Chapter 50: Count the dead

Once the firework went off... Thousands of guns were fired at the city senate and its defenders. I am not sure of the exact number of casualties caused by this volley but it definitely caused some damage, and then we followed it up with the bowmen's special explosive arrow.

After the explosions from the arrows tons of rubble and limbs from dead men were scattered all over the senate square, after sending another signal the cannons started firing, this was the final straw that broke the camel's back... Huge pieces of the senate structure came falling, and I thought it was time for the infantry to move in.

I cannot let the building crumble just yet as I need the coins in their treasury and all the information they have in there as well. All the senators are very rich merchants, so stealing their contacts and trading their places with my merchants in the future will be very lucrative for the city and my state.

This time I stayed in the back watching all the infantry move in, as I just trailed behind slowly as they began to eliminate the remaining enemies. Once I entered the building the place was already secured and the remaining senators and important merchants were already restrained and secured.

My soldiers already had all the prominent places looted and stripped of their wealth, plus the remained loot will be given over from the rich men here in front of me after a few rounds of torture. Thinking for a moment, I decided to allow the city to be looted bare, and the people here stripped of their belongings.

The system will slowly build the population back up and I can transfer tens of thousands of Turks here to turn this city into an Islamic stronghold on the Adriatic. This will benefit me more than just securing a rich town with a population of little more than ten thousand, all disloyal and rebellious.

Walking up onto a higher floor in the building I walked onto the balcony and gave the order "My soldiers whatever you find in the city shall be taken, leave no stone unturned but leave the port it shall remain untouched for now."

Thousands of soldiers responded at once "YES SULTAN!" The looting began almost immediately, I am not proud of such actions but sometimes ruining a few lives can improve a lot more lives it is the hard truth... The population here will be enslaved to the state for a short stent of 5 years, to build and repair the necessary infrastructure to keep my sultanate connected.

The mercenaries that surrendered to me earlier were brought into the city along with the main camp and supplies... They were brought to see me in front of the senate building, so I can see the entire unit. Once they all arrived and the orders were about to be given the system gave a notification.

<Notice: All mercenary forces can be converted into system-organized mercenary units, and the missing numbers filled in to create a fully functioning unit of 120 for each chosen unit, though there will be a fee according to how much of a change is made to the original soldier's knowledge of battle and armor>

I replied to the system in my head "What are the units these men are available to change into? That is close to their original function as to make it cheap..."

<Replying: Sultan, here are the units matching your search: Mercenary Spearmen, Mercenary Genoese Crossbowmen, Mercenary Pavise Crossbowmen, and Free Company Men at Arms.>

<Notice: Free Company Men at Arms will receive better armor but will not be granted an armored horse or a mount at all... Will be primarily infantry unless the sultan wishes to grant them a mount.>

<Please make your choice...>

I replied again in my head "System change half of the units into the Free Company Men at Arms and the other half into the Genoese Crossbowmen. But I hope the price is right... though you may not have a true understanding I still feel the need to bargain."

<Notice: Now changing seven units into unit type: Genoese Crossbowmen... Done...>

<Notice: Now changing seven units into unit type: Free Company Men at Arms... Done...>

*FLASH* After the normal bright flash the soldiers looked completely different, with new armor and color schemes. The men at arms were wearing early 15th-century plate armor, and the crossbowmen were wearing 15th-century brigandine.

Both new units were wearing a dark red color scheme matching the rest of my army, but instead of having any symbols representing my sultanate, it seems they hold a mercenary company's symbolism all over. Still, the mercenary system is very efficient, but there is a limit to such actions one is coins and two is a hard recruiting limit of five thousand a turn.

Now with the system involved as long as I pay them, they should be completely loyal to my coin. Unlike normal mercs, they shouldn't turn tail and run when the going gets tough. But now that I know the mercenary system is this efficient and quick, I may have to purchase more mercenaries before the turn ends.

But before anything let's go get some rest for a while, at least until the looting ends... Two days later the troops finally finished looting and enslaving the populace of the city, and I had my commanders collect our percentage of the loot first. Then I moved on to order our new slaves to begin repairs on our walls, and follow the orders of the engineer corps to prepare the defenses in the region.

I want to use this region as bait for the crusaders, I want them to attack this area instead of Macedonia where my family and court are located as that would just make me look bad. But if they do attack there well it will not end well for that army as they will be stuck in an unwinnable siege and I will secure all their lands in the meantime.

