Herald of Steel

In the time the mansion was being secured, both Remus and Lord Parker received their respective signals, both amusingly from Alexander, and both through a mirror stationed around a window.

The former was given the signal as a warning to prepare himself for the imminent assault about to be launched toward his way.

While the latter was given the go ahead to attack with the intention that Alexander would be able to inflict some good damage on these forces, and perhaps even more importantly, distract them from the real prize- the burning of the ships.

Lord Parker however of course did not know about this trap and so upon seeing the signal, quickly became excited.

He turned to Achillas pointed to the lone ray of light and shouted in glee, "Look! There! There it is! Hahaha, blow the horns! Now! Quick! Hahaha."

Lord Parker had been put in a very good mood from the moment the first messenger had come to him, bearing glad tidings of the scheduled attempt.

The man was truly glad that the Margraves had at last come around to his way of thinking. So he could not help but keep regularly offering up a small giggle or guffaw.

"Yes, my lord." While Achillas was much more reserved and taciturn, as he entered his 'general mode', focusing more on controlling the soldiers and making sure everything went according to the plan

Which was, to be fair, relatively simple and straightforward- the men were to attack the lines head on hard and fast, with everything they got in a kind of one giant hammer strike, thus breaking through everything in the first hit.

This was perhaps not the best or most sophisticated way to break through such heavily defended lines, kind of like how smashing your head against a stone wall was not the best way to enter a house, but given the congested streets and generally narrow terrain Achillas found himself in, this was really the only option available to him.

So the man hoped the surprise of the night attack and the sheer mass of men behind it would be enough to overwhelm the defenders

And if that did not work, there was always the next back up plan.

Achillas under Lord Parker's instruction had already selected two thousand men to board the ships at the Great Harbor, the units ready to head out at a moment's notice.

The plan here too was simple.

It called for them to quickly sail to the Royal Harbor in a surprise attack and create a beachhead there, thus forcing the defending legionnaires to leave their entrenched positions and go shore up their exposed flanks, hence making them deal with a two pronged attack.

And in trying to defend both places, hopefully failing to do either.

Achillas personally was quite hopeful about this pincher maneuver.

*Trumpet*, *Trumpet*, *Trumpet*,

And so it was with such high hopes that the general blew the horn, breaking the covertness of night and signaling the soldiers to attack.

The Heeat family soldiers began to immediately form up upon hearing this, the clatter and chorus of loud shouts and officious cries suddenly buzzing out of Lord Parker's camp like it was suddenly a busy day inside a fish market.

Which certainly alerted even the most daydreaming legionary in Alexander's camp to the imminent threat.

But this according to the experienced general Achillas was not a big problem.

He did not think there was any point in hiding and moving about in stealth because even if the enemy understood what was going on, it would already be too late.

Even the best trained armies needed quite a bit of time to get ready, as the soldiers needed a while to transform themselves from men into warriors.

This could include something as mundane as just having to return to the tents from whatever extracurricular activities one was doing- be it drinking, eating, gossiping, resting, or even working on some kind of chore such as collecting drinking water, feeding the animals, fixing a dent on the armor, oiling the sword to prevent it from rusting, and a hundred different things.

Then upon reaching one's tent, they had to get dressed in their armor, which too took some time, especially the breast piece.

This complicated piece of metal worked piece was not as easy to garb as simply unbuttoning and rebuttoning a shirt but usually required the help of one or two people to help tie the various leather straps and buckles.

So usually the members of each squad would take turns helping each of their comrades to get their cuirasses on.

This would be then followed by the relatively easier to put on arm and leg greaves, as well as the helmet, and lastly finished off with equipping the weapon and shield, all of which would remain with the soldiers in their tents at all times.

Which was quite dissimilar to the way how modern armies kept their kit- usually locked in an armory away from the men.

But here, there was no real concept of such a thing, due to a variety of reasons.

One of which was that nobody or at least not many people simply bothered to simply consider the fact that giving tens of thousands of young, hot blooded men access to all their weapons at all times was perhaps not the best idea for the stability of their rule.

This awareness had yet to develop as the current civilization was still quite young and people had many more things to learn and figure out.

And even for those who did figure it out, they found the idea of locking up the weapons not too ineffective.

For one, since stainless steel had not been invented yet, the weapons had to be constantly polished and oiled to keep them in good shape. So the cost of hiring so many maintenance personnel weighed heavily on many a king's pocket.

And if the idle soldiers were instead tasked with that, well then what was the point of all this needless theatrics?

It would all be just a needless hassle.

And lastly, given the unsophisticated and crude nature of the weapons of this time, even if the soldiers lost their weapons, it was all relatively cheap and easy to acquire.

A shield was just a slab of wood, or several layers of wooden panels nailed together, something even a teenage child could make with some practice.

While any blacksmith worth even a tenth of their salt could produce you a sword. Perhaps it would not be of the best quality, but it would still likely get the job done.

And in that same vein, any carpenter could make you a bow and arrow. In fact, most hunters made their own hunting gear.

Now compare these examples to trying to produce a simple handgun, and think of all the various complicated and specialized machines and raw ingredients you would need.

So, due to all this, soldiers were generally given free access to their weapons and in return tasked with taking very good care of them, with the punishment for failing to do so being very harsh indeed.

Anyway, with the soldiers finally ready for battle with their properly maintained arms and armor, they would then report to their superior, who would combine the various individual squads into proper fighting formation and at last lead them into battle.

While during all of this time, Lord Parker's men would be busy smashing their fisting against the lightly defended lines with overwhelming numbers and likely even succeeding.

Knowing of this golden opportunity, the Heeat family officers thus began to immediately mobilize their men, barking out,

"There! There is the horn! Quick! Do not waste a second. Attack before the enemy can wake up. Attack before they get the chance to fight you. Attack before they even have the chance to know you!"

"Haaaaah!" And the men too responded with a great cheer, before beginning to hurriedly charge, knowing that the faster they arrived at the defensive lines, the better their odds were of catching the other side off guard and thus better the chances of their survival.

But alas!

Reality was much different from what Achillas and Lord Parker had expected.

Because much contrary to their expectations, the lines were not lightly defended.

They were very heavily defended, much more than even how they typically were during the daytime.

And to make them even more 'thorny', Alexander's men had also laid out a very special surprise for the incoming men.

Who soon got the message, as shots of pained cries and surprised yelps began to ring across the entire formation.

"Ahhh! What was that? My feet!"

"Me too! Aghhh! Something pierced by foot!"

"Uggghhh! Don't push bastard! I can't walk! Ohhhhh… hurts so much! Dammit, hope I don't lose the leg."

"What is this? Something scattered all around?I can't see anything in this darkness, fuck!"

"Feels like some kind of thon! Hey, bring the torch here. The bastards have done something to the roads."

"Caltrops! They are metal caltrops. Bastards! They were not during the day when I scouted the place."

"They must lay them around only during the night. Clever swine. How are we supposed to get past these?"

It was like this the Heeat family came across their first defensive hurdle.

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