Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

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ramana
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Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by ramana »

copyright by singha. Not for publication outside br gdf.
Singha wrote:Part1 - Prelude to Twilight

the day has dawned but the air is black with soot, gravel and pungent smoke of heavy artillery ....

East banks of the yamuna - 100s of short barrel howitzers are lined hubcap to hubcap and belching fire as fast as they can be reloaded by teams of civilian volunteers some with tattered shirts on their backs and bellies without food for a week...a mile to the rear the wounded are patched up by volunteer nurses.

the carcasses of dead animals float aimlessly down the broad expanse of the river.

most of delhi is in flames....the Alliance beachhead on the west bank holding on for dear life to a strip of land few miles wide as the Turkic hordes of the Sultanate launch frenzied assault after assault with all their remaining cavalry and janissari infantry regiments of the Sickular madrassas stretching as far back as Kaboul and Herat, socialist krantikaris drawn from the halls of DU and JNU too repeatedly making suicidal charges right to the lip of the trenchlines before being driven back with staves, fists, bayonets and rocks.

up on Raisina hill The Prince himself nervously reviews the proceedings, sipping on rooh afza in a scented silk tent , surrounded by 1000 elite horsemen of his personal congi royal guard led by Gen Diggy himself astride a magnificent black arabian charger not a inch below 19 hands in height, gleaming with the best of damascus made chain mail armour and a pointed metal helmet...looking like Babur himself reincarnated. every once in a while a fast horse cart brings in more refreshments of succulent goat kebabs, basmati rice and crushed ice drizzled with rose water and kheer for The Prince from the royal encampment below. And small silver jewelry boxes of Afeem too.

tall flagpoles flutter in the warm wind, bearing black silk flags with cobra's hood - symbol of the Sultanate.

streams of small boats move replacements from the east bank to the west bank , some vanishing amid the splash of turkic artillery sited on ridges and high points and accurately bringing down fire .....

twenty miles to the north and south of the maelstrom in the middle, at shallow unguarded points on the placid yamuna where the tall grass grows on the silty flats right down to the water's edge, Alliance scouts finally find locations that are shallow enough for elephants and horses to ford. makeshift rafts by the 100s fashioned from the stems of banana trees and animal hides are brought forward by field engineers creeping up through the sarkanda grass on the mud flats...

finally at 3pm the order comes on the network - commence Op Crab .... and the rafts are launched with bags of heavy supplies wrapped in plastic tarps, and long lines of horsemen stream across the river to begin the first of two great pincer movements....the inner pincer of infantry, cannons pulled by mules and elite units of wild buffalos and dhole's to be unleashed at night on enemy camps to cause mayhem..the outer pincer of maratha cavalry , Telugu javelin men, Bhil archers and Purbia mobile artillery. inner pincer to converge at dhaula kuan and the outer pincer at kapashera border village.
-------------------
Singha wrote:Part2 - The Southern Prong

sometimes it is said small events and small men have a great impact on the overall outcome of much bigger things. the "hinge of battle" as it were.
such an event was to occur at dusk on that fateful day as the 1st and 2nd echelon of the southern pincer had effected the crossing of the yamuna at a unknown place about 10 miles south of what we call today mayur vihara.

the 1st echelon consisted of a few scout units of light horse (marathas), elite light infantry trained and equipped to fight both in the ancient greek mass formation of Hoplites as well as the Gupta-Maurya formulation of small units of infantry working in combinations with horsemen. Around 7500 of them managed to ford the river slowly without untoward incident. the 2nd echelon consisted mainly of herders and nomadic peoples who had marched up from well south of the Vindhyas from the dry uplands of north karnataka and interior Maha_Rashtra. They were not soldiers per se but meant for a very specific role - on the march they managed the pack animals hauling and pulling the heavy loads across the red soil. But today General had assigned them a special role that was yet to fully explained to the lower ranks. They did as they were told and marched with their assigned animal herds across the river in the tail end of the convoy.

By 6:30 dusk had fallen over the ancient city and campfires could be seen all over as the fighting wound down, barring the spies, scouts and saboteurs still flitting around like ghosts over the scrub forests and ruins. Here and there Krantikaries still tried to charge the lines with barrels of explosives tied to their backs and a short lighted fuse, but mostly they tripped and fell over rocks and exploded right there. one or two managed to reach the frontal edge of the western forward line but were put down by javelin throwers.

