Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 389 Camel City
This time, the twin battles between Antioch and Aleppo showed a rare efficiency in medieval history.

Generally speaking, even after declaring war, both sides of a war may take half a month to organize their armies, and then confront each other in various places, adjust their strategies, and finally clash.

But Antioch and Aleppo were still too close, and the ten-year peace treaty was about to expire.

Coupled with Jerusalem's previous declaration of war on Egypt, both Aleppo and Antioch were prepared for the outbreak of war.

Then, Antioch was the main attacker and Aleppo was the defender.

Defense is always simpler than offense, so it is only natural that this is the case.

On the second day of the war, Antiochus' main force arrived at the city of Aleppo and began to prepare for the siege.

Adil did not defend the isolated city, but dispersed his light cavalry over a larger area, trying to maintain his control of the battlefield and seek help from the emirs further east in the Fertile Crescent.

Adil even sent messengers to the Abbasid Caliphate to ask for help.

Due to the blocking of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Ayyubid dynasty could not expect Egypt to send reinforcements to fight together during the war.

Then his only way to deal with it is to delay time and seek reinforcements.

Among them, the main means of delaying time is to use higher mobility to continuously harass Antiochus' troops.

Apart from harassment of the main force, harassment of the logistics units is even more important.

After all, no matter how many soldiers there are on the front line, they cannot fight on an empty stomach.

If the Antiochus army split up into large groups to search for food, then that would be great in Adil's opinion.

This meant that by utilizing the rapid mobility of light cavalry, he could take advantage of local battles and weaken and contain the enemy through a large number of small-scale battles.

To be honest, the risk of this escort was much higher than Roger thought.

Although the distance from Antiochus to Aleppo was not far, he had to cross 40 kilometers of plains and a large number of hills that were prone to ambushes.

This is also the dilemma that traditional Crusaders would encounter when marching into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula.

That is, they rely too much on sea transportation for food supplies, their ability to collect supplies locally is poor, and they lack sufficient support from local people.

As a result, it is naturally impossible to besiege the enemy city for a long time. When the enemy reinforcements arrive, our side will be defeated and driven away because of the long-term lack of supplies and the overall decline in military capabilities.

Similar problems were encountered during the siege of Damascus during the Second Crusade or the siege of Aleppo by Baldwin II of Jerusalem in 1124.

This is an open conspiracy, and it essentially depends on the comparison of power between the two sides.

Specifically at the combat level, this is the dilemma Roger faces.

Although the Antiochus army had tried to build military stations along the way, that was not enough to ensure that the food would not be attacked by light cavalry during transportation.

The horse team that appeared on the horizon of the hills not far away told Roger that they had to prepare for battle.

As a battalion commander, Roger has a total of nearly 600 militiamen under his command, which are assembled from four militia companies.

In addition to these six hundred people, there were about a hundred militiamen in the grain transport team and about four hundred camels or horses.

With such a large number of troops and horses, stretching out nearly 300 meters in front and back, the scale was so huge that it was impossible for them to hide their tracks in the plains or hills.

When the two sides came into contact, the battle was about to break out.

However, this does not mean that the other side has a large number of cavalry rushing out.

In most cases, this is very dangerous and difficult to do.

In fact, from Roger's perspective, he was not sure how many enemies there were.

The enemy was a group of about 20 to 40 people. They formed a line and quickly went down the slightly undulating hills at a very fast speed. They bent their bows and drew their arrows and shot arrows as they got close to the team.

When the first wave of contact occurred, Roger's side did not have enough time to react, and many militiamen were on the battlefield for the first time.

It was quite hectic to deal with.

In Roger's view, the defense line that the first company was responsible for could even be said to be on the verge of collapse.

There was no effective defense at all.

Faced with the sudden attack, even though the enemy was small in number and the officers gave orders in time, many people were still in a panic due to the severe shortage of non-commissioned officers, the shock of the horses' hooves and the twenty or thirty arrows.

