Battle of Clarkestown
| 綸州之潰 Battle of Clarkestown | |||||||
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| Part of Themiclesia's Expansionary Surveys | |||||||
 The site of the second battle | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Themiclesia | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Left General Middle General Forward General Rear General Governor of the Armies Inspector of the Armies Inspector of the Armies Admiral of the Left Sea Admiral of the Inner Sea Commissioner of Tribunes Master of Navigation Governor of the Ancillaries | |||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
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Mixed
Cavalry
Chariots
Navy
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| Strength | |||||||
| 62,230 | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 62,230 presumed dead or missing | |||||||
The Battle of Clarkestown is a series of battles that occurred between the Themiclesian forces and a coalition of aboriginal nations in the Organized States, resulting in the loss of the entire force Themiclesia fielded, spanning infantry, cavalry, chariots, ships, and skirmishers. It is often cited as the worst defeat, to date, suffered by the invader throughout its history; it is also credited as a factor to Themiclesia's slowing expansion in the 10th century. The same battles survive in the oral tradition of multiple aboriginal nations as an achievement of incredible proportions; oral tradition represents a valuable source of historical information, as no Themiclesian record survived the destruction in battle. More recently, archaeological finds have revolutionized the understanding of this battle, recovering the weapons, armour, and even written material that Themiclesians have left behind in the battlefields and the coast.
Background
As Themiclesia experienced a surge in population in the 9th century, and commerce with the societies in Columbia became profitable, the government planned to survey the land in Columbia. Themiclesians were not permitted under the law to claim, develop, purchase, or sell unopened land without government permission, a safeguard against excessive land holding, which was felt to threaten social stability and governance; hence, to be settled, the land in Columbia had to be surveyed first, parcelled, and distributed to applicants. In 881, the first land surveying commission was issued to over 500 surveyors, who mapped precisely 28,300 Themiclesian hectares of arable land on Columbia's east coast. Before long, a second commission was issued, resulting in another 31,220 hectares added to the land registry. Then, a series of government officials were established close to modern-day Clarkestown, in order to project public authority in the area. Through some process, disputes with the aboriginal nations began to appear; despite embassies sent by both sides to argue their respective cases, by 895 war seemed inevitable.
Engagement
Though there is no surviving Themiclesian record of the Battle, surprisingly consistent native oral accounts of its progress reveals five main engagements; archaeological evidence, such as scattered armours and limited skeletal remains, corroborate the accuracy of the oral histories.
First coastal engagement
Cultural significance
In the OS
The Battle of Clarkestown is commemorated in the oral histories of at least six separate aboriginal societies, which were compiled only in the 20th century. Descriptions of the Themiclesian invaders and the reactions of each nation and between them are highly informative, when the OS first nations generally did not ascribe specific dates to their activities. Themiclesian records do not survive in any meaningful quantity first-hand from the battle, but from preparatory actions that were recorded in Themiclesia, it was known to the several nations that participated in the Battle that war was impending as early as 896. Having established the absolute date of the events described in the several oral histories, the Battle serves as a reference point in the relative chronology of events said to have happened before and after it, in oral histories. Historians have described it as a "beacon on a solid island in a sea of fluid histories".
After the issue of aboriginal rights reached public attention in the early 20th Century, the realization that the oral histories of several nations recorded the same event became a intensively studied matter in aboriginal history circles and, from there, aboriginal awareness movements. The unity that the nations demonstrated in face of adversity from a technologically advanced and socially organized invader has been used in publicity campaigns during several national elections. During the Pan-Septentrion War, the Battle of Clarkestown has been used to rally citizens of aboriginal heritage to arms; subsequently, during the Civil Rights Movement, the same event also featured prominently as proof that the first nations possessed an independent and highly self-aware identity that valued freedom and demanded respect form outsiders.
In Themiclesia
Immediately after the war and the arrival of representatives of the natives in 903, which finally revealed to the court what transpired during the battle, there was a discussion of the responsibility of the loss. Attention fell on the final battle, which according to the representatives began after the Left Army started to harry the natives towards the coast. The representatives apparently did not know why the Themiclesians were suddenly attacking in the opposite direction, only that it finally led them to annihilate the invasion force. After they returned, the Secretary of State for Appropriations (who controlled the Navy) launched a virulent attack on the Secretary of State for Five Forces. The former alleged that one of the generals, seeing that the naval infantrymen were successful in clearing the natives off the immediate coast, sought to drive the enemy towards the coast to force naval infanty to clear them again. He wrote:
Ouch! Of all the strange things that happen between the heavens and earth, we do not know something as weird as [the Battle of Clarkestown]. Secretary of State Drjen has deployed enough soldiers, chariots, and horses to collapse a country, and increased taxation and corvée labour, to open new trritories [...] This is like borrowing a vehicle to deliver vengeance, but, unable to do so, forcing the vehicle to take one's vengeance instead [...] In terms of acquiring new territories, this is wholly within the remit of the Secretary of State for Five Forces, and how does it, in the slightest, concern that of Appropriations? How does it justify his transferral of what the Court has required? Now that there is no achievement of any kind in opening territory, but [parts of the invasion force] have instead attracted the [natives] to the fleet, burning 455 ships, the sailors and infantrymen not one returning... this all resulting from the Secretary of Five Forces injudiciously selecting officers and groggily electing generals. Now we request the Court to enjoy his home town to deliberate [his aptitude to remain in office].
