Chapter 297: 296: Invasion of Murcia

Months had gone by since the conflict in Iberia had reignited. At the moment, Hasan was at the head of his army, backed by Arnulf and his other officers who acted in an advisory capacity to the Granadan forces. 

In front of their army of 15,000 men was an army of 20,000 Iberians. This army was just one of the many units at the disposal of Granada's enemies.  As for the troops at Hasan's command, this was the maximum amount of soldiers he could field at the moment.

Hasan had boldly taken an offensive stance in this conflict after months of defending his borders; as such, he was attacking a region owned by Castile known as Murcia. This region was on the borders of his Emirate and once belonged to the Moors. 

Due to centuries of Reconquista, the Moors had been continuously pushed back from the land they had conquered in Iberia to the point that now the Emirate of Granada was all that remained. Before Berengar endorsed the Sultan, it appeared as if the moors would be pushed out of the region entirely.

Yet now, with the military aid that had been given to them, they were able to hold their ground for the time being. As such, Hasan had taken advantage of the situation to press into Murcia. With General Arnulf nearby, Hasan felt the need to ask the Austrian the question on his mind.

"What do you think of our chances?"

To this, Arnulf scratched his chin before responding.

"If your army fulfills their duty to the standards we have trained them in, I'd say there's at least a 60% chance of victory..."

This figure did not make Hasan very hopeful, however, it was best not to dwell on such things; as such, he sighed heavily before giving his officers their orders.

"Prepare the cannons to fire, tell the arkebusiers to load their weapons, and begin their march. The pikeman shall protect their flanks, as for the Cavalry form on me!"

At this point, Hasan unsheathed his ivory and gold-hilted Damascus steel shamshir and raised it into the air as he began to trod forth with his Cavalry. The heavily armored Granadan horsemen started their descent from the hilltop above as the falconet cannons began to open fire on the Iberian Union's forces. 

The one-pound cannonballs flew at great speed into the ranks of the enemy forces, shattering through their shields and armor and sending those unfortunate enough to get hit by them directly into the afterlife. 

In response to this, the Catholic Knights immediately began their charge at the infantry; however, the pikes were lowered, scaring the horses to run amok. When they got near, the massive pike wall several Knights were thrown off their steeds and onto the ground below where the pikes were thrust into them. 

Some of the Knights were unfortunate enough to have gaps in their armor pierced, and as such were wounded, or possibly killed as their blood oozed onto the field below. Other's simply got up from the ground and tried to break through the pike wall. 

However, when they did so, the arkebusiers who had been holding their shots opened fire on the knights and men at arms in front of them, sending their lead projectiles through their torsos and helmets and claiming their lives in the hundreds. 

Many of the soldiers missed their shots, and after the volley had been fired, they began to reload their weapons, first by taking off the lit match and holding it to the side, then by opening one of the twelve apostles that hung from their bandolier, these so-called apostles contained the powder and shot necessary to load the arkebuse firearms.

They then poured the apostle's contents down the barrel before compacting the powder and shot into the barrel with their ramrods. After finishing that step, they had placed the ramrod back in its socket before raising the gun, where they poured some powder from their flask into the pan. After doing so, they put the match back on the lock and cocked it back into action before presenting their arms at the enemy.

The entire process took close to a minute for the Granadan troops to complete, and while they had done so, they were being protected by the ranks of pikeman who rushed into the fray and kept the enemy at bay. 

The battle raged on, and the Pikemen withdrew from the front allowing the Arkebusiers to aim their weapons and fire another shot into the mix. With the Catholic Knights sorely defeated, the Granadan Cavalry struck at the rear of the Iberian formation.

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Under Hasan's leadership, the Cavalry had circled the enemy troops and attacked from the rear, causing chaos and devastation among their ranks. The lances and swords utilized by the Granadan Cavalry as they attacked the hostile soldiers pierced through their weak spots and claimed their lives, spilling blood and bile onto the field in the process.

As Hasan was riding on horseback, a cannonball whizzed past his head, nearly claiming his life; the moment it did so, the young Sultan almost pissed his pants in fear. Nevertheless, he calmed himself and pressed on as his soldiers trampled through the Granadans ranks.

Seeing that the Cavalry had now gotten in range of the friendly cannons, Arnful waved a small flag signaling the Artillery to cease their attack. As such, they immediately complied with their orders and waited for the battle to resolve itself.

Arnulf was smirking as he gazed upon the field, the medieval forces of the Iberian Union were not ready for the era of pike and shot, and the victories that had been achieved up until this point was proof of such a thing. 

Arnulf had no idea how Berengar had come up with such viable strategies, but he was there when Bernegar's armies made use of them during the war with Kitzbühel; it had been a little over three years since that minor border war, and yet in that time so much had happened.

The young Viscount could hardly believe how far he had come in this time, and it was all thanks to one man, even if that man was a filthy degenerate who used the German Reformation as an excuse to absolve himself of his actions in the public eye. 

As such, a wry smile appeared on the man's face as he reflected on his past. While he was doing this, the Iberian forces had begun to route, and thus, Arnulf snapped to attention, waving a flag in the air signaling the Granadan troops to halt. 

Eventually, the message was spread, and the Granadans ceased their pursuit of the Iberian Union's army. Though this was not a victory that caused significant casualties to the enemies, it had severely weakened their morale and, more importantly, opened up their path to controlling the province. 

With the battle over, Arnulf rode down with his officers into the field alongside the Grandan troops who had begun to clean up the battlefield, taking anything of value from the fallen Iberian forces and leaving the rest for the crows to feast upon. 

After arriving in front of Hasan, Arnulf decided to give the man congratulations for his victory.

"Your Eminence, Sultan Hasan Al-Fadl, I congratulate you for your victory on this day. Let this be a reminder to the Catholic scum who dare to invade your lands that even a wolf that has been backed into a corner still has teeth!"

Upon hearing this, Hasan, whose armor was stained in the blood of his enemies, began to laugh. 

"Well said, my Austrian friend. However, now is not the time to celebrate; first, we must win this war!"

With that said, the war in Iberia had begun to escalate, as the Granadan forces would soon seize control of Murcia and make further conquests into Catholic territory; the battle here in the Murcian plains was the first of the Emirates of Granada's offensive campaign against their enemies. 

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