Hell's Foundations Quiver (36 page)

“If Kynt goes ahead with his original plan to crunch up Nybar, he's going to lose at least a month, Cayleb—probably more like two,” Merlin said finally. “Now, at the moment, he's got something like a month and a half or even two months more of winter to work with, but once the thaw sets in he won't be a lot more mobile than the Temple Boys, at least until the snowmelt runs off, the rivers go back down, and the mud dries.
Nobody
'll be moving anywhere except along the high roads—and not too damned quickly even there, given what spring flooding usually looks like north of Shiloh—until then. He'd probably take a lot of casualties punching Nybar out of Fairkyn, too, after how thoroughly the Temple Boys've dug themselves in around the town. But what's worse is that Wyrshym would have all that time to improve his own supply position. I figure the Army of the Sylmahn'll be short on food whatever happens, at least until sometime in late May or early June, but Wyrshym's already better off in that respect than he was in October. And if we don't do something about him before June, at the latest, he's going to've been heavily resupplied with the new rifles and those Parrott guns of Brother Lynkyn's, too … not to mention the damned rockets. We still don't know how well his version of the Katyusha's going to work, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for him to fail. He
probably
won't have any available in quantity until midsummer or early fall, but remember how low his—and our—estimates on rifle production turned out to be.”

Cayleb grimaced sourly in acknowledgment of Merlin's points … especially the last two.

Lynkyn Fultyn's banded artillery concept had been bad enough by itself, but Sylvestrai Pynzahn had made it much worse. A lot of nineteenth-century ironmasters back on Old Earth had experimented with ways of banding cast-iron artillery pieces to strengthen their breeches, but few of them had been truly satisfactory. Until Robert Parrott's technique had come along, at least. Parrott Rifles had still been inferior to contemporary wrought-iron guns like the US Army's three-inch ordnance rifle, which hadn't needed to be banded at all, but Parotts had been available in much heavier shell weights, iron was
far
cheaper than wrought iron, his method had offered what was almost certainly the best combination of strength and affordability of any of the banded
iron
guns, and between them, Fultyn and Pynzahn had essentially re-created Parrott's methodology.

The new guns remained heavier for a given shell weight and range than Ehdwyrd Howsmyn's pieces, and no doubt the Church's gun founders would shift over to steel as soon as they got enough of the new hearths into operation. But the Fultyn Rifles which had already reached the AOG's artillerists had increased their range and lethality dangerously, and Fultyn clearly recognized that the same technique could go right on reinforcing existing iron cannon even after steel became available for new pieces. That meant many guns which would otherwise have been scrapped were likely to find themselves bored out, rifled, banded, and retained for service, instead. They might be inferior to the Church's new guns, far less the products of the Delthak Works, but they'd be one hell of a lot more effective than they
had
been, and there were a
lot
of them lying around.

The Church was unlikely to approach the sophistication of Charisian gunnery techniques for a long time to come, but the margin of superiority was narrowing. And until Charis managed to put the new propellants and shell fillers into production, the difference in range and effectiveness would be a lot lower than any of the Allies could wish, as well.

Yet Brother Lynkyn's proposed rocket artillery actually looked like being even worse news, especially since he'd put his finger so unerringly on the need to use the rockets en masse. In the absence of internal combustion engines they'd be less mobile than the rockets which had been used as area effect weapons during Old Earth's Second World War—in that sense, Merlin's reference to them as “Katyushas” was historically suspect—but over their effective range, they ought to be able to lay down devastating fire.

The Delthak Works had already started adapting its own rockets as artillery in response to a fresh Ehdwyrd Howsmyn inspiration, now that the concept had suggested itself to the AOG. They'd refrained this long simply because they hadn't wanted to draw Church attention to an idea so thoroughly within its means … and because properly employed rockets would offer far more advantage, proportionately, to Charis' foes than to its own forces. The new weapons would undoubtedly be useful to the ICA, yet they'd represent no more than an incremental increase in the power of its existing artillery while they'd confer a whole new order of capability upon the Church. One that was likely to kill a
lot
of Charisians before the smoke finally cleared.

