Chapter 41: Egyptian Campaign

“In war, while everything is simple, even the simplest thing is difficult. Difficulties accumulate and produce frictions which no one can comprehend who has not seen war.” – Carl von Clausewitz.

Nile Delta, Fatimid Caliphate. January 1076

Luke had his feet propped up, reading reports that had come in over the last day. They had been in Alexandria for a week, and most soldiers enjoyed the city, especially the weather and the women. Luke enjoyed the weather, but he refused to look at other women. His guards shook their heads and went about their business.

Soldiers and material were pouring ashore, but the lack of appropriate port facilities slowed things down. That was just one of the many details that annoyed Luke. While the engineers were busy expanding the port facilities, he was stuck in the city as he didn’t have the strength to attack Cairo successfully.

Finally, Luke finished his paperwork for the day and decided to tour the city since it was still early. Today, he had a specific destination: the Lighthouse of Alexandria. Although several earthquakes had damaged it, it was still an impressive structure. Luke took drawing materials to take detailed notes. He wanted detailed drawings and measurements so future generations could appreciate the grandeur of the lighthouse.

Outside his office, he collected his guards, and one was Major Leofflæd. Whenever Luke went into town, she detailed herself as one of his guards. It hadn’t escaped her notice that Luke had a weakness for redheads, and she was a fiery redhead. She knew every female British soldier dreamt of bedding the general, and if she could accomplish the feat, she knew she would experience unparalleled pleasure.

As they walked, Leofflæd kept stride with Luke. Something in his expression told her it wasn’t the right time to ask about visiting his bed. Suddenly, Luke stopped, and Leofflæd heard a sound that would have been appropriate if it had come from an animal. Leofflæd looked up and saw a murderous look on Luke’s face, with his eyes locked on something happening behind a cart that blocked her view.

Leofflæd stepped around Luke and saw a young girl who couldn’t be older than nine. She was standing by the side of the street and wore barely anything, indicating she was a prostitute. Luke walked over to her and kneeled to look her in the eye.

“What are you doing here?” the girl was almost too nervous to answer and shook in fear. Like everyone in the city, she knew who knelt before her. “You have nothing to fear, girl. I’m not going to harm you.”

The girl still couldn’t talk, so Luke took out his purse and handed her £5 in silver shillings. Holding the little girl’s hand, Luke put the coins in her palm and closed her fist before standing. That was enough money for the girl to eat well for six months or feed her and her younger siblings simple meals for three months. She looked up at the general and gave him a small smile. Luke nodded to her. He knew he couldn’t help all the children in the city, but if he could help even one, it could be counted as a win.

Leofflæd silently watched Luke give the girl money and walk away. The girl looked at the money and scurried away to get home. Instead of food, she wanted to buy transport for her and her siblings to get them out of the city.

Luke continued his journey, and Leofflæd had to rush to catch up. She was dying to ask him why but couldn’t find the courage. Before she could work up the courage, they arrived at the lighthouse, and Luke began climbing. Leofflæd looked up at the lighthouse and froze as her heart started pounding and her palms began sweating. Luke looked back at her and smiled.

“What’s wrong, Major?” He looked up at the lighthouse. “You afraid of heights?”

“Aye, sir.”

“Then stay here and guard the door.”

“Aye, sir.”

Luke smiled and climbed the lighthouse. Nobody from his world had seen the actual lighthouse, and he was going to take full advantage of this opportunity. Reaching the top, Luke had to catch his breath, looking out over the Nile Delta. The view was spectacular, so he began sketching. Luke sketched until the sun started to set when he stopped to watch the sunset. He had to admit the sunset was beautiful and watched until all that was left was twilight.

Leofflæd was relieved when Luke finally came down the stairs. Guarding him on the trip back would be much more difficult with the sun gone. Thankfully for Leofflæd’s fraying nerves, the trip back was quiet. Once back where he was stationed, Luke put all his sketches in a box to ship them back to York for safekeeping.

