978. Chapter 978

After Captain Kate and the Sorceress

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Je ne regret rein, except not owning Castle. Rating: M, here and there. Time: 18th Century

Her troops, including Ryan's marines, began gently pointing the way out of the throne room to the assembled courtiers. They left.

"Ahmad." Jasmine said, calling the man to her. "I shall need a secretary. I have chosen you. Now, gather pen and paper as I need to summon the regency council for its first meeting."

The rest of the regency council consisted of the three wealthiest merchants in Mahe, a Muslim, a Hindu and a Parsee. Three more were the largest landowners in Malabar, two Muslims, but one a Shiite and one a Sunni, plus one Hindu. The last member of the council was a Sikh general serving Malabar, one Jagjabir Singh. General Singh commanded the Malabarian infantry, a force usually held to be socially and militarily less important than the cavalry. He was a thin man, with ramrod straight posture and a hint of a smile always about his lips, as if he knew something no one else did. His hair and his beard had never been cut, as was the rule among his people.

Although not members of the council, Kate, Rick, Alexis, Priscilla, Sorenson, Ryan and Sassani were asked to stay as temporary advisors.

The regency council met within a few hours as all of the members had been in Mahe. Princess Jasmine left no one in doubt as to who was in charge.

The merchants were talked into loaning the princess money to support the war, and to have their apprentices enlist in the infantry. The landowners were asked, told actually, to provide food for the army and to mount their retainers and send them into the cavalry.

"So we will have men, "General Singh remarked, "but how do we turn them into soldiers in the short time we have. And I am sure we only have a short time."

"General, are not your troops organized into uniform regiments, much like the Sikh Army, the Khalsa, and much like European regiments?" Ryan asked.

"This is true."

"Might I suggest that you split each of your regiment's companies in half and fill them up again with the new recruits? That way each new man will have an experienced soldier to teach him the soldier's trade. Might I also suggest that out gunners be brought from the ships and assigned to our artillery along with your gunners, of course. Then we split each battery in half and fill the rest with new recruits."

Singh stroked his long beard. "I can think of no better idea." He smiled at Ryan. "Do you have any other ideas?"

"I have a few in the back of my head, but I'll save those for later when we know more about our army. However, I do have an idea. One of my cousins serves the Empress of Austria. She has troops called pandurs who are skirmishers. They proceed in units of two men each ahead of the main mass of the infantry. Using what cover they can find, they fire at the enemy in his massed ranks. The enemy can fire volleys of musketry at them, but the chances of hitting such groups of men spread thinly over the battlefield are small."

"An interesting idea. Perhaps we can discuss it further."

Princess Jasmine nodded. "I wish for General Singh and Colonel Ryan to discuss this and more."

"Colonel Ryan?" The Irishman asked.

"You are now in charge of our artillery as well."

In near record time the army was raised and equipped. The princess had decided to clothe her army in the red coats like the Irish wore and seamstresses throughout Mahe were hard at work making them.

Once the army was organized, next it had to be trained. They began with simple drill and once the officers thought the army could get from one place to another without dissolving into a mob, they began to train with weapons.

Usually, when royalty inspected the army, they would arrive with a mass of courtiers, all dressed in beautiful bejeweled uniforms and would ride past the army before returning to the pleasures of the palace.

However, when Princess Jasmine arrived, she was wearing the red coat she had worn on the Tulwar, dismounted at once, took up a musket and made her way to the firing line. There she fired and then reloaded her musket over and over again at the orders of the company's officers. As she did so, she congratulated those who fired well, and gently chided those who made errors. Then she rode to the next company and repeated the whole performance.

After she had visited every one of her infantry regiments, and no one thought that they were not her regiments, she proceeded to the artillery. Ryan, knowing how fatal an error with artillery could be, made sure she always remained behind the muzzle of the cannon, but from there she cheered on the gunners and congratulated them when they did well.

The cavalry had less need of any royal enthusiasm, as most of the country boys who had recently joined up could ride very well indeed, but needed help with swordplay and lance work. One such training exercise had the recruits ride between two posts. One post was some fifteen feet past the other. The object was to ride at a full gallop, slash at one post with their sword and then slash at the post on their other side. One rider after another would slash the first post, but at a full gallop, they would be past the second before they could deliver a blow. The recruits complained that it was impossible until Jasmine tried it. She rode at full gallop, slashed at one post, then aimed a backhanded blow at the second post just as she was almost past it. The men cheered her and vowed they would do as well.

As the training went on, Princess Jasmine sent small scouting parties to the north, to watch the border with the Marathas. These reported that the Marathas were amassing troops on the far side of the border, with more arriving every day.

