Chapter 32: Campaign Anatolia (Part 5)

Chapter 32: Campaign Anatolia

after the long cold night, I awoke looking forward to moving around and warming up in the daytime sun. Walking out of my tent my guard greeted me and told me that many of the scouts and spies have returned to camp once more.

Once I was stretched out and done waking up, I moved quickly to the scout's quarters. Immediately they ran up and greeted me, then began to give their reports which can be seen as time important.

One scout stepped forward and said "My sultan, forgive us for not waking you but the enemy's army is now moving back toward our lands. They have noticed we have not given chase to their false retreat. They also began to send out many of their light horsemen as scouts..."

Then a spy stepped forward and said "My lord, we spies have managed to capture one of these scout parties. After asking nicely these men began to tell us their mission and details on the enemy army. I found out the scouts are out to find our army, but that is not all I found out these men also said the previously mentioned crusaders are the group known as the Knights of Rhodes and there are 3000 of them."

I replied "I thank you all for your hard work, this is all good information! I shall call a council to discuss such reports, but for now, you all can rest for a little then get back to the roads we need updates on the enemy movements. While the spies you shall lead some Sapahi's to locate any enemy scout parties coming too close to the army camp and kill them."

Leaving them behind I began to think about the catholic knights. Just thinking that the Hospitallers have joined up with a Turkmen beylic to attack my lands... I believe their initial intention was to capture all of the Sarahanid lands and give Smyrna to the knights' order for working with them, all while my army was absent.

Then when I returned to take the lands, they could work together to defend the lands from my army. These men truly are bold, attacking my lands whilst I had thoughts of leaving their lands be for a time as they do not have a system city for me. But now that they wish to attack my lands, I will erase the Aydin tribe, they shall become an extinct existence no longer existing anymore not even living on in history.

I truly wish to host the battle here around this camp, as this is a perfect location to show the advantages of my army. Behind me is a river that is relatively deep working as a natural defense of my rear, and also allowing me to place my cannons onto the higher terrain that is on the opposite side of the river. With my large cannons on the opposite riverbank and the large amount of smaller field cannons placed in front of the army formation at the beginning of the battle.

With just these two cannon placements I guarantee early battle casualties from the field cannons launching grapeshot into any enemy formations. But not only that but with the large cannons and their explosive shot I can launch cannonballs over long distances throughout the entire battle as they are safe on the opposite riverbank. There are still things to be done to improve my chances of dominating this battlefield.

***

Standing next to my lord's throne, I asked him. "My Basileus, the pope's messenger has arrived, will we accept the pope's terms?"

He responded "One thing that must be understood first is that we do not have a choice. These Turks were never so organized before, they are easily destroying castle after castle and city after city, if we do not want to end up like any of the men who faced them before we must indeed secure an alliance with the pope in Rome."

To respond I just nodded, it is not my place to change his mind in such situations. Walking towards the door I told the guard to allow our guest in. Then I walked back to my position next to my Basileus.

Watching the doors open, then listening to the guards announce "You are now in the presence of Tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan and autocrat of the Serbs, Romans, Albanians, and Bulgarians! Bow your head!"

Watching the man walk in calmly with his head bowed, looking at his calmness in such a meeting gave me confidence in this papal diplomat. Then my lord gave him the right to speak and state their terms to which he said "I am here on behalf of the pope, and he sends his best wishes to you and your people. The terms are as stated before in the secret letter, but I will restate them here. The pope wants you and your kingdom to convert to Catholicism. We also wish you to lead the fight against the Islamic threat in the Balkans and defeat the Romans.

Once you have taken Constantinople you must erase the orthodox church converting their holdings to Catholicism, bringing an end to the great schism, our pope says these are his only conditions."

Watching my lord's face, he isn't truly in favor of such proposals, but a leader must make sacrifices for the greater good. After this, my lord agreed to the terms but in a response to his terms, the pope must first have all the northern countries agree to peace and gain their support in the war with the infidels.

The messenger agreed, after this, my lord said we would host a banquet for the signing of the agreement, for all nobles of the realm to see. So I sent the pope's diplomat to his chambers to wait for the signing banquet.

