The Pursuit

Remember the story of Don Juan and his rebels. Today we will focus our attention to the far north-eastern borders of the empire where the tribal warlord Timur is trying to escape from the authorities.

The story so far: When the Varaethian kingdom declared full scale war on the Empire, the great Emperor himself lead an expedition force to punish his northern neighbour, leaving the governance of the heartland to his feudal lords. Taking advantage of his sovereign's absence, the governor of Samarkard, Timur the Lame(ok i know i m not very original with names here) launched massive raids into the lands of his neighbours. Upon receiving news of this, the Emperor dispatched two of his best cadets from the officer corps to deal with the rebel cheiftain. The story belong is about how the rebel warlord tried to shake off his pursuers.

"Capture Timur! Bring me the rebel's head." screamed Lieutenant Azusa as she released yet another arrow at the group of fleeing horsemen. The arrow narrowly missed the rebel chief, only to struck and shatter against the shoulder pad of one of the bodyguards. LAughing, some of the Samarkand horsemen turn and fire a couple of shots back, each one hitting his mark and dropping the imperial horsemen.

"We can't defeat those horse archers like this." Kaoru remarked to her collegue, "We need a plan."

"I can't believe the Emperor's elite Wilderness Light Cavalry couldn't outrun nor out shoot these vagabonds." Azusa grumbled. Turning to her troops she commanded,"Faster you fools, push your horses if you have to or you gonna face my blade."

While Azusa was screaming at her men, Kaoru analyzed the situation carefully. They could never catch up with the nomads, the only way is to corner her foe. Kaoru commanded, "Squad Greyhound, at my command, give up the pursuit and dash straight for the Oxus River garrison. Order them to demolish the bridges. Squad Leopard, shift your position leftwards, fire your arrows and force the rebels to veer to their right, we got to force the rebels to make detours to provide time for the bridges to be destroyed."

~.~.~

The imperial troops has been pursuing them for hours without much progress. The rebel horsemen will stop after every hour just to let the imperials catch up only to be range for the former's composite bows. Already a full quarter of the imperial cavalry was taken out by a small force of a dozen nomadic archers.

Timur laughed and remarked in Merkit, "I wonder when the Emperor will learn to use men who fight like lions rather than soft sheep like these. Training Nihonese into mounted archers is the sillest thing ever. No wonder half of the tribes listen to me now. Haha"

A cautious man, Jebuchu remarked, "They may not be such fools my lord. It seems that they are driving us towards to banks of river Oxus just like they way our men herd sheep. We must be wary. I believed there is a crossing to the northwest, we should be able to reach there in an hour."

And so the nomads went, charging head on towards the crossing hoping to vanish into the vastness of the steppes and join up with their army. They receive a rude awakening in the form of a crossbow volley just as the crossing was within sight. The Imperials had this arranged!
Seeing himself trapped between the hammer and the anvil, Timur made the next most logical decision, he charged straight into the Imperial Cavalry.

"Charged!!!" The rebels screamed in Merkit, firing their arrows and drawing their sabres moments before contact takes place.

"Timur's head is mine!" Azusa shouted and she reined her steed straight towards a middle aged man dressed in yellow silk, the mark of a chieftain. Her hope for a swift victory was dashed when Jebuchu came slashing suddenly at her with his sabre. Azusa parried with the blunt end of her spear but her long weapon was too clumsy in short quarters and before she could ready herself Jebuchu has ridden out of range jeering. Frustrated, the imperial lieutenant chased after her new foe before realising when its too late that Timur had escaped!

Indeed, the rebel warlord seem to have a trait for survival. Kaoru was observing the warlord's movement all these while and couldn't help acknowledging the latter's skill in horsemenship, dodging swordblows and lance strikes, remarkable for a man of his age. Just as the traitor was going to ride out of the confusing cavalry melee, Kaoru made her move. She aimed her crossbow carefully from the back of a stationary horse, therefore negating her disadvantage of not being born and bred on horseback. Kaoru squeezed the trigger lightly and observe her bolt streamed past masses of fighting horsemen and straight towards her target...only to see Timur steered into a different direction in the nick of time!

Kaoru couldn't believe her eyes! Dazzled, she looked helplessly as the rebel warchief rode into safely, laughing all the way.