Dawn of Empire

by H A CULLEY

  Narem-Suen retreated again feeling pleased at the latter comment, but chafing at the restrictions imposed on him whilst he remained a convalescent. He was also increasingly jealous of his brother’s role as his replacement. Uktannu had really come out of his shell recently and was making a much better job of command than his brother would have ever thought possible. He was really worried now that Uktannu would remain as leader of the slingers even after he was fully recovered. He was fairly certain that he would be offered a command of some sort; after all he had been offered it before. However, captain of a hundred spearmen, or even camel archers, wouldn’t be the same. The corps of slingers had been his creation and he enjoyed the independence of this command. Being one of ten commanded by a captain of a thousand just wouldn’t be the same.

  Still, there was nothing he could do about it now. Even crippled as he was whilst his leg healed, he could still use his bow and so he went to find the captain of the archers to offer him his services if they were attacked.

  ~#~

  Arishaka and Mutu-Namaha sat tied up against a post outside the large tent that belonged to the Elamite army commander. The two men they had brought with them had died trying to defend them and the Elamites had stripped them before leaving them for the buzzards but, not content with that, they had gouged out their eyes and cut off their genitals so that they would be blind and impotent in the afterlife. Arishaka had vowed at that moment to survive, whatever it took, so he could take revenge on the barbarians who would do such a thing.

  Their hands had been tied and the ropes attached to the chariot so that they had to run all the way into the centre of the enemy camp, being insulted and having stones thrown at them all the way. One had struck Mutu-Namaha on the temple and he had nearly blacked out. He stumbled and fell to the ground. Arishaka had hauled him to his feet and then helped him along until he recovered.

  They were left there for several hours, tied to the post under the blazing sun without water, before they were hauled in front of the Elamite army commander.

  ‘Who are you and what were you doing spying on us?’ The man spat out the words in Akkaddian.

  ‘We were sent to see how much damage we did to your ramp last night.’ Arishaka didn’t see any point in denying the obvious, but he wasn’t about to reveal what important captives he and the boy were.

  ‘You didn’t tell me who you were.’

  ‘I’m a minor officer in the Babylonian army and this is my nephew.’ At least the second admission was true.

  ‘Where is your camp now? We’ve found out where your old one was. Where have you moved it to?’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘Don’t even think about being stupid enough to deny you know. If you don’t tell me I’ll blind the boy before cutting off his fingers and then his toes one by one.’

  ‘No, don’t do that. I’ll tell you.’ Arishaka was thinking quickly. If he told them, he believed that his army could defend the position and inflict serious casualties on the Elamites. One of the problems he had been considering was how to trick the enemy into attacking. He just wished that he could be there to see it.

  He fell to his knees as if he was terrified of the man and what he could do. He gabbled out directions to the camp.

  ‘Uncle, you can’t betray…’ Mutu-Namaha’s words were cut off as a guard kicked him in the ribs.

  ‘Thank you. You have been very sensible. I just hope that you’re not trying to mislead me. If you are, you will watch your nephew being tortured to death slowly before I kill you. Perhaps flaying him alive might be amusing. Have you ever seen anyone have their skin peeled off strip by strip? No? Oh, you’ll be in for a real treat then,’ he smirked nastily.

  ‘But I have told you the truth. What will happen to us when you see that I am right?’

  ‘Perhaps you’ll be shipped to work in my tin mines, you might live a few more years but you’ll end up wishing I had killed you now.’

  Ten minutes later the two were thrown, bound hand and foot, into a small tent. They could hear guards talking to each other by the entrance and later they heard the noise of a large army leaving the camp. Presumably these were the men he had seen parading for inspection earlier. If so, there had to be at least ten thousand of them.

  ‘Why did you tell them where our camp is? You have betrayed our men! I would have rather been tortured to death than that!’ the boy hissed at him, regarding him with hate and contempt.

