Siege of Bashur: 171 A.B - 174 A.B
In late 171 A.B Arquado marched an army of 300,000 Berini troops and 9,000 auxiliaries to Bashur. He offered the city a chance to surrender and become a vassal of the Berini Empire. It refused. This siege was the start of Berlintini I's Great War of Coalition and it devastated Bashur (the suburbs, outer city, middle city and upper city). However, since the Berini have a passion for building and architecture, they rebuilt a good portion of what they had destroyed in their own style and repaired and modernized the fortifications. Another reason for rebuilding it was because the war dragged on and some of the soldiers got permission to start families and/or bring some of their families and Bashur was a good place to put them because it was a defensible city that had existing infrastructure for a large population. The long term result was a change in Bashurian building style and a city that Yu-Mai Ashawa could more easily defend when the anarchy that followed Berlintini I's Great War of Coalition nearby in the steppe because there was no centralized power in the region strong enough to control it.
The Conflict
Battlefield
The city of Bashur and the land and sea around it.
Layout
Bashur is a sprawling port city located on a hill going down into the sea.Conditions
Sub-tropical Mediterranean-ish climate. Hot and dry during the summer and cool, windy and rainy during the winter.
The Engagement
Preperations
The Bashurians chopped down all the the trees in a 8 kilometer radius around the city and stockpiled it. They dug earthwork walls and ditches around the city's suburban wall. All the disloyal inhabitants were evicted to places elsewhere in the kingdom of Bashur. Pleas for help were sent to Shuban, Labia, the Fifth Khaganate and the Mankan Empire.The suburbs were leveled and turned into fields and the houses' building materials were used to strengthen existing fortifications. Eldanfan the outcast and 5,000 Bashurian soldiers were sent to harass the Berini army from the rear and then retreat to the town of Humbari. A strict rationing regime was incorporated to save the food reserves so they won't run out too quickly. Soldiers were given larger rations to encourage the inhabitants to take up arms in order to get larger portions of food. The cisterns were guarded and the water was strictly rationed. The craftsmen and artisans were put to work on making weapons and armor on a massive scale. Most of the warhorses and their chariots were sent out of the city by boat to Humbari and 9 of the 10 war elephants were sent to Humbari. Major general Shon-Sho Ashawa (no relation to Yu-Mai Ashawa besides both being members of the Ashawa clan) was sent to Humbari to prepare a major force to join the forces of the EHBDP forces once they come. (The pact says they have to come but it doesn't say when they have to and the pact assembly needs to decide whether or not there is a legal obligation to assemble the forces. The whole process could take years, add to that that this force is incapable of moving quickly says a lot.). Over 3 tonnes of iron ore were mined and collected to make tools and equipment. Thousands of levies were given basic training and the 8 kilometers of forest were chopped down by the time the Berini blocked it off with their wall. Over a million arrows were made for the defenders were made along with over 40,000 brigandines and pairs of greaves, over 80,000 light gambesons, over 80,000 helmets, over 80,000 spears and billhooks and poleaxes, 59,000 daggers with hardened tips, over a million lead sling bullets were made and over 10,000 composite bows were completed (it's a multi-year process). 700 houses in the upper city were converted into storehouses and over 100,000 tonnes of food were stored. Skirmishers were constantly sallying out of the city and harassing the Berini.The Siege
1st year
The Berini built an earth and wood wall (a wooden wall reinforced with earthworks) surrounding the city in late 171 A.B within 20 days. The wall had a square tower every 75 meters and had a 100 meter wide gap on the west side over the road to allow siege engines and siege towers to moved through it. The wall was built 1.2 kilometers away from the suburban wall to catch people fleeing the city, to catch foragers and to protect soldiers from slingers, archers and ballistae on the earthworks. 