Chapter 98: The Fifteen-Day Hammer

Chapter 98: The Fifteen-Day Hammer

The map of eastern Caldris covered the entire central table inside Rakhar Veyr’s headquarters, but the markings upon it had changed since the first campaign.

Eastwatch Province was no longer treated as contested territory. Viridian-controlled the roads, depots, camps, and occupied settlements filled the province with black markers, while two thick routes led outward toward Northwatch and Valemar.

Redhaven lay behind Northwatch and Stoneford behind Valemar, making the two frontier provinces the only immediate gateways deeper into the eastern region.

Around the table stood Varek, General Vorak Thenn, General Serik Marr, and several commanders from the newly arrived reinforcement waves, all of them waiting to hear how Rakhar intended to use the enormous force now gathering inside Eastwatch.

The officers initially approached the problem as though they were preparing another Eastwatch campaign. Vorak argued that Northwatch should be taken first because its roads were broader and its terrain better suited for large troop movements, while Serik countered that Valemar offered richer farmland, important river crossings, and trade roads that could support later campaigns.

Several commanders began discussing which villages should be seized first, which fortified towns should be isolated, and how long it might take to systematically break the countryside before moving on the provincial capital. Their discussion followed the logic of the first conquest because that was the campaign they understood best.

Rakhar allowed them to continue until the officers had finished placing their suggested markers. He then reached across the table and swept several of the smaller pieces aside.

"We are not conquering the next provinces the way we conquered Eastwatch. That method worked because it suited the army we had then, not because it is the only way to fight."

Vorak looked toward the cleared map. "The method clearly worked."

"It worked with thirty thousand soldiers," Rakhar replied. "We now have roughly two hundred fifty thousand reinforcements inside Eastwatch Province, and more are still coming. If our army changes but our strategy does not, then we are wasting the advantage the king gave us."

Varek leaned forward, already understanding what Rakhar meant. The first campaign had required concentration because every detachment weakened the main army. Rakhar could not leave ten thousand soldiers surrounding a fortified city when the entire expedition had begun with only thirty thousand.

Now the situation was entirely different, and the scale of Viridian’s forces allowed separate armies to perform tasks that had once required the entire expedition.

Rakhar placed one large marker directly on the road leading toward the Northwatch provincial capital. "The capital is the head of the province. Government, military command, messengers, tax records, supply coordination, and political authority all flow through it. We do not spend a month taking every village before cutting off the head."

Serik studied the direct route. "Then we bypass the fortified towns?"

"We bypass those that slows down the army." Rakhar answered. He placed several smaller markers beside towns along the northern road and continued, "If a fortified settlement refuses surrender and threatens our rear, we leave enough soldiers to surround it. Ten thousand if necessary, twenty thousand if necessary, and the rest continue moving."

Vorak frowned slightly as he considered the implications. "That creates several sieges behind the advancing army."

"Yes, and we finally have enough soldiers to do that," Rakhar replied. "Eastwatch forced us to choose between advancing and containing. The next campaign does not."

One formation could remain around a fortress while another continued toward the provincial capital, and later reinforcement waves could replace the troops tied down behind the front.

Rakhar drew a thick line from the Eastwatch border directly toward Northwatch’s capital, making it clear that the fortified settlements between them were no longer intended to control the pace of the entire campaign.

"The northern army does not stop because one city closes its gates," Rakhar said. "If the road around it is usable, we surround it and continue. If it blocks the road completely, we break enough of its defenses to pass and then leave a siege force behind."

Varek looked toward the other officers. "Then the capital could be under attack while some Northwatch cities are still resisting behind us."

Rakhar nodded. "That is the point. We no longer need every battle to finish before the next begins."

The generals around the table began adjusting their assumptions. Vorak moved several markers away from minor settlements and concentrated them on the main roads, while Serik did the same in the south even though Rakhar had not yet confirmed which province would be attacked first.

Their maps began to show mobile armies driving through the provinces while smaller rings of forces remained behind around fortified positions.

One commander questioned whether such a direct advance would expose Viridian supply lines. Rakhar acknowledged the risk but rejected the idea that every settlement had to be captured before a road could be secured.

Dedicated road-security forces would guard bridges, crossroads, depots, and convoy routes, while engineers repaired damaged infrastructure as the main formations pushed ahead.

Fortified towns could remain under Caldris banners so long as they were surrounded tightly enough to prevent them from threatening the movement behind the front.