Now one of the pluses and minuses of a turkic cavalry heavy horde is their dietary preference of meat, wheat and rice is enormous and must keep pace with the cavalry and catch up every night in order for the cooks to set up camp, cook the grains, slaughter and roast the animals, serve food and then prepare to break camp again at dawn.
Even the enormous number of horses needed a high quality of feed in grain, goat meat and grass to maintain their health in the humid and hot indian climate - something the generals were always cursing about.

This meant large herds of goats, cows and sheep had to be constantly maintained and fed wherever the army moved..in this case the army was moving nowhere so fodder and foraging ground had to be found for 1000s of animals which was tough in the scrub infested uplands of southern delhi. the best watered and lush places around Raisina hill and Jor Bagh had already been claimed by the royal encampment and its many rings of subsidiary camps, so these herds and their keepers had been sent off to the south near mayur vihara to fatten up on the lush grass growing along the river and send a set number of animals to the cooks every day without fail.

one such herder by the name of Ishmael from Herat had loosened his shalwar and was squatting behind a tree to empty his bowels after a hard day of work when suddenly he felt sharp tight teeth clamping down painfully on his exposed bottom in the semi-darkness. with a yell of horror he realized it must be a native indian wolf or leopard whom he knew frequented these parts as some animals were always taken at night and found gutted and partially eaten next morning. Shouting the name of his lord, he withdrew his dagger, slashed wildly behind him and ran screaming for his comrades, letting his shalwar tear off behind him in parts as it caught onto protruding branches.

he took one look behind from a higher point with a clear view and got a full view of the enemy formations slowly melting into the western bank shrubs from the sandbars. he increased his speed - this news must reach the Prince himself! the infidels were outflanking!

behind him, the scout leader of the Alliance cursed and quieted his indisciplined animal, which was not a wolf and neither leopard but the Dhole, the native indian wild dog. known to gang up and kill even tigers, these being canine family had proved ideal as hardy scouts and guards for the Alliance as they could be sourced from many forested areas in central and eastern Bharata.

meantime Ishmael was within sight of his camp, with his fellow herders and guards on fast horses clearly visible among the trees .... it was then that fate played its hand once again.

the ancient Baoli (step well) dug during the time of the Tomars and Chauhans during the pre-Turkic phase of the IndraPrastha had lain unused and undiscovered for centuries, covered in a mat of thick creepers and scrubs making it invisible. until Ishmael tripped over its low retaining wall and fell dozens of feet into the cavern below hitting and fracturing his head on the steps before lying in a heap in the mud at the bottom..seventy two feet below.

A hundred meters behind him, two dark figures sprinting through the trail with unsheathed knives heard his scream, quickened their pace and saw the aftermath of the accident. Listening intently for signs of response from the herder camp, they crept closer....nobody had heard as wine from sheepskin bladders was flowing and tambourine was being played to create some music and laughter as night fell on another tiring day.

one by one, the two dark shapes crept back into deep cover and ran back to the western bank.

"inform the General our crossing is done and we are ready!"

a lone messenger flew back on a horse across the ford...
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

:mrgreen: ok thanks...my own sandbox to play in finally.

clearly, only the certified insane need to patronize this thread!
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Frederic »

Singha

"Armchair generals talk strategy. Real generals talk logistics".

Glad to see that you are considering this all important facet. Good going.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Pratyush »

Singha need I remind you the Bayat in blood. Hain ji. Bliss to be finishing this.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Raja Bose »

Er....Singha saar, why are you feeding the horses goat meat in part II, hain ji?
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Vikas »

"sometimes it is said small events and small men have a great impact on the overall outcome of much bigger things. the "hinge of battle" as it were. "
You are master with words...:)

Finally Singha could resist no more and has fired the shot with his twitching fingers and with that the pack of addicted hyenas have been forced to crawl out of their dens. Now you have to deliver each episode daily or else... :)

I can hear the distant noise of drums and conch shells as the dust cloud of war created by Singha take shape in saffron and green color.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by ramana »

Raja Bose wrote:Er....Singha saar, why are you feeding the horses goat meat in part II, hain ji?

