Herald of Steel

Alexander was pleased by Melodias's quick consent and so about to move on to another topic, when suddenly his eyes caught a small detail missing from one of the reports, the one from Menes.

The black giant had stood beside Alexander like a towering, granite statue, unmoving and mute the entire time, as if trying to make himself one with the air.

"Menes, there's no report of the number of animals the Cantagenans have. Why?" Alexander gently inquired.

"Commander, the Cantagenans have too many animals and no one knows the exact number. I had assigned a few people to count them, but they could not finish in time." Menes succinctly explained.

Then he promised, "I will give the numbers by today afternoon."

"Okay, have it by lunch," Alexander said understandingly.

Right then, Melodias piped, "Commander, I know the rough numbers."

"Oh, how?" Menes quickly jumped in between, a bit shocked that someone else had finished the work assigned to him.

"Hehe, captain Menes, let me first apologize. You were unable to find anyone who knew the number of animals likely because of me."

Then Melodias expounded, "You see, after the commander had ordered the formation of a scouting regiment, I went to the Cantagenan camp and chose the appropriate horses. But I also had recruited the horse trainers there because they were skilled riders themselves, much better than my own men. Hehe, sorry."

"I understand," Menes, the usually quiet man, replied flatly.

"So, what's the number? Don't be shy." The ever-impatient Petricuno's rough voice echoed.

"Ahem," Clearing his throat, Melodias reported, "We have about three thousand pack animals, with one thousand five hundred horses and mules each. "

"So, much?" Alexander exclaimed.

He did not really have a first- hand experience managing logistics at such a huge scale before and was truly surprised by the numbers.

He had assumed they would have at most a thousand animals.

The reason for this discrepancy was because he had assumed the Cantagenans to be like the mercenaries, lean and mean with their supply lines and opting for soldiers to carry most of their own baggage and not be so wasteful.

But he was wrong.

"Why do we have so many horses?" Menicus asked puzzled.

This point had also been noticed by others who were similarly confused by the disproportionate number of horses present.

Horses were usually too precious to be used as pack animals and usually would carry less weight while eating more grain.

So, using them as beasts of burden was certainly an abnormality.

Melodias himself had this very question and also got the answer, "Because the Sycarian cavalry had bought extra horses with them and had even used some of their war horses as pack animals. The original number of pack animals is said to have been close to seven thousand."

"They replaced the mules for horses, beasts who can both fight and pull. Impressive," Menicus, even with all the years under his belt was impressed by this move.

But impressive or not, this new number possessed a dilemma for Alexander, who was now faced with the unique problem of having excess horses and mules.

Usually having excess beasts was a very good thing, but now, it caused Alexander to frown, "Hmm, we don't need so many animals, We also don't have the grains to feed them."

"We also don't need more meat now."Heliptos reminded.

"Hmmm," Alexander hummed as he stroked his chin,

And then, as if he found a solution asked, "Melodias, how many scouts do you have?" He wanted an exact number.

"One hundred and six," Came Melodias's almost memorized reply.

Alexander then closed his eyes, did some math, and said opening his eyes, "Okay, here's what we will do."

He issued the order, "Every ten men will be given a horse to pull their cart. After we let go of excess slaves and the wounded who cannot march, we will have at best twelve thousand men with us. And that's a high estimate. So that's twelve hundred horses."

Alexander then looked around to see if everyone was still following and was greeted with faces that seemed amazed at the simple mental math.

Seeing everyone was still paying attention, Alexander continued, "Two hundred will be made into scouts and cavalry. Does anyone have experience commanding cavalry?"

He looked expectantly around at the leaders, only to be disappointed with shaking heads.

Although such was to be expected.

Horses were supremely expensive to breed, grow and maintain, and thus any cavalry was far out of the financial capabilities of most mercenaries.

Many only had a few exclusive horses for their higher-ups and to send messengers over vast distances.

Although Alexander was a bit disheartened at this, he immediately thought of a way to exploit this great opportunity.

