Don’t read just adding stories I can read on audio

Chapter 4: Punching First

It was a quiet day in the city of Basel, the capital of the Helvetians. A walled city with a 4 meter high wooden wall, a city of 67 thousand inhabitants, although about 10 thousand were slaves, either Gali or foreigners, There were no more than 3 thousand guards and 2 thousand soldiers to guard the city, most of the soldiers had been taken to the Edna Mountains to ambush the imperial army.

Everyone believed that the battle would be in the surroundings of the Inland Sea, so no one knew that 29 thousand Imperials were heading towards them. They didn't see them until it was too late, they were heading to the south gate in good formation, in front were several soldiers holding a tree trunk while they were protected by the shields of their companions in a strange testudo formation. A rectangular formation of 500 skirmishers escorted the "ram", two other formations marched on its left and right flanks.

"The Empire! The empire is attacking us!" The guards shouted as they tried to go to the south gate, throwing what they had, few arrows, javelins and stones with waves, but they were unable to stop the shield formations.

Meanwhile, in the rear of the formation, the general and the captain were with me to watch the battle.

"Sir, I think it would have been better to build a battering ram for this situation instead of just cutting a log." Captain Cornelius talk.

"We don't have time for this." I replied as I watched as the ram began to hit the gate, meanwhile the soldiers on the flanks began to throw their spears at the defenders, knocking down several and then standing on the sides of the gate, waiting to the other units of soldiers also approached to fire their throwing spears at the defenders and relieve the pressure of those who break down the gate. "This city must fall as soon as possible, all the roads of the Helvetians pass through here, so we would be cutting off the entire eastern part of their territory from all Gali support."

"Your highness, you are brilliant at seeing through the enemy's plan, now we can deal them a serious blow by enslaving the very capital of one of the most powerful tribes!" General Servius was flattering me, but that was an annoyance to me.

"Was the message sent to my father and the slave companies as I ordered?" I asked, continuing to watch the siege.

"Of course! Our scouts met a caravan on the way."

"Perfect... Look general, it seems that the door is about to open."

Only a few moments the gate opened, to then order and place their shields in front to receive the Gali soldiers, who charged against them to prevent them from passing.

The Gali's weapons were varied, they had axes, long swords, spears. Some wore leather armor, some wore chain mail, and some wore nothing.

They began the clash at the bottleneck that was the entrance to the city, the soldiers remained protected behind those enormous shields, looking for an opening in their adversary to give a quick stab in the thighs, face or wherever and then return to the safety of their shields, those in the back row held them behind their backs, when their unit leader blew a whistle they changed places, and those in the front went to the rear of the formation to rest, until then it's their turn again.

"Very well, now it's time to execute the plan." I said making a gesture and the captain began to play a war horn, making everyone else who has one repeat it so that those who were fighting to take the wall would hear it.

Hearing this, they began to back up and out of the gate, slow and organized, never breaking formation.

" They're retreating! Let's chase those imperial dogs" Said one of the Gali soldiers and began to follow them outside the walls shouting war cries.

"No idiots!" A guard above the wall began to shout at them, but his shouts were overshadowed by those of his companions at the door. "It's a tra-!"He couldn't finish as a spear pierced his chest, causing him fall off the wall.

The Imperials marched back faster, causing the Barbarians to pursuit them even more, they were so focused on looking ahead that they didn't notice that there were Imperial cavalry on the flanks, at least not until they began charging at them. them, leaving about 900 isolated Gali soldiers.

I watched as those who were carried away by the heat of battle were massacred. "Did they leave the capital with no one to take the lead?" I wondered aloud seeing how they fell for it.

"It's because they are idiotic barbarians who don't understand anything about war." Servius replied with a clear sense of superiority.

"Maybe they left everything to the head of the guards in charge." Cornelius replied with something that if it made sense, putting the head of the guard is like putting a police chief in charge of defending a city, it can be useful to keep the order and security in the city but it is somewhat useless when it comes to an invasion.

I continued to watch from a distance how those 900 brave soldiers died, one of our soldiers plunged his sword into the neck of a poor bastard, causing blood to splatter all around, something that for the other Galis around him must have been demoralizing.

Now, it wasn't as if our troops weren't suffering casualties either. Gali managed to stick his spear into the foot of a soldier without it being able to see the attack, the pain made it so that he didn't see an ax blow aimed at his head, separating his jaw from the rest of his face, except for a strand of muscle that made it dangle, then he fell to the ground.

"Fey! Damn barbarians! "- The one who seemed to be the friend of the who's jaw ripped off left the formation to seek revenge.

"Moron! Get back in formation!" Shouted the cohort of his unit, it wasn't long until the guy with the ax blocked the sword with his weapon so that later the spearman stuck his arm in the knee joint, causing him to scream in pain and fall to the ground, only to stopping when another Gali come and cut his throat with a dagger.

