Enlightened Empire-Chapter 391: Obstacle

After several days of preparation and reorganization in Cashan, Corco’s army had grown to an entirely new level. Twenty-seven companies of soldiers – made up of about a thousand combat personnel each - represented almost all the strength Saniya could muster in the short-term. The king had only kept back another two companies in Qarasi Castle. In case of an attack from the north, the two thousand men would be enough to protect the Narrows until reinforcements arrived. With his current control over Sachay, and with much of the northern fleets destroyed, there was no need to keep anything else back.

At the same time, the various lords under Corco had also done their best to prove their value now that the war was as good as decided. Not only had Corco’s old allies sent most of their warriors, but also many former members of the league of lords had done the same. In order to guarantee that they wouldn’t rise up again, the warriors had been sent into the army, though many houses had sent them willingly in hopes of leniency from the now powerful king.

Some of the warriors would do grunt work, and others would fight on the front lines to pay for their previous betrayal. Thus, with everything put together, the southern kingdom managed to raise another 24,000 warriors for their army.

With over 50,000 elite soldiers behind him and supported by over two hundred cannons he had drawn from Saniya and the northern coast line, the king felt confident in his complete victory as he crossed through Anticasa Mountain Pass. A day after they had exited the pass, the army reached Antila, the city of Lord Sucopia.

As one of the three escaped lords from the previous battle, he was also one of the people responsible for the sacking of Kapra. Thus, Corco would have been forced to come here to deal justice even if the city hadn’t been on the way to Port Ulta. However, as he saw the city, he realized that passing by here hadn’t been an option in the first place.

He had expected to find a typical Sachay city, built with wooden walls, or maybe weaker stone walls. Only the cities built around ancient ruins like Saniya had stronger internal walls. All other cities in the south had poor defenses that were not built for modern combat. They would be enough to hold back a warrior charge, but wouldn’t stand up long to cannon fire. Maybe, he feared, he would see a repeat of Kapra, the lords gone mad from fear and burning every place they could find during their retreat.

However, what he found was possibly worse than either of his assumptions.

“This might not be so simple,” he commented, while standing on a snow-covered hill overlooking their future battlefield through a telescope.

Behind him was a vast landscape of hills and a brand-new cement path, which would lead straight back into Anticasa Mountain Pass. In front of him lay more hills, and then vast plains, before the city of Antila appeared in the distance. High walls and sturdy towers stood in the way of victory.

Two sets of walls had been built, one behind the other. The inner wall surrounded the entire city, even the less important commoner area on the city’s edge. It was a traditional Yaku wall, almost more thick than high, and made of a mosaic of stones from the local area. However, it was still far higher than anything else Corco had seen in the south.

Due to their militant nature, many southern lords abhorred strong walls, calling those who would hide behind them weak. In fact, the only old wall of any considerable height had always been Qarasi Castle, but the castle had been mostly destroyed and left abandoned in the civil war thirty years ago.

Yet this wall here had a height of maybe twenty meters, tall enough to rival almost any northern city outside of Arguna. Though that alone wasn’t enough to shock the king. Even this kind of wall wouldn’t stand long against cannons. It simply wasn’t built to withstand that kind of continuous impact. Rather, it was the second wall that surprised Corco.

The second wall was gray and smooth, as if it had been cast, rather than built. In fact, that was exactly what had happened, because the second wall of Antila was built from cement. Shorter than the first wall, it stood in front to protect it. Triangles of concrete jutted out from the first wall in angles of maybe thirty degrees or so. Together, they formed a star shape that seemed to be directly copied from the new fortifications around Qarasi Castle.

“How the fuck did that happen?” Corco asked in confusion. “Why does this place have a star fortress?”

“Maybe you should ask your people that question, King Corco,” Pahuac Villca next to Corco replied.

Together with them stood Saniya’s General Scolo, who had been removed from the now defunct battlefield along the shores of the Narrow Sea. After his previous victory, he would take over the day-to-day command of all Saniya soldiers on the battlefield, while Corco with his ‘miracle’ aura would be not much more than a mascot. He wasn’t a general after all, and proper warfare should be left to the professionals. Huaman was also present, the lord of Vallunaraju, who had been Corco’s staunchest ally throughout his weakest moments. Thus, he had been put in charge of logistics, while Pahuac Villca had been put in charge of the many warriors from different factions.

The four had come up to this hill together to check on the battlefield and make some preliminary plans while their soldiers were putting up the king’s tent and their camp around it. Now, it was looking like they had a tough road ahead.

“What do you mean?” Corco asked Pahuac.

“What I mean is: These people got those nice, new walls from Saniya.” the warrior sneered, though he just stopped short of insulting his king. Even someone as reckless as Pahuac wouldn’t dare insult Corco at the moment, not with his current prestige in the kingdom.

“They bought cement?” Huaman asked an obvious question, maybe to distract everyone from Pahuac’s insolent tone.

“Well, everyone’s been buying everything from Saniya recently.” The king shrugged, not too bothered by the rudeness. Others would put the warrior back in line if he ever overstepped it. “Of course I know that they built up their castle there, I signed off on it. I just didn’t think they’d build it like this.”

Corco paused for dramatic effect, but realized that everyone wanted to ask the same question, so he simply continued before anyone got rude.

“Before the start of this civil war, Antila was the border of the empire, one of only two land borders. The north's already well-protected, but in the east, towards Port Ulta, we had a significant weakness. I didn’t want to passively rely on the Anticasa Pass, so when Sucopia offered to build up his defenses and even pay me for it, I had no reason to decline. Just…”

Again, Corco looked over the tricky defensive system of Antila.