Protein like Paco!
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by nachiket »

Raja Bose wrote:Er....Singha saar, why are you feeding the horses goat meat in part II, hain ji?
You kuffar, they are TFTA Arapian horses. You expect them to survive on ghaas-phoos like SDRE yindian horses hain jee? :evil:


NaMo's rise is already having an effect. It has made Singha saar finally take up the penkeyboard again. Jai Ho! Keep it coming saar.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Prem »

nachiket wrote:
Raja Bose wrote:Er....Singha saar, why are you feeding the horses goat meat in part II, hain ji?
You kuffar, they are TFTA Arapian horses. You expect them to survive on ghaas-phoos like SDRE yindian horses hain jee? :evil:NaMo's rise is already having an effect. It has made Singha saar finally take up the penkeyboard again. Jai Ho! Keep it coming saar.
Just remember many PSec Bikau Meedeas &Medussas are fed on Man made Protein thus addicted.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

Raja Bose wrote:Er....Singha saar, why are you feeding the horses goat meat in part II, hain ji?
I read about it in a biography of Chengis Khan himself. apart from protein and energy density, perhaps the steppe mongols lacked supplies of grains and channa? they would usually campaign in summer and then retreat vast distances in winter to good foraging grounds for their horses and soldiers to recover.

arranging cavalry army in proper formation for density of feed on terrain is an art. too bunched up and horses will not be able to find enough feed. too slow and they will starve. they must keep moving to find fresh areas to feed. the mongols being large scale herders were masters of how to do this for a army of 100,000 mounted cavalry. each warrior had around 3-4 horses. and their horses and ponies were smaller in size and hardier in feed diversity than the more TFTA arabic and south european fullsize horses. they lacked in raw speed but had superior stamina. this "horde" was able to move around 25km/day on a sustained basis and upto 100km when manouvering for imminent battle.

no wonder everyone was shit scared of them.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Gus »

Singha - I think I recommended this before too. You should give Dan Carlin's "Wrath of the Khans" a try (http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/hharchive). Available in podcast too.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

Part 3 - Durbar

As dusk fell on the delhi ridge, that ancient and eroded spur of the Aravallis, the royal camp came to life with the sounds of music, laughter and much movement of servants supplying the Durbar with the good things of camp living. The camp itself was organized as a set of concentric rings clearly notifying the power structure of the Sultanate.
in the center, there were two tents made of the finest silk and textiles..these belonged to the Prince and the leader of the royal guard. arrayed in a circle around were the tents of the high nobles all of purest Farsi-Samarkhand-Bukhara ashrafi stock, with bloodlines said to stretch back to Abu Bakr and Umar on one side and Chengis Khan and Timur on the other. lesser nobles of the ashraf formed the third ring. the fourth ring was that of servants, royal guards and their attendants. outside the fourth ring were multiple camps of the infantry, artillery and cavalry loosely arrayed in a giant circle no less than 10 miles in diameter. each high ranking noble had command of one division and also supplied a levy of soldiers to the imperial army. the finest horses were imported at much cost from arabia across the sea in dhows and from central asia at the attock crossing of the indus because horse breeding was a tough task in the climate of IndraPrastha. They lost their vitality and suffered a high mortality rate.

Only the ancient and adapted native Kathiawar and Marwar horses seemed suited to this hateful climate but these cachement areas were in the hands of the Alliance.

what started out as a mere provincial mutiny led by one Infidel in a flea bitten town on the west coast ten years ago, had snowballed into a cursed sore and drain on the Imperium that refused to heal. province after province, town after town had fallen to the Alliance infidel rebels as they denied the imperial army freedom of movement, and more importantly denied yearly revenue to the royal treasury, starving the capital of funds much needed to keep nobles well fed and money for purchases of horses, arms and slave girls from the middle east markets. some nobles had revolted but were swiftly silenced by the royal guard , who apart from ceremonial duties also looked after matters that needed swift , discreet and urgent resolution in the dark of night.

armies and famous generals has been sent to crush the rebellion and bring back The Infidel's head in a cane basket but they vanished into the vast depths of central india mostly never to be seen intact again, barring a few wounded stragglers sent back to spread more confusion and panic in the core gangetic valley of the Sultanate.

inside the white tent of the Prince, the first course of the repast had been served to the twin lines of high courtiers who joined him every night. Mostly men of mediocre talents, they had used the luck of high birth and dulcet tongues to cosy up to the seat of true power. Choice plates of meat, fruit, milk sweets, dates and afghani rotis vanished without a trace as the troop of psychophants enjoyed the meal far more than their leader...who seemed in a pensive and uncommunicative mood. not that it bothered the revellers because wine in metal jugs with delicate spouts would soon be served and then it would be time to enjoy the pleasures of the nautch and the blue eyed beauties stocked for their private pleasures later in the night. The Prince often drifted into these moods and suffered from a unknown disorder the court physicians had been unable to fully cure . they had tried all remedies ranging from crushed sparrows brains, to powered jewels, to herbs fetched all the way from Nair physicians in Kozhikode ..only good sleep seemed to help to an extent. he displayed no interest in the usual debauched pursuits of high born Princes and lead a quiet and relatively austere life.

