"Reunited..." - Chapter Sixty-One

Reunited...

Chapter Sixty-One

By Douglas E. Gogerty

Princess Angelina's army continued to march towards the capitol of the Kingdom of Nunu. There were occasional skirmishes, but the main Nunu force was nowhere to be found. Hence, the Lakeland army continued their march. However, they were really uneasy about the situation.

Scouts continued to fan out in every direction. The generals continued to worry about being surrounded. Thus, they had many soldiers looking on the roads in front of them, behind them, and in every direction. They did not want to assume that the entire Nunu army would be waiting for them at the capitol. Nonetheless, the closer they got to that city, the more apparent it became that this was the situation.

Nunu was the weakest of the allied kingdoms. Traditionally, they had more trouble with internal strife than with anything else. Thus, they could never garner a strong army. Their armies were generally split in two and fought each other. The surrounding kingdoms were fine with this situation. Kaanfed and the Maritime Kingdoms enjoyed the buffer as long as the internal strife did not spill into their own kingdoms.

Therefore, it became more and more apparent that the King of Nunu pulled all of his troops back in an effort to protect him. This was a common occurrence with the Nunu forces. The Lakeland generals became more confident of this with each report from the scouts. It appeared that the Lakeland forces would have to siege the capitol city. The Lakeland army would not have to meet Nunu on some field of battle, and this suited them fine.

After weeks of marching, they made it to the capitol city. They continued to scout around for any encampments of soldiers. They wanted to be sure they would not be outflanked. As they approached the city, it was clear that it was bustling with soldiers. The generals gave the order to the Lakeland army to keep their distance. They did not want to get too close to the city's defenses. It would not do to slowly lose soldiers. At least, they did not want this until they were ready.

The capitol city was ancient. Legend has it, which the king fully supported, that the city's inhabitants used to hunt the leviathans of the sea. The town prospered on such hunts. Thus, the people claimed to be descended from great hunters and warriors. There was a history of a great seafaring prowess. The generals informed the Princess that even if this legend was true, Nunu had long abandoned such practices. The Princess and the generals believed that the sea would not pose a great threat to the Lakeland forces.

Nonetheless, if the Nunu citizens could get supplies from the sea, the siege would be a long one. The Lakeland army closed off all overland supply lines into the city. This was the first step in the siege. There would be no supplies entering the city by the roads. Those citizens and soldiers in the city would have to survive on any rations that were gathered before the Lakeland army arrived.

Once the guard was set for watching the roads, the construction of siege equipment began. Once again, if it were not necessary, the Lakeland army would not use gunpowder. Those watching the roads would be free to use any weapon at their disposal. However, there would be a limited supply of gunpowder. Thus, other weapons would be used to push the siege.

The Princess told her generals to start the gunpowder manufacture process as soon as feasible. If the siege took a long time, they would need it. If it were a short siege, then they could use the new supply of gunpowder against the Maritime Kingdom. Hence, some of the soldiers were sent on gathering the supplies for gunpowder manufacture.

The first weapons constructed were the trebuchets. These could throw items into the town square. Further, they could be set well outside the range of the city's small arms fire. The arrows and bullets were very inaccurate at that range. It was unknown what type of defenses the city would use. However, the trebuchet was an effective weapon of terror and could be constructed on the spot. Hence, after a few days Lakeland had a few of these weapons hurling items into the city. They tossed rocks and bales of dry grass which had been set ablaze.

No one would know if these items did any damage until after the Lakeland army entered the city. However, the generals assured the Princess that these weapons would frighten the city's inhabitants. Further, if the siege drug on, these weapons could be used to toss gunpowder bombs. Thus, these trebuchets would be a very effective long range weapon no matter the circumstance.

The Princess ordered the scouts to bring back reports of items that could be thrown. Thus, the collection of projectiles began in earnest. Rocks, logs, grass, and other items could be tossed into the town square. If the siege worked as planned, the city would surrender with little bloodshed. The citizens would give up when they realized there was little their army could do against these types of attacks. Further, as the food dwindled, the townspeople would get restless.

The Princess believed that Lakeland had plenty of time to press the siege. From every indication, the entire Nunu army was in the city. Thus, the supplies of the city would be stretched even further. Hence, it should not be too long for unrest to build in the city. However, the Lakeland soldiers were kept busy collecting items. There were also drills and scouting to be done. The watch on the road was also important. Thus, the Lakeland army settled into a routine of sorts.

This all came to an end when one of the scouts returned with a report of a large army marching from the north. It appeared that the Maritime Kingdom was going to come to the aid of the besieged Nunu people. Time which was in such abundance a few days before, suddenly grew short.