Herald of Steel

Chapter 719 Attack On the First Wall (Part-1)

Regarding Alexander's decision to launch an attack on the walls at night, some of the more inexperienced officers who did not know how Alexander worked tried to talk him out of it by showing him the obstacles.

One of them pointed out, "My lord, given today is a full moon, the enemy might be able to see us coming. But the soft light won't be enough to help our crossbowmen spot the enemy so far in the distance."

And other stepped up to say, 

"Yes, in the night, it is harder to see between friends and foes."

"This is not so much a problem on a battlefield with proper lines. But I'm afraid when scaling the walls, especially from multiple directions….we might not be able to see who is who."

"Even the crossbowmen on the wall might not know who is who."

But as it could be guessed Alexander did not pay much heed to these problems.

Since Alexander had decided the attack on the walls would occur, it would occur now.

The rest of the commanders knew they had little choice but to obey, for rebelling against him would be breaking their oath and Alexander had not pushed them that far.

Hence turning to Alexander, Melodias interjected between the two nobles and in a low, resigned voice, asked.

"So how shall we proceed with the attack my lord?"

And hearing the officially highest member of the army express his support for the offensive, all the lesser officers and commanders could only purse their lips and shut up, knowing the decision had been made.

Whereas Melodias himself with this question made it clear that the man might be willing to follow orders to attack, but he certainly was not going to use his own brain cells to plan it.

But fortunately for him, while Alexander was gazing at the elephants tearing the Tibian army to shreds, the man had also been formulating how to do exactly that.

So in a sure, confisdnet way, Alexander orderd, 

"Have the first and second legion regroup and start their march toward the siege towers."

"They will be the ones attacking the walls."

"Also make sure they bring enough ladders. They are in the camp."

"The third and sixth legion will stay here and act as our rear guard, just in case the Tibian army somehow manages to regroup itself and wants to hit us in the rear."

"And lastly have the seventh legion return to camp, and rest."

"We cannot have our entire army awake the entire night. Or else we will have no force to deploy come sunrise."

"Is that acceptable?"

Clearly, Alexander had given this a lot of thought.

And the meticulousness of his order worked to alleviate some of the bitterness the commander had felt, as they felt Alexander was not simply doing this on a whim.

So Melodias quickly saluted, and promised, "Yes, my lord. I will have all these in less than three hours."

That amount of time might seem like a lot, but it had to be remembered that an army was a huge machine, and as with anything with such inertia, it simply took time to get things going, from the order to go from Alexander to the lowest squads, to even the single task of getting the men in proper formation.

So this was quite a reasonable time frame.

"Quick! March! Orders from the general himself." 

Thus a while later the soldiers found themselves hounded by their officers to get up and get ready for battle once again, which naturally caused many grumblings and irrated sighs to ring out.

  It was so especially among the first and second legions who would be the ones required to fight, so some of the men even lightly cursed Alexander, such as,

"Darm that slave driver. What does he want us to do now!" 

"We won him the battle. Now he wants us to win him the walls. Couldn't he wait till morning…fuck!"

"Darm my feet are killing me! Arghhh, I really want to hit him."

Such bad-mouthing of even a commander, never mind this time it was the lord himself was certainly a highly punishable offense, but most of the men saying this openly belonged to the first legion, which was mostly composed of men who had followed Alexander from back in the day, so they knew they had this leeway.

But the second legion, which was the temporarily given name to the hired mercenaries was far more low key but much more colorful in the description of Alexander.

It was even suspected that if they had not been allowed to drink large quantities of heavy alcohol to warm their body and feel energized, some of them might have even refused to follow the orders.

But they ultimately did, while the rest of the three legions' resistance was much more mild.

After all, those did not need to fight,

The third and sixth legions were far happier to follow Alexander's orders, for they needed to do little more than stand and keep watch.

And some of the men could even slack on that, as could be seen how many in the back were sitting while drinking water or wine.

As for the seventh legion, well they practically danced and skipped into the camp, eager to hit the bed right that instant.

It was with such preparations that the next three hours passed in the blink of an eye, and soon Alexander had his horses assembled, his men arranged in the proper rank and file, the siege towers filled with the assaulting units, the men who would pull there are heavy wooden beasts forward in their proper positions.

Everything was set and all Alexander needed to do was give the order and the assault could begin.

While Alexander was doing this, in the between time, one might ask what was happening inside Thesalie.

Or specifically, how were the higher ups of the city reacting to their loss?

And the answer to that would be not well, for currently there was a heated argument, almost a spat between two parties.

"Lord Theony, where is my father? Why is he not with you!" 

No sooner had that nobleman crossed the heavy wooden gates that Lord Ponticus's eldest son Petrino ran up to him with his question, his face angry and worried.

The man was just a bit younger than Lord Theony himself and had been left in charge of the city while his father was away.

"Your father headed the flanking attack while I headed the main force. So I do not know" 

Contrary to the man's desperate tone, Lord Theony gave his answer in a hollow, deadpan voice.

The man was still in shock over just what had happened and so was still in the midst of processing all the things that had transpired.

But to this answer sounded too apathetic and uncaring to Petrino, who all of a sudden lost his temper and lambasted, 

"What do you mean you do not know! That's my father you are talking about! Where is he? Why did you come back without him! Go back!" 

This was certainly a very rude way to talk to any noble, never mind as high noble as Lord Theony, so one of his retainers quickly stepped to chide the man. 

"Lord Petrino, please watch your tone. This is unbecoming of someone of royal blood."

And this cold reply was followed by several dagger-filled stares from the other men,

None of them were happy about their loss but they had not lost their temper like Petrino.

"....Argghh…" Sensing this Petricus could only grunt in frustration.

While Lord Theony seeing this had thought to himself, 'Hmmm, looks like the rumors that Ponticus has a waste of a son is far more than just true.'

'No wonder you hear so much about the general, yet his son has almost no presence in court.' 

'This is the first time I have even really talked to him.' 

'Ponticus must have intentionally hidden him.'

Lord Theony said this because he knew if Lord Ponticus was in his place, he would certainly not have shown such an unsightly sight and instead first and foremost inquired about the city's well-being. 

But Petrino never had the martial prowess of a great fighter nor had he inherited the talented generalship of his father. 

And being his only son and constantly compared to him growing up, the enormous expectations placed on him and his failure to do so had twisted him into the present state.

That was why it was Lapitus who was Lord Ponticus's adjutant and not Petrino.

That was why Lord Ponticus did not take his son to battle.

And that was why, Lord Ponticus being the proud man he was felt ashamed of his son, which was why he hid him, which caused him to turn even worse. 

"Lord Petrino, were you not supposed to guard the walls? Who did you leave in charge?" 

Seeing the tense atmosphere, it was Lapitus who quickly interjected and tried to turn the conversion around, as he had experience dealing with this man regularly.

"Wh…who cares about that! Lapitus where is my father you cheat?"

But in much contrast to being civil, Petrino venomously barked as such, his eyes suddenly filled with malicious hatred.

He had always seen Lapitus as someone who had stolen everything from him.

Like he was the son his father always wanted.

But that was not the important thing here.

For his answer clearly showed how he had left the wall undefended.

Alexander's gamble might pay off better than he could have ever expected.