Chapter 10 November 405 Britannia-Landing (Patreon)

            Guama had made the island of Britannia more unstable than it had ever been in its history, including the times before the Romans came and the island had dozens of kings fighting for control of small pieces of land.

            The Cubans had devastated crops, created a massive refugee crisis, and tortured to death the family of any leader that did not join them. The Roman legions stuck on the island since the Cubans started their methodical invasion had to contend with low resources by going from one settlement to the next and taking food and supplies, during a famine. If a village didn’t or couldn’t comply the Roman soldiers executed the leaders of the settlement and took all they could. If a village or town joined with the Cubans the Roman legions crucified the leaders of the settlements.

            Although this situation was terrible for the Britons, Guama couldn’t be more happy. The Roman legions on the island were too busy looking for food, and putting down anyone who resisted their so-called taxes, to really pursue Guama’s forces. At this point Guama estimated that twenty percent of the island was directly in Cuba’s control, and only ten percent was under Roman control. The rest of the island was trying to appease both groups without angering either while they somehow found enough food to survive winter.

            To make matters worse the Cuban Sea Wardens had gone about capturing Briton fishing vessels and used them in some of the raids, and so the Romans were attacking random boats, which meant the Britons were having a hard time even fishing for their food due to Roman attacks, and Cuban seizures. That said, between the Cuban longships, and the Roman trimarans the fishermen would not be allowed to fish in peace. At this point there were thousands of longships and trimarans either patrolling the island or trying to bring men and supplies to it. Although it wasn’t ideal, as ideal would be the Romans rolling over and letting the Cubans have this island without a fight, considering Roman resistance this was how Guama wanted things to go. Every single day hungry Britons joined his armies because his army had food unlike the Romans.

            As winter approached Guama’s army grew day by day. Everyone in Britannia knew that the Cubans had food, because as they demanded settlements switch their allegiance to them they never took food. In fact they left weeks worth everywhere they went. Because of this each day more people joined their army than the last. Thankfully the workshops they set up in Hibernia were managing to keep up with tomahawk production, although they had to completely abandon armor production. Fortunately, with tomahawks the locals could shape their own shields with the vast amount of trees on Britannia.

            On the battlefield most of the Britons were arrow fodder meant to bolster the Cuban numbers. Politically, at least in the short term, they showed the people on the island that Cuba had popular support. Politically in the long term most of the Britons joining them were the most likely to fight against their rule, and so a vast quantity of them getting hurt or killed fighting the Romans was of extreme benefit to Guama’s long term ambition.

            One day, during late morning, on the very short days of fall in Britannia, Guama received the message he was waiting for. The Romans were finally reinforcing their legions. They had brought a massive fleet over the channel of Britannia with at least a thousand trimarans and a few hundred large ships carrying soldiers and their supplies.

            This was great news as far as Guama was concerned because the shorter days meant that they had no chance of unloading all their men and supplies before nightfall. Between the Cubans making the situation on the island horrific, and the Romas peace treaty with Paulsland, its obvious that the Romans were moving in their quickest timeframe, not their most optimal one. Probably because they didn’t want to lose half the population of Britania over the winter, as that would affect the mines on the island for decades.

            The Roman landing spot wasn’t that far from Guama, as his camp was near three possible landing spots. It was only twenty-three miles away. If Guama packed his camp and started the march it would take a day to reach the Romans. If instead he ordered his men to take marching rations, and had them sleep outside for a night, maybe two, then they could meet the Roman army two hours before sundown. Without hesitation Guama called for a fast march to the Roman landing point.

            Perhaps other commanders would have hesitated, but Guama had mandated that the wives come with their husbands to camp. The wives and children of the soldiers were more than enough to pack up the camp and move it twenty-three miles overnight. In fact, allowing the families to come to the camp where they were fed was greatly encouraging the Britons to come and join his side, especially since monogamy was harshly enforced by Guama and his fellow Landowners. Except for the Landowners that came from Hibernia, all the Landowners grew up in a polygamous household, and they were desperate to see if monogamy would produce better results than harems. They recognized that Cuba needed to change, and if Rome could build such a big and stable empire with monogamy perhaps that was the key, or at least one of them.

            Guama left the camp leading an army. The Landowners were up front, riding their buffalo, both rider and steed in full armor. Behind them was the largest portion of the army, the Britons with tomahawks, or swords, or spears, with their self-made shields, and regular tunics; some even painted their heads and faces blue to honor those in previous generations that fought the Romans. Intermingled among them were the fully armored and kitted Sea Wardens, who were attacking as officers to the normal Britons. Finally taking up the rear and flanks of the army were horse riders. The horses averaged a height of five and a half feet, and were tiny compared to the buffalo ridden by the Landowners. The horse riders’ main weapon was a fast-fire bow, and their secondary weapon was a tomahawk. The rider and horse both wore cloth armor, while the horse also wore a saddle. With so much weight the small horse could not gallop, but they could trot faster than a soldier could run, and they provided a mobile archery unit. Some of the other Cuban armies on the island were experimenting with chariots, but Guama felt they were impractical this close to the coast.

            Guama had no way of knowing if Rome was landing other armies on Britannia or on Hibernia, he didn’t care, he was fully focused on destroying this landing party, and in time making the Romans submit to Guama’s claim on Britannia.


Authors note-Sorry about the delay in posting today. At the end of this month I will be travling for work for about two months so my schedual may get wonkey, I expect to keep posting two chapters a week, but the days may shift some weeks depending. Sorry about that.