The reason for the collapse of the flaking attack on the right side, led by Ural was not as singular as one might make it out to be.
Certainly Alexander's charge was the single most decisive factor.
But other ingredients played their part in this recipe of tucking one's tail and running as well.
The very first incident that had struck especially hard at the morale of the troops was the routing of the Jahal rcenaries.
The two forces were situated directly opposite of each other and each could monitor the other without any visual impairnt.
So when the 1,300, or now only 1,200 n witnessed the event, it had an effect on them that was difficult to quantify.
Because many of these n had grown up learning and knowing the reputation of these cut-throat rcenaries and so even idolized them.
And if one went through their stellar battlefield record, many would conclude they deserved such worship.
For whenever these n were deployed, it was almost an assured victory, as they would shoot and charge the enemy to oblivion, many tis when facing an enemy much bigger than their own.
And the number of tis they had been defeated and lost the battle could be counted on one hand, and all of them were either against overwhelming numbers or when they were forced to fight in unfavorable terrains where their mobility was restricted.
But no one had ever managed to defeat them in flat, open ground like this one, never even mind soone who was outnumbered.
It was because of this that Faruq had laughed in glee when he saw Alexander co out to et him in battle on such an open battlefield, even being overnumbered no less, as if Faruq needed any more advantages.
And this confidence was justified because without any heavy armor able to withstand the arrow strikes, and so kind of strong but easy to use bow to strike back, the only way to counter-mounted units would be to have one's own.
And those were in very short supply given how hard and ti-consuming they were to train.
Pasha Djose had sent his 10,000 contingent to avenge his son knowing this, which was the entirety of such n under him, confident that not even the god's interventions could save Alexander.
But it was his, his son's, and the Jahal rcenary's bad luck that they faced Alexander this ti, soone who had managed to find the perfect marriage of these two technologies, which he had given the na of crossbown and heavy cavalry.
Thus Alexander was able to effectively stop this nace on the battlefield.
And when this event ultimately occurred, Ural and his n witnessed with almost abject horror the yellow tide being beaten to a pulp by the tiny square of blue, before they were forced to retreat from their positions.
From an outside observer, the retreat of the Jahal rcenaries seed like the sea of yellow being beaten back by a small dazzling glow of blue.
It was a crippling blow to many in the field, especially for those who knew the rcenaries' reputation and had always felt reassured by their presence.
And now all that boisterousness had disappeared, the once high morale rapidly dropped in troops throughout all sectors of the army.
Even Faruq had felt his heart drop when he saw the left thrust not only be stopped but also be countered, causing a full retreat.
He of course had not expected the rcenaries to outright win as it took mounted units so ti to accumulate damage to finally break the enemy.
But he had also never thought in his wildest dream they would fail and be routed.
Faruq's only concern about the strategy up until that point had been the archers and slingers breaking, thus enabling the enemy's archers (crossbown) to target his left flank (right from Alexander's perspective) and so forcing him to call back the Jahal rcenaries to reinforce that front.
And the man had not even received the news of Azab's death.
Thus, though Grahtos did not know it yet, him winning against such a huge force with almost casualties was a major turning point in the war, as his win had a cascading effect on all of Faruq's forces.
And this effect was particularly prominent on Ural's n who saw their heroes, facing the exact sa problem, run.
And thus, since the other side had decided running away was a viable solution, certainly these n took note of that strategy.
Then, having been dealt such a shock, right after one of their own units was cut down to the last man, many of them had already gone weak in the knee, after which they witnessed the second worsening developnt- the 1,000 infantry coming after them.
Ural's n knew that though these foot soldiers were slow if Ural could not punch through the 600 n holding them back, they would eventually reinforce Alexander, and make them get bogged down in a battle of attrition.
Ural had already lost a lot of n in this battle and so wanted to avoid that at all costs.
But, the real nail in the coffin in their desire to resist and attack Alexander's position was Grahtos's charge, whom Alexander had missed because he had his back turned to him, but Ural's n certainly did not.
They knew that if those 1,000 n had the sa weapons as Alexander did, which was most likely the case given how quickly they had solved the Jahal rcenaries, then there was little they could do to stop them once they got.
Thus when so ran, all ran, completely breaking rank and fleeing in all three directions, very much like headless chickens.
In this way, if the Jahal rcenaries' withdrawal was a textbook example of how to do an organized retreat, then Ural's n running away was a textbook example of what was ant by a complete rout.
These demoralized n ran in every direction open to them, so even running in the opposite direction to their camp in an effort to get away from Alexander's spear in the short term, who had wisely chosen not to follow them.
He was still outnumbered after all.
But a few of the 500 novice cavalry were not so wise and chose to follow the fleeing cavalry.
And though they managed to rack up quite a few kills with backstabs and thrusts, many were also caught off guard when the much more experienced enemy cavalry chose to suddenly turn back and counterattack, transforming themselves from the hunted to the hunter.
And after a few such incidents, and Alexander's urging, these n learned their lessons and regrouped back to their lord. Being vigilant in case it was a fake retreat.
But it seed the rout was genuine, as Ural and his n soon galloped back to their back, leaving their dead and wounded behind.
And by the ti Grahtos managed to reach Alexander, all that greeted him was a few hundred dead and wounded bodies of n and horses as enemies.
"My lord! Apologies for the delay! Thank goodness you are safe!" Grahtos breathed a gigantic sigh of relief as he slowly caught up to Alexander, relief and reassurance washing over him as he then called out from the side to the gaudily dressed man on the extravagant horse.
This was of course Hemicus, who Grahtos had mistaken as Alexander from afar.
"I'm here," And this mistake was rectified a mont later as Alexander's voice rang out from around the vicinity of his guard captain, as he then took off his helt for easier identification.
"Ahhh!" Grahtos let out an involuntary gasp, before quickly repeating the greeting.
He did not ask why Hemicus was dressed as Alexander.
Because this was not the ti or place, and besides, he could reasonably guess the answer.
Instead, he turned to Alexander to give the battle report of the left side.
"My lord, we have managed to make the contingent of Jahal rcenaries retreat! We did it! We beat them!" The cavalry commander was elated by the result, as evidenced by his giant grin, and even he found it hard to believe the speed at which they won and the kind of destruction they had wrought upon the enemy.
This lance seed to be the weapon of the gods.
And his elation reached even higher levels as with twinkling eyes and a fervent gaze he sang the praises of the heavy cavalry.
"It was all because of you, my lord! Oh, when you promised we would have a new cavalry, I always knew it would be magnificent, but I could have never imagined it would be such a revolutionary creation. Not even in my wildest dreams!" Grahtos's fists shook as he said this, before continuing his speech unabated,
"Without the barding, he would have died from the counter-spear attacks. Without the lance, we would not have been able to hit the enemy. And without the stirrups, we could not have stayed on the horse."
"It was only through the perfect shing of these three separate inventions that were we able to achieve the result we did."
"And all this credit belongs to you! Glory to the lord of Zanzan! Glory to Goddess Gaia," Grahtos seed to have beco a bit too emotional as he even got down from his horse to prostate towards Alexander, right in the middle of a battlefield.
And seeing their cavalry captain as such, many others also followed suit to kneel and bow at Alexander, chanting and glorifying him.
Reviews
All reviews (0)