  ‘Shh! I’ve been trying to think of a way to tempt these bastards into that canyon ever since we found it. They’re in for a nasty shock if they are stupid enough to attack the camp. Now shut up and help me think of a way for us to get out of here.’

  ‘Oh! I didn’t realise…’ His voice trailed away. ‘I’ve got a small knife in my right boot,’ he whispered. Unlike his uncle, who was wearing sandals, Mutu-Namaha had put on a pair of soft leather boots. Arishaka shuffled next to him until he could reach the top of his boot. He managed to get his fingers around the top of the haft and pulled it out of its sheath. Then he lost his grip and it fell to the dirt floor.

  He swore but a minute later he had located the knife and he was sawing away at his nephew’s bonds. It wasn’t easy sitting back to back as he couldn’t see what he was doing. At one stage the boy cried out when the knife cut his wrist. Luckily it was only a minor cut and a minute later the hemp rope parted. Two minutes later they had undone their bonds and slit open the back of the tent with the knife. Luckily they seemed to be in a part of the camp that was deserted, probably the part normally occupied by the forces who had gone to attack the Babylonians.

  They scuttled at a crouch through the tent lines towards where Ashlatum thought that the Onager paddock was. He hoped that their horses might have been put in there. They were in luck but their reins had been removed and without them there was no way of controlling them. Worse, there were at last twenty sentries on duty.

  The two retreated to an empty tent to decide what to do. The tent looked as if it as occupied by ten soldiers, then Arishaka noticed that one of them, dressed in just a loincloth, was still there. He had a bandaged shoulder so had presumably been wounded during the previous night’s attack. He started to cry out just as Arishaka leaped on him and shoved his hand over his mouth. Mutu-Namaha pulled out his knife and knocking his uncle’s hand out of the way, sawed it across the man’s throat.

  The soldier’s spear and shield sat in a corner of the tent together with his robe and a dagger. By the time that the two left the tent the Babylonian army commander was dressed as a common spearman and his nephew had stripped down to his loincloth so that he looked like a servant boy. He had been loath to trade his boots for bare feet but no servant would wear expensive soft leather boots.

  The two walked confidently towards the paddock, intending to steal back their horses, but then they noticed a heavy chariot being harnessed to four onagers, which had presumably just been recaptured. The chariot was being prepared near the gate to the paddock by the charioteer whilst an officer and a spearman stood waiting nearby. Arishaka and Mutu-Namaha wandered purposefully up to the officer as if they had a message for him then, without any warning, Arishaka stabbed the officer in the chest, killing him instantly. He pulled the spear out and used his shield to deflect the other man’s spear.

  Meanwhile the boy had jumped into the chariot and, leaping onto the back of the surprised charioteer, cut his throat. Arishaka and the remaining Elamite were trading blows with spear and shield but the sentries were now running towards them. The Babylonian charged forward holding his shield in front of him and forced his opponent back against the chariot. Mutu-Namaha grabbed his long hair and pulled his head back sharply. Taken unawares, the man as unable to defend himself for a second or two. Arishaka used the time to drive his spear into his neck.

  He leaped into the chariot and whipped the onagers into a stately trot. The sentries were pounding along in the chariot’s wake and gaining on it. The whip soon encouraged the animals into a slow canter but the running men were still gaining
. Arishaka gave the boy the reins and picked up one of the throwing spears from a holder on the chariot’s side. He took careful aim and threw. The leading sentry leaped backwards with a spear in his chest as if pulled by a rope. After the next man had suffered the same fate, the remainder pulled up and threw their spears uselessly at the receding chariot.

  ‘We were lucky to get out of there, uncle,’ the boy said reproachfully. He still wasn’t sure that he had forgiven him for giving away the army’s location, even if he had come up with a plausible reason.

  ‘Not just luck, Audacity and enterprise played an important part too.’

  ‘That wouldn’t have helped if I hadn’t had a knife in my boot.’

  ‘That’s true. But we did it, and just think what a hero you’ll be!’

  His nephew laughed. ‘Not to my father we won’t be. He’ll be furious when he finds out.’

