I know that I said that I was writing until the finale, but the climax proved longer than expected... Sorry! Also, I had an idea to write multiple other AARs set in this universe, but I've been putting it off. Would anybody be interested in having an "A Narrative History of Byzantium Expanded Universe", so to speak?
Galerius sighed. Erchmiadzin had been a missed opportunity. They could’ve prevented Sassanid reinforcements from arriving at wherever the Persians were planning on making a last stand. That would’ve been preferable, but no one could account for the whims of nature. She did what she wanted.
Erchmiadzin hadn’t been the greatest of battles, but disaster had been averted at least. Continuing to fight would’ve been a terrible decision - many men could have needlessly lost their lives.
That had been averted, thankfully. That was the upside of the Battle of Erchmiadzin. The downside was that the Sassanids would be getting reinforcements.
Galerius rolled his eyes. The army at Erchmiadzin had been small. It was unlikely that they would make a difference at the last stand of the Sassanids, but it wasn’t impossible. That was what worried him.
Speaking of the Sassanids’s last stand, Galerius had a meeting to go to about that very topic. Planning could make or break a battle sometimes.
Galerius was first into the meeting tent this time. He frowned. That never happened - or at least he didn’t remember the last time that it had happened. He decided that he would check if he had gotten here early. Nope, the sun was in the sky. If that was the case, what was taking Albinus and Clementius so long?
He settled down to wait. Albinus and Clementius both entered the tent some time later. They seemed to be talking about something, but Galerius didn’t hear any details. He was too busy making plans for the last stand of Persian Mesopotamia - well, most of Persian Mesopotamia. For that matter, it may very well turn out that this was the last stand of the Sassanid Dynasty. Galerius had no clue what the situation on the Sassanids’s eastern border or the situation within Persia was.
“So,” Clementius began. “We were going to talk about what we were doing about the Sassanids’s last stand. Well, their last stand in this war, at least?”
“Indeed,” Albinus replied. “First of all, does anyone have any idea of where the Sassanids are going to make their stand? If we don’t, we’re effectively going into this blind - and that’s not a good position to be in. If we don’t know about where we’re going to be fighting, we need to figure that out quickly - very quickly.”
“True enough,” Galerius started. “Thankfully, I do have a small bit of information about where the Sassanids want to make their stand. Before I share that, though, why should we let them choose to make a stand where they want to? What’s stopping us from forcing a battle - a battle that we are more likely to win?”
Clementius and Albinus both considered this. Galerius smiled - if his plan went through, the war should be over by winter, 501. If everything went according to plan. Of course, things rarely went according to plan during wars, but a man could hope - even if in vain.
“We don’t,” Clementius finally responded. “We could theoretically force a battle, but, for that to work, we’d still have to know where they are at any given time, so that we can intercept them.”
“Right,” Albinus replied. “Also, we might not even want to. If the Sassanids think that they have an advantage, all we would need to do to almost certainly win is negate that advantage. Of course, if we did that, we would need to ensure that the Sassanids don’t know about our efforts. As such, it would need to be top secret…”
“Naturally,” Galerius agreed. “I still think that we should make them fight on our terms, though. Also, I know the general vicinity of where the united Sassanid army is right now - and also the general vicinity of where they’re going to make their stand.”
“You do?” Clementius asked. “Care to tell the rest of us, then? The information is useless to us if only one person knows it.”
“Sure,” Galerius responded. “The Sassanids are currently in the borderlands - well, what used to be the borderlands. They remain in our territory, and my scouts reported that they didn’t seem very inclined to leave it.”
“So their last stand will be on land that the Eastern Roman Empire legally owns?” Albinus asked. “That is… unexpected, to say the least. Do you have any idea why?”
Galerius frowned. Actually, he didn’t know why. Why would the Sassanids make their last stand on non-Sassanid land? Sure, the land that they were making a stand on changed hands between the Eastern Romans and the Sassanids frequently, but why would they make a stand there? Were they trying to make a statement? Had Galerius’s scouts misinterpreted their intentions?
“No,” Galerius finally admitted. “I don’t. They could be trying to make a statement of some kind. Also, my scouts might’ve misinterpreted the information…”
“It’s doubtful that the information was misinterpreted,” Albinus said. “If your scots told you that at all, they probably had significant evidence to back it up - they just didn’t tell you that evidence. That being said, ‘the borderlands’ is not a specific enough region for us to intercept an army. We should try to gather more specific information.”
Albinus looked outside. “Also, it’s getting late,” he said. “Let’s give orders to scout out the borderlands. We can reconvene and discuss in a week.”
“That’s agreeable,” Galerius mused. “Although I want to get this war over with as soon as possible…” Clementius nodded in agreement.
“I know,” Albinus commented. “So do I. Unfortunately, we can’t control that. This will likely lead to the quickest end to the war.” On that note, the meeting ended.
Galerius sent his scouts to look for the Sassanid army. If he knew where the Sassanids were at that moment, then he could bring the information needed to intercept them to the next meeting. He was still very uncomfortable with the idea of facing a Sassanid last stand where the Sassanid army chose their ground. One should never let their enemies choose the territory.
Thankfully, his scouts managed to find out where the Sassanid army was. That was good. It meant that he had something to contribute to the meeting at least. It had taken his scouts less than a week to get this information, surprisingly. That meant that he still had some time before the next meeting started.
He used that time to rest. After all, who knew when he would next be able to rest? He didn’t even know if his next rest wouldn’t be permanent. That was a fact of war, of course, but Galerius was more worried than usual. After all, the Sassanids would fight with all of their might…
Galerius was last to the meeting, but he was hardly late.
“Did anyone get any information about where our Persian enemies are?” Clementius asked.
“My scouts checked the mountains,” Albinus admitted. “We saw a small army of Sassanids at Saokoros. I believe that that is where they plan on making their final stand - however, there weren’t many Sassanids there.”
“My scouts saw that the bulk of the Sassanid army was still in the countryside,” Galerius said. “However, if we move quickly enough, we should be able to intercept them at Hasakah. I did the math.”
“I say that we crush the bulk of the Sassanid army at Hasakah,” Albinus suggested. “Once they are defeated, we defeat their forces in Saokoros. The survivors of Hasakah will probably retreat there. Once that is achieved, the Sassanids should surrender.”
“Is anybody opposed to that plan?” Galerius asked. The room was silent, which Galerius took as a collective “no”.
They left the meeting tent and began to march towards Hasakah.
The three legions arrived in Hasakah just as the Sassanid army was leaving it. The Sassanids hadn’t attempted to take the city, so the fighting began at Hasakah’s walls.
It was late winter, so the air was cold. It was drizzling, but that didn’t affect the battle at all.
At first, the Sassanids had been taken by total surprise. They hadn’t expected an Eastern Roman attack here at all. However, the commander of the Sassanid army, one Kavadh, managed to rally his men.
A few soldiers on the front lines refused to obey their commander. The Eastern Romans promptly slaughtered them, which encouraged the other Sassanid troops to obey Kavadh.
At first, the Sassanids simply had a line formation. For days, this line held. The Eastern Romans launched multiple attacks on it, but the line didn’t break. Galerius sighed. This Sassanid formation would be hard to break.
He would need to break it somehow, though. If he didn’t, then the three legions could very well be defeated. If that occurred, things wouldn’t be good, to say the least. Losing this battle would give the Sassanids the initiative. Galerius couldn’t do that. Then, an idea struck him. Hmm, yes, that plan could work very well.