Once he was gone, I had to ask "Sir, are you going to attempt to eliminate orthodoxy? This is our faith! How can we sell our faith for troops?"

Stefan responded "This is politics, the pope must have a reason to support me, I gave him one. Hungary-Croatia and Bosnia must have a reason to make peace and help me in my war, the pope will give them one. This is the world we live in; the nobles force us kings to have explicit reasoning for any move in the realm."

I replied "I do not want to add to your stress, but I have information on the Turks. This is coming from the Genoese merchants, they say all their colony islands have been seized! We expected them to go for Smyrna but not the actual trade structure in the sea. We also have sent war supplies and a few knights to the resistance army in Anatolia, I wonder if the knights will support us from behind while we attack them from the Balkans?"

Stefan replied " One must know these knights are zealous, but they seem to have started to seek profits above all else. I truly have doubts as to their capabilities. If they are capable of leading a resistance in Anatolia to stump the Turks and draw away from their forces that can face us that is enough. I don't believe these Ottomans can destroy the coalition army there, so we should be able to focus on building up our crusader army. Now go and prepare for the banquet, leave me to think!"

Taking my lord's orders seriously, I began to arrange the banquet and invite the important nobles. Moving around all day and sending messengers around the entire realm... After a few days, this very important feast is starting.

Watching the popes Diplomat and my lord both place their seals on the paper, I cannot see any excitement in most of the nobles. I know that my lord believes this will solve our problems in the south, but did he not care about the noble's reaction?

I know for sure these nobles are not brave enough to resist lord Stefan in public, as he is a rare strong ruler. His rule has been very effective in improving and expanding our lands, so the new lands have nobles that now rule these lands, forcing them to side with my lord and agree with any of his suggestions as it benefits them.

But the older generation of nobles, who have ruled their lands for decades and was considered powerful lord even under the previous king. These are the nobles I worry about, even if they will not speak in public in secret these men are capable of many things all of them negative for our current regime.

Maybe my lord hopes for these men to try something as he can predict their movements and then use their rebellion as an excuse to clean up the realm. If he can consolidate even more power, we shall be even stronger... Leaving no one who can truly stand against us alone.

Leaving the banquet, I walked with the basileus, he waited until we were alone and then told me "Gather the Alemannic Guard I want at least 100 men to guard the pope's messenger as he travels to Bosnia and throughout the Hungarian lands gathering support for our movement. We cannot allow any assassinations to occur or any spies to infiltrate his inner ranks, leaving us open to backstabbing. This is your task do it well!"

Nodding to my lord I took off to complete my task, I kind of hate dealing with these German mercs but they are my lord's "Guard", so I have no choice. Walking into the Guard's quarters, I found my target Sir Palman. This German knight Sir Palman has been serving my lord for a very long time, he came into my lord's service about 15 years ago.

This knight has told me his story before, but it is not all that impressive a backstory for a knight, to me, he is just a man who wants to prove himself worthy. His life love never returned his feelings no matter what he did so, in the end, he just ran away eventually ending up here in my lord's service.

Walking up to Palman I said " Sir knight, our basileus has new orders. He commands you to take 100 men from the guard to head out with the Pope's Diplomat and guard his life. He also implies you are to gain an influence on the new crusader forces!"

He looked at me and said "Boy do you believe I cannot perceive my liege's intentions upon sending me with the pope's diplomat, you do this every time we speak you must specify everything. Even our liege doesn't underestimate this old man like you! *Tsk*"

Shaking his head, I watched Palman walk off cursing me in some Germanic language. Whatever this man is a foolish knight anyways just paid to fight and die for my lord nothing more *hmph*! Leaving this area as quickly as possible, I made it to the Diplomat's quarters and knocked on the door.

Getting permission, I walked in and said "I am here to inform you to gather your things... As you must head off on the road tonight, my lord has ordered for your safety to set off as soon as possible. He wants to avoid any accidents from occurring and to further this he has assigned his Alemannic Guard to assist you during your travels, leaving you with a stable guard no matter what may occur."

Leaving no room for discussion, I turned and left...

-Authors note: If you guys do not like this chapter, please let me know as this was a first attempt at properly switching POV, and I am not too confident in its success.