Chapter 37: Besieging Kayseri

Having let my army rest all day and night, I decided it was time to begin the last Anatolian conquest in this campaign. We already mapped our route for this march, so it is simple to just move towards our goal, we also sent scouts and spies out to watch out for any problematic obstacles in our way.

Leaving Ankara, I walked with about 100 guards from the Kapikulu Sipahi, they are all from my original general's bodyguard unit. I am saying this because I want to show I am usually surrounded by the same people.

These soldiers can be considered to know me more than most even though we do not speak very often, well not to all of them. But one of these soldiers I interact with pretty often is the commander of this unit a man named Hasmet bey.

At this time Hasmet stepped forward and asked me a question like usual... He said "My sultan I want to know something... Why have you been building banks all over our lands? I also want to know why you are so adamant about education as well.

-I lived well before education and though I have a better understanding of the world after learning to read and reading the recommended books... I do not understand why farmers need to be able to read, or common laborers need to be able to read as well?"

Moving my horse backward a bit moving the horse side by side with Hasmet bey, then answering "Ah... I am sure many p[tobably think I am morally bankrupt for instituting the banking system and moving the money changers from the dark alleys into the public light.

-But there is a good reason for this, one must first understand a little about the relationship between money and people. People use coins to buy things but why do we use a coin instead of using a barter system? Well, that is because if we use coins, we are capable of traveling lighter and faster and trading for items previously unavailable because the person did not have the correct item.

-Coins are universally accepted as a form of payment by all people... This is the main point, with a payment accepted by all we can now purchase anything we have the coin for around the world and more accurately pay for these things.

-Now why would I want to regularize the use of banks... Well, this simply comes down to my ideology, I believe it is simply evil to hoard all your wealth. Let's say I decided not to build roads or pay my soldiers, and keep all the wealth I have within my coffers what would happen? The answer is our sultanates economy would immediately fail.

-Well imagine that on a large scale, beginning about 80 years ago many merchants, aristocrats, landowners, and sometimes even farmers began to have excess wealth, more than they could think to spend and they began to horde this wealth or give it to other men as investments... But not on a large enough scale.

-Following my line of thoughts we now can draw the conclusion we need to spread the wealth about to create even more wealth. By using banks as an intermediary for the wealthy people in our sultanate we can begin to spread the wealth about in the form of loans and investments, we can further fund projects we couldn't normally fund by using a loan or asking for an investment in return for a piece of the profits.

-This is why I believe we need to focus resources on the development of this new banking system. Now for education, I have a simple answer in the form of an example. I say a man who travels down a road and understands the mistakes and successes of those who traveled before them will have an easier time in his travels right?"

Watching his reaction, I was reminded why I like talking with this guy he rode next to me in silence for about two minutes before looking up and finally responding. He said "So you are saying more coins changing hands is good for the sultanate...

-I get it somewhat, but I still think the banks can become immoral institutions just by having one money-hungry vizier control them. And I finally understand the importance of education, I knew it wasn't bad to educate people but I just wondered how important it was."

Seeing he understood I asked "Any more questions? We are to be marching for a few hours!"

He responded, "My sultan what do you say to the Ghazis who do not wish to fight our fellow Muslims?"

Thinking for a second I responded "Well this is easy to explain, as we are not fighting our fellow Muslims because I want to. We are seizing their lands simply because we must do it, without securing a good portion of the Ummah how can we as Muslims fight the infidels? They will outnumber us every time we battle, and we would risk our annihilation every campaign. To battle against the Infidels we need a strong population and economy to be able to even think about conquering past the Balkans."

To this he just nodded, leaving no reply as his body language showed he understood and respected my aspect on this issue. Whilst we continued small talk with the rest of the guards around us we moved ever closer to the target of our conquest Kayseri.

I decided to avoid the majority of the settlements on the way to the city, as they weren't that well-guarded and could not pose a threat to us in our rear at all. After securing Kayseri I can sweep all the lands I passed by to arrive here, drawing a new border. After a brief march we arrived at the river we need to cross to make it to Kayseri.

Before we left, we planned to cross the arch bridge built here over the river, this allows us to pass by rather quickly giving our enemies no quarter. The quicker we arrive the less prepared our enemies are, this is my philosophy.

Crossing this Seljuk-built bridge rather smoothly we encountered no resistance from our foes here luckily. Moving past the bridge we marched smoothly, finally arriving on the outskirts of the city by the time the sun began to set. Though we must build our camp in the dark, we will have a place to sleep before it gets too cold tonight.

After about an hour majority of the squads set their tents up, then the engineers began to direct the building of a quick defense for the night. Once all was constructed 4 hours passed in the night, but this is fine because now everyone is exhausted from the extra-long day and the freezing temperatures.