after the plates were cleared , wine was served by attentive servants and they too quickly left the scene. the time all had dreaded had come now....every night the Prince gave a hour long sermon on a wide range of topics ranging from metaphysics, to statecraft, to best practices for horse rearing, to building a device that could one day fly to the moon (really! the nobles had joked privately)....there was no doubt he was a visionary, but nobody could understand a word of what he spoke of...so they all drunk up as much of the potent red wine as they could and settled back on the big cushions for the nightly talk to start. A few moved close to each other whispered about the real news of the war front and how much of it the Prince was aware of , and how much was being filtered by the leader of the royal guard...The Prince had demonstrated no real ability to lead from the front, or any desire to show strong leadership yet...he would often leave camp with some select companions and ride for days on end, wandering and hunting before returning as if nothing happened..while urgent matters waited for his sanction.

and then he started speaking and all became quiet....

farther out in the camp, the royal servants had their meal and started cleaning up.

even farther out, the individual army regiments had already finished eating at dusk and most were asleep in tents, swatting at the hated mosquitoes which were worse than anything the Alliance had thrown at them. a good number of people fell ill with what we call malaria every year and instructions were strict not to camp near stagnant water bodies or to let waste water accumulate near sleeping tents.

at the farthest extremity , the horses the pride of the army had been corralled in thorn enclosures and guarded both by rotating details of sentries with well trained and graceful afghan hounds on leashes ... these creatures were used to detect the odd leopard making a foray or to scent out runaway horses from the vast holding.

on a hillock overlooking this tableau, two dark vaguely human shapes under a bush looked at this ocean of tents and lamps and mapped out the layout of the camp...

the time had reached 9 pm per the roman clock ...
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by RamaY »

Finally GDF has our own scenarios thread....

Vivek-Ahuja ji... You better post next part before we get part4 here :)
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Atri »

Singha wrote: the time all had dreaded had come now....every night the Prince gave a hour long sermon on a wide range of topics ranging from metaphysics, to statecraft, to best practices for horse rearing, to building a device that could one day fly to the moon (really! the nobles had joked privately)....there was no doubt he was a visionary, but nobody could understand a word of what he spoke of...so they all drunk up as much of the potent red wine as they could and settled back on the big cushions for the nightly talk to start.
:rotfl: :rotfl:
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by SaiK »

shehzada plot getting stronger!
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by ramana »

They need top watch out for those dholes while living on doles.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Frederic »

Singha wrote:Part 3 - Durbar

after the plates were cleared , wine was served by attentive servants and they too quickly left the scene. the time all had dreaded had come now....every night the Prince gave a hour long sermon on a wide range of topics ranging from metaphysics, to statecraft, to best practices for horse rearing, to building a device that could one day fly to the moon (really! the nobles had joked privately)....there was no doubt he was a visionary, but nobody could understand a word of what he spoke of...so they all drunk up as much of the potent red wine as they could and settled back on the big cushions for the nightly talk to start. ...
Singha, you almost made me spill my tea on the keyboard. ROTFL :rotfl: :rotfl:
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Victor »

Singha, great going. A modern day version of the Battle of Saraighat is currently being played out here, inshallah, AoA etc. A side event in the far swamps of Kamrupa to the East: "...the strange and vaguely ominous sound of drums and chanting drifted faintly across the water in the darkness as the Afghan guards swore under their breaths in the clammy heat and slapped the cursed mosquitoes on their sweaty faces...as the war boats were pushed into the current by grim faced archers with bows and arrows strapped across their bare chests, clad only in red dhotis :mrgreen: and carrying the feared short-bladed dah...".
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

Part 4 - Fifteen minutes to Midnight

in the time between 9pm to 11:45pm various furtive dispositions and movements had made through the scrub forests to the south of the timurid camp...in areas which fall along the outer ring road in todays delhi. men and creatures moved like shadows as per the plan decided by the site commander after his survey at 9pm.

At 11:45 everything was ready and the lead elements of the force only 500 meters away from the outer edge of the camp which housed mostly the horse corrals, their guards and the sleepy afghan/borzoi hounds, grown fat and a bit lazy on goat meat and zero threat environment.

that was about to change soon.

at a hidden signal, two flaming arrows arced high in the air from atop a rock hill, one going west and one going east such that the entire attack frontage would see it clearly.

