Chapter 863 Perseus’s State of MInd

Chapter 863 Perseus's State of MInd

?863 Perseus's State of MInd

The fortifications of the city of Lilybee could not be said to be bad based on the time when it was built.

At a time when catapults did not exist, the almost two story high, two meters thick walls could indeed pose quite a significant threat to any attacking enemy if they were properly manned and garrisoned.

But unfortunately, this furthest port city of Tibias had been unable to keep up with the times.

Defenses that were once considered pretty decent now seemed to be lacking in luster.

It was because of this that even though one of the reasons why Perseus had come here was indeed due to the city's famed defenses, upon actually seeing the state of it for himself, he could not help but lampoon its deficiencies when compared with a city like Thesalie.

And even that city had fallen despite it being a few times bigger and there even being two walls instead of Lilybee's single one.

So Perseus would have indeed been foolish to try and frustrate Alexander with simply such rudimentary fortifications.

"If we defend using the walls, we will simply be ground to dust by Alexander. And this is if we are lucky and do not starve ourselves to death first!" Perseus shot this to the few officers and nobles who were in favor of such a strategy.

And the latter was indeed another reason why Perseus could not afford a long siege.

Because if one recalled, his camp was broken into and looted by Menes in the previous battle, meaning Perseus had lost all his supplies in one fell swoop.

Fortunately, it was around mid spring when that loss had occurred, meaning the earth was filled with life by then and so Perseus had been able to live off the land by simply foraging, asking the nearby towns and cities to contribute, as well as receiving some grains from the capital.

The problem of food still existed but it was not that extreme.

But the other matter that certainly was extreme, one that Perseus decided not to bring up openly- was the matter of pay.

Especially the mercenaries pay!

Because the camp had contained not only food and gold too!

Gold that was meant to be paid to the soldiers and especially the mercenaries as their salaries.

In fact, during the sacking of the camp, MN found not only the gold that was meant to be paid in the future, but also the gold that had been already paid to the soldiers, as almost all the men stored their pay in their tents, which was also inside the camp.

Hence not only had the soldiers lost all their previous months' pay but they were also told that they were going to have to keep fighting for several foreseeable months without any sign of coin.

The fact that this produced an unpleasant reaction did not need to be stated.

The situation with the regular grunts was still manageable, even if it was exactly easy.

And it was not just him shedding crocodile tears either.

For the guilt, combined with all the stress over so many problems and worry of losing his throne and everything he held dear literally changed Perseus physically.

He currently looked, much slimmer as the man had lost quite a bit of weight, and much haggard, with sunken eyes and gaunt cheeks, emitting an aura of desolateness.

So adding to the lack of fortification, inadequate stock of food, and no money to pay his soldiers, there was also Perseus's current mindset, which simply did not want to engage in a prolonged battle.

Whatever happened, he wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.

It was due to all these combined reasons, that pulling his spine straight, he had sworn with a martyr like voice, "If I'm destined to die, I'm going to die on the battlefield! Not like a coward hiding behind a wall!"

"Let us go out in a bloody, blaze of glory!"

And in his decision, the king received the unconditional support of his sons and his closest and biggest retainer Mithriditus.

Thus it was this last roll of the die that was chosen to be their final move.

As for what would a defeat here mean for them here?

Well, Absolute annihilation.

And what would a win here mean?

Well, certainly not the end to the war and complete recapture of all territory.

It would be foolish to even think so.

For even if Perseus was able to pull off something incredible like Hannibal did at Cannae and virtually destroy Alexander completely, it was unlikely the latter was going to simply pack up and leave Tibias, abandoning his all gains.

But perhaps if Perseus managed to win and it was grand enough, he would be able to obtain another fighting chance, another chance to fight.

And if he could snowball from there, well perhaps the situation would develop to a point that it would force Alexander to the negotiating table and enable Perseus to extract some sort of concessions from the man.

Because up until now, Alexander had seen no reason to negotiate, for he had not lost any battle and genuinely he thought he could take all of Tibias.

And this was Perseus's one last chance to change that.

Thus it was with such great optimistic hopes and with their backs to the walls thoughts that Perseus started to prepare his army, eyeing the 40,000 opposing mass with infinite hostility.

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