For the lord’s nightly comfort, eight of his concubines rode in howdahs on two elephants, which followed Venandakatra’s palanquin. The caravan would always halt at sunset and set up camp. Venandakatra’s tent—if such a modest term could be used to describe his elaborate suite of pavilions—was always set up before he arrived. The lord possessed two such “tents.” The one not being used was sent ahead, guarded by yet another troop of Rajput cavalry, to be prepared for the following night’s sojourn.
The stage of the caravan which followed Venandakatra and his entourage was composed of Malwa infantry. No less than a thousand soldiers. The great number of them, presumably, was to compensate for their mediocre quality. These were not elite forces, simply a run-of-the-mill detachment from the huge mass of the Malwa army. The troops themselves were not Malwa, but a collection of men from various of the subject peoples. The officers were primarily Malwa, but not kshatriya.
Belisarius had been more interested in the infantry than in the elite cavalry units. The Ye-tai he understood, and, after some examination, the Rajput as well. They were impressive, to be sure. But Belisarius was a Roman, and the Romans had centuries of experience dealing with Persian cavalry.
But Belisarius thought the future of war lay with the infantry, and so he subjected the Malwa infantry to his closest scrutiny. It did not take him long to arrive at a general assessment.
Garmat expressed the sentiment aloud.
“That’s as sorry a bunch of foot soldiers as I’ve ever seen,” sneered the Ethiopian. “Look at them!”
Belisarius smiled, leaned over his saddle, and whispered:
“What tipped you off? Was it the rust on the spear blades? Or the rust on the armor?”
“Is that crap armor?” demanded Garmat. “There’s more metal on my belt buckle!”
“Or was it the slouching posture? The hang-dog expressions? The shuffling footsteps?”
“My daughter’s footsteps were more assured when she was two,” snorted the Ethiopian. “The sarawit would eat these clowns for breakfast.”
Belisarius straightened back up in his saddle. The smile left his face.
“True. So would any good unit of Roman infantry. But let’s not get too cocky, Garmat. For all my speeches about quality outdoing quantity, numbers do count. There must be a horde of these foot soldiers. If the Malwa can figure out the logistics, they’ll be able to flood the West. And they still have their special weapons, and the Ye-tai and the Rajput. Lots of Ye-tai and Rajput, from what I can tell.”
Garmat grimaced, but said nothing.
Belisarius turned and looked toward the rear of the caravan. The Romans and Axumites were located right after the infantry. They were at the very end of the military portion of the procession. Following them came the enormous tail of the beast.
“And they’ve got a long ways to go to figure out proper logistics,” he muttered, “if this is anything to go by.”
Garmat followed his eyes.
“This is not normal?” he asked.
“No, Garmat, this is not normal. Not even the sloppiest Roman army has a supply train like this one. It’s absurd!”
Garmat found it hard not to laugh aloud. At that moment, the general’s normally expressionless face was twisted into a positively Homeric scowl.
“Hell hath no fury like a craftsman scorned,” he muttered.
“What was that?”
“Nothing, Belisarius, nothing. I would point out to you, however, that much of the chaos behind us is due to civilians and camp followers.”
Belisarius was not mollified.
“So what? Every army faces that problem! You think camp followers don’t attach themselves to every Roman army that marches anywhere? You name it, they’ll be there: merchants, food and drink purveyors, pimps and whores, slave traders, loot liquidators, the lot. Not to mention a horde of people who just want to travel along the same route and take advantage of the protection offered.”
“And how do you deal with it? Drive them off?”
“Bah!” Belisarius made a curt gesture. “That’s impossible. Camp followers are like flies.” He swiped at a fly buzzing around his face. “No, Garmat, there’s no point to that. Instead, you do the opposite. Incorporate them into the army directly. Put them under discipline. Train them!”