Chapter 46: Out of the Frying Pan

“Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.” - Marcus Aurelius.

Northeast of Luxor, Fatimid Caliphate. July 1076

The stalemate between Al-Mustansir and Field Marshal MacDougall continued; however, with the Nile in flood stage, the British supply problems disappeared. Instead, what caused the stalemate was the strong Egyptian defensive position and Luke’s unwillingness to waste troops in assaulting it.

Instead of assaulting the Egyptian positions, Luke kept most of his army to hold the Egyptians in place while the 2^nd Division captured the rest of the Egyptian Nile up to the border with Nubian kingdoms. To Luke’s surprise, the Christian Nubian kingdoms were not overly friendly to the British. While they accepted temporary British rule over Egypt, they refused to share information and barely allowed trade.

As Luke’s supply lines were reestablished, he could focus on dislodging the Egyptians and their mercenaries. Thanks to the 60,000 Nubians, the Egyptians now outnumbered the British, and Al-Mustansir began planning on going on the offensive. He aimed to drive the British from Upper Egypt; they had too much of Egypt under their control to take the entire Caliphate in one offensive.

When the Nubian troops arrived in the Egyptian camp, many made fun of the bunkers and sand-colored cloth the Egyptians erected over their tents. The mercenaries learned why when a British airship flew over. The Nubians stood in the open and looked up with their mouths open; they could have never imagined what they saw. While the Nubians watched the airship, the Egyptians ran for cover.

As the British airship went overhead, their Vulcan guns shredded the Nubian troops. It didn’t take long for the Nubians to begin running for cover and praying. Eventually, the British airship moved on, and the Egyptians came out to help the wounded Nubians. After several hours, all the wounded were picked up, and the difficult part began: removing the dead. The one raid cost 450 Nubian troops and a large amount of their supplies.

The Nubians had learned why the Egyptians camouflaged their camp and always kept an eye on the skies. What made it difficult was the airships flew high enough that they couldn’t be heard from the ground. By the second time the airships showed up, the Nubians knew to take cover.

When Luke heard about the Nubian reinforcements, he understood why the Nubian kingdoms were unfriendly. The question was: where did Al-Mustansir get the money to hire so many mercenaries? The bigger question was: how many reinforcements did the Egyptians receive? Luke didn’t know where the Egyptians got the money, but he knew he had to cut them off.

Luke deployed triple the cavalry patrols to discover the answers to the critical questions. Each patrol was assigned a specific area of desert to search. While the cavalry was searching, one brigade of the 2^nd Division was assigned to guard the border between Nubia and Egypt. He would have rather assigned a brigade of the 3^rd, but they had their hands full protecting lower Egypt from mounted raiders. The mounted raiders came from desert tribes who moved from oasis to oasis in search of grazing land.

While the 3^rd Division had aerial recon, catching the raiding parties in the act was extremely difficult. Without catching them in the act, it was impossible to tell if the group of horsemen being watched were raiders or ordinary merchants. To avoid surprises, every group entering British-controlled territory was checked out by cavalry.

To help control the region, Luke set up a puppet government under a Jewish philosopher named Simon Harel. Before the war, Simon had been a minor philosopher who supported himself as a merchant.

Simon sat in the old caliph’s palace in Cairo and wondered what he was thinking when he accepted Luke’s offer. After being thoroughly looted by the British, there wasn’t much wealth left in lower Egypt. It would take time to grow new crops. The only major resource Simon had at his disposal was the Egyptian prisoners captured during the British campaign, but he couldn’t sell them per orders from Luke. What he could do was use them as labor for government projects.

There was a noise in the hall, and Simon looked to his guard to investigate. Before the guard could open the door, it opened, and Luke walked in.

“Fi ... Fi ... Fie ... Field Marshal MacDougall,” Simon stuttered. “To what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Hello, Simon. I’m only visiting and will leave again tomorrow morning. How are things going?”

“Not good.” Luke cocked his head and waited for Simon to continue. “I don’t have the funds to repair the infrastructure your troops destroyed, and few people have money to buy imported goods.”

“I have the army buying most of their food from local farmers, the whores are kept busy servicing the men, and the boatmen are kept busy helping ferry supplies. Money is returning to the economy, even if it’s not to the nobles. Adjust your taxes, Simon. What other problems are you having?”

“What am I to do after your troops leave? Egypt was weakening before you attacked, so your attack ripped the heart from the Caliphate. At least Nubia is weak, so they should leave us alone. The problem is the Seljuk Turks. They have a strong and dynamic empire on the rise. What hope do we have of holding them off?”

“Fortify a line running from Suez to the Med; this will also give you a path for building a canal, boosting trade. My army has large amounts of captured firearms we could turn over to you to arm the new Egyptian Army. While we are here, the Seljuks won’t attack, so I suggest you begin work on building your army, the canal, and fortifying the canal zone. Anything else?”

“No,” Simon snarled.

