Chapter III

Year 9 of the reign of pharaoh Ramesses XI, 21st day of the first month of Akhet

After two months of preparations, Tirynthius and Hecataeus had gathered their armies, both roughly around three thousand men – some of them being veterans from the Hittite Civil War and even the Great Powers’ War, while the rest, more than half, were new recruits – and set off to begin their respective conquests. Hecataeus travelled west, setting up his temporary camp in Ephyra, which still supported him, and from there marched north to secure the coast of southern Illyria and defeat the Dorians along his way. Meanwhile Tirynthius headed east, stopping in Thessaloniki, and, after securing the lightly defended areas around it, proceeded even further east to fight the Thracian tribes.

Over the following weeks, Tirynthius was going along the coast of the Aegean and securing it, alongside all the small Mycenaean and Thracian settlements there belonging to no kingdom. He soon reached the Dardanelles peninsula, already partially held by the Kingdom of Wilusa, and brought it fully under Mycenaean control with little trouble. After that, his forces continued east and reached the peninsula on the European side of the Bosporus Strait. He could see a Hittite settlement belonging to the March of Masa, a puppet of the Kingdom of Hatti, in Anatolia on the other side of the strait, but the most recent Mycenaean-Hittite treaty gave Mycenaeans full control over everything on the European side of the Aegean and so the Hittites respected it and did not interfere, which included not founding any colonies there. This had left the area free from foreign influence and it continued to be inhabited by the Thracians.

Tirynthius gave the locals an opportunity to surrender peacefully and become integrated into the Confederation. This offer was, as the Mycenaeans expected, immediately rejected. Thus, they began preparing for their first major battle, and so did the Thracians. The Thracians gathered a bit over five thousand men for the battle, many from tribes outside the immediate area, as word of Tirynthius’ campaign had spread over the month he had been moving through the previously unconquered lands. The Thracians had correctly predicted that he would end up in this position and so gathered near the strait, hoping to actually kill a Mycenaean king. They discovered that he was in fact the son of Eteweokles and so the new wanax in the making of the Confederation, which made them even more eager to fight and kill him, as this would bring a lot of glory to the warriors and the chieftain who was in charge of their band.

The chieftain in question was Rhesus, who managed to acquire notoriety over the previous decade, having presided over various raids on Masa and Wilusa during the Great Powers’ War and the Hittite Civil War. Knowing his reputation, the chieftains of the other tribes gave him the supreme command of this united Thracian force, as he was considered the fiercest warrior and general and so one able to defeat Tirynthius. He was a large, bearded man in his late thirties, with his entire body, including his face, being tattooed with Thracian symbols and images. He readied his army on the morning of the battle, with his most loyal and best officers stationed at the front to lead the remaining men, and went around inspecting everyone to see if they were ready to fight. Once everyone was in place, he went to the front of the army, faced his men, and began shouting Thracian war chants, encouraging the soldiers that they were going to win this fight and humiliate the Mycenaeans like never before. The common soldiers joined in on the chanting, yet Rhesus’ voice was still by far the loudest and it was heard even by the Mycenaean soldiers. Once this was done, Rhesus turned around and charged into the Mycenaean lines, with one hand holding a large round wooden shield, and another a raised sword. The other Thracians were armed in the same manner and immediately followed their leader into battle, continuing to shout along the way to further scare the Mycenaeans.

Tirynthius, despite being roughly the same age as Rhesus, could not have looked more differently, both in appearance and in demeanor. He was tall, slim, with short hair and no beard, and fully encased in new shiny Mycenaean armor, unlike the Thracian warlord who charged into the battle naked apart from his pants and boots. Tirynthius was also calmer and more collected, and, rather than delivering some grand speech to the entire force, mostly spent the period right before the battle conferring with his officers and discussing the plan of action with them. Just like how Rhesus was the perfect incarnation of everything a Mycenaean imagined a barbarian looked like, Tirynthius was the same for how Thracians imagined Mycenaeans to be.

