Chapter 49: And Into the Fire

“I hear a lot of crap about what a glorious thing it is to die for your country. It isn’t glorious—it’s stupid! You don’t go into battle to die for your country. You go into battle to make the other bastard die for his country.” – General George S. Patton Jr.

Southwest of Suez, Fatimid Caliphate. September 1076

The scorching hot sun beat directly down on her face as the wind threatened to sandblast her skin off, but General Ó Braonáin led her troops forward. She was determined to trap that bastard caliph and end him forever. She knew the man he had castrated and wanted revenge.

When she was younger, she remembered the pain in her parents’ eyes when the local lord castrated her father because the lord’s daughter claimed her father had made inappropriate advances on her. The daughter was lying through her teeth since Ailbe’s father was devoted to her mother and had been with her when the daughter claimed Ailbe’s father had been staring at her. Since the local lord believed anything his daughter told him, no matter the evidence against her, Ailbe’s father lost his testicles. Ailbe got her revenge during the noble’s rebellion when she caught the daughter and her father trying to escape. It took several hours before Ailbe felt her father had been avenged, but by that time, the father and daughter were near death. A quick flick of a knife took care of that problem.

It took some time, but General Ó Braonáin caught up with the retreating Egyptians. She had lost them twice and was determined not to let it happen a third time. As soon as she caught up with the caliph, General Ó Braonáin launched an all-out attack. Since the terrain was rocky, she chose to leave the horses in camp and make the advance on foot.

With only 2,800 soldiers, Ailbe couldn’t attack from multiple directions, so she didn’t try. Instead, everyone was in one attacking force, intending to overwhelm the defenders at the point of contact. Ailbe’s troops smashed through the outermost defenses with little problems and soon came into contact with a second line.

The second line put up a stiff resistance that cost Ailbe over 100 soldiers before the line was breached. It was the last line that stopped the British. The Egyptians had learned well and fought from prepared bunkers dug into the hillsides. They had enough interlocking fields of fire that the British couldn’t advance anymore. Ailbe ordered four attacks before darkness fell, which forced her to halt the attacks. After seeing the butcher bill, Ailbe decided to sit tight and wait for reinforcements. She had lost almost 800 soldiers and barely had enough to hold the line. To keep the caliph from attacking, Ailbe used some of the horses to pull ropes with rocks tied to the end, kicking up large amounts of dust to make it look like they were a large army.

She had the caliph’s army pinned down outside the fishing village of Zaafarana. At least that was the name the locals gave her. Ailbe didn’t know if they were telling the truth, but it was as good a name as any. What concerned Ailbe most was supplies. There was never enough to go around, and many horses were in bad shape. While Ailbe didn’t want to, she was forced to start killing them, but the meat wasn’t wasted. The worst horses were butchered to help feed her troops, thus stretching her supplies a bit further.

If Ailbe thought her supplies were short, Al-Mustansir’s army was running on fumes. Many had not had a decent meal since they had been pushed out of their last defensive position. When they retreated, most of their supplies were lost or captured, and the only food they got was what they scrounged. Most of the food they ate was buzzard, camel, or horse. By the time they reached Zaafarana, no pack animals were left, and many men would have eaten almost anything, even raw pork. Worse was the lack of water, as the sandstorm had dried the army out, and there wasn’t a well to be found.

The fresh fish was the only good thing about being trapped against the sea. Al-Mustanṣir was glad to have fresh food, even if it was fish. Fish wasn’t his favorite dish, but it was better than eating sand or boot leather. The bad thing about being trapped against the sea was there was nowhere left to run. While Al-Mustanṣir could escape, his army would be destroyed due to the lack of boats.

Ailbe kept the pressure on the Egyptians, preventing them from trying to escape. She ordered her troops to shoot any Egyptian foolish enough to show themselves in range of British guns. The British dragoons would break through and capture the village if they tried to withdraw. The British had the Egyptians pinned in an area only two kilometers long and one kilometer deep, so they didn’t have far to go to reach the village, which would have completely cut the Egyptians off from any supplies.

