53. Dissected

Maurice had been attempting to attack the city of Hatun again, but he had been careless and his sleeping place was discovered by Oxyartes who had the Mendek evangel assassinated. With this he bought the slaves of Van and Kert who promptly rebelled, putting out the Mendek garrison. The year of 571 began with numerous successes for the Republic in Uruq. Symachus began subverting Cilica once more, and Xeniades assisted in subverting Uruqa. Mendek had many secret police and soldiers patrolling, but the city’s wealth had probably gotten worse with the Mendek administration; Mendek was most concerned with squeezing as much of the wealth out of the citizenry as possible, excessive welfare was not really a concern, this allowed large standing armies but completely neglected social welfare for the poor and disadvantaged. Furthermore Mendek actively profited off of selling slaves, using them for less expensive labour and for selling to various nobles to pay for administration. The Republic took advantage of this lack of care and over the course of a few days had converted large swathes of the Uruq heartland of Mendek. These were some of the Mendek first conquests, but city after city came under heavier strain with more converts to the God of Trade, Farming and Water. The tricolour and various idols began appearing more often and when the city of Kert had it’s next tax collection, the men in charge were shot at with crossbows and chased out of the city, the tricolour being raised over the important buildings and the Republic all but taking over. Xeniades, Oxyartes and Symachus worked well together, converting Hisar, Kert and Hisar, as well Uruqa. Maurice’s death brought confusion to the central territories of Mendek, a new evangel to the God of Battle named Xunur raised in Hunur brought 10,000 cavalry down south to try and stabilise the situation, but with each passing hour more and more villages joined the Republic in turfing out Mendek. Gallows intended to scare Uruqian citizens into being faithful to Mendek gave more support for the Republic.

Again Spendius attacked Portus of Peria, Hippalus a skinny bald man stood in his way, Nichomachus had gone on the offensive buying the loyalty of the northern Perians. Hippalus stood alone as an evangel to the God of Trade. Spendius launched his most brutal assault, 20,000 against a garrison of roughly equal size. Hippalus tried to disrupt the assault by Spendius, crossbows endlessly clicking their weapons to devastate Spendius’s men. Spendius rushed up on top of the gatehouse and slashed man after man down. Blood spurted and covered the next man’s face, allowing a few easy kills. Spendius yanked the gate open, a man attempted to shoot him from the floor, but had his hands chopped off, and then his throat.

“Stop screaming!” Spendius said, “just die already.”

Hippalus attempted to stop him, throwing knives and disappearing. Spendius did indeed accrue casualties, men dropping like flies as they streamed through.

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“The liberty of Portus of Peria will not die today! It will not die any day! Spendius can take it, but he will not take you!”

Hippalus teleported away, a hair’s breadth away from being decapitated. The city guard continued fighting, crossbows clicking away. 5000 of Spendius’s 20,000 were already dead. The city continued resisting, Hippalus got water to drink and rejoined the fight, attempting to corner the lord of all Mendek. For 10 minutes, Hippalus shadowed Spendius, and Spendius correctly guessed the location of Hippalus’s next teleportation, cutting him straight through the chest. Hippalus flopped to the floor and Portus of Peria was promptly subject to more of the Mendek army. Spendius began slaughtering crossbowmen, but the city was still quite resolute in resisting him. He conducted a genocide, his men slaughtering 20,000 of the citizens. Despite his overwhelming speed, he lost a further 7000. Nichomachus returned, but the citizenry were surrendering to the terror of Mendek.

“Convert or die!” Spendius promptly shouted.

Nichomachus returned and rallied portions of the city, crossbowmen returning to make Spendius pay. Hereward however reinforced Spendius, prompting Nichomachus to flee out of being outnumbered, after which much of the city capitulated. Spendius had lost 12,000 out of his 20,000 but he had defeated the Republic in the campaign and taken the city of Portus of Peria. Loyalists to the Republic were hanged, burnt and many were tortured; beaten and singed for Spendius’s soldiers’ amusement.

Despite Spendius’s success in the west, the Republic had successfully eaten away at the heart of Mendek rule in Uruq. Kert, Van, Azer, Uruqa and Hisar revolted against Mendek. Xunur was powerless to stop the advance of the God of Trade evangels. He and his army were chased out of Uruq, completely powerless in the face of the Republic. Mendek was cut in half, despite having won a great victory at Portus of Peria. Three new evangels to the God of Trade accelerated the growth of the Republic. Aristonikus a brown haired green eyed man of short stature who began focusing on Mendek’s Balnan possessions; Sostratus a black man of medium stature who likewise also began focusing the Republic’s ire on Balna and Cleophon a ginger woman of exceptionally tall height who began completely undermining Mendek rule of the region. The rate of conversions accelerated with the Republic convincing more and more of Mendek’s subjects that their rule was intolerable and that life with the Republic would be better. Six evangels against one was not a fair fight and the vast quantities of goods and crossbows made revolt almost inevitable. The hinterland’s were not much better, only remote villages that had not seen Yerek food and water wavered, not up to date with the information; but the reality was soon clear to all, the Republic had ground down Mendek in Uruq and was soon going to proliferate everywhere. Hitara seemed more stable, but the city of Suria had defected to the Republic thanks to the efforts of Symachus, Mercurius and Salutius. The war had entered a critical stage, perhaps Spendius would launch an invasion of Moru province, but his empire had been cut in two, dissected down the middle with only the nomad populations connecting his empire.