  ‘Well, he’s a long way away in Babylon so let’s hope other events and the passage of time will soften his ire by the time we see him again.’

  Little did he know that Hammurabi already knew and his anger was growing with every passing minute, fuelled by his concern for the two of them.

  An hour later the two caught sight of the rear-guard of the Elamite army, so they made a long detour to the east until they were well clear of the slow moving army.

  As they approached the canyon leading to their camp, they saw the tail end of a company of spearmen disappearing into another valley to the south. His curiosity piqued, Arishaka changed direction and, despite his companion’s protests, chased after the disappearing soldiers. He slowed the chariot as it neared the entrance to the valley into which the troops had disappeared.

  He started to approach cautiously when some fifty horsemen and camel archers suddenly charged out of the valley and quickly surrounded him. He had to deflect a couple of arrows with his shield before the leader of the patrol called for his men to stop. It was then that Arishaka recognised his other nephew.

  ‘Samsu-Iluna? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Uncle? It is you! I recognised my half naked brother but I didn’t realise it was you with him. Why are you dressed like an Elamite soldier?’

  ‘It’s a long story, but I’m here with father and another three thousand men.’

  ‘Hammurabi, here?’ His heart sank; so much for the passage of time blunting his fury. Then he realised what Samsu-Iluna had said. ‘With another three thousand?’

  ‘Yes, he has given me command. We are to wait here until the Elamites are committed to the attack on your camp and then we are to attack from the rear to demoralise them and prevent any escaping.’

  ‘The king is optimistic about a victory then?’ Arishaka grinned. ‘Does he know that they have sent about twelve thousand men against us?’

  ‘No, you had better go and tell him. Not that it will make any difference.’ The youth grinned back at him. ‘And good luck. You’ll need it, judging by the curses he was calling down on your head when I left him.’

  ‘Ha! He’ll be so relieved to see us back safe and sound that he’ll forget all about being angry. Anyway, he hasn’t got the time to berate us before they get here.’

  He threw away the Elamite shield and robe and, borrowing clothing from a grinning horseman, who he left in nothing but his loincloth and, grasping a blue Babylonian flag, he turned the chariot and headed for the canyon leading to his camp.

  ‘Lord king, the army commander and your son have returned. They say that the enemy is about half an hour from the entrance to the canyon.’ Dadanum tried to keep his pleasure at their safe reappearance out of his voice, but failed.

  ‘Bring them in,’ Hammurabi barked. If he too was relieved by their safe return, he was hiding it well.

  ‘Brother, I’m very pleased to see you and especially pleased to see the reinforcements you have brought with you. The Elamites are ...’

  ‘Yes, yes; I know all about the bloody Elamites. What do you mean by putting your life in danger, and even more importantly, the life of my son?’ His eyes flashed angrily as he spoke.

  ‘We can talk about that later. The important thing now is to defeat the enemy.’ His brother replied quietly.

  ‘Oh no you don’t! You can’t behave in a totally irresponsible manner and then rush off to play the hero again. I want an explanation and then I’ll consider whether my decision to remove you from command of the army stands or not.’

  ‘What? Are you out of your mind? The enemy is at our gates and our place is out there encouraging our men and being seen to share the dangers with them, not skulking in here arguing. Or do you want to undermine their morale?’ Arishaka was also getting angry now.

  ‘Arishaka is right, father,’ his son broke in quietly. ‘We can talk about this later. Right now we need to be out there with our men. Yes, we were in danger for a time, but the Elamites wouldn’t be walking into a trap if we hadn’t been captured so that Arishaka could direct them here. They heavily outnumber us and the two of you are needed to direct this battle if we are to win.’

  Hammurabi looked at his son in surprise and bit back the angry retort that first came to his lips.

  ‘You’ve grown up quite a bit since I last saw you, my son.’ He considered the boy thoughtfully for a moment before turning back to his brother. ‘Very well, but don’t think that you’ve heard the last of this. You had better go and dress more like my army commander first though.’