"Our numbers are not useful because they allow us to concentrate our forces on the same fortress. " Rakhar said.

"They are useful because one fortress no longer has to stop the whole army. If a stronghold consumes twenty thousand troops to contain, we still have tens of thousands more moving beyond it."

That became the central principle of the meeting, and the commanders increasingly viewed the next campaign through that lens.

Vorak pointed toward Northwatch again and argued that it remained the better first target because its roads favored a direct advance and could allow the army to reach the capital before the governor completed full mobilization.

Serik answered that Valemar might offer an even greater reward if its river crossings were seized early, but Rakhar finally placed his hand between the two provinces.

"We are taking both," Rakhar said. "The only question is when each one begins."

Several commanders looked at him at once, while Varek did not appear surprised. He had already noticed the second set of markers positioned near southern Eastwatch and understood that Rakhar had been planning more than a single offensive.

"Not at the same time," Varek said.

Rakhar nodded. "Northwatch first. Valemar fifteen days later."

The room became so quiet that the movement of parchment beneath a scribe’s hand could be heard. Vorak studied the two arrows and asked whether Valemar would serve as a diversion once the northern offensive began.

Rakhar corrected him immediately, explaining that both invasions were genuine and both provincial capitals were objectives. The difference between them would be timing rather than importance.

"If we attack both on the same day, the four governors immediately know they must divide their forces," Rakhar explained. "I want them to decide where the war is first, and I want them to believe they have solved that question."

He tapped Northwatch and looked around the table. "The first answer will be here. They will see our movement, hear of the invasion, and begin moving troops toward it."

The northern buildup would be intentionally visible. Large formations would march toward the northern staging camps, supply wagons would use the main northern roads, engineers would build forward depots close enough to be noticed by Caldris scouts, and siege crews would relocate equipment without attempting to conceal it.

Rakhar wanted every surviving messenger who escaped observation to report the same conclusion: Viridian was preparing to invade Northwatch.

Vorak looked satisfied. "How large is the force?"

"Approximately one hundred thousand for the first attack," Rakhar answered. "Enough to overwhelm field resistance, detach siege forces, and still keep the main army moving."

That number changed the mood of the room again. Thirty thousand had conquered Eastwatch Province, while Northwatch would face more than three times the original expedition from the opening day. Rakhar continued before the generals could become too comfortable with the figure, warning them that numbers did not excuse stupidity.

"If ten thousand humans hold a narrow crossing, we do not send forty thousand straight into the same choke point simply because we have them," Rakhar said.

"We use the extra manpower to cross elsewhere, surround them, cut the road behind them, or force them to defend several positions. Numbers should create options, not casualties."

The northern objective remained simple. The army would drive toward the provincial capital as quickly as practical, destroy local forces that blocked major roads, and detach enough troops to contain strongholds that could not be taken quickly.

Secondary formations would seize crossroads, bridges, grain depots, and administrative towns only when those positions affected the main advance.

Rakhar then shifted to Valemar. Its invasion army would number roughly eighty to ninety thousand soldiers at the start, but unlike the northern force, the southern army would not concentrate openly along the border too early.

Its troops would remain spread among existing Eastwatch camps, training areas, occupation positions, and depots. Scouts might see them, civilians would certainly know they existed, and Rakhar expected Caldris to hear rumors about their presence.

The deception did not depend on hiding eighty thousand goblins. It depended on making Caldris misunderstand why they were there. Serik looked at the southern camps marked across Eastwatch and said that the enemy would probably assume those troops were reserves for the northern campaign.

"Or occupation troops waiting to be replaced," Rakhar replied. "Or reinforcements not yet assigned. Any explanation is useful so long as Valemar does not believe those soldiers are fifteen days away from crossing its border."

The exact date of the southern offensive would therefore remain restricted to the senior command. Most soldiers would continue preparing without knowing when they would march, while final orders would be distributed shortly before movement began.

Rakhar did not need absolute secrecy, but he did need enough uncertainty to prevent the enemy from recognizing the purpose of the southern concentrations too early.

Vorak asked why Rakhar had settled on fifteen days rather than ten or twenty. Rakhar explained that the timing had nothing to do with superstition or convenience.

It was built around Caldris’s reaction speed and the time required for governors to receive reports, argue over them, issue orders, gather troops, and begin moving those troops toward Northwatch.

Northwatch would send urgent messages once the invasion began. Redhaven would almost certainly respond because Northwatch protected the road into its own province.

