The FTC Returns to the Kapelle District

A NEW BEGINNING 

With the failure of  last year's Trade Negotiations with Kyuquoit,  (see Across the Border)  things looked bleak for the Faraway Trading Company's prospects of expansion but the company representatives had not crossed the Kapelle without noticing its possibilities as a colony in its own right. The Queen's ministers agreed and once again the Queen's men under General Turner were loaned to the company so that they could establish a series of posts from the Kapelle River to the northern plain to serve as a  base for colonization. The various villages and tribes in Kapelle formed a loose confederacy but there was no government and no army so little opposition was expected, unless of course, their neighbours decided to march to their aid in order to stop any further advance by the FTC.   

A small party of villagers ambushed the advance guard, driving back the light infantry and forcing the Buffs to deploy and drive them back through the palm grove. 

The skirmishers in the wood were proving more persistent than expected so the Buffs were left to deal with them while the rest of the army deployed to attack the town. Before the assault could go in,  the neighbours had shown up, The Black Fox and a force of the Brethren! General Turner ordered the artillery to open fire and sent in the lancers to sweep them away. The resulting fight was long and bloody but eventually the Brethren were driven back and half the town taken.

It was then that Brigadier Zinn's Oberhilse Free Corps reached the field. Either Kyuquoit had released  them in hopes they could keep the FTC away from their border, or they had marched on their own to strike a blow at the old enemy. All was yet to play for.

 

The fight was fierce and prolonged with heavy casualties on both sides but once the villagers and Bretheren had fled the field, there were not enough of the Free Corps to retake the town so Brigadier Zinn had the bugler sound retreat. There would be other battlefields.  

One small skirmish had ended but the war was just beginning.