"Ahem, I remember Meldias saying he had taken some Cantagenan horse trainers as scouts. They should know a thing about cavalry tactics. Please have them teach us how to effectively use them." Alexander cunningly said.

"That's a great idea, commander." Melodias grinned at this idea.

Then Alexander unveiled his trap, "Yes, Menes reported to me there were a few Sycarian servants within the Cantagenan ranks. You should all know the fame of Sycarians cavalry. These people learn to ride before they are weaned. So, please those instructors to me." Alexander said with a big grin.

Everyone could see Alexander was about to form his exclusive cavalry corp, and though they wanted to stop him, they could do little to stop him.

After all, it was them that gave Alexander the Cantagenans, thinking they were not worth the trouble.

So Melodias, with an uncomfortable "Okay," gave in.

But Alexander did not simply swallow the whole pie and said, "The twelve hundred horses will be used both as pack animals and for battles. So, each leader must send two hundred people each to learn cavalry tactics by breakfast. Yes, even you two," Alexander said, looking at the new Alcmene and Regias mercenaries.

"Ohh, thank you, commander," Their faces lit up like the Christmas tree as both of them understood how lucky it was for them to have equal quotas as the other big groups.

Though in reality, Alexander did it because he did not want to give more cavalry to the other, much stronger mercenary leaders and enable them to oppose him.

The other mercenary leaders were too pleased with the suggestion, as being able to command any cavalry was almost the modern equivalent of being the captain of an aircraft carrier strike group or becoming the head of the special forces, the sign of a true elite.

"Haha, If it's the commander, I am sure he can make the finest cavalry. I will give you two hundred of my finest men," Petricuno's glee was practically overflowing, which was also an accurate representation of the other leaders' feelings.

"The commander's plans are as deep as the oceans," Heliptos praised.

"Having fourteen hundred cavalry will enormously boost our strength," Menicus analyzed with a smug smile.

This sentence suddenly reminded Melodias of the horses Alexander had left out,

"Oh, Commander, what about the remaining hundred?" He asked, curious.

"Yes, yes, I have not forgotten them, I have just decided to use them for something different." Alexander smiled.

This enigmatic smile made all the others look at him with held breath, so he started, "You see, when I was in the front lines, my captain was with me too. And in the middle of the battle, something had caused him to lose concentration and it got thirty-three of my brothers killed."

"That incident kept haunting me in the past few days as I kept asking myself, 'What could have been done differently to make my captain keep his cool?' And then, yesterday, I came to the answer," Alexander paused to take a breath.

Then continued, "I understood that phalanx captains are too vulnerable at the front. They are easy to spot, with them constantly yelling commands and if they are killed, it causes chaos in the ranks."

"Even if there's an assistant to take over, sometimes it's not clear if the commander is dead or wounded. All the soldiers also will not immediately know that their commander is dead and command has been passed on to a different person. So they might be confused by receiving orders from someone else. Worse still, there's a possibility that even if the commander is wounded he might be able to still fight or issue commands."

"Such nuances can be very hard to determine in the middle of the battle. and thus can lead to either assistant not picking up the command quickly enough, or picking it up too quickly, resulting in the phalanx being issued two different, many times contradictory commands."

Alexander then brought his hands in front of his face, interlocking the fingers together, and said, "So, to protect them, from now on, all phalanx captains will command from the back. And so that they can have a better view of the surroundings, they will all ride atop horses."

After Alexander finished his speech a silence settled in the tent for a while, which was broken by a joyous cry of Heliptos, "Sage! Commander, you are a sage!"

The mercenary's body was literally shaking with excitement as his eyes shot up in happiness and a huge smile formed on his face.

"Hmm, Alexander, I never believed that claim about you being a god." Menicus had an unusual seriousness to his voice. "But, after interacting with you, with the way you speak, with the way you think- unrestrained by convention, and with the way you carry yourself, I am forced to rethink my stance."

The veteran mercenary had a strange glow in his eyes as he gazed at Alexander with a profound gaze.