Free The Archer's Marines: The First Marines - Medieval fiction action story about Marines, naval warfare, and knights after King Richard's crusade in Syria, ... times (The Company of Archers Book 5) by Martin Archer Page A

the time of the year, there are often as many as ten thousand desert people in the caravanserai and camping outside the city along the nearby little river that runs into the sea from somewhere in the interior. 
           The desert people camping outside the city walls along the river are a source of uncertainty and concern.  I know they’re there because I can see their tents all over the place.  Will they rush to help fight us off or not? It concerns us all because we don’t know how many of them are here or how they will fight or what weapons they’ll use.  Hopefully they’ll be like the Saracens we fought for Richard and Lord Edmund - lots of boasting and no armor or bottom. In other words, geese for our Marines to pluck.
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           It’s midday Friday, the Islamic Sabbath, and many people, we hope, are at the mosque.  Even so, many people are standing on the beach and on the dock watching as we row in.  There are a lot of us and we’re coming fast so it’s little wonder that they are looking. 
           Perhaps we’re too early and the prayers and sermons haven’t started yet; well, it’s too late now.  We’re committed.
           We are barely a third of the way into the harbor when I see the first of the watchers begin running for the city gates to escape and sound the alarm; others begin running toward the galleys on the beach to confront us . 
           Unlike our previous prize taking raids our fighting men are not evenly distributed with each of our galley captains responsible for cutting out as many prizes as possible. 
           This time our strategy will be different in several ways – for one, we’ll have archer-heavy forces under the command of me and Peter going all the way to the two city gates that face the docks.  We’ll disembark from the six galleys and, instead of our Marines staying on the decks of our galleys and trying to keep the Moslems off the docks as we’ve done in our previous port raids, we’ll disembark and try to reach the gates and block them before they can get out of the city to attack our prize crews and rejoin their ships.  Hopefully, this will give our prize crews more time so they can get all the ships at the dock – and everywhere else.
           In other words, instead of staying on our galleys next to the dock and using our Marines’ longbows to fight off the Moslems trying to get at our prize crews as we’ve done in the past, this time we’ll protect them by keeping the Moslems penned up inside the city walls so they can’t attack in the first place.  At least that’s the plan.
           Similarly, while Peter and I are leading our Marines to the city gates Henry will be leading four other galleys with a large number of prize crews to get the galleys that are nosed in side by side all along the beach.  He too will disembark a force of Marines to move inland and cover his prize crews with their longbows. 
           Only Harold’s five galleys going after the ships in the harbor will be archer light.  They will have some, of course, but nothing comparable to the numbers we’ll have on the beach and at the city gates.
     
     
                          Chapter Six
           Henry promoted me to sergeant and assigned me to lead the archers on my galley when our prize crews go after the Tunisian galleys beached along the edge of the harbor.  There are a lot of them, mostly next to what appears to be a shipyard for the repair and construction of all kinds of ships. 
           My Marines and I are as prepared and determined as men can be.  This is the chance of a lifetime for all of us to become rich and rise above our current class as landless peasants and soldiers.  As you might imagine, I am determined not to let the opportunity pass and neither, I think, are my Marines.
           No less than seven prize crews are on each of the four galleys going after the beached