“Do you see where the siege weapons are?” the general asked.
“Yes,” Mehida answered. “They have prevented themselves from moving the engines in any direction but north and south.”
“I think we may be able to use those machines to prevent the army from assembling in a large body. Their own machines and trenches block the way.”
Jonathan tapped the general on the shoulder and pointed to a spot just past a wooden hut. “General, look-Rezon is pushing battering rams into position near the front gates, and sustaining considerable losses from the bowmen of Uzzah.”
Amon looked again and saw the advancing rams. Gideonite captains shouted, shields were lifted, and most arrows were deflected, but some were not. Amon’s gaze fell on the hut. He recognized Rezon and Jael standing with the others. Rezon continued to watch the rams, even though many of his men turned to look back at Amon’s army. Amon was surprised.
“Rezon seems to be ignoring us! Does he think we will not attack? ”
Disdain in his voice, Mehida said, “Rezon is arrogant. He knows we’re here. Perhaps he feels you’ll wait until he makes the first move. Or maybe he’s trying to cause us concern, making us wonder what he’s doing.”
“Perhaps you’re right. I’d wager he has other weapons we haven’t seen,” Amon replied.
Rezon did seem overly calm for being caught between a united army and the city walls. If Amon were in that position, he would turn and attack immediately. Rezon’s behavior made no sense. Amon shook his head.
“We should rush the location of the siege weapons before they can formulate a counter-attack,” Mehida suggested. “Then we’ll have a way to defend a central location from Rezon’s army-the machines and trenches can provide cover for our men.”
“That’s a good plan,” Amon readily agreed. “Pass the word among your men. Then let’s ride!”
Amon returned to his horse and watched as his captains immediately rode from company to company with specific orders for each group. When they returned to their places, Amon gave the signal. The Army of Brothers charged forward with swords glinting in the suns-light. Their unified shout turned to thunder, causing the Army of Rezon, many of whom had pretended to ignore them, to turn completely about to meet the charge.
“Bowmen at the ready!” Amon bellowed as he rose in his stirrups, his steed in a slow trot behind running foot soldiers.
The front line of footmen closed the distance by half.
Amon yelled for the bowmen behind the rushing soldiers to release, and a volley of arrows arced over the charging men toward their intended targets. Just as the arrows began their hurtling descent, the front line of Rezon’s men jumped into the trenches and pulled large shields above their heads. Very few arrows met their mark, but instead, bounced off the protective covers that had been deployed. Rezon’s soldiers then clamored out of the trenches again. They too charged with weapons swinging.
The two armies met, and the clash was deafening. Yells of anger, pain, and exertion shot up from the crowd amidst the clangs, pops, thuds, and booms caused by colliding weapons. Like the explosive spray from a high wave slamming into a sea cliff, the front lines furiously collided, the severity of the sudden encounter rippling outward into the ranks of both armies until all were engulfed.
Amon’s men pushed forward, trying to gain access to the war machines of Rezon, but were repulsed. They fell back momentarily, only to push forward again. Their second surge was even less successful than the first. Rezon’s men strongly leaned into Amon’s army, causing the line to break against a wall of resistance. The Brothers fell back once again, and Rezon’s troops rushed forward with their might. It was then that General Amon realized he had made a critical error in his planning.
The Gideonites of Rezon tumbled into the host of The Brothers like the boulders of a rock slide, and when they came to a standstill, only a careful observer could still distinguish them from the similarly armored Gideonites in Amon’s army. Chaos ensued. The battle slowed considerably as the soldiers hesitated at each confrontation to determine if the potential opponent was friend or foe. Captains on both sides continued to shout their commands, and in some cases, the differentiation between Rezon and Amon was determined solely by which command each man would obey.
It was at this point of great confusion that Captain Mehida lifted his sword skyward and yelled with all his vocal strength, “For Daniel and Uzzah!”
“FOR DANIEL AND UZZAH! ” came the thunderous echo from Amon’s army. They again charged forward, pushing Rezon’s troops back with such fury that the Gideonites who had been pledged to the service of Rezon and the late emperor began to melt before them.
Amon raised himself high in the stirrups so he could better see the battering rams near the walls of Ramathaim. He realized that all the Gideonites who had been moving the siege weapons toward their intended goal had abandoned their posts-now running down the slopes to join the raging battle below. To Amon’s great surprise, the unsuspecting soldiers of Rezon were being followed. Both the front gates of the outer wall and the sally port on the western end of the stone curtain gaped open, coughing up hundreds of Uzzahite warriors who gathered into tight groups. Amon sat back down in the saddle and called some horseback messengers to his side.
“Tell the captains to prepare a charge!”
The messengers rushed on their errand while Amon scanned the slopes. Wanting to be sure he kept track of Rezon’s whereabouts, he again scrutinized the center of the field. There he found the target of his own indignation.
His back to the hut placed there for his protection, Rezon stood next to the catapults, Captain Jael at his side. Both shouted commands at the rate of a flash flood. Rezon’s captains turned their troops from flank to point as if they were the spiked iron ball swinging from the end of the general’s long-chained flail. This change in direction caused Amon’s men to fall out of ranks.
Amon anxiously searched for the messengers and found one of them who had navigated his way through the sea of soldiers toward Captain Pekah. When the messenger arrived, he shook a signal flag in the air. This initiated another battle cry, echoed by the entire host.
“For Daniel and Uzzah! ”
To the obvious surprise of Rezon’s army came the roar of fifty silvered horns. The blast of sound bounced back and forth between the shouldering mountains of the city and rolled down the hillsides to the ears of everyone below. All heads turned to see the gates of Ramathaim open. A united voice of over two thousand Uzzahites then punctuated their sudden arrival with, “ For UZZAH and DANIEL and GIDEON! ”
Amon’s heart swelled with joy as he witnessed the brave men of Uzzah charge into the fray. He pulled his spyglass up to his eye in time to see a third of the Gideonites of Rezon turn back to protect their leaders. They clashed with Uzzah just as both parties reached the war machines. Amon trained his sight on the war hut.
At the center of the battle, Captain Jael seethed with hatred. In great sweeping arcs, Jael swung his large sword back and forth, clearing the ground before him as if he were cutting wheat with a scythe. Rezon remained protected from the battle, his most trusted and deadly servants bringing a sudden, painful end to the lives of all who opposed them. The fury that was visible in their faces caused Amon to catch his breath and look to his own men.
The Brothers fought like a lioness protecting her cubs, while the warriors of Ramathaim ignited a scene of terror for the minions of the emperor as they fell upon them with swift vengeance. Working together to press the enemy, Amon’s thousands surged toward the Uzzahites on the eastern flank in an attempt to hem the Gideonites in on three sides. When they finally met, they cheered for each other as the two armies merged to become one. Now vastly outnumbered, Rezon’s soldiers began to surrender in masses.