None of which even considered what the receipt of several thousand more new-build St. Kylmahn breechloaders would do to the Army of the Sylmahn's effectiveness in the field.

Or
, the emperor thought sourly,
exactly what all those damned Harchongians who already
have
St. Kylmahns are likely to be doing
.

“I hope you won't take what I'm about to say wrongly, Merlin, and I'm sure all the innovations coming out of people like Zhwaigair and Fultyn are exactly what we need to undermine the Proscriptions in the long run. But even bearing all of that in mind, I'm
strongly
tempted to apply the Nahrmahn Method to certain parties in Zion and Gorath.”

“I don't blame you a bit,” Merlin acknowledged. “But even if we decided it'd be a good idea, Fultyn and Zhwaigair are hardly the only ones on the other side who're pushing the envelope now. As you say, it's what we need to happen all over the planet eventually, and we'd need an army of assassins to take out
all
the people popping out ideas for them by now.”

“Between you and Owl we
have
‘an army of assassins,'” Cayleb pointed out gamely. “A fact I believe you demonstrated at Camp Chihiro not so long ago.”

“That's true, Your Majesty,” Aivah put in. “On the other hand, if we started killing their more innovative thinkers, it would only underscore their importance to someone like Clyntahn. His Rakurai may be little more than single-shot terrorist weapons, but that's only because he's come to the conclusion that he can't coordinate targeted assassinations against our counterintelligence. He fully understands the value of that kind of operation, though, and even if he didn't, we've been underscoring it for him with Owl and Merlin's reprisals against the worst of his inquisitors. If we start picking off Maigwair's weapons developers, we'll only confirm to him how dangerous
we
think they are. That might be enough for a man of his mindset to decide to get behind them and push hard instead of dragging his feet the entire way.”

“It might,” Merlin agreed. “Mind you, some things are more likely than others, but he's never been shy about embracing pragmatism when he decides it's necessary, no matter how badly it flies in the face of the letter of the
Writ
. I expect that's only going to get even more pronounced as the Church's military position continues to deteriorate.”

“And once he
acknowledges
that it's deteriorating, at least to himself.” Aivah nodded, her expression serious. “As of now, all indications are that he hasn't done anything of the sort. All of the Church's setbacks have been temporary in his mind because the power and the weight of her resources—
his
resources, really—is so great. I doubt he truly appreciates the implications Duchairn and Maigwair have obviously recognized about our comparative abilities to raise and equip armies. Once he does realize that—once it begins to percolate through his brain that he could actually
lose
this war—any remaining gloves will come off, Cayleb. He won't give a damn about the Proscriptions, or anything
else
in the
Writ
, once he realizes he isn't going to win his jihad if he tries to abide by them.” She grimaced. “It's not like he really believes in anything besides the Church of Zhaspahr Clyntahn!”

“Wonderful,” Cayleb said sourly, then shook himself. “All of that may be true, and you're both right that we need to be thinking about it. For that matter, I'm not
really
ready to break out the assassins yet myself. But the whole discussion's getting away from the matter actually at hand. And what you and Kynt are basically saying, Merlin, is that regardless of whether or not they decide to start producing rockets by midsummer, we need to take advantage of our better mobility while it's still winter—
before
the thaw—even if it means running some serious risks.”

“More or less,” Merlin conceded.

He dropped a command into the com net, and Owl obediently projected a map of the Ohlarn Gap onto Cayleb's and Aivah's contact lenses.

“Originally,” Merlin said for Aivah's benefit, “Kynt's plan was to trap Nybar and his command as far forward as he could. What he really would've liked to do was to catch Nybar in an open field engagement, but there was never much chance of that, especially after Wyrshym pulled Nybar back to Fairkyn. So the fallback plan was to advance through Esthyr's Abbey, Saint Zhana, and Saint Tyldyn—which he's done now—to envelop Nybar at Fairkyn and crush that detachment in isolation. If Nybar hadn't been pulled back, and if Kynt hadn't been forced to take all three of those towns in order to clear the high road as he went, First Corps would already have dealt with Nybar, before he was so well dug in, and be on its way to Rankylyr.”