Luke had two essential tasks to complete before the British Army could advance. One was the offloading of troops and material. The other was building an air base capable of supporting three airships. Those airships would be the army’s eyes in the sky and in the wide-open expanses of the desert; that long-range recon was vital. With airships overhead, native tribes couldn’t use their horses for lightning-quick raids because they would be spotted long before they could threaten British troops.

The area Luke chose for the base was on an island in Mariout Lake. This would keep all the casual traffic away, allowing the guards to focus on saboteurs. Before the dock expansion was finished, Luke ordered the engineers to start the airbase. With the lack of rain in the area, they didn’t need to worry about waterproofing; instead, they had to worry about sand.

Luke stood on the rough airfield eight days after the landing and listened. It was several hours after dark, and the only lighting outside the stars were torches outlining the Union Jack. Everyone was almost ready to give up for the night when Luke heard the unmistakable sound of a diesel engine. Around him, other Brits looked skyward and soon saw the outline of not three airships but five.

Luke scratched his head, trying to figure out why he was looking at more airships than was in the British Air Force. If it had been light, he would have noticed that two airships were his, not military. Marion had hired them to ferry critical supplies and return with critically wounded and the mail. This was an experimental mission since nobody knew if the airships would have enough fuel to make the journey. Getting to Alexandria was easy since the wind was mostly behind them; getting home would be difficult. Once the pilots exited the airships, Luke figured it out and chuckled.

As the airships were being offloaded, one of the civilian pilots gave Luke a letter from Marion. Since he didn’t have enough light to read it, Luke put it in a pocket to read later. The civilian airships had large cargo bay doors that made offloading easier. Most of their cargo consisted of equipment for the air base, while the rest were medical supplies.

Luke left the airfield happy since he got mail and food from home. The food consisted of pastries his children had made, and he couldn’t wait to break into them. On his way back, Luke looked at a small field and stopped in his tracks. Thanks to the time he had spent in warm climates, he recognized the plant growing; it was sugarcane.

Sugarcane would give Britain’s tropical possessions a new source of income and energy since processing sugarcane can release large amounts of energy. Seeing the sugarcane, Luke remembered Egypt grew a lot of cotton, but he hadn’t seen any yet. When he did, he would ensure it was seized and sent to Britain. The army uniforms would be much more comfortable if they were made of cotton instead of wool or linen.

The cotton seeds would be separated in Britain and sent to the Canary Islands and Jamaica to begin cultivation. As for the sugarcane, Luke ordered cuttings taken and put on fast merchant ships to be taken to Jamaica with detailed instructions on planting, growing, and processing.

The more Luke thought about it, the more he began remembering more useful plants from Egypt that could be planted in Jamaica or Brazil. Top of the list was sorghum and local varieties of fruit and grains already in Britain. Luke wanted sorghum because of its value as animal feed, human food, and biofuel. Also, unlike many other plants, every part of the sorghum can be used, whether the seeds, leaves, or stalks.

When Luke returned to his quarters, he opened Marion’s letter. In it, she wrote about the family and how everyone was doing. Reading the letter, Luke felt closer to his family, but at the same time, he was homesick. By this time, Luke was 40 years old and missed the comforts of home: his wives, his mistress, the children, and even Alice’s annoying habit of not cleaning up her toenail clippings after trimming her nails. Luke fell asleep dreaming of home.

As Luke read his letter from home, Bahr was readying the army. As each day passed, he grew more worried. Every spy report contained the same basic information: thousands of British troops were pouring ashore. The British were coming ashore in Alexandria faster than Bahr could concentrate his troops in Cairo.

Finally, nine days after the British landed, Bahr’s nerve broke, and he ordered the army to move north. He hoped to surprise the British and drive them back into the sea. The chief worry among the army commanders was if they waited to finish concentrating the army, there would be too many enemy soldiers to drive them into the sea.

As Bahr led a 15,000-man army out of Cairo, Caliph Al-Mustanṣir watched from his palace. He would join the army with a second group in a few days. In the meantime, the caliph wanted to spend time with a new whore, Aistė, although he didn’t know her name, nor did he care. Aistė had arrived a few days before and, unlike all his other whores had blonde hair and blue eyes, having come from northern Poland.