Another soldier was hit by a stone fired from a slingshot from the wall, which hit him directly in the head, leaving him dead on the ground.

Others were wounded, a non-lethal cut to the face, a spear to the shoulder or an arrow to the knee, but it was only a matter of time before the Galis outside fell.

The chief of the Basel guards saw this and how the attention of all those soldiers returned to the door. "Back off! Leave the wall! Everyone regroups in the main square!"

And so they did, they all left their posts to go back.

"Look your highness, we have taken the wall, now we have to secure the city!" Cornelius looked excited to enter.

"Very well, tell the troops to enter and secure a perimeter and then continue towards the palace." I ordered, once that perimeter is ready I would enter.

Inside the city.

"Where the fuck are they all?!" I shouted furiously, I knew where they were, the cries of the people who came out of the houses told me that they had started with the looting and rapes. "Why are there only the auxiliaries and the cavalry here?! and everyone else?!"

"Your highness... they began with the looting." The general answered.

"I know that! What I want to know is why they didn't do what they were ordered to do!

"But your highness, the battle is already won, there are only 4 thousand." Cornelius was trying to justify.

"I don't give a shit if the battle is won! They disobeyed a direct order!" I was completely angry. " There are still four thousand enemies roaming around and our men are getting drunk and behaving like animals! How is this not a problem?!"

I was trying to calm down, seeing how they fought so well in taking the wall, I had forgotten that these imperials were create to be idiots whose author portrayed them as looters instead of a professional army , right now I wanted to give them terrible orders so that they would be massacred.

"In that case we will have to take that castle ourselves, we have no time to waste. Cavalry, auxiliaries! to the square! Give any idiot of your comrades you meet along the way a few good punches and send them to the front!"

They all saw how furious I was, they felt that I could kill someone at any moment, in fact the knights were also upset with the others, not for raping but because they had disobeyed orders to go have fun.

I really had to do something with that bunch of morons, I really wanted to behead those who started raping but that would leave me with no men to fight and would earn me the hatred of the entire imperial army, so I won't be able to cut off their heads until I be the emperor.

In that I see that a young soldier comes out of the door of a house screaming in pain, it was seen that he had burns and cuts on his arms.

"AAAH! THAT DAMN WHORE THROWED BOILING WATER ON ME!" He began to point towards the entrance of the house.

At the door you could see a young woman clearly beaten, handcuffed and exhausted. She had a gladius in her hand that she surely took from the soldier, but another thing that caught my attention and made my fury increase was that thread of blood running down the girl's legs.

She fell to her knees, knowing she couldn't run from those Imperial soldiers at the door.

My soldiers were going to go for the girl, but I stopped them with a gesture of my hand, while I watched as the soldier tried to stand up to go kill her.

"Soldier!" I yelled making him stop, and then he turned to see me.

"P-Prince Zorzal! This barbarian dishonorably attacked me from behind!" He said in pain

"Soldier... why did you disobey the orders I gave?" I said looking at him seriously.

"Y-your highness?..." He exclaimed confused.

"You and the others were supposed to form a secure perimeter, however I see you here playing with water with the lady." I said taking my hand to the handle of my sword . "What are you doing here when the battle is not yet over? How dare you waste your time when your companions are marching to take over the palace full of soldiers?"

The soldier began to babble, trying to find an explanation, however I was tired of this. I unsheathed my sword and approached him with the horse.

"It's desertion then..." With a movement I separated the head from his body, listening to the noise of his head bouncing on the ground so that later the body falls.

"Come on, we have a palace to take."

"Sir, what do we do with the woman?" A centurion asked, making me turn my gaze to her, who had already fallen unconscious from exhaustion.

"Take her to the medics, when she wakes up she will receive a reward for helping us capture and sentence a deserter, she is under my protection." I replied continuing on my way.

However, it didn't take long for us to see a small group of guards and soldiers crossing a street trying not to make any noise.

"My prince! There are reports of enemy soldiers attacking our soldiers in the looting!" Said a messenger on horseback who had just arrived.

"What?! Didn't they barricade themselves in the palace?!... everyone! disperse in groups and go together to look for those idiots!" I gave orders quickly to prevent them from killing all my soldiers, even if they deserved it. "They think of ambushing us while we are distracted looting, those guards know the city and it will be easy for them to ambush those who are unsuspecting."

"Sir, I recommend you return to the security perimeter in the southern zone, a guerrilla war is dangerous, we don't know when it will be attacked or from where." Servius recommended, which is, in fact, good advice to come from someone like he.

"Yes, you are r-" - Before I could finish, I saw a spear flying right in front of my eyes, I almost died.

"Foes!"

