Chapter 126: Chapter 126: What Would You Suggest?

“You think you know what he wants to do?” The King looked somewhat sceptical. If it were that easy to figure out what Duke Ryder was planning, then he would not be in the midst of a civil war.

“More specifically, I think there are two likely ways that he plans to attack. Firstly, he could be planning to go all the way south and use his naval advantage to ship his army onto Duke Burn’s shores. Though if that is what he plans to do, he has taken a rather circuitous route to reach the nearest of his ports.” Nela started explaining her thoughts, making the King listen a bit more attentively. This was the first time that someone was suggesting possible courses of action that Duke Ryder would take that were more than ‘big army beats small army’.

“But as you say, he is taking a rather odd path if that is what he wants to do.” He could not think of why Duke Ryder would get so close to the river if he was going to head south to one of his, or his allies’ ports. It seemed more like a colossal waste of time to him.

“Well there could be a couple reasons for that. Namely that if he headed straight to one of his ports, do you think that Duke Burn would still be attacking Earl Blake right now?” She elaborated upon seeing that King Aled was taking much more of an interest in her analysis.

“And the other reason?” He decided to hold off on judgement of her theory until he heard the other possible outcomes that Nela had thought of.

“The other is a bit worse for us, it would mean that he plans to actually cross the river, but not by the bridge. Duke Ryder should have long since gotten news of our movements, and even if he could technically win that battle, it would still cost him a lot of men to take the bridge. At least more than he may be willing to accept.” When they heard Nela’s other theory, both Braydon and the King looked at her with suspicion and disbelief. How would the Duke cross the river if there were no bridges south of Wathamalin?

“Are you suggesting that Duke Ryder wants his men to swim?” The King asked, somewhat in jest. It was obvious that nobody would think that. Harmony might have been one of the gentler rivers compared to its size but that was relative. It would still drag anyone out to sea or to the river bed if they tried to swim with all of their armour and supplies and horses.

“Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that he and his allies do not have ships.” Before Nela could continue on, Braydon could not help but point something out.

“But Duke Burn also has a sizeable number of ships, he may not win in a head on battle, but he would still be able to stop his opponent from getting his army across the river. Burn has more light ships than Ryder, he has the advantage on the Harmony.” While Braydon did not deny that using ships to cross the river was a decent tactic, that was only if one’s enemies did not have the capacity to stop him from doing so. Otherwise, it could lead to more casualties than just trying to cross the bridge directly.

“Do you think that he does not know that? It is a possibility, not a certainty. For all we know, he may find a way to make it happen, or do something else entirely.” Nela finished with that, she also found that scenario to be the least likely option but it was better to at least consider all possibilities than to be caught unaware.

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“Then what would you suggest that we do?” The King asked, since Nela had come up with these scenarios, he thought that she must have some ideas about how to deal with them.

“Well, if he goes south, it is not really our problem. We get more time to prepare and Duke Burn best pray that his men are fast at returning home.” Nela started off with the easiest option first. No option was particularly good for them, but this one would look like the best of a bad bunch.

“If he manages to cross the Harmony without major losses, we will be in real trouble. Though, there are a few things that we could do to counter it. First, we could make use of my father having some men that are not attached to our main force to harass the Duke with his smaller contingent.” Nela took a moment to pause for breath.

“Or?”

“Or, we could decide to send more men to him, and try to set up a battle where we hit from both sides. We have the defender’s advantage, we should use it.” Nela decided to elaborate more on the possibility that she was sure that nobody had thought of before. After all, it was the outcome that would need that most prayers and drastic measures if they were to win.

“It would seem that you are in favour of sending more men to Cinar, not that I could blame you.” King Aled commented when Nela finished her proposal.

“Was it easy to tell? I am sure that you have been long since thinking about what to do should the Duke attack across the bridge, so I will refrain from making any comments about that.” Nela’s smile became a bit more worried when they touched on her father before quickly returning to normal as she continued on.

“Well your ideas have been most helpful. I can see now why Braydon relies so heavily upon you. I will need some time to discuss them with the other lords, but I am sure that most will agree to the proposals you have made. At least they will be more willing than with mine.” Aled complimented after taking a moment to think over the suggestions that Nela had made. 

After all his efforts, he had only been partially successful in getting a more centralised army. Cinar’s support had been very helpful, otherwise it was doubtful that anything would have been agreed to. Instead of orders being directly obeyed from the top, in this case the King himself, it had been agreed upon that the head of the allied army would be nominated by the various lords. And, it could not be someone that held a title, another one of the demands made by the various more independent minded lords from the northeast. From how the King saw things going, it was likely to be a well respected knight who would be chosen to lead. Who, exactly, was still anyone’s guess however. Though a decision would be made in the next meeting.