Chapter 53 - Volume 6 – Chapter 8 – The beginning of the clashes…

After that useless meeting, our two armies have been staring at each other for days without doing anything significant.

In fact, if anyone tries to attack the other directly, they will end up being massacred.

Yet the Mongol army could still win by charging headlong because their numerical advantage is too high. But after a few days...

|Morning of November 8th - 1249 - Camp on the banks of the Tigris River - Attila|

It's been days since all I've been doing are 2 things: watching the Mongols from the other side of the river and making love to Rasha in the evening.

Because there is literally nothing else to do at this moment.

As I stood there on my new post as a classic beach lifeguard, the Sultan approached:<> he asked me.

<> I replied.

There was a brief awkward silence:<>

<>

<>

<>

The Sultan looked at the opposite bank and after a few seconds replied:<>

<>

<> replied the Sultan as he walked away.

Once the Sultan had left, Rasha, who had been by my side all this time, said:<>

I turned to look at her and with a smirk said,:<>

She looked at me with almost disdain and replied:<>

<>

<> she asked.

<>

<>

<>

<>

What an annoying woman.

After a sigh, I said:<>

This last sentence made Rasha look at me with even more contempt than usual.

I continued:<>

<>

<>

Rasha remained silent for a few seconds, then said:<>

But nothing is ever good enough for her...

<>

Rasha nodded and walked away in silence.

|Evening of November 8th - 1249 - Camp on the banks of the Tigris River - Attila|

Rasha and I were both in the tent doing nothing special.

Today she didn't want to have sex with the excuse of: "We can't have sex every night, control yourself."

So today I was left without the nightly entertainment.

After a while, Rasha asked me: <>

<>

Rasha looked at me in silence, then said:<>

I was about to extinguish the candle that illuminated the tent when suddenly I heard a voice outside it.

<>

Shit.

<>

<>

Perfect, now it's time for me to take the stage.

|Night of November 8th - 1249 - Camp on the banks of the Tigris River - Attila|

I gathered the necessary men and headed north.

After about 2 hours of marching, we saw a Mongol bridgehead and some of their troops crossing it.

It was time to engage in battle:<>

After a battle cry from the troops, they charged the Mongol troops.

After a few minutes, the battle began in earnest.

The main objective was to break or damage the bridge as much as possible, to block the arrival of further reinforcements.

I did well to equip most of my troops with spears.

In these types of situations, they are very useful.

I threw myself in the middle as well, and after some time, we managed to push them back to the tip.

Shortly after, those few archers I had brought aimed their flaming arrows at the bridge.

After a short time, the bridge was burning, forcing the Mongols to flee to the other shore.

This skirmish could be considered over, without significant losses to our army.

We had the advantage of the terrain; we were lucky. But I have a strong feeling that it was all a diversion.

I called a scout and told him:<>

<>

<

|Night of 8 November – 1249 – Camp on the banks of the Tigris River – Sultan Al-Kamil|

Rasha, Attila's "spy-wife", alerted me to what had happened.

I've been out here watching what the enemies are doing for hours now.

Until, in the dark of the night, I saw the silhouettes of the Mongols raising a large rectangular thing.

Soon he realized, it was a bridge!

They used it to go from their shore to the small island where we had the meeting.

<>

All our archers, now in position, began to shoot.

Here, however, I took inspiration from an idea that Attila had given me, namely that of dividing the archers into several groups and making them shoot one after the other.

Each of these groups fired one after the previous one, in this way the first archers had the opportunity to reload and fire again when the last group had just finished.

Thus, the enemy has the impression that the arrows never end and there is no pause between the volleys.

We have killed many this way.

Despite this, they managed to bring another bridge that they attached from the island to our shore.

To do this, the Mongols began using their already dead comrades as excuses.

A heartbreaking and disturbing scene.

Many of them tried to cross to our side, but our lancers (advantaged by the fact that they only had to defend one important point) repelled them without any problems.

Once everyone understood that this was nothing more than a massacre, the Mongols ignored the presence of the bridges and tried to swim to our shore.

Our archers shot and shot but there were too many of them and it was clear that many of them would have managed to get through.

It's getting bad, they don't care about their losses, they're determinedly going to the death to reach us.

Rahsa, who was observing the battlefield with me, said: <>

"That thing"? Of course! What a brilliant idea!

On the other hand, Attila had hinted that he had an ace up his sleeve.

But to use it I have to wait until the last moment.

The archers fired non-stop, but it wasn't enough.

When I noticed that there would be many swimming to reach us, I shouted: <>

After a few minutes the soldiers, holding barrels of pitch, threw them into the river, breaking them.

This changed the red colour of the river (which it had taken on due to the blood of the dead) to black.

Then an acricer with a flaming arrow shoots towards the pitch poured into the river.

A fire broke out which not only burned both decks but burned alive both the men who were swimming and those who were on the verge.

Burned alive.

It was a tragic and horrible scene, but necessary for our survival.

After the river burned, the Mongol offensive stopped.

Now aware that they can't do anything.