In the Persian Bazaar: The Roar of an Empire

Episode Nine: The Logistics of Vengeance, the Spice Trap

1. The Weakness of a Giant Stomach

“Alexander calls himself a god—but his soldiers are only human.

If they grow hungry, they cannot march. If they thirst, they cannot hold their spears.”

Pointing at a vast map spread across the sand, Danesh spoke with cold precision.

Beside him, Azad—the newly allied mercenary chief—snorted with grim amusement.

Alexander’s colossal army possessed a fatal flaw: its insatiable appetite.

Every day, tens of thousands of soldiers and thousands of horses required food and water.

That endless demand stretched back to Macedon as a single, fragile lifeline—the supply line.

“So this ‘business’ of yours,” Azad asked, “is about stealing the enemy’s food?”

“No,” Cyrus replied with a crooked grin. “That’s amateur work.”

He tossed a small pouch, brought by Inaz, at Azad’s feet.

“We turn their food into poison.”

2. Reapers of Spice

The operation began deep at night, when the moon vanished behind clouds.

A Macedonian supply convoy moved along the desert road toward Persepolis.

Hundreds of donkeys carried dried meat, wheat, and precious water.

“…Your cue, snake charmer,” Cyrus whispered.

At his signal, Shahab and Azad’s elite slipped silently into the camp.

Before the guards could react, Shahab’s blowdart pierced a man’s throat.

They stole nothing.

Instead, they introduced Inaz’s concoction—special herbs and spices that accelerated decay—into the water tanks and grain sacks.

It was not a fast-acting poison.

Days later, it would twist the soldiers’ intestines, drain their strength, and sow illness through the ranks.

3. The Desert Mirage Gambit

By morning, as the convoy resumed its march, Cyrus and Azad’s cavalry appeared on the horizon.

“Pursue them! Capture the Persian remnants!”

Believing the small force an easy prize, the Macedonians abandoned the road and chased them deep into the dunes.

That was exactly the death script Danesh had written.

The spices consumed the night before began screaming inside the soldiers’ bodies.

Under the merciless sun, crippling stomach pain and dehydration struck.

“…Water… water…”

The moment they drank, violent vomiting followed.

Even the water had been laced with burning agents.

4. Azad’s Roar, Cyrus’s Blade

“Now! Teach them the law of the desert!”

At Azad’s command, mercenaries surged from behind the dunes.

This was no battle.

Elite soldiers, too weak to stand even with their spears, fell one after another beneath Azad’s curved blade.

Cyrus charged at the front, his sword flashing.

“This is payment for the market you burned—with interest!”

His blade pierced the chest of a Macedonian officer who had once led the devastation of the bazaar.

From a distant hill, Nilfar watched the slaughter.

She did not pray.

She chose instead to witness the men who dirtied their hands so her people might live—and carved their resolve into her heart.

5. Bread That Never Arrives, an Empire That Trembles

News of the destroyed convoy and tainted provisions spread swiftly through the Macedonian ranks.

For the first time, Alexander’s advance halted—not by steel, but by hunger.

“Cyrus, it’s a perfect result,” Danesh reported.

“They’re consumed by suspicion. They fear even a single loaf of bread.”

But before victory could settle, a captive was dragged forward.

His words froze the air.

“Laugh while you can, ghosts of the market…

The Great King has already ordered an iron wall raised at the eastern oasis you’re heading for.

There is… nowhere left to run…”

Cyrus and Azad exchanged grim looks.

The true hell was only beginning.