Herald of Steel

Chapter 1267: Siege Of Caira (Part-1)

Alexander had been concerned about the possibility of Chief Metztil betraying him from the day he had chosen to consider allying with the man.

And he had gone through the usual list of things to do to try and mitigate that.

However, every single one of them ran into the same problem- a gross lack of even the most simple trust.

The two groups were two very different people- the language was different, the command structure was different, and even the military values one looked for in a soldier were different.

Not to mention, the experienced Alexander only needed to take a single glance at the Helvati tribesmen to understand such people could never be 'tamed' by his officers.

He noticed that the Helvati always kept a good distance from his legionary camp and whenever Alexander felt their gaze fall on him, it seemed to be one of weariness, suspicion, and even subtle hate.

Clearly, these hot blooded men had no love for 'outsiders', the mindset formed over centuries due to various societal and historical reasons.

Hence these men would never follow anyone except people from their own tribe, people who they trusted and knew would not stab them in the back

So if Alexander were to forcefully try and do what Lord Macht did with the Margraves, things would turn very ugly very soon.

At least in that case, the Margraves agreed at first and only rebelled once Lord Macht proved incompetent.

But here, the Helvati would just pick up their weapons and go home.

In addition to these, there was also Alexander's concern about the quality of those men, as later suspicions were confirmed by Remus's report.

Unlike his legionaries' complex system of signaling trumpets and drums that allowed them to change formation on the fly and thus quickly adapt to all kinds of changing circumstances on the battlefield, the Helvati were quite primitive.

From talking to Metztil in his free time, Alexander found that they at best used the most simple of commands when fielding an army- like charge forward, turn left or right, or retreat.

Anything more and you had various units butting heads with each other or simply becoming confused in the chaos of the battle.

Because of all these reasons, even though Alexander wanted to spread Metztil's men among his own ranks, he refrained.

Rather he tried to make the man glue himself to him by offering him generous benefits. And he believed the land he offered till now was good enough.

The chances of Metztil betraying him were very unlikely.

But if things still unfolded in that very implausible direction, well, he chimed the contingency to Remus,

"We have discussed all the terms and even sworn to the gods to witness our alliance. But if they betray us even then, well... then that's it, isn't it? No one can ever defend everything at once."

"Instead of being slaughtered like the Margraves back then, we will give up on the battle immediately and retreat back to here. What happens next... we will discuss later."

Remus and Menes took those last words to mean if Alexander lost the coming campaign, he would cut his losses and go back home.

All the advantages would be with Alexander with none of the downsides.

However, circumstances made it so that this was not to be.

Hence as Alexander laid his eyes on the huge meter thick walls that he was tasked with demolishing, the sense of the scale made him feel a bit daunted.

Sure these walls were still not comparable to the huge walls of Thesalie, but remember Alexander had almost two years to prepare to take that city and even then he could only do it due to how close it was to Zanzan, making his supply chain very short.

All the tricks and schemes he had used back then, like constructing a new wall and firing flaming catapults would not be applicable here.

Hench at this moment, Alexander could not help but wish that he had not given up the control of the manor.

Then we would have still had control of the Royal Harbor, thus allowing him to land troops via ships or boats directly into the city, bypassing Lord Parker's most formidable defenses.

Of course, such wishes were little more than a pipe dream as back then Alexander was suffering from a chronic shortage of men.

Not to mention without him personally leading the negotiations with Metztil, there was no way he would have gotten the Helvati on his side.

So instead of daydreaming, he quickly set up camp and early next morning began to set up his catapults, wishing to pound a section of the walls down.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The loud thuds of 15 to 20 kg stones hitting the walls quickly made even the sturdy structure reverberate with a subtle, slow shake, causing many of the defending men to duck for cover.

They had never experienced such an artillery attack and the sight of those huge balls being flunk toward them frightened many.

"My lord, please stay away from the walls. It is not safe."

But one man who had no intention of cowering was Lord Parker, who had personally come out to the walls to see the size of the enemy for himself.

By now, this young scion seemed to have shredded that previous shroud of gloominess and instead sported a sharp penetrating look.

And ignoring the warning of his chief bodyguards, he instead approached the end of the walls and sneered,

"Hmmmp! So this is Alexander's way of conducting warfare. The barbarian slave did not even send a war delegation."

It was customary during this time for the attacker to send peace terms before starting any attack, as it was considered something like etiquette among gentlemen.

Alexander had not bothered to send anyone this time because he had been in enough meetings with Lord Parker to know that if words could have made the man bend, the campaign would have been over by now.

Lord Parker's sneer was accompanied by a careful scan of the spawning tents that lay on the green field ahead of him, and it caused the man to murmur,

"There is no need for us to fight Alexander now. We will wait for father's reinforcements."