Chapter 7: The reformist Şehzade Alaeddin

Chapter 7: The reformist Şehzade Alaeddin

I recruited two assassins. The assassins I recruited were renamed 001 and 002 respectively and the assassins will continue this tradition they will go by numbers only. The stats are almost identical and are as follows:

Name: 001

Agent type: Assassin

Agent Skill: +7 Agent skill (Good Conspirator- An assassin gains a point in Good Conspirator with 20% probability when they succeed on a sabotage mission)

Agent Ancillaries: Black Stallion +25% Movement speed, Explosives +1 Sabotage, Prototype Handgun +1 Assassination, AND +2 Law, Poisoner +2 Agent Skill, Courtesan +1 Agent Skill

Name: 002

Agent type: Assassin

Agent Skill: +6 Agent skill (Good Assassin- An assassin gains a point in Good Assassin when they succeed on an assassination mission)

Agent Ancillaries: Black Stallion +25% Movement speed, Explosives +1 Sabotage, Prototype Handgun +1 Assassination, AND +2 Law, Poisoner +2 Agent Skill, Courtesan +1 Agent Skill

I will have 001 be a bodyguard for me and follow in the shadows no matter where I go, he will be the man watching my back. Then 002 will be ordered to build an assassin's training program they will pick up people who will not be missed and train them into brainwashed suicide units who will sacrifice themselves for our cause. But 001 will use some of these to alternate with him in watching my back because no man can stay awake for days at a time while also being competent in their work.

I also decided to recruit the remaining agents available including 1x spy 1x merchant 1x priest and 1x diplomat. The spy and merchant are different from the previous batch and will have different skill bases and their stats are as follows:

Name: Gültekin Pasha

Agent type: Merchant

Agent Skill: +4 Finance (Monopolist- At the end of any turn, a merchant gains one point in Monopolist if he has a trading monopoly)

Agent Ancillaries: Merchant Clerk +1 Finance, Counterfeiter +1 Finance

Name: Alp Uzay

Agent type: Spy

Agent Skill: 5 Agent skill (Good Conspirator- A spy gains one point in good conspirator with 20% probability on creation. He also gains a point with 20% probability each time a city he is in rebels)

Spy Ancillaries: Black Stallion +25% Movement Points, Pickpocket +1 Agent Skill AND +1 Line of Sight, Pet Monkey +1 Agent Skill, False Documents +1 Agent Skill, Spyglass +2 Line of Sight

Gültekin was assigned by me to build a strong trade connection with our southern neighbors in Anatolia and Syria building a strong land trade system. This will be the cornerstone of our trade because we need contacts to unload our new products from the workshops that will be created. Without a strong land trade network our sanjak will struggle to move the large stock of products that these workshops will be able to produce.

Alp Uzay our new spy is assigned an incredibly important task. I asked him to go to Thessalonica to produce public outrage toward their overlords in Constantinople and bring about a public outcry to have the ottoman government step in to rule over the region. The task sounds more difficult than it may be, the Byzantine government has been constantly taxing the citizens removing the wealth from the economy while also allowing their lands to be raided.

This is the ultimate betrayal of the people you are supposed to rule over, protection and taxation go hand in hand. I pay taxes because I do not want a foreign force to invade my place of business or my home where my family is living.

If you cannot keep your lands relatively safe, then why do the people need your overlordship? The answer is they do not need your rule, at this time in Byzantine lands the people have been constantly ravaged by war after war and plagued with civil wars for decades then you add brutal taxation all of which has bankrupted the prestige of the throne in Constantinople.

Then you have our ottoman state we are expanding our borders and influence add to that our policies that lower taxes and boost economic growth, the common people are not starving we are in a decent position to usurp the Byzantine's mantle.

But there is a very important part we are missing the glue that can hold societies together a codified law. The rules and regulations that have been collected, restated, and written down to provide civil order to society are codified laws, and, in this era, there aren't many kingdoms with a centralized and well-recognized law system it is mostly case-by-case and doesn't have a centralized court system.

"System I want to redeem and use my settlement upgrades x2 on Abydos"

<Notice: Upgrade settlement level quest reward is used on Abydos x2>

*Swoosh* In what seemed to be an instant the city was expanded by several times the walls enclosed a full 5 sq miles inside them leaving enough space to continually expand. The sheer size of these magnificent walls is enough to awe the peasants who work in its shadow! These walls are extremely costly, but that price guarantees security against all but the most well-prepared besieging force.

Thanks to strong towers, battlements, and gatehouses, the defenders can make any assault a chancy business. to put this in comparison the Theodosian walls around Constantinople enclosed about 5.7 sq miles and are equipped with ballista towers while we have cannon towers!

