178 Accompanimen (1/2)

When the enemy ships appeared on the horizon, Corco had long heard of their arrival. Why else would he be here, in this tiny village at the southern coast of Sinchay?

A total of eight ships slowly rose from the distant waves, ready to launch a raid on the small fishing village Corco and his troops had occupied. After they had been rebuffed only days earlier, the enemies had completely given up on their blockade. Eager to land and resupply at any cost, they had come in full force. Going with a different landing site from their first attempt was a smart choice, but it wasn't a surprise, and their maneuvers hadn't remained hidden from Corco's scouts.

With the help of their new fleet, made up of ships from Puscanacra and the Verdant Isles, they kept a close view on the entire coast line. At the same time, their telescopes and semaphore messaging gave them a crucial advantage. Under the current setup, not even a single ship could sneak its way past their defenses, let alone an entire fleet like this. It turned out thatit was pretty hard to hide a fleet just off the shore.

At the same time, their scouts had very much remained hidden from the enemy. Why else would this fleet proceed ahead, even if they knew an enemy lay in wait? In the end, this wasn't an especially novel tactic from the captain in charge of this group. Over the past few days, similar battles had been played out all along the coastline.

At his lookout atop the grain silo, Corco had the perfect view of the fight in the distance. As had become usual, the cannons began to fire a good while before the enemy ships were within effective range. This had been a tactic first deployed by one of Corco's commanders farther west. Although the cannons had little chance of hitting on the first volley, it had still proven effective. The noise alone from the early shots drained the enemy sailors of their morale and slowed down their approach. This way, the cannons had more time to fire; and time was desperately needed to deal with so many ships.

After all, they only had four of these small-caliber cannons on hand here in the village, despite their best efforts. Ever since Corco had set up a few production lines with the help of Egidius, Saniya's craftsmen had begun cannon production. However, making iron cannons from molds without cracking them was much more off a challenge than the narrower musket barrels had been. Since their first attempts at cast iron cannons proved failures, they had to return to rare and expensive bronze for this war.

Through all these delays, they had managed to produce a measly twenty-eight cannons in the past year, quite a small number to guard an entire coastline. At first, some commanders had suggested to drive back the enemy ships with their infantry instead. Since their cannons too few to form an effective defense, direct combat was a good alternative. After all, the sailors would be the most vulnerable when they tried to land on the shallow waters of these villages. However, Corco wouldn't want to further spread out and weaken their core forces, not when he expected an unwise attack from Pacha any day now.

Thus, the king had ordered his men to set up central defensive centers - in between key landing sites and some twenty kilometers out from the coastline - to correspond to the command structure of the enemy fleet; One defensive center for one fleet. Within these centers, their troops would wait together with the cannons and supplies, ready to intercept any enemy landing attempts as soon as they got word from the scouts. Of course, the wheels they had installed on the cannons helped as well. If winter had come sooner, they could have used sleigh-style runners to even greater effect, but one shouldn't be too greedy, really.

The result of their elaborate setup revealed itself right before Corco's eyes. Ball upon ball of solid iron broke into the enemy ranks, to smash apart the oars and hulls of their old-timey battleships. Compared to what Atau's Fastgrade fleet had dealt with along Arcavia's coastline, these vessels were no better than boats, with thin hulls not built to withstand cannon fire.

Here in the west, they had a significant superiority in equipment at sea, enough to make all of Ichilia's precious battleships useless. Of course they might have been able to break the blockade by force with their own ships, but the Verdant King hadn't given Corco part of his fleet for combat. The Verdant Folk were only in charge of transportation. The southern king also wasn't too eager to leave his strongest and most expensive weapons in the hands of relative strangers. The enemy's larger numbers and the complex layout of the Narrow Sea made a destruction of the blockade a dangerous endeavor anyways, so this passive defense was the safest option.

Though even beyond all of these reasons, Corco didn't want to increase the number of casualties even further. Of course it was a hypocritical notion from the man who had launched the attack, from the one who had taken some poor cultivator's life for his own benefit. Yet as he watched Medalan ships crash into each other, as he heard the cold southern wind carry over the Yaku men's screams pain and fear, the weight of his responsibilities threatened to crush him.

As soon as he saw the first ships turn and flee, as soon as he was sure that the battle had been won, Corco closed his eyes, no longer forced to observe.

”Cease fire,” he whispered to his attendant who had silently stood by his side all this time.

”King Corco?” Tama asked in confusion. Of course she wouldn't want to leave out the chance to thin out the number of enemies and strengthen the morale of the southern army further. Corco's was the wrong decision, so she asked for confirmation.

”I said cease fire,” the king repeated, this time with a strength to match his authority. ”It's enough. If their captain isn't an idiot, he's learned his lesson after this and won't attack again. Even worse, we're wasting powder. We'll need all the ammo we can get once Pacha attacks.”

”Understood, King Corco.” Even though Corco's real reason to halt battle was much more personal, his reasoning was still sound. Now convinced, Tama carried out the king's instructions with great efficiency, as she always did. Armed with a flag, she stepped up to the edge of the silo and began to wave it in the wind. During combat, the horns didn't have much use, not with all the cannon fire.

”I'll be in my room for the evening. Only interrupt me if there's something important.”

As he felt a crushing weight tighten around his chest, Corco left the top of the silo and went down into the streets of the half-deserted village. Although they hadn't forced any locals to relocate, many had left on their own accord, all too familiar with war and what it brought to the weak. In effect, they had turned countless Yaku all across the coastline into refugees. By now, any who had remained hid inside their homes, in hopes the invaders would overlook them. The streets were only inhabited by a few of Corco's soldiers, running back and forth to transport the powder and iron for their cannons.