Chapter 19: They Marched

Back at the camp an officer is interrogating the soldiers who were captured in the ambush.

-Tell me, how many of you are there?

The officer said as he pounded the prisioner's fingers with a piece of wood.

-Ahhgh! I dunno, about 5000?! There are many, I swear I dunno!

The prisioner's hands were bleeding as his nails were broken open.

-5000? How many are actually at the siege?

-Aaahgh! I dunno! *sob* It hurts! *snif* *sob* 4000? Please just stop *sob* *sob*!

The prisioner was just a low ranking soldier, he didn't know the finer details of the army, and why would him? A common soldier doesn't need to know those things, a soldier of his standing was more interested in not dying and to go back to home as soon as possible after all.

-At this point I think he is just throwing random numbers, Sir. A soldier of as common background as he seems to have wouldn't have better information than that.

An assistant interrupted the interrogation, after all it was pretty obvious that there wouldn't really be any valuable information from this prisioner.

-I guess you are right, do we have any other info from the other ones?

-We got that there are some five companies around scouting and foraging around the fort, the numbers of besiegers are indeed some four thousand, although I think this soldier just threw around a random number in this case.

-Do we have how are their troops formed?

-Not much, it seems there are some knights and some calvary, archers and ordinary footmen, but we don't really have the proportions of each.

-I guess that's fine, I wished for more detail, but oh well. Report it to the commander in chief, if you would.

-Yes, Sir!

While they had the enemies numbers it wouldn't be easy, this army had about 3000 men, but they were supposed to meet with the second army in three days.

And so the soldiers marched, in this campaing hundred had already died from disease in the few weeks since first departure. And the soldiers marched, not stopping even on the heat of the middle of the day. And the soldiers marched, eating tasteless food, and hoping that the team of foragers had enough for their unit to eat. And the soldiers marched, hoping that their hardtacks had worms on them to add any taste and get to eat some meat. And soldiers marched, without stopping to rest even with the weight of armor and weapons and personal supplies with them. And the soldiers marched, on their way to problable death. And yet they marched, hoping to have sight of the ally army and of their final detination. They marched for days, with wages that were barerely worth the risk of death.

Achilles had marched for days, it was almost noon, he was wishing for a single command, to stop and rest. And so his wish was granted, but Achilles found it weird, it was a bit to early to stop, I mean he wouldn't complain but even so... weird.

-Halt!

Achilles looked around, maybe there was a problem on the path, or maybe something else, then he saw it. It looked like the sea, a sea of banners and men, a sea that shone as the light of the sun was reflected from the metal of the armor and weapons on the back of the soldiers.

Achilles was relieved at last, although for an army what he had walked was less than the usual, the sign of the end of all the walking was here, his morale has been lowering, he saw many desert from the army, the only thing that prohibited him from doing the same was his sense of obligation to Constantine and Justin, even so he had conscidered it many times, but finally it was soon to end.

After a hour or so of more walking the two armies met. Haralds carrying messages from the official went back and forth. It was ordered to make camp, the high officials met in a tent, the discussion was pretty heated.

-What?! No! We need to merge the cavalries units to be able to break the - You should think more about this! We need to station the archers at the hills! - Don't interrupt me! I'm saying we attack them by surprise with the cavalr - You don't get it! We need to (...)

The eight who were in the tent were the four strategos, two of each army, commanders of the wings, the two liutenent general each from one army, commanders of the middle flank, and the two generals of each army. The discussions were heated, the generals wanted to be the ones in command but there can't be two, the strategos and liutenants generals were trying to decide on a strategy.

Discussions like those could go on for days, things like who is in command of what and where, how many men will there be under each commander, what type of unit, what strategy to use, and who it was who proposed it.

There were many things to discuss, it took three days to find a compromisse, General Bellisarius would be commander in chief, and they would divide into having five flanks, the left most flank would have the light and archer cavalry for harrasing the small groups that would form in the chaos of battle, the right most flank would have the heavier calvary, to charge at the enemy and break any formation the enemy used, the three middle flanks would have a mix of archers in the second and third line with footmen with shields and pikes in front.

