General Bayin was relieved when he saw the stone fort in the distance. It meant that the real battle would start soon. All they had to do was finish cutting through the final few trees that were blocking the road. The entire camp was packing up and getting ready to move. The General paid special attention to the engineers who had dozens of carts of materials they hadn’t touched yet. He was looking forward to seeing the war engines they would build.

As the day progressed, the camp was packed up, trees were cut, soldiers were injured by the traps the evil spirits made, and once the final tree was dragged out of the road, the army marched forward, finally ready to conquer a valuable target.

When they made it to the large fields on the outskirts of the stone fortress protecting the bridge to Five Village Island, Bayin ordered ten thousand of his soldiers to probe the defenses. Bayin was hoping to get lucky and find out that the defenses were not as strong as they looked.

As Bayin’s ten thousand men marched from the north to the south, he was somewhat confused. Chuki told him that she heard rumors that a temporary fort was being made to help protect the fortress, but he didn’t see anything.

Then as they neared the stone fortress, he saw a wooden tower to the west, and he frowned. As they came closer to the stone fortress, they could see the wooden fortress in the distance, snuggled between the river and the tropical forest. It was obvious to the General that this fortress was meant to do two things. Keep them from following the road further into Paulsland and to flank any army that attacked the stone fortress.

In every battle, he would have to split his forces between the stone fortress and the wooden one. If they didn’t, then at a crucial moment in battle, whichever fortress they were not attacking could send out an army to devastate his forces. He wished they would have built the wooden fortress in front of the stone fortress because that would have at least given him a specific direction to go in.

General Bayin had no choice; if he was going to probe the stone fortress, he would have to split his forces again. Bayin considered it, and he gave orders for another five thousand men to come from the camp. He needed several thousand men held in reserve to stave off disaster or grasp opportunities if they arose.

The battlefield was far from silent as they waited. The ten thousand soldiers talked and joked with each other. Instruments played in the two fortresses signaling commands to their forces. In Bayin’s camp, hammers could be heard as buildings were constructed and engines of war were built. Then as men received their orders, the hammering became quieter, followed by the thunder of marching as thousands of men marched to where their General ordered them. In minutes they reached the rest of the army.

Each group of five thousand were led by commanders, who were of the elite of Himyarite society. Bayin ordered the noble commanders to meet with him. As they came, he said, “Watar, take your men to the wooden fortress. I want to know how many men they have defending it, what sort of weapons they have, and if they are skilled warriors or not. If you can burn it down, do so. Our goal is to capture the island and its port, but I do not like that fortress on our flank.”

“No worries, General. I think the fort is a bluff; it's bigger than one of those fortresses the Romans build for their legions. No way a group this close to the end of the world has that many men.”

“A group?”

“We have been fighting in this part of the world for a couple of years now, expanding our colonies, and I haven’t seen an army yet. I haven’t even seen soldiers yet. The fiercest warriors I have seen are sickly men we easily dispatched before they submitted to paying tribute. I think this will be a simple conquest.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. You are allowed to fight them as hard as you deem necessary unless they overwhelm you with numbers.”

“How many?”

“Double your men.”

“My men can kill five locals for every soldier they take out.”

“Even so, my order stands. If they pull out ten thousand, you are to retreat.”

The commander was not happy, but he said, “Yes, Sir.”

The General nodded to acknowledge the order, then turned to his next commander and said, “Yatha, I need you to attack the stone fortress.”

“Sir, we do not even have ladders yet.”

“Attack the gate. See if you can get through it. If not, return. When I was here last, there was a growing town in front of the gates of that fortress, but it's gone now. I just need to know if they dug ditches, whether they burned down the town or disassembled it, if there are foundations in front of the wall or mud. Depending on the ground around the fortress, we may or may not build siege towers.

“Anything else?”

“Let me know if there's anything odd about their defense.”

“Like what?”

“Odd. Different. Out of the norm. If I knew, it wouldn’t be odd.”

“Yes, sir.”

Then Bayin turned to the last one and said, “Amr, your soldiers are in reserve in case anything unexpected happens.”

“Yes, sir.”

With his orders given, the armies began to move. As his armies moved, he could hear various musical instructions played by his enemy. He had no way of knowing what they meant, especially since his mistress, Chuki, was never in the military.

After several minutes of walking, arrows began to fly out of the fortresses at his army, and he smiled. The arrows were not flying at their extreme ranges. Paulsland was acting weaker than they were. This told him a lot about his enemy. It meant they would hold back. On one hand, that was bad because there could always be a new trick coming down the road, but it was a good thing since it would make them indecisive at a critical moment. Bayin loved an enemy that was too smart for their own good.

And then the gates on the wooden fortress opened up, and men began pouring out. At first, it was dozens, then hundreds, and quickly grew to thousands, and it was not slowing down. As they poured out, more arrows rained down on the Himyarite forces.

Watar went ahead and ordered his men to attack, and considering the gates to the wooden fortress were open; it was not a bad decision. Bayin considered it for a moment, then sent the reserve to help battle the wooden fortress. But then men kept pouring out, and arrows kept flying by the thousands. So many arrows were flying his soldiers were fighting in the shade. Bayin decided to hold the course and let the battle continue.

