“Morale’s actually high, General,” said Ashot. Basil nodded agreement, and added:
“Sure, things are still crappy for the troops. And will be, for a bit. But they don’t expect miracles, and they can see things are turning around. Mostly, though, the troops are cheerful as cherubs from watching one sorry-ass chiseler after another come into this tent, and then, within the hour, depart through the gates.”
” ‘Deadly with a blade, is Belisarius,’ ” quoted Ashot, laughing. “They’d heard that, some of them. Now they all believe it.”
“How’s the drill going?” asked Belisarius.
Maurice made a fluttering motion with his hand.
“So-so. Just so-so. But I’m not worried about it. The troops are just expressing their last resentment by sloughing it during the drill. Give it a week. Then we’ll start seeing results.”
“Push it, Maurice. I’m not demanding miracles, but keep in mind that we don’t have much time. I can’t delay our departure to Mindouos for more than a fortnight.”
Belisarius rose and walked over to the entrance of his tent. Leaning against a pole, he stared through the open flap at the camp. As always, his expression was hard to read. But Maurice, watching, knew the general was not happy with his orders.
The orders, received by courier a week earlier, were plain and simple: Move to Mindouos and build a fort.
Simple, clear orders. And, Maurice knew, orders which Belisarius considered idiotic.
Belisarius had said nothing to him, of course. For all the general’s casual informality when dealing with his Thracian retinue, he maintained a sharp demarcation with regard to matters he considered exclusively reserved for command.
But Maurice knew the general as well as any man. And so he knew, though nothing had been said directly, that Belisarius thought the Roman Empire was deliberately provoking Persia, for no good reason, and was then piling stupidity onto recklessness by provoking the Mede without first seeing to it that the provocation would succeed.
No, Belisarius had said nothing to Maurice. But Maurice knew him well. And if Maurice lacked his general’s extraordinary intelligence, he was by no means stupid. And very experienced in the trade of war.
Maurice did not feel himself qualified to make a judgment as to the Emperor’s wisdom in provoking the Persians. But he did feel qualified to make a judgment on the means the Emperor had chosen to do so. And, he thought, given the state of the Byzantine forces in the area, provoking Persia was about as sensible as provoking a lion with a stick.
The Persians maintained a large army stationed near the upper Euphrates, close to the border. In quiet times, that army was billeted at the fortified city of Nisibis. Now, with hostilities looming, the Mede army had moved north and established a temporary camp, threatening the Anatolian heartland of the Roman Empire.
To oppose them—to provoke them, no less—the Romans had only seventeen thousand men in the area. Five thousand of those were represented by Belisarius’ army, which, when he assumed command, had proven to be as brittle as a rotten twig. As badly corrupted an army as Maurice had seen anywhere.
The remaining twelve thousand men were stationed not far away, in Lebanon. That army, from what Maurice had been able to determine, was in fairly good condition. Certainly it seemed to have none of the rampant corruption which they had encountered at Daras.
But—
Maurice was an old veteran, well past his fortieth year. He had learned long since that numbers did not weigh as heavily in war as morale and, especially, command. The Army of Lebanon was under the command of two brothers, Bouzes and Coutzes. Not bad fellows, Maurice thought, all things considered. Thracians themselves, as it happened, which predisposed Maurice in their favor. But—young, even younger than Belisarius. And, unfortunately, with none of the wily cunning which so often made Belisarius seem a man of middle age, or even older.
No, bold and brash, were the brothers. And, they had made clear, under no conditions willing to subordinate themselves to Belisarius. Nor could Belisarius force them to. Though he was more experienced than Bouzes and Coutzes—than both of them put together, thought Maurice glumly—and carried a far greater reputation, the brothers were officially ranked as high as he. It was a new rank, for them, and one in which they took great pride. Shiny new generaldom, which they were not about to tarnish by placing under the hand of another.