Herald of Steel

Chapter 877

Alexander's visit to the clinic had been quite a fruitful one, as he got to see many of the advances being made there, letting him confirm that the money and resources pouring into that institution were not being wasted.

It also boosted morale among the downed men, many of whom would not be able to return to normal life even if they managed to recover, and Alexander's assurance that they would be well taken care of no matter what pleased them greatly.

And as Alexander left the premises, he could overhear the conversations between the various men, sharing their stories, making the clinic a place not only for physical healing but also a space of solace.

All these activities took around a week, and with his forces rested, reorganized, and ready, Alexander was once again confronted with the decision of what to do next, to attack, lay siege to the city or simply negotiate.

"We should attack again!"

And given Perseus had chosen not to give them chase but lick his wounds and recuperate inside Lilybee, many of his officers urged Alexander to go at it for a second time, taking the act as a kind of weakness on the king's part.

And as Alexander thought about it, he certainly found merit to this.

Furthermore, it was a thought reinforced by the fact that Perseus had sent out peace feelers again, offering Alexander the same conditions as before- half the country, a marriage with one of his daughters, and a yearly indemnity as tribute.

And there were some nobles, mostly of Tibian origins who strongly pleaded with Alexander to take this offer, saying it would help prevent any further blood loss.

While his blue blooded Zanzan nobles, people like Jamider (Earl) Yoosuq, vehemently protested, as they were determined to strangle their long awaited rival to death now that they were finally given the chance.

"Do not let him rest and recuperate. He will certainly attack once he gains his strength back." They had very reasonably claimed.

As for the men closer to Alexander, people like Menes, Heliptos, and others, well, they appeared more neutral, choosing to defer to Alexander's decision.

And thus confronted with the choices, Alexander weighed the pros and cons of his option for two days and two nights.

Until a certain information broke the deadlock.

And the source of that information came from the opposite camp- Perseus's!

One late afternoon, while he was resting his head, Alexander was informed by a herald that there was a man claiming to be from Perseus's camp wanting to speak to him.

Alexander was intrigued by this, thinking to himself, 'Defecting even after winning? Is Perseus's situation that bad? Or is there a personal reason?'

Thus he decided to let the man in,

This messenger, as he entered, Alexander found to be a stout and muscular man, with messy hair and limpid eyes, emanating an aura of slight wariness.

It seemed he was still apprehensive about walking into the center of the enemy's den.

But upon laying his eyes on Alexander, such thoughts appeared to be cast aside, as the man quickly greeted, "Greetings Pasha of Zanzan. It is truly an honor to meet a fellow Thesian all the way out here. I'm Zanatos of Thyrentum."

The man's tone was tinged with a bit of pride upon revealing the man of his city, for was a large regional power, while his words were phrased like finding Alexander was a Thesian was a great surprise.

"Haha, well for me, it is not much surprising to meet a fellow Thesian like you, my friend. I heard Perseus was a great ally of the city states," While Alexander's reply quite readily and explicitly showed his displeasure at the man choosing to side with Perseus and thus interfere in his personal matters.

"....." The messenger's lips twitched awkwardly hearing so.

He had hoped for a more amicable first greeting.

But that did not keep the man for too long, as quickly flashing a jovial smile like nothing had happened, he stepped forward, and revealed in a clear, professional tone,

"My lord, I'm sure you are a very busy man so I will not take much of your time. Permit to explain the reason why I'm here."

"We are part of an allied contingent sent by a collision of city states who responded to the King Perseus's call for aid in defending his lands."

"But after taking great losses in the last two battles, we found yourselves unable to withstand the casualties. Many, many of our brothers, whom we have known for years if not decades have left us."

"None of us are willing to die in this foreign land, anyone."

"Hence we first asked the king to pay our due coin and let us leave."

"But he has refused to do either. Saying he is short of coin and also he does not have enough ships."

At this point, the man shook his head in a bit of disgust as if he was lamenting how a man could work freemen like slaves, before ultimately raising his head again with a bit of icy coldness to it,

"It is because of that we turn to you- a fellow Thesian, my lord."

"We are willing to defect to your side during any of the following battles given the signal!"

"In return, all we ask is that you pay our due coin and arrange ships for our departure." Finishing the man then looked at Alexander with hopeful eyes.

"........" While Alexander himself did not immediately say yes or no, but keeping a stoic external facade, he traced his chin as if in deep contemplation.

While inside, he was already doing cartwheels.

This offer the man made to defect was a like pie of the sky for him, a great boon, and something he would have accepted even if the asking price was twice or thrice.

Hence Alexander had already made up his mind the moment he heard it, although he did not immediately accept it for fear of appearing too eager.

"How many are you?" Instead, he produced a pretended reluctant face, as if to say that his own coin was in short supply and if there were too many he might not be able to pay.

"5,000 my lord." But if Alexander thought such a rudimentary technique was going to work then he was sorely mistaken, because these men knew Alexander had taken the country's capital, and reasoned that he surely must have a lot of cash.

Hence they even inflated their own numbers, both to swindle extra money by presenting these extra 'ghost' personnel, but also to appear more important to Alexander.

Hearing that, for the next hour, the two sides would haggle a bit over the total coin to be paid, and finally set on this- Alexander would pay them their 6 months due salary, but would deduct the ship expenses from that.

Furthermore, in exchange, Alexander also wanted the latest news about Perseus's situation.

And from there, Alexander came to know a lot.

The first and most obvious of that was of course Perseus's shortage of gold, as evidenced by his inability to pay these men.

This had already anticipated this, given the king had lost his main source of income, his capital, as well as having his camp looted.

But still, it was nice to see oneself was right.

In addition, Alexander also learned of Perseus's actual losses, his army composition, his overreliance on mercenaries, with the mention of the familiar name Petricuno, and lastly the amount of men available to the king.

All these information proved immensely critical in helping Alexander make up his mind, as putting all these together, he only had to do a simple bit of math to find the most logical answer.

He thought, 'Perseus lost almost 10,000. 5,000 more are ready to defect. That leaves what…. only 20,000 men with him. I have 30,000.'

Thus, with the numbers speaking for themselves,Alexander ultimately rejected Perseus's peace offer, instead once again reiterating his own terms, which were- safety for Perseus and his family, a monthly stipend to them, and a plot of land in Zanzan in exchange for giving up all claims to the throne, i.e.- the whole of Tibias.

However, as the victor of the last battle, this was of course not Perseus, not only for the few nobles still fighting with him, but also to him personally, as if he accepted it, it would have meant Mithriditus and his own two sons had died for nothing.

So he tore up the offer, and two weeks later decided to go on the offensive, taking his army out of the city to launch an assault on Alexander's camp.

But there something unexpected happened.

Alexander did not give fight!

Instead, seeing Perseus approach, Alexander decided to retreat, as he packed up and left for the interior of Tibias, forcing Perseus to follow.

And why did Alexander employ this strategy?

Well, because of the intel that the messenger had given him.

From that Alexander knew that Perseus was running low on gold to pay his mercenaries which consisted of a majority of his army, so if those men got frustrated with a lack of results and left, Perseus would be like a naked man all alone outside in the dead of winter.

Thus Alexander decided to play for time, like Scipio Africanus did with Hannibal.

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