‘It will be done, my Lord,’ said Vraka.‘What do you want to talk about, Shiva?’ asked Parvateshwar, as he entered the metallurgy
factory. He was accompanied by Vraka and Prasanjit, as per Shiva’s request. Vraka had
reluctanly left the archery corps he had been training over the past week. However, he had
been motivated to attend with the expectation of another brilliant idea from the Neelkanth. He
was not disappointed.
‘I was thinking,’ said Shiva, ‘we would still need an equivalent of your stabbing ram to break
their centre. The centre is where I assume their general would place their regulars. As long as
they hold, our victory cannot be guaranteed.’
‘Right,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘And we have to assume that these soldiers would be disciplined
enough to stay in formation despite the barrage of arrows.’
‘Exactly,’ said Shiva. ‘We can’t transport the ram, right?’
‘No we can’t, my Lord’ said Vraka.
‘How about if we try to create a human ram?’
‘Go ahead,’ said Parvateshwar slowly, listening intendly.
‘Say we align the soldiers into a square of twenty men by twenty men,’ said Shiva. ‘Say we
have each one use his shield to cover the left half of his own body and the right half of the
soldier to the left of him.’
‘That will allow them to push their spear through between the shields,’ said Parvateshwar.
‘Exactly,’ said Shiva. ‘And the soldiers behind use their shields as a lid to cover themselves
and the soldier in front. This formation would be like a tortoise. With the shields holding against
any attack, much like a tortoise’s shell, the enemy will not be able to break through, but our
spears will cut into them.’
‘And we could have the strongest and most experienced soldiers at the front to make sure
the tortoise is well led,’ said Prasanjit.
‘No,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘Have the most experienced at the back and the sides. To make
sure that the square doesn’t break in case the younger soldiers panic. This entire formation
works only if the team stays together.’
‘Right,’ said Shiva, smiling at Parvateshwar ’s quick insight. ‘And what if, instead of the usual
spears, they carried this?’
Shiva raised a weapon that he had designed and the army metallurgy team had quickly
assembled. Parvateshwar marvelled at the simple brilliance of it. It had the body of a spear.
But its head had been broadened. On to the broadened head, two more spikes had been
added, to the left and right of the main spear spike. Assaulting an enemy with this weapon
would be like striking him with three spears at the same time.
‘Absolutely brilliant Shiva,’ marvelled Parvateshwar. ‘What do you call it?’ ‘I call it a trishui.’
‘Prasanjit,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘You site in charge of creating this corps. I want at least five
tortoise formations ready by the time we march. I will assign two thousand men to you for this.’
‘It will be done, my Lord,’ said Prasanjit with a military salute.
Parvateshwar gazed at Shiva with respect. He thought Shiva’s ideas were brilliant. And the
fact that he had come up with these tactics despite his profound personal grief was worthy of