“Oh, calm down, Simon. It’s not like we are leaving tomorrow. Al-Mustansir has somehow gotten his hands on a large body of Nubian mercenaries, so we will be fighting there for some time. During that time, I’ll leave word with the 3^rd Division for them to help train your new soldiers and aid in fortifying your eastern border.”

“Thank you, Luke. You have still left me in an untenable position. The Seljuks are far more powerful than us, and while we may put up a good fight, we will be overwhelmed in the end.”

“You don’t need to conquer them, only hold them. Simon, there were so many Islamic empires in the Middle East that it’s impossible to keep track of them. Hold the Seljuks back, and before long, they will collapse. Also, work to develop trade relations with Europe and the rest of Africa but do not give anyone special privileges. The more privileges you give a group, the more they will want.”

Simon let out a pathetic laugh, “You are truly an optimist.”

“No, Simon. I’m not. What I am is a realist. Humans are short-sighted creatures who only look out for themselves. We are forgetful, cruel, and ignorant. Use these facts well and safely navigate your nation through the storm ahead.”

“Remember, I am a philosopher; I already know all that.”

“Then why are you questioning it? Could it be real life is far different from the world in your head?” Simon began to bristle at Luke’s suggestion. “Calm down; the idealists in my time were just as bad. They could never distinguish reality from the fantasy that only existed in their rotted minds. If anyone disagreed, they would go out of their way to destroy that person. Many idealists taught that to atone for sins that a person never committed but might have been committed by an ancestor, the person had to hate themselves.”

“Wow, people from your time are just as stupid as the ones here.”

“Yep. As I said, people are too stupid to learn from the past, even though they know they should. Their usual excuse is: oh, we know better, so we can do it right this time. Never works.”

Simon smiled and laughed. After speaking with Luke, he remembered why he took the job. Simon had five children at home and wanted to leave the world a better place for them. Soon, Luke left the palace to check Faheed’s story. Luke still held him prisoner in his camp because, over several sessions, the man’s story began to unravel. It was time to get to the bottom of things before the shit hit the fan.

Just as Luke thought, when he checked, Faheed’s story had enough facts to be believable, but taken as a whole, it was a carefully constructed lie. With the facts in hand, Luke headed back to the airfield, where he would get a ride back to camp on the morning courier flight.

Over the last few months, a daily flight between Cairo and the main army field camp had developed. Coming from the front brought casualties and intelligence while supplies flowed in the other direction. Luke rode back to camp among a batch of medical supplies. Back at camp, Luke went to see Faheed.

“Hello, Faheed.”

“Field Marshal. It is always a pleasure when you visit.” Faheed said with false sincerity. By this time, he had realized that Luke knew there was more to him than he said.

“Let’s skip the bull, Faheed. I know you’re a spy. I was in Cairo yesterday, and key parts of your story don’t match.” Faheed knew the game was up.

“Congratulations. When did you figure it out?”

“The first time we talked, I knew something wasn’t right. By the fourth time, I knew you were a spy. You should have been more careful with your lies.”

“So, what happens now?”

“That’s easy.” Luke drew his finger across his neck. “Guards!” Luke called. He continued when they came in. “Arrest this spy. He will be executed within the hour.”

“Aye, sir.” As the guards reached Faheed, he realized Luke wasn’t playing.

“Wait! I can tell you much. I was one of Al-Mustansir’s most trusted officers.”

Luke held his hand up for the guards to stop. “What can you tell me? Tell me something good I don’t know, and you live.” Faheed nodded his agreement.

“Al-Mustansir has treasure hidden throughout upper Egypt to pay for mercenaries.”

“I know that. Where are they?”

“I don’t know. Al-Mustansir wasn’t that trusting.”

“One more chance.”

“Al-Mustansir was working on an alliance with the Seljuk Turks. He was using your admirals’ destruction of Tunis as a reason to destroy Britain.”

“Good luck destroying Great Britain.”

“They don’t have to destroy the kingdom; they only have to destroy your army. When I left, Al-Mustansir had almost closed the deal. By this time, the Seljuk Army should be on its way, and your troops in lower Egypt won’t be enough to stop them.”

“Well, Faheed. You may have just saved your hide. Of course, if anything you told me turns out to be wrong, you will be immediately executed. Also, since you sold Al-Mustansir out, he will kill you if he catches you.”

Faheed hadn’t thought about that, and his face paled. He knew Al-Mustansir’s preferred way of executing people he didn’t like, and it was a way Faheed didn’t want to go. Luke left him with that parting thought and climbed out of the tent. Faheed would be taken to a POW camp north of Suez to help work on the canal.

Luke returned to the airfield to send orders to Cairo. He wanted daily air recon flights over the northern Sinai Peninsula. He knew it took several weeks for armies on foot to cross the peninsula, and that warning would allow the Egyptian and British troops to prepare. The warning might give Luke enough to reach a diplomatic solution to keep the Seljuks out of the war.

