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Anno Domini, 832-June-12
''Ugh… that Frank hit me hard'' I said while moving my gauntleted hand with some pain.
''Oh… yes, I saw it. That was one hell of a spear thrust. I'm surprised it didn't knock you off your horse'' Sigurd said while leaning against his horse and looking at the bodies of the dead surrounding us.
''It is no joke that the Carolingian troops serving the false emperor are good. A spear in hand and he hit me straight in the chest. I felt all the force spread through my body, so the armor did its job well'' I said while moving my face guard and wiping my nose a little.
''Yes, much better than those pathetic peasant levies they are gathering. You can imagine there were men wearing no iron armor at all, only padded jackets, spears and little else when they tried to break the siege. At least the Frankish cavalry is more respectable, although the Slavic cavalry is far superior to them, especially when it comes time to retreat'' Sigurd said while looking toward the horizon.
On the horizon we could see a large group of Slavs pursuing the Frankish cavalry as they withdrew from the fighting after suffering too many casualties in our skirmish. The Slavs were chasing them on horseback and harassing them with bows, trying to increase the number of dead from this small clash that had developed near Rome during one of the countless attempts to break the siege.
''Well, that is not what worries me the most either. I am more afraid of our logistics running into problems because, damn it, keeping an army of seventy thousand men fed is expensive, not even counting the horses. If it were not for the enormous reserves from the granaries of Crete and the reserves of the foederati, this campaign would be almost impossible to maintain. Just imagine that every day at least twenty-six ships loaded with wheat, fodder and barley have to arrive just to keep our men properly fed'' I said while shaking my head.
''And how long will what we looted in the area last?'' Sigurd asked while resting his bloody polehammer on his shoulder and looking across the field.
''Almost nothing remains of what you looted. Nearly all of it has already been consumed by our troops. The only option would be to keep raiding farther north, but I doubt we would find much. The Carolingians have probably already requisitioned all the food, leaving only the minimum needed to keep people from starving and the seed grain for the harvest, so we would gain very little from fighting our way north just to plunder, other than killing men of military age. But risking ourselves by entering territory with such a strong Carolingian presence just to accomplish that would be stupid'' I said while lowering my face guard again.
''What a fucking waste… when I had all that loot in front of me, I could not stop thinking about how much I could get for everything we had taken. If we had been allowed to take thralls, who knows how much more loot we could have had…'' Sigurd said as he moved his horse closer to mine.
''Too many mouths, that is the problem, Sigurd. We already have to maintain a huge number of troops, considering that we recruited a generous number of Griko Italians and other Italians from the region to replace our losses, using equipment captured from the Carolingian army in the south to arm them because getting reinforcements is difficult. At best we would have to wait until next year to rotate the themata troops, but that would mean sending home all the troops hardened by war and replacing them with green soldiers while the Carolingians still have far greater numbers'' I said while striking my palm with my fist.
''By how much?'' Sigurd asked, clearly interested in knowing.
''I do not know for certain, but the Carolingians have twice our population. Even adding the territories of the Levant and Aegyptus and the foederati governorship, we would still not match them in population. Besides, the Carolingians have not been exhausting their reserves of soldiers in offensive wars like we have. Rome is militarily exhausted, so we truly need peace soon and we need to stop expanding so we can actually benefit from our conquests. The newly conquered territories are only now beginning to stabilize and they are not providing everything they should to either the treasury or the armies'' I said, somewhat irritated by how slowly we were extracting resources from our conquests.
''Then why the hell have they still not attacked us if they supposedly outnumber us?'' Sigurd asked, sounding somewhat irritated.
''They must be trying to train their men for battle. They are newly raised levies. Put them into a direct clash against well-trained troops and those forces will melt faster than snow in Aegyptus, so they must be looking for military equipment, working their forges as hard as they possibly can and training their men because this infantry is not worth much. Even the themata are better than Carolingian infantry. They may have more of an advantage in cavalry, but when it comes to infantry we will win, and that is why they keep waiting longer to gather more men and equipment so they can have the best possible chance. And all we want is to take the Bishop of Rome with us and begin negotiating peace'' I replied while turning my horse as I saw the Slavs returning.
''Meh, let us hope Rome surrenders soon or we will have to storm it'' Sigurd said.
Once the entire cavalry unit that had taken part in the skirmish had regrouped, we stripped the Carolingian dead of their weapons and armor and recovered our own dead, along with every warhorse that was still in good condition. We also took the carcasses of the dead horses because they were meat that could be used to feed my forces. That was how we returned to Rome after yet another successful skirmish.
When we reached our camp, I looked over the numerous fortifications that had been raised. We had almost built a fortress around Rome, with multiple kastra and palisades everywhere, and we had even diverted the Tiber. Not a single drop of water entered the city and nothing had been allowed through for quite some time.