3 dirt ramps were built towards the suburban wall and sappers were sent to dig undermining tunnels to collapse the wall. A massive blockade was placed on the city's harbors and blocked all the Bashurian ships. The Bashurians tried several times to break through the blockade from the inside but were repelled several times. With each one of their attempts more and more of their ships were either sunk, damaged or captured until they stopped when they were down to 12 warships which were used to defend the city from a possible amphibious assault. Bashurian skirmishers were constantly harassing the Berini engineers and Bashurian sappers were constantly removing dirt from the ramps and using it to reinforce the fortifications or fill sapping tunnels. The Bashurians locked and bolted the heavy wooden gates and closed the wooden portculuses and filled the spaces between the triple double-doors in the gatehouses in the suburban wall with dirt from the ramps. Skirmishing tunnels were dug from inside the suburbs to outside the suburban wall behind the first defensive earthworks. The Berini quickly took the first outer earthworks within two weeks, and took the inner earthworks a month later. They didn't want to risk going through the tunnels because the defenders had weapons of better steel than the steel the Berini armor was made of, and in the confined tunnels the Bashurian defenders had a very distinct advantage. The Berini filled these tunnels which the Bashurians constantly opened. Numerous frontal assaults on the gates with battering rams and siege towers failed. When one of the gates was broken through, the frustrated Berini had to deal with a portculus a roomful of dirt. Within 5 months and 19 days since the beginning of the siege the Berini troops opened three breaches in the suburban wall (one in the east and two in the west) and took a 1 kilometer setion of the suburban wall on the western side. By 7 months into the siege they had completely taken the suburban wall fought the defenders in the fields. The first battle of Bashur began shortly thereafter. The Berini deployed 30,000 troops on the battlefield. They deployed a line of slingers and archers in the front. In the front-center they deployed their main corps of heavy infantry with the faster elite units on the wings. On the right flank they deployed 2,000 cataphracts armed with maces and lances and on the left flank they deployed 2,000 medium cavalry armed with axes and maces. In the rear they deployed a siege tower to provide cover and 1,000 light cavalry armed with swords and javelins in reserve as well as 3,000 Guntartar warriors who were divided evenly on both flanks. The Bashurians deployed a total of 18,000 troops, a line of 10,000 heavily armored heavy infantry in the center armed with swords, billhooks, spears, poleaxes and maces and deployed 8,000 levied skirmishers armed with spears, billhooks, axes and javelins on the flanks. The battle was out of range of the outer wall's defenses as the distance between the suburban and outer walls was 5 kilometers and thd battle took place relatively close to the wall. The Berini archers and slingers shot a few volleys and the cataphracts charged into the Bashurian left flank in a 3 rank deep hollow wedge as the medium cavalry "trimmed" the rear and retreated to charge again and again. The lances through the face and the mace strikes to the head proved extremely effective. The Guntartar cavalry chased down and cut down the skirmishers who engaged the Berini force at the same time as the cavalry charges. The cavalry units pulled back before the Berini slingers and archers let a few volleys of of arrows and lead sling bullets before pulling back behind their heavy infantry. Once they pulled back, the Berini heavy infantry charged the dazed Bashurian heavy infantry which was weakened by multipld volleys of projectiles and multiple cavalry charges. They enveloped them from front and the flanks. The cataphracts charged them from behind and finished them off with their maces anx trampled mang of them. The Berini lost about 12,820 of their infantry and about 500 of their medium cavalry and 200 cataphracts while the Bashurians lost 2,000 heavy infantry and 7,000 skirmishers. The majority of the surviving 8,000 heavy infantry lost consciousness because of heavy blows to the head and got captured. A few hundred of the Heavy infantry successfully retreated behind the suburban wall with the surviving skirmishers through the sallying tunnels. The Bashurian heavy infantry that died were either killed by the Berini axepicks, maces or were simply trampled to death or were hit in the head by lead sling bullets which gave them concussions or went in through the eye openings in theid helmets. The fact that the Bashurians didn't use their own few remaining chariots and war elephant that were still in the city was a big strategic mistake. The flattened suburbs were the perfect place to employ cavalry and chariots and the elephant may have been of some use against the massed infantry and in frightening enemy horses. Even though, the javelins of the Berini infantry might have caused enough pain to the elephant that it would have turned back and done more harm than good (The Berini had a lot of experience with elephants in warfare). If it weren't for these mistakes