Reincarnated to the Past 7: First Clash

To my surprise, Ghigari had taken my advice seriously. Less than a week after I said those words, I was already seeing long spears, all of which were somewhere around four meters long. It wasn’t quite as long as those used by Macdonian phalanx, which were six meters long, but four meters were probably enough to keep enemy cavalry at bay. 

Since I’ve first learned about the Scythians from Ghigari, I have come to learn more about them as I continued to advise the chief. 

First, they were mostly riding swordsmen. Some had short spears to throw, and there were very few archers. Second, the Scythians were not a singular group but multiple tribes all vying for dominance among their own. They were just as likely to raid each other as they were to raid us. Third, of the seventeen engagements the Kettins had with the Scythian raiders, they lost fifteen times. Morale was down.

I didn’t think I could solve the third problem. I was considered a wise man, not a warrior. They wouldn’t follow me… but I had the ear of Ghigari, the warrior chief of the Kettin tribe. They would follow him.

“You want us to take the fight to them?” the chief asked me incredulously. “Are you mad? You mean for us to leave our tribe open to attacks?” The only reason he wasn’t throwing me out of his longhouse was because I gave him sound advice over the last six months with visible improvements. 

“And they could also burn our farms around us if you let them in too close,” I replied back. “I am not suggesting that you should take all of the tribe’s warriors to meet the Scythians in battle, but rather, you should appoint a small group to harass and slow their advance so that the rest of the tribe can ready themselves better.”

Ghigari grumbled when I laid it out like that. “And you expect that my warriors would be adept at this kind of warfare? You are suggesting something dishonorable.”

“Better dishonorable to an enemy than to weep over the corpses of your children.

Ghigari struck me, and I let him. Both of us knew that I let him, because I stepped out of line with those words, however true they were.

I groaned a little in pain at the end of a brief tumble on the ground. 

“Never assume I will put the tribe below honor. Tribe comes first.”

I grunted as I sat back up. “I know,” I replied.

He grumbled but didn’t apologize for hitting me. 

“So what do you suggest then?”

“Horse riders who are good with archery. Preferably a small build so that the horse feels less burden carrying them constantly while the archer keeps shooting at the Scythians to harass them. Burning their tents at night, killing their horses silently, and maybe even killing their commander in sleep.”

Ghigari grimaced at my suggestions. 

“Those are not an honorable way to fight,” he muttered in disgust. 

“But it’ll be what keeps less warriors from dying when - if - a battle comes. A disorganized enemy is an enemy easier to defeat. A slowed enemy is one that times the tribe more time to prepare.”

While Ghigari had started training the warriors with longer spears and holding formation with spears and shields, they just weren’t ready yet. They would break if real cavalry charged in.

“Fine then!” he shouted. “You just volunteered yourself for the very task you recommended!”

… Uh oh.

-VB-

I tried to argue that I wasn’t a capable warrior or tactically gifted, but the chief dashed those arguments with how easily I won against Ureya and that my tactical advise was good enough for expertise and experience.

After that, Ghigari dumped me on the scout who reported the Scythian approach from northeast. He gave me a crude map of where they were last spotted and all of the minor details, including forests, rivers, and other settlements. Thankfully, while this tribe was the easternmost of the Kettin confederation, it was also surrounded by other tribes who hadn’t joined them. 

In essence, there was still time thanks to a buffer of stubborn tribes that had refused to join the confederation. 

I wondered why they didn’t join forces…

After that, I walked outside and gathered the weapons I needed, including a surprise. 

The next day, I met my “squad.”

“You’re the only two who’s coming with me?” I asked incredulously. 

Ureya glared at me with narrowed eyes. “You asked the warriors to commit themselves to a honorless task of harassing the enemy, no matter how much we hate them. Of course you were going to get people like me who hate the ways of the warrior.” 

Since our last meaningful exchange which resulted in her attempt to maim me (the arrow had been shot, she proclaimed, to miss me by the width of a finger to scare me), we haven’t had any encounters. If it wasn’t for this, then I doubted that we would for a while. For now, we were in agreement that we were both protecting the tribe, so she wasn’t aiming her bow at me. For now.

The other person was a man, but unlike the Kettin warriors who prided themselves in wielding spear and sword, he only had a dagger, a bow, and a quiver. 

“You are…?”

“I am Hoktim, son of Hokma,” he replied. “I am the chief’s relative by the way of his thrice-father.” Thrice-father meant great-grandfather. 

“And the two of you know how to ride horses?”

“Yes.”

While horses were expensive to rear and ride, the Kettin tribe had some, including the chief. Being the wise man that I was, I was allowed to practice riding in my free time. I doubted I was good as either of them, though.

“How would we go about attacking them, wise man?” 

“We will hide when we can, fire our arrows to strike down as many as possible within safe range and run before they can see us. At night, we will kill their horses with arrows.”

“So we will like hunters, then? Hunting our prey by day and night until they are felled?”

I nodded. “Yes,” I replied. 

“Where are we headed?”

I pulled out the map the scout had given me yesterday and set it down on the ground. Ureya and Hoktim crouched down.

“Here,” I said, pointing to a river. “The scout told me that the Scythians should arrive at this river by the new moon.”

“That’s six days,” Hoktim hummed. “And on foot, that’s a ten day travel.”

“Good thing we have horses then,” Ureya commented as she stood up.

I nodded in agreement. 

To the Sirat River, it was.

-VB-

We rode for three days at a moderate pace. We didn’t want to tire the horses out before our guerilla fight. Those three days were spent in silence. If there was a chance that the Scythians had sent their own scouts, then we didn’t want to give them a chance to discover that we were around. 

Sure, the clip-clop of horses on dirt would give something away but there was no need to add more noise. 

Or we would have if Hoktim wasn’t such a chatter.

“So that’s why you’re here, huh?” he asked me after hearing my redacted version of how I ended up finding the Kettin tribe. “That’s quite the story, being dropped into the middle of nowhere so far from home.”

“Tell me about it,” I grumbled. “I was never a leader, yet because of what I know, I am expected to be one.”

“I saw that.”

“You do?”

“Yes. You have the attitude of a follower, trying to earn favors when it is unnecessary.”

I stared at Hoktim. “Wait, I never saw you but you know that much about me?”

“Wise man, you are well known throughout the entire tribe. I would be surprised if they didn’t know at least that you are an inventor.”

“Not an inventor. Just a tinker. All the things I know -”

“Old knowledge back home, yes, yes, yes,” he said, waving my excuse away. “It doesn’t change that you are powerful in mind here.”

I knew he was right, but I had wanted to argue the point anyway. I just didn’t feel as great as I could. 

The first year in the wilderness instilled that kind of humility in me. When death was literally one day away at any given point, even with knowledge, I just didn’t feel … powerful.

“What about you? If Chief Ghigari let you join us, then you must be adept at warfare to a degree.”

Ureya looked like she wanted to say something, but didn’t in the end. Hoktim kept a vigilant eye out for any signs of the enemy, which he found none throughout those three days. We arrived at the river on the noon of the third day. After a few hours of rest for ourselves and the horses, we set out again. 

We had four days til they got to the river, but why stop here and wait for them when they were sure to have scouts (if their leader was even a little smart)? No, it was best for us to take the fight to them.

-VB-

Two days after we left the river behind, we found them.

“Found them!” Hoktim said as he rode towards us. “They are on the other side of the hill, camping.” He came to a stop at our small camp, hidden among the trees, and got off of his horse, Joji. “What do we do?”

I, who was tearing ineffectively at a jerky, quickly tossed it into my small sack and nodded. “Then we strike at night.”