Udo was on the deck of Paul’s Victory, the first ship made in a dry dock in the world, and looked carefully through a telescope at the city of Muza. Udo was nervous as he held the glass to his eye because he was not sure if the Paulsland fleet had done its job yet. He knew that the navy was supposed to burn all the major Himyarite ports and take out the Himyarite warships, but he had no way of knowing if they succeeded.

The problem with warfare was that sometimes in war, you had to make plans assuming victory. In this case, Paulsland needed to defeat the army that was inside their border. Not only did they need to defeat the army, but they also had to do it with minimal losses because Paulsland had a manpower problem. If they started whittling down the forces, but the Himyarite army received resupplies and reinforcements sooner or later, Paulsland would lose, so the purpose of every battle to the north was to cut off supplies and reinforcements.

Part one of the plan was for the navy to destroy harbors and ships. Part two of the plan was to hire the Aksum army to take a Himyarite city. For part two of the plan to work, the navy had to do their job, but this army had to move without ever receiving word of whether or not the navy succeeded. If the Paulsland navy failed, then it was very likely the Aksum ships would turn around.

As Udo held the telescope to his eye Ousanas the Aksum noble, asked, “Is it true? Is the port gone?”

Udo said, “I can’t tell yet.”

“If your ship had oarsmen or could just sail straight, we would already be there, and you wouldn’t need that glass to check out the harbor.”

The Paul’s Victory was a hundred and fifty-five feet long and had three-mast, all of them supporting triangle sails. The ship had to tack back and forth to catch the wind, and it was slowing down the fleet of fifty ships. All overloaded with soldiers.

“But if the ship had oarsmen, it couldn’t hold as many soldiers. As it is, this fleet will have to return a dozen times to carry all fifty thousand troops to Muza.”

“Unless your information is wrong.”

“We were gathering soldiers for a month. Surely you heard from merchants about the burning ports.”

“Yes, but I have heard nothing about Muza. Muza was the last port most ships went to before going to Rome, not Aksum.”

“Even if Muza isn’t burned, Himyarite is in chaos with several of their ports burned to ash. It will take them months to get the wood to rebuild those ports. That still leaves Muza wide open to attack.”

“Perhaps, but I will have to decide whether to start our invasion or not if Muza’s port is still intact.”

Udo sighed. He needed the Aksum to attack any Himyarite city. Muza was just the most logical since it was very close. It was directly across the Red Sea from Aksum, which would allow them to have ships patrol the Red Sea and enforce a toll. Muza also one of the cities that produced the perfumes the Himyarites were famous for. Despite that, the King of Aksum was a tight-fisted miser that was more concerned with losing money than making money. If it looked like this action would cost more than they gained, then Ousanas was to turn the fleet around.

Udo continued his conversation with Ousanas as the Paul’s Victory tacked back and forth, slowly drawing closer to Muza.

Udo kept putting the telescope to his eye, and finally, in the distance, he could clearly see the harbor in front of the city or what was left of it. It was clearly in ruins, and men were out stripping the old harbor, a job that had to be done before a new harbor could be built.

Udo smiled as he told Ousanas, “The harbor is charred wood.” Then he held out the telescope and said, “Look.”

Ousanas grabbed the telescope, put it to his eye, and looked. He held it to his eye for a while before yelling out, “Signal the fleet. We are invading Muza.”

Instantly an Aksum soldier began signaling the other ships with flags. Then the Aksum ships put oars into the water and rowed hard to shore, quickly passing the Paul’s Victory.

Udo took back his telescope and watched as the ships rowed hard to shore. Nobody on the shore of Muza reacted to the ships at first. They were a port city, ships coming into the harbor was normal. Then the ships came close enough for the people on shore to see all the Aksum soldiers on deck. There were shouts, people running, and panicking. As people were running back behind the walls of their city, horns sounded, and guards marched out of the city, clearly ready to do battle.

Then the ships reached the shore, lowered gangplanks, and Aksum soldiers ran off the ships and began forming up. At first, the Muza guards began marching to the enemy, but more and more soldiers kept pouring out of their ships, and the guards turned around and went back into their city. If they knew how green the army was, they would have considered fighting, but for now, the numbers made them fall back behind the safety of their walls.

Most of the Aksum soldiers were utterly new conscripts that barely knew how to hold their spear and sword without tripping. The Aksum King liked the idea of getting Muza, but he did not want to lose any well-trained soldiers in the process because training was time-consuming and expensive. But the King allowed Udo and the nobles to hire as many men as they could for this little raid. Their ranks were filled with a lot of young men from the ages of sixteen to twenty-four who did not have the clout to get into the Aksum military. They viewed this invasion as a chance to start their military career, get loot, and see the world. They were given the most basic of gear, a spear and shield, but very few of them had a sword, and fewer knew how to use it.

Udo didn’t care. Now that the invasion had started, the Himyarites would forget all about Paulsland. If Aksum succeeded in capturing Muza, then it would likely start a decades-long war which would keep both nations distracted, giving Paulsland the time it needed to grow. If either side managed to capture both sides of the Red Sea, they would doubtless impose a toll, and it would just go to show that often today's solution is tomorrow's problem, but at least it would mean there was a tomorrow for Paulsland.

The Paul’s Victory finally reached the shore as the other ships dropped their last soldiers off. They then turned around to sail and row back to Aksum as quickly as possible to bring back more soldiers, for the siege. In a few days, the city would be surrounded by fifty thousand troops, and Ousanas would have to decide whether they starved the city out, or tried to breach the walls.

When the gangplanks touched the shore, instead of soldiers rushing off like on the other ships, the soldiers were instructed how to carry each piece of the trebuchet off the ship. The Aksum officers told the new green recruits that the trebuchet was worth more than their lives, and if they dropped it in the harbor, they would drown with it. And so, the soldiers carefully moved each piece as the Paulsland engineers instructed.

It took a few hours, but they managed to get all three trebuchets off the ship without losing any pieces. And so, the engineers began setting up their trebuchet while the army stood around them looking dangerous. In one more day, the trebuchet would begin launching rocks at the parapets along the top of the wall.

With their passengers and cargo unloaded, the Paul’s Victory made its way back to Aksum. It had more soldiers and siege equipment to get.

As for Muza, they sent out several messengers on horses to inform their King that they were being invaded and that they did not have nearly enough guards to repel the invasion. They needed the army preferably before the city was taken. The sooner the army was diverted to Muza the better things would be for Paulsland. How could the Himyarite King send more soldiers to Paulsland when the heart of his nation was getting invaded.