then the Bashurians may have been able to win the battle or cause the Berini heavy casualties at the very least. After the battle the Berini stayed away from the outer wall for a while to avoid sallies from the outer city covered by the defenders on the wall. They advanced to 700 meters away from the wall and dug a 1 meter deep ditch in front of a 1.4 meter tall earthwork topped with a wooden palisade about 5 weeks after the battle. Now that They captured the Bashurian's way of growing extra food during the siege, all they needed to do was to starve out the city until they surrendered or until it was weak enough for an easy(ish) assault. Since their goal was to capture the city and place Do-Han Ashawa on the throne and access the technological secrets of the kingdom, they preferred that it surrender rather than have to finish the siege. Because of this, they spared people who manged to sneak out of the city. As a response to the rising fleeing rates, Yu-Mai Ashawa ordered that only the dead could leave the city. This meant that only a very small number of people successfully fled by hiding in coffins. However, up to this point, the amount of people trying to flee was very small. The Berini troops in the suburbs were positioned in a few key locations. The first was in the form of many small cavalry decimaries (that fanned out in squads of two) that patrolled the earthwork before returning back when the next shift came. Behind them, around 2 kilometers away from wall, far enough that the ballistae on the walls couldn't get a clear shot at them, a 75,000 strong force with various siege engines waited to get to work on the wall. The third main body in the suburbs was about 50,000 strong and it manned the suburban walls as well as the area by it. The defenders moved extra ballistae to the outer walls and occasionally bombarded the attacking troops. Troops and levies were moved to the wall to prepare for an assault. 5 months and 3 days after the start of the siege, diseases started to break out out in the city. These included flu, strep throat, tuberculosis and anthrax. These outbreaks weren't very bad as it has been known for about 100 years in the East Hu-Balai that some diseases are contagious. and these outbreaks were contained and quarantined as a result. The Berini themselves have learned about 19 years prior that diseases were contagious and were worried of entering the outer city.The siege continued uneventful into the second year with a few minor skirmishes here and there.Second year
The waiting game continued and the relief forces of the East Hu-Balai Defense Pact(EHBDP) hadn't arrived yet. The disease outbreaks in the city had continued to pop up and get contained, but it was getting harder. On the 3rd month of the second year of the siege the garrison commander for a 1 km long section of wall died of tuberculosis. The dense population in the city which assisted the defenders by providing a lot of manpower had started to work against them. The large population was starting to strain the city's sustainability, and a lot of livestock that had to held in the outer city since the suburbs fell started dying of anthrax and flu. The queen didn't yield and refused to surrender. The city of Bashur had a certain pride, they have been able to resist and outlast every siege for over 300 years. The only Guntartars to set foot in the city were traders since Bashur outlasted them every time they besieged them. She couldn't yield to these little dark men from far away with armies as vast as the sea. More sallies were ordered to be done to try to convince the besieges that the siege was fruitless. They hoped that they would start deserting because of the length of the siege. However, they were wrong the Berini army was extremely well disciplined and didn't yield or disintegrate. On the 3rd month of the second year to the siege the Berini started to build a few earth ramps towards the wall. The defenders dug tunnels under the ramps and started to remove the dirt from the ramps and build an earth wall in the outer city. The Berini started to dig tunnels to undermine the walls and towers as well as tunnels to intercept the the Bashurians' tunnels to the ramps so that they could be completed. After the Berini managed to damage a few towers via undermining their foundations, the defenders started to dig interception tunnels as well. The fighting in the tunnels was fierce and bloody. Once two rival tunnels intercepted each other, the diggers and their escorts would fight to the death with whatever they had.It happened on many occasions that after one team of miners would take control of an enemy tunnel, they would report to their commanders who would lead/order an assault through the tunnel to the other side to cause chaos to the enemy's rear. This fighting continued for 5 months and 11 days