I say Guns are a sensible addition to any wall, and Cannon Towers are suitably intimidating to any attacker brave - or foolhardy - enough to come within range. Their massive size is necessary to absorb the tremendous shock of repeated firing and to stand against any enemy guns.

These walls will be the light that guides the leaderless sheep to join my flock I mean these walls combine advanced military technology, defense, and beauty these walls will truly leave all those seeing them for the first time in a stupor for sure.

This upgrade added a military district into the city allowing for the training, arming, and armoring of our units, this upgrade brought 3 new buildings into the city the royal arsenal, the royal barracks, and the armory factory. Our armor factory will house the very best armorers who can produce "harnesses"(plate armor) that are not only supremely practical but very beautiful too.

Every surface and plate are cunningly fashioned so that almost any blow glances off the wearer. All the metalworkers' arts are used to make armor of the latest, most fashionable designs. This factory will also house a full staff of blacksmiths, tanners, and weaponsmiths allowing us to create all our military needs in one district of a city and expand it when needed.

This setup also allows us to continually train new specialists so we can expand our production capabilities. The next building in our military district is the royal arsenal which is a workshop fully committed to constructing artillery.

We will be manufacturing all our artillery in this workshop including but not limited to the new hwacha, cannons, and explosive arrows this building will also be receiving help from master alchemists. But the standout development of the royal arsenal is the ability to produce cast-iron barrels, rather than forming them from wrought-iron bars, resulting in uniformly precise firing chambers. This in turn paved the way for the construction of the most powerful artillery to come from the medieval age.

And our royal barracks allow the training and equipping of almost any force of infantry, usually to a very high standard. Weaponsmiths and armorers labor to provide the gear, while the very best professional soldiers drum military skills into even the most talentless of recruits! This is the makeup of our military district.

Next is the entertainment district or our new red-light district. This small district is home to our new buildings the pleasure palace and the coaching house. Though our commoners drink enough collectively to make most of our taverns profitable, wealthy merchants and nobles will typically only choose to stay at a reputable Coaching House if the option exists which is why this building is great it has come at a perfect time.

The coaching house can service both ends of the financial spectrum, in a place where the prince and pauper will sometimes meet. Then hidden in the building we have our pleasure palace A pleasure palace is an opulent den of mortal delights, some of which are prohibited by holy texts, while the majority are merely prohibited to those with a regular income.

Considering the potential damage that could be done to the reputation of anyone staying here, the Palace only employs staff that not only understands the need for discretion but can maintain it. But most of the women working in this building are training to be either assassins or spies, they will also learn the sex and tavern trades so when they have been appointed to extend our spy network, they know how to build their businesses as well as their spy networks. We will also use this pleasure palace as a blackmail ring and use it as an example to recreate such a business in foreign countries and in our state to build our informants this is the CIA model.

The next district is the port which has received 3 upgrades allowing for more trade fleets to sail under my banner. The 3 upgrades our port has received are the naval drydock, the docklands, and a port warehouse. Our naval dockyard allows the construction of all kinds of ships and gives control of the port to a properly appointed representative of the crown rather than the local merchants. Trade, however, continues to flourish as the docks are superbly maintained and dredged and the improved wharves make trade easier to manage.

Goods from all over the world pass through the docks, bringing wealth and excitement into the lives of citizens. Some coastal cities like Abydos become true trade hubs, with several merchant fleets vying to engage the limited dock space themselves. Establishing these docklands is well worth the investment, massive wooden wharves are built out into the bay, with smaller jetties coming off those to provide enough moorings to satisfy virtually all comers.

But in the 14th century, as an ever-increasing number of merchants seek to send wares across the water rather than on the back of a mule, the need for storage down at the docks also increases. So, this port warehouse ensures that goods can either be left ready to load or unloaded without its land carrier having to simply wait for the cargo ships to roll in making our tariffs more profitable because the efficiency speeds up allowing for more people to continue in and out of Abydos at increasing rates.

In addition to the port trade, we also have our district which houses the most gold... The merchant district. Our merchant district houses 3 new upgrades one being the merchant district itself housing tons of assorted stores, stalls, and small workshops showing their goods. A merchants' quarter recognizes that a whole section of a city is occupied by the moneyed classes. Anything can be traded at the right price, and exotic and expensive goods add comfort to life - for those who can afford them.

Trade may be beneath some of the ruling classes, but life's little luxuries are always welcome! It also is home to our great market where almost anything that can be imagined can be bought here, including death. Merchants deal in goods from almost every part of the world, lend money - even cheat each other - in the hopes of turning a handsome profit. And all that gold in merchants' strongboxes can be taxed by me improving my income even more!

