Herald of Steel



Alexander had deployed all his soldiers to this campaign because he wanted to have the greatest amount of mass to smash against Jabel.

And though this had also left Zanzan weakened, with it being currently only defended by Cambyses's city guards and the garrison, due to Alexander's proximity to the city, he was not too worried.

And so Alexander's huge train of trained soldiers moved slowly and methodically without worry across the flat ground, creeping up on the unsuspecting nobles, while remembering to be vigilant about making too much noise.

And after thankfully an uneventful march, the army could finally see the walls of Jabel at around midnight.

"Looks like they don't know we are here. That's good," Menes reported to Alexander while squinting his eyes at the torches lit up around the walls.

"I'm sure they did not think I would be insane enough to attack them at full scale just two months into the treaty," Alexander slightly chuckled at the good news.

While his frank admittance made the council members around him roll their eyes and say in their hearts, 'So you do know that this is a risky plan.'

But they had all agreed to it and the dye had been cast.

The only thing they could do was go with it.

And Alexander soon gave that go-ahead command, saying, "Let the soldiers drink some water and rest for an hour. And in the meantime, covertly send over scouts on foot to look for weak spots around the wall."

"If we can find any, we will scale them using the hooks. And if we can't, we will have to resort to using the battering ram"

Walls were taken using a lot of techniques, with the simplest one being the ladder rush, where a bunch of men would place ladders against the walls and simply charge up the wall.

But the simplest technique was also the hardest to get results with as the casualty numbers in these endeavors would usually be enormous.

Because a properly defended wall with motivated defenders would be able to easily push the ladders off and with them the soldiers on them, dump stones and other hot materials onto the incoming soldiers, or simply kill the soldiers once they got up on the wall by ganging up on them as these enemy soldiers would have to get on the wall one by one.

Ladder rushes rarely worked as seen in the movies if the wall was properly defended.

At least they rarely worked on their own.

So to supplement this, other techniques would be used in conjunction.

One of them was the battering ram, which was just a heavy beam hanging off a portable wooden structure used to attack gates.

And lastly was the best siege engine of the day- The siege towers.

These huge, moved with oxen, three to four-story wooden buildings could carry soldiers inside them and once they were placed near the walls by the oxen, a trapdoor could be opened to let the soldiers flood the walls.

And these were the three main options available to the people of this time, with sapping being a hated fourth.

This technique involved digging a tunnel undeath the walls and then starting a fire around the wall foundations, ultimately crumbling the structure.

But this technique took so long and was so tedious that it was rarely preferred and very rarely used.

And those were it, as siege weapons such as the catapult or trebuchet had yet to be invented.

And though Alexander had plans to build such weapons, they were not yet ready.

Though fortunately for him, it was deemed that they would not be needed.

With the reason being provided by Grahtos who had personally done the scouting a few days prior.

"My lord, Jabel never had any proper wall. This is because it was…is a relatively minor town, mainly housing and entertaining the peasants and other poor folks who could not afford to go to Zanzan. So these low walls will be easy to scale." He reasoned.

Prior to Alexander's annexation of Zanzan, Jabel held little strategic value, because the main threat to Zanzan was to the south, through the sea and Cisrian hills by Tibias.

While any land invasion through the north of the city would mean going through a lot of Pasha Muazz's retainers, many of whom had much bigger and better cities, and in more favorable geographic terrain, thus making them better places to defend.

Thus Jabel was left to the wayside under Pasha Muazz who saw it as nothing more than a den of thieves and crooks, while the nobles currently residing there had been here only for two months and did not bother building up too much defense around the city.

One because they never expected to be attacked.

And two because they never planned to stay here for too long, only until January.

And so the walls, which were relatively hard and expensive to build were neglected.

Hence Grahtos's argument was followed up by Melodias, who expressed, "I agree. We can even have a bunch of crossbows below the walls shooting any soldiers trying to attack the scaling men. This way will be quicker."

Speed and surprise was currently the name of the game.

And thus Alexander nodded and said, "Okay, find a remote corner of the walls, fill up the ditch, and start climbing."

The nobles were at least competent enough to dig a ditch around the city, but the problem was that a ditch by itself was useless.

To make it effective, one had actively defend it using missiles and projectiles.

An act the nobles neglected to enforce.

And thus, under the dark moonless night, groups of scouts circled the city, like a vulture circles its prey.

They kept their eye out for potential weak spots, and places where the wall was relatively lightly guarded, such as a tired sentry nodding off or simply fast asleep.

These scouts looked for signs using their great eyesight, and by also counting the silhouettes of shadows that fell on the stone wall, cast by the burning torches.

And soon Menes came as the bearer of good news, grinning a large smile and saying, "My lord, the scouts have reported several points along the walls they think might be suitable to attack. It seems most of the sentries have gone to their quarters because of this cold."

Menes's smile was so wide and so much of this pearly whites were showing, that Alexander was afraid the light reflected off of this might alert the enemy.

It seemed the black general was truly pleased.

"Hmmmm…." Alexander hummed as he let out a cold, white breath of freezing air while ruminating on which side to attack from or if he wanted to attack from all three sides simultaneously to overwhelm the enemy.

But a while later rejected the latter thought as it could alert the enemy, and gave his command, "Good, then start with the left side."

Alexander had decided on that direction after hearing the details of the wall's structure, and learning that there were relatively fewer torches in that direction, meaning less opposing men and more cover of the darkness.

This initial directive was followed by another order which said, "And also have another group ready on the right side prepared to scale the walls from that direction if the other group gets detached."

"And lastly, arrange the men in the center with their battering ram if all fails."

Alexander wanted to cover all possibilities.

"Yes, my lord," Menes received the order with a military salute and then got to arranging the men in their proper formations.

The first, and primary group was deployed to the left, led by Menes himself, both because he wanted to personally oversee the unit's success and for the selfish reason that he wanted to claim that it was he who led the capture of Jabel, thus fish for more credit and glory from Alexander.

And in that endeavor, he placed his deputy Melodias to the right, as leading the backup, while Alexander placed himself at the center in case all went wrong.

The right and center forces for now mostly hid themselves in the wooded area about a few hundred meters from Jabel, while a battalion (500 men) of infantry and crossbowmen moved stealthily up to the left side of the city walls.

"Quickly fill up the ditch," Came the hushed order as the men in the front rows dumped the sacks of earth they had carried with them hastily and almost soundlessly, soon creating a solid earthen bridge.

Up until now, there had been no sirens going off which was good.

And so, the plan moved on to the last phase, as out came the hooks, with experienced men expertly spinning them by their thick ropes, before launching them upward, easily crossing the 5m wall.

*Clink,* *clink*, *clink*.

And instantly after, tiny bells of confirmation came of the steel hooks attaching to the walls, as soon a group of ten men grabbed the dry ropes with gloved hands and started climbing.

These men were very heavily armored, receiving the latest chainmail, and carrying the crossbow, but this weight did not seem to slow them down for it would be seen they scaling up the walls very similar to a red and blue customed superhero.

While below was an armed group of crossbowmen pointing their bows around the wall, ready to snipe off any unlucky sentry, thus guarding the climbing men.

It seemed the fall of Jabel was imminent.

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