Chapter 45 May 404 AD Paulsland Capital-Battle (Patreon)

                         In the weeks leading up to Kush’s assault on the Capital, Jinka’s million-man militia arrived. As they reached the city, they had to prepare for the invasion. This consisted of putting equipment on walls, finding places to sleep, and finding places for the men to eat. During this time, Shimbir, with his maid, and his one armed guard named Kono, went around the city and thanked the militia for fighting off the invaders. When Shimbir realized that most of the men were eating canned food directly out of the jars they preserved the food in he ordered them to go to the castle for warm food.

                         This created a bit of a situation as Shimbir technically had the authority to invite militia men to his castle to eat by the thousands, but he didn’t have a logistics system to set it up. That said, a bunch of militiamen who were tired of eating cold canned food decided to implement their king's order and took over the castle's kitchens. They were still eating canned food but at least they were able to use the kitchens to warm up their rations. Shimbir impressed the various militia men by eating with them in the castle’s dinning halls. Shimber even ate the warmed-up rations instead of the food that was reserved for the King. It was at this point that the average militiaman began telling stories about how humble and kind their young King was.

                         When the seventy families heard what Shimbir was doing, they assumed one of the other families suggested it, as, in their mind, the figurehead was doing figurehead things. The happier people were with Shimbir, the easier time they would have with Shimbir approving everything they wanted. The seventy families should have looked closer at the situation, but everyone important in the seventy families had already fled the Capital. They didn’t care if they were known as cowards, they didn’t need the people’s vote, they were rich, they owned nearly every manufactory in Paulsland, other people’s opinion of them didn’t matter, all that mattered was their opinion of other people because they got to choose who were hired to work in a manufactory, in government, or on ships, instead of a farm.

                         While the militia was waiting for the Kush army to reach the Capital, Jinka was busy making sure the Illuminati’s steam rifles and cannons reached the Capital. It was unfortunate, but there was no way to bring the steam cannon's pressure vessel to the Capital but the Illuminati chose to do the next best thing and convert several coal gasification rigs into pressure vessels for steam cannons.

                         While Jinka’s men were setting up the steam weapons, they received word that a Roman army had attacked Sarapion and sacked the warehouses surrounding the city. Jinka quietly rejoiced as most of the wealth in those warehouses belonged to the seventy families. The newspaper's response to the attack was a condemnation of Jinka, who, according to them, had been a failure of a leader ever since he decided to lead the militia. What the seventy families didn’t realize is that they were making the militia question the newspaper's authenticity, and Jinka was determined to make the nation question it even more.

                         When Kush finally reached the Capital, only three hundred and fifty thousand soldiers made it. The Romans that marched with them were long gone, and so were a significant number of their troops. Most army leaders would refuse to attack a city when they were so outnumbered, but the Kush leadership wanted as many of their drug addicts to die as possible. For the Kush, it was cheaper to give these men spears and shoddy armor and lead them to their deaths than to imprison or execute them. This also created a lot less internal turmoil. Besides, they had a chance of forcing Paulsland to change their addictive substances laws with this army. It was a low chance, but a chance all the same.

                         As for the individuals in the army, they did not know they were outnumbered because their leadership was lying to them. So far, everywhere they went in Paulsland they had been able to find enough drugs to take the edge off, and their military leaders promised that when they reached the Paulsland capital, they would be able to take drugs for weeks without stopping. The reality was that the Kush army had what a judge in another timeline described as crackhead logic. They could not think clearly, as their only desire was for their next high, and they would do any stupid thing possible to get it. That said, a lot of the army disappeared because the addicts thought they could do better finding drugs on their own. The army's leadership didn’t care all that much as it meant that Paulsland would have to waste manpower tracking down thousands of soldiers spread across tens of thousands of square miles. Albeit, the army still punished deserters when they were too brazen about it.

                         As soon as the Kush army was a few miles out, they sent a scout out with a white banner on an olive branch, taken from one of the many farms they pillaged along the way. The messenger had one request: that Paulsland would forcefully stop the creation and sale of addictive substances. Paulsland refused, and the messenger returned to his camp and both sides prepared for battle. On Paulsland’s side that meant getting men on walls, prepping steam vessels, and war machines. On Kush’s side that meant making sure their soldiers had armor on, were organized into lines, and had long ladders that could technically reach the top of the city's wall.