Fortunately, the battalion's direct team was near the first company. Following Roger's command, they gathered a part of the fleeing soldiers and then shot crossbow arrows at the enemy, blocking the enemy's continued attack and curbing the company's defeat trend.

When the enemy discovered that Roger's battalion had gradually come to its senses and was able to organize itself into a formation, they turned around and left without saying a word, without further ado.

After such a brief confrontation, several people on both sides were injured, but most of them were not seriously injured.

As for the current equipment of the Jerusalem militia, although iron armor is not widely available, everyone can still have a piece of basic cotton armor.

Even though the arrows from horse bows had a chance of penetrating cotton armor at this distance, they would not penetrate too deeply into the flesh. Therefore, even though the soldiers who were hit by arrows screamed loudly, they did not look like they were about to die. Instead, they seemed to be full of energy.

Although the loss was not great, Roger still pulled the company captain in front of him.

After leading troops for so many years, Roger is no longer the young man he used to be.

He did not rush to blame the other party, but watched in silence for a while.

Finally, the company captain, unable to bear the pressure of Roger's gaze, opened his mouth and was about to say something.

It was at this moment that Roger interrupted the other party's hesitation to speak.

"Don't say anything. You made mistakes in command. From the time we discovered each other to the time the other side launched the charge, I saw you issue at least three rounds of orders, but your company failed to execute them."

"This is obviously caused by insufficient training on weekdays."

"But our battalion was formed only a month ago, and we were trained separately before that. I can't blame you for not training the soldiers."

"To put it bluntly, it's because they lack training and do not have enough war experience."

"I will not impose any punishment on your company now, but your company's front team will be changed to the rear team, and you will exchange defense areas with the Fourth Company. Do you understand?!"

The company commander immediately shouted: "Understood!"

He actually understood what Roger meant. This was his first offense and there was no major loss, so it was not a big problem. But if there was a second such failure, then Roger would really settle the score afterwards.

Later on the road, similar attacks occurred twice more.

Relatively speaking, the situation of collapse at the first touch did not occur again. But correspondingly, there were indeed deaths on their side. Even if they captured a few enemy corpses, it could not change the panic in everyone's hearts.

Under such circumstances, the overall movement speed will naturally be slowed down.

The original plan was to walk 5 leagues a day, but in reality, after walking 3 leagues, we had to start considering whether to set up camp on the spot, or continue to force our way forward and rest after reaching the military station.

It’s not that the front line will not have food for the next two or three days, but whether they continue to move forward or rest on the spot, they will actually face considerable risks.

If we continue to move forward, at the current speed, we can reach the military station before dark, but what if the enemy attacks us twice more?
If they stayed where they were and set up camp to rest, it meant that the team would have to spend the night in the wilderness. It was almost certain that they would encounter a night attack, and when their position was exposed, it might not just be a small-scale attack like during the day.

Considering the mobility of the light cavalry, it would take them enough time to run back and forth between Aleppo and here twice from the time they were discovered.

It is very difficult to expect to spend a night in the wild without any problems.

In this situation, Roger called the Paladins and several company commanders in the battalion and told them about the current situation.

The 600 people in their battalion were stuck here, in a dilemma.

At this point, the battalion-level Paladin Heinrich said, "As the prophet said, in many cases, it is better to take steady steps than to act rashly. We have more than 300 camels here, and they are all trained armored infantry. We can use camels and trenches to build positions. We can handle a battle of 2,000 people."

"What if the enemy's large force attacks?" Roger asked back.

"No, if the enemy really launches a large-scale operation, it will give the main force on the front line an opportunity. At that time, whether they fight a battle around us or the main force forcibly attacks the city, even if we sacrifice ourselves, it will be valuable."

Roger swallowed subconsciously, looking at Heinrich's confident expression, and felt that his faith was not firm enough.

Look at what you said... Even if they sacrificed themselves, it was worth it...

