"Are we agreed upon all this then?"

Kaede sat in a chair as she watched Pascal finish his negotiations with the various lords on the reorganization of the battered army. They had spent most of the day haggling over the details, from which shattered banners would be disbanded to provide soldiers to replenish other units, to how many replacement troops each lord would receive.

It's like trying to herd cats, Kaede couldn't help thinking.

In fact, it was only thanks to Sir Robert and General Macdonald that they could come to an agreement at all. The former had lent authority to Pascal as the personal representative of Princess Sylviane. The latter had arrived before his reinforcement column and provided much needed backing as a Lotharin military professional.

It would have been easier if Rhin-Lotharingie actually followed a professional military hierarchy, as Macdonald was the only one present with an official rank of general. The problem, however, was that General François Macdonald wasn't of noble blood.

The tall, broad-shouldered commandant with his plain looks, chubby cheeks, and thin gray hair came from a yeomen family. He dressed in a blue gambeson and tunic that seemed downright dull compared to the extravagant wardrobes of most nobles, yet its immaculate presentation showed his pride as a soldier. It took Macdonald eight decades of dedicated military service to reach his exalted rank. However, despite being made a count after the last war, many nobles continued to look down upon him as though he was a peasant who failed to remember his station in life.

"Yes, Your Grace." The nobles nodded in reply to Pascal. Even Lady Anne of the Knights Hospitaller did so as she had been forced to make a compromise with Pascal in the end.

"Then I leave it to you all to bring the banners back up to combat readiness." Pascal declared. "Use the task of constructing fortifications on the Gwilen's northern riverbanks to keep the men motivated. Her Highness and I will personally inspect the results in five days, and rewards will be given to units that perform the best." He spurred them on with competitive rivalry before concluding the meeting. "General Macdonald, Major Ostergalen, Lady Lynette, Sir Robert, Sir Gerard, please stay behind. The rest of you may leave."

One by one, the dukes and counts left the large, deployable cabin that they had been using as the 'war room'. The last to depart was Lady Anne, who clearly looked unhappy that she was not invited to whatever discussions that came after the main meeting. Nevertheless, she left without further comment. This meant only seven people remained in the room: Pascal, Kaede, Robert, Gerard, alongside the quiet General François Macdonald, the intelligence major Hans Ostergalen, and Lady Lynette.

Pascal took a moment to exhale deeply and relieve his stress before he beckoned towards the map table:

"Lady Lynette, please tell everyone present what you have discovered."

"Yes, Your Grace," the noblewoman who had joined Sylviane back at the stone ring stepped forth with a soldierly stride.

Pascal had been surprised to discover that Lynette actually came from a military family in the Kingdom of Ceredigion. She might not have much experience herself, but the Brythonic way of war had been drilled into her since childhood. As Ceredigion was the origin of the longbow and its associated guerilla tactics, it made sense to elevate Lynette to deputy commander of all Lotharin Rangers in this army. They had been tasked to lay ambushes for the Caliphate's scouting parties, harass the enemy's perimeter units, and do whatever it took to slow down the invaders' advance.

"Your Grace, General," she acknowledged the two senior commanders in typical Lotharin fashion, with preference given to title over military rank. "Since being detached from the withdrawing army, I have instructed two of my ranger banners to probe the invaders' marching camp every night. We've done everything from raiding their outer sentry posts, to shooting volleys of explosive arrows, to launching feigned assaults..."

"Feigned assaults?" Pascal raised an eyebrow. "With only two banners?"

"It's an old trick," General Macdonald explained with a slight smile. "Starting drumming and blowing horns in the dead of night, all while playing recordings of a thousand men shouting war cries. Add illusions to the mix and you have a fake, night-time assault. Keep this up for a few nights and you have a sleepless and exhausted hostile army."

"What if they simply start ignoring the racket?" Robert asked.

"That's when you send in a real attack," Pascal immediately recognized the potential.

"Unfortunately, our enemies also seem to know this trick," Lynette remarked before she pulled out a parchment and laid it across the table. On it was a rough, hand-drawn topographical map of the enemy's marching camp. "The Caliphate has been erecting multi-layered marching camps with extensive use of outlying fortifications. Each camp has up to a dozen forts guarding the perimeter, with reaction forces ready to sally out from each. This has significantly limited the disruption created by our night-time harassment, as we lack the strength to penetrate the enemy's outer defenses."

For a moment, Pascal remained silent as he hunched over to stare at the drawing. Then, as he stood back straight, his voice came in awe:

"That camp's defensive layout is a work of beauty. Look," he pointed to the details. "Every nearby hilltop is fortified. Every depression that could be used to conceal an approaching force is watched. Each of the exterior sentry posts are within support range of another. Close enough to pass hand signals from one outlying fort to another even without the use of magic..."

Pascal paused as he looked up at Lynette: "do you know who is in command of the Caliphate's army?"

"They refer to him as General Salim," the Lady replied. "I believe his full name is... Baha ad-Din Salim ibn Ziyad."

"The Qadi al-Quda?" Major Hans Ostergalen commented with a surprised look.

"You recognize his name?" Pascal asked next as everyone in the room turned towards the intelligence officer.

"Not well, no. My grasp of the Caliphate's senior ranks is rather lackluster, since they're not really expected to be an enemy for Weichsel," Hans admitted. "But I've heard of his name mentioned as the previous Qadi al-Quda -- the chief judicial advisor to the Caliph."

"What is a judge doing leading an army?" General Macdonald puzzled.

"It does explain why the enemy has been laying down marching camps with such methodical care, even if it slows down their advance," Kaede pitched in. "Those who work in law do not cut corners. They'll make sure that every regulation, every precaution is followed to the letter."

