Herald of Steel

“Charge!”

“Charge!”

“Shout and charge!”

As the first few rows of Menes’s army crossed the icy cold river, their commanders shouted this specific instruction, as they were ordered as such by their higher-ups.

While from the opposite side, the missile troops with practiced adeptness quickly formed up, with the infantry placing themselves at the front to protect the frailer projectiles troops at the back, who then began to launch volley after volley of deadly missiles at the incoming Zanzan soldiers.

And judging by the speed they switched from being passive onlookers to active defenders, it was apparent that these men were hardened veterans.

Most of them had been baked in the crucible of Amenheraft’s three years of fighting, and so after their initial shock, they quickly knew what to do.

In fact even their initial shock was not of fear but of incredulity, as they simply could not believe the enemy would force a crossing in such open terrain, under complete broad daylight with no camouflage.

‘As expected of peasants and rowdy mercenaries,’ Many of the war veterans hence smirked confidently as they were told this about the enemy they were about to face.

While for Menes’s troops, the hail of arrow fire, javelin throws, and lead bullets from slingers were proving a difficult obstacle to overcome, as casualties on their side quickly began to mount even through the shield, the chainmail, and the gambeson or linen thorax.

Menes knew these men would face the stiffest resistance and thus had equipped them with the heaviest armor they had to give them the best protection.

But still, the sheer volume of the missile projectiles being launched against them was showing itself to be too much.

Additionally, given the men wore so much armor, it also meant they were slow and sluggish to maneuver, and their movement speed particularly devolved to a crawl when crossing the river, making them become almost sitting ducks for the enemy on the opposite banks, who began to use these poor sods somewhat as target practice.

But still the soldiers of Zanzan pushed on, urged by their commanders, who constantly repeated this particular phrase, “Shout and charge!”, “Shout and charge!”

This was a strange thing to chant, especially the first one, as one would expect the enemy to make as little noise as possible when crossing a contested river so as to try not to alert the enemy as much as possible.

And so perhaps if a particularly paranoid man had been present within the Tibian ranks, he would have suspected something.

Such as the enemy being instructed to make too much noise at the front to draw their attention from somewhere else.

But alas, no such shrewd commander was present within the 4,000 forward-deployed troops.

And unfortunately for the Tibians that was exactly what was happening currently.

“Quick! Quick! Hurry the horses and get them across!” Grahtos on the left flank of the army urged his men to hasten their fording.

While on the right flank, the man in charge- Laykash did the same.

Both men knew the forward-deployed infantry were being battered brutally by the enemy artillery and it was unknown how long those poor, green recruits could hold before they broke rank and run.

These men were cannon fooders as Menes naturally had not sent his good troops to draw enemy fire.

And so the reliability of these men holding the line till the battle plan could be executed was highly questionable.

Hence all the cavalrymen knew time was of the essence.

But knowing something and doing something about it were two very different things.

This was because the shallow parts of the river were currently being used by the infantry, meaning the horses had to swim through much deeper water along the two sides.

This also of course meant that the horses moved slower as they waded through the deeper water, while additionally, many beasts were even reluctant to get wet in this cold weather in the first place.

So their riders had to coax, cajole, and even beat these beasts to follow their order, taking up precious time.

The situation was also not helped by the fact that many of the cavalrymen were new recruits that had only joined for a few months after Alexander had decided to expand the cavalry part of the army, meaning they lacked the expert handling skill of their steeds as the Sycarians did.

All of which played to drastically slow the river crossing, and affected their pre-planned attack schedule.

And if the riders could not cross quickly, the entire attack failing was a very real possibility.

So these cavalrymen endeavored to accomplish this task as fast as possible.

While in the meantime, the small contingent of around 5,000 troops or one legion that was sent to the front, composed mostly of new levies, were mostly left to their own, with the main army only cheering their comrades on from the opposite side, them dry, and warm, alive.

While these poor men were in the opposite condition, wet, cold, and many injured, they still tried their best to cross the river and reach the opposite side to engage the enemy.

With their only weapon from the incessant arrow fire being the heavy wooden shield they carried with them over their head.

These soldiers had tried to form a testudo as they moved, but the uneven ground and the act of wading through a literal river made that endeavor impossible, as it was not feasible to maintain unit cohesion when moving through such terrain.

Thus many gaps could be seen even form through the wall of large shields which inevitably let the enemy shoot through them to reap many lives. ．𝗻𝐞𝘁

And in this particular case, Zanzan’s specialty, its secret troops- the crossbowmen were surprisingly of no use, as the enemy was too far away to hit them from Zanzan’s side of the bank. While the enemy itself could target the mass of bodies on the water as those men were deliberately coming towards them, thus even making the task earlier for them.

As for the crossbowmen, even accompanying the advancing soldiers to give them cover fire was not a viable option, as reloading a crossbow in the middle of a river was quite impossible.

And so for now, the deciders of the previous battle were forced to simply wait on the other bank and watch helplessly as their comrades tried to slowly, almost with a crawling speed cross the river before being once again set upon by the phalanx infantry waiting eagerly for them.

The river had already turned blood red by then, and it was unknown how long these men could hold under such casualties.

At it was this exact message that soon reached Menes, with the herald relaying this particular message from the legion’s commander.

“Lord Menes, the situation at the front line is critical. I’m not sure how long these peasants can hold.”

“If you are gonna do something, do it quick!”

Menes too understand the gravity of the situation and knew that the cavalry attack that was supposed to come and attack the enemy’s flanks was really late.

And so he barked at another one of his scouts, “What’s the deal with the cavalry attack? Did Grahtos fall asleep?”

Menes naturally was irritated.

While the innocent scout bearing the anger of the supreme general would only lampoon in his heart that he was scolding the wrong person, before repeating the challenges the cavalry was facing crossing the river and then volunteering,

“Lord General, let me go and urge the two commander sirs to hurry up.”

The poor scout wanted to do both because he felt it was necessary, and also because he felt it would be prudent to distance himself from this angry man for the time being.

“Wait!” But it seemed Menes had not finished speaking, as he then instructed, “Go tell both Grahtos and Laykash to launch the attack immediately.” adding,

“I do not care if they are ready or not. Or whether they have enough numbers or not.”

“Tell them the front lines might break anytime, and they are to attack the flanks regardless.”

“With whatever men they got on the other side of the river.”

Menes repeated many of his commands to emphasize their importance.

“Yes, sir,” The scout diligently received the order with an instant salute, and quickly relayed the same message to a colleague of his, as each rode off in opposite directions, one to inform the left Grahtos, and the other the right Laykash.

While the herald that had bought Menes the message from the front line was given the following instruction- To go tell the front legion commander that General Menes has ordered the cavalry attack to begin immediately and that he is to hold on till then at all cost.

As in the meantime, on the left flank of the cavalry, Grahtos let out a short cry upon receiving Menes’s order, exclaiming, “What! We are not ready!”

Before finally being convinced by the messenger.

But not before he sent back the herald with these words, “Okay, but tell Menes that we only got 500 of the 2,000 men across. The river is deeper than we expected and the animals are scared to cross it.”

Though things were fortunately a bit better on Laykash’s side, as the water level there was much less there.

And so the young man had managed to get about 1,200 of his 2,000 horses across and was ready to charge.

Hence soon, the two cavalry units were ready for their pincher attack.