Herald of Steel

For the past two months, Alexander had been building up all his supplies on Jamider (Earl) Tikba's fief, which was a day's march away here, with the idea being that once the siege began, these stocks could be easily accessed to get the camp going while replenishments from Zanzan slowly catch up to backfill the depot.

Alexander had come up with this tactic as a way to navigate around any potential problem that might arise due to supply issues, something that had plagued the army the previous time.

He reasoned that if things were to be done this way, then even if the army did not get any supplies for a while, it would still have no problem sustaining itself using the stocks at hand for quite some time.

It was a tactic with a much greater margin of safety.

But a critical part of that idea hung on the Jamider (Earl) Tikba bringing the supplies from his fief to the camp itself. 

Without those Alexander would starve just like before.

And so hearing those were already on the way certainly pleased Alexander.

"Good. Then we can finish completing the camp within a week, and begin our seige then!" He cheerfully said as he turned to give a grateful nod to the noble who seemed to have cooled down a bit.

But as Alexander made mention of the siege, this finally got Menes of all people to pose, "Alexander, isn't time you told us about the battle plan. We still do not know how we are supposed to take the city. It surely can't be through a brute frontal attack right!"

The strong, black general appeared to throw that idea out of the window right off the bat, not even taking that was possible.

And who could blame him given the strength of the walls, the terrain, and the many, many precedences?

So instead he bet his money on Alexander having a secret spy or something like an informant who could show them a secret passageway they could use to infiltrate the city and take it down from the inside.

Or perhaps there was a deserted part of the wall they would scale at the dead of night even no was looking like they had done when they captured Jabel.

Or perhaps there was even a turncoat who would open the gates at night to let them in.

As Alexander had refused to reveal his plans to even his military officers, all sorts of such wild and creative theories were conjured up by those in charge, as they tired to guess Alexander's next brilliant move.

Though they might as well not have bothered.

Beaune Alexander very frankly revealed, "Oh, why not? I was indeed planning to attack the city head on." 

And to say this came as such a shock to everyone would be an understatement. 

Those at the table even briefly wondered if they had lost control of their hearing.

"That…that…" Menes was particularly hit hard as his mouth opened and closed like a gaping fish, while his eyes threatened to dislodge themselves from the socket.

He did not doubt for a second that Alexander was not aware of what he was proposing.

So instead of trying to make Alexander see the error of his ways, Menes quickly tried to think of a way to make sense of strategy.

"...." And after a while his black complexion even appeared to turn a bit flushed, as if he was heating up while trying to think too hard.

"Catapaults! Are the catapults that strong my lord!" When suddenly Grahtos loudly pronounced this, his voice happy and ecstatic.

He was sure he had found the answer.

But Alexander only turned to give him a light, enigmatic smile, neither confirming, nor denying it.

Instead, he went to a seemingly completely different topic, as he posed to everyone, 

"Those 40 to 50 thousand camp followers, what do you think of them?" 

And naturally everyone was a bit caught off guard by this bizarre question.

They were unable to see the connection.

But Talkuder (Viscount) Prantik answered regardless, spitting out one word, "Hmmp! Vultures!" 

And this hostile attitude was mostly because whatever may be the reason these people had for following the army, at the end of the day they had one true real goal.

To tail the army and take part in the looting of the booty.

And this never sat well with most commanders as it was seen as these people benefiting from other's hard work.

"Haha, well there is no need to be too prejudiced against them. After all, with so many being here, it means they believe we have a good chance to take the city." Seeing the noble's attitude, Alexander lightly chuckled.

And this reasoning had precedence in both this world and in Alexander's previous one.

For example, The Roman historian Livy described an interesting campaign against a place called Liguria where there were almost no camp followers following the Roman army because the region was poor and offered little plunder.

So the presence of the number of camp followers worked as a kind of indicator of the wealth and prosperity of that region.

"But what do they have got to do with anything?"

But although all these were interesting tidbits, no one was able to see the connection with the question posed.

Thus Jamider (Earl) Tikba gruffly said that.

"Haha, okay, okay, here is the plan," And Alexander, seeing everyone else's patience was also starting to run thin decided he had been leading them for long enough.

So he revealed, 

"First of all, we will deploy our crossbowmen, scorpions, and catapults near the front wall and engage the defender stationed there."

"But our main intention will not be to kill them and clear the walls. That would simply not work. So instead our men will work to keep them occupied." 

As Alexander said this, a flash of intrigue ran across the gathered people, who really could not see the point of that.

Killing the enemy was always better than just keeping them buddy.

So they waited to hear more, as Alexander continued, 

"The reason they will need to do that is because just behind them we will have tens of thousands of workers building a huge wall!"

"The wall will be as high as the city's second wall and be almost as large as it lengthwise."

"That's why I bought so many construction material with me, along with so much cement."

"To build it as soon as possible."

As Alexander revealed this, some parts of his plan began to become clearer to the others.

It seemed the wall would be built very close to the walls so the crossbowmen would be needed to provide covering fire for the workers from enemy arrow fire.

But beyond that, none of the people present were able to understand the reason behind that.

Sure it sounded impressive, but what did it have to do with the siege?

At first, when Alexander mentioned the wall, they thought he wanted to build a completely ringed wall to surround and cut off the city from all outside help.

But that seemed to be not the case as going by Alexander's plan the wall was planned to be built on only one side.

This made no sense.

But Alexander was not yet finished, so none of them interjected, as he continued,

"Once this wall is constructed, we will put our crossbowmen and catapults on top of it."

"With a higher elevation, they will be able to able to better suppress the wall defenders."

"And they will need to do a got job at that because it is where our real siege will begin."

"Because at this point, we will start recruiting the camp followers to go and start filling up the ditch with earth, while at the same time, the construction of a ramp leading right up to the wall will begin."

"And once that is completed, we will drive our siege towers right up the ramp and let our soldiers flood the first wall directly."

"And once the first wall is taken, we will repeat the process to take the second one too!"

"And the city will be ours!" 

Alexander firmly declared with a confident tone.

While the others were for a moment flabbergasted.

Alexander did not lie.

He really was going for a frontal assault.

But he was not also wholly truthful.

Because it was also not the kind of frontal attack they thought it would be, which was brute ladder rushes designed to overwhelm the enemy through sheer numbers.

And for a while they were unable to respond it as they tried to wrap their head against this never before seen unorthodox technique.

To some it seemed too whacky and too time consuming to work.

"That…so that's why my lord mentioned the camp followers." Realization dawned on Heloptos's face, white he then muttered, 

"Yes, this might work," Though his tone was a bit unsure.

But the unsure whisper seemed to be enough, as it tipped the scales of reasoning in favor of the tactic within the minds of all other military officers.

"Yes! Of course! oF course, it can work!" One chimed after feeling convinced.

"Haha, as expected of the lord. You truly are a once in a thousand years genius!" Another praised with a boisterous laughter.

"Yes. I agree. And if we build multiple such walls, and force the enemy to defend multiple places simultaneously, it will be even quicker," This helpful tip was given by Melodias.

It seemed everyone was on board with Alexander's plan.