"Four of the eight food storages were destroyed. Half of the spare lumber was made unusable and we suffered 500 casualties." One of the advisors meekly said. Nasr's eyes were cold. He stared down the table at all his war council. They refused to speak any more, afraid of what Nasr might do.
"What came about of finding shallow water?" Nasr's voice was calm, hiding his immense rage. His clenched fists were enough to show it, however.
"South of the camp, there is a crossing, shallow enough for our horses to go through. Other than that it would be hard to send anything else."
Nasr tapped his finger on the table as he thought about the next move. He could attack now but all his men were tired from last night's raid. He was lucky that Harun had destroyed the bridge they crossed through last night, but he also knew that any attack would have to be through the narrow bridge in front.
"We delay the attack and wait for the next supply caravan to come. Send out our archers every night with some lances as cover to harass their camp. There will be light resistance on the bridge when doing this so send a few horses around through the crossing to deal with them." With Nasr's orders, he walked off. He had to wait for Mansa to make some progress in the north and divert Harun's forces. But more importantly to him, he hadn't gotten any sleep after last night's raid and only wished to rest.
Mansa led his two thousand men through hills. He had gotten deep into enemy territory and saw the first fort. It was small. Mansa assumed it couldn't be guarded by more than a hundred men during times of peace. Yet as civil war broke out the number must of been lower.
Calling the commanders of the battalions, he quickly devised a plan. "Get the wood we scavenged on our travel and create ladders, two for each battalion. I'll lead most of the men and demand a surrender. If they refuse, we attack from each side, spreading their forces around the walls. Resistance should be light." The five nodded, gathering the men needed to carry out the task.
Mansa led the rest up to the front gate of the fort. Alarm bells rang inside, and an old woman stood atop the wall, alongside her two archers. It was pitiful. The number of men defending the castle seemed to round to at most 30. Clearing his throat Mansa shouted to the lady, "SURRENDER YOUR FORT IN THE NAME OF HIS HIGHNESS NASR! THE ONE TRUE SULTAN! END YOUR CRIMINAL RESISTANCE AND LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS!"
He saw the old lady close her eyes. Opening them she whispered into the archer's ear next to her. "THE LADY REFUSES!" The archers shout across the field making everyone in the fort tense. They looked at the old woman in disbelief, looking at the army below.
The silence in the air was palpable. Many of the guards wavered. The silence finally broke. "MY LADY. RECONSIDER, WE CAN'T WIN!" The guard ran across the wall towards the old woman. He threw his helmet to the side and looked down at the wall, with a look full of self-preservation. "I SURRENDER!" He threw his weapon over the wall.
Those left in the fort had been chosen as the defence against the Grand Prince. They wouldn't mind using their lives to defend against a foreign invader but to defend the fort against their own countrymen when the threat of invasion was so close was another thing.
Many of the soldiers agreed with the lone guard. Their job was to fight foreign invaders, not fellow brother-in-arms. Taking a look down at the overwhelming force ready to besiege them, the order to fight was practically throwing their lives away for petty pride.
"I SURRENDER!" The calls echoed all around the castle from numerous places. Finally, the fort commander laid down his weapon and took his helmet off. He wasn't willing to get all his men killed. The old woman looked around at the cries in disgust as she tried to shout at the men. Her cries were drowned out by the noise of the opening of the gates.
Looking down at them, her eyes filled with fury as she tried to hit the guards. Quickly apprehending her they, led her down to the front gate and into the field towards Mansa. The commander in charge threw her towards the armoured man. "We surrender the fort for your travel and rest, but you can't expect my men to fight for you. Our job is to protect the North from the outside."
Mansa looked at the old woman in his hands and then back at the commander. He gave a nod and put his hand out shaking the commanders. "We will rest here for a night and be on our way. It is not my desire to weaken our defences, so I thank you, but you must understand I have to leave a man here when we leave."
"Of course." The commander of the fort nodded with a smile as he led Mansa through the gate. Signalling to the army behind to prepare to set up camp, the tension practically disappeared. Mansa knew that this fort was a weak one, the final line of defence for the north. Yet if Harun had left all the forts as barebones as this one, then his journey through the North would be easy.
Two long columns of men stood, flanking a convey of carriages. On the right, the longer one, men in red and black armour stood. At its head William, looking back at them. It was the Ammray Military, something William had painstakingly created. On the other side, a comparable smaller force stood. Charles was at its head, wearing the white and black amour of The Unyielding
William looked at his creation. Although it was small in comparison to other Kingdoms, only made up of 10 thousand men, each one was highly trained, not conscripting farmers and peasants as levies to fill in the numbers. They moved as one and fought as one. Yet when he looked over towards The Unyeilding he couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. There were only around 3 thousand of them, but they moved and acted completely differently.
His troops still had individuality left in them, they would talk and joke with one another, even when on duty, but Charles's forces were different. Whilst in amour they acted robotically, only using energy when it was necessary. They didn't talk or move unless ordered. William didn't know how he had done it and didn't wish to ask. Even if he wished for the main forces of the Kingdom to be like that, the time and effort to sculpt each soldier to become like that was costly and time-consuming and had to be drilled into them when young.
His head turned back to his own troops, who stood in line waiting. Coming up along them, Alfred could be seen, with five Royal Guards around him, Chris included. Pulling alongside him he whispered into Williams's ear before riding off for the second column of men, whispering in Charles's ear. With each order given he turned his horse, "ALL MEN MARCH!" His voice echoed down the two lines, as the sound of 13 thousand people marching echoed into the Safrid border.