Flood of War

Legionnaire, Book 9

By: Gilbert M. Stack

Narrated by: Will Hahn

Days of rain force sane armies to hunker down to wait for dry weather. Yet, no one in the Jeweled Hills would accuse Prefect Marcus Venandus of being sane. Not only has he united the bickering Qing, Gente and Gota in his Black Hat Legion, he rarely embraces conventional military tactics. With three days of drenching weather turning roads to mud, flooding creeks, and bogging down his enemies’ carts and wagons, Marcus seizes the initiative and leads one thousand of his Black Hats on their most daring campaign yet.

Can he use the Flood of War to sink the treacherous Thegn of Granate? Or will the rains wash away any chance he has of winning this war?

©2020 Gilbert M. Stack (P)2022 Gilbert M Stack

An unexpected twist…

Just loving this series. Both author and narrator have done a brilliant job!

There’s definitely a twist in this story.

I look forward to listening to the next edition….

Addition:

I was just thinking about this book again. And the Gota reminds quite a bit of the beginning of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.

The British army, even though they had superior numbers, unlimited resources and army discipline, they lacked three very fatal flaws.

1. They underestimated their opponents greatly. Trained soldiers vs farmers.

Even though the boers (farmers in in the Afrikaans language) were farmers, they were excellent shots. On many Battlefield tours, I’ve heard sight guides say that they were able to shoot a moving target at a great distance. Apparently snipers today would not be able to hit targets like this without their scopes.

The British soldiers were only taught basic rifle handling and no thought was given to teaching the Tommies how to hit a target.

And the Gota also kept underestimated their enemies with the same disdain. Thinking their birthright gave them superior battle abilities.

2. The British lost many lives because they weren’t prepared to adapt to new warfare. (Actually, the Battle of the Somme is also a good testament to their unwillingness to change at the cost of many lives!)

The British style of fighting, at that stage, was in the same format as they had used in the Napoleonic wars. The Boers had adapted to both trench and guerrilla fighting tactics. The most notable and sad failure to adapt was at the Battle of Colenso.

And the Gota also are slow at learning to adapt to new warfare tactics.

3. And naturally, every General wanted kudos, glory and honour for himself. And it also didn’t help that there was also another split or rather a faction within the greater British Army - those who had been sent to fight in Africa and those who had fought in India. Those who were in the African faction ignored orders from superiors who were in the Indian faction and visa versa. Both are evidenced by two generals.

General Penn-Symons - the first General to loose his life in the Battle of Talana Hill (or Dundee). Silly man inspired his soldiers to face the deadly rifle fire of the Boers by leading a charge in his colours, making himself a target for the Boers! He was mortally wounded in the stomach and painfully succumbed to his wounds two days later.

And the other General (of the Indian faction) was George White. He has been told by the COC (Redveres Buller, of the African faction) not to cross the Tugela River (Buller knew that terrain for the time he had been in the Anglo Zulu wars of 1879). And White’s decision to ignore this sound instruction ended up getting himself and his army sieged in Ladysmith for 3 months. Now I’ve never been in the army, and as a novice, even I can tell you that only an idiot would have stayed there. Ladysmith is situated in a area with loads of hills and mountains around it. Basically in the low ground!

The Gota also clearly had the need to prove themselves for glory, honour and kudos, but there is also clearly many factions wanting to assert their authority on other Gota. A divided army usually means failure!
Anyway.

It’s always interesting to see similarities in war