Al-Mustanṣir couldn’t understand a word Aistė said, nor did he care. She was fully trained and broken in by the time he got her, and while he enjoyed breaking new whores, he didn’t have the time or energy to deal with that at the moment.

To start the festivities, Al-Mustanṣir lay on his back and pulled his cock out. Aistė was well-trained and immediately began using her mouth to bring the caliph to full attention and provide lubrication. Al-Mustanṣir loved the sight of the blonde wench going down on him and had to admit she was good. Aistė was using every trick in the book to get him to cum quickly, and if she had been one of his usual whores, Al-Mustanṣir would have blown his load into her mouth. This time, though, he wanted a warmer hole.

Al-Mustanṣir smacked Aistė on top of her head to get her attention and signaled for her to straddle him. She sighed, which would have usually caused Al-Mustanṣir to kill her, but she had cost him too much money to kill before using her. He gave her a dirty look when he noticed she had no heart to ride him. To get more effort out of her, Al-Mustanṣir took a short knife and poked her in the arse, drawing blood.

With the poke to her rear, Aistė began moving rapidly and squeezed her abdominal muscles to give maximum pleasure, as her goal was to finish as quickly as possible. Al-Mustanṣir held onto her hips to slow her down so he could enjoy the sight of his dark cock disappearing into her golden pussy. Watching her golden pussy made Al-Mustanṣir think this was what it was like to fuck Queen Marion, and that fantasy proved too much. Before he could stop it, he blew his load deep inside the blonde whore.

Feeling the caliph finish, Aistė breathed a sigh of relief that she hadn’t cum. It made her feel filthy and worthless when she came during a rape. Now it was only a matter of climbing off and getting out of the room before her rapist could recover. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quick enough, and Al-Mustanṣir caught her by her hair before forcing her to use her mouth to clean his cock. This was the other thing Aistė hated; she hated the taste of her juices.

Al-Mustanṣir smiled when Aistė finished and sent her away so he could relax. She was just as happy to be away from him. Before Aistė was captured, she had been a member of a native Prussian tribe, and her father had been the village leader. Then, a group of Kyivan Rus’ came into the village one day and began killing. She had avoided being killed but had been captured after having watched her entire family put to the sword. Before then, she had been a happy virgin, but that ended her first night in captivity when the Kyivan Rus’ leader brutally raped her.

Fortunately for Aistė, one of the older whores took her under her wing and taught her things like how to avoid becoming pregnant and how to influence their masters to increase their power among the other whores. The Kyivan leader took her back to Kyiv, where he used her for six months until he had to sell her to pay a gambling debt. From there, Aistė was transported to Constantinople, where a caliph agent purchased her.

Bahr was in a good mood as they left Cairo. He was determined to get all the glory for defeating the British and pushed the army hard to get to Alexandria before the caliph could move with the rest of the army. Since he knew the region, Bahr didn’t need to worry about maps or directions. His biggest concern was the poor condition of the roads. They slowed the army down enough that the caliph might catch up and made it difficult for Bahr to keep his delicacies from being damaged before he could eat them. What never entered Bahr’s mind was to keep an eye on the sky.

From high above the landscape, Luke watched the Egyptian Army from one of the airships. They were about twenty kilometers away, but with good optics, Luke could gather the information he needed to create his battle plan without being detected. The camouflage on the airship helped as well. One of the significant things he noticed was the discipline of the approaching army. Seeing the discipline of the Egyptian Army, Luke nodded and began thinking of how he would break them.

After drawing a detailed map of the roads, Luke ordered the airship back to base. The nice thing about an airship was they could shut their engines down and float in the sky, making drawing maps much more manageable. It would have been even easier if Luke could have gotten photographs of the landscape below, but photography was an area he knew next to nothing about. The only pictures Luke had ever taken were digital, and he didn’t have a digital camera with good enough resolution for recon work. There was only his old cell phone, which was back in Britain. Even if Luke used it to take pictures, he could not recover or print them.

Back on the ground, Bahr’s army marched 25km before he called a halt for the night. So far, he was pleased with their progress, and there were no signs of the British spotting them. As long as they had no problems, they would be looking at Alexandria in ten days.

