My new story already has many chapter posted. If you want to read it, it's called "Old Bloodlines."
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Anno Domini, 831-March-2-14
We had confirmed that the troops of the wālī of Aegyptus had withdrawn from Arabia Petraea and entered Arabia directly. That cut off our view of the enemy, since I could not send scouts that far considering that all the terrain was desert.
So we had simply begun dedicating ourselves exclusively to fortifying the area from the city of Pelusium to the Canal of the Pharaohs, with trenches and wooden palisades wherever possible, making as much use as we could of the Bitter Lakes.
Using shovels and salt water from those lakes, we managed to dig a system of ditches that kept expanding, leaving passage possible only through the places where there were multiple military camps of my troops, following the Roman teaching of building good fortifications.
Each passing day, those fortifications began to become harder and more resistant. At first there were only some fortified areas, but as the days passed, the eastern frontier of Aegyptus began to look more and more like a line of fortresses than a simple blockade to prevent attacks by sarakenoi cavalry.
Something I had also ordered was for the Varangians who followed me to cross their drakkar into the Red Sea. Since we controlled a large part of the area that gave us access to the Red Sea, we had several dozen Varangian ships moved across by land. It was relatively simple and allowed us to begin expanding our naval presence.
The withdrawal of the wālī only anticipated that he would try to enter Aegyptus by sea, since I greatly doubted that someone would abandon his center of power simply because he had found his lands besieged by a larger force.
Because of that, we did everything possible to make any attempt to pass through the Red Sea a nightmare. Considering the civil war, warships or transports had to be scarce if they had fought at sea, so around forty drakkar in the Red Sea could cause many problems. We also took advantage of this to begin raiding that area, burning the ports that could receive the wālī's force.
I had also begun a process to move ships of the Byzantine navy into the Red Sea, only this was not as easy as with the drakkar, which could be moved by a group of forty Varangians transporting their own ship through the area.
Moving a dromon was truly a task of engineering, logistics and organization that took a great deal of time, besides the fact that we could not transport ships that used Greek fire because of the possibility of losing them in the area.
But for the moment I had managed to move around twenty heavy dromons into the Red Sea, using logs and many workers who pushed with the help of draft animals to move log after log and drag the ships for several dozen kilometers from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea.
And that was only for the moment, since I was coordinating to move the rest of the Byzantine fleet into the Red Sea and be able to ravage the sarakenoi ports, as well as destroy the trade of the area. Clearly, the system for making ships cross by land was only just beginning to take shape, and much of the work was focused on finishing the trenches and preventing raids into our rear.
All of that finally brought us back to the sieges, and the heat was increasing day by day. Each day was hotter than the last and that was clearly leaving us with few options. I wanted to finish the sieges, but for the moment the fortresses remained standing even with every attempt to pressure them frequently in order to weaken their walls.
Finally, I found myself in a situation where the damned sieges were lasting too long, and that was already beginning to irritate me because of how drawn out it seemed. We did not only have to besiege three fortresses, but when we continued along the course of the Nile there would be many more, and who knew how many additional fortresses we would have to take.
I was not very prone to obsessive cruelty, but if I had to imitate the Mongols and massacre an entire city to prevent this campaign from becoming a headache lasting years, I was more than willing to do it.
So I had begun to review the fortress that seemed most suitable for my objectives, and my eyes had settled on Sais. Among the cities, this was the largest and had the most extensive walls. In addition, it was the one that had shown the greatest structural weakness.
But it was also the one with the largest population among them all, since there seemed to be around several thousand people, perhaps tens of thousands if I was being generous. Because of that, I had decided to change the strategy completely.
I had divided the siege equipment among the camps while more material was being prepared, but I decided to concentrate everything on the same fortress. In that way, we should be able to overwhelm the defenders from every side of the wall, as well as considerably increase the number of soldiers in the camp, so that from every section of the walls they would see how the camp did not stop growing.
So, gathering many of my troops, we began to march toward the city that continued to resist.
Several days passed until I finally arrived with almost thirty thousand men to join the siege, and shipments of trebuchets that had been disassembled also began to arrive, along with many catapults and scorpions.
After setting up the camp, I sent emissaries to request the surrender of the city, with the usual formalities to later justify before anyone what would happen. If they did not surrender the city by this afternoon, the city would be put to the knife. No one would be taken prisoner. Everyone would die. The city would be burned and its ruins demolished.
The answer was the same one I had been receiving in recent days: a refusal to surrender, even with a garrison that had to be mostly Coptic.
''Good, they have decided to die'' I said to my tourmarches, who were waiting for orders.
''Do we proceed to assemble the artillery, my strategos?'' said one of the tourmarches.
''Yes, all of it. I want trebuchets in every section of the walls, catapults armed and scorpions harassing the defenders. Have ladders and rams prepared, and have the ground dug in front of them. We will go in with everything'' I said, observing the city that remained there, defying me, blocking the road toward the capital of Aegyptus.
''At your orders, strategos'' said several tourmarches before they began to split across the area and prepare for the siege.
''So free plunder, then?'' said Sigurd with a smile he could barely contain.
