Chapter 83: Assault On The City!
The precious map was placed in the center of a table pieced together from several tables, possibly an entire sheet peeled from a sturdy calf, without any seams or traces of pasting. Heraclius washed his hands under Baldwin’s service, changed his outer garment, and then approached the table. When he leaned over to look, Baldwin and Caesar could also clearly see the map.
In another world, there were not many people who could not read maps anymore, except for those old people who had not yet received compulsory education, but anyone who had taken a geography class knew how to distinguish positions, directions, and elevations.
But the maps of this era and place—more like a crude landscape painting—the mapmakers would draw houses, castles, mountains, forests, and rivers very “realistically.” It was difficult to discern roads from them, and they had no contour lines, only roughly distinguishing altitude from the size of buildings and mountainous areas.
Some mapmakers would even draw animals and portraits…
And beyond these maps, beautiful patterns were inevitably drawn, with saints and angels painted to pray for their blessing of the owner, and the indicator for north, south, east, and west was a sphere, with the scene of Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden on the right side of the sphere, because Eden was at the easternmost end, opposite to which was the Pillars of Hercules on the Strait of Gibraltar on the west side.
The central position was Ayyarasa Road, for these people, no place was more qualified to be the center of the world than the Holy City.
This map was no exception, and besides text, patterns were used to mark place names, like Fustat, which was a tent on the map, because it originally meant “tent” in the Saracen language, then there were several buildings, mountains, and a conspicuous great river around the tent, and because this river occupied a large area, one could confirm it was the Nile River.
And Fustat, this giant city, was right next to this broad and majestic river. When the Saracens built it, they cleverly made one section of the city wall face the turbulent river water and built it as steep and straight as a cliff, so if someone wanted to attack from this place, there was no place to stand.
Perhaps you would say, what if the enemy used a fleet? Siege engines like crossbows could also be fixed on ships, so the Saracens built an arrow tower on the opposite Laudae Island.
This arrow tower had two tasks: one was lookout and warning, the other was to raise the iron chain suspended between the arrow tower and the city wall, preventing enemy ships invading from the Nile River estuary from entering this narrow area.
And after Zengi’s Shirkuh arrived here, he strongly presided over the construction of the fortress on Laudae Island. This castle surrounded the original arrow tower, and then a drawbridge was raised with iron chains—this was at a high place; at the low place, they used connected ships as a bridge to cross the river.
What obviously annoyed Amalric I was not this simple bridge that could be burned with a single fire. On the map, there were two fresh, heavily inked scratches, “Who is the merchant responsible for scouting this area?” Amalric I roared: “If they dare come to claim the bounty again, arrest them immediately, confiscate all their property, and throw them all into the Nile River without leaving one!”
“Let’s discuss this later,” at this time, only Heraclius dared to interrupt him. He carefully checked the location of the new bridge again: “The section between Laudae Island and Fustat is indeed too narrow and straight. If they wanted to deceive others’ eyes, it is not impossible, after all, merchants cannot enter Laudae Island, nor stand under the walls of Fustat to look down.”
“Has it been confirmed as a stone bridge?”
“Our people saw cavalry galloping on it.” Bohemond answered Heraclius’s question. Heraclius’s face immediately darkened, and it was no wonder Amalric I was so distraught.
Their original plan was to mainly attack Fustat’s King’s Gate and Victory Gate. The third city gate—Market Gate—faced the Nile River estuary. According to the agreement, when the siege warfare began, Byzantium’s Manuel I would send his navy upstream along the Nile River to exert another pressure on Fustat.
So what did the sudden addition of an island connected to Fustat mean? It meant Fustat had an easy-to-defend, hard-to-attack satellite city. Once war began, they not only had to watch Fustat’s other two city gates but also be careful of the Saracens entering the island from the main city and then attacking the siege forces from the island’s bridges.
Another point was that the west side of this island faced the majestic Nile River, and Egypt’s cities stretched along the Nile River. Other cities might not be as prosperous as those in the Nile Delta, but it was still possible for them to provide some support to Fustat, meaning the attackers’ greatest fear in siege warfare—the nightmare of being unable to cut off the city’s provisions—was about to descend.
