Chapter 43: The Sultans Sword (Part 2)

Now we have switched the focus towards the defenses, in which I put the building process's administration in the hands of my council before I left. Looking over the progress reports of the defenses in Macedonia, and Thrace.

I noticed the most important defenses were finished first, such as the fortifying of Serres, and many of the towns and forts in my Macedonian lands around Thessalonica. The defenses mainly consist of star fort-styled bastions separated before the already existing curtain walls. Another main objective was not building but reinforcing the defenses with our weapon stocks.

The weapons sent over include the Hwacha and repeater crossbows. I also ordered more cannons and mortars to be built and new engineer units trained to use them. These new loyal crews shall be in charge of the cannons now allowing anyone near our very secret tech, while also defending the city with the proper weaponry.

The basic garrison soldier is trained in the Hwacha as this will be a major defensive weapon even with cannons around, as this is an extremely cheap and deadly weapon. The repeater crossbows are also standard for defense in my strategies, so the garrison troops and militia will be familiar with these cheaply made inaccurate crossbows.

One must never forget when someone is attacking the walls and you can shoot ten to twenty armor-piercing projectiles quickly in their direction it won't end well for defenders... This is the repeater crossbow, a definite strategy breaker, a weapon that can give even the greatest siege masters a headache... I mean this is a medieval machine gun.

Once making sure the defenses were up to date, I moved on to my next topic. I will not bring up the military again as my commanders are not here, but my main strategy in defense against any attack... Is to attack! But the next topic we will broach is the implementation of new technology into society, and how to get people to want to purchase or create these items.

Mainly new economic ideas, and inventions that have been designed and manufactured by our government smiths but have not been introduced to society as a whole. A big one I want everyone to pick up is canning or jarring foods. This will allow our people to keep foods even longer, like salting and drying foods or milling wheat, canning will also allow other foods to be kept in storage for those tough times or military campaigns and merchant travels.

Another example is our windmills based on the old Persian windmills, they can automatically pull water out of the ground once you have a water source. They will continuously pull the water out of the ground and into a reservoir or cistern this can be used to fuel irrigation or water farm animals. These windmills will have a little advantage over their Persian counterparts as they will follow the wind themselves.

Following the line of automated energy, we are still trying to find a way to push water wheels, as watermills are already in use. We have to find a way to show how economically successful these water-wheel factories are especially for fabrics like cotton, wool, and even silk in the Iznik region. Considering we already make a killing in the silk road trade, by trading raw fabrics to Europeans...

If we were to process the raw material into fabrics ourselves, we would cut out the middleman process and sell our clothing to our people and others if they want it. Usually, the Venetian and Genoese merchants would buy the raw materials and make clothes then sell them back to us.

By cutting out the middleman process we will make our economy stronger and can even steal the Italian merchant's trade partners selling our finished clothing at cheaper prices. This is my ultimate plan, as with Russia and the steppe above my lands I will have ease of access to many cheap furs that can also be processed into expensive luxury wear.

I slowly want to move my state's economy from being solely focused on agriculture and on multiple sources making my lands self-sufficient, not solely dependent on trade. This is why the banks are so important to me, these banks will allow the majority of the surplus coins to be invested or loaned out elsewhere expanding my economy faster and faster as more and more people have access to more funds.

Before leaving I also said "My viziers I know the subjects touched on today are all important but they are all very challenging as we must try to convince people what is right for them. I also have something easier for you to achieve... I want to construct and run our horse ranch, I want two large ranch types built. One for all the superior horses produced that can be used by our soldiers and nobles in battle or leisure, and one for disapproved horses that just weren't

-good enough. The horses deemed not good enough can either be sold or used for other tasks. I want these ranches to spring up around my new Anatolian lands, and one should be placed in Bursa as it has great flat lands for this large ranch.

But after touching these subjects I called my troops to the region, as we will soon be leaving to begin our campaign against the Christians.

*** POV: Suleyman

The hard-working engineering crew has finished building up our siege camp. We are now ready to begin bombarding the city, the city's walls were now physically shaking periodically from being shelled from two sides by mind-numbing numbers of cannon shots.