The Mycenaean army was standing ready to engage the Thracians, with the archers being stationed in the back with their bows aimed at the approaching enemy, while the infantrymen were at the front, with their shields forming a wall and spears protruding in the holes in it. At the very front stood Tirynthius himself and his officers, mirroring the first line of their opponents. They were also on foot however, and not in their chariots, as is usual for the Mycenaean officers and commanders in battles, due to the terrain in this battle not being suited to chariots very much, which led to them being left back at the camp.

The moment of the first clash approached. The Thracians were charging at the Mycenaeans and closing the distance, while the Mycenaeans were awaiting them, even with many fearing their tattooed opponents from the untamed north. The Thracians were twice as numerous, but Tirynthius had assured his men that victory was still guaranteed, as the Mycenaeans had armor, bows, and better tactics and so could easily defeat their opponents. On the other hand, Rhesus had assured his soldiers that they could simply overwhelm the Mycenaeans, and through speed, strength, and raw ferocity destroy Tirynthius’ unit despite any of his technological advantages.

Yet, Rhesus was not prepared for this particular piece of technology. As the Thracian had just a few more meters left before he would reach the Mycenaean shield wall, Tirynthius revealed his loaded pistol from behind his shield and shot Rhesus right at the chest. Rhesus promptly collapsed, and, before any Thracian could even understand what was happening, died in a puddle of his blood.

The entire Thracian army stopped in its tracks and looked at their dead leader, who was supposed to lead them to a glorious victory but was effortlessly executed before the battle even began. In just another moment, Tirynthius’ officers also revealed their own guns and shot them in unison at the frozen Thracian elites at the front. The bullets went straight through their simple wooden shields right into their chests, and so the Thracian officers collapsed one after another. Only one remained standing, as one Mycenaean officer’s gun had jammed and so failed to discharge the bullet. The Thracians remained frozen and did not know what to do, and the remaining officer was in a similar state, but once Tirynthius saw that the officer was not standing down and instead preparing to continue the fight, he quickly raised the gun again, it having been secretly reloaded by a soldier behind Tirynthius during the commotion, and shot the last man just the same as his compatriots. The officer fell and died, same as the others.

The Thracians now had no leaders remaining and abandoned any notion of winning or even fighting the Mycenaeans. Seeing how all their strongest soldiers were killed with seemingly no effort, no one wanted to test the Mycenaeans anymore and so the Thracian lines disintegrated. About half ran away, scattering in all directions, while the rest surrendered and were captured as prisoners of war by the Mycenaeans.

“That’s right! Zeus, Ares, and Vulcan are with us! Can you say the same about your gods, you uncivilized barbarians?” Tirynthius proclaimed to the retreating Thracians, and this was translated by his scribes so that they could understand.

A few days earlier…

About a week after the start of the designated campaigning time, Tirynthius was in a war camp north of the island of Thasos, along with his soldiers who were preparing for their first battles. Since Tirynthius was supported by the OFK, and especially the Commonwealth of Kemet, Kush, and Retjenu, he had arranged a secret meeting with Amenemheb, the royal envoy to every foreign land of the Commonwealth, and the Kemet Intelligence Agency agents assigned to this mission. While the Egyptians could not send him more soldiers or money for additional mercenaries, as that would be way too obvious for the observers of this challenge, they instead decided to send a shipment of new weapons, claiming that they could significantly help Tirynthius and his army in the upcoming campaign.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Looks like they are finally here,” Amenemheb said to Tirynthius, as they were sitting at a table in the war camp.

“I hope they were careful on their way here. The last thing I need now is Cilix claiming that I cheated in this challenge by collaborating with you guys,” Tirynthius said.

“Don’t worry, they’re KIA agents. They know what they’re doing. Or so I’ve heard.”

In a few moments, the four agents approached their table, with Sutenhi and Neberzer each carrying a wooden box and setting them on the table.

“Greetings, your highness,” Sutenhi began. “I am commander Sutenhi of the Kemet Intelligence Agency. These are my companions Neberzer, Neitheret, and Harsiamon. We are here to help you in this predicament.”