Any central reserve controlled by the eastern governors would begin shifting north, and Valemar might initially keep its forces in place. However, after a week without an attack on its own border, pressure would grow for Valemar to contribute cavalry, infantry, engineers, supplies, or ranged troops to what appeared to be the main eastern war.

Rakhar moved a Caldris marker from Valemar toward Northwatch. "I do not need them to abandon Valemar. I need them to move enough soldiers in the wrong direction that they lose time. A formation inside Valemar can defend immediately, but a formation already three days north must turn around before it can become useful again."

Once the second invasion began, those troops would receive new orders, halt their movement, reorganize, and reverse direction. Wagons could turn around at the same time, couriers would cross one another carrying contradictory instructions, and roads might become crowded with forces moving toward different emergencies.

Rakhar wanted the disruption itself to become part of the attack rather than merely a consequence of it.

Serik suggested striking Valemar after only five days, but Rakhar rejected the idea because Caldris might not yet have committed heavily enough to the northern war. Another officer suggested waiting a month, which Rakhar dismissed for the opposite reason.

Thirty days would allow Valemar to finish mobilizing, stockpile grain, reinforce its rivers, and become suspicious of the southern Viridian camps.

"Fifteen days gives them enough time to believe Northwatch is the main thrust." Rakhar said. "Then we give them another battle before they can fully prepare for it."

The Valemar offensive would be just as direct as the northern one. Once the second army crossed, its main body would drive toward the provincial capital, while river crossings would be seized or forced quickly and strongholds that resisted would be surrounded by detached forces. The main army would not remain beneath the walls of every town it encountered.

Serik traced a route toward the Valemar capital. "If I leave fifteen thousand behind one city and ten thousand behind another, my main strength begins shrinking quickly."

"Then later waves replace what you leave behind," Rakhar replied. "The campaign does not end with the soldiers already here."

Another seven hundred fifty thousand troops were still scheduled to arrive over the following eight months. Fresh formations would continue entering the staging ground even after both invasions began, allowing them to replace siege forces, reinforce occupation garrisons, replenish casualties, and eventually prepare new armies for Redhaven and Stoneford.

The Gate Beyond Heaven had therefore changed not only the size of the army but the tempo of the entire war.

Rakhar placed markers on Redhaven and Stoneford. "If Northwatch’s capital falls while three of its cities are still surrounded, we do not necessarily wait for those cities. If the road toward Redhaven is open and we have fresh troops, planning for Redhaven begins. The same applies to Stoneford after Valemar."

Varek stared at the layered markers and finally summarized what the rest of the commanders were beginning to understand.

"Frontline armies advancing, siege forces behind them, occupation forces behind those, Eastwatch supporting everything, and new troops still coming through the Gate. The war keeps moving even while older sieges remain unfinished."

Rakhar gave a single nod. "That is what the million soldiers are for. We are no longer forced to finish one problem before creating pressure somewhere else."

He reminded them, however, that direct warfare did not mean crude warfare. Provincial capitals would still possess walls, towers, gates, and defenders. Siege towers, catapults, ballistas, and battering rams would remain necessary, while multi-directional attacks would remain preferable to forcing one narrow entrance.

The lessons bought at Eastwatch were not being discarded; they were being used at a much larger scale.

What changed was the pace. Viridian would reach those walls sooner, with far greater strength, while detached formations continued containing resistance behind the main advance.

Rakhar took a piece of charcoal and drew the final plan onto the map, marking the northern arrow directly toward the Northwatch provincial capital and smaller circles around towns that might require siege detachments. Fifteen days farther along the calendar, he drew the second arrow through Valemar toward its own capital and marked similar containment points along the route.

Northwatch would receive the first hammer, while Valemar would receive the second before Caldris had finished reacting to the first. As the commanders gathered their sealed orders, Rakhar looked once toward the older map showing the slow conquest of Eastwatch and then back toward the new campaign plan.

Thirty thousand soldiers had forced Viridian to conquer carefully because every detachment are vital. Hundreds of thousands allowed an entirely different kind of war, one in which resistant cities could be surrounded without stopping the advance and provincial capitals could be threatened before the rest of their provinces had even finished mobilizing.

The next conquests would not unfold piece by piece before their capitals came under threat. Viridian would drive directly at the centers of power, leave enough goblins behind to choke whatever strongholds resisted, and keep the main armies moving deeper while fresh soldiers continued arriving from the Gate Beyond Heaven.