Three days later, they crossed the last water obstacle before reaching their objective. Bahr couldn’t believe the British hadn’t attacked yet. But since they had women in the army, they probably couldn’t move because they had women problems, Bahr reasoned. The locals they questioned hadn’t seen any foreign troops, so Bahr began to relax.

It wasn’t until a day past the river that they saw signs that British troops had been there. One of the men found a button from a British uniform. That evening, Bahr sat by a fire and stared into the flames. Something didn’t seem right, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. The march had been easy, and they had lost only a minimum number of men and horses. ‘At least we only have a few days to go,’ thought Bahr. He couldn’t figure out why the British Army was so feared since they hadn’t seen a sign of them. If they were so good, his scouts should have seen their scouts. None in the Egyptian Army realized the British had been watching them every step of the way.

Luke had an airship check on the progress of the advancing enemy at least once per day. Details that couldn’t be discovered from the air were found by camouflaged scouts. Since nobody used camouflage, the Egyptians were not looking and marched past the British.

Two days after crossing the river, the Egyptians left camp just after the sun crossed the eastern horizon. The morning was cold enough for the troops to see their breath, and many were shivering. Very few were used to temperatures this low since most troops were from further south. The army took longer to break camp since nobody wanted to move quickly.

Luke stood atop a two-story building two kilometers away and watched the Egyptian column through his binoculars. He had picked this site to do battle because there was plenty of cover for his army to hide in. This allowed the British to deploy their artillery without being spotted. Beside him, General Baker watched as well.

“They look pretty cocky. Don’t they?” She asked with a smirk as they looked down at the advancing enemy.

“Yep. Don’t worry; that will change in about a minute when they get a dose of artillery fire. You might want to get back to your unit, general. I don’t think I’ll have to call on you, but anything is possible.”

“Aye, sir.” Madeline saluted and headed down to climb on her horse. It would take her a few minutes to reach where the Grenadiers were positioned.

A minute later, Luke looked at his watch and nodded. He glanced at his aide.

“Artillery is to commence firing and fire at will.” The aide saluted and ran to their signalman. The signal person raised a pair of flags and dropped them, signaling the artillery to begin firing.

Bahr was talking to a few of his staff when they heard a thunderous sound. In the distance were large puffs of smoke before strange objects streaked across the sky, accompanied by an unnerving shriek. The men looked at each other, confused. Terror replaced the confusion as British artillery shells began plowing the earth up and down the column. With each impact, large quantities of dirt and debris were thrown skyward. When a shell landed in the column, bits of people joined the dirt and debris. Nobody in the Egyptian Army had ever seen anything like what was happening. When the first shells started bursting, many horses and camels, including Bahr’s, became frightened and dumped their riders in their haste to escape.

When Bahr recovered, he watched when one small group of soldiers suffered a direct hit. All that was left was bits, pieces, and a bloody red mist. Men and horses screamed as steel rained from the sky. Toward the rear, women shrieked, and children cried as some of the shells landed amongst the camp followers. Bahr stood and looked around, too shocked to react. Finally, another close blast brought his senses back, and Bahr issued orders to retreat. They had to get beyond the reach of the artillery.

A new sound caused Bahr’s blood to run cold. Behind them, Bahr heard the unmistakable sound of rapid rifle fire. He knew what British rifles sounded like from the few captured examples. The only thing that ran through his mind was, ‘How did the British get behind us?’

“FORM UP! FORM UP!” Bahr began screaming, countermanding his previous order and sowing more confusion. The only way they could escape was to fight their way out. Unfortunately, none of his men heard him, but they did hear the British rifles. By this time, the remaining officers had lost control, and the soldiers became a mob. Their only goal was to escape the artillery and rifle fire. To escape, they ran in the only quiet direction.

The mob ran down the road, and anyone who fell got trampled. Several hundred men were trampled, but that didn’t stop the mob from trying to escape death. Instead, they ran into mass rifle fire from the British 1^st Division. Meanwhile, the 2^nd Division, minus the brigade holding Alexandria, was divided in two and placed on opposite sides of the road while cavalry from both divisions closed in the rear of the Egyptian column. Luke had positioned his forces across all escape routes, three soldiers deep. The mob didn’t stand a chance as they were on the receiving end of volley fire from the British.