Against this backdrop, Al-Mustanṣir decided to stay and either win or die. The British controlled the rest of the Caliphate, so he had nowhere to go. As Al-Mustanṣir stared at the British lines, he wondered what became of his emissary to the Seljuk Empire. If the Seljuks became involved, the war could be reversed, and Al-Mustanṣir could regain his throne. Al-Mustanṣir knew of the Seljuk sultan, and he didn’t have high hopes since the sultan loved learning and knowledge, which defined the British in Europe.

Since the war started, Al-Mustanṣir often wondered why the British were so blessed. They had a queen that, while ruthless as a crocodile, was as beautiful as the sunrise and more intelligent than the most learned scholar. The only person who matched the queen’s ruthlessness and intelligence was her husband. Al-Mustanṣir had seen firsthand what dealing with the field marshal was like. Luke had pushed Al-Mustanṣir from one end of Egypt to the other and now had him pinned with his back to the sea.

Watching the sunset, Al-Mustanṣir heard the telltale sounds of the fishing boats returning. There weren’t many boats left, but enough to provide some men with a little food. When Al-Mustanṣir got to the beach, he realized something was wrong as many men were growing angry. Finding the answer didn’t take long, as the fishermen had barely caught any fish.

If this continued for a few days, Al-Mustanṣir would have to attack, surrender, or retreat and take his chances in the Sinai. The tribes in the Sinai were not friendly to Al-Mustanṣir, and it was more likely they would kill him than take him in and feed him. Shaking his head, Al-Mustanṣir went to the small shack he had taken control of and crawled into bed. It had been another long day, and tomorrow promised to be more of the same.

Across the lines, Ailbe was preparing to settle down for the evening. She had a comfortably full stomach, and her thirst was quenched. Thanks to British ingenuity and Luke’s help, Ailbe’s brigade had several solar-powered stills used to distill sea water into fresh. While the water didn’t taste the best, it was fresh and available. Her brigade still had half of their horses, and a message had come in from Field Marshal MacDougall saying he would arrive with the rest of the division late the next morning.

True to his word, Ailbe received word at 10:00 the following day that the rest of the division would arrive at the camp within an hour. General Ó Braonáin stood outside her tent when Field Marshal MacDougall jumped off his horse.

Like most female officers, Ailbe wouldn’t refuse Luke if he offered her a spot in his bed, even though she believed that a man and a woman should be married before engaging in intercourse. She had heard stories of Luke making the queen scream in ecstasy and leaving her a boneless mass of quivering flesh. As Field Marshal MacDougall walked up to her, General Ó Braonáin pulled herself from her fantasies to report.

“Welcome to Zaafarana, sir.”

“Thank you. Zaafarana, eh?”

“It’s what the natives call the nearby village, sir.”

“You can stop with the sirs, general.”

“Yes, sir.” Luke shot Ailbe a dirty look, but she kept the smile off her face.

“Very funny. Now, what’s the situation?”

“Al-Mustanṣir is trapped in the village with approximately 9,000 soldiers and 50 civilians. They have no livestock, but they have a small number of boats that go out fishing every morning.”

“Any chance the caliph has left on a boat? Can we intercept the boats?”

“We don’t think so, but it’s possible since we’re close to the Sinai. We could if we had boats, but we haven’t found any nearby.”

“Have you spotted any foreign troops?”

“No, sir. Are you expecting them?”

“Possibly. Intel suggests foreign troops could be on the way, but nothing concrete has been seen yet.”

“Damn it. Can we finish this war before they arrive?”

“You tell me, general. Your troops have been surrounding them for the last few days.” Ailbe thought for a moment.

“Yes, sir, although it could be costly. The Egyptians are trapped and have nowhere to go, but they have a good defensive position and could hold us off for a few days.”

“Damn. I didn’t bring any artillery either since the terrain is so rough. Although I think we are close enough, we may be able to get some from Suez. How are you fixed for supplies?”

“If you hadn’t shown up, we would have been on three-quarter rations starting tomorrow. Thankfully, the stills produce enough water for the brigade and our remaining horses.”

“Okay, let’s go inside to get out of this heat.” Luke and Ailbe stepped into her tent before he pulled out a map. “Show me where the enemy is entrenched.”