Soon the walls will be repaired so I will not upgrade them for now, I will first build the port up so I can store a fleet here. Also, some of the slaves will be used here permanently to help build naval vessels for me... Next, we will upgrade the farming situation here.

Then once the rest of the region is secured and all the area encompassed by the system city is secured and in my hands, I can upgrade the mines here. That is the most important, but I cannot send out my army until the wall and defenses in the city are secure first.

After a few more days passed the system upgraded the port, expanding its size and allowing for ships to be built. Also, the system provides professionals in our shipbuilding style, so the already experienced shipbuilders that were enslaved here and the oak timber from the surrounding forests will make for perfect vessels.

Relaxing and watching everyone work is great, being a leader means watching and making sure everything goes well... But it also means putting the right people in the right position, so by being a leader I do not even have to lead often. After these few days passed the majority of the wall had been rebuilt, and the building of the defenses is advancing along smoothly.

I also decided instead of improving the farms in this area, which are honestly not bad according to my advisors. I decided to queue up the road construction with the system, this will allow my army to move quicker across the areas we have already secured in the area and the ones we secure in the future.

By using the road-building function I can create a perfectly connected defense system. Quickly and efficiently moving supplies, troops, and artillery all across western Serbia and Albania. Once I established my direction for the city I moved to other issues and read all the reports from the battle.

I read a single report about the number of men we killed in the battle for Ragusa, they included the skirmish and ambush of the Serbian forces, the crusader camp, and the city defenders. The number of dead in this one small part of the campaign was in the high tens of thousands, more than twenty thousand men perished fighting against our army in the area.

My casualties were not bad but did reach as high as two thousand at one point, but will be replaced and retrained either locally or through the system. My losses are usually replaced within two weeks... Next, I will just wait, the slaves will continue their work, and my armies will continue to venture into Serbian lands and raiding... Just waiting for our chance to strike the kingdom at the perfect opportunity to end the war.

*** POV: Suleyman

About two weeks passed since I sent spies and messengers to recruit tartar mercenaries for my forces... And the outcome was definitely more than I expected but I indeed have just enough money for about three months of pay for these men. Moving out into the steppe my messengers eventually came across many small and large warlords all willing to fight for money or food for their tribes.

There were even many Genoese men left in Crimea willing to join my forces than be stranded here any longer. I managed to recruit a grand total of twenty-five thousand mercenaries and even more helpers and camp followers, This brought the number of my forces to around fifty thousand men.

Other than recruiting mercenaries I also was hard at work incorporating these new lands into our state. I set up large government buildings throughout the region, I used mostly already existing buildings but working in these offices were men sent from the mainland, trained judges and officers meant to control the population here.

There were many professional farmers and engineers sent to build up the region's infrastructure and improve crop yields. There is a ton of construction sites dotted all over the region and the majority of them are outside the city's walls making it hard to guard all these areas... This led me to create a treaty with the local Crimean khan, which wasn't hard considering how many troops I had now and the majority of them were his former soldiers.

Now, all I need to do is leave this peninsula, as all the ex-roman cities here are now in my control and a border with the golden horde is officially recognized by them for now. All the governmental agents and administrators are in place, garrisons are all stocked full of men. So now we organize the next campaign.

I moved my troops from within the steppe all the way to Caffa, where we were restocked with supplies from Anatolia. Meeting with Evrenos pasha we established our invasion plan rather quickly as we have been working together for weeks now and have a feel for each others capability.

Once all men were loaded onto the ships my short campaign on Crimea came to an end. Instead of heading back to our lands in Anatolia, we moved North West toward the entrance of the Danube from the black sea. Sailing on the sea was rather smooth, surprisingly no incidents occurred and we smoothly sailed closer and closer to our destination.

Some days passed and we were finally eyeing the fortress guarding the river we want to enter our fleet into. This was one battle I had no place in, Evrenos pasha will handle all the battles dealing with our fleet... And handle it he did, crushing the fortress walls within a day and rushing and eventually controlling the fort before the sun even went down.

We now have a bridge heading into the Danube, moving the fleet inwards up the river. Our orders are to secure a part of the Danube and control all the forts, castles, and cities along the Danube from the black sea all the way up to Belgrade.