Chapter 18 Surprise

After returning from Egypt, I just sat in the palace for another month, reading reports and training my weapon skills occasionally whilst sometimes traveling to Abydos to continually strengthen my position in Karasi.

This week I am in Abydos, and I have just entered the palace's throne room where I received a surprise visit. This visitor just gave me a slight bow and then spoke "My prince I have a message for you, your father has sent me personally to get you to return to the capital immediately. He has something important to discuss and sent me here to display the importance of such an issue to you, and the rest of the sultanate!" Then he turned around and left leaving me no room to speak or question him.

This man is my father's grand vizier Nizamuddin Ahmed Pasha. My uncle Alaeddin died in 1331 and was replaced by the man who just left Nizamuddin Ahmed Pasha, my father's grand vizier. He is no slouch regarding power bases and prestige, so the fact my father sent him shows that there is a very important reason to visit the capital, which could involve me in some way.

But to visit the capital I will bring the corresponding forces as there is always a chance my father will abdicate his throne to one of my brothers or me, and if I want to continue living in any of those two situations, I need loyal armed men around me.

Damn, I have enough worries right now, if my father brings another foreign threat to my table, this will become a rough time for my sanjak and our sultanate, hopefully, the man will just hand me the throne and allow me access to his troops and the system city of Nicaea. this will allow me to recruit even more units per turn without expanding my imperium because I will gain a kingdom title instead of a duke title allowing me to hold even more cities!

What makes me want to kidnap this visitor and question him is that if my father is planning to crown one of his children, I need to bring an army! I refuse to be killed by one of my brothers, nor will I accept a rebellion by one of them if I am crowned, I would rather catch them all in this meeting and either have them submit to house arrest for life or death. I may think about letting my eldest brother serve as my grand vizier and general if I am crowned, but all the others will have no chance at seeing any light if I am seated on the throne.

Well, my father cannot blame me for showing up with an army, I will say I was not notified of the issue so I came prepared for anything. I do not need to worry about anyone's worries I have my own! I am now getting my troops and ships ready to leave the grand vizier is accompanying me back so I need to distract this man so he doesn't want to discuss my gathering troops...

The next morning, I was prepared as my standing army is always located around me or my capital, so I can be ready to march as fast as we can load the food, or as fast as the fleet can prepare their ships for travel. For this journey I brought all my horsemen, I did not bring many infantry troops only the Varangians, and this was just in case anyone has troops in the city ready for battle! While also bringing a few thousand horsemen I am ready to chase down any runners and attack any would-be armies in the open fields of the bursa.

Walking onto my flagship the grand vizier looked very satisfied, which in turn made me a little happy and worried as I do not know whether he is happy because he needs troops for battle or because I am prepared to accept or take the crown... So I had to ask "What is my father's game here? There is no way my father sent you to my city to act mysterious for no reason, right?"

The grand vizier replied "My sultan may be getting old but his mind is still very sharp and his experiences are endless, do not underestimate your father as he is a great man just head toward the current capital, Bursa..." He then half bowed and walked away toward his quarters on the ship.

Damn this a guarantee that this trip has nothing to do with any foreign enemies. This leaves only one logical option my father has some succession plan, either he names a more unorthodox heir meaning not my eldest brother or he plans to just retire and hand the throne over to one of his children. Leaving me to think either I am being crowned tomorrow or my father is naming an heir that is not me and he plans to have me swear loyalty to his heir or die... These are the only logical options, I am the most successful of his children, but I have only been in power for a few months and I am the youngest, only being an adult for a year now.

But none of this is important let's just focus on my safety first and a counterattack second. I plan to have the crown regardless, but I would prefer to have the troops and lands stay intact, without having to destroy my future holdings and vassals. After a few hours, we reached the port and started to unload our troops, horses, and supplies. After organizing my horseman horde we then marched toward to city gate intending to leave and head toward Bursa, but our precession was interrupted by a messenger sent by my system spy located here in Anatolia, he wanted to meet me and for some reason here in the city.

Entering our local spy tavern here in the city, I met with my spy in the secretive back office. Entering the room I noticed many spies located in the room so I asked: "is there some information I missed, so many spies here I assume there is something important to call me here am I right?"

