Tyranny of Steel

In the fields outside the city of Acre, tens of thousands of soldiers marched towards each other. On one side was the mighty crusader army composed of fifteen thousand men, on the other was the Byzantine-Timurid alliance, which held an equal number of soldiers. While the infantry marched towards one another with killing intent, the artillery had begun to open fire on their adversaries.

The Byzantine Artillery officers were well disciplined, having received their training from German Military Advisors. The individual members of the artillery batteries loaded their weapons from the muzzle, before lighting the linstock and using it to ignite the cannon. With a thunderous echo, the cannonballs rained onto the crusader armies, blasting bodies apart as they burrowed their way through the enemy ranks.

Aubry was not the kind of man to lead his troops from the front, rather, he, like his English counterpart, stayed safely behind their own lines, and observed the battle as it took place in the field below. The boy king could not help but exclaim in shock as he witnessed the carnage inflicted on the crusader armies by the superior Byzantine artillery. He pouted lightly as he condemned Berengar for selling him bad goods.

”That German bastard! If I had known the cannons, he sold me were inferior to his allies, I would have never bothered paying full price! ”

As he said this, another bombardment struck the Crusader lines, turning men into meat paste. However, because they were not explosive shells, the cannon balls were far less effective than the artillery that the German Army had at its command.

King Lawrence merely scoffed when he heard this before scolding the boy for his own stupidity.