The Archer's War: Exciting good read - adventure fiction about fighting and combat during medieval times in feudal England with archers, longbows, knights, ... (The Company of English Archers Book 4) by Martin Archer Read Free Book Online

they are churchmen, is a fool’s game.
           Moreover, even it is true that the King said he wouldn’t interfere and would leave the outcome to God, Richard is not exactly famous for keeping his promises. 
           Just ask the men who surrendered to Richard at Acre – which you can’t do because he butchered them to a man despite giving his word that he would let them go free.
           All we know for sure is that there is almost certainly going to be a war between us and Lord Cornell - and many of our best fighting men are in Cyprus or the Holy Land.  The only thing certain is that it’s a damn good thing I kept so many of our archers here instead of sending them out to Yoram. 
           Hmm.  I wonder if Cornell knows how effective the new long bows and pikes are in the right hands and how best to fight against them?  They are so new that even those of us who have them don’t know how best to fight against them.
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           Thomas and I spend all morning looking at both of our parchment maps and talking about our men and their weapons and what we should do.  A plan finally begins to emerge after hours of our talking and pacing up and down and trying to make sense of our maps. 
           The damn maps are obviously not very accurate, at least they’re not about Cornwall - they’ve both got Launceston east of the Tamar, for example, and Trematon on the coast.
         Only one thing is for sure; Cornell and his men going to have to come through Devon and cross the River Tamar to get to us here in Cornwall – and the only cart path running through Devon to Cornwall runs through Salisbury and crosses the Tamar River ford near Launceston.  So that’s almost certainly the way they’ll come. 
           Thomas says the Romans built the cart path as far as Exeter almost a thousand years ago and some of the Roman stones are still there; isn’t that something?
           It’s not certain, of course, but Lord Cornell will likely come with his men in the early spring when the traditional campaigning and tournament season begins.  So Thomas and I have decided to take a couple of risks. 
           One is to do what we think Cornell will do - wait until the harvest is in before we call up the local men to act as carriers and fetchers.  The other is to strengthen our forces by quickly sending some of our more experienced men out into Wales and the English counties around London to recruit archers and likely lads to train. We’re temporarily between wars so hopefully there are some useful men sitting around who will prefer to fight for us instead of starving.
          Using some of our best archers as recruiters is a big risk because they’ll be gone and we’ll be weaker if Cornell hurries here.  It worries me immensely and Thomas even more.  He agrees about sending out the recruiters but he wants to immediately recall everyone we have at Trematon and most of the men from Launceston - he’s so adamant about it that I agree.
           Sending some of our men out to recruit also means we need places and men in London and Bristol where we can collect the archers who are recruited and send them on to Cornwall in our ships.  It is unlikely our recruits will be able to walk safely through Devon either on their own or in a group, though some men may hear that we are recruiting and try to reach us on their own by walking here.  All in all, it will be much safer and faster if we bring them here on our cogs and galleys.
           Who should we send to do the recruiting and who should arrange a place in London where the new archers can assemble?  It’s a good question and a real problem because I’ve got to stay here to lead the fight in case Cornell arrives sooner than we expect.
           After a lot of discussion we finally decide – Thomas himself will take our archer recruiters to London on a fast galley.  He’ll take Peter and the same guards he