With the threat of a new player in the war, Luke wanted to defeat Al-Mustansir as quickly as possible. The last thing he wanted was to be caught between two forces. Luke ordered stepped-up aerial recon and ground attack missions. The following orders were no surprise to Madeline; Luke wanted her to accompany him on a recon flight. He wanted to ensure when the British assault started, she knew what was ahead of her.

From the air, everything was peaceful as the British airship floated along, and everything below looked so small. Madeline loved being in an airship; seeing everything from above was easy and much easier on her rump. As they moved, Madeline worked with Luke to draw detailed maps of the area for the assault forces. The last thing she wanted was to get sucked into terrain that favored the defender.

Back on the ground, Al-Mustansir was putting the final touches on his attack plan. His army would move during the night and attack at first light with the Nubians to the left and center while the depleted Egyptians took the right. Al-Mustansir would also keep 10,000 of his best Egyptian troops in reserve, just in case. Their goal was to break through to the Nile. Once there, they would clear upper Egypt of British forces before swinging north to finish them off.

Suddenly, there was a lot of shouting outside his bunker, so Al-Mustansir went out to look at the cause. There, he found some of his troops had captured a British cavalry patrol. Due to the sheer amount of land needing to be patrolled, Luke had been forced to send out five-member patrol teams, and one of those teams had just fallen into Al-Mustansir’s hands.

It was apparent the British had put up one hell of a fight since all four of the remaining soldiers were wounded; the fifth was killed during the ambush. Through the jeers, Al-Mustansir couldn’t hear himself think, so he called for quiet. It took some time, but the Egyptians and Nubians quieted down. Al-Mustansir carefully looked over his captives and saw one was a woman.

The woman had powder on her face, but that didn’t hide her rich brown hair or warm brown eyes. She had a bandage around her left arm that her blood was seeping through. The three British men with her all had soot on their faces and an assortment of injuries. Al-Mustansir ordered the prisoners tied spread-eagled between stakes driven deep into the ground. In that position, they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves in any way.

Once the British soldiers were tied down, Al-Mustansir kneeled next to a young man with hash marks on his sleeve. What bothered Al-Mustansir was that the British man had no fear in his eyes. Come to think of it, none of the British did. He would have to fix that. Al-Mustansir delivered a swift hit to the man’s ribs with his cane, causing him to grunt. The hit caused Al-Mustansir to notice the man on the ground was solid muscle.

Al-Mustansir stepped back and nodded to his guards. They began delivering kicks to all the British tied to the ground, and they kept kicking until all the British were crying. Now that the British had been softened up Al-Mustansir had them picked up and their wrist tied to a beam installed an hour before for this purpose. The British soldiers were tied so their toes barely touched the ground. In this way, all their weight was placed on their shoulders. From previous experience, Al-Mustansir knew this position was excruciatingly painful.

With the British tied up, their uniforms were stripped off; knives had to be used on their shirts, and the Egyptians using the knives were not very careful in their use. Now naked, the British soldiers were used as punching bags. They would be asked a question, and if they took too long to answer, they were punched for a few minutes. Of course, the questions were in Egyptian, so the British had no clue what was being asked. Al-Mustansir would have loved to have someone who could speak British gibberish, but all the English speakers in the army had long since died or been taken prisoner.

After several hours, Al-Mustansir had the woman untied and laid out on a bed of straw. A soldier held onto each limb as the caliph removed his pants and gave his penis a couple of strokes to prepare. He got on top of her and tried to enter her, but she was too dry. While he wanted to hurt her, he didn’t want to hurt himself. Some saliva took care of the problem, and with her hole moist, Al-Mustansir drove deep inside her with one stroke.

The British soldier moaned in pain as Al-Mustansir kept jamming his cock deep inside her. Before long, she was bleeding from her vagina, which cut down on the pain as the blood acted as a lubricant. It took the frustrated Al-Mustansir almost half an hour before he finally reached orgasm and filled the Brit. He slapped her groin and told his soldiers to have fun with her but not to kill her.

While his men were raping the female, Al-Mustansir looked over the males. All were young and strong, thus making them highly valued slaves if they could be broken. However, having testicles wasn’t a requirement, and Al-Mustansir knew he could get higher prices with some slave buyers if the men had been castrated first.

The first British soldier, the one that had hash marks on his sleeve, Al-Mustansir, had a piece of wet leather tied tightly around the man’s waist like a loin cloth. As the leather dried in the sun, it would shrink, thus forcing the man’s testicles back into his body. The second soldier had extremely heavy weights tied to his sack. Either the weights would rip his sack and testicles off, the string would cut into the skin until it cut its way through, or the testicles would be deprived of blood for so long they died and dropped off the body.

For the third man, Al-Mustansir had to think how he wanted the man to suffer. Eventually, he decided to use hot oil to cook them off. The oil would be slowly dripped onto his sack until thoroughly cooked; then, it could be easily cut off and fed to the man.