Yazil was sitting at his desk frantically looking over crude maps of the colonies and writing out orders when the captain of the guard barged into his office. Yazil was annoyed and asked, “What is it this time?”

“A new chief has shown up with his tribe. They are asking for food and shelter.”

Yazil sounded defeated when he asked, “Did Paulsland wipe out another village?”

“Yes. Just like all the other villages. Early in the morning, several hundred Paulsland soldiers showed up. They rounded up everyone in the village, took all their belongings, and made them watch as they burned down the village and everything they owned. Then told the villagers if they did not want to starve to death, they had come here to Sarapion where Governor Yazil will feed them.”

“Feed them? They are tributaries. Less than a year ago, General Bayin showed up, beat them senseless, and demanded they pay tribute in tortoiseshell, ivory, slaves, grain, or whatever goods we could eke out of these poor barbarians. They are not Himyarite citizens; they are barbaric tributaries. We owe them nothing.”

The captain looked worried for a moment and asked, “You don’t want me to tell them that, do you?”

“No, if you told them that, they would riot. If it was one village, it wouldn’t be a problem, but that’s the third village today that’s come in seeking refuge. By my count, they have burned down thirty-seven villages in just two weeks. I just wish I knew how the Paulsland army got around the Himyarite army.”

“I don’t know. All I can tell you is that the army did not come up the Paulsland road that connects our colonies to their kingdom. They were first spotted halfway up the colonies coming from the west, where there is only wilderness. Ever since they have been marching north toward us, but they are not marching straight here. It appears they have split their force into several units of several hundred and are specifically spreading out and destroying villages to force a refugee crisis upon Sarapion.”

“You can say that again. When the first tributaries came here begging for food, it was easy to turn them away, but once the fifth, sixth, and seventh villages showed up, it wasn’t so easy. When we wouldn’t feed them, they outrightly stole the food that was meant for the soldiers on the frontline fighting Paulsland. Then they blamed each other. We just don’t have enough guards to stop a few thousand hungry people from robbing our grain stores. Now that we have over ten thousand refugees in the city, nearly no food supplies will reach General Bayin. I wish we could just execute these tribes, but they outnumber us.”

“Don’t worry, sir. They fight each other more than they fight the guards. As soon as they steal food, the others steal from them.”

“It doesn’t change the fact they are robbing us blind with an army coming closer every day.”

“Sir, we do not have enough guards to run them off.”

“What about the soldiers that Bayin sends to guard the wagon trains we send him? There are about thirty soldiers in each group.”

“If we delay giving his soldiers supplies, they will stay, but Bayin has never sent more than three supply trains back to us in a single day. There are two other colonies much closer to him, so he only bothers when they are low on supplies. It will take at least two or three weeks to get the number of soldiers we would need to begin fighting off all the refugees we have now, and it doesn’t look like the flow of refugees will slow down anytime soon. Can we send a message to King Zamir?”

“I already have, but it will take at least three months for new troops to come if he responds immediately. For now, we have to deal with this situation on our own, and sadly by the time they respond, that Paulsland army will be here.”

“I don’t know, sir. The army doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get here. Maybe it's not that big, but if you’re worried about it, we could always use the tributaries to make fortifications. Maybe we could make it a condition of feeding them.”

Governor Yazil tapped his chin as he thought, then had a degree of frustration in his voice as he said, “We are already feeding them, but at least this way, they won’t be stealing food from us or hurting our guards, and we get something in return. Put them to work.”

The captain nodded and immediately left. He ordered a couple of guards to follow him before he made his way to the outskirts of Sarapion, where most of the tribes were living. Once he got there, he looked around for a place to stand. He noticed a barrel and carefully climbed up it. Once he was on top of the barrel, he stood out because of his armor, his status, his complexion, and the height the barrel added to him. The various tribal members began to look.

The captain began speaking loudly for all to hear, in the Himyarite tongue, “Paulsland has destroyed your village and has herded you here like animals. Sooner or later, they will come here and burn down this town. Will you stand by and do nothing?”

One of the chiefs understood him and told the people around him what the captain said. Then another chief began chatting back and forth before the interpreter chief asked the captain, “What do you want us to do? The Paulsland people took all our food, our homes and forced us to come to you because we paid you tribute.”

