Herald of Steel



Cambyses was convinced that if they had listened to her, they would not have needed to even lift a finger to defeat the enemy.

As such Cambyses's lungs jumped up to her throat as it urged its owner to give a diatribe of scalding rebuke, wanting to chastise all the men here for killing 10,000 good men, and perhaps even losing another 3,000 as prisoners.

But she held back…for now.

Because she understood now was not the time to point fingers and be at each other's throats.

That could wait after the threat was over.

It was also because of that same exact reason that Cambyses had not even chided Menes for his loss, even when the giant had publicly apologized to her.

This had happened the very day Menes had returned, in fact, the very moment Menes had entered the city, as Cambyses was there around the gates to see the state of the defeated army with her very own eyes.

"My lady, I have no excuse! It is also my fault and I take full responsibility," This was the very first thing the armored man had said right when he saw Cambyses was this, as he lowered his head in shame,

And seeing this Cambyses kept a very respectful face and only said, "I have heard all the reports, generals. You have done a good job to get these so many men safely back."

"For that the people of Zanzan are grateful."

Before dismissing him, "The general must be tired. Now please go rest," making the reception be cordial but somewhat cold.

And after that interaction, Cambyses simply feigned being all understanding about Menes, not caring to bring any criticism on him, because she felt the person to do that should be her husband Alexander, and it should be upto him to decide the kind of punishment if any should be imposed.

And to that effect, she had even written about this specific topic in her letter to him.

So with all those done, Cambyses now concentrated on coming together and tackling the external problem.

And as the decision to battle a siege was taken, Cambyses informed the men of the preparations that they had already taken.

She began, "Once the news of the loss reached, we got to work preparing for the siege."

"First and foremost Lord Menicus has properly inventoried the food and firewood stocks and secured them in cement warehouses."

"These silos are fireproof and so we can sleep easy knowing is no fear of the enemy or saboteurs setting them alight," Cambyses said the most important thing very first, and after knowing their food supply was safe, the news did work to soothe many a worried heart.

And she further reassured the surrounding men by saying,

"Additionally he says that we have enough stockpiles of grain to last close to a year with proper rationing. Particularly due to our winter harvests being so much."

"So as long as the walls hold, reinforcements will certainly come."

This got all the men to nod in unison as there was no way Tibias could maintain a siege for a year.

They would surely be attacked from other sides by many of the hostile nobles who hated Tibias.

And even if they didn't, even for Alexander to raise an entire army and march it from Adhan, it would at best take six months.

Thus, knowing this, and aware of the general difficulty of overcoming a siege against a well-fortified city, the military leaders started to feel confident about their chances.

While Cambyses after having addressed the most pressing concern, listed the other additional steps she had taken,

"Also, the city watch under the lead of Bartholomew has rounded up all known and suspected criminals and many have been sent to the coal pits to dig the new firewood."

"This will prevent any crime and stealing during the siege."

In times of sieges it was common for criminals, gangs, and thieves to hoard food, and having seen such scenes many times, it was Menicus who had advised Cambyses to take these steps.

And when the girl had hesitated a bit saying that many of the suspects might be innocent, Menicus said, "These men left alone will be too dangerous. Even if 99 of them are innocent, just 1 of them might be enough to destroy us, " and then reassured her, saying, "Besides we will only keep them until the enemy is defeated. After that, we can even give them some coin to smooth the thing over."

Hence Cambyses was finally convinced.

Thus, with the streets cleaned of the criminals, Cambyses then listed her next action, saying,

"The city guard has also imposed a general lockdown on the city, forbidding anyone from lingering in the streets after dusk."

"With anyone caught to be tried as a spy and thrown into the coal pits."

"Then, as Lord Menicus suggested, we have started to implement a rationing system, where the wall defenders will be given two meals a day, and the rest only one."

"And lastly we have arranged for regular sermons to be held by the twin princesses to placate the populace."

"Mass prayers and songs are arranged to be held and both the temples will remain open during the day for the mourners."

The loss on the battlefield and the subsequent imminent siege naturally had ruffled the feathers of the populace and thus Cambyses had asked Azira and Azura to help calm the people down.

And here the two girls proved to be a godsend, as if not for them, their eloquence in dealing with such circumstances, and their fame as the Saintesses of Rmauh, the people of Zanzan, who had been already sucked dry by the three-year drought and the war with Tibias, this last loss might have been one too many.

'War! War! War! We have had nothing but war for four straight years.'

'My husband, my son, my father, my brother…gone…all gone.'

'Damn to them. Damn to it all,'

Many such howls of despairs of mothers, widows, and sisters would be heard.

And seeing this Cambyses had felt that the city might lose the will to fight before it lost its walls.

Hence she had instructed the girls to do this of her volition and had even rejected Menicus's suggestion to let the girls escape the city.

After finishing her long speech, Cambyses looked around to see if the others had anything more to add, but naturally, as this defense was planned with Menicus's advice, none found anything missing.

So with the internal situation of the city stabilized, now the preparation for defending against the external situation needed to be done.

And here, at last, Menes, who had gone a bit taciturn following his defeat decided it was no time to mope around and joined in the conversation, taking charge and loudly saying,

"The enemy is at our doorsteps. We must prepare our men as soon as possible."

"So our first and foremost priority is recruiting more wall defenders."

"For that, I propose taking in many of the returned soldiers. And especially hire the crossbowmen who fought against Djose."

"They will need not to be trained on the new weapons after all."

"And I also propose increasing production of both crossbows and the bolts."

"For I believe that these new bows will be critical to enable us to hold the walls."

"And lastly, I remember Lord Alexander saying that the instant bow will be a miracle weapon in the hands of expert men during sieges."

"So I propose making new units equipped with them and assigned to defend critical points."

Finished laying out his strategy for the defense of the city, Menes then looked around to see if anyone had any objections.

But heard no objection, as the other sat quietly and approved.

Thus the rest of the meeting was composed of discussing the various details such as their weapon stock levels, the number of men available, their distribution along the walls, and even the kind of remuneration each of the fighting men would be given.

Regarding the matter of money, Cambyses did not hold back one single bit, instantly saying all the defenders would be given the same wage as the regular army for every day they fought, and that even if anyone died, the deceased's family members who be given a similar pension to the army's.

After all, Alexander had quite some money in his treasury, and all the gold in the world would not matter if they lost the city.

Thus Cambyses let the gold flow freely.

And as for the matter of manpower, well Zanzan was a city of close to 200,000.

Meaning even accounting for the women, children, and the infirm, it had at least 50,000- 60,000 available men to defend it.

So with so many people actively defending the city, being able to repel the Tibians seemed to heavily favor the defenders….if one did not take into account the existence of the catapult, a siege machine that was said to revolutionize ancient warfare.

Most famously Sparta had been powerless against Athen's large walls before the invention of this weapon.

But with its inception, many of Athen's allies fell to it.

So Tibias certainly had a chance.

But it was not like Zanzan had no cards of its own.

The crossbow had revolutionized medieval warfare as it let untrained peasants be expert marksmen.

Hence the playing field seemed to be evened out.

Thus it was to be seen who the victor would be between the clash of spear and shield.