Bologna, 1344
“All right, we’re going in.” Elberhard declared.
Maina looked up at the Kaiser in surprise. He had already ordered siege engines to be constructed. Why attack now before they were ready?
“Are you sure, Sire?” probed Sir Charles de Villiers, veteran warrior and effective second in command of the Kaiser’s army. In front of the Kaiser’s army stood a huge city garrisoned by a full strength Byzantine army.
Elberhard sighed. Duke Lothar had written to him, proposing him that the Bavarian Household Armies be combined and moved from Milan to secure Genoa. The main thrust down central Italy was to be made by Imperial forces alone …if Elberhard thought he could handle Bologna alone. The letter had stung the Kaiser. It made taking Bologna a matter of personal honour. Besides, he had ample men. If Fritz Kastilien could conquer the Danes with two men and a dog, the Kaiser should be able to take one @#$%^&!!!ing city with an army of every Imperial knight in the Reich!
Elberhard look at Sir Charles exasperatedly: “Look - it’s going to be no easier taking that @#$%^&!!! of a city if we wait. It will be the next Diet session by the time we starve them out. If spend time building siege engines, we will lose the element of surprise. The garrison will be deployed in its entirety manning the walls. If we use our cannon to blow the doors, we can be in there before they know what’s happening. We’ve done this before - in Antioch. We set our archers on the walls and then hold the streets below. We turn the siege around against them.
Plus there is a second Byzantine army heading north from Rome. I don’t want us standing here with our pants around our ankles, caught between the two @#$%^&!!!ing armies - do I?”
Sir Charles bowed his head in deference. The Kaiser and his retinue moved off to address the troops. Maina noted with interest that for once the Kaiser did not launch off into his usual obscenity strewn invective, but ended with a plea to put one’s faith in God and do one's duty. The men responded with equally solemn conviction - the discovery of the shattered wreck that was Venice had added to the army’s grim determination to expel the Byzantines from Italy once and for all. This would be the last major battle. Already Dieter von Kassel was disembarking outside a lightly held Naples. After Bologna, there was a mere half sized Byzantine army guarding Florence and Rome.
Maina watched the gunners move the cannon into position. Two columns of infantry were already moving either side of the guns, heading silently towards the still sleepy city. The Nubian shieldbearer saw the flash from the cannon muzzle. Only then did he realise how dark and overcast the day had become. He crossed himself. A second volley from the cannon and the castle gates were down. The officers called out and the infantry columns broke into a run. The race for the city was on.
“Maina!” shouted Elberhard “Stop day dreaming! We are going in first! Come on!”
Maina nodded quickly to the Kaiser. The man had a habit of throwing himself into the battle right from the outset, effectively leaving command to Sir Charles. It was not a good habit.
*****
The Imperial infantry managed to get a sufficient distance into the city to establish an effective cordon around the tower gates. No Byzantine infantry would be able to fire from the towers down on the attackers. Indeed, the Germans rushed their archers onto the walls to provide support to the Imperial infantry holding the streets leading to the gates.
Curiously, the first Byzantines to intercept the Germans were archers. Evidently, they assumed that they - not the Germans - would win the race for the walls. The archers were from Trebizond and of higher calibre than most missile troops, but nonetheless, the more heavily armed Imperial infantry had the advantage in the street fighting that erupted around the gates.
“Right lads, let’s speed this up - follow me, we’ll hit them in the arse!” Elberhard summoned his retinue to follow him up a side street - parallel to the main thoroughfare where five regiments of Trebizond archers were vainly trying to force a way to the gates. The side street would allow the Kaiser’s retinue to get behind the Trebizond archers, although it would bring the German cavalry perilously close to the main Byzantine force in the city square.
As they rode past the city centre, Maina looked with concern at the many regiments of Latinkon - mounted and dismounted - and other Byzantines arrayed there. It seemed inevitable that, as the Kaiser’s escort struck the rear of the Trebizond archers, it in turn would be struck in the rear by other Byzantines coming from the city square.