                         Little King Shimbir was on the tallest tower of the castle with a telescope looking over the enemy's camp when they formed up and began marching on the city. The caste was in an extremely safe spot in the middle of the Capital. The Capital was split into three parts, separated by two rivers, with the castle being built on an island where the two rivers met. The Kush were attacking the northeast portion of the city, more than a mile from where the King was perched on one of the castle's many towers.

                         As King Shimbir looked over the enemy he asked, “How are our men going to fare against so many people?”

                         Kono, his one-armed guard, said, “They have a lot of men, but we have a lot more. Furthermore, we have the new steam weapons created by the Illuminati.”

                         Kono’s words did little to make Shimbir more comfortable. He could see the Kush spread out across the horizon in dozens of blocks of men that contained thousands of men each. At ten years old, he didn’t have the perspective that he needed to compare Paulsland’s force to Kush’s much smaller one, or that they would have an incredibly difficult time getting anyone over the wall with those stupid ladders. Kono could see the uncertainty in his King’s eyes and began pointing out that their men were safely inside the walls of the Capital, that they had war engines, and if the steam weapons were half as good as promised, then they would have an easy decisive victory, especially since the Kush were not bringing out their own war machines to give their men cover. In fact Kono honestly thought that this was just a reconnaissance in force. Kono gladly kept encouraging the King as the Kush marched toward the city, their ladders over their heads.

                         As they marched, one of the things Kono kept pointing out was how undisciplined the Kush were, as they could not keep their formations intact. What Kono didn’t know was that the reason why they were undisciplined was because most of the army was in different states of being drunk, high or withdrawal, and the reason why they were so intent on attacking the walls of the Capital was because they were told that the Capital was full of drugs. The Kush leadership were using crackhead logic to manipulate their men.

                         Oddly enough, even though this army was undisciplined, they did not seem to flinch when ballista bolts and trebuchet rocks began hitting their formations. The men in the army were either too incapacitated to care, or they were stuck in the crush and had to keep moving forward or get trampled.

                         Unlike the battle of Flattop Mountain, when the army reached trebuchet range at Capital City, the steam weapons were given permission to fire, and the cannons and rifles devastated the lines. Most of the men in the Capital had never seen an explosion before, but that changed for everyone who watched the battle as the bodies hit by the cannon balls exploded in gore.

                         As Shimbir saw the bodies explode from the cannonball he yelled out, “YEAH! GET THEM!” and smiled wildly. The gore did not bother him one bit, and his opinion was echoed all over the walls of the Capital. In fact, thousands of children managed to see a portion of the battle, and few parents thought that seeing death was a bad thing. In fact, many thought seeing the death of an enemy was little different than seeing the death of a chicken, unlike the modern sensibilities of another timeline.

                         Although the cannon fire was flashy, it was very slow. The makeshift pressure vessel could not fire remotly as fast as the larger ones at Flattop Mountain. That said, the steam rifles were having noticiable effects on the battlefield, especially since the Kush were not yet in arrow range. When Shimbir noticed that Kush soldiers were falling down without observable injury, he asked, “Kono, why are those men just falling over? They don’t have arrows hitting them.”

                         “I am told that the new steam rifle makes smaller wounds, and that the projectile bounces around the inside, killing people.”

                         “THAT’S AWESOME! I would like to learn how to use the steam rifle.”

                         Kono laughed and said, “Then you will have to get someone else to show you how it works.”

                         Shimbir was confused and asked, “Why?”

                         Kono waved his hand and said, “I only have one arm, and if you point your telescope to the men using the rifles, you will find that they hold the rifle with one hand and use the other hand to fire it.”

                         Shimbir looked around for the steam rifles with his telescope, and before long, he spied them. It wasn’t hard to find them as they were tethered to a piece of steam equipment powered by steam that gave off a distinct black smoke. He watched them for a bit and fell in love with the weapon, especially the range of it. He whispered, “I don’t think the spear is the king of weapons anymore.”

                         Kono asked, “What did you say?”

                         “I said I don’t think the spear is the king of weapons anymore.”

