“Remember the great saying my darling, “In war everything is simple, but the simplest thing it difficult”” Karl Von Clausewitz. Luke was full of sayings like that “Amateurs study tactics, Professionals study logistics.” “An Army marches on its stomach.” “War is hell.” And many others. Marion had heard them all before and she tried her best to take them to heart. After all Luke had been a professional soldier for years and he had experienced all of these things firsthand. Thankfully Luke had a couple of books that helped Marion become a general. One was The Art of War and the other was On War. Marion had read and reread both books to the point where she almost had the damn things memorized.
A few times when they were riding, Marion did have to admit to herself that she did led an impressive army. By now it was almost 2200 hundred men and women strong. It had highly advanced weapons All the infantry carried single shot bolt action rifles that shot a prepared cartridge and had an effective range of almost eight hundred meters. Every one of them were also equipped with a bayonet and a K-BAR combat knife. All the cavalry carried two cap and ball six shot revolvers, a saber, and a carbine rifle. The artillery was the most impressive for they were armed with twelve pounder smoothbore cannons and 3-inch ordinance field guns. These guns were light and made of cast iron. The soldier’s training in many ways was even more impressive. Every man and woman had been drilled until they could do their jobs in their sleep. Then they were drilled some more. Luke had also seen to it that they were all cross trained, especially the cavalry. Luke had also seen to the creation of a highly effective supply line that could keep the army well supplied in the field without having to resort to foraging.
One of the first rules that Marion had put in place for her army was that civilians and prisoners were not to be mistreated without orders. Luke convinced her to put that last bit in for he knew what kind of weapon fear was. There would use it when a town wouldn’t surrender. The choice for the town was simple: surrender and allow the army to march in and the town would be protected or if they fought back, the town would be sacked.
Every village and town that Marion’s army came to surrendered without a thought of fighting. In fact, as the army marched through many of the civilians would come out to watch and some would cheer. In many of the larger settlements, Marion would leave a company of infantry and a cavalry squad with orders to keep the peace, ensure the supply line, and finally to start improving the local infrastructure.
After three days of marching, Marion’s army came into contact with the invaders. Marion had known where they were at all times, thanks to Pollyanna’s reports. When Pollyanna and Marion finally met back up, Marion immediately ordered Pollyanna’s engineers back to camp. They were to eat, sleep, and clean up for they had been living on cold food and sleeping on the bare ground for almost a week. Marion was going to give her tent and bed over to Pollyanna but she refused saying that she would stay with her unit. Marion did order that Pollyanna’s troops were to have first dibs on supplies and beds for they were all exhausted.
It was late afternoon when the armies had met sort of. Marion’s army could see the enemy but the enemy had no idea that Marion’s army was in the area for they were not maintaining adequate scouting. As far as Luke was concerned so much the better. Marion’s commanders spend the rest of the day finalizing their plans. The enemy had already bedded down for the evening. Apparently, they were in no hurry for they only moved maybe eight miles a day. Marion’s could move almost twenty miles a day when they wanted to. By dusk the plans had been finalized, the main attack would come from the East as the sun was rising. Before the attack, the cavalry would circle around to prevent anyone from escaping. Now the hard part began, the waiting for the attack.