Sure enough, although the Kaiser’s intervention helped break the Trebizond archers massing in front of the gates, first a regiment of Byzantine infantry and then one of spearmen attacked the Kaiser’s escort in the rear. Soon, the Kaiser’s retinue was down to half strength.
“Pull out! Pull out!” even Elberhard realised the futility of his few mounted knights staying where they were between the gates and a thousand Byzantine soldiers. Maina noticed a pained expression on the Kaiser’s face.
“Are you hurt, Sire?”
Elberhard forced a smile: “Just another scar to add to the collection!”
*****
Then the hard fighting began. The Byzantines committed their dismounted Latinkon to the assault on the gates. These mercenary Frankish knights were a match for even the Reich’s Imperial knights. In fact, Maina suspected, they probably were more than a match for them. Only by feeding more infantry regiments into the battle was the Kaiser able to stop the Latinkon breaking through.
As casualties steadily mounted on both sides, the Byzantines finally funnelled all their men from the city centre into the main street leading to the gate.
“Aha!” exclaimed Elberhard “Now we have them! Get every spare man down the side streets - including the cavalry - and then behind them. We will trap them in the main street and break them!”
Maina spurred his horse to follow the Kaiser. They were heading down the same side street they had used to get behind the Trebizonds. As they rode, Maina noticed the mounted Latinkon who had been heading for the assault on the gate, halt and turn back. Clearly, the Byzantines had awoken to the trap the Kaiser was closing on them. It was a close race, but the German cavalry managed to get behind the Byzantine cavalry before the latter could escape to the town square.
It was now a bloody cavalry melee - around one hundred Byzantine cavalry against a roughly similar number of Germans. For a while, Maina wondered if the mounted Latinkon would break out of the main street but then he saw the plumed figure of the Byzantine captain fall to the mace of a mounted Imperial knight. Victory was only moments away!
But the death of their Captain did not immediately break the morale of the mounted Latinkon. Instead, they fought with the fury of cornered men and, massed together, continued to push their way through towards the city centre. Maina noticed too late that the Kaiser was standing directly in the path of a wedge of Latinkon. He watched in horror as the Kaiser’s horse reared and then fell, toppling his master to the ground.
The Nubian jumped off his own mount and drew his two handed axe. With a fearsome grace, he slashed at the unprotected legs of the Byzantine horses in his path, causing terrible carnage as he made for his fallen leader. Any Latinkon foolish enough to stand within reach of the giant Nubian was instantly felled. When Maina reached Elberhard, he threw away his axe and knelt beside him. The sounds of battle seemed to fade away. German knights started to see with shock what had happened and were hastily carving space around their fallen leader and his shieldbearer.
Elberhard looked up into the Nubian’s brown eyes and smiled.
“To think - my last words to the Diet were about Dieter von Essen’s arse!” he laughed, but then wrenched with the pain of doing so.
“Maina, I am done for. Tell Linyeve, I die loving her as much as the first time I saw set eyes on her. Tell my children, I am sorry I will no longer be there for them but I died a good death.”
The Kaiser was fading and it seemed to Maina as if the very skies were darkening further.
“But there is one more thing, Maina. The grail - my brother Hans died with it and passed it on to me. But my father was right - my family is cursed. I want you to take it. Where you come from - Nubia - are there Christians?”
“The Arabs made us Mohammadens at the point of a sword. But I have heard that there is one mighty nation further south - the Abyssinians - who worship Christ.”
“A mighty nation of your people that worships Christ … I like the sound of that. Go, Maina, find this nation. Take the grail. We Germans do not deserve it. We brought this cataclysm upon ourselves and worse, we devoured ourselves during it. Take the grail to the Abyssinians. May its light uplift their faith for a thousand years. Go now, before the others think on it. Go - get the @#$%^&!!! out of here, go!”
Elberhard pushed Maina away. The dying Kaiser’s curses in his ears, Maina turned and walked off, a ragged shape clasped tightly under his arm. As word of the Kaiser’s fall spread around the battlefield, no one gave a second thought to the tall Nubian slipping away.
Re: Battle reports thread - King of the Romans PBM
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