“...I thought they would built up their defenses in the east, towards Port Ulta. Why would they build their walls this strong towards the west?”

“It looks like Lord Sucopia long planned to rebel,” Lord Huaman concluded. However, Corco shook his head.

“He didn’t,” he said. “The league of lords was put together almost on a whim, driven by Ichilia and the priests. There was a lot of coincidence involved. Had they planned this long in advance, someone would've noticed something earlier. We’re not that incompetent. I hope.”

“As for the walls in the east, that is something I can answer,” Pahuac added. “Ever since we took the Anticasa Pass, the two houses of Sucopia and Villca have been enemies. They probably built their western defenses to prepare for another war against us. It has been a while since we beat them up, so it was about time. Not a surprise that they worked this hard to build walls, since we will wipe them out if they cannot hide behind solid rock.”

“Well, shit,” Corco summarized “We’ll have to get through the thing either way.General Scolo, what do you think?”

Rather than worry about the past, Corco was more concerned with the future of his kingdom. Thus, he refocused their attention on the reason they had come up here: Make plans to conquer Antila. However, Scolo’s deep frown didn’t fill the king with confidence.

“High walls behind, lower walls in front.They can definitely set up artillery there. Their arrangement doesn’t seem mindless, it looks like they understand the purpose of a star fortress quite well and have set up accordingly. The approach to the walls is flat too, so there’s no cover, we’d have to construct some ourselves. So long as they have sufficient rifles and cannons, breaking through will be a hard challenge. If nothing unusual happens, it would be a long battle, and we’d have to grind them down with our superior resources.”

For Corco, a war of attrition was the absolute worst option. He didn’t want to waste any more of his men and resources of his kingdom on a pointless civil war.

“And I guess we can’t go around, right?” Corco asked, hoping that he would be wrong in his assessment. “They shouldn’t have many troops beyond this point, and their remaining two cities outside of Antila should be isolated and poorly defended.”

“We can’t go around unless we want them to fall into our backs,” Scolo replied again. “We can leave behind an army for a siege and split up the rest, but that would open up the option for our enemy to defeat us in detail. Not to mention that our roads end here, in Antila. If we go into the wastes beyond this point, we will struggle with supplies.”

“So how about attacking Antila from behind?” Corco tried again. “We can cross the river and attack from the west, looks like their defenses on that side haven’t been built yet.”

“That would be risky,” Pahuac said. “Aseries fortresses have been set up on the other shore. The Sucopias are the family that built Anticasa Pass. If one house in Medala knows how to build a defense and hide behind it, it would be them.”

Unwilling to accept reality, Corco looked through a telescope at the tight defenses for a few more seconds.

“At least we should try a probing attack soon, just in case they are weaker than we think.” Scolo’s proposal was better than nothing, though the king didn’t have much hope. Out of ideas and out of stubborn energy, he finally sighed.

“Let’s try that.” he said in the end. “Well, it looks like our progress has been slowed down for now. Let’s wait until the camp is built and then check the map again. We might be stuck here for a while, so let’s take it slowly and make sure we haven’t overlooked anything.”

Thus, the four commanders of the southern kingdom’s army returned to their troops, and soon Scolo and Pahuac began to organize the men to set up a permanent camp that would last them a few months, at least. However, there was still the one last attempt left, just in case.

Before the camp was even finished, the army sent out a surprise probing attack. Around two thousand of their freshest warriors suddenly organized their ranks and attacked the walls out of nowhere. They would test the enemy defenses, so they could better plan their attack strategy. In fact, Corco had secretly some hopes for the attack. If the traitors had amassed their troops in Port Ulta instead of here, or if the defenders were too low on morale or busy with infighting, a quick victory could still be possible. Maybe they just looked strong, and would fall apart at the first sign of resistance.

This illusion was quickly dashed. Without fear, a corps made up of warriors from the southern kingdom marched towards the city’s walls, with hastily constructed ladders in hand. In total, their number didn’t exceed two thousand, which would be just enough to be considered a proper threat to the defenders, if they had amassed inside. As it turned out, they had, and they had ways to make the attackers honest.

As soon as the troop came within around two hundred meters of the lower cement wall, the city broke out into thunder. Cannons and rifles roared all at once as the defenders unloaded fire upon the warriors below. All this time, the soldiers of the enemy had patiently hidden behind cover, never showing their heads,to lure the attackers into a trap.

Luckily, both Scolo and Pahuac were experienced soldiers and had prepared their men well for such eventualities. As soon as they heard the first sound of thunder, all warriors dropped their ladders and raised large iron shields they had carried on their backs. At this distance, the thick metal would be enough to withstand musket shot and any shrapnel from indirect cannon fire.

For a while, the warriors held their position and carefully observed the enemy opposite to scope out their weakness. Yet despite the shields, every salvo would claim several more warriors. The losses weren’t large, but being attacked so one-sidedly was terrible for morale. Thus, Pahuac soon called for retreat.

Only a few of the southern kingdom’s warriors were finally left on the battlefield. Still, the thick cloud of smoke that rose from the city’s walls made it clear to Corco that there were plenty of barrels aimed at them at this moment. All these years, he had always won his battles through superior technology and a defender’s advantage. This time, both advantages were gone. He didn’t want to admit it, but Scolo was really right. This one would take a while.