Although war is a cruel game that requires minimal sacrifice in exchange for the greatest reward, how many people are willing to put themselves on the gambling table as chips?
I can only say that this is probably Paladin's awakening.

However, although Roger lacked some awareness, from a military and technical point of view, staying where they were was indeed a relatively safe option.

After all, if there really was a large-scale enemy force that wanted to encircle and suppress them, the light cavalry surrounding them would only make greater efforts to prevent them from reaching the next safe military station.

Instead of continuing to spend energy to force your way forward, it is better to rest on the spot and make preparations.

If the battle does not break out, everyone will be happy. If the war breaks out, we can all hold on a little longer and wait for reinforcements.

Afterwards, everyone voted by raising their hands and unanimously decided to repair the situation on the spot and send a messenger to the military station ahead to inform them of the situation.

……

At night, the camp and the grain transport team, totaling nearly 700 people, set up camp on a hill, which was relatively high and easier to defend.

Just as discussed during the day, the camels' legs were tied, and they were forced to kneel on the ground and fixed in various positions to form walls.

A camel is about 2 meters long, and 400 camels can form a circle with a circumference of about meters.

The area inside the circle is about 12,700 square meters, which is more than enough to accommodate food supplies and a battalion of soldiers.

In addition, Roger ordered some grain bags and boxes to be moved to the inside of the camel wall to make it easier for the soldiers to use them as stepping stones, to guard outside the wall, or to shoot arrows and fire firearms.

After these defensive fortifications were prepared, the soldiers in the camp prepared to go to sleep in batches.

As for Roger, he also discussed a shift system with the German Heinrich. Roger would guard the first half of the night, and Heinrich would guard the second half, to ensure that there would always be someone who could coordinate the overall situation.

After everything was arranged, Roger led his men on patrols nervously, urging the soldiers to go to bed on time and ensuring that the sentries could perform their duties well.

There were nearly seven hundred of them, not too many, not too few either, but it was still a heavy pressure on his shoulders.

You have to know that many of these people are actually his fellow townsmen and younger generations. It was only after seeing him excel in the army that they actively participated in militia training and took the initiative to join this war.

If many young people were killed, how would he explain to their parents when he returned home?
Amidst such confusion, nothing happened in the first half of the night; not even a small-scale attack occurred.

At about 1 a.m., Roger had someone shake Heinrich awake, took over his shift, and then crawled into a sleeping bag himself.

While many thoughts were still spinning in his mind, Roger found himself being shaken awake.

"I, I just...just fell asleep..."

As soon as he said this subconsciously, Roger found something unusual.

Because the sky seemed to be very bright, bright enough to see the face of his orderly.

"Captain, it's bad, the enemy is surrounding us!"

How long have you been sleeping?

Roger still couldn't react for a while.

Then, in desperation, the orderly slapped him in the face and pulled Roger out of the sleeping bag.

"Battalion Commander! The enemy is surrounding us!"

Looking at the ferocious face of his orderly, Roger finally realized what was going on.

"How many are they?"

"There are so many! It's so crowded."

"How much is a lot?!" Roger almost shouted.

The orderly opened and closed his mouth, and finally pulled Roger to his feet, walked to the nearest camel wall, and let him stand on the wooden box to look out.

Then Roger realized that what the orderly had just said about the dense crowd was not an exaggeration.

At this early hour in the morning, like a dark cloud, an army of nearly four thousand troops trapped their camel city.

What the jinxed German Heinrich said yesterday hit the nail on the head. Their battalion really used themselves as bargaining chips at the gambling table of war.

The other side really assembled a large force and wanted to forcibly destroy their grain transport team.

“May the Lord our refuge be with us;
May He save you in the day of trouble;

May the victory of the battle be to the Lord,
Let us rise up and our enemies fall down."

Roger subconsciously made the sign of the cross and began to pray.

Finally, he silently said: "Father, support me, so that I will not be ashamed."

(End of this chapter)