Chapter 49 June 404 AD West Coast Paulsland-Fallback (Patreon)

            Legate Julius watched as the Paulsland army began setting up camp in the far distance. His entire campaign was falling apart, and it was on its last leg. The campaign started in Magharibi, and from there, he headed south and captured three more walled Paulsland cities on the coast, albeit none of them were the size of Magharibi. His people thought that it would take Paulsland five years to take back their cities; instead, it took just over a year. Paulsland raised a gigantic army far larger and quicker than their intelligence said they could.

            Julius’ main goal was to find a foothold south of the Roman River and fortify this new piece of land to the limit of Roman construction. When the time was right, in years to come, they would fill it with more than a million legionnaires and start a long-term invasion. It would be nice if they could take and keep several of Paulsland’s functional cities, but that was never a requirement.

            With this in mind, Julius started building a massive fortification south of the four cities they had captured. Although they left tens of thousands of legionnaires in each city, they did little to reinforce them beyond adding wooden outer walls and moats. The reason why he didn’t continue fortifying the cities was because they were all easily taken because they were built on soft ground using wooden pylons beaten deep into the earth. He showed the Paulslanders how to take those cities when he took Magharibi.

            The place he chose for his massive fort was the side of a mountain that gently dipped into the ocean. There were no rivers nearby, but the Romans had long learned how to dig into the side of a mountain to find water, and with a couple hundred thousand men digging, it didn’t take long to dig out a few wells, even through rock. From there they began building wooden fortifications in the Roman manner, with two walls of wood with a foot of dirt in the middle, on top of the rock of the mountain. They even used the water from the wells to soak the wooden walls so they could not be engulfed in flames with coal oil.

            There were three sets of walls. Each wall reached the sea, as this fortification had a harbor for the trimarans to land for supplies and personel. The outerwall went nearly half a mile up the mountain and only stopped at a sheer cliff that went straight up to the top of the mountain. The outer wall was on both sides of the mountain and ended at the cliffs. It was possible for someone to reach the top of the mountain and rain arrows down on them, but it was unlikely as all the routes to the top involved climbing up flat walls at deadly heights.

            Along the outer wall, there was only one gate and twelve towers on each side of the mountain. Each tower held one ballista, and behind the outer wall were dozens of trebuchets. Coal oil lamps lined the top of the outer wall, so if the Paulsland army tried to attack at night, the Romans would be able to respond.

            The secondary wall was made in a big U shape, and it had thirty towers. Each tower held a ballista, and since the secondary wall and towers were higher than the outer wall, the ballista in those towers could fire on attackers without damaging the outer wall or tower. It had three gates, one on each wall.

            The inner wall was also in a U shape and also extended into the sea. It had fifteen towers, and its towers and walls were ten feet higher than the secondary walls and towers so that the soldiers and ballistae on it could support the first two walls. It had three gates as well. That said, the most prominent feature was its harbor, which had trimarans coming and going all day every day.

            Each wall reached past the low tide point of the sea, and trimarans patrolled the edge of the fortification night and day. Because the west side was not properly fortified, they also had to lay down a significant number of caltrops in the sea at low tide every single day. They had little choice to do this as they thought they would have more time to build the fortifications, but with how quickly the Paulsland army moved and recaptured their cities, Julius’ army had to make more compromises than Julius would have liked.

            Fortunately for Julius, he was not surprised when the Paulsland army arrived. He received messages by ship when Magharibi and the other cities fell, so he had plenty of time to shore up his fortifications before the nearly million-man army showed up. He even had information that Paulsland had some new weapon that they used to quickly destroy the fortifications of the last two cities during the night before easily capturing them. He was not looking forward to seeing the new weapon as it would likely mean that his mission would be a failure.

            As he considered this Julius looked to the west and saw one of the Roman fleets. They were here to harass Paulsland’s west coast. Most of the ships were trimarans, they even had a few of the coveted bronze trimarans, with several mother ships acting as support to the entire fleet. It gave him comfort to see the ships there as those ships should be able to save up to ten percent of his army if everything fell apart.

            Julius watched all day as the Paulsland army set up their camp and spread out for miles. From his position on the side of the mountain, he would say that the million man army covered almost three square miles. Despite that, the soldiers were quick to set up their own fortifications. Each fortification had two sets of wooden walls with dirt poured between them. Julius counted at least three hundred square fortifications of this type of various sizes. He never would have thought that Paulsland would be able to raise such a large army so quickly.

            The problem Julius had wasn’t that they raised a large army. The problem he had was that they were able to raise a well-equipped army so quickly. Julius had heard stories about how everyone in Paulsland was required to have weapons and that their militia did training once a month, but he expected that to mean facing locals with the cheapest weapons available. He did not expect that to mean that the militia kept their own movable fortifications and that each member had well-maintained armor, weapons, and were drilled to, if not excellence, at least acceptable levels.

            The priests of the Universal Church led them to believe that any army Paulsland made would be slow to form up because the various corporations would lose their employees until the fighting was over. Clearly, the priests were wrong. Clearly, the people of Paulsland were willing to take major financial losses to expel him.

            Nothing of note happened throughout the day. To Julius’s surprise, Paulsland didn’t even attempt a probing attack. Three hours after the sunset, well before the legate, or his officers went to sleep they heard a loud Ktcha sound, and several moments later they heard the outer wall break, and then something hit the secondary wall.

            Julius rushed to the top of one of the inner wall’s towers. Before he reached the top he heard the loud ktcha sound again and listened as a bit more than five seconds later, something broke through the outer wall and damaged the secondary wall.

