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Chapter 27: Battle of Cordoba - Battle of Destiny

Chapter 27: Battle of Cordoba - Battle of Destiny

From the Chronicles of the Battle of Iberia

The Battle of Cordoba, also known as Battle of Destiny, was the first grand-scale battle of the War of the 3 Armies (It's 3 armies because it's was a war compsed of Muslim army, Christian army, and the Aztecs Army) where the Muslims under Sultan Ali and the reinforcement from Prince Stephen defended the city of Cordoba from the Aztec Army.

Pre-Battle

After being allowed by the Sultan to lead the defenders, Alberto went to the city of Cordoba where the city defenders were busy enhancing the city defenses. When Alberto got there, he realized that the army was not enough, so the Princess told Alberto to conscript the populace and send them to the defenses of the city to defend the people of the city. Soon Prince Stephen brought the Hungarians to defend Cordoba from the Aztec attacking forces. A local captain called Saif the Old led the soldiers. Unfortunately, according to Saif, "The soldiers have seen either too many battles, or too few." The night before the battle the Count and the princess met at the center garden where they filled the night with sorrowful music.

The Battle

Alberto at the walls

"Ready yourselves to fight for your lives..."

The army of aztecs was damaged on the way due to casualties in the battles near Sevilla. They arrived in the middle of the night next day at the city of Cordoba.

The Aztecs quickly arrived at the first walls of the city, but sustained many losses in it "filling up the dike to the top" which led them to fall back and regroup. After regrouping they resumed the attack on the City of Cordoba, they sent arrows into the City. However they did not get any response. But when they got closer they were met with a volley of arrows and rocks which made them break ranks. The Aztecs soon got close enough to the first wall and attempted to break the gate down with tree trunks, but were scattered by a small attack team led by Saif and the Prince Stephens lieutenant from a postern-door. After the team had driven back the aztecs with the ram, the team retreated from the new assault upon the gate. While running back, two Aztecs who had faked their deaths knocked the lieutenant to the ground. As Saif ran back to save him, a hidden Alberto hewed the aztecs heads saving the lieutenant and giving the count his first two kills of the battle.

The attackers then raised hundreds of ladders to scale the first wall; the worn-out defenders threw down the ladder attacks, but were attacked from behind by the aztecs who had crawled through the culvert at the base of the wall. The Prince and Saif the Old with a unit of men from Hungary attacked the aztecs who got through the hole. Aberto helped block the culvert with stones flooding the stream. Unfortunately, this blockage was destroyed along with a good portion of the first wall by Mangonels; the Lords Plague (most likely invented by that manned who named himself as Quetzalcoatl).

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Out from the new larger hole a huge host of Aztecs poured in, and after a desperate battle inside the city, the defenders led by the Prince, Saif and Alberto retreated into the Second walls while the Prince Stephens lieutenant fought his way into the inner walls via the main road to the City keep. During the retreat, the Prince was overcome by Aztecs; but was saved by Alberto and a boulder that was cast down upon the Aztecs from the wall. Alberto called for a parley and told the Aztecs that they would die if they didn't surrender, but the Aztecs laughed at his threat and attempted to shoot Alberto down, almost killing him. The aztecs then made it to the gate of the inner wall/second wall and almost destroyed the gates with the 'Lords Plague'. Suddenly, Prince Stephen and Saif led a vicious cavalry charge out of the gates to the blasts of the horn of Cordoba, followed by the defenders of the Cordoba, driving the Aztecs away from the remains of the gate. At the same time, Alberto and the lieutenant with the men from the caves pushed the aztecs out of the top of the second wall. The army of the alliance drove the Enemy behind the first wall into the outer fields of the city.

Just then, Sultan Ali on his arrived with his two sons and 5000 swordsmen on foot, and they charged the Aztecs, trapping them between the Defenders army, The Sultans army and the Gendarmes of France atteack led the aztec army to be defeated. After the aztecs were driven into the outskirts of the county, some of the captured Iberians surrendered and were spared, but were forced to take an oath to reveal anything they know on the enemy. None of the aztecs driven into Sevilla were ever seen again. The aztecs that survived, if any, made for Galicia.

Immediate Aftermath

Less than half of the 70,000 aztecs survived the main battle, after being driven into Sevilla at most one fourth managed to escape into the provinces near Sevilla. The surviving captured iberians were sent home and their slain were buried in a communal mound. The aztec carcasses were simply piled off to the side of the battlefield and left to rot. One of the city defender dead was the lieutenant, a trusted adviser and friend of Stephen’s and also personal guard. Saif had lost his helmet in the battle and was wounded badly on the head.

Later Aftermath

The battle was critical to the survival of Iberia and their participation in the War of the 3 Armies as a whole; had the Muslims lost the Battle of the Cordoba, their nation as a whole would have been obliterated by the rampaging legions of Aztecs. Prince Stephens persuasion of Ali to pincer attack the invaders in Portugal was critical as well, and guaranteed western Iberia’s survival for a time. Had the battle been lost, and the Ali refused to attack the Aztecs, the enemies forces would've opened up a two-front war with the Christian kingdoms of the north and crush them. This battle also gave valuable, albeit painful, war experience to the hitherto-lax armies of Sultan Ali that would prove to be invaluable on the Battle for Iberia but a short while after.