Herald of Steel

Alexander’s excuse for the attack was a weak one.

A very weak one that.

Because although a higher noble could attack a lesser noble for refusing him, the main caveat to that rule was that it had to be sanctioned by the king.

Or else any bigger noble could take over a smaller noble using all sorts of excuses.

Now, this would be too big a problem as Ptolomy would not mind Alexander attacking rebel nobles.

He had even given Alexander prior permission to punish any nobles under him without needing to seek Ptolomy’s council first.

But the little snag with this was, firstly, it was still undecided who was the king of Adhania, Ptolomy, or Amenheraft, with the matter being left in limbo for the time being.

And secondly, which was the more important point, it had already been verbally agreed in the treaty between Amenheraft and Ptolomy that Alexander would not attack the nobles of Zanzan and vice versa, with each of the nobles free to choose a side they wished to join without persecution.

So, what Alexander was attempting to do did indeed break the treaty,…but so what?

It was all verbal.

The US once allegedly verbally promised to not expand NATO.

But what did that verbal promise mean?

Nothing.

“We will set out after dark. And attack the city at dawn.” Alexander announced, intending to catch the noble completely off guard.

Usually when an army was approaching a place, it would make such noise and kick up so much dust that there would be really no way to hide it.

So, marching at night was one of the ways to somewhat mitigate loudly announcing one’s presence as a large number of the enemy would usually be asleep.

Now, night marches were always dangerous.

This was because when an army of thousands and thousands of men moved without light or vision, through mostly rough or even nonexistent roads, even the simple case of tripping and falling were major causes of accidents as soldiers would simply walk over their fallen comrade and crush him to death over hundreds or even thousands of heavy steps.

And these soldiers would not even know they stepped over someone because each individual will think they just stepped over some patch of wet or soft ground, while the scream of the fallen soldier would be muffled by the marching footsteps of the thousands or tens of thousands of men and animals.

And this was just one, relatively banal risk of marching at night.

Animals were more easily spooked by noise at night, soldiers might graze their spears with others in the dark, deadly animals such as snakes might come out in the night and then there was the ever-present risk of soldiers losing their sense of direction.

All such dangers and many more accompanied a night’s march, which was why generals tended to avoid them.

But just because military commanders did not like them did not mean they did not happen.

There were many examples of such marches both in Alexander’s previous life and in this life as well, the most recent one being Agapois’s march to outflank the enemy.

There were even records of full-scale night battles which had lasted for hours.

So marching and fighting in the dark did happen, though in fairness, all those were exceptions, not examples.

And Alexander had chosen such an exceptional strategy become of the vital need to catch the nobles off guard and prevent them from asking for reinforcements from nearby areas or worse in Alexander’s eyes, sending a message saying that he was attacking them and blatantly breaking the treaty.

And Alexander was confident that his troops would be able to pull this off because they had prior experience in night marching, and because the road between Zanzan and Jabel was well-known and well-traveled, even having a decent, earth-beaten route.

With these thoughts, one bright late afternoon, Alexander went to greet his legions outside the city, arranged in proper formations, in full armor, and ready to march.

Because the chainmails were still being made, Alexander could not equip his entire army with the latest and greatest, and so for now, only the officers had them, while the general soldiers wore their bronze cuirasses.

And those bronze cuirasses shone brightly in the setting sun, as Alexander swept his eyes over his army from atop his horse.

The smallest unit of this army was the squad, made of 8 soldiers, 2 slaves, and 1 mule, with the men sharing one tent.

Above them was the company made of ten (10) squads and led by a sergeant, amounting to one hundred (100) men with twelve (12) mules, and eleven (11) tents.

The extra 2 mules and 1 tent were assigned to the officers, who numbered five (5).

These were:

The leader of the company-The Sergeant.

This man usually led from the front and was the rallying point and morale support for the soldiers.

He was usually chosen for his intimidating physic and loud voice meant to cower the soldiers and make them follow him unconditionally and was

The second in command- The Lieutenant Sergeant.

He would be usually at the back policing the back of the formation and was tasked with urging the soldiers to fight on and prevent routing.

While in peace times he would help his sergeant drill and train the troops

The third in command- The Staff Sergeant.

This man would be around the middle of the formation, also policing the formation, while out of battle he was the watchman, distributing the watchword and managing those on sentry duty.

The Standard Bearer carried the flag and called men for roll-call, reviewed them, and solved disputes between soldiers.

And lastly, there was The Trumpeter, who signaled the various formation changes, while being in charge of the military clerks who tracked the soldiers’ pay and calculated all the deductions that were incurred.

A company was the real first fighting unit of the army, and as Alexander moved his horse across the frontline he called out some of the officers by name to boost morale.

And bigger units such as battalions made of 600 men and even legions made of around 6,000 men were created simply adding these companies together.

But commanding this legion belonged to a very high-ranking member- such as General Menes, with Melodias as his deputy and a small army of clerks and officers to help him run the gigantic machine.

And it was a gigantic machine, as the total area they covered in their regular everyday life with all their gear and animals was an astounding 20 square kilometers.

They numbered about 7,000 when counting both men and animals, with the proportion of men to animal being around 9 to 2 when taking into account the cavalry, and so a lot of men were needed to keep this fighting machine lean and mean.

Alexander’s heart filled with pride as he watched the rows and rows of soldiers standing in attention for him.

He had certainly seen bigger armies, much bigger ones, but this was the first time he felt so overwhelmed- because this was his army.

His to command and lead.

And so, just before setting off, Alexander decided to give a rousing speech, as he bought his horse in front of his soldiers and loudly said,

“My men, all of you have witnessed firsthand what kind of people the nobles of Zanzan are! These brutes hunt women and children for sport. These men kick out the poor and starving. And these men kill priests and loot temples.”

Alexander then dramatically raised his arm to the sky, as if clutching the dim, setting sun, before proclaiming, “But that ends today! Today we will kill them. Today we will raze the nest of the devils to the ground! Today we march to victory!”

Alexander’s loud voice was joined by an ear-splitting nebulous scream of “Haaaaaa”, as soon, under the cover of dusk, the men formed up and began marching north in a disciplined manner.

They were deployed in the following order during their march.

First, ahead of the legion rode a small contingent of Grahtos’s scout cavalry, looking for any signs of ambushes.

Though this was very unlikely in this particular circumstance as the nobles most likely did not even know that an army was walking towards them, Alexander still deployed them as such for he deemed it as standard procedure. 𝗼𝘃𝗹.𝗼𝐫𝗴

Then there were the vanguards, consisting of mainly cavalry and heavy infantry, who were meant to be the first point of contact with any enemy during the march.

Then were the officers, where even Alexander was, followed by the main legionary body.

After that was the baggage train, which was relatively short for this campaign, and lastly the rear guards which protected the back of the marching column.

The men walked with 4 men abreast given due to the relatively narrow road, making the

7,000 men and almost 1,500 animals stretch out over 2 km.

This meant that at a walking speed of around 5 km/hr, it would take almost half an hour for a single legion and its baggage train to pass.

Or at a gallop, it would take a rider going 40 km/hr about 3 minutes to ride across the entire length of the column.

And this was assuming quite idealized conditions, which there rarely ever were.

If roads were narrow and progress delayed for any reason, a single legion could easily double in length and stretch well over 4 km, taking almost an hour to pass, and requiring 6 minutes to ride from back to front.