Chapter 576
Cambyses gave a pretty good improvised speech to Mean as she made up her excuses.
And they were indeed excuses because, in reality, Cambyses was determined to stay and defend the manor, both to boost the morale of the already small number of soldiers and also because this manor had about 250 -300 million ropals stored in his basement, which she simply could not leave.
Thus, just how convincing Cambyses was in her speech, and how much of it Mean, who had been with her for so long, had bought remained to be seen,
Though fortunately, this, 'whether Cambyses would stay or not stay' conversation did not drag on for too long.
For sensing the two girls were about to start a small drama, and given that they were already critically short on time, Juminus quickly chimed in to end this exchange, saying,
"Of course, My lady will leave the manor shortly after you Lady Mean. She is the acting ruler of the city, so if something were to happen to her, the people would lose hope!" as he then gave a comforting smile to add,
"She just needs to give out a few orders first, and then she will be on her way to the temple too."
And this reasonable statement worked quickly to convince Mean, while it also woke Cambyses up to the potential consequences of her untimely demise.
If she really died while trying to defend the manor, maybe the city would go along with her.
And this realization made her somewhat reconsider her previous decision.
But the time to make that decision could yet wait.
As right now, Cambyses had more important matters to attend to, and seeing Mean run off to wake up the people in the manor and evacuate them, she turned to Juminus to ask, "Has Menes been informed?"
This was the first and foremost important thing to do, as then the city garrisons could effectively be mobilized.
"No, ma'am. I came right here to let you know as soon as my subordinates told me about it." Juminus answered negatively, but then quickly added,
"But it is possible he has been informed by now by other watchmen. The fire is quite hard to miss."
That was good news to Cambyses who went, "Good, good!"
And then she ordered, "Okay, Juminus you start preparing the defense for the manor. Build whatever you can think of…ditches, ramparts, planting stakes on the ground….whatever you can think of to slow the enemy down!"
"And also conscript every male slave in the maor and give them whatever we have as weapons to defend this place."
"Remember! Whatever enemy we face or how many of them there are, we cannot let them get past this position. Or we are finished."
By this point, Cambyses had shed off the weak, meek look that had affected her and seemed to transform herself into a strict, determined general as she loudly gave out the orders.
"Yes, my lady," And this look made Juminus genuinely respect her, as he received her orders with a salute.
And then proceeded to reveal his plans for the defense which he had been thinking all while,
"I was thinking of placing all one hundred of us in front of the hills equipped with the instant bow. I remember Master saying that those bows were wonder weapons for holding down narrow choke points and for defending sieges."
"So with one hundred of us firing, and given the weapon's rapid rate of fire, it might be like a thousand men are defending the site."
"The enemy will surely have a hard time climbing up the hill," Juminus actually sounded excited as he said this.
And it was true that the man had always felt regretful at not being able to use that revolutionary weapon.
It was so fun to practice it, but its limitations were so grave made it impossible to be used in a real battlefield.
Which had made the man lament oh so much.
But now that he was given the opportunity to use it, and under such important circumstances, of course, he was excited.
In fact, he was so excited that it even overrode the fear of the precarious situation they were in.
"Oh, that's good!" And this of course got a nod of approval from Cambyses, but then quickly inquired with a bit of a worried tone, "But do we have enough bows and arrows?"
She was especially worried about the latter, as though equipping one hundred men was not easy it was still doable.
Whereas it was far more difficult to have enough arrows, especially given the special dimensions of the arrows that were needed to fit the magazine and the prodigious rate at which this specific weapon consumed it.
But Juminus was there to quickly alleviate Cambyses's worry, very loudly saying, "Yes! When master took the 500 men with him, they all left their bows behind."
"As for the bolts, these weapon uses the same bolts as the crossbows use. So we have enough."
And at this point, Juminus's assistant standing next to him too chimed in to reassure Cambyses, saying, "Also mistress remember the weapons workshop is right next to us. They should have some in stock. So we can get even more."
'Yes! The workshop!' Given the chaotic situation, Cambyses had almost forgotten about the almost ten thousand men living next to the manor, and that that place was also a major arms manufacturer.
And so quickly took that into the thought process. rejoicing, 'The men and weapons there can still be used!'
So turning to the assistant who had spoken just now, she quickly ordered, "You! Go find Takfiz!"
"Tell him what has happened"
"And then get him to take all the guards and whatever men he can gather and report to Juminus within the hour. Go!"
Cambyses wanted to boost up the manor's defense as much as she could as soon as she could.
"Yes, ma'am!" And the assistant gave a quick salute and immediately turned around to scamper off.
While on his way he also heard Cambyses's voice ring out from behind, as she additionally ordered, "Oh, also remember to make him come with as many weapons and arrow bolts as he can!"
Cambyses had forgotten to say that the first time in her hurry
And the assistant answered with a curt nod without even turning back as he ran, and soon he was out of sight.
While Juminus, who had not finished explaining his defense plan, continued by saying, "Mistress, while we act as archers, I was thinking of having some of the male servants be placed in front of us to act as screening infantry, and give us protection."
"While others might help with carrying the arrows."
Juminus seemed to be planning quite a robust defense with whatever tools he had.
And hearing this of course Cambyses approved.
Though she also changed that plan a bit saying, "No! All male servants will act as infantry."
"And the women will stay and act as arrow boys. I will cancel the evacuation order I gave Mean. We need to use every pair of hands and legs we have."
Juminus had no problem with this and only rejoiced at getting more troops.
So this was almost everything Juminus had to say to Cambyses, and so, feeling the conversation was finished with him, Cambyses then turned to the who was standing behind Juminus, and till now mute and suddenly asked him, "You! Do you know who is in charge of the wall defenders in this shift? What's his name?"
'That…um…no ma'am," And being suddenly asked this by the most powerful person in the city, the guard stuttered a bit at first and shook while giving the negative answer.
But Cambyses seemed not to care, and continued as is, saying, "Well whatever. I will give you a message. Take it to the man in charge there and tell him that every reserver unit in the garrison is to start making towards the manor as soon as possible. Go!"
Cambyses decided not to just sit and wait for Menes to come to her rescue and instead ordered the garrisons to move on their own.
In this way, if Menes was already on his way, then it was all good either way.
But if not, then Cambyses would not be left to hang in the dry.
"Ye…" But before the guard could accept this assignment, Juminus intervened, saying,
"Wait, mistress! Getting the reserve garrisons to come to us will take hours. Almost all are asleep, and many are even in their homes. After all, we never expected an attack to come!" Juminus revealed an oversight by the military that had gone unnoticed by Cambyses.
"That...why?" And it made the latter confused.
Because according to her knowledge reserves were supposed to stay in their barracks, while the active defense patrolled the walls.
"Anyway, I think we should pull from the active defenders atop the walls. And the reserves can fill up the gap as they wake up," While Juminus, who did not want to explain why that protocol had not been followed quickly attempted to change the topic by saying this
And though Cambyses of course caught this little trick, she kept her cool for now, knowing now was not the time to make a fuss, and simply followed along.
"Okay! Do that!" Cambyses changed the order, before adding in an almost helpless voice, "And let us pray to Gaia that the enemy has not launched a frontal attack to pin us down."
That would be truly catastrophic.
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