Herald of Steel

Chapter 803 Perseus's Decision

When Manuk first came to Perseus's court, obviously he was seen with great distrust, given their understandable bitter history.

And Perseus was even momentarily alarmed when there came reports of Adhanian troops landing on another part of Tibias, as he thought the worst- a two pronged attack.

It was only after Manuk clarified the situation and even handled control of the men to Perseus without any condition did the king lower his hostility.

These eight thousand, 8,000 men were arranged under Manuk's order by Matbar (Marquiss) Kyaum of Zanzan, whose territory lay west of Zanzan.

And these were only the vanguard force he sent as quickly as he could.

A further twelve thousand, 12,000 were scheduled to join once the ships carrying these men returned.

So it was only natural for Manuk to urge Perseus to wait for the total force.

But for Perseus, it was not that straightforward of an equation.

There was still the inherent distrust he had of Manuk and because Menes was too close, he could not simply sit and wait hoping the rest troops would come in time.

So he came out to meet the enemy in the open.

Besides, Perseus was very confident he would be able to win a fight.

Never mind if it was on the open fields, that would be a sure dunk, but even in rough terrain like this, was confident in his victory.

And this belief was cultivated based on the fact that he most likely outnumbered his enemy!

This was because although Perseus himself managed to get only eighteen thousand 18,000 infantry, he had been able to obtain the help of two additional allies aside from Manuk.

One from was Thesos.

With Tibias seen as the birthplace of the city states, many had sent their aid, culminating in about 10,000 Thesian mercenaries- made of elite archers and fantastic, heavy, phalangites.

And the other came from the Kaiser family of Sybarsis, who sent around 3,000 mercenaries, along with twelve new war elephants.

These alone would have been enough to match Menes, and with Manuk's unexpected addition, Perseus's total strength soared up to thirty nine thousand 39,000 men, composed of:

Thirty two thousand, 32,000 light and heavy infantry

Five thousand, 5,000- archers,

Two thousand, 2,000- cavalry- primarily being gifted by Manuk, and

Twelve, 12- war elephants.

Hence Menes's scouts were actually correct in their reporting, the enemy did number around forty thousand, 40,000.

And if Menes had faced them head on an open field with his twenty nine thousand, 29,000, made of-

Twenty four thousand, 24,000 infantry,

Two and a half thousand, 2,500 crossbowmen and

Two and a half thousand, 2,500 cavalry,

A loss would have been almost certainly guaranteed.

So although he did not know, it had been prudent of the general to avoid fighting the enemy in favorable grounds and take this rough road.

"What? Leave Commander Flamino to die? You Adhanian …"

At Manuk's suggestion for the fighting group to disengage and retreat, the scout hearing so sounded this in alarm, unable to hold his curse.

'There were 4,000 men up there, how can he say that?' The man was appalled, knowing that doing such a thing would undoubtedly cause a lot of those men to die during the subsequent chase.

So the scout only saw this advice as Manuk trying to sabotage their group.

The inherent distrust Tibians had of Adhaninas was very well ingrained.

And Perseus of course sided with his men here, quickly nodding his head with solidarily and very succinctly saying, "Abandoning Flamino is impossible. Go! Tell him that I will be soon coming up with my army."

This curt, short response naturally delighted the scout, as the rapid oder showed his king's firm support on the matter.

So with an energetic bow, he hurried back to the hill, his body filled with zeal at being able to carry this good news.

While once again alone, Manuk tried one more time to advise Perseus,

"Your Majesty, I beg of you to reconsider. I have fought against these men before and they were very adept in fighting in rough grounds. You should deny them a fight here."

"Instead, bait them into fighting on flat ground, like along the banks of the river Diannu. Or temporarily retreat south and wait for more of my men."

The archpriest sounded very sincere, even a bit pious.

And from a military point of view, he made very good sense.

"I cannot leave four thousand, 4,000 men to die." But this was Perseus's sharp retort, his tone firm and irrefutable.

And in many ways, it was the correct decision to make.

One, because all four thousand, 4,000 of those men in that scouting party were from Perseus's core group of the army, the regular, well trained troops, a distinction which by now had shrunken to a mere handful of thousands courtesy of Alexander brutally cutting so many of them down in the past battles.

So if Perseus were to let these last vestiges of his army die too, he would really become a king in name only.

Furthermore, Perseus was not that kind of military commander.

He greatly cared for his men and in return was able to wield great respect from them.

Simply abandoning such a huge force would not only tarnish his reputation, but it would also greatly affect the morale of the rest of the army.

This was one reason.

The second reason was because when Manuk suggested they retreat south, he meant all the way to the tip of the Tibian peninsula, to the city of Lilybee, Tibias's third or fourth biggest city depending on if you counted the city of Thesalie to be still Tibian.

It had a large population, rich fields, and a huge, natural port.

That last part was perhaps the most important because of all the three reinforcements Perseus had gotten, he got them from across the sea.

Meaning if he were to garrison his army in a city with a port, helping him would become a lot easier for the other powers.

But again, though Manuk's suggestion on paper was very good, it failed to take into account the human and political element.

Which was that to do so, Perseus would have to leave his capital undefended, potentially dooming it to be sacked.

And though Parthenigh to the Tibians was not as valuable as the Holy City of Adhan to the Adhanians, it still held enormous value.

It was the country's capital after all.

There were lots of riches be it gold or luxurious materials, slaves to be taken from the one hundred to one hundred and fifty thousand (100,000 - 150,000) people there, and lastly, the most important of all, in the city, along the banks of Diannu resided The Ancestral Shrine, the biggest and oldest shrine in all of Tibias, one which housed the original statues of Tibias's ancestor- The bull and the twins, along with many lesser heroes.

Perseus feared that if the capital was to fall, the enemy might damage or even demolish many of these precious artifacts.

And if that were to happen, Perseus feared his competency and legitimacy over the throne could be openly questioned, as rivals would claim he had lost the protection of the elders.

Hence neither the abandonment of the forces on the ridge nor the retreat to Lilybee as presented by Manuk was applicable to Perseus politically, even though they were sound militarily.

Perseus then explained this situation to Manuk, but the archpriest simply replied, "Your Majesty, you need to be alive to consider these things."

"If you wait a bit, you can crush the thirty thousand 30,000 with fifty thousand 50,000 men, cutting them down to the last."

"His losses will be so devastating that Alexander won't be able to threaten you for another twenty years!" Manuk exaggerated, though he was right in the core concept.

But Perseus, ever the tactician but never the strategist was unable to see past this.

Instead of cutting of flesh to save his bones, he wanted to protect everything.

And the reason for this newfound confidence was expressed in the following speech

"Do not worry. We outnumber the enemy by 10,000! Even if the terrain is not suitable, we can simply crush them by sheer numbers."

And it was indeed true, in wars, usually the bigger side won, as he then went to show a bit of flaw with Manuk's rhetoric,

"Besides, if we retreat now, the enemy might get reinforcements."

"I'm told Alexander had ten thousand, 10,000 men in Thesalie. And then there also small numbers of garrisoned troops all over the surrounding city."

"They were to all join….. You can see how by the time we get your ten thousand, 10,000 the enemy might also get their ten thousand, 10,000."

"And then we will be in a worse position." Perseus cleverly pointed.

And that he meant by the last line that was that the percentage advantage between 40,000 vs 30,000 was greater than 50,000 vs 40,000.

"...." And Perseus's unequivocal insistence, Manuk at last was worn down enough as he could find no other effective retort to try and convince the man.

So he weakly nodded.

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