Herald of Steel

“So they did know about Hatamum,” Above one of the ships, far to the east of Zanzan, Ural mused hearing his scout’s report.

The report confirmed the complete desertion of any and all villages around them, Hatamum being one of them.

“Yes, it was prudent to listen to Lord Faruq’s suggestion and send a scouting party ahead of us,” Jamider (Earl) Nibraz sounded impressed.

When Faruq noticed little to no lights at night coming from the shore, much as opposed to the other times he came to Zanzan, indicating there were no people living there, he suggested letting a few cavalrymen check out the surrounding area before they all blindly sailed their ships right up to that port.

“They could be waiting for us at Hatamum. Intending to launch an attack just after we have disembarked and have not gotten to set up our camps. So I want us to disembark here,” From the side, the soft, but authoritative voice of Faruq spoke up.

“It’s still about 60 km from Zanzan. Shouldn’t we get a bit closer?” Ural a bit groaned from the side at this suggestion.

What this man really wanted to do was sail right onto Zanzan’s footsteps, and lay a siege there.

But that appeared to be not an option.

So he wanted to get as close as possible.

Even if they could as far as Hatamum, which was 40 km from Zanzan, he could save himself a day’s march.

For the comfort-loving nobleman’s son that was precious.

But Faruq seemed adamant, as in a hardened tone he almost barked,

“No! The water is already getting quite choppy. And it will get even more so as we get closer. The rotten weather we have faced in the last few days is already proof of that.”

Faruq really wanted to get off this wooden death coffin on water as soon as possible and insisted they make landfall right now.

“But the weather has cleared. And we are already running later. I say we stay close to the shore and push on,” But Ural wanted to sail further.

And he was right in saying they were running late.

Instead of the ten days, they had taken almost two weeks to get ready, and then the stormy seas delayed them even further.

So sailing really would save them some time.

“….” But Faruq was not convinced and only turned his head pursing his lips.

“Then let us disembark in stages.” Seeing the two youngsters at an impasse, Lord Nibraz decided to play the middleman, as he gave off a large smile and explained, “With so many ships, it will take a long time to disembark at one place.”

“So rather than doing that, let Lord Faruq disembark here. And we can land a bit further. Then we can all link up before marching toward Zanzan.”

“How does that sound?” The old clapped his hand as he finished his suggestion.

And this compromise seemed to satisfy both parties.

“Sure. Let’s do it Lord Nibraz’s way.” Faruq was quick to agree to this, followed by Ural, and the matter was settled.

So soon the group split itself into three and made landfall in three different locations separated by a few hours of sailing. ．

Faruq’s group landed on the furthest and without any port facilities, had the most difficulty unloading.

“We are sorry, Young Master. But camels don’t like ships,” The commander of the Jahal mercenaries named Azab spoke to Faruq in a small, but hard voice.

Of course, his hard voice was not meant to be disrespectful, but it was just his natural voice.

And the thing he was apologizing for was the delay caused by unloading the camels.

Usually camels, and horses were loaded into ships by cranes.

There would stalls were erected on the hold of the ships and the animals would be hoisted directly from the quayside up over the gunwale of the ship using cranes, pulleys, and holsters and directly down through the open loading hatch and into the hold.

But since there was no crane there, huge gangway planks had to be placed on the ports of the ships, so that the camels could disembark one by one.

And given that these beasts did not want to get on or off the ships, a variety of techniques had to be used to get them down, which included slowly coaxing them, forcibly tugging them down and even beating them to get them off the ship.

To do this for 10,000 beasts would take time.

“I understand. The animals must also be seasick. Do it gently. We have time,” Faruq hence gently let Azab do his thing at his own pace.

And over in the distance, Ural and Nibraz were facing the same problem, albeit lesser ones due to their smaller numbers.

As this unloading continued, this report was soon fed to Alexander.

