Capítulo 40: Chapter 40: Pursuit
Finishing this major siege was a hard task and I achieved great results while also taking great risks. Once the main defensive points were seized, I gave extended orders to begin fortifying the city, use our new prisoners to rebuild the parts of the wall we can, or use wood and rubble to seal the gaps.
Also, the men I sent to find the exit of the secret tunnel and find tracks of the fleeing ruler and his family returned. In their return, they brought not only news, but they returned with many coins, jewels, artifacts, and hostages.
The number of coins is not known but they had to steal the caravan they marched out of the secret tunnel to bring this astonishing amount of wealth back to the city. Amazingly the way they found this caravan and were able to seize it and its wealth was because of a battle that was already taking place between the fleeing caravan and a few units of our scouts and spies in the area.
After they arrived, they immediately helped the scouts, and they together subdued the entire caravan and the people in it. Supposedly many of the guards and other beys there fled on horseback into the countryside once more beginning another chase led by my scouts... Though I have no further information on this issue.
But other than coins they also brought great news, we have a few of the ruler's children and his only two wives, I have no ill will towards them so they will be treated well for a time until the proper ransom is paid. We also have information given by the new captives, that the ruler Eretna is heading to Sivas to gather the remainder of his supporters and regain his honor and his capital.
I do not plan to allow this man to gather another army this to me is just too inconceivable. I refuse to fight such a gorilla-styled defender, it will just lead to many issues making my ruling this region unimportant and the entire Cappadocia region dragging down all my plans. Moving quickly I arranged my commanders in the palace for a meeting.
I started the meeting by saying "Now we all did our parts in this great victory in which you all will be rewarded again once we return to the capital. I know you all have struck it rich on this campaign, probably seeing more wealth in this one campaign than all your ancestors combined haha. But you must remember to keep your heads on straight you are all soldiers first.
-Now the reason I called you all here is very important, we must set off once more, but this time I will only be taking with me the Kapikulu cavalry. All the Janissaries and infantrymen will remain here in the city, continuing to guard it against any outside forces. But all Kapikulu and sipahi commanders will have to move with me, we are chasing down the ruler of Cappadocia called Eretna as he wishes to raise another army.
-This is why we must make sure he cannot secure any more support here in this region at least not enough to gain an army. I decided to do that we only have one direction, which is to secure Sivas. Securing the last city where he has mass support and enough population to build another force of the same size we faced here in Kayseri."
The details of the plan are rather simple and depend on many factors but I hope it can work. I will send many of the spies and a few of my assassins to reinforce the spies already in the city, I wish to hold some support in the city using any support we can get to spread the word that Eretna's army was already crushed.
They will say the capital has been seized, and his men and family captured as he flees in a panic looking to drag more good men to their deaths with him. I want to spread the fact that he has already failed in his attempt to fight my armies, and he will fail again. I want the word spread about his cowardice in abandoning his men to fight whilst he escaped in secret.
I will get this all done rather quickly, I am already arranging my cavalry to move out as I think this through. This took less than an hour and soon we were already on the route toward Sivas, I am rushing which in most cases will cause the commander of an army to fail, but I know in some cases it will work out.
We marched long into the night until all the men were tired so I decided we can camp as this may give time to my spies to get the word to spread. Waking in the morning we were back on the march after watering our horses and checking our supplies.
Another long march and a long exhausting day lead into the night once more and still, we haven't made it to the city. I was told it was normal to travel for three to four days to reach the city, but I assumed this was moving at a leisurely pace, I was wrong this is long trip maps are much different from actually traveling the routes yourself.
After a long march this time, the march was only about ten hours we reached the city's outskirts, but the sun will set in three hours so in this situation we must indeed rush ourselves. Hearing the city's horns blaring in the distance it is obvious that the defenders have taken notice of my horseman horde approaching their city.
I gathered a delegation of a few commanders and my close guards that are usually at my side and rode towards the city gate. Once we arrived at the gates the defenders on the walls aimed their bows toward our direction. Shaking my head one of my commanders stepped forwards and hailed the guards.
He said "I am sure you know why we have brought our hordes to this gate that you guard. So I will not introduce myself or my liege's army, as we need no introduction nowadays. So, I will ask what has your city decided will you fight? Or will peace suffice?"
