Ch.193Anatolia (4)

The garrison of Aksaray couldn’t inflict meaningful damage against the cavalry.

As a result, the area around Aksaray became filled with sacks thrown by the Mongol cavalry.

If fire were to catch, Aksaray would inevitably burn to the ground.

So Qutb decided to change his mind and surrender.

“I must surrender.”

“A wise decision, sir.”

“Indeed. If you surrender now, the Sultan might forgive you.”

Qutb had imprisoned his father and seized the capital, Konya.

It was a crime of high treason, so the idea of him receiving forgiveness was absurd.

Yet the reason he was surrendering was because he was royalty.

No matter what treason he had committed, he was still the firstborn son of Kilij Arslan II, the current Sultan.

So while he might be imprisoned, there was a chance he wouldn’t be executed.

That’s why he was attempting to surrender.

His officers agreed with his decision.

They too understood their current situation was essentially a confirmed defeat. They didn’t want to die meaninglessly.

Once the decision was made, one of the officers raised a white flag on Qutb’s orders.

One of the Mongol cavalrymen spotted the white flag.

“The enemy has seen it, so they’ll send an envoy soon.”

Qutb was optimistic about the situation.

After all, even if the enemy was a barbarian tribe, they would surely understand the meaning of a white flag.

Raising a white flag meant surrender.

From the barbarians’ perspective, accepting a surrender without battle would be convenient, so he didn’t think they would refuse.

Even if they did refuse, he thought he could just offer them gold and treasures.

While he was thinking this, a man who appeared to be a commander appeared alongside the enemy cavalry.

He looked at Aksaray with an expressionless face.

Qutb shouted in a loud voice.

“I surrender! I, Qutb al-Din, heir to the Sultanate of Rum, wish to surrender to you!”

Then a soldier beside the man who appeared to be the commander began to say something.

From what he could tell, the soldier seemed to be interpreting Qutb’s words.

After hearing this, the Mongol commander suddenly began to laugh loudly.

He laughed so loudly that even the citizens in Aksaray could hear him.

“How dare you insult me, the rightful heir to the Sultanate of Rum?”

Qutb expressed his displeasure with these words.

The Mongol commander shook his head in response. Instead, he gave some instructions to his soldier.

The soldier bowed and suddenly approached the gates of Aksaray carrying something.

Qutb, thinking the enemy had accepted the surrender, instructed his men not to shoot arrows at the approaching cavalryman.

“As a condition of our surrender, we…”

Qutb was about to set conditions for the surrender, asking for his life and those of his commanders to be spared.

But the soldier showed no intention of listening to such words and pulled something out.

“That’s…”

Qutb’s eyes widened.

The object the soldier had pulled out was none other than a torch.

“If the enemy sets fire now, the entire city will burn.”

“We must stop them immediately!”

The officers shouted with urgent voices.

This was because the wind was blowing toward Aksaray.

So if the enemy set fire now, Aksaray would clearly be doomed to burn.

“Stop them now! Hurry!”

Qutb, belatedly coming to his senses, tried to give orders.

But the enemy soldier’s actions were faster.

The torch flew over the well-dried straw, grass, and trees.

As if they had been waiting, flames began to rise.

“Put out the fire immediately!”

At Qutb’s words, the soldiers fell into confusion.

Just moments ago he had told them to stop the Mongol soldiers, but now he was telling them to extinguish the fire.

As they floundered, confusion naturally began to spread among the soldiers.

Some soldiers shot arrows at the Mongol soldiers while others sprinkled water to stop the flames spreading at the base of the wall.

As the soldiers split up this way, the flames naturally grew fiercer.

“Aaaagh!”

“Th-the fire is getting bigger!”

Even though they tried to extinguish the fire by throwing dirt or water, it was difficult to stop the flames that had already gained momentum.

As a result, the flames that had been consuming everything flammable began to surge over the walls.

“Aaaagh!”

“F-fire! Fire!”

Soldiers were injured by the fire.

Seeing this, Qutb went down to the base of the wall to try to resolve the situation.

“Everyone stay calm. Use dirt to prevent the flames from spreading.”

But the panicked citizens wouldn’t listen to him.

The citizens, who had been forced to follow Qutb in the first place, began to forcibly open the gates to survive.

“Open the gates now!”

“I have no intention of burning to death!”

“Get back now! Or else! Argh!”

The soldiers tried to block them, but the citizens outnumbered them.

So they began to attack the soldiers with stones or pitchforks.

“Die one way or die another!”

“Get out of the way!”

Eventually, a soldier guarding the gate was killed.

And the gate was opened.

“The gate is open!”

“Let’s escape!”

The citizens fled straight out through the gate.

Although he tried to stop them, since the gate was open, enemy troops could enter, so Qutb didn’t rashly chase after the panicked citizens.