My spy responded with "My lord, there is a rebellion! We mustn't let you leave this city without the proper intel; your brothers have led a rebellion against your father as they believe he will crown you either sultan or the heir and they claim they will not allow the sultanate to fall into ruinous hands."

The next spy stood up and said "My lord, your brothers have planned this rebellion very secretly not allowing anyone to know outside of themselves. But this week they all met near Izmit where they joined their forces together, they built a base camp there and after a few days many tribes and tribesman warriors arrived there and started expanding the camp."

Another spy stepped forward and said "my lord, I have been to this new camp set a little outside Izmit. This camp is expansive there are no less than 20,000 warriors there and even more slaves and workers. This camp has many foreign Turkmen warriors, nearly all the warriors are not ottoman warriors, but men sent from foreign allies it seems.

All the gold handed out is roman gold, and not a single silver ottoman coin can be seen, I have seen these roman shipments which included food, gold, and diplomats. My lord though I have only stayed in the camp for a few days, the food situation seems to be a constant issue as we know feeding a force is not simple and requires many willing merchants and locals who can sell you the needed supplies for your forces, but these rebels do not seem to have local support and seem to be struggling because of that."

After this a few more spies stood up and introduced the situation to me, very detailed reports and very specific details were explained. After leaving this meeting I had a decent grasp on the situation, but this did not help as it made me think about why my father would call me here without even explaining anything whatsoever. Was this a test, to see my information-gathering skills or to see if I would be so focused on the crown that I would forget to be careful... Ah, who knows I will just focus on crushing these rebels.

After arriving at the port where the majority of my forces are sent all the fleet to Thessalonica to bring the rest of my retinue troops. My standing army has nearly doubled in the last two months as I have been focused on recruiting the locals to join my pike square unit this unit doesn't require too much training, but this unit is not technically an elite unit as they are not elite just yet, but after a few wars and battles these men will be battle-hardened elites in time.

My retinue has grown to 23,320 men in total this number including the local units like the pike square and Sapahi units which amount to 14,520 troops of the 23,120 these specifics being 5,520 Sapahi men and 9000 Pike square members. My cataphract unit has reached 3200 members, which will probably be the maximum I will recruit for a while as just this number has nearly bankrupted my coffers. Another noteworthy growth is my byzantine lancer infantrymen have grown to 1440 men and my Varangian guard has reached 2160 men. No other unit received new members except my artillery unit, I expanded my cannon unit to 1,600 men and 100 cannons.

I believe with this very mobile and flexible army I can take on any attackers, even if they outnumber my forces, I can use the many tactics this army gives me access to. My goal in building this force was to counter the European style of battle, but also if needed be able to take on and win against a more nomadic style of army. I believe I will in the future face many different enemies with different battle doctrines, but my army will crush them all this is my belief!

But this will not be my only army model, when I take the ottoman throne I shall re-train the Ottoman forces in Anatolia and add more men to take on different roles in the Anatolian army, this army will be responsible for my southern conquests, mostly dealing with more lightly armored and mobile enemies in the middle east, except the mamluks, they shall meet their match in my current retinue!

For the most part, I followed the ottoman doctrine of army building except I decided that armor is more important to me on the European side of the battle, but everything else stays, strong bowmen and very skilled and highly trained warriors, and most importantly having more cannons than your enemy!

After sending for the rest of my army, I took control of this port city. I had my men beef up their defenses in case of attack and began to purchase a lot of resources for my incoming men. I also sent my spies to Iznik and some to the actual rebel camp, I need a comprehensive view of my enemies I cannot have them even sneeze without my knowledge, or else I could lose the war. Scouts were also sent to check the terrain near Iznik seeing where I could stage a battle that will have terrain favorable to my army.

Now I just let my men do what they were trained to do, in the meantime, I sent the grand vizier back to the bursa with a cataphract escort a very safe trip for him, I also sent a letter with the grand vizier to my father letting him know the situation his sons have created and that I shall rectify the situation. I also sent a letter to my eldest brother Suleyman requesting his assistance in this war, I don't need his troops but his being on my side gives me certain political benefits.

"There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter."

— Ernest Hemingway