A pointer appeared on the projected map, indicating a small, mountainous city on the northwest flank of the Ice Ash Mountains in the Ohlarn Gap. The high road from Fairkyn to Guarnak, which lay roughly three hundred miles farther to the southwest, ran just below the town's rocky perch. Artillery in Rankylyr could readily dominate the roadbed, although it couldn't possibly reach the line of the disabled Guarnak-Ice Ash Canal, almost fifty miles to the west. Wyrshym had already emplaced three precious batteries of twelve-pounders to do just that, and his fatigue parties had built emplacements for twice as many additional guns. He didn't have the pieces to put in those emplacements—yet—but the fact that he'd ordered their construction showed how clearly he appreciated the town's tactical importance.

“At the moment, there's only a relatively weak picket—just a couple of AOG infantry regiments and three militia regiments—actually in and around Rankylyr,” Merlin continued. “There are enough artillerists to man the guns, but not enough infantry to put up a serious defense. What Wyrshym and Nybar have in mind is that if and when Nybar's forced to retreat from Fairkyn, he'll fall back to Rankylyr, bringing his own guns with him and putting them into all those empty emplacements. And if something nasty happens to Nybar, Wyrshym has two or three infantry divisions at Guarnak. Technically, they're his reserve for his forward positions down around Saiknyr—” the cursor swooped four hundred miles due south to Wyvern Lake in the Sylmahn Gap “—but he could also send them up to Rankylyr to deny Kynt the use of the high road while he either retreats, reorients his forces, or is reinforced by the Mighty Host of God and the Archangels. And if all of this is going on after the thaw's set in, Kynt won't be able to advance
without
the high road, whatever happens.”

He paused, cocking one eyebrow at her, and she nodded to indicate that she was following him so far.

“All right. What Kynt's suggesting now is that he do basically what Duke Harless did with Thesmar … with the obvious difference that Fairkyn isn't a seaport and the AOG can't ship in supplies and reinforcements by sea. Instead of taking heavy losses capturing Fairkyn, what he wants to do is turn Fairkyn into a cage for Nybar's entire detachment. If Makgrygair's division can get into position, he'll come within a few thousand men of matching Nybar's field strength, unless Wyrshym gets the intended reinforcements to Fairkyn. Makgrygair's Siddarmarkians wouldn't have the strength to
take
the place, but especially if Kynt detaches Brigadier Tymkyn and the Fourth Mounted Brigade to support him and give him some extra mobility, he should have the strength to keep Nybar from pulling
out
of Fairkyn. For tactical and strategic purposes, the Army of Fairkyn will be as thoroughly out of action as if every man in it had been shot through the head.”

“As long as General Makgrygair keeps the cork in the bottle,” Cayleb put in a bit sourly, and Merlin nodded.

“As long as he keeps the cork in it,” he acknowledged.

“And in the meantime, Baron Green Valley will do…?”

Aivah's question trailed off and she arched her eyebrows at him.

“And in the meantime, Baron Green Valley and First Corps will head up the high road towards Fairkyn. But instead of diverting to his left after he crosses the Ice Ash, he'll continue along the high road and take Ohlarn, a hundred and forty miles to the northwest. At the moment, Ohlarn's garrisoned by only four regiments of militia, mostly still armed with arbalests and pikes. In order to keep Ohlarn from realizing he's coming, Brigadier Braisyn's mounted brigade will continue to advance southwest towards Fairkyn while the rest of First Corps heads for Ohlarn. That should keep Nybar focused on the threat to his position without worrying about reinforcing Ohlarn.

“Hopefully, the first thing Nybar or Wyrshym will know about any threat to Ohlarn will be when the place surrenders. At that point, Kynt's on the high road only a hundred miles or so from Rankylyr … and a hundred and thirty miles closer to it than Fairkyn, with
Second
Corps already bypassing Fairkyn in his wake and General Makgrygair moving up to invest Nybar's position.