“I don’t think it will be much of a predicament, but I appreciate the help nonetheless,” Tirynthius said.

“Of course. But our gifts should make this campaign even easier and assure your victory over your brother.”

“You are going to leave me out of a job, with all these assassinations and weapon deliveries,” Amenemheb chuckled. “Won’t be much left for me to do anywhere after you’re done.”

“What can I say, get with the times old man. The KIA is the future,” Sutenhi replied.

“Ah, shut up, Sutenhi, I’m not even a year older than you. Anyways, what did you bring here?”

“Open and see for yourself.”

“Is that all? Just these two small boxes?”

“Indeed.”

“Doesn’t seem like much,” Tirynthius said.

“Maybe, but they sure pack a punch. A single box of them is worth a dozen boxes of swords, believe me.”

“Well, let’s check it out.”

Tirynthius opened one of the boxes. It contained fifteen identical items, each one being a curved piece of wood with various metal pieces attached around it. Tirynthius slowly took one out and inspected it closely.

“What is this?” he asked.

“That, your highness, is a gun,” Sutenhi said with a smile.

“And… what does it do, exactly?”

“Well, it shoots. To kill, to be exact. I won’t explain the whole mechanism now, as I’m no engineer or weaponsmith, but it is basically like a slingshot, except sturdier, more concealable, and using projectiles which are much more powerful.”

“Are these projectiles also rocks?”

“No, they are of lead. Courtesy of the Hittites. They are in the other box.”

Tirynthius opened the second box, which was filled with small lead balls and satchels of black powder.

“And how do they work?” Tirynthius asked.

“Let me give you a demonstration,” Sutenhi said and picked up one of the pistols. “First you need to get some powder in the gun. We call it gunpowder, naturally,” Sutenhi poured some of the gunpowder from a satchel to his palm and then from there poured it into the shaft of the gun. “Then, you put in the projectile,” he put one of the lead balls from the box into the gun. “You aim, put your finger on the trigger, pull the trigger, and it fires.”

Sutenhi shot into a patch of grass near the table.

“Except you point it at your opponent, of course,” Sutenhi put down the gun and ended his presentation.

“Most interesting. This could indeed prove useful,” Tirynthius continued examining his gun.

“Where did you get this?” Amenemheb asked, examining one gun himself.

“The KIA has a division dedicated to experimental technologies. Well, it actually existed for decades, just became integrated with us when the KIA was founded,” Sutenhi said. “We made lots of stuff during the war, especially near the end, when Shilhak was on the borders of Egypt and we needed every advantage we could get. Some projects never went anywhere, but this seemed promising, and so the weapons division continued until it had a product. Yet by the time they were done, the war was fully over, so these guns could not be used on a large scale. But, since now we have a new campaign starting, it seemed like a good time to test them out on a real battlefield.”

“So we will be the first to try them in a battle?” Tirynthius asked.

“Yes. It will benefit us both – you will have new weapons for your campaign, and we will be able to observe how they work in practice and potentially upgrade them. Everyone wins!”

“What if they won’t work?”

“Well, they should work. We still tested them for months on various desert creatures. But in the event they fail you, you still have your swords and bows. Most soldiers will use the old weapons for now anyways, these guns are just for you and your officers, to introduce an element of surprise and scare the ever-living shit out of these barbarians.”

“Guess I can’t complain.”

“They are slow and loud and maybe not always reliable, but I’m sure you will find a good use for them.”

“I think I will. Thank you.”

“We will supply you periodically with more ammunition and potentially even the weapons themselves, though for the moment we would like there to remain few of them in circulation.”

“I understand. I’ll try not to break or lose them all,” Tirynthius chuckled.

“If you need anything during this campaign, do not hesitate to ask us. At least one of our agents will be with you at most times, observing your campaign, and will be ready to help in any way the KIA can.”

“I appreciate that. Well, I guess it’s time to go hunting then.”

