Chapter CXXXIII – For, behold, I create a new surprise and a new siege.

7th of Spring 5860
Karabush, League of the Three Cities

Brown was back in his natural habitat: outdoors, camping, chilling, surrounded by armed people plotting to overthrow the local government, as is the usual activities of a man stepping into his sixties. No retirement plan, no 401(k), just an old man in his element. His tent was filled with people going in and out, whether to report on the situation, or just to talk to the old man and get some encouragement.

Vaiz came in, stopping right in front of Brown (who was sitting on the ground due to a lack of seating) and straightening his skullcap before he spoke “Captain, the garrison of Karabush has refused to surrender. Their commander says that they’ll wait for the army of the mayor to return and break the siege.”

“That makes sense, I cannot blame them.” Brown stood up, stretching his arms in anticipation of action. “How did they treat you?”

Vaiz wondered how this had any relevance, but he replied anyways “The commander invited me for tea, we talked for a bit, and he personally escorted me out of the gates once we were done. A pretty standard reception all around.”

“How were the people around you armed?” asked Brown “You must have seen a few of his troops around him.”

“Ah, that? They didn’t seem too heavily armed. Nor did they seem much like soldiers honestly, the men were armed about as well as ours. Gambeson, spear, helmet, about that much.”

“Then, it seems that I was right. The mayor brought all his trained soldiers to Casamonu, thinking that we’d be fighting to retake the city right next to us. The people we sent over to skirmish near the mountains helped them not think of any other possibility. Now…” Brown headed out the tent, Vaiz in tow. “Now, we have to get inside these walls before the mayor arrives.”

The walls of Karabush stood in the distance. Unlike the ancient walls of Casamonu, an ancient border city, Karabush’s walls looked much less grand. A couple of the poorer neighborhoods of the city were even situated outside it, though they were deserted now that a force had come to siege them down. The walls were perhaps about as tall as three men, and they didn’t look too thick or well-maintained. “Now, only if we had some secret underground tunnels to infiltrate the city from.”

Vaiz could only ask “…d-do we have secret underground tunnels here too?”

Brown couldn’t help but chuckle “Of course not, I can’t conjure up miracles. However, we can conjure up ladders.” He walked towards a group of soldiers in the camp who had been busy at work in the last few days. “These. They should be long enough to climb over the wall.” Silly as they looked, siege ladders were very much a respectable part of siege warfare. “That, and a bit of help from Ayomide’s cannon, we’ll be making our way inside today.”

“Today?”

“Today. We don’t have much time, and everything should be ready by now. We were only waiting to make sure that the people inside weren’t willing to surrender. Now that you’re back…” Brown stopped a soldier running nearby. Then from there the soldier went to their captain. In about half an hour word spread around and the army had been gathered into formation. This time they looked grander not just due to being greater in number, but also due to the regimental banners and the Republic’s flag floating around that made them look much more organized. The tall pikes piercing the heavens, the matching uniforms, this was certainly an army that was beginning to look like one.

BOOM!

The first shot came from Ayomide, and her canon. The gate to the city was immediately shattered as the cannonball exploded and tore it into pieces. The defenders of the city rushed to the gate to protect the chokepoint, though the Republic’s army stayed away from the gates for now. The 1st Ranger Regiment (the veterans from the League) inched closer to the gate, pikes being tilted down in anticipation of contact, while another group of soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Regiment (those recruited from Casamonu) began carrying the siege ladders forward towards the walls. Those carrying the siege ladders were protected by their comrades carrying shields, though a few fell as they were fired upon from the walls. The 2nd Regiment began climbing up the ladders and into the walls, a brutal fight beginning to have themselves be let on the walls by its defenders.

Then came the actual battle.

The 1st Regiment, still in front of the gate, inched closer and closer to the line of troops from the garrison defending the gate. Right before making contact, they paused, and a group of musketeers emerged from inside their formation. “Fire!”

A line of muskets suddenly unloaded all their shot upon their enemies which stood so close that they could see eye-to-eye. Accuracy didn’t matter from so close. Armored, unarmored, noble or peasant, the musket cared not. A hundred men on the enemy side either died instantly or were incapacitated by the massive lead balls passing through them. The smoke from the muskets obscured vision, and before the garrison could recover their senses, a terrifying mess of shouts, insults and battle cries began closing in on them from the smoke.

For a moment there was nothing in sight of the garrison, but grey smoke and the shouts of men. Then the shining, sharp heads of the pikes pierced through the fog, the men carrying them barely visible as dark smudges beyond the smoke. The disorganized garrison, who mostly consisted of citizens conscripted to defend the city with whatever weapons they had, couldn’t even begin approaching the men behind the pikes. They were slowly pushed back, the smoke slowly clearing as some members of the garrison began exploiting gaps in the pike wall to move forward and begin attacking the soldiers of the 1st Regiment. The garrison still held the advantage of holding the chokepoint at the gate, and they seemed determined to not give up their advantage.

The standoff at the gate continued without much change, a few pikemen falling while an equal amount of garrison members were impaled by the pikes. Time was passing though, and it passed, until the men of the 2nd Regiment had defeated the men atop the walls and they had begun to make their way to the melee. The garrison slowly pulled away from the pikes, trying to focus more on the people who were now flanking them from behind.

As the pikes gained distance from the garrison, who were now wavering, the musketeers again emerged from the back of the line with their weapons reloaded. Another volley. Another hundred men dead instantly, out of a dwindling number of men in the garrison. This time, there didn’t need to be another valley as the remaining members of the garrison began making their flight away from the soldiers of the Republic. Nobody there was willing to risk being counted amongst the dead in another volley.

The dead were left on the street, some tripping over the corpses while trying to run.

7th of Spring 5860
Mayor’s Mansion, Karabush

Blue. White. Green.

The tricolor of Gemeinplatz was hanging from the mayor’s mansion in the center of the city.

“You have fought fairly and achieved victory over us. Please have mercy on us as the Divine commands.” The commander of Karabush’s garrison knelt down, laying his sword down on the ground right in front of Ayomide. Unlike Casamonu, with its castle on the hill, Karabush lacked any defensive structures inside the city; not to mention that the garrison wasn’t motivated to fight when their mayor was absent. The surrender had come immediately after the army of the Republic had politely knocked on the door of the absent mayor.

“Thank you for the gift, it’s much appreciated” commented Ayomide sarcastically as she picked up the well-furbished blade. There was a crowd of citizens who had gathered around the mansion, looking at the new flag in shock and fear.

They had expected the fugitive problem to be over after the mayor had made his way to Casamonu.

The last thing they had expected was for the fugitives to be the ones arriving at Karabush.

Brown began reciting his part of the surrender ceremony “The regular city folk among you is free to leave. To the noblemen and other wealthy folk: effective from this moment onwards, all of your slaves and indentured servants are free. You are not free to leave the walls of this city until we have held court for each one of you, and your former slaves and servants shall act as witnesses.”

The declaration of Brown was met with much less shock from the crowd. Rumors had already spread of the “lunatics” over in Casamonu. There was silent resignation at these rumors coming through, as the end times came to their city and the “Demon King” with his “Anti-Hero” had arrived.

Today, on the 7th of Spring 5860, Karabush was no longer in Imperial control.