“I want to build fortifications. Build walls around Sarapion, dig ditches, erect towers. Make it so that Paulsland can not just burn our town like they burned your villages.”

“What good will that do? The Paulsland soldiers took our bows and spears.”

“We have plenty of guards in Sarapion; it's why Paulsland has not dared come here. We outnumber them.” The captain of the guard had no idea if they outnumbered the Paulsland army, but it made them sound strong, so he said it.

“You will outnumber them more if you give us spears and swords.”

The captain was silent as he thought about how to answer before saying, “How can we trust you with weapons? Your people keep stealing food.”

“Wouldn’t you do the same if your children were crying from hunger? All we want to do is protect our families. Feed us and give us the means to protect our families, and we will be happy.”

The captain gave his words thought, then said, “In order to build fortifications, you will need axes to cut down trees and spades to dig trenches. They are not as deadly as swords and spears, but they will work in a fight, especially when you outnumber your enemy.”

“And what about food?”

“Anyone who works on the fortification will be fed.”

“What about our children who are too young to work?”

“If they are so young, they don’t eat much and will be able to eat off your plate.”

“Is that your best offer? What about armor?”

“It is my best offer. And no, you will not get armor. Every piece of armor in Sarapion is currently being worn by guards. There is none left for you.”

“Fine, I will discuss your offer with my people and the other chiefs.”

“What is there to discuss?”

“For one, my people still don’t know your language. I learned it before your army forced us to become tributaries. And so, if you want our help, you will have to be patient while I talk to my tribe and the other chiefs. I will find you later and give you our answer.”

“That is all I can ask.”

Over the next day, the chief who could speak in the Himyarite tongue talked to the other tribes, and they agreed to build fortifications around Sarapion. Yazil, and those that governed Sarapion before him never built fortifications around Sarapion because it wasn’t that important, and it would slow down trade.

Originally Sarapion was a colony for trade. The various tribes came into the colony to trade valuable ivory, tortoise shells, spices, and very rarely precious stones for iron weapons. Walls and gates would have discouraged the trade, which was the only thing that made Sarapion worth investing in, considering the high likelihood of death from the various jungle diseases.

Then the Himyarites gained medicine that was effective against the various diseases that made growing a colony impossible, and Sarapion grew too quickly and randomly to build fortifications. Besides, as soon as the King’s eye turned toward making East Africa part of the Himyarite Kingdom, thousands upon thousands of soldiers were sent here, alongside hundreds of guards. With the men they had, they didn’t need expensive fortifications that slowed down trade and tribute. But now the army was away, and they had a Paulsland army that would be here in a few days or weeks.

With the help of thousands of tribal peoples, deep and wide ditches were dug, wooden walls and towers were erected, and small bastions were built.

Over this time period, more and more tribes were forced to come to Sarapion, but the work of building a fortification and food for workers helped stop most of the thefts. Then one day, the wagons of general Bayin’s supply train completely stopped, and more tribes came to the town of Sarapion. So many came there was barely any room inside the fortification to hold all the people, even though most were already sleeping outside. The only good thing about the situation was that it was the dry season, so it was tolerable.

The guards and the tribes watched for the Paulsland army day and night. But day in and day out, more tribes came, each telling the story of Paulsland soldiers burning their villages and that the Paulsland army was growing closer day by day. Then one day, the tribes stopped coming. Then for three days, nobody came to Sarapion, and it was unnerving. Sarapion was the capital of the Himyarite colonies, but nobody came. The silence was disturbing.

Then the Paulsland army came marching. They could tell the army was coming before they saw the first soldier because they could hear the thud of the men marching in unison. At first, it was an almost silent thud, thud, thud. But as the soldiers grew closer by the hundreds, their footsteps became THUD, THUD, THUD. The army was spread out, marching in unison, wearing shiny armor and spears lifted high into the air. Every man that was on the wall, whether he was a tribesman or Himyarite, gulped in fear.

The Himyarites had walls, towers, and trenches and outnumbered the Paulsland soldiers, but those soldiers were better armed, armored, and marched in step as one.

The Himyarites wished their army was here. Their army could deal with these men easily, but their army wasn’t there, so they would have to deal with the issue.

