Marrakech, August 1499
Reports still told General Liam Guillaume the main Mahmudid army was settling in around the fortress at Fez. There was nothing he could do. He was too far away and Marrakech was proving a difficult fortress to crack in its own right. His men had been through enough already just to get to the rich market city of Marrakech. Now the defenders were inflicting more misery upon his troops via a near-constant arrow barrage. Liam was a cautious man and so the siege persisted at a safe distance from the fortresses archers. They had the arquebus at their disposal but the weapons could not penetrate fortress walls. Nor were they any good at trying to dispose of the archers. The Armee de Gibraltar sat encircled around the town. He felt his net was good enough that no one could sneak in or out and that this would be a quick siege. He did not like thinking in such terms for his caution was ever present. He would attack when necessary and he had quite the knack for drilling his armee properly and knew how to move them through a territory.
Tomorrow he would start by surveying the city, from a safe distance of course, with his aides to determine the first focus of his lone artillery regiment. He was preparing to move the artillery regiment around throughout the siege, moving under cover of darkness so as to confuse the enemy. He was beginning to fret this war would take a long time. It had already been several months since the start of the war and no battles had taken place. Through scouts he and his fellow General Ardgal Solene were kept abreast of where the enemy was but his king had been explicit in besieging fortresses and provinces first and then attacking the Muslims only to defend their own fortresses when their collapse seemed imminent. Thus, he sat around Marrakech, waiting.
Tlemcen, North African Coast, August 1499
General Ardgal Solene was becoming more and more impatient. His men was losing men to disease prosecuting this siege. Ardgal was used to leading charges and smashing armies, not sitting around waiting for walls to fall. He was entrusted command of both the Garde Royal and the Corps de Afrique by King Thomas himself and he wished to use the combined might of 26,000 men against the Muslim army situated around Fez. But to move his own armies would require using the cogs again to skirt Oujda. The people of Oujda had been most threatening along their borders and the constant fighting he would have to endure crossing Oujda made overland travel impossible. He had to take out the fortress in Tlemcen first. He was well situated. While Guilliaume had seniority, Solene had been given the majority of the army to command. So he had four regiments of artillery to take care of Tlemcen. He was sure to put them to good use right away destroying the main gate to the fortress city. He would then rush his men in and then begin marching back into Andalusian territory to take care of the Mahmudid army.
Fez, Andalusia, November 1499
General Solene looked out over his armies. The Garde Royal were placed in the first order of battle since the majority of his artillery was within the Corps de Afrique, which also had the majority of cavalry. So he placed the smaller army up front to act as a shield. He greatly outnumbered his foe more than two to one so however he decided to organize the armies, he would win. And, to be honest, Solene didn’t care. He was put in this position to attack, not to deliberate with subordinates about the proper placement of infantry. Push, push, push. And push quickly. Solene would destroy any resistance to the might of Andalusia.
Marrakech, October 1500
Guilliaume had finally whittled away the defenses of Marrakech enough, with some reluctant help. Guilliaume was a planner but this almost two year siege of Marrakech, which started at the end of 1498 was beginning to grow tiresome. There was nothing left to plan. The siege had dragged on mostly for the want of artillery. Yet that issue had changed two months ago when the Corps de Afrique had arrived to help persecute the siege. General Solene had sent a subordinate to lead the largest Andalusian army, which only stoked the fires of contempt Guilliaume had for the man. Solene was busy gaining notoriety for all sorts of outlandish deeds, mostly perpetuated by Solene, while the actual work had to be handled by someone else.
The additional artillery proved troublesome for the defenders of Marrakech as they were now unable to rebuild sections of the walls that could not be continuously attacked by Guilliaume’s lone artillery regiment. The commander had arrived with a 15,000 men, two thousand men less than what Guilliame knew made up the Corps. The commander told him of how, after Fez, Solene moved on to Oujda along the Sea and gave instructions for the Corps to “pursue the enemy and harry him at all times.” The Corps first re-engaged the small Mahmudid army along the coast of the Atlantic in Abda. Where they killed almost half of the army, including all of the Muslim cavalry.
A month later, in July, they were attempting to make their way to Marrakech where they knew Guilliaume to be, when they found and finally annihilated the Mahmudid Army at Tafilalt. The commander boasted, in no small measure, of how the Corps killed over 5000 Muslims suffering only minor losses throughout all of the infantry regiments.
Guilliaume was satisfied with the commander’s report and promised to see that the king and court would not forget what he had done for Andalusia. He then went to work on assaulting Marrakech with renewed vigor. While his own men had been stationery for two years, maybe he could use the fighting experience of the Corps to his advantage.
Tolede, July 1501
“There have been interesting developments from the recent war, my king,” Lord-General Raegenweald Æbba was nearly bouncing up and down with excitement. General Guilliaume has presented plans, which I agree with, that we begin to have full-time officers for our regiments. However, as most of our lesser nobles prefer to sit in their estates the general and I agree that perhaps hiring high-ranking individuals from mercenary armies might be the best solution to this problem.”[1]
“Raegenweald, wouldn’t giving over command of our military to men who could be bought be a bad thing?”
“My king, every man has his price. Look at me, you hired me away from Bhreatain.”
“Your mother was a cousin to my father and she implored us to not let you waste away in the Isles. And, if my memory serves me well, you hated the Bhreatish fare.”
Æbba smiled. “You speak the truth, my king. All those Irish wanted to do was eat mutton and hummus. I much prefer the Mediterranean dishes. But, getting back to military reorganization?”
Thomas waved his hand. “Yes, yes. I approve of the plan. It has been brought to my attention that local Andalusian leaders have sent a general letter to parliament stating that our military power now rules and dominates their ancestral lands. Am I correct that they now wish to enlist voluntarily and this is being encouraged by the Andalusian priests?”
“You are correct, my king. Parliament was most pleased to lend their support behind this decree. As you know, King Amaury forbade any impressement of Andalusians into the army but these priests have convinced others that the time to embrace the fight against their Muslim brothers has come. This should speed our reinforcement in any future conflicts.”
“Good, I will draft my own decree of support. As you leave Æbba, I wish you to bring in the Royal Cartographer, what was his name?”
“Ancel Brethoc.”
“Inform Ancel Brethoc to come in.” Æbba offered a bow and walked out of the royal offices. Some time later Ancel Brethoc arrived.
“You called for me, your majesty?”
“Ancel, greetings, please have a seat. With this latest war resolved I wish to have a brief atlas drawn up. Is that at all possible?”
“Of course, your majesty. I shall start work immediately. There is another matter. My university was approached by a most peculiar man claiming to be able to sail West across the Atlantic Ocean to reach the spice lands of India.”
“Such men have made these claims before.”
“This man claims to be able to accomplish the feat in a month.”
“Oh, I’m now very intrigued. Please meet with Steward Ganant to arrange an appearance of this man before the court.”
“You want to meet this mad man?”
“Ancel, we have very little economic growth in the kingdom, we need to find a fast route to India to take part in the burgeoning spice trade. Maybe this man has a way? What is his name?”
“Julien. Gospatric Julien.”
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[1] I obtained Military Tech 9 during the war.
[2] Also this happened:
