Herald of Steel

Chapter 875 Perseus’s Aftermath

Chapter 875

While Alexander drowning in self reflection and worrying himself over the potential repercussions of the result of this battle, you would think Perseus would be out and about celebrating this great win.

By now the city of Lilybee should have been buzzing with noises of loud celebrations and grand feasts, with good food and great wine flowing as the men cheered their hard won victory and toasted to the beginning of the grand reconquest of their country from the hands of the evil conqueror- Alexander.

But contrary to such an expectation, the city of Lilybee was actually unusually quiet, with little color in the air.

Instead, it was like a mist of melancholy had clouded over it.

For Perseus was in a gloomy mood despite the win.

It had been too costly.

This ‘victory’?was nothing like the grand win that was required for the king to make a comeback, instead the hard fought slogging match had sapped more and more of his strength, leaving him actually weaker than he faced against Alexander.

And the after- battle analysis and the tally of the dead would really show that.

Over the past few days, Perseus’s men, as the victors, combed through the battlefield, performing the various tasks that were required after each battle. .

This included retrieving all the fallen weapons and armor, rescuing the friendly wounded,?capturing or if the wound was too dire, mercy- killing the enemy wounded, and last of all, tallying and burying the dead from both sides.

And once this was all done, the men quickly put forward their findings to their king, first commenting on Alexander’s losses, which they claimed to be at around 10,000 dead and wounded.

This certainly sounded like a lot if it was true, as it would be 25% of his total force- a grievous blow indeed.

However, although somewhat accurate, which was a remarkable feat itself, the digits looked worse on paper than what they really represented in real life.

For among those reported 10,000 losses, 8,000 were the peasant Tibians, who had fled the battlefield.

Those were all auxiliaries, and although it could not be said that their loss did not hurt Alexander, it was more of a flesh wound than anything grievous.

In some ways, it could even be argued that the loss of those weak links actually helped Alexander strengthen his army.

After that 8,000 loss, came the casualty of oxen handlers, which was 500 dead and wounded.

But these men were not soldiers but slaves and servants.

So in reality, Alexander’s actual loss to his own army was around 1,500 dead and wounded, which was of course a much more managable number.

Whilst on the opposite spectrum, Perseus’s loss also almost reached Alexander’s, being at around 8,000.

And this was despite him winning!

This was mainly the reason the presenting officer had started with Alexander’s numbers, to try and soothe Perseus’s mood first, like a child showing his parents the good grades before that one subject he got a C-.

Although it was unknown how effective this tactic was here, as upon reading it, though the king did not lash out, the officer did notice Perseus’s eyes visibly dim.

Although not as much as Alexander, to Perseus, who had far fewer resources, these numbers were devastating.

And worse still, these losses were quite impactful as many of these bodies were of trained men.

Perseus had taken the first major chunk of casualty when Talukder (Viscount) Prantik had broken through the center, routing the formation there, and trying to make a breakthrough.

There Perseus had taken around 1,000 dead and wounded, saved from a greater tragedy by the fact that the Talukder (Viscount) could not pursue these fleeing men and kill more due to Mithriditus’s reserves blocking them..

Following that came the greatest part of the loss, which was just in the midst of the battle itself.

Perseus took another 3,000 to 3,500 men here, and among these, almost all the men had died!

For such was the intensity of the battle.

This one number could really show just how zealously the Tibian had fought, as just those casualties were to equal 10 percent of his total force.

Typically an army broke and ran once it reached 5 percent casualty.

Armies with poor morale could rout at rates half as that.

While the only armies who could withstand 10 to 15 percent casualty were the ultra zealous ones, usually fanatically religious in nature, like the Arabs during the Early Islamic Golden Age of Expansion, the Knight Templars, or the Spanish Inquisitors.

So for the lowly peasants to have withstood such an assault, really went on to show Perseus’s charisma, and one should also never forget Mithriditus’s valiant sacrifice.

It would not be wrong to say that the man had single handeldly turned the tide of the battle for his king.

For without his charge and subsequent martyrdom, it was very likely Alexander would have won.

After that was the last part of Perseus’s casualties, which came from the heavy cavalry charge that Hemicus had carried out, followed up by the hounding of the 300 cavalrymen that chased the fleeing enemy and reaped many lives, resulting in the loss of another 3,000 to 4,000 men, with the wounded still making back to the city even as they spoke.

In fact, the losses here could even be said to be 7,000, as devastated by the losses, the surviving Thesian units were urging Perseus to give them their pay and requisition ships, for they wanted to return.

After taking 50% to 60% casualties, these men seemingly had enough.

And it took a lot of cajoling and even a bit of arm twisting on Perseus’s part to make them stay, as he gave them various excuses at various times.

No money.

No available ships.

And even straight up saying- ‘you cannot go’ was among the many reasons given.

But even the king knew forcing such unwilling men to fight in the long term was not an option.

Who knew when they would rebel?

Perhaps in the middle of another battle even.

But the king was now desperate for more bodies.

So he had little option other than to take these drastic measures and gamble that the shared histories of their two lands would be enough to keep the men fighting.

It remained to be seen how prudent of a move that would be.

Aside from being burdened with the pain of suffering such losses on the military side, the man also had to deal with personal tragedies that came about as a result of the battle.

Most obviously, the loss of Mithriditus came as a great blow to Perseus.

The regal man would never forget how the old man’s body looked after it was retrieved from the battlefield.

Crushed, mangled, stomped on, and squished by the feet of many thousands of men as the individual units moved back and forth the battlefield, the face barely had any recognizable features left.

Instead, the entire thing looked more like a lump of homogenous meat.

But the wounds across the body were still very telltale, and Perseus counted eleven punctures, placed all over the upper torso of the body in various depths.

While his horse…. well the poor animals had more wood sticking out of it than skin and meat.

And seeing this gruesome sight, although Perseus had seen far worse, he could not help but shed tears.

For the old man was almost like a father figure to the king and even though Mithriditus had won him the battle, Perseus half the time wished he had not.

Sometimes he wished the genteel, elderly man was still with him even if he had to lose the battle.

At one time, the stately king even slightly rebuked himself for not taking Alexander’s offer when given the chance.

Perhaps they woudl have had a happier ending if he had.

And it was a thought reinforced by the fact that two of his five sons too had died in battle, both of them while fighting in the frontlines, one with a stab right to the left lungs, while the other died two days later from a stomach wound, his ending being much more drawn out and painful.

But from this, it could really be seen that it was not only Mithriditus’s sacrifice that had held the center together, royal blood too had to be sacrificed.

And it was mainly because of these three great deaths that Perseus forbade any large show of celebrations with the city, instead declaring a week of mourning for the three, as well as all the heroic, dead soldiers.

Following that, a grand funeral was held in the men’s honor on the third day after the battle and Perseus then retreated into a gloomy mood.

His mind felt like it was being consumed from all sides due to the pressure and he could not decide on his next move.

Mainly he felt torn on whether he should offer Alexander his peace terms or push his luck and keep fighting on.

And although many of his retainers urged him on the latter, Perseus, showing them the aftermath of their ‘victory’, would famously say, “One more win like this, and ‘We’ are undone.”

(Quote taken from Pyrrhus of Epirus.)

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