Stopping an attack...By yourself

To me, it depends on his morality. lol

And how closely supervised he is. If he is for the most part independent, he could order his men to prepare defensive measures and fortifications inspite of the higher up's orders. Or, if he is quite confident that the ambush could destroy the stubborn higher up's forces, why not step aside and let THEM get slaughtered? No one would then be left to report him.

What is the size of his force and the size of the force ambushing? He could march or sneak his force out of camp and wheel around to ambush one side of the ambushers. Or split his force and ambush the ambushers on both sides. Or, not attack them until the ambush has started, then fall upon them from behind.

His force would certainly be known to be missing in the morning if he sneaks out, and noticed if he starts marching, so his own army (or section of it) could pursue him. Generals don't like it when 200 men go marching off where they aren't supposed to. Thus the pursuers would see the ambushers and can independently confirm. I doubt he would get in much trouble for marching off his force then, unless some superior gets egg on their face because your MC was right and egg face was wrong.

Consider this: he does order his men to do something different, and is then seen as being a traitor. Even though he was doing what was in the best interest of his country and army, he will be punished. This leaves a few more options available that could get subplots going with the enemy army.

I think that ultimately, you are stuck in a situation I was in on my story just yesterday. I hit a point when I could see multiple options of ways for my story to go, and let that choice block me. My suggestion (only because it worked for me) just keep writing. The longer you let the indecision hold you in its grasp, the harder it will be to make that choice and just keep writing. That has killed loads of stories for me in the past. So, just keep writing. If you don't like the way your story goes and you want to go back to a point in your story and start over from that point YOU CAN!!! Just, as Chris Baty says, don't dare delete what you have written (for word count sake). Just change the font color to remind yourself that you want to delete that section later.

Good luck and keep at it!

Even if you are a controlled military leader by higher power then you can still dispatch flanking groups of scouts.

If there is no radio communication or equivelent (telepathy, magic mirrors, or other signaling devices) it is usual to send out the flankers in two lines.

The first line is thin spread and are your point people. They are supposed to stumble on trouble, check out what is over ridge lines, cross to the other side of rivers, etc.

The second line is between the first line and the main body they are from. The second body watches the first line expecting that if the first line spots something then the first line is going to die. The job of the second line is to hopefully be far enough away that when they spot trouble happening to the first line that they can get word back to the general in time for some action to be taken.

Beyond these the scout flanking parties, it is also normal to dispatch foraging groups of soldiers to nearby communities and forests to supplement the army's stock of food on the march. Without refrigeration or the equivelant, most armies carried around three days worth of food at a time. One of the advantages of Alexander the Great had was his army being able to carry enough food and water that they could go eight days of march. This allowed him to take march routes that other armies could not.

Your general would be well within the normal part of his job to send foraging groups towards areas that he felt had supplies which might take them into conflict with the flanker groups.

In my novel from last year, I had the high general of the force who didn't like the Captain of a section of the force. I had the Captain gain more independance by taking a slightly looser interpretation of an order that he had suggested to a major. The Captain had suggested that since the force was being bothered by raiders that he should ride out his force as bait for the raiders. The order was given as the general had no qualms on sacrificing the Captain and his unit that he despised to keep the raiders away from the main army. The Captain took the order to ride out without any time to return to the main force as an invitation to go 'independent' for a while. There may have been some thought in the original order that when the threat of the raiders was dealt with that the Captain would return to the main body but it was never said; so, the Captain was not in any dereliction of duty.

Another way might be to grab some local commoner, tell him what you want you want reported (say 'I was gathering wood in the forest and I saw the army of Nil preparing to ambush you'). Give the commoner a bribe if he does what he is told. Villians use this trick all the time, why not your general to plant information.

Anyways, that is just a few ways you can handle the situation.

Best of wishes with your NaNo!

2007 The Lieutenant of Fairies (won!)
2008 The Captain of the Dammed (won!)
2009 Black Dog (let the games begin!)

NaNoWriMo 2008: Fantasy- Forgotten Sunlight>Win!