Chapter 40: Pursuit

Finishing this major siege was a hard task and I achieved great results while also taking great risks. Once the main defensive points were seized, I gave extended orders to begin fortifying the city, use our new prisoners to rebuild the parts of the wall we can, or use wood and rubble to seal the gaps.

Also, the men I sent to find the exit of the secret tunnel and find tracks of the fleeing ruler and his family returned. In their return, they brought not only news, but they returned with many coins, jewels, artifacts, and hostages.

The number of coins is not known but they had to steal the caravan they marched out of the secret tunnel to bring this astonishing amount of wealth back to the city. Amazingly the way they found this caravan and were able to seize it and its wealth was because of a battle that was already taking place between the fleeing caravan and a few units of our scouts and spies in the area.

After they arrived, they immediately helped the scouts, and they together subdued the entire caravan and the people in it. Supposedly many of the guards and other beys there fled on horseback into the countryside once more beginning another chase led by my scouts... Though I have no further information on this issue.

But other than coins they also brought great news, we have a few of the ruler's children and his only two wives, I have no ill will towards them so they will be treated well for a time until the proper ransom is paid. We also have information given by the new captives, that the ruler Eretna is heading to Sivas to gather the remainder of his supporters and regain his honor and his capital.

I do not plan to allow this man to gather another army this to me is just too inconceivable. I refuse to fight such a gorilla-styled defender, it will just lead to many issues making my ruling this region unimportant and the entire Cappadocia region dragging down all my plans. Moving quickly I arranged my commanders in the palace for a meeting.

I started the meeting by saying "Now we all did our parts in this great victory in which you all will be rewarded again once we return to the capital. I know you all have struck it rich on this campaign, probably seeing more wealth in this one campaign than all your ancestors combined haha. But you must remember to keep your heads on straight you are all soldiers first.

-Now the reason I called you all here is very important, we must set off once more, but this time I will only be taking with me the Kapikulu cavalry. All the Janissaries and infantrymen will remain here in the city, continuing to guard it against any outside forces. But all Kapikulu and sipahi commanders will have to move with me, we are chasing down the ruler of Cappadocia called Eretna as he wishes to raise another army.

-This is why we must make sure he cannot secure any more support here in this region at least not enough to gain an army. I decided to do that we only have one direction, which is to secure Sivas. Securing the last city where he has mass support and enough population to build another force of the same size we faced here in Kayseri."

The details of the plan are rather simple and depend on many factors but I hope it can work. I will send many of the spies and a few of my assassins to reinforce the spies already in the city, I wish to hold some support in the city using any support we can get to spread the word that Eretna's army was already crushed.

They will say the capital has been seized, and his men and family captured as he flees in a panic looking to drag more good men to their deaths with him. I want to spread the fact that he has already failed in his attempt to fight my armies, and he will fail again. I want the word spread about his cowardice in abandoning his men to fight whilst he escaped in secret.

I will get this all done rather quickly, I am already arranging my cavalry to move out as I think this through. This took less than an hour and soon we were already on the route toward Sivas, I am rushing which in most cases will cause the commander of an army to fail, but I know in some cases it will work out.

We marched long into the night until all the men were tired so I decided we can camp as this may give time to my spies to get the word to spread. Waking in the morning we were back on the march after watering our horses and checking our supplies.

Another long march and a long exhausting day lead into the night once more and still, we haven't made it to the city. I was told it was normal to travel for three to four days to reach the city, but I assumed this was moving at a leisurely pace, I was wrong this is long trip maps are much different from actually traveling the routes yourself.

After a long march this time, the march was only about ten hours we reached the city's outskirts, but the sun will set in three hours so in this situation we must indeed rush ourselves. Hearing the city's horns blaring in the distance it is obvious that the defenders have taken notice of my horseman horde approaching their city.

I gathered a delegation of a few commanders and my close guards that are usually at my side and rode towards the city gate. Once we arrived at the gates the defenders on the walls aimed their bows toward our direction. Shaking my head one of my commanders stepped forwards and hailed the guards.

He said "I am sure you know why we have brought our hordes to this gate that you guard. So I will not introduce myself or my liege's army, as we need no introduction nowadays. So, I will ask what has your city decided will you fight? Or will peace suffice?"