Back in the royal tent, today was a proving to be a particularly bad evening for the foxy courtiers. The Prince had chosen to declaim on his pet topic of lunar travel and was going into the complex vigyan of "farar hone ka gati"(escape velocity) for well over an hour now, leaving out absolutely no argument from religion, to culture to diet that might be peripheral to the theme of the day. Courtiers who had barely passed from religious seminaries with grace marks due to being the aulaad of powerful noble families looked at one another in horror and drank deeper and deeper of the copious tumblers of red wine and plates of kababs arranged around the silk cushions. a few dozed off , trying to hide behind the cushions. a few could not take so much wine and ran out to vomit behind the bushes before returning to resume their places and nod wisely to each point. The thought of missing their sleep and the fleshy pleasures stocked for them back in their own silken tents added salt to the wound.

The drowsy guards at the horse corrals jumped awake on seeing the arrows and started excitedly talking to each other.
Then a distant low rumbling started to come closer at a alarming rate....making the corralled horses very nervous and jumpy.

From the loose forest of trees at the edges of clearings, a black wall of muscle emerged like a sea and washed over the encampments. in the lead were 3 lines of gaurs, the ancient indian forest bison and the largest bovine in the world, chased by skilled horsemen with a second person, the herder sitting behind and waving a rope in circles in the air, with a flaming bunch of sticks and straw tied at the end to stampede and channel the Gaurs into the timurid camp.
the second echelon had a variety of native indian cows chosen for their endurance and sharp horns like Baragur and the Nagori....5000 of them..again chased by a second line of horse borne herders , some with fire circles, some with cymbals and small drums.
http://eng.gougram.org/breeds/

the thorn barricades, tents, wagons, outlying artillery positions and more importantly the vital horse herds imploded like a rotten apple under the weight and speed of the stampede. men whimpered and tried to hide in the lee of crushed wagons and tried to climb up trees before the next charging animal sought them and gored them down viciously. the horses whinnied and tried to run but confused by the fire and lack of direction then merely ran around in circles and were either gored, crushed underfeet or broke legs and lay pitifully at a hundred places.

the lead line of Gaurs after smashing through the outlying camps now reached the second ring of supply depots and cooking areas which fed most of the army . large number of cow, buffalo and goat carcasses were hung up outside the kitchens to be butchered for tomorrow's first meal. Seeing his dead comrades , something snapped inside the head of the pack leader, a creature of vast musculare weighing not a kilo less than 1750kg....with a series of low pitched noises he communicated his displeasure to his loyal flock and went into berserker mode chasing down and taking apart anything non-living or living within range of his shoulders and curved horns. confusion turned to carnage as camp followers and cooks ran screaming away from their hearths with multiple animals chasing each unfortunate individual into the darkness.

behind them the native cows and buffaloes had again been reformed into a compact group by their herders and small units of infantry completed the mopping up , usually with horse mounted archers disposing off any enemy stragglers found taking shelter higher up in the trees. they were shown no quarter and shot down like ducks.

the dark shape of the impassive commander watched from his command post atop the hill and uttered one more command. Another pair of flaming arrows arced into the air ....

High pitched excited yelps rose from multiple parts of the dark forest and started moving across the devastated camps into the second line camps housing the bulk of sleeping infantry on the southern side of the royal area.

here, a few hardy survivors of the carnage , skillfully guiding their horses through the trees and with their hounds running beside them had just reached and raised the alarm. thousands of sleeping men ran out of their tents to their piled up weapons and formed a defensive perimeter hastily with three lines of archers in front trying to peer into the dark, not knowing what was coming out friend or foe. A hasty volley put down a group of friendlies coming out of the forest, much cursing later from their centurion, the order to cease fire was given and they waited.

A minute later the Gaurs again appeared , covering ground at amazing pace and dissolving obstacles like they did not exist. the archers did shoot a couple of volleys but the animals had a lot of muscle and these shallow pricks just made them angrier....meantime the excited yelping from the forest reached a higher pitch and packs of Dhole wild dogs led by their Alphas raced up , overtook the gaurs and tore into the wavering lines of infantry ...a few seconds later followed by the weight of the Gaur lines. These Dholes were considered as unclean vermin by the Timurids and often hunted down for fun by the royal parties of spoilt youngsters who dared not go after big cats, from the advantage of arms, horses and hounds. They reserved a special hatred for the fat cruel afghan hounds and spared none now - man or beast. groups of upto ten Dhole's tore in and gave the hounds a agonzing death before falling upon their handlers in the dark. men trying to escape were quickly outrun and brought to ground, just as poor pregnant and young dhole's had also been hunted for sport earlier.