Before any guard on the wall could speak an old man stepped into our view up on the wall. The old man look my commander and said "We have heard the stories of the siege in Kayseri and how our leader performed there, I am surprised as to how fast information spreads these days but maybe I am getting old.
-But I must say, we do not plan to hand over our city or our liege as he is the rightfuhhjnj" Before the elderly man could finish his sentence one of the guards on the wall had stuck his dagger through the man's throat.
This surprised me as I believed I would have to scrap my initial plan but let me see how this will play out. The young guard barely in our view then gave a head nod in the city's direction I am assuming he nodded towards someone we cannot see just yet. Proving my theory correctly another man looked over the battlements staring right at me, and this man was much younger than the dead man who spoke with us before.
The new young man thus yelled down to us "Sorry for the rude interruptions earlier but that old man is a Mongol sympathizer and he had to die. I heard our liege was beaten back and forth by your army and that he fled in secret even leaving behind his wives and children. I want to ask are you planning to conquer the Mongol lands in the near future?"
Thinking for a second I said to the young man "First you must state your name before you speak, this is the same mistake the dead man made and that is why he died it is called arrogance when you do not have the power to act in such a way. Second, all in Anatolia must refer to me as sultan as all of the lands in this region belong to my Sultanate by right. "
The young man clearly not liking my arrogant statement almost replied negatively but even from down here I could see him stop and think for a second. The young man then replied "My sultan, I apologize for my arrogance my name is Reza Kamran my family fled from Persia long in the past, to where I grew up around Tabriz... My lord I wish to know will you conquer this area?"
Seeing the fire burning brightly in the young man's eyes even from this distance I answered honestly "I wish to strengthen the Muslim world as no one has done before, I will conquer until I can no longer ride a horse fight until I can no longer walk! Does this answer satisfy your question?"
He responded, "Open the gate!"
We sent the signal to the cavalry waiting further away from the gate to move up with us. Soon we all were entering the city, I am kinda surprised by how easy it was to gain access to supposedly the place where Eretna will build his army of revenge. Or maybe I am just overthinking things.
Once inside the city, I spread my cavalry out through the city, using their arms to gain access to the defenses and central areas of this trading city, I want to have full control of the city by day's end. During this Reza who let me in the city came down, and explained why we were allowed in the city.
This Reza has helped his uncle control the garrison and army in Sivas since he was of age. So now at the age of twenty-two, he has been in control of the army for six years, then he heard yesterday that their "Liege" was defeated and fleeing from the enemies in cowardice. His uncle has been a loyal supporter of the Mongols in Anatolia for years, and Reza who's family was killed by Mongols disliked this, so when this opportunity arrived he killed his uncle and seized control of the city.
I asked Reza "You have just gained control of the city why would you give up control of the city so quickly?"
Reza replied "I see no point in supporting that Eretna, and I see that the Ottoman Turks are on the rise, while the other beylics will fall sooner or later. So, I wish to support you as my liege but in return, I wish to help or lead an attack on Tabriz in the future. My small revenge is all I ask, I shall lend all my strength including the army I have taken from my uncle and this city itself and the location of the supporters of Eretna in this city."
I replied "I shall in return for this city support your revenge when the opportunity arises. If I do not support your revenge may my empire crumble and my gold to dust."
Finishing this I gained a new subordinate and a city without any fighting, and maybe some good troops it seems to be no less than ten thousand soldiers here. Though these troops I do not know where to place them just yet. Though it wouldn't be terrible to make them into a Cappadocian garrison for my new prison idea.
I did plan to make Cappadocia my capital for prison because this area is filled with many underground cities. These cities are extensive and with some tinkering, we can close off the many exits and create a cheap but effective prison system here. With these ten thousand soldiers I could begin its use immediately. As the small dungeons in my cities have not been enough to hold the many prisoners that have already been convicted by my new court system.
The underground cities have many advantages not just as prisons but I will use them for many things in the future. This is the third main reason for conquering Kayseri, the second being the trade routes pass through Cappadocia, and the first being Kayseri is a system city. And with the new city of Sivas I now own pretty much all of Cappadocia.
Though I couldn't catch Eretna I did gain a city in turn, so this is worth enough to have sprinted all the way over here. With the addition of Sivas, I now have the majority of the silk road trade routes under my control in Anatolia, I also have removed a lot of the competition out of the region.
