Chapter 295: Marching on Cairo (1/2)

Months had passed since Honoria assembled her crew, and now on the other edge of the Mediterranean in the lands of Pharaohs and Kings, Arethas was in the process of humbling the Mamluk Sultanate.

With the military aid provided to him by the Duchy of Austria, the Byzantine forces stationed in North Africa had made substantial progress, so much so that they were now outside Cairo's gates.

Despite the stable walls built around the proud city, the thunder of dozens of falconets could be overheard by the residents within those walls. With every volley, the city began to shake, and the one-pound cannon balls chipped away at the stone fortifications that had protected the civilians within it for generations.

If Cario were seized, then the rest of the Egyptian province would fall shortly after. The Mamluke's last bastion in the easternmost region of the Mediterranean was on the verge of collapse. As such, Its defenders desperately fired arrows down upon the Byzantine troops.

Unlike Berengar's forces, which were armored over their vital regions with quenched and hardened high carbon steel plate armor, the troops of the Byzantine Empire were armored primarily in mild steel mirror-pattern armor, over a mail hauberk.

Because of this, there were still some significant gaps in their protection. Thus the arrows and bolts fired by the Mamluke archers were capable of finding their way through those gaps and, as a result, significantly injured the Byzantine Soldiers, if not outright killing them.

Currently, Arethas was standing at the rear of the siege camp that had been set up, watching his artillerymen fire the falconet cannons, while his arkebusiers resisted the enemy's fire. Those brave byzantine soldiers unleashed their destructive volleys upon the enemy defenders while being pelted with arrows and bolts.

As the Byzantine arkebusiers fired upon the defenders, their projectiles made their way up onto the ramparts. Those Mamlukes unfortunate to be hit by the volley found their armor shredded, and their lives lost. Blood splattered across the battlefield as the number of deaths began to skyrocket.

After several hours of heated conflict, the bombardments ceased, and the soldiers of both sides returned to their quarters. For the Byzantines, they had set up a standard medieval siege camp outside the city's gates.

Inside this camp, Arethas chastised his artillery officers; due to the cast iron material that these guns were made of, they could not sustain a continuous bombardment, unlike the high carbon steel that Berengar had fashioned his cannons from.

They needed time to cool down, or else they would risk a rupture in the bore. Thus the siege had been progressing slower than he initially wanted it to. Who was to take the blame for such a thing? Naturally, it fell to the artillery officers.

”How come those walls are still standing? It has been nearly a week since we have begun our bombardment, and yet to my surprise; we are still standing out here in the desert with our thumbs up our asses! Bring down those walls, or else!”

The Artillery officers looked at one another with confused expressions. They did not dare reveal that Decentius, who was the second Prince of the Empire, and Arethas' right-hand man had ordered them to sustain a bombardment long enough to draw the defenders' attention.

The reason for this was shrouded in conspiracy, and Arethas was unaware of it, as such, he continued to chastise the artillery officers.

”I swear if that wall is not brought down by tomorrow morning, your heads will be--”

During mid-sentence, Arethas cut his words short as the ground had begun to quake, and with it, an eruption had occurred. This was no simple earthquake; soon, the fortifications around the City of Cairo began to crumble.

Walls and watchtowers began to fall to the ground as the very foundation they were built upon blasted itself apart. It was as if hell itself had decided to sprout from within the cities. The screams of the defending soldiers and the citizens within echoed in the air as a giant explosive blast filled the air.

Arethas watched this horrific sight in shock as he gazed upon the destruction wrought upon the city of Cairo; before long, he could overhear Prince Decentius, who was his second in command, and godson cheering in the distance as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

”For the Empire!”

with his chant, all of the soldiers in the Byzantine camp began to cheer with him. As Arethas looked around the battlefield and the destruction that was wrought upon it, there was little time before the Byzantines rallied behind Decentius and charged into the ruins of the city.