Seeing these old walls even though they were probably fortified over the years, had no chance of bearing such a beating. Organizing a force of assaulting soldiers as is the military doctrine, mostly armored soldiers participated in this force as they will have a higher chance of surviving the assaults.

An hour later the sea walls begin to crumble all over the place, and thirty minutes after that the same could be said about the curtain wall in front of my cannons. With sections of the wall missing all over the place, I moved my soldiers forward to press the assault and destroy any chance of regrouping and counter-attacking.

The navy also pressed the attack, after shelling the defenders some more, you could see the galleys moving into the ports and beating back the defenders. The city initially had more than a thousand defenders but after the quick and continuous shelling, the city's walls and its defenders were considered rubble and rabble.

The walls were just not made to bear the pressure of an iron cannonball, and the city's defense crumbled in a single day. We managed to secure the main city in just under a day's effort. My brother explained that no matter how ragged the city's walls are, we need only fortify them enough that another army cannot just walk into the city.

So, I followed the instructions, and garrisoned a large force into the city, to secure it from any attacking forces and to suppress the citizens in case they fight back once I leave with the main forces. But before all of this was done, the city was sacked for the remainder of daylight, and the naval forces and my soldiers carried handfuls of coins and treasures out of the Italian merchant's ships and their houses and tavern rooms.

The main loot was furs and fabrics like silk, and foods like wheat and dried fish. I do not care so much for the trading materials, as they will be given to the merchants later to refund the soldier's loot fund I paid out for them. The coins were all given to me, as this is customary, no coins are allowed to be kept if they are looted.

My brother explained that here in Crimea I can recruit skilled mercenary Turkmen as they are skilled horsemen who will come in handy later he said. I was practically ordered to create some form of connection with these Crimean tartars. So I will use all the coins, to recruit a large force of these Crimean tartars.

If the coins looted is enough maybe I can even secure the whole of Crimea before returning in glory. Once the looting was completed the fortifying of the walls began, and once it was finished enough majority of the army rested for the night.

Waking in the morning to the sound of tools clanking about. Walking out of the tent, I could see the many engineers working on the walls, repairing the easily repaired and filling in the gaps that were made with new structures of rubble and wood.

Knowing they would continue this for a while I asked the commanders for a meeting to give them the needed orders. Soon I was in the meeting room with them, there I said "Commanders in this we usually discuss, but I have a great plan to subdue the coasts of Crimea quickly. Once the walls are done, the cannons and infantry will embark back on the ships to be ferried over to the next city, whilst all cavalry will travel by land as loading up the horses will take too long.

At most the cavalry led by you two cavalry commanders will be half a day behind... Right?"

The commanders both responded at once "YES MY PRINCE."

After some time, the city wall was finished, and we moved out toward the next city... Once arriving at this city the same process was followed and we managed to secure the city again quickly and were back on the sea again the next day. Moving down the coast we conquered the remaining three cities in record time, it took us ten days to complete the entire process.

It could've been quicker but the cities other than caffa had walls that had to be repaired manually. So, it slowed down the progress of our conquests. But now that the whole coastal region is under our control, I can focus on inward expansion. There is one stronghold left in Genoese hands, but we received word they abandoned the city.

I sent some spare navy ships over to secure that area with a garrison of ships and garrison men for a short time until the permanent garrisons for these cities arrive in a few days. My brother sent a messenger ahead making me aware of the ships on the way carrying the new sipahis appointed here, and the sanjak bey who will be ruling this region later, along with policemen, garrison troops, judges, and more masons and engineers.

I decided to wait for the ships to arrive, to make sure nothing goes wrong, as I am in no rush, and I believe I can secure these inner Crimean lands with diplomacy without firing a shot. To complete this I need to recruit these tartars to boost my numbers to at least forty thousand.

Sending messengers and spies out into the Crimean steppe and other inner trade cities to spread the word we are recruiting mercenaries paying coin and giving looting rights. Give them a week and we should be able to apply even more pressure to these abandoned roman cities here in Crimea. Now let's send another two messengers out to the cities themselves to see how they stand on surrender and take a look at their defenses.

-I might post another chapter tonight.