  ~#~

  The Elamite commander had brought half his strength with him, leaving the other, and less experienced, half to continue the siege. The twelve thousand were made up of forty chariots - all he had onagers for after the previous night’s attack - seven hundred archers and eleven thousand spearmen. Of these a thousand were Eshnunnans, to whom he intended to give the honour of leading the assault.

  As the chariots in the lead neared the entrance to the canyon they halted. The commander studied the ground. The entrance was quite wide, with grass and scrub growing on either bank of the stream that emptied into a large pool. From here the stream meandered across the plain to join the mighty Tigris many miles to the east. Further up the canyon narrowed and then disappeared around a bend. At this point it was perhaps fifty yards wide. The mountains, into which the canyon ran, rose almost vertically from the plain and the sides of the canyon were similarly steep.

  He decided that his chariots wouldn’t be a lot of use in the canyon and left them as a rear-guard. With the Eshnunnans in the lead, followed by his archers and then the rest of the spearmen in one mass, he led them into the canyon. At one point on the left there was a less severe incline and he sent some men scrambling up the slope to secure the top of the ridge but, after an hour they returned to say that they couldn’t advance along the top because of a crevasse that divided one mountain from the next. By this time it was mid-afternoon and so the Elamites pressed on more quickly to locate the Babylonian camp before dark.

  As they came round another bend they saw what looked like the end of the canyon. Then their commander realised that it was a defensive wall built of stone. It stood about fifteen foot high with a steep, rock strewn approach for the last twenty yards. He was so busy studying the wall that he failed to notice the sangers built into the cliff face along the final approach to the wall. These were constructed of the same dark brown rock as the rest of the mountains and the men manning them were crouched down low behind them so as not to give their positions away.

  Protected by the Eshnunnans with their large shields, the archers advanced to less than a hundred yards from the wall and started to shoot at the men manning the top of it. The Babylonian archers replied but most of their arrows struck the Eshnunnans’ shields. Then, suddenly, arrows spears and stones from Uktannu’s slingers rained down on the archers and their protectors from both flanks. Within a minute over a hundred lay dead or wounded. The archers switched their attention to the sangers, but they were firing up at them and most arrows struck the stone walls or went over the sanger to hit the side of the mo
untain. The shield bearers couldn’t protect the archers from both the sangers and the archers on the wall and the casualties started to escalate.

  By the time that their commander had given the order for the enemy archers to withdraw, over half of them were down, as were several hundred of the Eshnunnans. Just at that moment he heard the faint sounds of battle coming from the mouth of the canyon.

  ~#~

  As soon as his scouts had reported that the Elamites had entered the canyon, leaving their chariots behind, Samsu-Iluna told his own chariots, camel archers and horsemen to stand by. He waited until he could faintly hear the sounds of battle coming echoing down the ravine before he led his men out to attack the enemy rear guard. He only had twenty of his own chariots but he had five hundred camel archers and fifty horsemen armed with spears. It was an unequal contest.

  Hammurabi’s eldest son rode in the lead chariot flying the blue flag of Babylon. As he neared the slower moving enemy chariots his charioteer hauled on the reins and the light chariot veered sharply to the left running across the front of the charging enemy line. Samsu-Iluna pulled back his bowstring again and again, shooting arrows into the oncoming onagers. His other chariots did the same, nine following him and the other ten turning to tackle the right of the enemy line. By the time that the Babylonians had turned and raced back to their own lines, nearly half the Elamite chariots were disabled.

  The chariots with dead or badly wounded onagers in the traces were stationary as their crews tried desperately to cut them free. The chariots that were still mobile turned and fled back to the entrance to the ravine. Samsu-Iluna gestured to his camel troops and horsemen to finish off the immobilised chariots and led his twenty chariots after the fleeing enemy. Heavy chariots pulled by lumbering onagers couldn’t outrun the light Babylonian chariots pulled by horses.