We also have a very tiny district which I am calling the wellness district even though now it is unfinished in the future it will be very vibrant and useful this district houses our great bimaristan and bathhouses. The people in Abydos with a Great Bimaristan will live with the self-assurance that comes with having true care for the sick.

A pharmacy adjoins the main building, to distribute the medicinal compounds prescribed by physicians. Such a structure that can patch up the wounded properly helps keep training costs down considerably because you can have high-intensity training and you can get more difficult injuries fixed keeping more soldiers on the battlefield.

This district also houses the new bathhouses that will be integral to our city's health, the problem is we have no aqueduct running into the city, so these bathhouses are currently unusable. These bathhouses also have a heating and plumbing system fully functional and ready to go once we get our aqueduct built.

Now I am going to describe the center of the city it houses 3 facilities and their attached buildings, these three buildings are the prince's new palace, city hall, and the great jama. The prince's palace represents the final frontier in terms of ensuring that the people of Abydos don't forget just who is in charge.

Though the palace is where I reside within the city walls, the building is the property of the crown and will serve as home and office to whoever is appointed by me to govern the city in the future. A city hall is almost mandatory to ensure that law and order have an adequate presence. Though its primary role is still to serve as a court of law and to collect tax, if it didn't provide a home to the city's various civil departments, the entire place would probably degenerate into fetid squalor. The city hall houses our regional court which will be supreme over all the other smaller courts I establish in this Karasi region.

It also has the office of the new captain of the recently created police force this will also be considered the regional headquarters for the police force once they are fully trained and staffed properly. The sanitary regional headquarters is also inside the city hall they are in charge of the humanure program turning human waste into usable fertilizers, they are also in charge of garbage and waste cleanup there will be several other state-run programs being stationed in the city hall in the future.

The Great Jama is the greatest center of spiritual relevance to visit in the world of Islam, short of the sites deemed sacred by the Prophet Mohammed, blessed be his name. Great Jamas are often large enough to have their internal courtyard and are adorned with numerous minarets, making them imposing and lavish monuments of Islamic enlightenment.

This is the last new district but certainly not the least the academic district, this district is home to the university and alchemist facilities. In the master alchemists' guild, the most promising apprentices come to complete their studies before applying for their grants. Here they gain access not only to a master's knowledge but most importantly to retorts, alembics, and other apparatus made of the finest glass available – Specialist tools that are difficult even to commission, let alone afford.

This guild will be in charge of maintaining and creating our gunpowder. The University is a large bastion of higher learning and humanism that offers its students a myriad of sciences to master, from mathematics to philosophy and beyond.

The academy houses experts in many fields including but not limited to mathematicians, theologians, and lawyers. With universities offering a much wider range of studies, they attract a much broader range of scholars than an alchemy school, and those that study there tend to benefit from a more well-rounded education.

In this district, I plan to create a military academy specialized in training captains and officers who will be leading men in battle. This academy will be attached to the university complex so the military trainees will be offered many different courses.

This academy will also house our military battle records showing how battles and wars were won and lost the strategies and troop deployments will all be kept track of here for any trainee to go and read up on and learn from other mistakes or carry the gauntlet of their predecessor's successes.

Now that the upgrade has been completed this makes my codified laws easier to complete as I have many more minds to draw from to complete these laws. So, I sent my message to inform all parties who can be of some assistance to report to the prince's mansion for a meeting in the morning. The first law codex will be created tomorrow there will be only a few laws, but the rest of the laws will be solidified as time goes on and more cases are filed and judged giving more presidents to base the new laws on.

We will base our court system on the later roman courts which had 3 court systems the local courts, the regional courts, and the imperial courts. Only a higher court can overturn a lower court's decision but if the highest court makes a decision, it can't be overturned unless the ruler overturns it himself.

I want to create a flexible law system in which I will have full authority over the courts, but I also want the courts to have some control over the law because there are so many issues that arise day to day especially when an empire stretches its borders far and wide.

I want to have of course the basic laws like murder, stealing, and rape as crimes but the punishments for said crimes may differ based on the situation and the judge. I will also have a self-defense law where my citizens can defend themselves from harm as long as it is in defense against something illegal.

I also want to implement a contract law where people can make contracts with one another backed by the government to force both parties to fulfill their end of the deal, but I also need to add protections to prevent contracts from being used in loan sharking and other bad business practices and schemes. I also need to have a single main court like the imperial court be very proactive, so we do not have tons of variations on existing laws, so each region doesn't have a completely different law system, so my citizens know what is and isn't illegal as they travel through the separate regions.