A few minutes later, horse borne archers with flaming arrows arrived and systematically started a fire barrage to set alight the stocks of food, oil, tents and stampede the horses to the west, where other units were waiting to divert them away further to the south for eventual recapture and reuse by the Alliance.

Destruction completed, a few quick whistles brought the Dhole's to heel and the herders turned around their bovine charges and made off to the south again before heavy reinforcements arrived from the now fully awake and alarmed camps to the west and the central prince's household cavalry which had already sent a few flying units now seen approaching in a cloud of dust.

The third and last pair of flaming arrows signalled an end to the night attack and everyone melted away to secure locations further south leaving dead men, horses, hounds and burning camps behind. and blazing fires and good helping of confusion.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

it was very cathartic for me writing up part4. have been thinking about such a scene for a long time now...
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Klaus »

Singha wrote:
From the loose forest of trees at the edges of clearings, a black wall of muscle emerged like a sea and washed over the encampments. in the lead were 3 lines of gaurs, the ancient indian forest bison and the largest bovine in the world, chased by skilled horsemen with a second person, the herder sitting behind and waving a rope in circles in the air, with a flaming bunch of sticks and straw tied at the end to stampede and channel the Gaurs into the timurid camp.
the second echelon had a variety of native indian cows chosen for their endurance and sharp horns like Baragur and the Nagori....5000 of them..again chased by a second line of horse borne herders , some with fire circles, some with cymbals and small drums.
The legacy of the Palas remains alive to this day! Very sublime & well written.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

tell me of it..sounds interesting, I have no knowledge of the Palas. Palas were in bengal right?
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Manu »

Singha,
The Prince does not deserve this much attention. It is the - calculating, cunning, sly, designing, tricky, slippery, wily, artful, conniving, Machiavellian, foxy, deceitful, underhand, duplicitous, - Mother and 'advisor' (A.P) who deserve to be the main attention of this most delightfully desi version of Game of Thrones.

Or perhaps, this is just the battlefield and the Royal Palace will be raided later after the armies of the prince are defeated. Son in law and Daughter should be shown escaping in a mule train (in the confusion), to fight another day......

PS: I know this is your labor of love and all, but why are there no Tuskers and Cobras/Vipers used....?
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

spoiler: The Queen Mother/High Priestess of the Dark Temple shall be introduced into the plot shortly.

wrt to the Tuskers - they are slow, tough to hide and need a lot of feed. dholes can find their own meat and our hardy native breeds of bovines can manage on rough foliage and not the AC temp and lush grass of tfta euro breeds. they can even survive droughts to an extent having adapted to indian climates for millenia. Tuskers are ok for open battle esp in areas where horse cavalry cannot manouver easily , but not for fast moving SF operations like these.

serpents are useful only as marginal assassination weapons. again very slow and their reptilian brains are incapable of being domesticated and trained for a specific purpose like this. more a danger to their handlers than the enemy. plus where do you arrange for the rats needed to keep them happy. rats exist more near cultivated grain fields not scrubland.

I had considered big cats but again not easy to build up numbers, control or train in large numbers, plus huge amt of meat needed. tigers , leopard, cheetahs do not cluster in prides and are not team players. they would likely fight among themselves. lions do cluster in large prides but hard to find in india anymore...at one time must have been plentiful in india, TSP, af, iran, iraq, jordan, palestine, egypt..all the way forming a continguous genetic line upto the desert lions of the atlas mountains and then to the grasslands of east and south africa. not sure how trainable they are though :twisted: ... african civilizations failed to tame even the zebra..a very nervous and highly strung animal compared to horse.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Manu »

Excellent, pray carry on.....
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Vikas »

Singha..I am still waiting when you will introduce the commander of the raiding army.
"farar hone ka gati" was hilarious.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Klaus »

Singha wrote:tell me of it..sounds interesting, I have no knowledge of the Palas. Palas were in bengal right?
The Palas were brought to their knees by the Kaibarta revolt, Divvoka's rule was established in Varendra kingdom. The Kaibartas (fisherfolk) charged against Mahipala 2 on buffaloes.

It was Mahipala's brother Ramapala who resurrected Pala rule a couple of years after Mahipala 2 (according to most historian accounts). Varendra roughly corresponds to the WB-Bihar border area.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by niran »

wow! who wud have thought of SF attacks by bovines and canines except for Lord Singha
sashtang pranam to you saar.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by SBajwa »

Singha! in full flow!! Please create a PDF of your writings (with a bookmark) and save them before somebody steals it.

