A Thought-Out Plan: 1215-1220
Food was scarce in some areas of the Ethiopian Empire. Many people were simply not getting the nutrition they needed from only fish. With the rebellion in full swing food was much more expensive and the citizens became hungrier by the day. The Caliph hated to see his people suffering so badly so he sent an emissary to the Sultanate of Austria (as Ethiopians called it). There, the two empires worked out deals to help the starving Ethiopians. The first was simply so that the people of Ethiopia could get more nutrition. The people from Europe gave Ethiopia wheat in exchange for African fish. The deal was tremendous, but that was not the last deal. They also had another trade to make. Yazmin's son and successor, Nasr, offered the people of Ethiopia pigs. The Muslims in the fair Empire had no use for it but many of the hungry people were Christians anyways so it would be useful to them. In return the Austrians required a much needed resource, incense to burn at the mosques.
With all of the new trades, Nasr came to like Ethiopia a lot. After the trade deals were made, Austrian men came over to talk about the usefulness of a vassalage society. They tried to sell it as best as they could but the Caliph was simply not interested. He unfortunately had to turn the Austrians down and this mildly upset the Sultanate.
The Christian rebels still had camp set up on the only route to the capital. They were hoping to cut them off entirely and force them to have to become self-sufficient enough where they would break away. As several of the soldiers tasked with defending Gondar said "They were just standing there, menacingly!"
The rebels outside of Meroe also seemed to be waiting for the right time to strike. They would wait until the defenders of Meroe were lured out, then strike the city swiftly and decisively. There plan was flawless, except that it was a bunch of peasants and very few actual soldiers in this group. It was as if a camel was trying to teach a dog how to be a cat. It would be immensely difficult.
Matthias was a wonderful general. While at the base camp just outside of Yeha, he figured out a way to take out the pikemen, or at least weaken them, with the large and expensive siege equipment. His proposal was to use them against the defenders and while at first his advisers were adamantly against it, it was a better decision to do this that to throw their troops at the city and lose over and over again. They finally agreed and the general moved on with his plans. He knew there would be losses, and they were actually much milder than expected. Out of the two catapult divisions, one came back alive, although damaged. Matthias was heralded as a genius for this move, it would also make the attack much easier.
The man who was just under Matthias had been promoted due to the success of the mission. Matthias was furious that his underling was receiving all the credit until he received a royal letter proclaiming great news. Once he returned to the capital, he would become Mishir, the field marshal for the Ethiopian Army. His second-in-command would take charge of his force. Matthias was overjoyed with this, but first he had a job to do, and he had to do it right.