"Dame Kaede is correct," Hans nodded. "I don't believe this is an enemy we can defeat with ambushes or surprise attacks. He is too careful for that."

"You are probably right. It would be a poor gamble to bet our already outnumbered forces in a night battle against someone who is so meticulously well-prepared." Pascal sighed as he discarded his prior idea. "Though on the upside, it is his cautiousness that has allowed the Army of Avorica to escape its last defeat. For if I were in command of his cavalry, I certainly would not have allowed it to happen."

A personality trait that's good in one situation is bad in another, Kaede couldn't help thinking of her earlier conversation with Robert.

"We shall hold to our original plan of defending the Gwilen river crossings then," Pascal determined as he rubbed his temples and released another fatigue-laden sigh. "A direct battle against superior numbers may not be ideal, especially given the army's lack of heavy infantry to hold the line. But at least the river should deprive our enemy of their cavalry advantage."

"The Caliphate's infantry is nothing impressive either," General Macdonald then pointed out. "The strength of the Cataliyan armies have always lied in their mounted troops. Meanwhile the bulk of their infantry are levies, equipped and trained no better than our militia."

"That is a comforting thought at least," Pascal nodded. He then turned to the junior engineer whom he befriended back at the academy. "Gerard, how are the fortification plans coming along?"

"I have the initial draft," Gerard pulled out a large map scroll before stretching it over the huge table.

The Avorican Capital of Roazhon was built near the confluence of two rivers. The River Hafren, which flowed south from the southwestern end of the North Lotharingie Mountains, and the River Gwilen, which flowed west from the northwestern end of the South Lotharingie Mountains. The city also overlooked the fifty kilopace gap between these two mountain ranges, thereby making it one of the most strategic locations on the continent. As such, Roazhon featured an extended array of fortifications outside the city, which reached as far as twenty kilopaces away.

The Gwilen river served as the southern flank of the city's defensive zone. Flowing down from the Southern Lotharingie Mountains, the river featured a sharp drop in elevation with fast-flowing rapids cutting a steep valley into the rocky hills upstream. Meanwhile downstream, the Gwilen and Hafren rivers converged to create a swampy marsh that led all the way to the Bay of Ceredigion. This left only a twelve kilopace length of the river where a crossing could be forced, and it was here that Pascal planned to dig in with the entire Army of Avorica.

"I've taken your suggestions into account and worked with the Weichsen pioneers to design a multi-layered defense line covering the entirety of the twelve-kilopace river crossing," Gerard began. "Roazhon's outer defensive works have already provided us with a basis to build upon. There's the stone fort covering the now-demolished bridge, as well as smaller, stone guard towers built along the river banks -- one every kilopace. Over the next five days, I hope to quadruple the number of stone redoubts by using clay mixed from the river's silt and transmutation spells. The sandstone created by the spell won't be as good as the limestone towers, but they'll still do the job."

"Sandstone is still stone. Better than wood which shatters into shrapnel as soon as it is struck by siege," Pascal said as his brows furrowed. "I want each tower ringed by its own earthen rampart and ditch. Each should function as its own redoubt. They must hold out even if the defenses around them fail. That way the garrison can continue to shoot down, which will slow the enemy advance until reserves arrive to counterattack."

Hedgehog defense, Kaede recognize the pattern from her WWII books. The Germans had used this strategy to great effect against the Soviet winter offensives.

"Sure," Gerard noted down by drawing a few quick circles around the squares that marked the towers. "Before and between the towers are the main earthen ramparts, each with a wide ditch in front, which the soldiers have already begun excavating. The ramparts will be built in staggered chevrons to cover each other's blind spots. Meanwhile the gaps between them will facilitate the movement of friendly troops while funneling our enemies."

Pascal nodded in approval.

"With the Lotharin army's abundance of skirmishers but lack of heavy infantry, it's important we limited the enemy's ability to bring us into melee. The fortifications will funnel the infidels into chokepoints, where our limited heavy infantry will be concentrated to hold the line." He then added before gesturing for Gerard to continue.

"Once the main line of earthworks are completed, we will build additional, smaller fieldworks in front in staggered ranks," Gerard went on. "We'll supplement this using other obstacles, including stakes and spiked pits. The main goal is simply to break the enemy's momentum -- bottle them at the river banks for as long as possible, and let our superiority in archery do its work."

They're trying to turn the field battle into a siege, to secure as many defensive advantages as they can to bleed the enemy out, Kaede grimaced.

"I think this is a good plan to start with. I shall work with General Macdonald to coordinate the defensive arrangements in great detail in the coming days," Pascal commented before receiving a nod of agreement from the General in exchange.

It rather surprised Kaede just how willing General Macdonald was to let Pascal take the reins. Yeomen birth or not, the centenarian general had decades more experience than Pascal did and had been promoted by the late Emperor himself. However, it also seemed that Macdonald was a modest and agreeable professional completely void of personal vanity. It spoke volumes for his character even if his record was -- as Hans noted prior to the meeting -- 'reliable but unspectacular'.

"Gerard, leave the remainder of the fortifications planning to the other Lotharin engineers and Weichsen pioneers. I have another task for you, and this is a task I can entrust only to you," Pascal stressed.

The burly engineer's eyebrows rose as the young lord's remarks clearly peaked his interest.

"I want you to handpick a group and go upstream." Pascal then declared as his hand traced upriver on the map. "Take whomever you need, but make sure to keep a lid on your mission. I have no doubt that there are already enemy spies within this army, and it is absolutely important that the construction task I give you is done under the utmost of secrecy."