It had been few months since the Kashyapa Prince's surrounded the whole outer fort of Prayag Kingdom. The previous crowd of traders and merchants inside and out of fort was nowhere to be seen. And no one was allowed to even approach near the huge gates of the fort. Inside the fort the whole area in the fort was filled with soldiers and their horses. For past few days the soldiers stationed there were increasing rapidly in the numbers.
The new gathering soldiers were dressed and armored quite differently than the royal soldiers. They had the kingdom's royal emblem on their chest but there was another emblem right beside it. The other emblem were of the nobles representing.
The fort was bustling with energy. Loud battle-cries rang out everywhere. Of course, few of them were actually shouted in earnest. Most of them were either guarding and some of them were keeping an eyes on the prince's camp. They have to report any unusual activity happening in the prince's camp. The number of soldiers on the surveillance were recently increased and they have to report everything or every activity in the prince camp every hour.
But still there were many soldiers who just returned from their post so after resting they were practicing and sharpening there skill and weapons on the dummy dolls.
Outside the fort was surrounded by hundreds of camps and soldiers inside and outside of those camps of the Kashyapa Clan. In the middle was a majestic camp that was the Prince's camp several men were sitting around a wooden table along with Prince Shantanu.
On the table that was surrounded by the commanders and other officers of the prince's army, there was a large map. The map was of the battlefield that was the outside of the fort where the Kashyapa army was going to clash with Prayag Army. There were several position markers on the map.
Few days ago the Kashyapa Prince got a report from the surveillance team that there were many new faces appearing on the fort. As well as the sounds coming out of the fort also getting more loud and intense showing the gathering of more soldiers than there previously were. This all showed that Kingdom was gathering its soldiers and preparing for war as refusing the surrender proposal.
In the camp there was an intense debate going on between the commanders and other officers as everyday was suggesting their strategy and positioning of their troops.
As the battle was coming closer there were more things which needed to be discussed, and more decisions that had to be made. While low-level issues could be delegated to subordinates, they had to coordinate the matters that were detrimental in the upcoming battle personally.
"Thank you all for your hard work. I believe we should follow what vice commander Medhavat had proposed, I think it is a good strategy. For the first day we will use the strategy he had suggested. Now let's take a look once more for today and try to see if there any possible flaw in it."
As Prince Shantanu said this he looked toward everyone present to see if everyone were on the same page or if someone had any better strategy to suggest.
"Ah.. Any new movement or unusual activity anyone noticed on the fort?"
"Your Highness, according to my surveillance team, the Prayag Kingdom has mobilized almost every soldier in the kingdom. And judging by the emblems and badges they are wearing it seems like the nobles have also sent their forces in aid for the Prayag King." The officer incharge of the surveillance reported.
"Hmm. What is your estimate about the number of soldiers gathered there inside the fort."
"As of now apart from the royal army we have seen fifteen other emblems meaning that there are fifteen of the nobles who have sent their troops to help the Prayag King."
"Fifteen?!"
There was surprise on hearing that. In the Prayag Kingdom only twenty nobles have their personal army but most of these twenty nobles were in nowhere this much cooperative with the Prayag King. So sending their armies to help the kingdom was slightly surprising turn of events.
Prayag kingdom was not a battle power kingdom, it mainly was a kingdom known for its trading and merchants but still the royal family of kingdom itself has approximately 150,000 soldiers under it's command including every regiment. And nobles' army amount to almost one third of the kingdom's army. So if put it together there would be almost 200,000 soldiers they were going to face in the upcoming battle.
The battle power of 200,000 soldiers were in the estimation of the Prince Shantanu's early planning but they put that estimation in the most unlikely scenario.
"I'm not too sure about the number of the soldiers the nobles have sent to help the Prayag King, but on hearing the recent commotion and sounds coming from inside the fort, we need to consider that number as a most likely strength of the Army we are going to face."
In the battles with the Prayag Kingdom, Prince Shantanu's 120,000 soldiers were going against the Kingdom's 200,000 soldiers. The Kashyapa Prince had first surrounded the whole outer fort to cage the whole kingdom inside the fort and cut off their connection to the rest of the world.
The Kashyapa Prince's initial objective was to slowly exhaust the Kingdom resources and empty their stocks of food and grains, that way the Kashyapa Prince had estimated in a month or two the Prayag king would definitely surrender as it was still better than dying from starvation or they would try to launch an attack on the Prince's Camp in frustration.
That's the reason Prince Shantanu didn't try to launch an offensive on the kingdom even after sitting before the Prayag Kingdom's gate for weeks. He had thought the situation of Prayag Kingdom was nothing more than a caged rat and by sending him letter for surrender so he wanted to bait them a way out and bring this trading kingdom under his Clan control without any bloodshed.
But this time the Prayag Kingdom mobilized their whole battle strength of the kingdom at the fort clearly showing the signs of that they were getting impatient. If Prayag King wanted or were planning on surrendering he would not have mobilized his royal army along with the noble's army. That meant they had prepared themselves to fight till end.
