Chapter 16: First cash crop (Part 2)

After hearing the news, I was pretty happy and left for the villa in high spirits. But soon someone walked up to my guards and me and after explaining he meant no harm, he handed my guard a letter saying it was from the local lord of Alexandria who noticed my presence at the port. The letter was summoning me to the local court to see the lord and state my identity and reason for visiting the sultan's lands. Although it doesn't sound like anything is wrong with the lord requesting such a visit, I have a feeling this lord is acting very strange.

For one I did not bring the merchant who usually comes here with a trade fleet but instead brought my 2nd recruited merchant the one who just follows closely behind me in my capital and advises me on local trade and economics.

So, this lord shouldn't care about me as I only brought a few guards into the actual city I brought only my bodyguard units which are only numbering 120 as of now, and 40 Varangian guards. Compared to the garrison I do not stand a chance against them, but if this man truly has bad intentions, I will probably burn his palace to the ground.

As I have about 1000 land forces with the fleet in total and some marines on my warships located just outside the port waiting for my word. If anything was to go wrong, I could have some serious reinforcements within 30 minutes and would have the forces to even take the city if I so wanted. Alexandria is not the city it used to be, it is a rich port at best but does not have the population or prestige it used to, for example even though I hoped the seeds or fruit would be here it is only located in the capital not here.

I headed straight back to the villa, feeling a bit uncomfortable I had my men fortify the place in case any would-be attackers show up. and I had a bird sent to our fleet letting them know to be on guard for a few days whilst we wait for the merchant to bring our products.

I plan to just sit around the villa for a few days and just wait for the merchant to show up, trying not to raise suspicion toward me showing I have no intention of harm toward the city. But I cannot bring myself to the man's home without knowing my safety is guaranteed which it is most likely not, so I will play it day by day.

2 days passed by whilst I and Aurelia just lazed about, whilst I told her endless stories of history that I could remember off hand, like the stories of the many crusades. I told her of the recent crusade in Egypt, and the great sultan Baibars and how he stopped the Mongols and the crusaders making the man a legend! After lazing about these days, I finally received a messenger from the merchant saying he was only 12 hours away and may be arriving sooner than that, his messenger also said that he managed to find a man who was willing to bring the seeds I requested and also had a way to get more if it was necessary.

This was the perfect outcome for me, not only did the mamluk governor leave me be for 2 days, but the merchant also even played his role perfectly! I decided to host the messenger here until his lord returned, wanting to hear about the travels he has taken in his life and he gracefully accepted.

After waiting... and waiting... I never received any word from the merchant... making me worry so I sent the messenger to see if his lord was okay. I was pacing back and forth around the room, having my mind play all the random events that could have gone wrong, and after waiting for the messenger to return for 2 hours I was reaching the peak of my anxiety.

I was just rounding up my soldiers when the messenger finally returned, lowering my heart rate in the process. So I asked the man "What is happening where is your lord? why have you returned and not your lord with my seeds in tow?"

the man's eyes were sunken, and he replied "My lord he... he is in prison he had all the products taken and is locked up in the palace for working with foreign dissidents. There are posters in the merchant quarters that my lord has been captured by the governor for trading with a foreign spy! The poster says that the only way to free him is for you to go to the palace!"

I replied, "Ok, just take a seat I will have my men deal with the issue you just stay here."

Damn this governor just had to do it... I just wanted to take a small vacation hoping to locate a decent profit in the process. But I want those seeds and I have no real identification here in the city or Sultanate so burying their governor and taking off shouldn't be that big of a deal for me, I'd just become a local pirate most likely, or some crusader spy in the eyes of the court.

Making my decision I had my men send the red firework into the sky to summon my menacing fleet down onto the city's defenses bombarding the walls to distract the bulk of the governor's forces away from the palace and to the walls. Then I will bring my reinforcements into the city from the opposite gate of the port by killing all who guard the rosetta gate.

Putting the plan into action I waited about 20 minutes before I heard the cannons begin to roar from the heavily fortified fort, but what does it matter if it's fortified? My cannons can shoot further than whatever siege weapons they have on the walls so they cannot reach my ships with their weapons, allowing my fleet to bombard them.

I believe there was a defense fleet located in the harbor but they will most likely be sunk if they try to fight my ships, hopefully, they just sit tight and not attack. This attack by me in reality is pretty stupid as I do not gain much in the governor's eyes, so he will probably not suspect me so I should be able to attack the palace relatively easily.

Sending out a few servants of mine to the streets to watch the movements of the troops and to see how many men are still around the Rosetta gate, I waited about an hour before they returned to the villa. After getting the info from the servants I adjusted my armor and left the villa with 100 of my bodyguards and the 40 Varangian guards, leaving 20 of my bodyguard unit to guard Aurelia. The 20 men should be able to defeat at least triple or quadruple their number depending on the skill of the troops that could attack the villa, but I hope to have my men in the gate before any attacks can be launched on my villa.

