Herald of Steel

Chapter 1280: To Seige or Not

Alexander would modify the order to move the army from ’at once’ to ’by tomorrow’, courtesy of his officers.

A huge machine like an army needed at least that much time to change course.

It also let the scouts send a better picture of the overall situation and allowed Metztil’s men who were scattered around the countryside to get back to the camp and join the ranks.

Lastly, it gave the men time to discuss strategies and formulate a coherent plan.

It was also here that many of the officers raised the obvious point,

"My lord, we should not lift the siege! Let them run! Isn’t this what we exactly wanted? With the defenders gone, Caira will be ours by tomorrow!"

And indeed this logical rhetoric gained a lot of traction among the gathered man.

While the rebuttal came from Remus, who snarled with a very excited face,

"Fool! What use is taking the city? We are here to beat the Heeat family not conquer cities! As long as they remain, the threat to Lady Miranda will remain. Remember... we left the city for the Heeats just three months ago... so what? Did anything happen?"

Given the amount of pain and suffering the Heeats had caused Remus and the original 5,000, the man was certainly very eager for revenge. He did not want to end the campaign in such a lukewarm, tasteless fashion.

And this same sentiment could be said to be shared by many of his soldiers, as the hot blooded men were always looking for a good fight.

So when their commander heard some of the officers were trying to get in their way, he immediately protested.

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The accused officers however did not lose any steam and bravely stepped up to the challenge, cooly chimed,

"Taking the city now is very different from back then. We now have the strength to hold it. And even if we want to fight the Heeats, we can do it after taking the city... those are not mutually exclusive. Let us have Lady Miranda enter the city... she will appear like a hero to the people, the great lady who stopped the ’native barbarians and evil Adhanians’ from razing the city to the ground.

We can have her sitting on the MV throne by the end of the day and no one would dare argue!"

As these heavy, prophetic words were uttered, the first to turn his head in surprise and admiration was Alexander, and he could not help but take a good, second look at the young officer.

Clean shaven with short, curly hair, the lingering baby fat on his cheeks and dimples made him appear almost like a kid- in the middle of his teens at best.

It took Alexander a good few seconds to recall his details- the young man, named Shahin was a small noble who had joined Alexander’s army very recently.

His father had died in the Battle of Adhania, where Alexander slaughtered Amenheraft’s forces, leaving the young man as his next heir.

But due to his age, he came very close to being usurped by his elder illegitimate brother.

Luckily Alexander suddenly annexed the surrounding regions of Zanzan, which included his own fief. At that time, the young man cleverly exchanged protection for his position in the military for twenty five years of undying service.

As Alexander refreshed his memory, he could not help but delight in the discovery of this uncut gem.

So much so that they subconsciously discarded the next throwaway line Alexander casually uttered, "Of course, it is possible they felt truly left the city and do not intend to return."

Such optimistic thoughts were hardly worth their salt here as if the Heeats truly had no intention to fight, they would have sent peace terms.

So the only logical answer that remained was that Lord Parker was still very much in the end, and was either in the process of gathering reinforcements or formulating a new plan or both.

And given Alexander had no idea which of the three, it was impossible for his officers to make any definite suggestions.

What if they said something and it turned out to be false?

Even if they did not lose the battle because of that, it would still decrease their level of competency in Alexander’s eyes, which meant fewer promotions and less power.

And everyone wanted more power.

While having successfully subdued his generals, Alexander decided to end the meeting there,

"Let us wait till tomorrow before we make a certain decision. It will allow our scouts more time to observe the enemy and see what he does. Metztil’s 5,000 men are also due sometime around the morning. In the meantime, we can start packing."

Then to give skeptics Remus a way out, Alexander also added,

"Also if you want, we can launch a massive attack on the walls right around dawn... to see if the walls have truly been emptied. If it succeeds, then all is good. We will do it as Remus and Lord Shahin said. If it fails, then we will lift the siege and try and find where Lord Parker has set up camp. Agreed?"

Having pleased both parties of the argument, the officers had little to grumble about and left with varying degrees of acceptance.

But even the most reticent ones could not find too many flaws in Alexander’s suggestion.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

For the defenders up on the wall, the crack of dawn opened with perhaps the largest barrage of stone throws of the war.

This was because Alexander had ordered his artillerists to empty the full inventory of their stones and then get ready to pack up.

But he would never get to order the planned large scale ladder rush to accompany the barrage because one of his scouts would quickly come with word that a huge army was spotted heading towards his camp.

So Alexander would instead order his men to form up and march to meet the enemy.

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