But the great dilemma was that Rome, although not even a shadow of what it had once been, had received enormous investment in its defenses. The Bishops of Rome had made sure to use much of the gold sent to them by other churches as tithes to Rome to work on constructing fortifications, repairing the walls and carrying out multiple defensive improvements. So although Rome had been caught almost defenseless, it was well fortified, with numerous arsenals filled with weapons and armor and possibly large reserves of food, considering that the countryside of Latium was a major food-producing region. That meant the siege could last a very long time.
Since it was difficult to effectively besiege the city without causing enormous damage to the surrounding area, we were simply working on undermining the walls, because using trebuchets that could damage historic buildings or structures of religious value was a real possibility and those were damages that had to be avoided whenever possible.
One thing was waging war and another was destroying the ancient capital with a full-scale siege, which was why the progress we might otherwise have made against the city had been greatly delayed.
Only one section of the Aurelian Walls had collapsed, but we had not yet made any attempt to clear the rubble because we had to take maximum advantage of Rome's greatest weakness, which was the sheer length of its walls, forcing the defenders to spread themselves thin.
''Well, has anything happened while I was away?'' I said while beginning to remove parts of my armor and inspecting the blow I had taken during the fighting.
''Nothing unusual has been observed inside the city. The same number of guards as usual and the work of digging mines to undermine the walls continues. Tomorrow that pig fat should be set alight and we should be able to undermine another section of the walls, and after that there should be multiple breaches by the end of the month'' one of my officers said while studying maps of the city of Rome.
''The siege is progressing as expected, but nothing about any attempt to surrender the city or signs of disease beginning to spread inside?'' I said while removing my glove and looking at my swollen hand.
''No, we have received no information that could be attributed to anything like that and they have not sent any envoys to negotiate the surrender of the city so far'' the officer replied.
''Wonderful. And what about outside? Have the Carolingians sent anything worth discussing or have they not sent anyone yet, like that attempt to negotiate my withdrawal from Italy in exchange for concessions in southern Italy?'' I said while looking at the officer, who began searching through several letters while I removed my steel breastplate and the layers covering my torso.
''Nothing directly from the Carolingians, but we do have several requests from the relatives of the Prince of Benevento, who apparently want to pay a ransom to free the prince and his son from our captivity after they accepted surrender'' the officer said while pulling out a letter.
''And how much did they offer to release the Prince of Benevento and his son? Nothing for the men-at-arms? I thought they would at least try to ransom some of their trained troops from captivity'' I said while removing the armor from my legs and finally changing into lighter clothing.
''One thousand nomismata is what they offered for the release of the Prince of Benevento and his son'' the officer said while staring at me strangely as he looked over the letter we had received.
''One thousand gold coins to release him? Is that a joke? I have been paid far more than that to recover children who happened to be related to someone and now they want to offer me only that for the lord of the entire southern part of Italy, one thousand gold coins'' I said in surprise.
''That is what they offered, Magister ton Scholon. It is everything the relatives of the Prince of Benevento are willing to provide. When we received the envoy I was also somewhat surprised by how low the ransom was'' the officer said.
''Damn… it seems his relatives do not actually want us to release him… because I know the entire treasury of Benevento was evacuated, or at least a large part of it, to the north, so they must have the means to pay. It is not as though the Prince of Benevento was bankrupt, but this is far too little. I spend that much on one or two days of food for the army. We lost more gold keeping him trapped inside that castle for two weeks than we would gain from his ransom'' I said while bringing my hands to my face.
''I will reject the ransom and inform them of how poor the offer is. We should certainly be able to make them see reason because the amount is far too low and would barely cover some of the expenses we have incurred keeping him imprisoned in Bari'' the officer said.
''Do that. If there is nothing else worth observing, I am going to see how the undermining work is progressing because once the walls begin collapsing around the Bishop of Rome, he will probably start thinking much more seriously about whether surrendering the city is the better option'' I said while putting the chain mail over my clothes and covering myself with a white mantle.
As soon as I left my tent, now wearing less armor and no longer feeling so much weight on my shoulders, my hird accompanied me toward the observation post, where we had a perfect view of how the siege was progressing.
''Commander… bad news. The inhabitants of Rome have begun digging countermines to stop our attempts at undermining the walls. They collapsed two tunnels during a surprise attack. All the workers died in the fighting, or at least that is what we believe, since we do not know exactly what happened'' one of my men said, apparently having run all the way from where the work was being carried out.
''It seems they are not going to make this easy after all'' I said while looking toward the city of Rome, which was becoming an increasingly ripe apple waiting to be plucked.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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