But the fact was already so, and now they could only decide whether to first take Laudae Island or Fustat, or both at the same time.
The problem was that not everyone was willing to attack Laudae Island. Laudae Island was a true military fortress, which meant there were not many valuable things inside, and since the Saracens had built a fortress and towers on it, it could not be easily taken, not to mention that before attacking the fortress, they still had to face one or two bridges.
What was the most famous battle in the Hippo campaign? Undoubtedly—the Battle of Thermopylae. In that battle, Greece’s Spartan Amalric I Leonidas I led three hundred Spartan elite warriors and some Greek city-state allied forces to resist the attack of Persian Emperor Xerxes I at Thermopylae, repelling four attacks by tens of thousands of enemies and delaying for three whole days—although the reason was that the Greek city-states were holding the Olympic Games… we need not dwell on that.
But from this battle, it can be seen how great an advantage the side occupying the terrain could have, especially bridges, even more dangerous and cruel than narrow mountain paths on cliffs.
First, to pass these not very wide bridges, the number of people could not be large, horses could not run, even spears would be hindered, and the advantages of knights were almost completely gone here.
Second, if fighting on a plain, even if fallen from a horse, knights could leap up and continue fighting, but if fallen into the water, chainmail was not very heavy but weighed about sixty pounds, plus armor plates and robe, even the best swimmers among knights might not be able to float.
Finally, the enemy would definitely build arrow towers on both sides of the bridges. Even if stones were not ready, wooden ones would do. They shot arrows from above down, and knights had to slowly advance hundreds of feet under arrow volleys like a rainstorm.
“We can burn them first.”
“That means we need to fight the guards on Laudae Island first. They can rush out from the castle at any time, and there are guards inside Fustat city. King’s Gate is not far from Laudae Island.”
So the problem returned to the original point: they must attack both places at the same time, otherwise Laudae Island connected to Fustat could backstab them at any time. Similarly, if they attacked Laudae Island while ignoring Fustat, Fustat would become their threat!
And just as people were hesitating, Amalric I made the decision. Their army would split into two forces: one to attack Fustat according to the original plan, and the other to attack Laudae Island. Moreover, he generously took on this problem. This heavy responsibility would be borne by him, the Commander of the Crusaders and Lord of the Holy Land. Caesar could clearly see several lords’ faces visibly relax.
After all, these people brought their own knights. They came to the Holy Land for some noble reasons—that was what they told others—but in fact, everyone knew that they were willing to come here and obey Amalric I’s arrangements for their own honor and tangible interests.
Fustat had been developed by the Saracens for seven hundred years. Who did not know that heathens habitually decorated their palaces and temples with gold and gemstones, the Caliph’s purple robes filled boxes and rooms inlaid with cedarwood, and armor and weapons piled up like mountains.
In Bilbeis, they had already received the first return, and just this return alone meant the trip was not a loss.
But if the loss of knights could be reduced, who would not be willing? When they returned, they still had to face the greedy Church, Amalric I, and other lords around them. Using a harsh metaphor, they were like beasts hunting outside: on one hand needing to feed themselves, on the other not getting injured（ to reduce their military force）, otherwise other beasts would swarm and devour them.
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Amalric I made the sacrifice, and everyone dispersed contentedly. Before that, they reconfirmed each person’s position: who was in front, who in the back, who on the periphery, who inside, how many teams to divide into, which positions to manage, who was responsible for the reserve force, who managed the tents and logistics, and the hired soldiers and laborers… as well as the noble ladies and women with the army, etc…
This kind of thing was always the most tedious but also the most important, because on the battlefield, disagreements leading to allies mercilessly turning and leaving were not uncommon. Fortunately, Amalric I had Heraclius by his side.
What more could Heraclius do? He had long known there would be such a day. Besides Amalric I’s matters, he also had to arrange various sacraments, like fasting, sacred parades, litanies, sermons, etc. These sacraments not only had to be done in Bilbeis but also repeated outside Fustat.
