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.