The Secretary of State for Five Forces replied,
One heard that when the edict was first issued from the enclosure (i.e. the Emperor's quarters), it was not directed to the Secretary of State for Five Forces exclusively. The same edict required the Secretary of State for Appropriations to transport the armies raised but also to give assistance, and there is no cause for any reasonable person to think the fleet's resources should not assist in the acquisition of new territories, when it was convenient and forthcoming. When the fleet first landed on a hostile coast, the fleet was happy to order the coast be cleared for landing and, even then, to keep it cleared for days. One is seized of their experience in dealing with the natives in the Great West (i.e. Columbia) and confided trust of life and death in those abilities, which more than adequately appeared in clearing the coast. Permitting the enemy to compress the territories acquired was not desirable, but whosoever should have thought their abilities should so quickly vanish and for no apparent reason? There are responsibilities that I, your minister, cannot acquit in this fiasco, but the irrational acts were from neither myself nor my charges. I contest the stipulations of the Secretary of State for Appropriations and put him to the deliberation of his homw town.
Ultimately, the Emperor decreed,
Stop! How does one know the accounts delivered by the barbarous representatives were truthful? We shall not hear of discord sown amongst the high and noble in this country by some few comments from across the seas. We shall not speak of this matter again. From henceforth, anything over half nautical mile from the coast or the walls of any settlement under administration shall not be the responsibility of the Secretary of State of Appropriations.
Archaeological recoveries
Armour and weaponry
Since the 1700s, there were reports of pieces of armour turning up close to Clarkestown; they were initially thought to be part of the aboriginals' arsenal, but later scholars pointed out that aboriginal societies generally did not employ armour of this type or possess the technology necessary to make them. Themiclesian soldiers appeared to have worn steel scale armour on their torsos, upper arms, and thighs; other pieces also appeared from time to time, but they are much rarer. Complete helmets are rarely encountered, since the aboriginals who defeated them may have intentionally destroyed their helmets as part of a ritual of some kind.
Amongst weapons, spear-heads and swords are the most frequently found. Some swords were discovered buried in their leather scabbards intact. Both spear-heads and swords were found to be made of steel of a uniform profile with around 1.9% carbon content on average; 95% mean variation was about 0.3%. These figures suggest these weapons, which had little decorative work or personal markings, were manufactured en masse as a batch. On the pommels of most of them, the smiths' names are visible. A small cache of bronze weapons were also recovered; however, since they were found together in what archaeologists have described as a camp site, and there not being any sign of wear on them, they may have been ornamental weapons rather than actual ones.
Orchestra
Remarkably, the metal pieces of the Themiclesian military orchestra were discovered by amateur divers around a mile off the coast of Clarkestown in 1952, over a thousand years after they were lost. Amongst the pieces recovered initially were five bronze bells bearing their date of manufacture and musical functions. Initially thought to be discarded maritime equipment, it was left on the beaches for days until a museum curator happened upon it and saw the inscription 應鐘 (’rjengs-tjung), the note corresponding to B in Western music. Knowing this as one of the possible battlefields in 898, he organized an expedition with multidisciplinary expertise to recover more artifacts.
Only months later, 31 more bells were unearthed on the rocky shorelines; these were all decorated with the same motifs (flowers and clouds), indicating they were part of the same set. They provided a full compass of twelve chromatic notes in four octaves. Fifths were shown to be pure, while octaves were sharp; this finding supports the conclusion that they were part of the Themiclesians' battlefield signalling equipment, since extant manuals of medieval signalling procedure heavily emphasized sequences within the same octave. The interior of the bells all bore the inscription 尚方 (sgljang-pjang), the bronze foundry that normally served the palace's needs; the invaders' possession of such a set of bells corroborates the court's focus on this campaign.
The bells were cast in the quintessential Themiclesian shape, a rhombus with rounded corners. Each bell permitted two nodes of vibration, one a major third higher than the other. These two nodes were diametrically positioned so as not to interfere with each other; hence, two notes could be derived from each bell. It is not known precisely what message each note or sequence of notes conveyed, but the wide compass provided suggests that complex sounds were used to communicate ideas (likely pre-arranged prior to battle) quickly and secretly.