You are a gifted writer! keep them coming!
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by shyamoo »

Gus wrote:Singha - I think I recommended this before too. You should give Dan Carlin's "Wrath of the Khans" a try (http://www.dancarlin.com//disp.php/hharchive). Available in podcast too.
Gus, thanks for the link. Finished listening to 2 parts. So many parallels to the raids by Islamic hordes into Bharat.

Talks a lot about revisionist history. Similar to what happened in Bharat.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by KLNMurthy »

niran wrote:wow! who wud have thought of SF attacks by bovines and canines except for Lord Singha
sashtang pranam to you saar.
Only thing missing is vast herds of enraged rutting barasinghas :-)
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by SaiK »

subsequent to the queen mother I visualize getting the eight son of the dark side into the plot.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Kakkaji »

VikasRaina wrote:Singha..I am still waiting when you will introduce the commander of the raiding army.
"farar hone ka gati" was hilarious.
My humble suggestion to Singhaji: "Faraar hone ki raftaar" will be more appropriate.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by shyamoo »

Singha is showing us faraar gati. Dharthi se ghum ho gaya.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Vikas »

*Sigh*
Singha had whole of weekend and yet he chooses not to post next episode of the story.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Singha »

Part 5 - Bheesma

Faizal Khan had already had a really bad day and was trying to catch some sleep in his modest tent when the sound of hurried riders brought him awake in a instant. Honed by years of hard living in the field, he was awake and ready to fight in the blink of an eye. As the commander of the elite unit of the cavalry his days were busy as often his units were the ones tasked to make breakthrough attacks or rescue the situation from really dire places which the rest of the generals and incompetents in the army got into with unfailing regularity.

he had got back late from a inspection of the fight on the beachhead on western bank of Yamuna. from a minaret of the jami masjid being used as a artillery spotting post, he had seen wave after wave of fanatical infantry attacks being beaten back by the Alliance line of troops and light artillery firing over open sights and point-blank range. and worst of all had been the Krantikari storm troopers - riff raff of the worst kind picked up along the way and used as a irregular militia to create havoc and terror all over the place but here going into a conventional assault against fixed and alert defences, they had taken losses like goats on Bakr-id. Their leader a tunic wearing firebrand named The Bhagora(because he was always safely in the rear whenever his men took withering fire wags noted slyly) had promised great things and the breakthrough the Prince was expecting, but so far had not delivered anything more than increased demands for food and manpower. he had even darkly hinted at resigning his Colonels' commission and starting another outfit. one withering look from Faizal Khan had however dissuaded him from that course of action and he had slunk away into the evening, tail between legs as usual. every time Faizal khan met him, he was left with a splitting migraine that needed hours of sleep to ebb away.

He was born the fourth son of a banking official in Yazd, Persia and hence never got a chance at family inheritance. Neither was his father a noble or well connected to get him into one of the elite academies where children of high officials were educated and trained. so he joined the army at a low rank and worked his way up...the hard way. eventually he was noticed by some competent officials and fast tracked up the chain to where he was today..unquestionably the most sage and able commander of the kings army at the age of 46. the victor of many a battle, the survivor of many a defeat.

Even in his younger days he had a conscience unlike a lot of looters and freeloaders who formed part of the Horde. His mind rebelled against the senseless slaughter, taking of loot and slaves, violation of women, destruction of shrines and other acts against the rules of honourable war the Sultan's army liked to indulge in after any victory. he was for a time powerless to do anything about it except abstaining from it. As he rose in power and position, he put a stop to it in the units under his command and punished those who dared disobey his directive. prisoners were treated honourably and wounded and defeated were given quarter. religious shrines and women children were left alone while able bodied men were put to work in civil construction works rather than have their heads decorate a grisly pyramid in praise of a god whom he suspected had no interest in slaughter.

He had no education as a child, but had arranged to have a well educated teacher accompany him on constant travel and bring him up to date on the knowledge base he had missed as a child. he had even surreptitiously read the mahabharata and come to appreciate some of its teachings...albeit he still answered the namaz call to prayer like a dutiful citizen.

years and years of constant war had frittered away the gains in trade and stability an Imperium was supposed to provide and it rebelled in his mind why the powers-that-be continued their religious and plundering dogma rather than seek just and honourable co-existence with powerful adversaries.