After thinking all of that Prince was feeling pain in his heart. Even if the Prayag Kingdom was closely allied with the Shakya Clan, he didn't want a battle to happen with the Prayag Kingdom as it was a big and busy place for merchants and traders. And if a battle was to happen it will ruin the reputation as well as the value of the Prayag Kingdom as a market place.
"Your Highness!!"
A voice brought his mind back to the battle preparation inside his camp as he looked toward the person who called him.
"What do you think?" Once again the person asked him with a confused expression as he guessed why his prince seems lost.
"Huh?" Prince Shantanu asked with a confused expression as he was lost in his thoughts so he lost as to what they were discussing.
" Your Highness, what do you think? Who will be the overall commander for this battle from the Prayag King side on the first day?"
"I'm sure the Prayag King wouldn't be this stupid to lead his army on the first day of battle with full of uncertainty about the plan and the strategy of the enemy he's going to face."
The camp's atmosphere changed as it once again fell into silence. Everybody start racing their brains on the question of who will be the overall commanding officer from the enemy side.
The result of the first day of the battle carried with it an unspoken weight and power as it was necessary and will definitely effect the overall battle with the Prayag Kingdom.
If the Prince loose on the first day or even if he win on the first day but loose a lot of his soldiers then the overall morale and the strength of his army was going to be decreasing with a huge gap. So it was necessary to perfectly and rightfully guess or find out who was going to command on the first day.
Everyone in the camp know that the commander in chief of the Prayag Kingdom's army was Commander Rudha but since the noble's army was also participating in the upcoming battle including the first grand noble's Family Guards so this was making the decision of who will be the one commanding on the first day very uncertain. Cause if asked on basis of commanding skills who was the better commander between Commander Rudha and First Noble, many people gathered in the camp will say that First Grand Noble was more better.
If someone says that Commander Rudha would be the one commanding then the question was if noble's army was taking part on the first day or not cause there in no condition would the first grand noble will allow his soldiers to be under someone else's command.
This was especially true given that the First Grand Noble' forces was one-tenth of number of the Royal army that is 15,000 and this number of soldiers under someone's command was only second to royal family. In addition to that his soldiers were elite troops chosen and trained by him, his father and grandfather since their time in the royal family army as commanders.
They were very good fighters. Although they were still inferior to the boy band under the Prince's command, they were still a match for the Prayag Kingdom's royal army, even if they were outnumbered by the royal family soldiers they could still do significant damage to the royal army.
It was sad that the boy band under the Prince's command didn't come with him as most of them were seriously injured and decreased in numbers after the battle with Shakya Clan. When they got back to the Kashyapa Clan most of them were given rest and the ones who still wanted to continue with the Prince's conquest were stationed inside the clan. If they would have been here then they were enough for the nobles army and maybe even half of Royal Army of the Prayag Kingdom.
The question of who will be the one commanding on the first was becoming more and more uncertain one. There was only one possible person who can command both of the army without anyone opposing him in that decision and that was the Prayag King himself as he was the supreme commander of the kingdom but the chances of Prayag King himself commanding the combined army on the first day was even less than to near none. Only a fool will do this and go inside an unknown battlefield. And Prayag King was certainly not a fool. There was no chances that he would come into a unknown battlefield without even knowing the strategy or intel about the enemy's army.
And if Prayag King forcefully ordered to give command of the combined army instead of himself to Commander Rudha, then forget the first grand noble not even the nobles would accept that. Who wanted to give their soldiers to slightly inferior commander when there was a good and perfect commander already present among them. So there was also chances of nobles taking away their aids it they were forced to accept the Commander Rudha as overall commander.
And to make someone else especially a noble as commander of the royal army for the battle when there was already a commander present will be a huge blow to the morale of the army of the royal.
"Your Highness, I think the Prayag King himself will be the commanding the forces instead of rising the loose of the nobles' support or morale of his army."
"Huh?!"
Just when he was thinking all about that, one of the soldier from the guards who were guarding the camp outside came inside the his camp.
"Your Highness, a messenger has come from the Clan, he is saying he has an urgent matter to report to you." The soldier reported.
"Urgent matter?!"
Shock appeared on the faces of all the commanders and vice commanders as well as the other officers gathered there. The Kashyapa Clan had his forefather in the Palace and there was nothing that he was not capable of except if a war was to happen. So on hearing the soldier that the messenger who came had a urgent matter to report everyone's face darkened as one of the commander immediately said,
"What are you waiting for? Send him in immediately."
The pressure emitting from the voice almost make the soldier head go numb and his leg become weak but he brought up all of his courage to stand still with a shaking leg. But he still didn't left and looked towards the Prince for order.
Seeing the soldier still standing there, the commander was about to rebuke him but soon he realized the reason as he looked towards where the eyes of the soldier were looking. He saw everyone had a surprised face as they were looking to him.
"Bring him in."
The Prince looked towards the commander as he peacefully ordered the solider.
"Your Highness, please forgive this servant of yours. I was shocked on hearing and imaging what could have happened for the forefather to send an urgent messenger."