It took a day for the combined armies to reach the fortress, it has been a month or so since the siege began. The besiegers basically created a mini city, with wooden wall made from sticks to prevent a frontal charge, there were many barracks and even the tents of the nobles were dirty from the mud that came in the rainy days. Some soldiers were working as guards trying to see if anyone was running away, the enemy besieger's camp almost encircled the whole fort, with the exeption of a river that flowed through the city.

As you looked carefully to the camp you can see people with shovels and what seemed to be a work of engineering. The enemy were trying to divert the river from passing through the city, trying to take out the biggest source of water of the city, although it problably still had well with underground water. But it also created a passage, after all the river passed through a open hole on each side it would be helpful if you wanted to, I dunno, try to force your way through and pillage and kill those in the fort for days.

But diverging a river takes a long time, resourses and it's very dangerous. Before Aquilles arrive at the fort, the besiegers eneded up flowing their camps twice while trying to divert the river.

But at the end of sun rise and army appeared on the hills some distance from the camp, it was standing there for some time, flags being wavered and people moving inside to their right locations. Time was needed to organize the lines of soldiers, banners were used to diferentiate each unit, with numbers and signal on them to make that difference.

The enemy army wasn't going to react to it, they put on foward barricades with stakes to protect with them from calvary, and organized their soldiers in three lines, two soldiers with shields in the first two lines, the ones in the first line puted their shields firmily on the ground, the second line puted their shield above the first line's, and the third line with their long pikes of over 5 meters placed their weapons in the small openings in the shield.

Achilles was in the left flank, he had his bow, scale armor protecting even his neck, helmet, greaves and gauntlets, his spear and javelins, he rode in his chesnut horse, who had a protection on it's forehead, and light protection from gambeson.

Achilles smiled, be it from being nervous or being excited one wouldn't be able to tell, a drop of sweat slides from his cheek. The commander orders.

-Prepare!

Achilles readies his spear in position, lowering it to be able to his the chest of a man.

-CHARGE!

The sound of the hundreds of horses charging down a small hill, dust clouds forming behind them and the sun reflecting the metal armor and weapons on to the eyes of the enemies. It's a sight to haunt it's target's dreams.

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This is a common soldier of the army of Lord Spehenicos, he was about 30 years old, living a life as a carpenter in a city, he has a wife and three children, a boy and a girl. This wasn't his first time having to serve in the army, he had once been in a siege, he had to work in fixing the walls and the ballistas on them, he remembered how they had to ration food for days, sleeping with hunger and the screams of those who were injured in battle by his side, as his tent was close to the medical tent, sleeping at night knowing that tomorow might be him.

He was lucky he wasn't, some even coscider him very lucky for, despite being in a siege for almost half an year he never got sick.

But why was he remembering all of that? Because of the sight in front of him, he was on the flank of his army, to be more precise he was right at the end of the flank. He was holding his wooden shield, big enough to protect his whole body, thightly in the ground, he is holding it like his life depends on it, maybe because it does.

He see in the openings of his shield, a legion of horses, riding at great speeds, right in his direction, he is blinded by the reflection of the sun on their armor for a second. The horses come closer, the sound of their hooves on the ground, a sound that would scare anyone in a battlefield.

He sees the group of horsemen go to the side, to his direction, they were planing to attack them by their unprotected side and back. He sees, at the head of the horses, a chestnut colored one, it felt like that horse had become one with the dusty wind that the horses created on the wake. The spear of it's horsemen is lowered. The man looks back, the soldiers with the pikes had long run away, the one behind him was about to break formation.

*stab*

-Kuh...

He feels the ground on his back, he feels it wet, he can't quite think straight, he looks up, the sun watches him back, he raises his hand.

-Please *cough* bring me to your *cough* domain, the sky of heroes *cough*. Nobody will remember it, huh *cough*, please be well...dear.

The soldier, who history won't remember the name, who in few generations will be forgotten and who's existence will be put as a mere number of those who died in this battle, loses conscience, never to return again.