Sneaking up on the gate, we killed a few stray guards on the way to the gate, so we did not alert the gate guards just yet. After seeing the grand barbican that is the Rosetta gate I am happy I decided to distract the guards first as this gate is damn near a castle itself. But with stealth, we should be able to sneak onto the wall before we are noticed, and that is just what we did.

Arrows flew silently across the sky taking a few guards' lives, then getting closer my Varangians were throwing axes into the backs of guards taking their lives before they could even see their reaper. Soon we entered the walls, killing the last guard who was responsible for watching the steps we walked up onto the walls, spotting about 50 men and both sides of the gate guarding the gate opening mechanism.

Seeing only about 100 men guarding this gate we decided to just slay them openly giving up our stealth, but first, we must eliminate the bowmen closest to us as they could take out a man or 2 at this close range. I slowly walked onto the wall walking slowly to the tower in front of me, *step step step* holding my dagger I grabbed the bowmen by the mouth stabbing him directly into the throat, as he had no chance to fight back.

Looking in front of me my guards just eliminated the other 4 bowmen, we looked at each other and nodded readily it is time to fight. *Roarrrrr!!!* My Varangians and bodyguards sprinted out from the covered steps and onto the gate surprising the gate guards, but after a moment's pause, they also pulled their weapons and sprinted to their enemies!

*BOOM!* *AHHHHH* *tink tink tink* hearing the screams of the enemies who have fallen from the walls after the clash, and the metal clanking against one another after a few rounds of exchanges these guards were slashed down this went on and on. The walls only allowed for a row of 5 to fight one another so my men drilled through the enemies in these one-on-one battles as their armor and skill were vastly superior.

Seeing my men push the gate guards back enough I and a few of my men started to move the mechanism opening the gates. One of my men shot a green firework into the air telling my land units the gate is secured and to hurry over to complete the last part of the plan.

After another 20 minutes, my men were all within the gates of the city, now we just have to attack the governor's palace which is not a walled palace just a regular palace with a small gate surrounding it. With the Sapahi's and the rest of the Varangian unit, my numbers swelled to almost 1000, but this number is all elite units, not you basic garrison soldier. We marched on foot over to the palace as the streets here are very narrow not allowing for any cavalry to be effective within the city.

After a swift march through the city and killing a few enemy troops on the way over we finally arrived outside the palace, but not too close but close enough to fire our special arrows at the palace. I gave the spahi the order to fire the arrows immediately!

*Thoink Thoink Thoink* watching the arrows fly into the palace through the windows some arrows landed on the palace grounds but not within the building, whilst the rest landed into some guards who were outside the palace! Seconds flew by and soon, hundreds of small explosions could be heard and smoke could be seen rising out of the palace windows.

Leading me to believe at least a small fire broke out from the endless explosions. My next move has already been planned as I called out to my assassin shadow "#2 you can send your people now"

he did not respond just sent the 4 assassins that usually guard me against the shadows. These men wear dark hoods covering their heads and a dark metal mask covering their faces only showing their mouths and eyes, their bodies are armored in a lightweight brigandine that looks like normal black clothing but has small metal plates throughout its entirety.

Seeing them walk toward the palace one could notice the rope wrapped around their arms with a strange metal hook attached at the end. Facing no resistance from the exterior guards who were either injured or killed in the indiscriminate bombing of the palace, they ran forward and launched their grappling hooks up and onto a broken window on the side of the palace which looks to be connected to a large space on the interior.

When designing the plan I had hoped for these side windows to somehow be connected to the throne room or court where the governor will likely hide away, if not then my assassins can just use this as their entrance and just get me some information on the interior and return.

But after climbing the assassins did not enter, they took the bombs at their waist and chucked them in the windows, proving that this was indeed a gathering place for the governor. Their orders were to launch their bombs inside if they saw an abundance of soldiers and administrators, damaging as many as possible in this attack.

Seeing the launching of the bombs I gathered my forces and marched toward the palace ready to clean up the remains of the palace guards and any who survived, whilst searching for my lost products and the unlucky merchant who was caught in the middle. nearing the palace a bigger explosion than the previous one could be heard, while I was closer to the palace I felt the ground shake a bit I thought the bombs were smaller than the ones we use in battle and did not expect such a turnout.

Time flew by as we rushed into the palace and it was a way bloodier scene than I anticipated, I never really wanted to fight I just wanted to grab some seeds and vacation in peace. But now I guess I have to kill everyone here in the palace, as the Mamluks who investigate this and see this horrible scene will swear revenge upon the perpetrator of such a massacre!

After searching the palace up and down we found the merchant dead and he seemed to have been tortured to death, I had my men take him out we will bury his body later. There were also 4 Nubian men found in the dungeon below the palace they were injured but not as severely as the dead merchant, we decided to bring them along as they knew where the seeds were held. After securing the carts we set the palace alight, covered our faces, and fled the city through the Rosetta gate, but not before grabbing miss Aurelia and the rest of the guards.