The Moghul

That's why many commanders prefer to use their cavalry as the vanguard. Horsemen can move faster, and they can more easily avoid defense barricades."
    Hawksworth looked at Jadar, wishing he could see his eyes. "But cavalry can be cut to ribbons with small artillery. Is it wise to charge with your cavalry if your enemy has heavy gun emplacements?"
    He heard Jadar laugh. "You may make a commander yet. You see, Inayat Latif will naturally assume our camp is heavily defended. Now although it's considered questionable manners to attack a camp at night, your manners become excusable if you attack at early dawn, even though it's still dark. I've known of attacks occurring almost half a pahar before dawn. What's that in European measure? An hour, an hour and a half?"
    "But if it's still dark, how can you see the enemy's lines?"
    "You can see them if your enemy's camp has been negligent enough to leave a few fires burning." Jadar smiled as he paused to let the words sink. "But now let's examine the third possibility. Leading the attack with your elephants. Elephant armor is steel plate and it can withstand everything except heavy cannon. If you can entice your foe into firing his biggest artillery before you charge, then you can send a wave of war elephants and devastate his gunners before their cannon cool enough to reload. Since it can take at least half a pahar for a large cannon to cool, large guns are rarely fired more than once in a battle. And never after your cavalry has moved out. Leading the vanguard with war elephants always entails danger, since if they panic, they can turn around and trample your own infantry, but in this case it's probably worth the risk."
    "And you think that's what Inayat Latif will try to do?" Hawksworth absently twirled the brandy bottle in his hand.
    "I'm asking you."
    "It sounds the most plausible. He'll position his biggest cannon to fire into the camp, and after he's drawn your fire in return, he'll stampede about a thousand war elephants right through here, crushing everything in their path. Including your opium-sotted Rajputs and their invincible bows."
    "You're doing remarkably well so far, Captain." Jadar took Hawksworth's arm and guided him toward the back of the compound. "And then what would you do?"
    "I'd send an infantry wave right after the war elephants, with lines so thick it would be a wall of death. And behind them I'd have cavalry, with muskets, to contain the camp and meet your own cavalry when it broke through—as it probably would eventually."
    "Cavalrymen wouldn't bother with muskets, just bows, but you're still thinking very clearly. Now tell me, from what direction would you attack this particular camp?"
    They were approaching the tents, where servants were beginning to soak the wood piles with oil. Hawksworth found himself astonished that Jadar would listen calmly to the strategy spelling his own destruction.
    "From the east, the way we came in."
    "And why that particular direction?"
    "Several reasons." Hawksworth tried to remember the terrain as they came into the camp. "First, if I'd marched from the east, I'd already have my army deployed there. Second, and probably more important, it's the only direction that's really accessible. The other sides are too forested. But from the east there's a wide clearing that funnels down right into the perimeter of the camp."
    "With a very clear demarcation of forest on each side, which helps keep your army grouped."
    "Correct. And, also, the sun would not be in my men's eyes if I hit you from the east."
    Jadar stopped and looked at him. "So that is precisely what you would do? Attack at dawn on the eastern perimeter. And lead with a front line of war elephants?"
    "With the biggest and best I had."
    Jadar sighed. "You know, it troubles me that a feringhi would conclude the same thing I have. But I think it's a classic problem. And that will dictate a classic solution in the mind of Inayat Latif, whose alleged brilliance does not include a flair for originality. He'll have to mount a conventional attack. What's more, because of the restricted terrain, he'll have no room to split his army into a right wing and a left wing. They'll have to be a single phalanx. That's dangerous if you ever need to retreat, but he'll not even consider that possibility. And you say you also believe he'll hold his cavalry for the third wave." Jadar paused. "That's more important here than you probably realize. Everything else depends on it. The