I think it would be better to add a stopgap like the president is second to the source law like in civil law systems, but the drawback is I would have to implement more laws... But this would also centralize the law constantly pushing out new laws based on presidents in the courts and my and my servants' inputs to improve laws and make them more efficient.

Soon the discussion kicked off with me at the center of the debate floor explaining my idea for the new law system with me being the overlord of the courts and the judges are the spearhead leading law in a certain direction with their court presidents taking a key role in the implementation of new laws for the state. The conversations went on and on but in the end, we managed to create a decent law system that is very flexible and allows for a more centralized law system so laws aren't completely different across the country.

The final system recognizes that judges may make a court ruling if there is no law about a specific incident and pass his ruling to the higher courts who pass it to the ruler which is me. And all parties will choose whether to recognize his ruling or not and if it is recognized as a logical and fair ruling the ruler will have it passed into law to be practiced across the state.

But there are also situations where there are multiple rulings on the same type of case both with no source law, we can look at all the rulings on these cases and make a decision on which is more reasonable and put that law into practice and anyone affected by the previous rulings will be re-trialed based on the new law.

Also, until our state becomes bigger all capitol punishments and cases and laws resulting in capital punishment must be sent to me to approve the punishment. Especially if there is no source law for such a ruling it must be sent to me before the punishment is carried out.

This is the simple law system we designed for now hopefully it grows and grows over time to make our citizens satisfied with our justice system. Now we just need to construct or renovate existing buildings into our courthouses we need them to be everywhere except villages with less than 500 people they must travel to the closest court. In rural areas like this we will just place a central courthouse in an area somewhere the villagers tend to Goto frequently anyways like a close town or caravanserai.

Now that is finally finished let us move on to the sultan's meeting and my travel companions for this trip. For this trip, I will bring my shadow 001 and my general's bodyguard who is a fully armored horse unit consisting of a full 100 men and horses!

I am also bringing 2 units of the new Tsars guard I received as a reward. These guys are perfect to bring as they can speak Turkish, but I will have them speak in the Slavic language they are used to speaking if they have to talk showing off the fact, they are foreign units loyal to me.

I am also bringing the new diplomat as I will probably let him stay in the city to win me allies in my fight for the throne. Oh, and my mother and sister will also tag along so I decided to bring our new harem member miss lioness, and of course our favorite slave Mary!

And while I was getting everything ready to leave in Abydos My armies have just taken Kesan and Malgara and had split the troops Evrenos Bey taking 1/3 of the army and heading toward Komotini with about 2500 troops mostly tribal auxiliaries that have been moving here on mass but I ordered all fortresses in Thrace and the fortress leading to Macedonia be conquered once Evrenos takes Komotini he will be stationed there to guard against and raid Serbian forces in Macedonia.

Now Mehmet is in charge of the sieges taking place in Thrace which should be a breeze the Byzantines don't have the authority to withstand a siege from a force of a few thousand on a fortress with 100 or fewer defenders these men will either surrender or defect to join our army leaving the fortress commander to be ransomed or will also join us. There is not much unity with the civil war still ongoing I could not have picked a better time to strike at the Romans I want to begin preparations to take Thessalonica and Adrianople as soon as I get back from Bursa.

After we all boarded the ship, we set sail for Bursa the current capital of the Ottoman state the city where Osman Gazi is buried the legendary figure who in this life is my grandfather, I am pretty sad I can never meet the man as he passed away right before the conquest of Bursa was completed. I usually get bored after a few minutes of watching the coastline, so I decided to speak to my new concubine and then speak to my mother about the meeting with my father.

After going into the cabin of the flagship I saw my lioness playing with the custom pair of dice I made from some driftwood the last time I was at sea. "My lioness how goes it? We haven't spoken much since we arrived in Abydos" I said while still walking toward her waving to show she need not get up.

"Oh, my prince finally has the time to speak to me. No way you must be very bored ha-ha" she said after glancing at me and began chuckling under her breath.

*Sigh* "You still do not understand how to answer questions there must be a problem with you shall I do a full body checkup?" I said while feinting that I will reach out to grab her.

With a touch of panic, she said "Y-you don't be physical I was just joking okay joking your mother is just behind the other door I have my honor as a woman as well!" *Hmph*

"Oh, so you can joke but I can't..." I said this and did not say anything else letting the words sink in and just when her face began to change when she realized I was just messing with her. I was walking through the door to speak with my mother.

(Oh, my goodness! did I have a terrible time writing this chapter my little baby daughter deleted the chapter somehow as I was already 3300 words in it took me a decent amount of time to rewrite it hope you are happy with this chapter even though this chapter is just a lot of details it still is pretty good)