Belisarius shrugged. “We’ll get spotted, sooner or later. But by then—if all goes well—it will be too late for the Malwa to extricate themselves from their entanglement with Ashot and Felix. Thousands of their soldiers will be mired in flood river terrain. They simply can’t maneuver them quickly. And they also can’t release too many of their troops from the lines around Sukkur. Not with Khusrau and his dehgans inside, ready to sally. They’ll be trapped between Ashot to the south and Khusrau to the north—and me hitting them from the east. With every cataphract Sittas can bring along. And once Bouzes and Coutzes get the mass of our infantry up to Sukkur, the Malwa there will be finished. They’ll have to retreat back to the Punjab, with all the losses that kind of forced march always brings.”
As always, Abbu was unmoved by the subtlety of a Belisarius maneuver. “Fancy, fancy. Maybe. But it will work. Provided you get there in time.”
Chapter 25
Belisarius began his march to outflank the Malwa besieging Emperor Khusrau once the flotilla of small cargo vessels and river barges carrying his cavalry and field artillery was well past the great bend of the Indus. In straight line distance he was less than a hundred miles from the besieged city.
But Belisarius had no intention of approaching Sukkur either from the river or even directly from the south. He intended, once his troops off-loaded, to move almost due east. He would cross the Khairpur canal, skirt the hills directly south of Sukkur where the ancient fortress city of Kot Diji was perched, and find the channel of the Nara. Then, following the Nara just east of the Kot Diji hills, he would eventually reach the Indus again at Rohri.
* * *
Rohri, of course, was on the wrong side of the river for any army which proposed to relieve a siege of Sukkur—and Maurice had poured sarcasm and derision all over Belisarius’ plan the moment the general started explaining it.
Sittas, on the other hand, was enthusiastic.
“Oh, be quiet, you old grouch,” he said, half-scowling. (Half-laughing, too, for Maurice’s witticisms had been genuinely amusing. If grossly uncouth and disrespectful of an acknowledged military genius.)
“He’s an acknowledged military genius, you know,” continued Sittas, with a sly glance at Belisarius. The Roman commander returned the glance with a glare. “I’ll bet all the history books will say so in the future.”
Then, more seriously, tracing the route of the Indus on the map with a thick finger: “You should know his methods by now. Our young genius likes to force his enemies to attack him, not the other way around. ‘Strategic offensive, tactical defensive,’ he likes to call it, when he’s in a philosophical mood.”
Sittas’ finger slid past Sukkur and Rohri and moved up the line of the Indus until it reached the juncture of the Chenab, the first major fork in the Punjab. “Right here. That’s where we’ll really hit them. If we can bypass Sukkur and that damned gorge north of it, we’ll have a powerful force of cataphracts and field artillery in the Punjab, where the flood plain opens up again.”
” ‘Punjab’ means ‘land of five rivers,’ ” chimed in Belisarius. “That gives you an idea of how much maneuvering room we’ll have when we resume the offensive next year. We’ll be in a vastly better position than trying to fight our way out of the lower valley. If we can keep pushing Malwa off balance and prevent them from stabilizing the front further south at Sukkur.”
Maurice did not seem mollified. “You’ve already divided your forces into three separate detachments, as risky as that is.” He began counting off on his fingers. “You left Bouzes and Coutzes behind to bring up the infantry, who are still far to the south marching up the Indus. You’re peeling off Ashot to continue straight up the river and take up positions against the Malwa with your big guns and Felix’s musketeers. And now, you’re proposing a forced march of heavy cavalry and field artillery across hundreds of miles—”
“Three hundred, by my estimate.”
Maurice plowed on. “—through unknown terrain—poorly known, at best—with a fragile supply route and a pitched battle at the end where you’ll have cavalry trying to fight on the defensive.” Stubbornly: “It’s too big a gamble. You should stick to the original plan.”