            Once Julius reached the top of the tower, he looked out and, thanks to it being a clear night, he could see his soldiers scrambling to repair the wall. The broken outer wall was obvious to Julius because it was the part of the wall without lanterns.

            Ten seconds after reaching the top of the tower, he heard the Ktcha sound again and five seconds later witnessed one of the lamps go out, as he perceived parts of the wall flying away, and something slamming into the secondary wall, albeit not breaking it. Although debris scattered everywhere at fantastic speed, Julious’s soldiers were in their armor, so few were hurt by them.

            Julius told one of the soldiers, “Go to the trumpeters and and tell them to sound a signal for all my commanders to meet me in the officer's hall.”

            The soldier said, “Yes, sir.” Before running away from his post with a message for the trumpeters.

            Before he reached the trumpeter, Julius heard that Ktcha sound two more times, and the second time, the weapon breached the second wall and damaged the inner wall. It took nearly fifteen minutes for Julius’s officers to reach him and by then the weapon was consistently reaching the inner wall.

            While they waited for the officers to come, Julius motioned for them to stay quiet. After all reached him, Julius said, “We are going to lose this battle, but we cannot just flee or surrender. We do not have enough ships to take all the men and flee, and if we surrender without fighting then the men of Paulsland will think Romans are cowards. Tonight, we will load up our most experienced soldiers and send them out to sea to fight again on another day. I think we can load up twenty thousand men. Tomorrow at dawn, I will command what is left of the army to charge the Paulsland encampment. Perhaps it will allow me to see the new weapon that we face.”

            One of his officers said, “You are the son of the Emperor, you cannot be allowed to fight a hopeless battle.”

            “Hopeless battle, yes. But I will keep back three trimarans to take me and my senior officers with me once the battle is clearly lost. I will command from the rear, the best I can, so my life will be in little danger. I did not call you brave men here for advice, I called you here to remind you that you are men of Rome. We are about to lose an army. We are about to lose more men than the battle of Cannae, but just like the battle of Cannae was not the end of Rome, this will not be the end either. Find the priests attached to your units and have them give last rites to your soldiers. Then remind your soldiers what Paulsland does to the men they capture.”

            One of the officers said, “I would rather fall on my sword than become one of their experiments.”

            Julius said, “Make the Paulslanders fall by your sword. Make so many of them fall by your sword that they dare not take you alive.”

            “Yes, future Emperor.”

            Julius smiled. Such words would be considered treason in other times, but today it was hope.

            That night, the outer wall facing the north, with all of its towers, was completely broken. The secondary wall facing the north was completely broken. The inner wall was completely broken. By the time the sun rose, only the secondary wall, and outer wall facing south, was left, and both walls received damage from the secret weapon. Overnight, the Roman army had massive casualties of over forty thousand men, albeit less than five thousand had died, and all the wounded were preparing to march to battle as soon as the sun was up. Anyone who could not march had already fallen on the swords. Overnight, the army only managed to get fifteen thousand men on the ships before the sun rose. Most of the priests went with those men to the safety of the ships, albeit a few decided to die alongside the soldiers, put on the dead’s armor, and fight beside them. Because of the powerful weapon Julius sent the fleet away before daybreak so they would not be attacked in daylight, albeit three bronze ships stayed behind for him and his personnel.

            As soon as light was peeking over the horizon, minutes before the sun rose, one hundred and eighty thousand legionnaires were fast-marching toward the Paulsland camp. Whoever was in control of the Paulsland weapon did not notice as they did not fire on them at first. But once enough light was over the horizon, they noticed, and one last Ktcha went off only to kill hundreds of Julius’s finest soldiers. Before they fired at Julius’s soldiers, they sounded out a warning gong, and the Paulsland army began scrambling to get in formation and meet the Roman army.

            While they scrambled, the weapon was fired off two more times before being disassembled and moved away from the field of battle. Julius only noticed it when it fired the last shot, and even then, he was not sure if it really was a weapon or not. It was so small compared to a trebuchet or even a ballista. The metal tube was at most half the size of a ballista, albeit a bit longer, but it had a massive range of at least two miles. Even though this Paulsland army only had one, it destroyed the wooden walls, which meant the Romans would have to invent a totally new castra fortification. Wooden walls were no longer appropriate.

            Then something strange happened. Well before the two armies met, individual Roman soldiers began to fall, after a smaller ktcha sound was made. Then, when they were just three hundred yards away from the Paulsland army that was still struggling to get in formation, the Roman officers began to fall one by one after the small ktcha sound. Clearly, the Paulslanders had another weapon meant to take out individuals. Julius couldn’t find the weapon, even though he had binoculars, and he was standing on the last bit of wall that was still up, looking over the battlefield. All he could do was watch as, one by one, his officers fell before they could meet the enemy.

            Once the two armies met, he was proud that his men did not give their lives cheaply or easily. Their formations did not fall, and they proved to Paulsland that they were neither cowards nor weak. That said, they were outnumbered five to one, and the Roman army did not have any artillery support. It was obvious that they would lose, especially once the Paulsland formations finally managed to flank the much smaller Roman army. It was then that Julius made his way to the bronze trimarans and sailed off.

            He told the captain, “Sail to Rome. I have much to discuss with my father. War has changed.”

Authors note-I finally finished editing book 9, but I still have to find a cover for it, and make sure the maps line up with the chapters. I would already be done and have it published but I am still sick, and well everything really flared up last night so I wont get anywork done today. Fortinatly I got a teli doctor to give me antibiotics, if they work I should be able to finish everything with book 9 this week, if not I will get it done when I can work. Note the last time I took antibiotics was like a decade ago, so I do not know why the doctor I went to see yesterday didnt want to give them to me. Anyway, hopefully I feel better tomorrow.