Herald of Steel

Menes bringing in Alexander’s age was a genius move on his part, as given the young man’s achievements, the other leaders were eager not to fall behind.

And hence, when the usually aggressive Menes suggested this risky, bold option, the other military leaders were pressured by their peers to ultimately choose it.

So then the question rose, ‘How to attack?’

And Menes seemed to have even found that, a way to cross the river relatively safely.

So he laid out this plan to his commanders, “The Tibians will stick close to the river as they need a large supply of fresh water, just as us.”

“So I propose sending our scouts forward to find a relatively shallow part of the river.”

“Once we find it, we will camp somewhere close to it.”

“And then we will wait for the enemy to get ahead of the spot so that we can cross it.”

“And attack their rear!” This last sentence was said not by Menes but by Heliptos, whose enthusiastic interjection clearly expressed his thoughts about the proposal.

The plump man clearly loved it.

And so did the other leaders, who could be seen one by one nodding their heads.

This was certainly feasible.

And so, for the remainder of that morning, the men worked on ironing out the details of how that maneuver would be exactly done, as 50,000 men doing anything, much less crossing a running river produced a lot of noise, and they had to find a way to distract the enemy rear guard so that they would not be alerted and let the main enemy force know.

That would be a disaster as the enemy cavalry would be able to cut them to ribbons, while their missiles troops peppered them with arrow fire.

But also, letting the enemy get too far ahead of them was also not an option, as then they would be able to escape before Menes could attack, meaning the latter would starve.

So Menes needed to properly place his camp just the right way to ensure they were just within the enemy’s sweet spot.

And hence all these planning and preparations continued for the next two days, as in the meantime, the scouts that were sent out for reconnaissance spotted several shallow parts of the river along their marching route which matched their requirements, with the water at best reaching the hips.

The abundance of such spots was actually natural, given it was winter and almost all the rivers’ water levels had dropped, while the cool season also made the waters calm and gentle, making it easy to ford, though inevitably a bit cold.

But it was nothing the soldiers could not soldier through, and so soon the day of the attack arrived.

But here, a slight hiccup to the plan propped.

“The enemy has banked itself right next to the shallows. What do we do?” Late at night, Melodias posed this question nervously to Menes in his war tent.

The man was trying very hard to keep his nerves calm.

“Yes, what should we do?” And this question was repeated by Heliptos, who sounded equally nervous.

Because none of the men wanted to spell out the trouble they were in, i.e.- They only had one meal’s worth of food left. .𝘤𝘰𝑚

Whereas they were still at least three days march from Zanzan, as Tibias had decided to take a roundabout way to attack Zanzan by choosing to follow the River Diannu.

“……..” Menes too was fluxed.

They had only discussed how they would attack Tibias from the rear, but never considered performing a contested river crossing right in front of the enemy.

This was not part of the plan.

And failing to account for this possibility was a major oversight.

But now was not the time to dwell on that.

Instead, Menes knew he had to do something to solve this current predicament before looking back on his mistakes.

After all, an army that was starving was just one step away from mutiny.

And given Alexander was not here to calm these people, the normally racist Adhanians which made up the bulk of the force would likely tear him and his men a new one if given the chance.

And the other leaders also knew this, hence their added fear.

Thus, he forced himself to rake his brains, and as if the gods were smiling at him, finally, a while later, hit him with an epiphany.

“I have a plan. But it will require some sacrifice.” He grinned out loud,

While the other leaders really could not care less about sacrifices, as long it was only ‘some sacrifices.

As far as they were concerned, if the death of some poor sods could help them gain final victory, they would gladly pay the price,

So they turned to look at Menes with eager ears and hopeful gazes.

And when they heard his full proposal, soon the general’s plan was approved with overwhelming praise and adulation.

“Excellent! This plan is excellent!” Heliptos was the loudest advocate of the strategy, both because he truly liked it, but also to oil up Menes and smother his dissatisfaction at him.

While Melodias even quickly moved to give suggestions to properly implement it, saying,

“Yes. But if we want to carry it out, I propose we wake the soldiers right now. And have them prepared and in position by the crack of dawn.”

“We should attack at soon the sky clears.”

This proposition was instantly accepted by the military leaders, and so with this, the next few hours were used to bring Menes’s strategy to life.

Meaning the soldiers were woken up from their half sleep, quickly given a hot meal, properly armed and equipped, made to report to their units, and then finally moved to position, as they then waited for their commander’s orders.

But if someone decided to pay attention to the individual men, he would have found them a bit confused and low on morale, as they did not know why they had been woken up like this in the middle of the night after a hard day’s march or when or where they were doing to attack.

And their morale would have been certainly lower if they knew they were about to be ordered to cross the freezing river under enemy fire.

Now, all this could have been redeemed by Menes giving a loud, powerful, rousing speech to pump the men up before the battle.

But he decided against it so as to not alert the enemy.

And so for now, the Zanzan soldiers seemed weaker than its counterpart across the bank.

But Menes did not think the difference in fighting zeal to be critical.

It was still manageable in his opinion.

So instead he turned around to ask the scouts who had gone to the very edge of their side of the river to see the enemy layout one last time before the attack, wanting them to describe what they had seen.

And the scout informed him this, “General, the enemy has deployed its troops in the usual formation as it always does when it rests at night.”

“There are around four to five thousand (4,000 – 5,000) missile units placed along the river bank to stop any crossings, while the main army is at the back in their main camp.”

“We have also tried to spot any trenches, ditches, or ramparts, and only found a trench dug around the front, facing the river.”

“As usual their flanks are open.”

Now, though this might seem like a gross oversight, but in defense of the Tibians, they constructed this defensive structure every night.

And given the enemy was right opposite to them and they could clearly see them, they simply saw no reason to build further trenches along the flanks as there was little chance of such an attack.

In their minds, the enemy could only attack them across the river and it could only be head-on.

So they did not bother.

Plus there was also the inherent factor of laziness by the soldiers, who detested digging trenches in this cold, finding the dry soil almost as hard as concrete.

And it was this noticeable flaw that Menes had spotted quite a few nights ago that now gave him a last shot at winning this battle.

“Hmm, good, that’s good.” Thus hearing the scout’s report and being reassured that the enemy had not changed its standard tactics, Menes gave pleased nods and before turning to his adjutant, to give the go-ahead for the attack.

“Tell the front units to advance as we discussed.”

“And make sure the cavalry is ready.”

“We attack now!”

“Yes!” Synadusnadus obeyed with a military salute, and soon military trumpets began to blare from the Zanzan’s side.

While on the opposite side of the river, as the sky had begun to brighten, the lightly armored missile troops placed along the front line, gave a lazy yawn and rubbed their eyes in relief, finally relaxing now that their shift was finally over.

When suddenly their ears were blasted by loud honks from the opposite bank, followed by the deafening cries of bloodthirsty man as the 2,000 missile troops and 2,000 light infantry stared with shock and horror at the mass of enemy infantry crossing the river en mass.

They could hardly believe that the enemy had decided to cross the river in broad daylight.

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