-Sorry that this chapter is kind of like filler, but I had to include this to add a certain character who may or may not be important in the future.
Capítulo 41: Chapter 41: The Sultans Sword
After securing the city of Sivas I moved into the palace to rest under the guard of my Assassins. In the morning I had to gather my troops and leave back to Kayseri, I am on a tight schedule that somehow, I keep extending. I refuse to allow my lands to be attacked without a defense so I must return to Europe to lead the defense in the regions I own there.
Before leaving for Europe, I will begin the building and restoration of plenty of projects in my new region of Cappadocia. One is the prison system, which will be done by using these already existing complexes of underground cities. Another was the restoration of the Caravanserai and the existing trading routes.
Without the safety of trade, we have no reason to rule. I also commissioned the building of a few small mosques in the region to make travel and trade easier for everyone even without a horse. The roads will be extended and built by the system, so I do not need to worry about that, but the system will not build any buildings that people can stay at whilst traveling through the region.
I also begin the restoration and building of new fortifications like watch towers and small fortresses along the new border. I do not want the region to be looted by random raiders or by Eretna as he has still not been found. To guard against him I left behind my new ally Reza, to control Sivas and his soldiers there.
I decided to do this simply because it is easier, and I do not have the resources right now to control Sivas fully anyways. But if I can test this Riva's loyalty and secure the region that is all the better, but Kayseri will be garrisoned by my trained garrison troops and policed by my police officers trained in my cities. I prepared all the manpower needed for Kayseri, Smyrna, Ankara, eastern Anatolia, and Crimea before the campaign even started.
But the regions I did not plan to seize but instead fell into my lap I do not have any resources or government bureaucrats to send to those regions just yet. The remainder of the trained manpower will be used in the Balkans. But in less than three months I will have these insecure regions secured. I have just obtained three new system cities, leading to more output of trained and educated soldiers, administrators, and judges for those regions unsecured may become secure much faster than even I anticipate.
Once arriving in Kayseri, I will take the long trek over to Izmir and from the port there we will sail to Thessalonica. While I am in the Capital defending and attacking the Infidels my brother Suleyman shall lead our campaign in Crimea!
*** Pov: Suleyman
Waking up today I received a message from my brother. The messenger boy began to read the message, "The sultan says in this message that he has secured Cappadocia and is now moving the army back to the capital in Rumelia. He no longer will have the time to support the campaign in Crimea and the conquest of the region lies solely on your command. He does however state that you will have control of a massive fleet that will be led by the new Admiral Evrenos bey.
-He said that this fleet is new, and has many educated officers on its staff, he wants you to use this fleet to its full potential in conquering the coastal regions. He also said that there will be a shipment of cannons coming with this fleet, giving you a total of 130 cannons the most ever used. With these new cannons, he sent an engineering corps to make sure these cannons can keep up with the army and to build the infrastructure needed to move our army around the backwaters of Crimea.
-The last thing it says here is good luck, and prove to all that you are not just my elder brother but a great general. I want men to refer to you along with men like Subutai and Belisarius... Do not let yourself down!"
Hearing my brother's message, just made me chuckle and shake my head. How does this kid know all these stories... How can he say he wants me to be referred to along the same lines as these two men no one has heard of in centuries... I was not even taught anything about these two men growing up but somehow this boy did know about them and even in detail he is a strange one indeed.
But I cannot lie I do indeed inspire to be a great general I want to be written about and remembered for years to come. If what my brother tells me about these two men are true, I indeed want to be similar to these men, to be considered one of the greatest generals of my time.
*Sigh* Letting out a sigh I dismissed the messenger, then I moved to the main tent once more to discuss with my commanders the update of orders I received. Walking into the tent, all the commanders began to quiet down.
Then I said "We have new orders. We shall no longer wait for Sultan's forces he wishes for us to obtain the Crimean coasts with our army in conjunction with the navy. The faster the better as I have heard the Serbians are concocting some scheme against our Sultan. So I want all men ready to load up on the ships by tomorrow morning the fleet will be here then."
Once I have achieved my goal here I left, moving toward the port I began to make sure all the ships can dock here properly and nothing is broken or dangerous. Then I monitored the troops for the remainder of the day making sure everything is taken care of properly. If someone was being sloppy or not following my military protocols I would give them warnings and some men I have spoken with before were given small punishments like docking their pay or taking more of their loot in the future.
