Chapter 316: Battle of the Andalusian Plains

Since the victory and seizure of the province known as Murcia, the Granadans have been busy defending their borders from the Iberian Union's attacks. They were not as well prepared for a full-scale invasion of Iberia as they thought they were.

The first few battles they fought showed a severe lack of discipline in their ranks compared to Berengar's troops. The reason for this was simple, the Austrian military attache had not drilled the Granadans as hard as they would their own troops, nor did they put them through specialized training.

As such, after Hasan had returned to Granada to engage in hedonistic activity, the Royal Granadan Army was left in the hands of General Ziyad Ibn Ya'is, who was far more competent on military matters than the young Sultan.

This General was a middle-aged man and was currently engaged in a conversation with General Arnulf of the Royal Austrian Army. It had been roughly a year since he last saw his home in Kufstein, and despite this, he was not weary in the slightest.

At the moment, the two Generals were conversing with each other as they rode their horses next to each other in the middle of the formation, under the protection of thousands of Granadan troops.

"So Hasan abandons his army so that he can go engorge himself in women and wine? Leaving us to look after his army, that has got to sting a little, does it not? My dear friend."

In response to this, General Ziyad merely laughed before responding to Arnulf's jest.

"Certainly not; I am actually glad that the Sultan has left the war effort in my hands. Don't get me wrong, he is a decent administrator, but a wet blanket would make a better commander in terms of strategy and warfare.

The Sultan is liable to get himself killed out here; it is better for him to be the face of the recruitment efforts back home than to be the man leading the charge."

Before Arnulf could respond to this statement, he noticed a rider in the distance; this man wore the standard mirror pattern and mail armor that most of the Granadan troops were equipped with. As such, he was allowed to pass into the army, where he immediately strode up to the command.

"Permission to speak, sir!"

Judging by the frantic expression on the soldier's face, Ziyad knew the news must be urgent; as such, he nodded his head in silence, bracing himself for the information he suspected would ruin his mood.

"There's an enemy army numbering roughly 20,000 heading in this direction. They are approximately ten miles out!"

As soon as he heard this, Ziyad began to give his orders to the troops in his army.

"Get in formation, and prepare for battle. Load your weapons; I do not want you firing your weapons until you see the whites in their eyes!"

This phrase was how the Austrians had drilled the Granadan troops to utilize their primitive arkebuse firearms in the most efficient manner. Whether or not they were capable of maintaining such a high degree of discipline was another story entirely.

As such, the Granadan troops, whether they were infantry, artillery, or cavalry quickly began to load their weapons with the means available to them; after doing so, they began to form ranks and wait for the enemy to arrive.

After a few hours, the enemy forces arrived, and when they did, they were shocked to see the Granadan Army waiting for them. The Iberian Army was comprised mostly of the Crusader Order known as the Order of Calatrava, but there were also a few Iberian Union units among their ranks from Castille.

These soldiers had become increasingly aware of the advantages and limitations of the Granadan weapons. As such, they instantly began to charge the arkebusiers suicidally, hoping to clash with them before they could reload their guns.

While the Iberian troops began to recklessly charge at the Granadan forces, the Granadan artillery began to fire their grapeshot at the enemy lines via their Falconet cannons. Numerous projectiles filled the air and blasted into the enemy ranks causing massive casualties on the Iberian forces.

Whether it was faith in God or fearlessness in death, the Iberians were not deterred. Instead, they madly charged into the line of fire without any regard for their safety. When Arnulf saw this, he became quite concerned, the Iberians vastly outnumbered the Granadan troops, and the Granadan weapons required a far longer duration of time to reload than the weapons of the Royal Austrian Army.

As the enemy line began closing in, several Grenadan arkebusiers started to fire their weapons in trepidation, which caused a chain reaction from the soldiers as others instantly opened fire despite not hearing an order to do so.

Though some of these shots found their marks, piercing through the enemy's armor and into their flesh, most of them utterly failed to do so. This action forced Ziyad to shout his orders at his troops which were relayed across the army by the other officers and NCOs.

"Hold your fire! Hold your fucking fire!"

Despite these orders, more rounds fired off until a point where roughly half of the soldiers still had loaded weapons, forcing them into a dangerous position. While the other half began reloading their guns as fast as they could, the Iberian troops had finally reached the front lines of the army.

In doing so, they rushed straight into a volley unleashed by the half of the soldiers who had contained their shot. While this volley was effective in devastating the enemy lines, it did not have nearly as significant an effect as possible.

As such, the Pikemen took their place and began to battle with the enemy. However, as the battle waged on the Granadan army started to suffer losses. There were too many Iberians for their army to handle effectively.

It would be another story if the soldiers had maintained the proper discipline and fired when they were commanded. However, the reality was a different story, and roughly 5,000 arkebusiers had missed their targets during the initial chaos of the battle. Before long, the pikemen could no longer contain the Iberian infantry, and they began to break ranks, and flee the battlefield.

Cutting down the Moorish soldiers with fantical hatred, the Catholic forces began screaming in their native tongue a series of battle cries that sent chills down the Granadan armies spines.

"Death to all Moors! God wills it!" "Granada must burn!"

Before long, the Granadan lines began to crumble, and the soldiers started to route. Though General Ziyad attempted to rally his forces behind him, the effort was in vain; Arnulf grabbed the man by the soldier and gazed into his dark eyes with a stern expression.

"The battle is lost; give the order to retreat, or we will die here!"

Ziyad clenched his teeth and fists in fury as he witnessed his army break ranks and flee the battlefield. However, there was nothing to do about it now; as such, he followed Arnulf's advice.

"Retreat! All units fall back!"

As the few remaining Granadan soldiers heard this, they slung their Arkebuses over their shoulders and began to retreat from the advancing army. On the other side of the battlefield, the Calatrava Commander was eager to pursue the enemy and give them no quarter. As he was just about to give the command to annihilate the enemy, he felt a firm hand grip the armor on his shoulder.

As such, the man turned around to see the true mastermind behind this attack; it was a Duke under the employ of the King of Castille; the man glared at the Crusader Commander before shaking his head.

"Let them go..."

When the Crusader heard these words, he was outraged and immediately protested.

"But your Grace! If we do not pursue them, they will regroup and become an even greater threat to our existence!"

However, the Duke remained unconvinced and simply gazed toward the direction that all of the Granadan soldiers were fleeing.

"If we pursue them, we may be walking into a trap. I would rather have them regroup and crush them again than march my men to a meaningless death. You should be thankful; without my advice, this victory would not have been possible..."

After saying this, the Duke released his grip over the Crusader and strode his horse forward, commanding all Iberian soldiers to stop.

"Halt! We shall go no further! Scavenge the enemy's weapons! We shall bring some of these back to Castille so that we may figure out how they function. As for the rest, arm yourselves with them, and become acquainted in their use. The Granadans no longer have an authority on advanced armaments!"

With these words said, the Catholic Iberian soldiers began to cheer. They had accomplished a great victory here on this day, and with it, acquired the means to reverse engineer the Arkebuse; perhaps such a thing would turn the tides of war in their favor. After all, the resurrection of Al Andalus was something the Catholics could not allow to take place.