Following up on the success they had at Li Valley, the Small Sword rebels have decided to take the next step and are out to ambush a western forage party out cutting fodder.
A troop of King's Dragoon Guards are out cutting fodder in a field beyond the walls of ShuiXia, blithly unaware of the fate creeping up on them. Small Swords have been moving into a position to attack them, but are distracted by the approach of a second troop of cavalry. Sikhs of Fane's Horse are on a patrol, part of the increased vigilance necessary to enforce the 25 mile exclusion zone.
Their confidence high, the Small Swords decide that two such tempting targets are not to be ignored...
Western | Small Sword |
1 unit, 12 men, dismounted Kings Dragoon Guard cavalry, armed with carbines, Corinet D'Ismale commanding 1 unit, 12 men, Fane's Horse Irregular Cavalry (lancers), Lieutenant Nansie-Pandy commanding |
1 unit, 10 men, Small Sword swords 1 unit, 10 men, Small Sword pikes 2 units, 10 men each, Small Sword muskets |
WeiHuangLong knew that the new rulers of China would be no different from the
old. They would use the people, do as they pleased, and take what they wished,
the same as the Imperials and countless others had before them. The only difference
was that now she would be among the takers, not those taken from.
HuangLong had done well for the Small Swords, leading the attack against the
British yangren who had come to the Li Valley. So well had she done that now she
had been given a raiding party to go and give the foreigners more. A clot of
red-coated soldiers toiled in a field as simple pesants did, cutting fodder for
horses. They would make an excellent target.
Positioning her men, HuangLong was ready to strike, when one of her underlings reported to her. More men were coming, mounted yangren, with lances riding calmly down the road. HuangLong smiled. More fodder for her pesants' scythes. Quickly she ordered the men moved about, some rifles to the wall overlooking the road. Her own swordsmen waited with her in a small grove of trees, well back from the action. They had seen HuangLong's work before and knew she did not hold back out of fear. HuangLong waited for the excitement to begin.
Lieutenant Nansie-Pandy lead his patrol down the dirt path. The men rode in column, expecting no trouble on this routine "ride around the neighbourhood". Up ahead, he knew, a forage party of King's Dragoons were cutting fodder. He smiled as he considered pausing there to let his sowars see British cavalrymen toiling. Nansie-Pandy's own preference for the Indian army over the British had brought him some small grief over the years, so the jibes were welcome where he could find them. Besides the officer in charge was a coronet, Nansie-Pandy's junior.
As they rode along the wall, in sight of an ancient gate into the fields beyond,
the ambush was sprung. Without warning a mass of Small Swords armed with rifles
leapt up from their hiding place. A rippling crackle of small arms erupted from behind
the wall, with clouds of smoke and cheering Chinese rebels. Three of the sowars fell
wounded to the dirt of the road. Lieutenant Nansie-Pandy's smile turned quickly to
grim determination.
The fodder party, in the field down the way heard the volley of shots ring out. Quickly Coronet D'Ismale lept up from where he had lay loafing in the shade of a haystack. Luckly for D'Ismale, Sargeant Archer was already calling the men to form up. The troopers had not left their carbines behind with the horses, as might normally have been the case. The recent unrest in the area had prompted them to bring their weapons along, and now the men gladly picked up their stacked guns and loaded them.
The troopers were forming up to investigate the shots, the closer ones already
in line, the further still straggling in, when the overgrown area to the side of the
field exploded with angry Small Swords. Men with pikes, forks and all manner of
long bladed weapons charged from the trees. Shreking loudly, they decended on
the KDG troopers. Fortunatly for the dismounted cavalry, the rough ground held
up their attackers. Still, in the clash that followed, one trooper went down wounded,
but one of the Chinese was killed outright. Two of the troopers, having narrowly
missed loosing their heads, decided that cavalry ought to be mounted, and departed
the scene to round up their horses.
"Charge!" shouted Lt. Nansie-Pandy. The men spurred their mounts forward and as
a single body the lancers wheeled through the gate. The men and horses had their
blood up now, and ate up the ground between them and their ambushers. With lance
points gleaming, aimed at the enemys' hearts, the Small Sword gunners loosed another
quick volley and scrambed out of the way.