I need all my soldiers to have the proper discipline or in the future when we are in a battle we will lose because one man did not properly follow orders this is my doctrine. But once the sun began to set, I returned to my tent, where I did my daily workout, before having a bath and finally resting.
In the morning the Navy's ships began to dock in the port, where I led my troops to load up on these ships and load the supplies and horses into the hold of the ships. This process was done rather quickly compared to most armies as I led this personally and had everything and everyone already at the port ready to go.
By noon we were already en route to Crimea. I am currently on the deck of the flagship with Evrenos bey, we began discussing our strategy. He wants to focus the navy on siege warfare instead of just using the fleet for logistics support. He explained to me that we can hire local merchants and use the merchant ships we brought along to support our logistics and use the navy when needed to support our supply lines.
But he even cited examples of how my brother used the cannon-bearing ships to crush the enemy's walls as the number of cannons on the ships is way more than we have on the land. And the ships can move faster than we can on land, he says we can use the navy to crush enemies before the army even arrives in the city.
Hearing this was a lot I asked for some time to think. I need to indeed rethink my strategy, I did not know our navy was strong enough to take entire cities and it even secured an entire island without any land force support. Thinking and thinking days began to pass until I finally managed to arrange a proper strategy in my mind.
Yeah, I got it! I must now wait for us to reach the ground to explain to my commanders but the naval admiral is on this ship making it easy to explain the plan to him at least. After knocking on the door I entered the Admiral's office on the ship.
I said once in the room "I have the plan together it took me a while to put it all together. But I will have your navy play a vital role in these sieges. For the first part of the campaign we must secure the entire coast, without the port cities we cannot siege the cities further in as we will probably starve once our supplies run out.
-So, if we must secure the coasts the quickest way is by sea, so we will use the sea to our advantage. The Genoese have lost the majority of their fleet in the area having no real defenses against the sea as of now. So, we will move our armies by sea from city to city, once we capture a city we will embark back on the ships and disembark at the next city conquer it and move on again and again. How does this sound?"
Evrenos bey was silently thinking for a minute before responding "My navy is capable of this. But what will my ships be doing during these sieges will we participate?"
I thought for a second before saying "I want to follow the same strategy as my sultan. The navy will bombard the walls just as we will, wherever the walls fall first shall assault the city from that point. But this is not all, I hope to split the navy into a third, two-thirds of the navy will transport and siege cities with the army. The final third will move ahead of the army and navy and bombard the next city's walls, giving us a head start on attacking the cities and attempting to force these cities into surrender early."
He again thought for just a minute and replied "I agree, this sounds good. The spies say there are only merchant vessels around the Genoese ports here, and the numbers are extremely low according to the locals."
After this short conversation, I left his office and returned to my quarters. Here I pretty much waited for our arrival in Crimea... Soon I received notification we are approaching the coast and will have to disembark soon.
Once we arrived at a natural harbor unattended by any defenses only inhabited by local villages, we landed our ships there and the army disembarked the ships quickly again under my supervision. This took longer than I wanted but we were completely in marching order within three hours.
The first city we decided to siege was the best-defended city in the area and the most populous city in Crimea A city known as Caffa or Feodosia. Now we find ourselves looking to capture such a city that would have taken my father and his father years and maybe even decades to conquer. I am here now and expecting to conquer the city within the week or even quicker than that.
I received word the defenders number no more than a thousand men. This great though they have men armed with similar weapons to my brother's hand cannons they do not have large cannons as I have. This gives me a large advantage as I can just let the cannons and the ships bombard the city until the defenders can no longer defend and give up or until a gap is made and we can assault the city.
I do not plan to assault the city as I do not have any heavily armored units, I have mostly light-armored men who can move quickly and loose thousands of arrows quickly. I do though have 2000 heavily armored infantry and 500 heavy armored cavalries but to send these two at the walls against similar numbers would result in many losses.
So once we arrived on the outskirts of the city the navy was already bombarding the city, and the gates were closed. I had the siege camp built this took less than a day as the engineers my brother sent are extremely efficient at the building of pretty much anything.
-The second chapter for the day hope you enjoy it.
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