Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
At dawn, a thin mist hung in the air over Damascus. More than a dozen Mamluk generals escorted a young general clad in splendid scale armor up onto the city wall.
He gazed gloomily at the camps below, where countless Crusader banners fluttered in succession. These past few days, the Crusaders had been feverishly preparing for the siege, while the harassment plan he had devised had not only cost too many troops, but achieved very limited results.
No matter how fierce and fanatical the conscripted desert nomads were, they could not overcome the iron armor and battle-honed skills of the Frankish knights.
A Mamluk general said softly, "Your Majesty, more and more Frankish barbarians have been gathering outside the city lately. They are using demonic dragons to threaten every village into supplying them with provisions and water, while also buying them off with gold and silver. Our plan has clearly failed."
The young general said regretfully, "I said from the start that we should have fortified the walls and cleared the land, leaving them not a single water source. Those arrogant Frankish barbarians would be like thirsty fish at our mercy once deprived of water."
He was Malik, Saladin's eldest son and also Saladin's most favored son.
Now that Saladin was gravely ill, he had naturally taken control of Damascus.
This was no difficult task for him. Saladin had originally planned to leave Damascus and the heartland of the kingdom in southern Syria entirely to Malik after his death, making him King of the Ayyubids.
Malik already had a broad foundation of authority in these regions, along with an entire faction loyal to him.
A Mamluk said solemnly, "His Majesty is benevolent and unwilling to let the people suffer."
Malik gave