''Yes. I have had nothing but disappointments in this region. It seems the Copts care nothing for religion as long as they are fiscally comfortable, and that has been a problem. If I cannot win them over with promises, I will have to do it with fear, and the best way to spread fear is for them to know what will happen when they resist. Here we will have to do it. Not a single prisoner. Only dead. We have to send the message, because we cannot spend years here. You know how expensive it is to maintain the foederati. With the plunder of Alexandria, they can be paid for a few months, but I cannot keep them paid for years'' I said, looking at the city as darkness fell.
''Finally something more like what a sack should be. A pity for those who want prisoners, but at least they will fill their pockets with plunder'' said Sigurd, smiling as he went toward his tent.
The next day was busy while the siege equipment was prepared, but nothing more important happened, except continuing to watch as more ships crossed into the Red Sea and began raiding the ports within their reach, burning everything they could and giving the Varangians free rein to do what they knew best, while the Byzantine navy would take care of besieging the larger ports.
The second day since the beginning of the siege was when the enormous pressure we were applying began to show. Stones crossed the air in every direction. Scorpion bolts flew and pierced targets or became a mass of splinters when they struck the walls.
Harassment tactics had begun, moving crossbowmen and archers with mobile walls and using catapults to throw stones in every direction.
Clearly, a city that had already been resisting for a moderately long time would withstand this pressure with relative normality, and that was what we were observing. At the same time, work continued on the mine beneath the walls.
I was not going to throw my men into a slaughter either, so I continued playing patiently while the heat increased and I had to make sure everyone had water and that medical tents were ready to receive soldiers with heatstroke or similar cases.
The fifth day was when the first progress in the siege was observed. The garrison continued suffering the constant pounding of pressure distributed throughout the whole day, but the city and the defenders continued resisting.
Finally, my men had managed to reach the foundations of the wall through the excavations and had begun burning wine and cow fat inside the mines, creating an enormous fire beneath their walls. It did not take long for the massive cracks to appear as the walls began to sink.
By the end of the day, the pounding of the trebuchets had fulfilled its first purpose, which was to cause the outer walls of the city to fall, leaving one section completely filled with rubble.
Without letting them rest, I brought a catapult closer and had it launch several amphorae filled with Greek fire, which quickly set part of the city aflame while I slowly sent men to apply pressure and the undermining continued its work.
Although we had the risk of the rubble blocking the advance, I decided to wait a few more days before launching the assault. Other sections of the walls began to fall before the undermining and the artillery, and slowly, as the days passed, the city began to fill with holes in its defenses.
The walls now had several breaches, though filled with rubble, but slowly we had begun to wear down the garrison, since they could no longer simply protect every area as they should.
When we were making the final preparations for the coordinated assault across every section of the walls and the breaches, an emissary from the fortress began to come out carrying a white flag.
''I can put one straight through his chest'' said Sigurd, who was using one of the scorpions.
''None of that. Emissaries are sacred. Even if we are going to burn the city, if someone comes under the protection of being a messenger, not a hair on his head is touched. Once his purpose is fulfilled and he has returned home, he is killed, but not before'' I said, watching as the emissary brought a paper.
''The city is willing to surrender if you spare its defenders'' said the emissary in poor Greek.
''My conditions were already delivered days ago. Send that message. The time to surrender has passed'' I shouted back.
''My lord, we fulfilled our duty, but there is no longer any desire to resist. We ask you for mercy as brothers in the faith'' said the emissary.
''Then beg the Almighty for mercy, because you should have opened the gates to me if you were true Christians. But you are only lapdogs of the sarakenoi'' I said, turning away and ignoring the emissary.
The man kept shouting things, but after receiving no answer, he returned to the city.
''Sound the trumpets. Charge'' I said, looking at the tourmarches.
They quickly began giving the instructions.
Drawing my sword, I placed myself in front of the lines of soldiers.
''There you have it, my brave soldiers, a city ready to be conquered. Show no mercy, because they showed none to the men who died wearing down the walls. We lost several of those we called companions, so they will pay the highest price. Today we will avenge the fallen against those Copts who kneel so the sarakenoi can shove it up their asses. Forward'' I shouted, pointing with my sword, and it did not take long before the trumpets were heard.
From every direction, the men began to charge against the city.
Following the vanguard group, there was a desperate attempt by the defenders to protect the population, offering resistance at the breaches, but it was only a matter of minutes before all organized defense ended.
And the slaughter began.
It did not take long before I heard the clash of metal and the desperate screams.
Only a few meters were enough to see a Varangian stabbing a man in the stomach multiple times.
I saw a man killed at the door of his house with a mace, his head smashed apart by blows.
Broken glass, screams and the sound of metal were all I heard as I moved, watching as my men finally unleashed their cruelty. Something I had controlled on many occasions was now released, and they were not disappointing.
The city had fallen.
For three days and three nights, the city was sacked until nothing remained attached to the walls. Only the dead remained, stripped of everything. I ordered the corpses to be sent to the other sieges, so they could be launched into the fortresses that still resisted and see the fate that awaited them if they did not surrender.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
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I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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