To the south, his forces had to cross a ditch under fire from archers, and when they finally made it to the fort, they found another ditch around it, except where the road was. The men obeyed orders and began attacking the gate, which was extremely sturdy. It didn’t budge no matter how many men attacked it. Worse yet, the walls on either side of the gate extended past the gate, allowing the Paulsland soldiers to use the walls to flank, shoot arrows and throw rocks down on the Himyarite soldiers below. After getting mauled by the defenses of the stone fortress, Yatha pulled back his soldiers; having gotten the information they wanted, they retreated. They would have to try a war machine later.

As his men withdrew, stones began flying from war machines on top of the towers of the stone fortress. Each time a stone struck, a man died and splattered all over the men near him; sometimes, the splatter injured or killed the men surrounding them. Bayin smiled as the stones came down. The enemy waited until his army was well into their range before firing, and the fire continued until they were eight hundred or so feet away. Bayin bet that their range was good for a thousand feet or so. He was going to have to calculate that in every attack on the stone fortress. No reason to let his ballista, or other war machine get too close and destroyed before they could be used.

To the west, the fighting grew more intense as more and more soldiers poured out of the wooden fortress. Bayin finally admitted that Paulsland did not build the wooden fortress just for show; it really held thousands upon thousands of men.

This was a simple probe, so General Bayin ordered his men to withdraw before the enemy could flank them. It would be a pain to lose too many men on the first day of a siege. He could always ask his King for more men, but that would cut into his profits and add months to the siege.

As the two armies separated, Bayin was irritated when rocks began flying over the wooden walls and striking his army. Although it appeared their range was apparently more limited than the war machines on top of the stone fortress because they stopped firing at six hundred feet. That might be because they were on the ground behind the walls, or perhaps they were different war machines than the ones on top of the tower, or perhaps they were limiting its use, hoping to catch the Himyarite army off guard. Time would tell. Bayin did not like that fortress that would flank his army every time he sent men out.

When the men came back that evening, Bayin asked his men what they thought. Watar said, “You should have let us continue our attack. They had more numbers, but their men were physically smaller and weaker than our men.”

“What do you mean?”

“I talked with my front-line soldiers after the battle, and they said they were surprised to be fighting almost exclusively younger men who haven’t even grown a beard yet. They were easy to push back, but they had very good armor that was hard to break through. They largely considered it an odd fight since the youths were easy to push back but hard to kill.”

“Anything else odd about them?”

“Yes, they were very skilled fighters, far better than anything we have fought in Africa so far. They may not be strong, but they know how to use their spears, swords, shields, and slings. Even though they were getting pushed back, they made my men pay for it. It was almost like an older brother pushing his younger brother around, and the younger brother causing mischief so the older brother wouldn’t be happy with his power.”

“Anything else?”

“As individuals, they are very disciplined; as units, they work well together, but I think these people have never fought together as such a large army. If they did, then they should have flanked my men.”

“Ah, that explains it. I was wondering why they left the safety of their wooden fortress. It's clear now that their leader wanted them to get bloodied. They saw your five thousand and thought it was worth the risk. Did you see anything else odd?”

“No.”

Bayin turned to commander Yatha and asked, “What are your thoughts?”

“I do not want to use ladders to siege that fortress. The walls are too high. I don’t want to use rams to go through the gate because that gate has extraordinary defenses. Honestly, with the rock throwers on top of those towers, my recommendation is to use several ballistae to knock them down and open a hole in the wall. Then once their stone-throwers are down and a hole is opened, send our men through.

Bayin frowned; he figured that’s what they would have to do, although he was hoping for a quicker method than that, “I was hoping to take the fort with siege towers. The less damage it takes, the better it will serve us.”

“I know there have been siege towers twice as tall as their walls, but will they survive a pounding from the stone throwers?”

“I guess we will have to soften them up with ballistae. I will have the engineers make a few dozen ballistae and then get started on the siege towers. Anything else?”

“The walls were weird. Even when my men were directly next to the wall, the defenders were able to hit them with arrows and rocks. Normally in a siege, one of the safest places to be is hugging the wall, but at the top of their wall, they have stone structures jutting out with holes. The ballista will need to break those off before our siege towers get there.”

General Bayin saw the writing on the wall, sighed, and said, “Tell the men to build barracks, walls, and latrines. This is going to take months. If they grumble too much, tell them we can always ask the King for more soldiers, which means they will get less loot.”

The three commanders chuckled. Their soldiers were here for the pay. Today they found an interesting foe, but a beatable one, a foe far less scary than the foes they faced in the forest leading to this land, the so-called spirits. They didn’t want any more help, even if they had to stay at this siege for a couple of years.

Bayin stood thinking for a long moment then said, “Also send a message to the King that we will plan on storming the walls of this fortress sometime in November, or December when their planting season starts. By then their defenses should be battered down, and it is the locals planting season. I wonder how many of the conscripts will escape the army to plant their pitiful crops.”

Yatha said, “It doesn’t matter if its one or a thousand. When one leaves, others always follows which will make our job far easier.”