A group of Gali soldiers started attacking us. There was another who shot an arrow at me but luckily it bounced off my armor, another tried to get close to my head with a spear, I managed to dodge it but the attack took a piece of my left ear.

"gh! You son of a bitch!" I yelled swinging my sword to make a large cut in the abdomen of my attacker.

I saw how Cornelius used a spear and a small shield on his left arm, with which he stopped the attacks and then impaled anyone who came near, Servius for his part used a spatha like me and decapitated any enemy from the back of his horse , the auxiliaries also did very well, with a phalanx formation they were the ones in charge of driving back the largest number of enemy forces.

"We must go back, we must heal your wound." The captain told me.

"Do not! We will take 1,200 men and march to the palace! Let's finish this now!" I ordered furiously, when the battle started I thought it was going to be a good day, but after that my anger increased and increased without stopping.

The same thing happened in other parts of the city, imperial soldiers who were drunk or in the middle of a rape were ambushed by the guards, who knew which roads to take in their city to attack and get away, it had been a one-sided massacre if not for the Imperial cavalrybegan to patrol the city in groups, quickly kicking the asses of the younger soldiers who disobeyed my orders to return them to the south gate and engage the enemy patrols.

At the palace, the head of the guard was with some soldiers to defend himself, having received the report that imperial patrols were finishing off the guards sent to the ambushes.

"So they realized that... send an order for them to retreat to the palace, we must mount one last defense.

"Sir! A large number of imperial soldiers are approaching!

"What?! impossible!"

Now if all was lost for them, not just the palace, their troops outside would die with nowhere to retreat.

However, I did not feel like storming a palace, so when I reached the entrance, I sent a spokesman to request the surrender of the garrison.

"Brave Helvetian soldiers, you have fought well and shown that you are a worthy enemy, surrender and I, Crown Prince Zorzal El Caesar, promise you that I will treat you with dignity and compassion."

They had no choice but to surrender in the hope of saving their lives, thus the taking of Basel ended in an Imperial victory.

The next day, I had gone to the palace gate to see my soldiers. I was caring a bag with something big inside, I was still angry with them, and found out that only 120 soldiers had died in taking the wall but 800 soldiers died due to ambushes did not help my mood at all.

but now I have to do something about that lack of discipline, a lack of discipline that comes from the fact that the writer of the story wanted the empire to be as bad and stupid as possible. I got in front of my soldiers to start talking.

"Soldiers! We have taken the capital of the Helvetian, today would be a glorious day for the empire." I heard cries of victory from the soldiers "long live the empire", after a few moments I continued with my speech. "The brave who fell in battle will not be died in vain, part of the loot will go to the families of the fallen soldiers, not only this time, from now on no one should have their family left homeless! The empire rewards and cares for its subjects!" Another shout of joy was given among the soldiers. "Long live Prince Zorzal El Caesar".

After that, I became quite serious. "This would have been a perfect victory... If you haven't disobeyed the fucking orders!"

Saying this, everyone kept their mouths shut.

"If you had done what I ordered, not even 200 people would have died! Yet you, in your sheer greed, exposed yourself to the enemy, bringing the casualties to almost 1000!"

After a pause to calm down, I spoke again. "That's why, from this moment on, things are going to change, in order to prevent someone from sticking a spear in their ass for having their pants down in the middle of a battle, no one will loot anything again without my order! And when the loot start it will be considered a military operation. When the looting starts, everything will be taken in order and taken to the central square where it will be distributed among all of you! money, valuables, slaves, everything!"

Hearing this last, the soldiers calmed down, for a moment they believed that I was going to prohibit them from looting, he knew that doing that was impossible, you couldn't do that with an ancient army without being killed on the battlefield.

"That's why, from now on, all those who loot something in secret will be considered as dereliction of duty and will be punished with 20 lashes and will not have a share in the loot, and those who turn away from the battle to " have fun" with some woman while their companions are fighting, well... They will be considered deserters."

Seriously, I opened the bag I was carrying and took out the head of the soldier that I decapitated to throw it in front of the soldiers, hinting at what would happen to deserters.

Inland Sea.

For days, a messenger would go as fast as he could to the Edna Mountains, to meet the leader of the Helvetian, Krurr.

"Those Imperials took the capital?! How did they know we were here?!" The barbarian king was in a crisis, the plan they had made with the other Gali kings had failed. "We must go and take back the city immediately!"

"You can't do that, you will leave our lands unprotected!" Said the king of the Pictons"

"Besides, you can't defeat the empire by yourself! We must wait for the armies of the Parisios, Redons and Santonos to return from the eastern forests." said the king of the Aulercos.

"And let them take over all my towns and cities and enslave my people?! Never!"

"Think! You can't help your people if you're dead."

A strong discussion began, in the end the kings of the small tribes managed to convince the Helvetian king to wait for the others, leaving the way free for the empire to take as many cities as possible