The tribesmen were thinking about fleeing, but they didn’t know where they would go. It was the dry season; it was a hard time of year to find food. If Sarapion was burned, they could starve. Their children would starve.

The Paulsland army marched until they were at maximum bow shot range, and then they stopped. Then there was silence. The Himyarites and tribesmen were waiting to react to whatever Paulsland threw at them.

After a minute, one of the Paulsland men stepped forward, his armor gleaming in the sunlight, and started speaking in the tribesmen’s language, “My name is Alexander. Can any Himyarite understand me? Can any Himyarite speak to me?”

The Himyarites were confused. They never bothered learning the languages of the tribesmen around them. The tribes were just barbarian trading partners and tributaries. While the Himyarites were confused, the tribesmen were just reminded that they were not friends with the Himyarites. If the tribesmen wanted to work with the Himyarites after this invasion, then the tribesmen would be forced to learn the Himyarite language, because the Himyarites disdained their language and way of life.

After a long pause, long enough to let the tribesmen think about the contempt the Himyarites had for them, Alexander yelled out, “I see the Himyarites have not learned your language. Are there any chiefs that are willing to speak to me?”

One chief spoke immediately and said, “I can speak.” No chief objected.

Alexander said, “Great. Tell me, if you could have anything you wanted, what would it be?”

The chief sneered and asked, “Anything I wanted? I want my village back. The village your men burned down.”

Alexander expected this response; in fact, he spent the last few weeks setting up this situation so a chief would ask this question, “Isn't Sarapion nicer than your old village?”

The chief was stunned and answered truthfully, “Yes.”

“If you do me a favor, you can keep Sarapion and all the wealth it holds.”

By now, the captain of the guard was growing nervous, and he yelled out in Himyarite, “I AM THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD! SPEAK TO ME!”

Alexander Yelled back in Himyarite, “SHUT UP! I AM TRYING TO SELL SARAPION TO THE TRIBESMEN WHO OUTNUMBER YOU!” Then Alexander switched back to the tribal language and calmly yelled to the chief, “Sorry about that. The alien interlopers want to stop you from getting what you deserve.” That’s when the captain and all his guards began backing away from the walls, and Alexander told the tribesmen, “Look at them; they are trying to put you between them and me. Once they are at your back, they are going to kill you! If you are going to get Sarapion, you have to fight now!”

If there had only been one tribe there, Alexander's words probably wouldn’t have worked, but there were dozens of tribes, and one man, who already had a bad impression of these Arabic invaders because they falsely accused him of stealing food, took Alexander's words to heart and attacked a guard with an ax. Everything fell quiet for a moment, then all chaos broke loose as guards attacked tribesmen, and tribesmen attacked guards.

The guards had better weapons and armor, but they were badly outnumbered and quickly died. The tribesmen would have celebrated, but an army was still at their doorstep, and their chiefs were able to calm down their people.

Once calm returned, one of the Chiefs yelled out to Alexander in the most peaceful way he could yell, “What do we need to do to keep Sarapion?”

“Give me a hundred heads of the guards, and I need Yazil the governor alive. Give me those two things, and I will leave you alone. Feel free to lower them in a basket, and everything else is yours.”

“What is a hundred?”

Alexander almost cursed. He forgot that math was nonexistent in most tribes, then he raised his hands up with the fingers spread out wide and explained, “You have ten fingers. If you make a row of ten heads, then make ten rows; you will have a hundred heads. Give me a hundred guard heads and Governor Yazil alive, and you can keep Sarapion.”

The chief immediately said, “I agree. Give us a few minutes.” Then he yelled out, “Take the guard's weapons, cut off their heads and throw them over the side of the wall.” Then he pointed at some of his men and said, “Come with me; we have to capture the governor.”

Alexander and his army waited patiently as the tribesmen went to work. After a couple of minutes, they began throwing Himyarite heads over the side of the hastily built wall. Clearly, they did not get told about putting them in baskets and lowering them. Plenty of Arabic heads flew over the wall, and Alexander was satisfied with the number. The one hundred number he gave earlier was arbitrary. It was a big enough number that it would force the guards to fight the tribesmen, which guaranteed Sarapion would change hands.