Ailbe got herself oriented to Luke’s map and used a pencil to draw the positions of the Egyptian Army. Thanks to her failed assaults, she knew exactly where they were. Luke looked at the map when she was done drawing and whistled softly. While he had little doubt he could break the Egyptian’s defensive line, it would be costly. Or he could wait and let the supply shortage weaken the enemy before attacking. The risk was the enemy could get reinforcements, or Al-Mustanṣir could slip away.

Al-Mustanṣir woke up early, hearing his soldier’s excitement. He rushed outside and saw a boat landing Seljuk cavalry. The smile on his face was involuntary as he began celebrating with his troops; salvation had arrived. That feeling lasted until Al-Mustanṣir met with the cavalry commander, Colonel Mehrdad. Something had to be wrong; the commander should have been a general or a governor.

“I am sorry, but the Sultan only decided to send you 250 soldiers with me in command. He views your position as untenable and not worth wasting more troops. Additionally, with the British control of the sea and the narrow part of the Sinai, Seljuk troops would be slaughtered due to the limited space.” Al-Mustanṣir gave the man a stern look.

“Not enough space? Just how much space does the Seljuk Army require to operate? We are fighting a Jihad against Christian infidels!”

“No, you are not. You are fighting the British because you foolishly took some of their citizens as slaves and refused to release them.”

“YOU...” Al-Mustanṣir began to scream, but Mehrdad cut him off.

“If you continue, I will load my men back on their boats and leave you to face the British alone.”

Al-Mustanṣir was stuck. His forces had taken a beating when the British first arrived, and while they had successfully repulsed their advances, it had been a very close battle that had cost him dearly.

“My apologies, colonel. When will you have your remaining troops ashore?”

“They should all be ashore before noon. What are your plans?”

“We have to attack. There aren’t enough boats to escape; if we tried, the British would be on us like locusts. With our supplies dwindling, it would be better to attack as soon as possible rather than wait. Right now, we are facing one British cavalry brigade, which has 3,000 soldiers at full strength. We bloodied their noses when they attacked a few days ago, so I figure there are about 2,000 British troops still out there.”

“Wait. The enemy only has about 2,000 men. How many do you have? 8,000? 9,000? Why haven’t you attacked yet?”

“I have approximately 9,000 men. The British do not have 2,000 men. They have 2,000 soldiers; roughly a quarter of their army is comprised of women. Of the two, I would rather face men because when you corner one of their women, she fights as if the devil is after her. Before you discard the women in their army, remember they have firearms that do not require strength to use, just a steady hand and good eyes. Worse, their cavalry have repeating rifles; they don’t need to be reloaded after every shot. Instead, a soldier can shoot 15 times before having to reload. Each shot can kill out to 500 paces.”

Mehrdad stared at Al-Mustanṣir with his mouth open. If everything he said was true and not a defeated man’s exaggeration, he could see why Al-Mustanṣir had not attacked.

“What about enemy reinforcements? We heard they have about 48,000 troops here.”

“They do. One of their divisions is holding the delta. That’s 15,000 soldiers. The last I heard, another division was holding upper Egypt against the Nubians. So, at maximum, we would only be facing one division plus their Grenadiers, which are another 3,000. So, at full strength, we would be facing a total of 18,000 soldiers. Thanks to our spies, we know the British suffered badly due to the heat and heavy casualties during our last battle. With the rough terrain, the enemy will have difficulty moving their artillery, so we figure it will be another week before the enemy receives any reinforcements.”

“I suggest you attack first thing in the morning. From the condition of your troops, they will not be able to fight a daytime battle, but if they attack when the sun crests the horizon, they will have a chance to reach the enemy before being shot up.”

“I agree. Will you honor Allah and join our attack?”

“That is why we came here.”

“Very well. I will leave you to oversee the arrival of your troops.”

As Mehrdad walked away, his deputy came up to him.

“You are not going to let him use us as the tip of the spear, are you?”

“No. Absolutely not. I have higher orders, and I refuse to disobey the Sultan.”

“Good, that man will get us all killed.”

“If I were him, I would try my best to get all of us killed and hope it would infuriate the Sultan enough for the Sultan to declare war on the British.”