As the front group of men was mowed down, more rushed into their place and received the same fate. The men who saw the British couldn’t turn around because of the rush of humanity behind them. It didn’t matter what way they went because death was in every direction.

Bahr grabbed one of the few men still on horseback and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“GET OUT OF HERE AND REPORT TO THE CALIPH! TELL HIM WHAT IS HAPPENING!”

Bahr slapped the rump of the man’s horse to get them moving. He watched long enough to see the man was riding as hard as he could. Soon, Bahr turned his attention back to the disaster unfolding before him. The British had ambushed his army. Now he understood why they hadn’t met any British troops. They had let him come to them, so he couldn’t get reinforcements.

The artillery fell silent after only five minutes, but in that short time, the once proud Egyptian Army had been decimated. While a five-minute barrage wasn’t a long time to pound the target, the British had six batteries of six tubes of 155mm artillery, one per brigade, and 18 batteries of 105mm artillery, one per regiment. Once the cavalry was in range, their 75mm guns were deployed, followed by the infantry’s mortars. The 155mm guns could fire two rounds per minute, while the 105mm and 75mm guns, using reloadable brass cartridges, could fire six rounds per minute. The enemy had been caught unprepared and in the open.

Bahr was still alive, but around him, many men surrendered when the British infantry and cavalry advanced. However, Bahr wouldn’t give up that easily and picked up a musket from a fallen soldier. Firing at a nearby British soldier, he couldn’t differentiate between officers and soldiers because British officers and soldiers wore identical battle uniforms with their insignia in the same camouflage pattern as their uniform. The soldier fell, but before Bahr could move, another British soldier put a rifle round between his eyes. Bahr fell like a tree being toppled, and his death marked the end of Egyptian resistance.

Luke walked the battlefield once the prisoners were secured. The British captured or killed almost the entire Egyptian Army, with only a few daring riders escaping the trap. In total, the British captured 9,500 soldiers with an equal number of camp followers. Luke quickly ordered the prisoners given shovels to dig mass graves for the dead. British losses could be counted on a person’s fingers, with three dead and five wounded. The British dead were sent back to Alexandria to be prepared for shipment home.

After the dead were buried, the Egyptian camp followers were released. The last thing Luke wanted was to care for thousands of women and children when he had to care for thousands of prisoners. He did use the prisoners for free labor since there was no reason to feed them and not get anything back. The engineers used the Egyptian prisoners for labor on various building projects. This might have been against the Geneva Convention, but Luke had dim views of the documents anyway; it was always ignored when convenient and used to exact revenge after a war.

It was several days before the British were ready to move again. Luke wanted to ensure the dead were buried to prevent disease spread. Luke wouldn’t have cared if the army wasn’t planning on being in the area anymore, but he didn’t know how long the British Army would be there. There was also the transport of the spoils and prisoners to contend with.

Al-Mustanṣir was woke early in the morning by a messenger who claimed to have urgent news. The caliph was preparing to leave Cairo; gathering the rest of the army had taken longer than planned. Being a man who believed in his creature comfort, he didn’t mind the delay as it allowed him to spend more time with his new whore in the comfort of his chambers.

The servant who woke Al-Mustanṣir was careful to stay out of reach because if he got too close, Al-Mustanṣir was known to strangle servants who woke him. Al-Mustanṣir pulled himself into a sitting position and was still cleaning the sleep out of his eyes when the messenger came in like his arse was on fire.

“Hold it!” Al-Mustanṣir snapped at the man. “Let me wake up. You could have nothing so important that it can’t wait for a moment.” Al-Mustanṣir went to a shallow basin to splash water on his face and used a towel to dry off. “Now, what is so important that you had to wake me?” Al-Mustanṣir demanded.

“My Caliph, Vizier Badr al-Jamali’s army has been eliminated. The British ambushed us. We had no idea they were in the area. One moment, we were marching toward Alexandria, and the next, their artillery was exploding all around. I saw what happens when their artillery hits a man, and it is not pretty. Depending on the hit, all that is left is either a red mist or pieces. The vizier ordered me to escape the ambush to report to you.”

