Chapter 29: Siege of Chios

So, with only a few days to get this done. I began to move even in the night I called a messenger and gave him an urgent message that must be brought to Thessalonica immediately. After that, I sent my spies to wait for the navy to make contact so we can meet up somewhere hidden to take off for Chios.

Following my standard procedures, the navy contacted the spies before sunrise and got their orders, the fleet should be here before noon no matter how hidden they are, he couldn't have docked them very far away. Then for the next few hours things were collected and stashed away for a sea voyage, which wasn't that hard considering there is a port here, the hard part is finding a port that is not ours... Pulling up the system map, there is only one port and it is perfect, there is a Genoese port in my territory.

This port is located on the Karaburun peninsula, which is located west of the city of İzmir, comprised wholly within İzmir Province and is surrounded by the Aegean Sea. This port is now the premier target of my army. After having my target now all that is left to do is march, rounding up more than 25,000 men and leaving 5,000 men behind to guard the region while waiting for the 10,000 militia men I stationed on our former border to show up and relieve them of garrison duty.

After a very brief march, we reached the colony, which is located nearest the castle in the area. This shows there was some sort of previous agreement, but I made no such promises so I gave the order to blow the gate and wall apart. Upon hearing my order, the cavalry formed and ran toward the walls immediately. The guards of this colony had zero chance to react or defend themselves, as the cavalry launched small pots full of corned black powder once close enough to the walls and gate. *Boom Boom* this wooden wall stood no chance it was easily turned into nothing but splinters and stumps, upon this my calvary did not run back but charged into the small colony.

After a brief slaughter, the cavalry launched the firework signal into the sky, letting us know we can move on toward the port. Now, this port may be small, but it is enough to load my supplies, as the army can be loaded onto the ships that can get closer to the beaches and the larger ships can send rafts. Following this strategy, my army and our baggage were loaded onto the ships, and we were ferried over the small distance to Chios.

During this conquest I decided to go heavy on the navy side of the conquest, I had Evrenos pasha bring forth 80 of our ships. We have in our attacking fleet, 2 Baghlah, 4 carracks, 60 lanternas, 10 Galleass, and 4-gun holks. But there are also 100 cogs and dhows these are trading and transport vessels that will be used to carry slaves, loot, and supplies, and the majority of these ships aren't state-owned, but merchants paid for their transportation services. This is because it is cheaper to do this as if I reroute my trading vessels I can lose thousands of gold coins in profit or slow down the production of black powder neither of these will be profitable for me so losing a small amount to pay these Islamic merchants is worth it.

Moving swiftly across the sea I moved my fleet toward the port of Chios, I will take the main city immediately giving them no time to prepare. I want the conquests of these islands to be as swift as possible and gain as much as possible. I truly want to have this island in a single day and night, at most 2 days, and on to the next island. I expect good results though as the island isn't well fortified, only the island capital itself is fortified, and not really for ships capable of firing cannons. The city is defended on all sides by a single wall, a moat, and two draw bridges.

As we approached the city we landed our cavalry on a nearby beach, it took an hour to get everything needed onto the shores and all the soldiers ready to march. Moving to the city was fairly quick as we did not bring any of our large siege cannons or infantry onto the land. After arriving on the city periphery, we began to arrange our siege lines, which are mainly formed to be a blockade on the city and less of an attack force. Our navy will be the attacking force in this siege, as it will be easier than filling a moat which is a lot more difficult than crushing their sea walls and sending my army into the city via my galleys and small transport row boats.

Riding my horse outside the city with the cavalry army I watched as our navy began to shell the city, 80 ships armed to the teeth with cannons is now battering the walls and city with heavy iron cannon balls. The entire area is shaking even outside the city where I am, the walls themself are covered in smoke and dust making it hard to tell exactly how much damage was done, but I can guess it was a lot. Because immediately after I can hear the screams from the city and the defensive walls, obviously the damage is severe.

Within 3 minutes they were firing again, *Boom Boom Boom* again the world began to shake. The pressure this barrage gives off is far more dominant than even my stronger siege cannon. The extremely violent barrage is enough to shake up even the most fanatical defender. And I believe the defenders thought the same as me... Soon the white flag could be seen on the land and sea gates, these flags arrived just in time, as the next barrage of hellfire was soon to fall upon them.

No surrender terms were given by the defenders, they obviously lost the ability to defend against such weaponry. My cavalry slowly extracted the defenders from the castle and restrained them, after this, the city then was secured as well as the walls, and important facilities. Moving on from this point, I split the army into 960 men tactical squads used to swiftly secure the remainder of the island. In less than a day we secured all the villages, ports, and towns around the island, one the second day the few fortified locations were either destroyed or taken. After the conquest was finished, I received this message from the system.

<Unlocked: Mastic settlements building tree>

I remember hearing about mastic a few times in books, this tree can produce a sticky clear resin called white gold! This tasty resin is used for making gum, cosmetics, and medicine, the reason some call it white gold is that its color and its price as mastic can be worth as much as gold itself. The system placed this special building in a new bracket of special buildings without, having a system city to back it up. This new feature may also play a role in the future, but now it allows me to build this island to a peak never seen before. Allowing me to fortify the island and provide protection for the development of the farms, then also adds a well-defended port in the city of Chios. Lastly, the farms and the farming settlements can be expanded vastly nearly encompassing 60% of the island's countryside and coasts.

This will easily increase my income by at least 50,000 coins if I were to sell this product in its raw form. But if I process it within my lands and the island itself, the profits may triple or quadruple even depending on how much I can push these products and how fast they can catch on. The only downside it each part of the building tree must be built separately thus extending the time it takes to complete the building tree it will take up to 8 months to a year to finish all I need on the island. The windmills and water wheel workshops need time to be built, and I need to consolidate my control over the islands as well, which will need to be done once I return to Thessalonica after a long campaign.

Once the conquest was completed on Chios, I turned my eyes to the sea once more looking towards the island always called lesbos in which the fleet and army will follow the same routine on the largest city there Mytilene, and then the rest of the island. This will be our process for smaller islands in the future as this has worked well in Chios, there aren't many reinforcements to come and help the besieged so any decent army can deter any support from land, all will use this except Rhodos, Crete, and Cyprus.

Moving the army this time was quicker, we only left 1000 guards on the island as they will be added back to the army later just like in all other seized lands in the campaign. Moving to the city of Mytilene took a few hours, then another hour to unload the troops to a port located in between the region known as San Teodoro and an ancient ruin. Leaving the port and marching through the ruin and toward the city or you could call it a small island off the coast of this island connected by a draw bridge.

Moving within range of the city the Cav troops followed the same procedure, and we began to lock down the area. Allowing no one within a certain range of our main camp, to achieve this we have tons of separate patrol squads. Looking to the sea a sight was spotted upon arrival, there in the port of Mytilene is the Genoese main fleet. A fleet of no less than a hundred well-armed vessels maybe they were called to secure the sea once my campaign kicked off, but those are speculations. Looking closer you can see my fleet coming around the horizon, soon there will be a naval battle... Probably the largest and most consequential naval battle this century.

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