“My lord, should we attack them now that they are divided?” The usually cautious Melodias seemed unusually adventurous as he suggested this.

Prvong either he was really eager for a fight, or more likely the pressure of the fight was getting to him.

Alexander had noticed this sense of reckless urgency even before, particularly when he would go to check up on the training.

“My lord, we need more crossbow bolts. These green ones can barely shoot straight and need more practice,” Melodias would plead to Alexander every time he would see him, saying they needed more practice

To which Alexander would reply, “You cry for more arrows. Faziz cries he can’t make more. Who do I listen to?”

And then would instruct, “Make the soldiers reuse the shot bolts. We will need every single bolt for the offensive.”

They were already doing that and so Melodias would half mumble, half grumble, before ultimately obeying.

This was relatively normal, but today’s suggestion seemed overly dangerous.

So Alexander gave a reasonable answer, “By the time we have gotten our report, they must have already sorted everything out.”

“And by the time we get ready to attack, they will have already set up camp,” From the side, Menes additionally commented, making Melodias go quiet.

“Have they sent any demands?” From the back, Heliptos asked this and received a shake of the head from the group.

Usually, some kind of diplomatic effort would be made by both sides before a battle to give the appearance they tried to peacefully settle this.

This was rarely done in good faith, but mostly for the domestic audience.

To show that they had tried talking, but the other side was unreasonable, and hence fighting was the only way to go.

“Should we send a messenger? See what they are up to?” Then Menicus asked Alexander, which might be seen as a way for boosting morale.

And this got the young Pasha thinking, “Hmmm, maybe we should. He might be able to see their camp’s interior.”

Alexander mused out aloud and looked at his retainers for their thoughts.

“We could try. In Adhania messengers are strictly protected from being harmed. So there is no harm in trying,” And Heliptos the hopeful expressed his desire for so.

“Okay, then you can go,” And an instant later Alexander lightly smiled at his potential messenger.

Which the greedy-for-life economy minister quickly implored Alexander to rescind, “M..my lord, I’m not that good…good with speech…so umm….”

He did not want to enter the enemy’s den under any circumstances.

“Hmm, I guess your stammer will indeed get in the way,” Alexander joked with a smirk, as he then turned to Menes and said, “Choose one among the officers. Tell him to pay more attention to the camp than what he says.”

“Yes, my lord,” Menes nodded.

Alexander then turned to his retainers as he finalized the battle plan.

He began by informing them of their situation, “As you know, there are almost no great hills or large rivers from here to Hatamum. Meaning no defensible terrains. So we will have to fight on the open field.”

Then he laid out his final plan.

“Which is why I have decided to fight about five kilometers from Zanzan. That way, they cannot use their ships and cavalry to somehow get behind us and cut off our supply route and simply starve us out.” Alexander reasoned.

And this was a huge reason why Alexander had not set off to meet the attackers.

“The lord makes sense,” Menicus approved of this, and along with him all the other military leaders.

Hence the military strategy of waiting for the enemy was chosen.

Because every day they waited, their peasant levies could be better trained, and more arrows could be manufactured.

In fact, if Faruq waited long enough, Alexander even had the intention to swell his army to 60,000 and attack himself.

“My lord, should we use the cavalry to harass? Like we did in Adhan. We could also use the instant bow?” After the decision to wait was made, Grahtos proposed some harassing techniques, as he was itching to try out his new toy.

“Against 10,000 trained horse archers? Has your head turned to shit?” And was promptly shut down by this harsh bark, said by Menicus, whose gruff voice made Grahtos’s face sink.

He was quickly reminded that no matter how good his men were, they simply could not go against a 10 to 1-disadvantage.

Hence the cavalry was relegated to only scouting and reconnaissance.

And finally, after two weeks they made landfall, at last Alexander’s scouts reported to him that the army of fifty-five to sixty thousand (55,000 – 60,000) men and horses were just fifteen kilometers away from the city.

The battle was imminent.