The speed with which the Crusaders captured Rahba exceeded everyone's expectations.
For by the time the Crusaders arrived beneath Rahba's walls, this formidable fortress—which would have required immense time and terrible casualties to breach even with complete siege equipment—had already lost most of its cohesion.
The Shadow of Darkness, who had infiltrated disguised as a caravan, had, under Cherinina's leadership, nearly wiped out every middle- and high-ranking officer in the fortress and opened the gates.
Bathed in holy radiance and impervious to blades and spears, the order's knights streamed in after Jeanne.
The Undead Army soldiers, reduced to fighting separately, could not organize an effective counterattack before being divided and surrounded in every corner of the fortress.
In the end, the elite Undead Army, the Sasanian royal guard, became the first Sasanian Dynasty force to surrender as an organized unit since the Fifth Crusade began.
Of the three thousand Undead Army warriors, nearly two thousand chose to lay down their weapons.
The valiant female general removed her helmet and urged them harshly, "Leave this fortress to our brothers in the Shadow of Darkness. Ignore the prisoners. Take every horse in the stables, and stuff as many supplies as possible into your saddlebags. We have no time to rest. Before the Sassanians can react, we will swallow their entire border army's main force in one bite."
Taking Rahba was merely an appetizer. The true main course, the main force of the Sasanian western border army, was stationed in Hadiseh beyond Rahba.
If Rahba was the throat of the Sasanian Dynasty, then Hadiseh was the valve at its heart.
Once they breached this city, the Crusader Cavalry could ride eastward along the Euphrates River and reach Baghdad in no more than three days.
Baghdad was not the Sasanian Dynasty's capital, but its