while the ramps for the siege engines grew and the wall and towers weakened. This period was also difficult because the rains caused tunnels and earthworks to collapse as well as further weakening of the outer wall. At the end of this period 7 breaches were opened in the wall as a result of sections of the wall collapsing from the rains, sapping and siege engines. The fighting shifted to the breaches. Throughout the siege, the Berini troops made up for their technological disadvantage in arms against the defenders by with a higher average training level as well as practice in siege warfare along with a good selection of advanced siege engines to chose from. The well trained and disiplined Berini troops were capable of standing toe to toe with the better equipped Bashurian levies, as all the remaining professional soldiers had to become officers for this defending force. The Berini Wall Eaters and battering rams did a good job eating at the walls, the trebuchets did a good job bombarding the city and the ballistae and siege towers did a good job with dealing with the defenders on the walls. By a year and 8 and a half months into the siege the Berini had control of the breaches, towers and sections of the wall as well as parts of the outer city. They still had to deal with the improvised earthen barricades and consolidate control of the houses. The attackers were afraid of entering the houses because they knew of the anthrax and tuberculosis outbreaks in the city and they were really scared of getting sick (anthrax and tuberculosis aren't present east of the Saniri Mountains and the Berini troops didn't know what would happen if they got these diseases.Outcome
A good sized portion of Bashur is raised to the ground and a large portion of the city's population either died in one way or another or was captured and exiled, only allowed to return a few decades later (most of them didn't want to leave exile and assimilated).
Aftermath
Do-Han Ashawa sits on the Bashurian throne for 17 years, knowledge of potential trading partners is recieved, Berlintini I's Great War of Coalition picks up speed, Do-Han Ashawa starts working on the Twisting thunderbolt.
Historical Significance
Legacy
You can't rely solely on the East Hu-Balai Defense Pact(EHBDP), you need to rely on dependable allies who will support you.
Included under Conflict
Conflict Type
Siege
Battlefield Type
Urban
Start Date
171 A.B
Ending Date
174 A.B
Conflict Result
Berini victory, Bashurian defeat, Yu-Mai Ashawa flees into exile while Do-Han Ashawa is crowned the king of Bashur.
Location
Foraging and reasoning for certain units
Berini: The Berini relied mostly on their supply trains for supplies that came both by land and sea rather than foraging as a massive force needs a lot of foraging to sustain itself. The reasoning for bringing 24,000 cavalry was not only to have powerful troops on the battlefield, but to have a mobile guard force for the foraging parties. When it came to the actual supply trains, they had units of soldiers not from the besieging over 304,000 man strong force, but from other units that were specially assigned to the task. Arquado didn't know that the Bashurians leveled the suburbs until the suburban wall was taken and breached. Meaning, the cavalry was initially intended to act as a rear guard with the elephants to engage the enemy until the infantry would come and crush it with them. The Guntartar horseman were brought along as scouts and armed escorts to the foragers and the Saniri footmen acted as foragers. Bashurians: the Bashurians leveled the suburbs to act as a supplementary food source so that the food in the storehouses won't dwindle too fast (this was a classic Bashurian outlasting strategy). To supplement even this, secret tunnels were dug beneath the walls so that small foraging parties and harassing troops could leave the city to get more supplies or harass the besiegers. the idea of keeping a few operational chariots and a war elephant in the city was so that they could be used in a battle when needed. Sadly, this opportunity was missed and the elephant had to be slaughtered as it was too expensive too keep in the city during a long siege. Yu-Mai Ashawa escaped with the horses and chariots though, which meant that it wasn't a total waste.Belligerents
Berini army and Berini vassals and auxiliaries.
Led by
Strength
Casualties
71,000 dead, 2,000 missing, 30,000 injured
102,506 dead, 153,074 captured and exiled or missing, 48,942 wounded. A lot of people died of disease and collapsing walls, tunnels and buildings.
Objectives
To take Bashur and place Do-Han Ashawa on the throne, establish Bashur as a vassal and use it as naval launching pad for further campaigning.
Repel the Berini army at all costs and keep Yu-Mai Ashawa on the throne.
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