Not only that, he also had to be careful, as there were always people with ulterior motives who would sabotage these ceremonies and then shift the blame to their intended poisoning targets.
His worries were not unfounded. Caesar found hallucinogenic herbs in some spices; found a wax-sealed crack on the holy vessel they were to carry during the parade ceremony; the horse Baldwin rode during the parade ceremony was not as healthy as it appeared; Caesar also found that the wine（ holy blood） to be distributed to everyone had mercury added…
Behind these people might be Saracens, or Christians like them. Heraclius did not hesitate to tell them not to think that since Baldwin had received God’s blessing, everything would be fine, even if his leprosy was cured.
Before Baldwin had his own child, everything was in vain—he could not comment on Princess Sibylla, but marrying the princess was tantamount to having a kingdom, an indisputable fact.
And what Amalric I was doing now, it was unknown whether it was Baldwin’s fortune or a death knell.
After completing the sacraments and obtaining God’s blessing and permission, the great army finally set off majestically toward Fustat.
Whether from the Saracen or Christian standpoint, this army was extremely majestic, orderly, and pious. Monks held holy images and the Cross, knights raised spears like thorns rising from the ground surrounding those sacred faces.
These young men with strength, faith, and combat talent were dressed like flowers or birds. They might not wear gold- or silver-plated chainmail like Amalric I and the lords, but they could inlay gemstones and pearls on their helmets or hairnets. Their robes and shields were brightly colored, and their horse blankets were no less splendid.
Those erected spears had spear tips polished shining white, reflecting the sunlight like flames. The knights who already had flags set the flags on the spears, with golden cords and silver tassels fluttering in the wind.
When they arrived outside Fustat, part of the camp houses and tents were already set up. Ancient Romans often built their camps very solidly to survive winters that were extremely harsh for them, but in Fustat, Amalric I was not too worried. Even in the coldest January, the temperature here was at most just uncomfortable, and his plan was to capture Fustat within three months.
“I hope to hold Baldwin’s coming-of-age ceremony in Fustat.” He said this to Heraclius.
From this sentence, Amalric I’s ambition was evident—this was also a tradition inherited from the Ancient Romans: when a person newly conquered a place, he had the right to add this place’s name as part of his surname.
An envoy soon came from inside Fustat city, but at this point, everyone knew Amalric I would not let it go easily this time; it was just procedural formality. Amalric I asked about the envoy’s status and amusingly found he was just a scribe on the fringes of the court. He was trembling all over, stammering, thinking he would be dragged out and executed.
“You can go back and tell Shawwar,” Amalric I said with a smile: “He always makes me feel cheerful.”
He did not trouble this envoy and let him go back. On the way back to Fustat, the envoy saw many Christian knights running back and forth in front of Fustat’s city walls, showing no fear of the crossbows mounted on the city walls. Among them, two young men who had not yet cut off the swallowtail（ knight mark） were the most conspicuous: one wore gold-plated chainmail, the other silver-plated chainmail, shining brightly in the sunlight.
Perhaps this behavior displeased some Saracen with equal courage and pride. He shot arrows downward, targeting the young man in gold-plated chainmail, who, whether out of boldness or negligence, surprisingly reined in his horse and stood still.
Only when the arrow was right in front of him did he lightly swing the spear that had somehow appeared in his hand, brushing them away as if swatting away a few annoying flies.
The arrows fell to the ground, and the knights following him cheered in unison.
But the opponent seemed unsatisfied. When a guard on the city wall, out of anger, actually used a crossbow, he pulled the novice knight in silver-plated chainmail in front of himself and arrogantly told him to turn his back to the city wall.
The opponent seemed to make a helpless gesture, and that huge crossbow bolt, enough to pierce a wild boar, whistled through the air, crossing several hundred feet in an instant and hitting his back!
At this moment, both Saracens and Christians were cheering, but the next moment, the Saracens found that the crossbow bolt had not hit him but was caught firmly by him with a backhand, gripped in his hand.
He showed this crossbow bolt to his friend, then casually threw it to the ground.
The cheering on the city wall instantly stopped.
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“You all pray through the night!” Heraclius said.
