Chapter 53: Dare to attack

POV: MC

Motivating my soldiers to work harder encouraged them to force the enslaved populace to work harder. I need the defenses to be solid, not allowing an army double our size to gain an upper hand in battle, giving play to my army's most significant advantages.

Building a centralized defense, based on the entrance to the coast from the mountains, the city is surrounded by plains, but to get to these coastal plains one must enter through the mountains. Using this feature to my advantage I had multiple small wooden forts built to guard these small entrances.

Surrounding the forts there are many trenches with tunnels leading into the forts allowing my soldiers to fire upon the enemy as they advance on the fortress then safely retreat into the fort and close the tunnels and leaving the trenches full of tiny caltrops.

These forts are built according to my specifications edited and made possible by the engineers. The forts are built in a star fortress design, giving full play to our field artillery and our soon-to-be imported defensive weaponry. I have my fleet working hard to bring me many weapons from my defensive arsenal, including our Hwacha, repeater crossbow, and POISON...

All the previous weapons are known to my people but poison shall be a new one, as it is somewhat considered cowardly... I never mentioned it before, but I will have this poison made in Abydos by the Alchemist guild there spread throughout the forts and the city's walls to be used liberally by archers and crossbowmen.

I want any men injured by my skirmishers to stay out of the battle permanently, and this is the easiest way to achieve this. The amount of things that need to be done before the enemies arrive is endless as I want to achieve what some would call a peerless victory hoping to game the system with my lower numbers and superior schemes to get an achievement... While also gaining full access to a practically defenseless Serbia.

As the work continued I walked the walls of the city watching over the work whilst a servant read the endless reports that arrived daily... One very important report arrived from my brother as he said he secured the northern border of Bulgaria and established several small wooden fortresses on the Wallachian side of the Danube giving our fleet full access to this region of the river, and he will continue to Belgrade soon.

This was my plan, as I did not see enough defenses built on the river these countries did not encounter anything but piracy from the Danube river... So an invasion from this river is just a nightmare for Bulgaria and Serbia alike, allowing Suleyman to attack their lands unfettered.

As the Serbians did not respond to my army's invasion of their territory, I continued to build up the defenses for a whole two weeks before I even received news that the pressured ruler Stefan Dusan decided to finally attack us here... I have done everything in the campaign just to hear this wonderful news!

Knowing that the enemy plans to attack us here in Ragusa just makes everything easier on me, I know all the possible routes he can take to meet us here. I know when their army will need to restock on food and supplies and where... Giving me and my spying corps a lot of opportunity to strike against his crusader army.

Just knowing that their army is coming our way I moved my cavalry into the mountainous regions leading into Ragusa's territory. I want the cavalry commanders to settle our forces into the mountains and constantly ambush the army as they move through the complicated mountainous area, never allowing them to rest comfortably at night or travel freely during the day.

By following this plan of ambush and intrigue the entire way along their route we sap their morale even before they reach our main army. No general wants to deal with mosquito-like tactics where the enemy will appear and kill a few and disappear then again and again, leading to hundreds of casualties and even more strain on the soldier's mind.

I already sent my secret orders to the many spies operating in the country that I want their focus to be on the army, I want them to constantly sabotage the enemy on a small scale. Destroying supply cart wheels, poisoning pack animals and their handlers... Continuing to pressure the commanders of the army from the inside using their own soldier's outrage and resentment to cause many small rebellions or desertions.

I do not expect my forces combined efforts to route the enemy or truly cause many losses, but what this tactic will achieve is the gradual wearing down of the majority of soldiers' minds... Combine this with the lack of good food... We can lower the morale of the crusader forces who would usually have a high religious fervor.

Getting the estimated date of arrival of the Serbian army from my spies after another two days of work here. The spies estimated it would be at least another month before the enemy forces arrive in fighting distance to the city, so we have just enough time to consolidate our defenses and complete them.

As the days passed by I focused on the work in front of me and the nation as a whole... I must keep up with the recruiting of troops locally and in system cities, Also infrastructure is still being continuously built all over my lands. Many new administrators assigned me nearly daily to some village, town, city, or castle I conquered during one of my many campaigns.

The educators at the few universities I built using the system doing their job in educating my administrators in at least the basics of politics, geography, accounting, and ideology of my regime... These places of learning play a big role in allowing me to continue to expand rapidly as they can keep pace by pushing through their administrator education programs we designed together...

These programs have many levels and are completed according to one's level of administration. If one is only overseeing a low-level territory or just helping out another higher-level admin then they would be educated rather quickly through the entry-level program. Once they are in their position for some time and have done well, then they would be promoted by me or my viziers and sent to one of the places of learning for their next level of the education program.

Another way these education centers are helping me is with proper investment and donations from the many who have been through their programs and some who are still actively studying in their more proper paths of education. These universities can expand their capacity to educate by leasing large buildings many of them previously churches in some of the new cities I conquered and turning them into places of learning, thus allowing them to educate even more people...

Even without my stringent oversight, the sultanate continues to move forwards down the path I set up for it. Once I am back in the capital there are still many things to be done that need my direct approval and oversight. But there are still many moves that are made without my need for approval, this is what my adding so many system-recruited agents into my government is for.

Another important task was the creation of an Anatolian army used to fight mainly in the middle east, this force is in the works and will take some time to be completed. I want this army to be highly mobile but also composed of a core of highly armored and experienced shock troops to seize victory when the time is right.

I want to add a sizable number of gunpowder weaponry but I am not certain of the labor it will take to move these weapons about in the climate. Continuously reading reports and sending orders is what has mainly held my attention for the last few weeks, so when one of my commanders walked in to announce the finishing of the defenses I was surprised...

Also, I have reports the enemy will be arriving a bit sooner than expected. So, I ordered the messengers to give this information to the cavalry squad in the mountains waiting for the enemies. I called a quick meeting with all the commanders, as I need to get all the current information out to them and correct some small battle plans.

After a few hours, the meeting was just beginning all the commanders are sitting around the circular table the old owners of the room had here... At the start of the meeting, I had a servant update all the commanders with all the information we have on the enemies... I have even brought in completed armor sets to show as examples later to all the troops.

Also, we had examples of spears, swords, and crossbows. I ordered "All these will be shown to the troops to have them prepared for the enemies they will face soon, commanders are in charge of showing these around. I want the army battle ready at all times to incase the enemy is somehow able to sneak past our information net. "

Moving forwards in the meeting we discussed the stock of supplies, the state of equipment, and cannons. We made sure to cover all our bases so no small mistakes will come back to haunt us later costing a man's life in the process. All defenses shall be once more checked for any major or minor flaws by the engineering corps.

Soon... The greatest battle of my career will begin, if all goes according to plan then we will be able to establish our prestige as a nation capable of not only defending our borders but expanding them! This is the best outcome, completely destroying the enemy force, and securing their lands whilst suppressing or destroying their already existing aristocracy.

After closing the meeting I thought for a few seconds then I decided to send out more scouts to support the cavalry in the mountains. I have a feeling that the enemies will try their best to outsmart us when it comes to their invasion route into Ragusa. They have already faced massive pushback and intrigue along their route to get here so they must know we are watching their every move and that we will most likely continue to cause trouble along the standard route.

So sending out the reserve scouts to check for enemy scouts or an advance party along the less well-traveled routes is logical in this situation. As I thought about this I was brought out if my head by one of my assistants screaming "My SULTAN!!! OUR CAV THEY MADE CONTACT WITH THE ENEMY! The commander on site reported that they have captured a few small advanced parties entering the mountain."