                         Kono winked and said, “I think it’s a bit early to say that. Those steam rifles are very powerful, but they are still clunky and difficult to move. So far, they haven’t been tried on an open battlefield, just from the walls of fortifications.

                         Shimbir asked, “How long until they are used against Kush’s walls?”

                         “You would have to ask Jinka about that. Currently, I think he is far more frustrated with Rome than Kush.”

                         “Why? Roman soldiers didn’t send their soldiers to the Capital.”

                         “Because without Rome’s aggressiveness, Kush would never have sent soldiers here. Furthermore, Rome is still attacking east and west Paulsland, forcing him to spread our forces out, so that they cannot reinforce each other. In contrast, I am pretty sure that after today’s battle, Kush will be out of this war. Besides, Kush has done very little damage compared to Rome.”

                         “But this battle isn’t over.”

                         Kono pointed to the back of the Kush army and said, “Look at the Kush’s rear formation.”

                         Shimbir did as asked and said, “They are on horses…. And they are leaving?”

                         “The leadership knows this battle is over, and they are trying to escape before they are captured.”

                         “How do they plan on doing that? They might be able to outrun Jinka for a while but they can’t outrun the communication network.”

                         “Yes, they can. When both Rome and Kush invaded, they immediately started destroying our communication towers. They have plenty of blind spots to escape through.”

                         “What about the hot air balloons?”

                         “They are affected by weather.”

                         “Ah, I didn’t think of that.”

                         “That’s okay, that’s why you have older guardians. We are supposed to explain things to you that you are not experienced enough to know for yourself.”

                         “Thank you.”

                         “Now, finish watching this battle.”

                         “What’s there to watch?”

                         “Just how this army will collapse. Most of them don’t realize their leadership has already left. Most of them will never know.”

                         “Why come all the way here and leave your men?”

                         “Because the Kush are cowards. They are used to their mountains protecting them. Their entire stratagy is built around defense. I hear rumors that once the invaders are taken care of, Jinka is going to head north and make Rome pay for this invasion.”

                         That answer satisfied Shimbir, and so he watched as the Kush army continued losing men at an unprecidented rate. Shimbir had never seen a battle before so he didn’t understand how devastating the steam weapons were, but the militia on the walls did. They had taken Magharibi a few months earlier at the cost of a lot of lives. They knew taking a walled fortification wasn’t easy, but the steam weapons were cutting through the Kush like butter. If they had a thousand more steam riffles half the Kush army would already be gone, especially since the Kush were stupidly charging the city with ladders. The Kush foolishly charged until they reached arrow range, and once the arrows started coming down their advance finally stalled. Not because of the arrows; despite the Kush’s shoddy armor they were able to stop most arrows. Instead it was because the riflemen were able to pick their targets more accuratly and when men carrying ladders started falling, those ladders fell, and the men behind them started getting tangled with the ladders and bodies. Once the charge stalled, the Kush began running away in every direction, and soon a full blown scatter happened. Nobody could call what they saw a retreat as the Kush began breaking off and moving in every direction like cochroaches.

                         The Kush army collapsed before they even lost fifty thousand men. Oddly enough, this troop scattering was part of Kush's plan. With hundreds of thousands of addicted soldiers scattered across the east side of Paulsland, Paulsland would have to waste inordinate amounts of time tracking down the soldiers. Most soldiers in this situation would try to head home or to a place of safety, but since the Kush soldiers were addicts, their first priority was finding their next high. Minutes after the Kush soldiers were out of arrow range, the Paulsland militia thought they were going to easily sweep up the rest of the Kush soldiers, but they had no idea about the frustrations that were going to happen in the months to come. Kush had effectivily put all their drug addicts, addicts that received all the drugs from Paulsland, at the door of Paulslands capital. This was always their main plan. The idea of capturing the capital city of Paulsland and forcing them to change their laws was always unlikely, but you cant win every battle. Despite that Kush considered this a victory, their prisons were empty, and as far as the Kush were concerned the people who caused the problem would have to deal with it; now they just needed to make peace with Paulsland once Paulsland got around to sending an army their way.  


Authors note- Cuba did something simular back in the 60s/70s. In fact the movie scarface is based on a cuban that was released froma cuban prison and sent to the US. Kush basicly did the same thing with more steps.