The first interception came at the Ashburn Bridge, forty miles north of the Meren valley, where Colonel Thaddeus had positioned four thousand soldiers across the stone bridge and the river's fordable sections with the professional competence that Thaddeus had demonstrated since the corridor engagement.
Khao'khen did not attack the bridge.
He sent the 5th and 6th Warbands upstream in the predawn darkness, the thousand Yurakks moving through the river's upper reaches where the water was knee-deep and the crossing took ten minutes instead of the bridge's contested hours. The warbands crossed three miles upstream, reformed on the northern bank, and marched south toward the bridge's northern approach, arriving behind Thaddeus's defensive position at the moment the main column's advance guard appeared on the bridge's southern approach.
Thaddeus found himself facing south, defending a bridge against an army that was now behind him.