“Eliminated?” Al-Mustanṣir asked with unmistakable tension.

“Yes, My Caliph. Once I escaped, I stopped to watch. The men not killed were captured. I know not what happened then because of my need to report to you.”

Al-Mustanṣir seized a vase sitting on a nearby table and threw it into the wall while screaming at the top of his lungs, shattering it. He then grabbed the table and smashed it into the floor, turning it into kindling. The messenger backed out of the room while Aistė rolled off the bed to hide. It didn’t do her much good because Al-Mustanṣir saw her and threw the bed out of his way. He grabbed her by the hair to pick her up. Aistė whimpered as she tried to grab Al-Mustansir’s wrist to take pressure off her scalp. Al-Mustanṣir used his other hand to slap her hard.

Once Aistė stopped fighting, Al-Mustanṣir pulled her to the window and bent her top half out. Aistė was pale with the fear she would be thrown out, and she would have been if she hadn’t had such a nice-looking backside. Just before he would have flung her out the window, Al-Mustanṣir noticed his whore’s arse and instantly decided to have some. He ripped her thin clothing off and, using spit as a lubricant, angrily thrust his fingers into her tight pink anus. Aistė wiggled her rear to relieve the burning pain, but Al-Mustanṣir wasn’t tolerating it. He spanked her hard, leaving an angry handprint on her right butt cheek. She screamed in pain, but her pain was only beginning because Al-Mustanṣir put the tip of his penis on her anus and shoved, thrusting all the way inside her in one long thrust.

Aistė screamed so hard she ran out of scream, and tears streamed down her face as blood dripped out of her anus. At least that blood helped lubricate her rear passage because Al-Mustanṣir was thrusting into her like this was the last thing he would ever do. For a woman used to pain, this was a whole new level for Aistė, and all she could do was pray the abuse would end quickly.

To her dismay, the abuse didn’t end quickly, and death started looking like the better option. She would have jumped out the window if Al-Mustanṣir didn’t have such a tight grip on her hips. It took Al-Mustanṣir ten minutes to have his first orgasm, but that wasn’t enough for him, and he continued to pound Aistė’s arse. Half an hour later, he fired another burst into her colon, which signaled the end of the festivities. Al-Mustanṣir pulled Aistė into the room, threw her on the floor, then picked her up by the hair and put his filthy cock at her mouth to clean. Aistė opened her mouth because she knew failure to do so would have resulted in torture.

“GUARDS!” The guards rushed in. “Take this whore back to her cell and pass the word for all generals to assemble in the War Room.” The guards grabbed the whore’s arms and dragged her out of the room, leaving a bloody trail behind her. Al-Mustanṣir turned to another servant. “Don’t just stand there; clean this mess up!”

The servant didn’t question the caliph, which would lead to a painful death. The caliph also didn’t like his servants showing initiative, which led to the caliph believing that the servants were plotting against him. This led to a painful death for not only the servant but their entire family.

As he left the room, Al-Mustanṣir used his walking staff to deliver a powerful blow to the servant’s ribs, which knocked the servant into the wall and fractured several ribs. The servant only moaned and struggled to return to cleaning the floor as Al-Mustanṣir hobbled past, but Al-Mustanṣir didn’t care. Servants were expendable and easily replaced. If the servant whom Al-Mustanṣir hit refused to do what he was told, Al-Mustanṣir would kill him, and another servant would take his place.

The last general entered the war room just ahead of Al-Mustanṣir. It was good that the general arrived before the caliph; otherwise, Al-Mustanṣir would have executed the general. As soon as Al-Mustanṣir entered, he began speaking, and the generals turned to look at him.

“I have just received the most distressing news. The army under Vizier Badr al-Jamali has been eliminated by the godless British hoard under General Luke MacDougall.” Around the caliph, the generals uttered disbelief. “Now, I have just received the news myself, so we do not have many facts yet. What we do know is the invaders ambushed our army not far from Alexandria and used their artillery to soften our column up before moving in to finish the job.”