Herald of Steel

Chapter 699 The Siege of Thesalie (Part-6)

As the siege entered its third month, it entered a brand new phase for both sides.

For Tibias it meant constant nightly fires and incessant arrow fire from the enemy, resulting in large casualties.

A situation that turned harder when the enemy started to launch these fireballs from all three directions.

With their only saving grace being that those from the sides were much easier to deal with. 

While on Alexander's side, the main challenge was completing the most difficult part of the siege.

Which was the part where the ditch around the city was to be filled with earth and a ramp up to the wall was to be built.

The reason a ramp was needed to be built was because with Thesalie being on a hill, its slope proved too steep for the men to pull the heavy towers into place.

Hence an upper layer of dirt with less hostile of a gradient had to be built, along which the siege towers that were currently being built could be more easily pulled along so that the soldiers could be directly deposited into the walls.

And for this endeavor, as Alexander had requisitioned before for his forest clearing, here too were soldiers and camp followers employed.

Though this time the latter proved much more reluctant to be employed.

And who would not?

It was nowhere as cushy as simply cutting down some trees.

Here they were being asked to go to the foot of the enemy's walls carrying a bucket to earth to fill up the ditch.

All while the enemy would be trying their best to stop them by launching a constant withering fire of arrows, stones, and hot oil or water from above.

And even though Alexander's archers tried their best to neutralize these defenders and punish them for stepping out of their cover, and even though the two towers that would have made the whole attempt a complete death trap if they still worked were neutralized using the catapults, the work still proved to be quite dangerous.

After all, no matter how much Alexander tried, some Tibians were always able to launch arrows or throw stones at these hard working people.

So it took quite a bit of 'persuading' to get these camp followers to take this job.

Which of course meant the soldiers threatening these civilians at the tip of their swords.

And these armed men were unusually eager to use this intimidation card as their commanders very clearly let them know that if they could get enough camp followers to do this work, then it would fall upon them.

So faced with the choice between running to the foot of the enemy's wall while being shot at oneself, or making someone else run to the foot of the enemy's wall while being shot at, every sane man chose the same option.

Of course, Alexander did not only show the stick.

He offered these civilians the carrot too, in the shape of a 33% pay rise as compared to their previous job,  promising them 8 ropals a day for their work.

This ended up costing Alexander an extra 160,000 ropals a day, or almost 5 million a month, but he would have been glad to pay double that if it meant getting the job done.

Furthermore, to make the deal even sweeter, he even promised them medical coverage, meaning if they got injured, Alexander would cover their bills by letting them get treated in his clinic at the camp.

And lastly, like the considerate employer he was, he even created a special vehicle for them to use, one that could shield them from strikes of above.

At its heart, this special utility vehicle was just a cart that had its body thrown away leaving only the wheel while it was given a large sturdy roof and protected skirts on the sides.

The large 'thing' could be pulled by men from the inside, thus letting them stay under the protected cover of the armored cart, and it was able to safely shelter ten people at a time.

All these men would be carrying buckets of dirt with them, which they would deposit into the ditch upon reaching their target and then quickly pull back as fast as possible.

This new armored cart too was a new innovation, one which Alexander made after taking inspiration from a battering ram, and Alexander made it to be as durable as possible.

For instance the roofs and sides were not just made of plain wood but reinforced with iron fastening too, in order to prevent the wood from splitting when struck by large objects like falling stones.

Also, solid iron rods were used as supports on the roofs and as beams, all to prevent the whole structure from breaking when hit.

All of which worked to make the entire thing very durable,

Now, all of these 'improvements' did end up adding a lot of weight, but the people using it seemed to not mind much, much preferring to lug the heavy thing around rather than run through the field of arrow fire naked.

And they all only regretted that there was not enough of these armored carts to go around.

After all, given twenty thousand men were involved in the endeavor, Alexander would have needed to make 2,000 of them.

And that would have taken frighteningly long to produce, prohibitively expensive, and logistically impossible to transport.

So he made around a hundred of them and issued them to the more obedient camp followers as a form reward.

Which also worked to suppress any reluctance among the workers as each man tried to work as flawlessly as possible to get a chance to get inside those.

And around two weeks into this effort, as the ditch kept getting filled up, these camp followers were joined by another group.

And they were not the soldiers.

After all, Alexander very much preferred not to use up his precious fighting force in such attritional fighting.

No, it was all the native villagers from nearby that came to the aid!

Just as Lord Ponticus had predicted, these peasants quickly got news that an enemy army was nearby and fearing for their lives and modesty, had sensibly chosen to move toward the city in hopes of taking shelter inside its walls.

But again, just as Ponticus had instructed, they found the large wooden oak door closed to them.

Thus they had no choice but to return.

Though some chose to linger and loiter around in the hopes that a chance to go inside would miraculously manifest itself.

And it was then that Alexander noticed this happy coincidence.

So not being polite, he then had all these free labor just whirling their time away promptly gathered with the promise of a free meal, and then employed them for 2 ropals a day and two hot meals.

A deal that these dirt poor men were happy to accept, betraying their lord in a heartbeat.

Though it could be also argued that it was Ponticus who had clearly betrayed them first, as he had sworn to protect them in exchange for them paying their taxes.

But though they had certainly paid their dues, as peasants who did not pay their taxes did not tend to live very long, they were clearly being denied their protection.

A vulnerability that Alexander chose to take full advantage of.

So with these extra hands, as the third month of the siege neared its end, the ditch along the front of the city soon began to disappear, replaced by a flat, smooth piece of ground, a ground ideal for rolling something like a siege tower over.

It seemed that try as they might, the Tibians had been simply unable to stop this crucial gap from being filled.

And speaking of siege towers, their constructions were also no secret to the Tibians.

After all these were huge structures and were being built right in front of them.

And judging by the rate of their production, it seemed they would soon be ready to hit the ramp that too was under construction.

Hence, aware of all this, a very heated debate was currently taking place inside the most iconic building of Thesalie- The lord's mansion.

"My lord, what should we do!" Asked a slightly panicking soldier.

"Attack! We must charge out and attack!" And even before Lord Ponticus could answer, one of the officers loudly claimed as such.

He was the same man who had led the group of eager officers previously.

"I too agree. If we let them finish their siege towers we are finished!" And this time, he was joined by another officer who ominously chimed such.

"Yes. We thought we were safe from siege towers given we are atop a hill."

"But who would have thought the enemy would build an earthen ramp to try and flatten it! Ridiculous!"  A fourth, much older man's voice pronounced so loudly.

He was of the same generation as Lord Ponticus and held much respect among the soldiers and officers due to his age and experience.

And if it had been any other time, he might have been very impressed and appreciative of seeing this approach to warfare.

But not so much when it was being deployed against him.

He was very concerned.

And with even a decorated officer like him expressing concern, Lord Ponticus knew he could not simply push the request down.

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