Chapter 26 September 406 Dura-Rebuilding an Image

            Julius had no choice but to rebuild his image, or he was as good as dead. After his disastrous loss in Paulsland, where he lost an entire army to their new steam weapons, he brought news of the defeat back to his father, Emperor Trajan. There were serious discussions about whether he should fall on his sword or not. If he was viewed as weak and became Emperor, then one of the many leaders in the Empire, perhaps a general or governor, would try to rebel during his rule, or more likely, several would. The future of Rome could not be given to an Emperor who was perceived to be weak.

            In order to strengthen his image, he was given nearly a year to train with the new weapon, the fast fire bow, given twenty thousand horse archers, with the new weapon, and put in command of the war in Parthian. He would succeed, or he would die, and his younger brother would become Emperor. As for his younger brother, he was training with horse archers and preparing to take back Britania. Unfortunately for Rome, their enemies in Britannia were making it very difficult to find a foothold. Until then, his brother would continue to train with his cavalry near the Sea of Britania and attempt to stop the enemy's raids up and down the rivers.

            Just in case both sons failed, Trajan had decided to father another son with Julius’s mother. If both sons failed, and their mother failed to produce a son, then Trajan would announce one of his mistresses' sons as his legal heir, but that would cause internal strife. That said a mistress's son as Emperor would be better than a failed general. Rome’s destiny was to rule the world; weakness would not be tolerated among its Emperors.

            Once Julius’s training was finished, his first stop in their war against Parthian was Jerusalem, as the Parthians had managed to push Rome back to the city, but their defenses were able to withstand the siege. Perhaps things would have been different if there wasn’t a desert between Jerusalem and Parthian’s next nearest city, making logistics very difficult. As for Rome, their logistics were much easier as the Mediterranean was fairly close to Jerusalem.

            When Julius arrived with his twenty thousand horse archers, he made short work of the supply trains of the Parthian army, forcing them to retreat. With that finished, Julius took command of all nearby Roman forces, which amounted to nearly three hundred thousand men, and marched two hundred thousand of them toward Dura. The other hundred thousand men would either continue defending Jerusalem or act as guards for the supply train coming from Jerusalem.

            When they arrived at Dura, he had his men set up temporary fortifications with wood and earth, and while they put that together, he sent out a probing force. As his men neared the walls of Dura, everyone heard ktcha. As the ktcha rang out, Julius felt hope. Hope that he would redeem himself.

            He immediately called for Legate Washington. It wasn’t necessary, after the ktcha legate, Washington was looking for him. He said, “High Legate,” indicating Julius’s status as the head legate of this battleground, “I heard the sound of steam weapons. You are the only legate in Rome with experience fighting them. What are your orders?”

            “We are not going to be able to storm the city, and we cannot allow them to bring their weapons into range with our fortifications. First of all, we need to figure out the range of those weapons, then build three fortifications, each with thirty thousand men, on the east, west, and south sides of the city, about five hundred yards outside of the steam weapons range. If the Euphrates River wasn’t on the north side of the city, I would have you build another fortification there. Once the fortifications are built, put the soldiers to work digging trenches toward the city.”

            “That will take months.”

            “Yes, and it's just the first part of the plan. When we take this city, we will have to incorporate the trenches into the defense of the city; otherwise, the Parthians will be able to use them against us.”

            “How are you planning on doing that?”

            “We have massive supply trains; they are going to have to bring massive amounts of lumber. Once we take the city, we will have locals quarry stone.”

            “Considering how much time it will take to build trenches to those walls, our supply trains should bring enough lumber to rebuild this city twice over. That said, between now and then, what do we do if they bring an army with some more of those steam weapons to attack us?”

            “That’s what the cavalry archers are for. I have no fear of meeting steam weapons on an open field of battle with the new fast fire bows. If our allies hadn’t supplied them, then we would be helpless before the steam weapons, but with the fast fire bows, we can outflank Parthian foot soldiers, and outfight their cavalry.”

            “The fast fire bows are not that complicated, at least not when you know the tricks of the pully system and magazine. Once they capture one it wont take them long to reproduce them. What will we do when they have fast fire bows and steam weapons?”

            “Hopefully, by that time, we will have steam weapons as well. Once we have our soldiers armed with the same weapons, then we will win, because Rome has the greatest soldiers in the world.”

            Washington nodded in agreement and said, “Yes, we do, but that doesn’t change the fact that we don’t have steam weapons.”

            Julius considered for a moment, then said, “Parthian shares their eastern border with Kushan, and we have finally heard back that they are attacking the border on the east because they heard we were attacking Parthian’s western border. I will send a message for our trade ships in Egypt to gift Kushan five thousand fast fire bows, and to let them know that Parthian has steam weapons, and our current tactics to overcome steam weapons.”

            “Why? Won't that make Kushan a harder enemy to conquer when we eventually face them in war?”

            “That’s a problem for the future. Right now, we need to beat Parthian. If Kushan can kill Parthian soldiers in eastern Parthian, while we kill them on western Parthian, then we will conquer Parthian by dividing it. I don’t mind fighting Kushan for the scraps of Parthian in a decade.”


Authors note- I hate jet lag. Should be back to the regular schedual next week, and we should be getting two chapters of earths new timeline until I finish editing the books i need to publish on amazon. Thank you for your patience.