“Reform your ranks! And slowly exit through the gate!”

Since the entire city had been attacked with fire, it was impossible to hold out here.

So he chose to withdraw while maintaining formation.

As they exited in formation, the Mongol army began shooting arrows as if they had been waiting for this.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh

“Aaaagh!”

“Urgh!”

As arrows fell from the sky, soldiers began to die.

Qutb raised the white flag again and shouted his surrender.

“I surrender! Surrender!”

But the Mongol soldiers did not accept Qutb’s surrender.

“Damn it…”

At that moment, the Mongol cavalry charged.

As they approached, the infantry following Qutb began to fall like autumn leaves.

“D-dodge!”

“How are we supposed to avoid cavalry attacks?!”

“Move if you want to live!”

As the infantry scattered to survive, their formation naturally dispersed.

The Mongol cavalry wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

They began to slaughter the infantry as if they were hunting game.

“Urgh!”

“Aaaagh!”

“This is…”

Qutb could do nothing.

All he could do was look up at the sky and call out to God.

“God… why do you inflict such punishment on me…!”

He muttered as if feeling wronged.

But Allah gave no answer, as if Qutb deserved divine punishment.

At that moment, something gleaming approached him.

Slash.

A chilling sound echoed across the battlefield.

And a head separated from its body rolled on the ground. This was his end.

* * *

Jamukha stood before Temujin.

And he presented thousands of severed heads he had brought to Temujin.

Temujin looked at Jamukha and nodded.

“A great victory.”

“This proves my ability, doesn’t it? Anda?”

“Of course. Jamukha, my one and only Anda, will continue to stay by my side.”

Temujin said this and opened his arms.

And he embraced Jamukha.

Jamukha let out a long sigh at this.

In truth, he too knew this was Temujin’s test.

So he had sensed that he needed to prove his abilities.

For this reason, there was some intention behind his deliberately cruel slaughter of the enemy.

Accepting the enemy’s surrender could have been enough to gain recognition for his achievements.

But rather than surrender, he needed to show that he could win with such overwhelming superiority so that Temujin would never doubt his abilities again.

And Temujin wanted this too.

Because it was a cornerstone for instilling fear in the Sultanate of Rum, he wanted to kill as cruelly as possible to prepare for any potential rebellion.

As mentioned repeatedly, the Ulus used both the stick and the carrot appropriately.

Since they had given the Sultanate of Rum the carrot of suppressing the rebellion, they naturally had to show that the whipping would be extremely severe.

This was so the old Sultan wouldn’t dare think of opposing the Ulus.

Of course, this wouldn’t have been possible if Kilij hadn’t wanted the rebellion suppressed.

However, since it was what he wanted, it didn’t matter how it was done.

And this was the result.

The death of Qutb.

And the destruction of Aksaray.

* * *

I looked at the old Sultan with a satisfied smile.

Kilij was just staring at the box with a shocked face.

“As promised, I’ve suppressed the rebellion. Aksaray is gone, and the traitor’s head has been preserved in salt.”

“…Thank you, great Khagan.”

As I keep mentioning, this was Kilij’s request.

Using the Ulus’s hand to punish his son, the traitor.

The method was entirely left to us.

So he couldn’t complain to us even if we used such cruel methods.

“And since the rebellion might continue, we will station troops in Aksaray. And we will build a new fortress here using the citizens who supported the traitor as slaves.”

The reason for specifically mentioning citizens who supported the traitor was simple.

They were also his citizens. But since they had cooperated with the traitor, it was largely to give legitimacy to the idea that we, who had suppressed the rebellion, could do whatever we wanted with them.

“They are also our citizens. How could…”

Ghiyath, the Sultan’s heir, tried to protest.

But the Sultan stepped in to stop him.

“The Khagan is right. Use them as you wish.”

I raised one corner of my mouth without answering.

It seemed that having lived a long life, he had noticed what I was trying to do.

If he had protested like Ghiyath here, I was going to accuse Ghiyath of being someone who supported the rebellion.

In that case, Ghiyath would suddenly become someone who had cooperated with the rebellion and would inevitably face execution.

Of course, the Sultan would try to stop it at the risk of his life, but there was a high chance it would be futile.

This was because Temujin’s troops were already stationed in Aksaray.

So if they resisted here, we could use our army to forcibly subdue the Sultanate of Rum.

And we could execute the old Sultan’s last heir and install a puppet heir, effectively making the Sultanate of Rum a puppet state.

The old Sultan, who had noticed this, had no choice but to accept our excessive demands.

“A wise choice, Sultan.”

With these final words, I turned and left the Sultan’s palace.

As I left, I could hear the Sultan’s lament and Ghiyath’s angry words.