Bashur is besieged

Military action

Arquado marches his army to Bashur and besieges it.

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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 and to cause 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 2 tonnes of iron ore were mined and collected to make tools and equipment.   Thousands of levies were given basic training and the forest was chopped down halfway before 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 as well as 10,000 composite bows. 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 a wall surrounding the city in late 171 A.B within 16 days. The wall had a square tower every 750 meters and had a 300 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. Bashurian skirmishers were constantly harassing the Berini engineers and Bashurian sappers were constantly removing dirt from the ramps and usind it to reinforce the fortifications. The Bashurians loked and bolted the heavy wooden gates and closed the wooden portculuses and filled the the spaces between the triple double-doored in 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 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 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.   The Berini deployed 30,000 troops on the battlefield. They deployed a line of slingers in the front, in the front-center they deployed their main corps of medium-heavy infantry. On the right flank they deployed 1,500 cataphracts armed with maces and lances, on the left flank they deployed 2,000 heavy cavalry armed with lances and maces. In the rear they deployed a siege tower for covering them and 1,000 medium cavalry armed with swords in reserve as well as 1,000 Guntartar warriors. The Bashurians deployed a total of 18,000 troops, a line of 10,000 heavy infantry in the center armed with swords, spears, poleaxes and maces and deployed 8,000 levied skirmishers 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.   The Berini cataphracts charged into the Bashurian left flank in a hollow wedge as the heavy 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. The Berini slingers and archers let a few volleys of of arrows and lead sling bullets before pulling back. Once they pulled back, the Berini medium-heavy infantry charged the Bashurian heavy infantry which was dazed and weakened by the volleys of arrows and lead projectiles and the cavalry charges and enveloped them from front and the flanks. The cataphracts and the heavy cavalry charged them from behind and finished them off with their maces.   The Berini lost about 3,500 of their infantry and about 100 of their heavy cavalry while the Bashurians lost 2,000 heavy infantry and 7,000 skirmishers. The majority of the 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 to the outer walls with the surviving skirmishers. 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 openings. The fact that the Bashurians didn't use their own few remaining chariots in the city and the remaining war elephant 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. though their javelins might cause enough pain to the elephant that it would turn back. If it weren't for these mistakes then the Bashurians may have been able to win the battle or cause heavy casualties at the very least.