Herald of Steel

Alexander woke up the next day late in the morning, still tired from yesterday’s hectic day, and was surprised to find Cambyses still sleeping like a baby next to him.

‘The last two days really wore her out,’ Alexander said looking at the sleeping beauty and gently caressing her face and then being careful not to wake her up, slowly got up and got dressed.

After freshening up, he was informed the artisans he wanted to meet were all waiting outside the palace which jolted his mind awake.

He quickly ordered them to be let inside the hallway and instructed the kitchen to give porridge to them, to which they complied by serving yesterday’s leftovers.

Alexander then called over Theocles and ordered him to take inventory of the palace armory and take count of the weapons and armors left, so he knew the required amount he needed to order, as he feared the armory might be empty with all its equipment being in use with Amenheraft’s army.

Alexander estimated that this would take two-three days, and so in the meantime, he got Menes to assign the few thousand artisans that had come drawn by the smell of food, new homes in the inner city previously owned by nobles.

They were then instructed to move in with their families as only then they would get the promised rations although this seemed redundant in many eyes, as most artisans had their workshop right next to the house and this order did nothing but increase the commute time to their work, Alexander had his reasons.

Alexander also remembered to send his captains and stratos out to start calling back all their soldiers and have them report back to their barracks, as the three days were up and if they didn’t return soon, it would count as desertion.

He later met with the leaders of the blacksmith and carpentry guild, and after ordering as many as possible at most 4mm thick steel wires, he presented them with a few strange drawings, which he demanded to be made by tomorrow.

And at last, he went to the barracks, where the recruitment of fifty thousand soldiers was taking place under the supervision of Menicus and because almost every man that could hold a stick had applied, drawn in by the promise of food, the old man and the thousand soldiers under him were busy separating the wheat from the chaff.

The simplest way was making them walk under an elevated horizontal stick of around five foot two height, and anyone who did not need to lower their head to pass through it was disqualified.

This automatic failure caused many to plead to the supervising soldier to let them pass, but after a few exemplary strikes to the bum, such time-wasting practices largely disappeared.

There was also the simple strength test where a wooden, makeshift monkey bar had been placed and recruits were required to keep themselves off the ground for ten seconds to pass, though even this easy test proved to be a watershed for many of the malnourished commoners.

“Half these wastes are struggling to hold their souls in their bodies, where are they gonna find the strength to hold shields and spears?” Alexander could hear the loud, gruff grumbling of the frustrated mercenary leader.

Menicus informed Alexander that given the quality of the recruits, he would need at least a week to select, arm, and form formations using them, and only after could the training begin.

And with a helpless sigh, Alexander could only urge the veteran mercenary leader to do his best.

‘Ohh, I remember that the Romans needed four months or seventeen weeks to turn a recruit into a soldier. So what can I do with just three?’ Alexander lampooned heavily.

But it was what it was and thus the fourth day after his conquest of Adhan ended.

The fifth day was a special one for Alexander, as he had received the final tally of the total loot of the temple, which came to a grand total weight of two hundred tons, giving an overall haul of ten billion (10 billion) roplas.

Most of the coins were not in roplas but in a much bigger denomination called the ‘intas’, which was a thousand times larger than roplas.

This new coin was made of twenty grams of solid gold, unlike the roplas which was a smaller coin made of silver and bronze and just two intas would equal a farmer’s annual pay.

In context, Adhania’s yearly taxes were only five billion ropals, which was split among the temple, the twelve provinces, and all its nobility.

Even in his twilight years, when Alexander’s nation would become known for its trade and commerce, this would still be a sky-shattering number to Alexander.

And now, this ridiculous amount of money was currently at Alexander’s fingertips and he could only let out copious amounts of heavy sighs that he would have to give almost all of it away.

So, after cutting off the hundred million ropals as promised by Ptolomy to him and embezzling an additional fifty million as his ‘salary’, which would remain the record amount of ‘salary’ anyone took for a thousand years, Alexander ordered the rest of the literal mountain of coins to enter the belly of the royal treasury.

After personally supervising this, Alexander had lunch and then met up with Grahtos.

He then asked about Laykash and was pleased to know that the boy was well and walk using a crutch.

He afterward asked the cavalry captain to form a scouting party and have them ride south to detect and survey Amenheraft’s forces.

He specifically demanded that the scouts be able to warm him as least a week before the assault began the true position and the strength of the opposing army.

He also wanted detailed reports about the terrain, about specific locations of brooks, streams, rivers, swamps, villages, and particularly hilly and rocky terrain where marching speed would be severely limited.

After seeing Grahtos receive the orders with a military salute, Alexander then went to meet with the blacksmiths.

Theocles was yet to give him the inventory list, but he still had other things he could have these artisans create.

He particularly intended to task the men into making mainly two things- the pilum and chainmail.

The pilum was a Roman-style javelin, around two meters long, consisting of an iron shank around 7-8 mm wide and 60mm long, attacked to the wooden shaft using two nails.

Alexander designed the pilum to be attached by only one nail and replaced the other with a wooden peg, which weakened the connection and helped serve its purpose.

And what was its purpose?

To penetrate phalanx shields and make them useless. ．𝙘𝙤𝙢

This magnificent capability was achieved by manipulating several factors.

First, the javelin was thin, with the iron part being only 7mm in diameter, meaning it had more penetrative power with the same force as the area was less.

Next, the triangular tip was hardened using a technique called quenching, where the iron tip would be heated till it became red hot and then immediately dumped in cold water.

This would make the tip hard and brittle while keeping the rest of the iron skank soft and bendable.

Thus, when the thin iron piece would hit any hard surface, like a shield, the hard, thin tip of the pilum would slice through the shield and embed itself into the shield, pinning the arm of the soldier into the shield.

At the same time, the force of the impact would snap the thin wooden nail holding the shank to the wooden handle, destroying it, and causing the soft iron shank to bend at a ninety-degree angle, thus preventing the soldiers from simply yanking the stuck piece of iron off their shield.

The Romans had used this to great effect in their thousand-year history, especially during its early years, where this tactic devastated opposing phalanx formations that relied on their large, round shields to stave off opposing phalanx attacks.

With their crucial defensive weapon, the shield taken out of action, the phalanxes would be left naked and vulnerable, and much more susceptible to enemy attacks.

And although this alone would not win the war for Alexander, it would certainly help level the playing field a lot.

The rest would have to depend on the tactics at the battlefield and Alexander had already thought of which to employ.

But all these thoughts were unknown to everyone but Alexander, much less the confused blacksmiths who didn’t know what to make of his half-spear, half-javelin thing.

But the design and manufacture were simple enough and so they assured him that with thousands of them working around the clock for more than two weeks, even a hundred thousand would not be an issue.

Alexander was very pleased by this, and though he would not need so many as he only needed to hit the front rows, he intended to take these extra supplies to Zanzan with him.

Pleased that his wonder weapon will be ready and be soon ready in bulk, Alexander then proceeded to present the blacksmiths of this time with a much more difficult challenge, making a chainmail armor!