From her place in reserve, HuangLong cursed under her breath as she watched the gunners flee from the charging cavalry. "You will pay for your cowardice," she promised them. The leader of the group must have heard HuangLong's cursing, however, as he pulled up short beneath a tree and gathered his men about him. The knot of rebels clustered around, watching as the Indian cavalry re-formed in the positions they had so recently vacated.
Almost as if on cue another band of musket-armed rebels emerged from the undergrowth and began shooting ineffectually at Lt. Nansie-Pandy's men.
"That lot's broken," Nansie-Pandy shouted, indicating the first unit with a wave
of his hand. "Show these ones the same. Charge!"
Back in the fodder field, Sargeant Archer was pulling the men into line. "Form up! Form up! Open order! You, Keswick, get in line!" Coronet D'Ismale said nothing, preferring to check to ensure his revolver was fully loaded. He liked to leave the administrative details to his sargeant.
The rebels charged again. Still hampered by the long grass, they strung out even
further, with only a few reaching their targets. Sargeant Archer ordered a volley
fired and several of the charging rebels went down. The few who continued on after the
shots were quickly beaten back, though one trooper was knocked back on his heels.
Deciding that he too would prefer to be mounted, he followed his companions to help
bring up the horses.
Nansie-Pandy and his sowars thundered forward toward the rebels. As fate would
have it, however, the rebels he had counted down and out, were anything but. Their
fear of HuangLong being greater than their fear of Indian cavalry, the rebels found
their nerve again and reformed into a ragged firing line. Caught in the withering
crossfire between the two sets of muskets, the cavalry was decamated. Only Lt.
Nansie-Pandy and two sowars were still in the saddle. Even the daffadar had been
unhorsed and wounded.
Still, the dedicated soldiers struck their charge home. Sadly, though, the rebels
were waiting for them, their "small swords" ready. In the ensuing melee, one sowar
was rebuffed, another wounded. The uninjured sowar reported that when he left the
scene he saw Lt. Nansie-Pandy pulled from the saddle, a rebel having gotten inside
his lance. When a party returned to the scene that night, the Lieutenant's body was
found next to his mount.
The cheers of the rebels, and the end to the firing, gave pause to Coronet D'Ismale
and the KDG troopers. The tenatious rebels facing them refused to leave the field
despite their reduced numbers and the bodies littering the ground. The three men
were prepairing to charge again when the coronet decided that holding their ground
could serve no purpose other than to throw away the whole troop. There were an unknown
number of rifles waiting to join the pikes now facing them, and who knew what else.
The KDG retreated in good order from the field, but were forced to leave their wounded
man behind.
HuangLong laughed aloud as she surveyed the carnage of the battlefield and her men dispatched the wounded. The battle had gone as well or better than she had hoped. Yes the pesants with pikes she had brought had been hit hard, but they had mostly been wounded, few killed. In a few days or weeks almost all would return to the fight. But she had lost none of her precious muskets, and picked up a few spare arms from the yangren cavalry. She tested the officer's saber she claimed for herself. It made a good souvineer.
When reports of the ambush and massacre reached ShuiXia, there was great concern and much worry. The rebels were getting bolder, striking against Her Majesty's troops in broad daylight. Could the city be far behind?
Aftermath: The Small Swords achieved a great deal for very little cost. The troop
of Fane's horse was 11 wounded or killed with 1 escaped unharmed. The officer was killed
outright in hand to hand combat (1 for him vs 6 for the rebel, even with a lance it
doesn't help). The rebels meanwhile had no injuries among the muskets. Their pikes
fared worse, with only three left uninjured, but they tenatiously held the field, and
are easily replaced. Anyone can carry a pike. The KDG were able to withdraw in good
order with only a single casualty, but he was a man left behind, and lay heavily on
the troops' conscience.
WeiHuangLong was feted by her surperiors and given a further promotion. Acting now as
a General, she is beginning to reap the benefits of power and leadership. Her next task
will be to help lead the rebel column on the march to the walls of ShuiXia.
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