Although Alexander noticed they did a bad job of following orders, just tossing the heads over the side instead of neatly putting them in baskets. He hoped they didn’t kill governor Yazil. Fortunately, Alexander's fears were unfounded, and Yazil was lowered in a basket, and a couple of Alexander’s soldiers quickly collected the man.

Once they had Yazil, the army marched south, and as they marched, Alexander decided to have a conversation with the governor.

“Good afternoon, governor Yazil. I have a job for you.”

“Why would I do a job for you? The tribesmen killed all my guards, and now my family is back there with those barbarians.”

“Ah yes, the tribesmen. The tribesmen that you decided to make tributaries, the tribesmen that I easily sent your way because, as tributaries, you felt no need to protect their villages, but they still felt like you owed them protection because they paid you tribute. The tribesmen who were always going to betray you because, well, they are tribesmen. Seriously you have no idea how much work it takes to civilize them. Did you know my father, King Paul, doesn’t even try? He just forces them to send their children to school where they get civilized, then he forces their children to join the army where they learn to treat the youths of other tribes as brothers, and once they are trained, they are sent all over Paulsland where they meet the daughters of other tribes. King Paul severely punishes anyone who marries inside their tribe because my father wants to break tribalism to avoid what happened in Sarapion from happening in Paulsland.”

Yazil was confused, forgetting his grief for a few moments as he looked around at the young men marching around them and asked, “Why would you say such a secret around these men?”

“It's no secret. They have seen with their own eyes if they want what is best for their parents and family, they have to give up tribalism to work together; otherwise, you end up with Sarapion. Chances are, once the tribesmen realize we have left, probably before the end of the day, the tribes will start fighting with each other over Sarapion. Chances are by the end of the week, it will be burnt to the ground, and perhaps half the people living there now will survive the fall of Sarapion and go their separate ways and make new villages.”

“Is that why you sent all those tribes to Sarapion?”

Alexander looked confused for a moment and said, “No. I sent the tribes to Sarapion so I could defeat the city without losing any of my men. Why should I have my men die fighting to destroy Sarapion when the tribesmen you made tributaries will do it for me? I still have a lot of villages and towns to destroy in the Himyarite colonies before finally facing General Bayin. If the little refugee issue hadn’t worked, I have a secret weapon that would have turned the fortification against you, but I am hoping to save that for General Bayin.”

“Before facing General Bayin? I have been wondering for weeks how you even made your way around him?”

“That’s was easy. Paulsland goes very far north to the west of here, but there is a wilderness between the Himyarite colonies and the northernmost part of Paulsland. I was in charge of the northern area of Paulsland. It is around a great lake, a lake that’s more than three hundred miles long. When your army attacked Paulsland, Dad sent me a message, and I gathered up nearly all the soldiers around the lake and the entirety of the militia and marched my soldiers east until we finally started meeting your tributaries. Then we started heading north to Sarapion and spread out to force your tributaries toward your town. It wasn’t hard since your army was in Paulsland nearly a thousand miles south of where we entered your colonies. That’s without counting your terrible roads.”

“That idiot General. He did a scouting mission personally and missed how for north your kingdom goes, and now my family will pay.”

“You don’t know that. Chances are your wife and any daughters you have will become some chief's wife.” Alexander did not bother mentioning that, without a doubt, any male Himyarite or other nationality would be killed. But the exotic women would be spared death for obvious reasons.

Yazil began to cry and asked, “Why say that to me? Why do this to me?”

“Because your army attacked Paulsland, and there are other large towns in the Himyarite colonies. The best thing for my army would be for you to go into those towns and tell them that the Himyarites lost the war, and as part of the loss, the Himyarites in town must leave and head back to the main nation of Himyarite immediately.”

With tears still in his eyes, he asked, “Why would I do that?”

“Because that’s the only way my father will show you any mercy. Besides, as soon as we defeat your army, we will immediately conquer everything the Himyarite’s claimed in Africa just to deny your people a foothold. We are not doing that right now because any area that gets claimed as Paulsland must be civilized. We don’t have the time, manpower or resources to civilize any of your colonies with General Bayin’s Army inside of our territory, but as soon as the army is taken care of, we will up lift the people you oppressed. If we come across your wife or daughters, then we will send them back to the Himyarites safe and sound. But only if you help us.”

And with those words, Yazil had to obey Alexander, the only hope he had of getting a portion of his family back.