Waking up in the morning I woke to the sounds of construction our engineers were out getting a head start on the work today. They have a good bit of work ahead of them, though our heavier cannons have not arrived just yet they will indeed be here today. We need to build a decent siege fort, the first one I have built in any siege so far.

The enemies have raised an army of 20k men, and these men are in the city. This will be the largest battle I have ever participated in and maybe the largest of my lifetime. I have a few spies and merchants in this city, though the enemies do not know of their existence, our spies also do not have direct access to any high-level officials meaning all my information is specifically from observation.

So, the information may not be as accurate or as meaningful as coming directly from one of the enemy's government officials. Today we shall send the messenger to deliver the final chance of surrender to the city's defenders, and by this point, I truly hope these men will give up their capital as it isn't as important as their lives.

But somehow, I doubt they will take this option even though they must be aware of my siege capabilities by this point, all should understand my cannon's capability but yet they still hang on stubbornly. I have truly begun to think these men are waiting on a miracle like me leaving because someone else attacked my lands, or a plague breaking out in my camp.

After the messenger returned a few minutes later I knew they did not even entertain our surrender offer, viewing it as a formality. Well not my problem, now I am currently walking in the meeting tent with the commanders.

Walking in I said "Today I want to begin the shelling and for it to continue through the night, I want our spies to find where their barracks are located and the palace and I want all the mortars to try to focus their fire on that area. What do you all think?"

Omar bey stepped forwards and said "My sultan, I believe this is sound, though wouldn't you say our mortars will damage large parts of the city? And I have a suggestion, I believe we should try to hold the siege here for as long as possible, I do not believe they can feed this army for much longer maybe two to three weeks at most."

Another commander Hasmet bey stepped forwards and replied "I agree with omar on the bombarding of the city I believe the damage done may outweigh the benefits of destroying their garrison or palace and the death resulting from that. But I also believe we should starve them out, fighting such a large force within such a small area, and this will also give them the ability to guard the walls like fanatics, given the size of their forces."

I responded "So no shelling or should we focus on the walls and outskirts of the city, supporting the main siege batteries in shelling the walls? I believe we have a better chance of doing damage to the enemies by targeting them where they believe they are safe and by making the citizens feel unsafe in their own homes this will lead to severe unrest and calls for surrender!"

Omar responded "In the end we just give advice... We will follow your lead, my sultan!

Hasmet also responded, "I think the same, my sultan."

I took a second to think over this issue then I said "Okay today I will take your advice, and have our mortars focus on the walls and outskirts of the city, I will have the small cannons fire upon the walls targeting the defenders, and we will see the outcome... Hopefully, you guys will be able to prove me wrong."

Leaving the tent, I see the messengers leave to pass my orders along to the responsible officers or captains. A few hours later the cannons arrived, and an hour after that they began to fire upon the walls. The mortars started firing first then the larger siege cannons, the smaller cannons must wait as they will be placed closer to the walls and need solid defenses to operate efficiently and safely.

We continued bombarding the walls and their defenders the entire day once the smaller cannons were able to attack as well. We also placed the musketeers along with the smaller swivel cannons and field cannons firing upon the defenders.

The bombarding continued throughout the night and everything was moving along as we planned. But to our surprise in the morning the enemies began to launch large projectiles from behind the walls, from the size of the missiles launched my engineers told me it was most likely a trebuchet. This was not all, there were also smaller siege weapons now attacking us from the walls as well I believe they are hand cannons.

They also had brought a few siege weapons to the walls, large crossbow style siege weapons, and mangonels. This began to apply pressure to the attackers closer to the walls, the smaller cannons and musketeers, and the large trebuchets firing were applying pressure to the fort as I may have underestimated their defenses and built my fort a little too close for comfort.

To combat their new siege weapons and the added pressure I ordered the engineers to reinforce the fortified camp and build more defenses near the wall. Because I want to send my arrow men to the forefront, allowing them to fire upon the enemies and fire our special explosive arrows now and again.

Following my orders, they began to act, and just like that another day passed us by. Waking up the next day I called a meeting as I believe I had an epiphany last night. Going into the meeting tent I wasted no time and began ordering the commanders.

I said "Listen up, I want to build a movable roof as if there were a ram but with no ram and attach the roof to a cart filled with gunpowder like the ones we used in Ankara. Make sure the roof is fireproof or else well you know it can go BOOM! I want two of these new siege weapons built by tomorrow and I want them to be rolled to the gates tomorrow as well.

-I want 25 ladders built, and two towers for my musketeers to provide cover fire for the attack squads rushing into the city tomorrow. This is our strategy moving forwards, have all cannons focus on making at least one breakthrough on the walls and the two explosive carts will do the rest. I want the ladders to be distributed to some of our heavier armored fighters, as they will attack the side of the wall without any breakthrough pulling defenders away from the breaches."