He brooded about the years of loot and atrocity by third level rabble units the Prince had unleashed on the hinterland, the reports he got from informers in the east and west and how the Alliance had come to form and become the formidable threat it had become now hammering at the gates of delhi itself. if only the Prince and his mother had throttled and moderated their quest for eternal dominion and rested contented with their vast wealth and influence things would have been ok, but no they had decide to chase a ghostlike rebel commander called initially The Cobbler (for that was his prior trade) across the infernally hot and dry hills and forests of central Hindustan until his very survival and existence became a legend and more and more people flocked under his banner, isolated Sultanate garrisons were cut off and defeated one by one, their local levies quickly melted away into the bush or defected, revenues from the provinces declined, trade guilds deftly started funding the Alliance as they could guarantee more security and offered better taxation rates....and circle by circle the alliance expanded to where it was today ... a pan-hindustani formation out to seek revenge for the blood of their brothers and sisters on the hands of the sultanate army. He had often felt like strangling personally some of the high level generals who seldom moved out of the nautch girl tent and were mostly high on Afeem and red wine, and these were the people deciding the strategic aspects of the war and had the ear of the Prince!

He dreamed each night of giving it all up, riding off to the west alone and back to his family - a normal life, farmer and fruit grower. He had not seen his son for 8 years of campaigns now, his baby had grown into a young boy. But a sense of duty to the state, a concept higher than the robbers who currently were eating it alive and the prospect of what would happen to his men should he desert, kept him reluctantly at his post. the religion of a warrior, he remembered from the mahabharata, was to die in glorious battle or retire in old age to the forest for meditation, not to run and leave behind the duty to the state.

His thoughts churned as the horsemen drew near, exchanged words with the guards and their leader marched inside. Must be bad....dawn was hours away still.

Huzoor, Sir....our southern horse corrals have been ambush attacked and devastated , our second line food camps burnt to the ground and unknown numbers of rebels and cavalry have crossed the Yamuna to the south.

what of the scouts I had instructed to place every kos along the river, what of the mobile screening patrols I had ordered to be up all night on the perimeter _south_ of our horse corrals ... his voice was calm but icy cold.

the soldier shivered and nearly wetted his pants...he didn't like that tone of voice...Sire Diggy Khan had been informed of your requests but as the sector commander of the inner ring defences I believe he waved it away as not necessary Sir!

Diggy Khan!...the very name brought a red rash to his skin. that man had been responsible for more disasters than a entire army of the worst generals he could name and he seemed to be right on course tonight to add to his score of misery.

what are the losses in horses, where are they?

5000 atleast gone sir and we have counted 1500 dead or wounded beyond hope on the field...some kind of large buffalo herds backed by fire beaters were used to ambush us sire...! last seen the horses were being stampeded to the south west . scouts following them report enemy herders are leading them rapidly further to the south! should we send a force to recapture them?

No...they would just be massacred at some point, too predictable. ignore them for now. follow my prior orders and maintain the screening patrols ... go now and do not delay! he couldn't disguise a moment of admiration for The Cobbler , now known as The General for thinking up the idea to use massive animals as battering rams to achieve shock value..how the hell did he get these herds undetected by us for hundreds of Kos from their native forests?

messenger, take this from me with urgent priority to the Prince. southern sector under dire threat, will not hold for a day if more enemy are crossing the yamuna tonight. request your central corps under diggy khan detach units of artillery and infantry and build two lines of fortifications near jor bagh and siri fort to stabilize that front and prevent further surprises. request you exercise caution and perhaps relocate your camp 5 kos west to where the Queen mother is camped with her retinue. I am herewith sending four companies of my cavalry under commander Suhail Khan to further investigate the situation on the _north_ because we can expect some enemy plan there too , they would not launch a pinprick to the south without some surprise in store elsewhere. please maintain high readiness state for heavy combat and rapid movement. your servant of the State, Faizal Khan.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Dilbu »

Brilliant sir! Keep it coming. Diggy khan and bhagora.. :rotfl:
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by RamaY »

Faizal Khan should be Faizal Patel?
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Lilo »

Nice Singha garu,
Gaur scene reminded me of the flaming bulls ambush of 13 Assassins magnified on a 5000*4 legs stampede scale.
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Re: Prelude to Twilight: A Modern Story:Singha

Post by Raja Bose »

Only Singha saar can weave a modern political battle into an unputdownable medieval tale. Shehzada's farar honay ki gati, I have a feeling will appear again in the story. :mrgreen:
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