Before any guard on the wall could speak an old man stepped into our view up on the wall. The old man look my commander and said "We have heard the stories of the siege in Kayseri and how our leader performed there, I am surprised as to how fast information spreads these days but maybe I am getting old.

-But I must say, we do not plan to hand over our city or our liege as he is the rightfuhhjnj" Before the elderly man could finish his sentence one of the guards on the wall had stuck his dagger through the man's throat.

This surprised me as I believed I would have to scrap my initial plan but let me see how this will play out. The young guard barely in our view then gave a head nod in the city's direction I am assuming he nodded towards someone we cannot see just yet. Proving my theory correctly another man looked over the battlements staring right at me, and this man was much younger than the dead man who spoke with us before.

The new young man thus yelled down to us "Sorry for the rude interruptions earlier but that old man is a Mongol sympathizer and he had to die. I heard our liege was beaten back and forth by your army and that he fled in secret even leaving behind his wives and children. I want to ask are you planning to conquer the Mongol lands in the near future?"

Thinking for a second I said to the young man "First you must state your name before you speak, this is the same mistake the dead man made and that is why he died it is called arrogance when you do not have the power to act in such a way. Second, all in Anatolia must refer to me as sultan as all of the lands in this region belong to my Sultanate by right. "

The young man clearly not liking my arrogant statement almost replied negatively but even from down here I could see him stop and think for a second. The young man then replied "My sultan, I apologize for my arrogance my name is Reza Kamran my family fled from Persia long in the past, to where I grew up around Tabriz... My lord I wish to know will you conquer this area?"

Seeing the fire burning brightly in the young man's eyes even from this distance I answered honestly "I wish to strengthen the Muslim world as no one has done before, I will conquer until I can no longer ride a horse fight until I can no longer walk! Does this answer satisfy your question?"

He responded, "Open the gate!"

We sent the signal to the cavalry waiting further away from the gate to move up with us. Soon we all were entering the city, I am kinda surprised by how easy it was to gain access to supposedly the place where Eretna will build his army of revenge. Or maybe I am just overthinking things.

Once inside the city, I spread my cavalry out through the city, using their arms to gain access to the defenses and central areas of this trading city, I want to have full control of the city by day's end. During this Reza who let me in the city came down, and explained why we were allowed in the city.

This Reza has helped his uncle control the garrison and army in Sivas since he was of age. So now at the age of twenty-two, he has been in control of the army for six years, then he heard yesterday that their "Liege" was defeated and fleeing from the enemies in cowardice. His uncle has been a loyal supporter of the Mongols in Anatolia for years, and Reza who's family was killed by Mongols disliked this, so when this opportunity arrived he killed his uncle and seized control of the city.

I asked Reza "You have just gained control of the city why would you give up control of the city so quickly?"

Reza replied "I see no point in supporting that Eretna, and I see that the Ottoman Turks are on the rise, while the other beylics will fall sooner or later. So, I wish to support you as my liege but in return, I wish to help or lead an attack on Tabriz in the future. My small revenge is all I ask, I shall lend all my strength including the army I have taken from my uncle and this city itself and the location of the supporters of Eretna in this city."

I replied "I shall in return for this city support your revenge when the opportunity arises. If I do not support your revenge may my empire crumble and my gold to dust."

Finishing this I gained a new subordinate and a city without any fighting, and maybe some good troops it seems to be no less than ten thousand soldiers here. Though these troops I do not know where to place them just yet. Though it wouldn't be terrible to make them into a Cappadocian garrison for my new prison idea.

I did plan to make Cappadocia my capital for prison because this area is filled with many underground cities. These cities are extensive and with some tinkering, we can close off the many exits and create a cheap but effective prison system here. With these ten thousand soldiers I could begin its use immediately. As the small dungeons in my cities have not been enough to hold the many prisoners that have already been convicted by my new court system.

The underground cities have many advantages not just as prisons but I will use them for many things in the future. This is the third main reason for conquering Kayseri, the second being the trade routes pass through Cappadocia, and the first being Kayseri is a system city. And with the new city of Sivas I now own pretty much all of Cappadocia.

Though I couldn't catch Eretna I did gain a city in turn, so this is worth enough to have sprinted all the way over here. With the addition of Sivas, I now have the majority of the silk road trade routes under my control in Anatolia, I also have removed a lot of the competition out of the region.

-Sorry that this chapter is kind of like filler, but I had to include this to add a certain character who may or may not be important in the future.