Back at the palace Jasmine reviewed the reports and then called a council of war. Sultan Hassan, the Rodgers, Ryan, Esposito who had come with the gunners from the ships, Sorenson, Sassani and General Singh made up the council.

"How are we doing, General?"

"Better than I expected, Your Highness. The men can march, although getting them from a column to a line is the best that they can manage. Maneuvering in line of battle would not be advisable. In fact any kind of maneuver once they get in line of battle would be undesirable. They'd end up like a flock of geese."

"And the artillery?"

"I defer to Colonel Ryan." The Sikh general said.

"Your Highness, we are doing well with our training. With the gunners from our ships and the gunners that were already in your army, the gun crews are mostly well trained with the new recruits doing jobs that require strength and not skill."

Jasmine looked back to Singh. "And the cavalry?"

General Singh sighed. "They are like cavalry everywhere. They are convinced they are superior in every way to the other soldiers, and although they are as brave as lions, once they're launched on a charge, they will either break and run when they meet the foe, or they will break their enemies, but pursue them to the ends of the Earth without a thought about the rest of the army, which may need them."

"And Lord Rodgers. How do your experiments with providing medical care for the army go?"

Rick smiled ruefully. "The army, and the soldiers themselves, have always seen this as a job for the camp followers. The wives and girlfriends of the soldiers are accustomed to caring for their men when they are sick or wounded, and they don't like the idea of strangers taking over this task. But, I may be convincing some of them."

Before anyone else could speak, a travel stained courier was brought before Princess Jasmine. He handed her a note. She read it silently.

"We have no more time for training. Prince Venkoji has crossed the border and Ismael, the thrice damned traitor, has proclaimed himself sultan."

A week later the armies of the Maratha Prince Venkoji and that of the Sultan of Malabar faced each other across a sun baked plain. The center of the Sultan's army was the red coated infantry with regiment after regiment in line of battle three men deep. On either flank was the cavalry, half to the east and half on the western side. The trooper's chain mail glittered in the harsh sunlight as did their sabers and the lance heads they flourished. Some had pistols or carbines, but many did not. Behind the infantry was the artillery, drawn up on a small ridge, allowing them to fire over the heads of their infantrymen.

The command group sat on the highest point on the ridge. Sultan Hassan, due to his age, had been left behind in Mahe, leaving Princess Jasmine in charge, in fact, if not in name. She sat on her horse with her friends and companions. With her were Rick, Kate, Priscilla, Alexis, and Sorenson. Esposito was with the artillery while General Singh and Ryan had ridden out in front of the army to scout Venkoji's forces.

"Ryan and the general are headed back." Rick said, seeing the two galloping through the space between two regiments. In seconds, they had drawn up in front of Princess Jasmine.

"What can you tell me?" She demanded.

"Their infantry is more numerous than ours." Replied the Sikh. "But by no more than two thousand men."

"But the infantry look sloppy." Ryan added. "They stand like a mass of sheep and I saw several European mercenary officers having to push a late coming regiment into line. A bloody shambles. And they appear to be armed with old matchlocks, not good muskets as our lads have."

Jasmine nodded. "But they are in line and in a close range firefight, an old matchlock is as deadly as a musket. What of their artillery?"

Ryan grinned. "Older pieces, drawn by oxen. They have large guns, with big bores, but short barrels, much like shipboard carronades. We can hit the enemy from where our guns are, but they can't hit us back."

"But they can move forward." General Singh added.

"Their cavalry?"

"The pride of the Marathas are their cavalry." The general said. "Their cavalry is twice our number and, I fear, the Maratha cavalry is better trained, better equipped and better mounted than our own cavalry. And look at how they are deployed. "He turned in his saddle and pointed at the enemy army. "Their flanks are anchored in the thick jungle on either side of them. Our flanks, out here on the plain, are left in the air. If we attack them, it's going to be a straight on slugging match with no subtlety on either side. Their superior numbers will tell. And if we wait until they attack us, their cavalry will ride around our flanks and attack our rear. And we have to do something."

"Venkoji is doing something." Rick said, his eye to his telescope. "He's riding along in front on his army, doubtlessly urging them on."

Jasmine rose in her stirrups and used her own telescope briefly. Then she smiled. "We have to do something and I know just what to do."

Without a further word, she spurred her horse and took off down the ridge, through a gap between two infantry regiments, and then out in front of the army."

"Is she going to try to encourage her own troops?" Alexis asked.

"She's too far out in front of the army for that to…."Kate stopped. "I know what she's going to do.

Princess Jasmine stopped midway between the two armies.