Herald of Steel

Chapter 694 The Siege of Thesalie (Part-1)

The commander of Thesalie's garrison, Lord Ponticus was a man of great military prestige.

He had been in countless campaigns both against Adhania and against other powers across the sea and knew the battlefield like the back of his hand.

A fact that was perhaps best demonstrated most recently when he had so accurately judged the number of Alexander's force from such a distance away so clearly.

That took a keen eye and loads of experience.

And it was not as if he was just a good soldier.

He was very well connected too, for he was Perseus's uncle and greatly trusted by the king.

In fact when he had come to attack Zanzan, it was Ponticus who was left in charge of the defense of Tibias.

And the fact that he was now given the prestigious role of defending a fortress like Thesalie against Adhania just went to show the trust Perseus had in him.

It was because of all this, both his identity and military pedigree, that when he spoke so lightly of the threat, the soldiers around too felt their nervousness fade away.

'If the general speaks so, then that must be true,' They said to themselves.

And Ponticus really did think what he said.

If the force in front of him was all the enemy had managed to muster then it was really too low to pose any serious threat to him. 

But though the scales heavily favored him, that did not mean Ponticus would be careless in his defense.

So turning to Lapitus he instructed, 

"Take all the precautions we do when under a siege."

"Alert all the garrisoned men  I want triple the men on the walls and doubled shifts."

"All the watchtowers must be manned at all times, and patrols on the walls must be present day and night."

"Then reinforce the barricades on the main gates."

"From today, all gates except the southern gate remain closed."

"The enemy may not be large but do not slack. Defend the walls properly and repel all attacks!"

Lord Ponticus gave a brief summary of the precautions while leaving Lapitus to work out the details on his own.

The man had been trained to do.

"Yes, my lord. I will see to everything. Rest assured!" So he bowed respectfully.

Having calmed the situation at the walls, Ponticus left it as quickly as he had appeared, choosing to turn his attention to then other secondary matters.

He then met up with the head of the city guards, telling him 

"Calm the people down."

"Say there is nothing to worry about and that they should carry on with their life as usual. The enemy cannot pose any threat to us."

"Then close the gates. Do not let anyone in."

"Seeing the army, people from every village in a 10 mile radius will start flocking here. We cannot take so much. Leave them outside."

"Do not let even merchants in."

"Only people sent from the capital carrying supplies and possessing special seals are to be the exceptions."

"Got it"

Following this instruction, the city lord went to check his granaries, taking note of his food stocks to ensure he had enough, and his armory, ensuring he had enough armaments to defend himself.

And lastly, he went back to his home to write a letter to the capital letting them know of the new development.

The main passage of the letter read such.

'Zanzan has launched an attack on our city of Thesalie with a force of 50,000. 

I believe this is retaliation against our previous attack.

They have decided to set up camp a few kilometers from such and seem to want to lay siege to us.

However, such a small force can never hope to overcome our walls.

I am certain of that.

The current situation here hence is stable. 

I have all the confidence to hold off against all attacks indefinitely.

Thus I humbly pray to His Majesty to send me the following supplies so the soldiers are not cut off and are able to carry out their task without hindrances.'

After that the letter listed the various quantities of supplies needed, but this was the gist of how the Tibians saw the attack.

As a futile attempt by an enemy blinded by rage using insufficient forces.

And all they would have to do was sit back and let the walls do all the work and they could not lose.

All the officers chose to use this tactic to stave off the offense, with nobody ever even thinking of bringing the fight to Alexander.

Following Alexander's arrival, the Tibians expected an attack immediately, or the next day at the very latest.

So seeing the enemy make no move and concentrate on getting their camp up and running confused most of them.

Traditional warfare doctrine dictated that when you were able to catch the enemy so off guard like Alexander had, it was vital to attack the enemy as soon as possible to take full advantage of the confusion.

But it seemed Alexander was happy to take his sweet time.

Which of course pleased Lapitus as it gave him much needed to bolster his defense.

He even thanked Alexander for his 'benevolence' in his heart.

But in the case of Alexander, there was no need to be hasty in his attack. 

After all, the siege was scheduled to last months or days.

Thus the attacks finally started after a week, after Alexander had sent them a messenger towards the wall urging them to stand down, which was of course turned down by Tibias as demonstrated by them shooting arrows at the rider.

Thus one glorious early morning, just after dawn Alexander's army was given the order to match towards the wall, and upon getting close enough to the wall, the crossbowmen were instructed to set up their pavises, the artillery men bought up their catapults, the huge scorpions were set. 

"So it has finally begun;" And seeing the nearly fifteen thousand men ready to let loose their projectiles, Lapitus from atop the wall grimly muttered.

"Shoot! Shoot them! Shoot at will!" And then quickly gave teh order to engage the enemy to the thousands of wall defenders.

*Shoo*, *Shoo*, *Shoo*

And thus the first day of the battle began, with each side exchanging deadly volleys for hours on end.

The Zanzan soldiers were able to use their huge 1,000 lb crossbows to launch deadly accurate fire toward the wall defenders claiming many lives, while they themselves were protected by their huge heavy pavises, all of which soaked up an uncountable number of enemy arrows.

In fact there were some pavises, particularly on the very frontlines that took so many arrows that they literally snapped in two, unable to withstand their own weight any longer.

But it was not as if only Alexander's side could seek cover.

The Tibians too could use the wall's battlements and crenelations on the walls to stave off Alexander's projectiles, remaining behind them most of the time and only peeking out to shoot a sudden volley now and then.

The entire showdown between the two sides seemed like a game of hide and seek.

A game where both sides seemed to be equally matched, with both sides possessing unique advantages of their own.

Alexander's side of course possessed the crossbow, a weapon that was very accurate and with a great range.

While Tibias, though mostly used weaker bows, were able to compete in range due to their higher elevation.

And it was not like they did not have crossbows of their own.

No, the weapon had left too much of a striking impression in Perseus's mind to be so.

Hence, remembering how thorny the enemy's weapon had proved during the siege, Perseus immediately ordered its manufacture as soon as he returned to his capital, intending to use it in his own battles.

And so the blacksmiths getting the king's order set about trying to do exactly that.

It took them over two years and countless tries to finally get there, with them particularly struggling to master the technique of shaping such a large piece of iron into a curve without cracking it.

But ultimately, overcoming all the daunting challenges, they did at last manage to create a working piece, able to be deployed on the battlefield, though with a number of drawbacks.

Its quality ranged from bad to worse, with the metal piece being prone to snapping at any time as the metal was still of quite poor quality.

Also, both its range and draw weight were significantly less than Alexander's, with the reason being the same- low quality steel.

And lastly, the cost of each one was ridiculous, due to the enormous time and difficulties involved.

The failure rate of the product was around fifty percent, meaning one of every two crossbows made did not meet the requirements and had to be scrapped.

All of which meant that none but the most wealthy member of the general public would have the coin to buy the product.

As for using it, well it had to be remembered that crossbow bolts were not cheap either.

All this meant that equipping one's army with crossbows like Alexander did was simply not possible for Perseus, for he was much too poor. 

But still, despite all the issues, it was still quite the achievement given the blacksmiths were never ordered to make anything similar before.

And there was no doubt over the years they could certainly able to refine their technique and make crossbows similar in quality to Alexander's.