CONQUEST

BATTLE OF WEFARI VIII

"My lord, it is dangerous here, you should take shelter within your tent and wait for the result of the battle."

Ira said as he bowed his head towards Abeo, who was watching the battle that was happening from a safe distance and although he couldn't see everything that is happening, he could see enough to know who was winning and who was losing at any given moment.

"Know your place, Ira. I am getting tired of you questioning my every decision. I want to see the armies of our enemies decimated with my own eyes, and that will satisfy some of my burning rage against them"

If Abeo was looking at Ira while speaking , he would have noticed a huge frown on his face as soon as he told him to know his place, but immediately after his face returned back to normal, and he said, "I understand my lord. I was foolish to step out of my station. This humble servant is only here to serve you."

'Not long now, not long, and your head shall be mine. I will make sure to torture you first as payment for your humiliation against me and then kill you quickly. You are still my sister's son after all. I will allow you the mercy of a quick execution once i am ruler of this empire.' Thinking about his bright future made Ira happy and benevolently decided to ignore his nephew's remarks.

"What are they doing?"

Abeo's question suddenly snapped Ira out of his thoughts, and he immediately focused on the battlefield as well, and just like Abeo who stood beside him, a look of confusion also appeared on Ira's face, the tactic that was employed by the Bashoruns was one that was confusing to any onlooker.

"Maybe they decided to give up after noticing how superiors our numbers are." Ira said to Abeo.

Of course the words he spoke were just to stoke Abeo's ego, his family has been the biggest rival of the Bashorun family since the founding of the Oyo empire and if there was something he knew about the Bashoruns, they did not seem to understand the concept of giving up. so, however strange or foolhardy their tactics might appear, he had to pay attention to the Bashorun's movement in case they did something that affected his plans.

The reason for Ira and Abeo's confusion was the way Mobo and Adebowale had positioned the army. Normally, the infantry of the would line up with shields in front and spears ready to deal with the first wave of attackers that were coming in and then as the battle dragged on, more soldiers would join the battle turning the fight into an all out bloodbath. The archers meanwhile would stay at the back of the army, providing support to the infantry from a distance and when a weakness appears in the enemy's ranks, that was the moment the calvary would swoop in to deliver a devastating blow to the enemy's numbers and vastly reduce the enemy's chances for a victory and all of this would be commanded from a commander's tent that was a distance away from the actual battle itself. This was to ensure the safety of the commander of the battle as well as to ensure a path of retreat should the need ever call for it. This was the basic way war was supposed to be fought.

Of course, there are some generals who would always come up with their own strategies and ways of fighting that allowed them to dominate the enemy, but this was the basic method of war in the Yorubalands.

But what the Bashoruns were doing now made them seem like idiots. Firstly, their armies were positioned weirdly, instead of the infantry to be in a single unified line. The infantry was actually positioned as an outward bulge in the shape of an arrow with only a few hundred soldiers in front of them to resist the enemy. This was a strange tactic as this meant those who were at the forefront of this fight would bear the might of the entire first wave of the enemy on their own unless of course, they retreated and joined hands with others in the army to resist the full force of the opposing army.