Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king

Chapter 119: Aftermath

The morning after the ambush, Alpheo received a detailed report on the aftermath of the battle. The casualty numbers were reassuringly low: only 13 of his men had been killed, and 34 had been wounded. These relatively minor losses reflected the effectiveness of the ambush , apart from the difference in effectiveness and equipment of the two armies.

The report also gave news regarding the gains from the encounter. The loot captured included 29 horses, which would be used to replace the dead horses , and a considerable amount of armor: 64 chainmails and 12 sets of plate armor. All of which Alpheo would make to better equip all his forces. While the warfare of this age mostly used plate armor for men on horses, Alpheo was aware of the great use it could have on infantry.

Satisfied with the outcomes, Alpheo decided to grant his men one full day to loot the battlefield.

He was aware of the toll these last weeks took on the men, as in less than half a month they had fought three battles,in which only in one were they allowed to actually loot, as in the first two Alpheo had to hand out a month pay in advance for each soldier to restore morale, as they had no time to take anything from their kills. 

After the day of looting, Alpheo planned to lead his forces back toward the city they had fought to protect.

Alpheo sat at a small, roughly-hewn wooden table with his closest companions gathered around him. The table was set with modest fare, but given the recent victory, the mood was light and spirits were high. A seat had been left open for Shahab, whom Alpheo had sent someone to invite, though the man had yet to arrive, always if he bothered to

Ratto, Alpheo's young squire, approached the table with a platter of roasted chickens, their skin crisp and glistening. He set them down with care. The village they'd passed through had provided what they could. Those chickens, however were not the robust, plump birds that modern farming produces . These ancient chickens were lean, stringy, and barely one-sixth the size of the poultry that people now find in markets, a result of nature's untamed selection rather than centuries of selective breeding.