The battle against Rhesus, or what little of it there actually was, was a monumental success for Tirynthius. To celebrate his victory, he founded the city of Tirynpolis along the strait, meant to become the capital of the new Mycenaean kingdom which would rule over the lands that Tirynthius conquered and would still conquer in this campaign. Its first inhabitants were Mycenaeans from the kingdom of Mycenae itself, Mycenaeans from the nearby Wilusa, some of those same captured Thracians, as well as their families moving in with them, and even some Hittites from over the strait.

Tirynthius did not rest for long, however, and he continued marching, now north, to make his conquest even grander. Tales of his victory had spread over the southern Thracian tribes and terrified them, as none had any idea about how all these officers and Rhesus himself could be killed in such a manner. Most tribes in the immediate vicinity, seeing the state of the retreating and desperate soldiers, surrendered without putting up any fight, allowing Tirynthius to traverse their lands and incorporate them into his conquered territory with ease.

Others, however, did not believe this and still wished to challenge Tirynthius. They raised their own armies and tried attacking the Mycenaeans in a similar manner as Rhesus had, yet none of these efforts were successful either. Sometimes just the firing the guns into the front line of the Thracian force was enough, sometimes the Mycenaean archers and infantrymen had to finish the job, but in any event, the end result was always dozens or hundreds of casualties on the Thracian side, and none on the Mycenaean, or a couple unlucky injured soldiers at most.

This continued over the following months, and, as time went on, there was less and less resistance, as there remained few chieftains who wanted to challenge Tirynthius, seeing what had happened to even the strongest of their predecessors. Some Thracians even joined Tirynthius’ army, now considering him being worthier of being followed than any Thracian chief. By the end of the campaign, Tirynthius had almost ten thousand men following him, which made his force unmatched in both quantity and quality.

By the fourth month of the campaign, Tirynthius had reached the river Danube, where he founded another city, which was supposed to function as a military outpost as well and deter the Dacians up north from crossing into now Mycenaean territories. He spent the remaining time before the end of the campaigning time founding various other settlements, both inland and on the western coast of the Euxine Sea, as well cleaning up his conquered region of any disruptive elements, including uncooperative tribes and aggressive chieftains. This was helped by KIA agents Sutenhi, who stayed on the campaign trail with Tirynthius, and Harsiamon, who facilitated the deliveries of additional ammunition, gunpowder, and new guns in secret to Tirynthius and his officers. Meanwhile, agent Neitheret stayed in Mycenae to monitor the situation in the capital and make sure support for Tirynthius did not waver, and agent Neberzer was secretly observing Hecataeus and his campaign in the west.

Hecataeus, however, was not nearly as successful as his brother. He did manage to defeat the Dorians to the north of Ephyra, but that yielded him only a little piece of land. He was then faced with the choice of either chasing the Dorians further inland, or continuing along the coast and facing the Illyrians. As the inland Dorians were already fighting Demades of Thessaly, Hecataeus saw that there would be little glory for him in such a campaign and so continued north to fight the Illyrians. However, they proved to be quite fierce opponents and did not fall so quickly as Hecataeus imagined they would. The terrain was quite harsh, and the Illyrians became well organized once they heard that Hecataeus had begun his campaign, also focusing on defense rather than offense like the Thracians, which made the Illyrians harder to dislodge from their positions and had Hecataeus receive more casualties.

Still, by the end of the campaigning period he had managed to defeat and subdue all the southern Illyrian tribes up to the river Drin in the north and Lake Ohrid in the west. Such a conquest would have been rather impressive for a regular campaign, yet, when compared to the conquests of Tirynthius, it completely paled in comparison in most metrics, including area taken, population subdued, resources acquired, new settlements founded, and so on. Cilix and other kings went around the northern frontiers in the last weeks of the campaigns, and while they were impressed by Hecataeus’ efforts, they clearly saw that Tirynthius had far exceeded his brother in this regard. Thus, as everyone was sailing back to Mycenae for the final verdict of the kings, it was quite obvious for everyone who was there which of the brothers would get the support of Cilix and his allies, and, in turn, officially become the new wanax.