks. Few of the Tatars managed to reach their weapons. Of those that did in the cavalry barracks, they rushed outside after killing the Kereits who had entered the sleeping quarters. Banding together, they looked for the enemy and found them.

Four hundred Kereit archers were waiting for them in four ranks. They fired in volleys, one rank, then the other. A steady flight of arrows reduced the Tatars to a remnant of their original strength. In a matter of three minutes, the survivors, some six hundred, retreated back into their barracks, barring the door and preparing for a fight to the death.

Casca gave the order for the Mongols to pull back from the barracks. He ordered the survivors inside to lay down their arms and live. They would not be killed or tortured. This was his word. Resist and all would die.

One barracks responded to the offer by firing a flight of arrows from the windows. This Casca had torched, and as the Tatars ran outside, he had them all killed. The other barracks saw. First one, then the others, surrendered as they saw that they were not going to be immediately butchered by the Mongols. Casca had them disarmed and returned to two of the barracks and placed under heavy guard. Cooking oil for the kitchens was spread over the roofs of the barracks, and, Mongols stood by with lighted torches.

To those inside, Casca commanded, "Stay where you are. Give us no trouble and you will live. If we wanted you dead, that already would have happened. If any of you tries to escape or resist, then the barracks will all be set on fire and you will have your funeral pyre while still alive."