Chapter 13 Consolidation
"We do not conquer the lands, we conquer the hearts" -Sultan Mehmed II
After establishing the guild designs in my mind, it was now time to implement these plans. I called my staff to the throne room and commanded them "I command you to go out to find the men who call themselves craftsmen and the guilds that formed with them, bring their representative here to Thessalonica to see me, As I would like to begin a new guild under the light of the state!"
The messenger and staff replied, "My prince you will be done."
After simply getting the ball rolling on that plan I turned to my next issue. This is a problem I finally have a solution for, I cannot only rely on the tribes as my only auxiliary force I need a supplementary force that doesn't consist of untrained levy troops as they just take up space on the battlefield and eat my food with no benefits to my army. But if I could somehow manage to train these men and have some arms available to them, they could be not only be useful but very successful units. I want to implement militia training grounds in all the settlements within my lands by having all my citizens who are eligible for military service train on a militia training field with an experienced officer or soldier this will make my citizens able to crush any untrained levy forces. These militias can also improve the health and well-being of my citizens as workouts will generally help improve the health of any citizen, but I will also have these militia grounds provide food to anyone training there. I want all men between ages 15-35 to train at least once a week and citizens will receive certain benefits for exceeding the minimum training requirements. These militias will be broken up into regional corps, each region will be required to have at least 25% of their men trained to be militia troops if this requirement is not met there will be extra taxation among other punishments for the leaders of the area. Adding to this the militia grounds surrounding larger cities will be expansive and will be referred to as regimental training grounds as they will be small towns themselves having solid stone barracks, officer quarters, and granaries.
Another military innovation that will be introduced is a conscription center. I will be building new conscription centers in many cities and towns some will even be in remote villages to attract men to join our standing armies. With these new conscription centers, we will have to build or renovate barracks in strategic areas of my lands to house these new units after their training in Thessalonica or Abydos. One big recruiting factor of our conscription center will be that the more men from your region join the standing army the fewer men will have to fight as militiamen in our campaigns, but the training is still mandatory. With the new give-and-take military recruitment centers and militia training grounds, I believe our bellicose-styled society will be superior to more conventional feudalist society methods. These methods are only possible because the new farming methods allow for more grain so people can eat more whilst worrying less.
Whilst we are talking about farming, I also plan to make some changes there as it will be simpler to have more expansive manor house style farming than small individual family-run farms. This new style will be implemented by sectioning off swaths of land ranging from 500 to 2000 acres for a manor lord to oversee. Within the land will be many small family-style farms and I will do away with these family-owned farms and expand them to large industrial-styled farms with the families as overseers hired by the manor lord, this will improve my food production dramatically. This will lower the number of taxpayers but will improve my tax revenue as it will be streamlined from hundreds of payers to just a few dozen allowing my tax accessors to be more accurate in the taxation procedures. Also, with this new process, I will not be taxing the produce or grain themselves, but the money made from the selling of the grain. Making my coffers swell with gold and silver, allows me to be more flexible in my spending, only buying food when it is needed not constantly having grain on hand when I am not even planning a campaign. Granted I will still have my farms around Abydos and Thessalonica that can help me stockpile foods for emergencies without using my tax revenue to purchase it. One smaller implementation will be expanding our pastoral farms in the same manner turning them into large cattle ranches that haven't been seen since the ancient roman period, with these my people will have ample grain, produce, and meat for their tables.
After outlining this I wrote this up in a letter and had it copied and sent to Abydos to be implemented there as well, I want all my procedures to be implemented throughout all my lands without missing any villages. I also placed this in the hands of my council to begin surveying all over my lands to find the best locations to place the conscription centers and militia training grounds, they estimate this could take up to a month with their current staff. My council is usually in charge of finding the ways to implement the plans I come up with as I simply cannot interact with so many people as I am usually busy either drawing up plans or thinking of military strategies... and dealing with my everyday duties about my court. As of right now I have been busy copying the information provided by the system which is a full census of my lands all the names, addresses, and occupations of my citizens are in my head but no one else has access to this information so I want to copy this all down, then use the printing press to spread this information to all my administration centers. This is what gave me the confidence to implement a militia system I have Santa Claus-like knowledge in my head.
After this final thought, I got up from the throne and walked towards the exit of the palace with my guards following close behind, Mounting my beautiful white horse I stormed toward the roman forum (the market built by the system) soon I saw the huge crowd of citizens sitting in the stands of the odeon (Greek/Roman theatre) and standing in the open paved forum waiting for the new ruler to address them. There must be at least 10,000 people here waiting for my speech, this is crazy to see I truly did not expect the system to be able to restart the oldest of roman installations in the city, the Galerian palace complex the hippodrome and the roman forum with the added odeion that has been vacant since the 4th century it is amazing for any history lover to witness this scene. Trotting my horse through the crowd followed still by my bodyguards, I made my way to the 2 story porticoes. After entering I walked through gazing at the amazing detail of the walkway and finally, I arrived at the stage entrance, there on the stage was a Turkish and roman band that I had collaborated to make a few songs that mix the two cultural sounds into one, and the crowd seems to have loved it as they are cheering!
After the band walked off the stage one of the diplomats walked onto the stage, whilst my guards are getting into a guard position with the other guards that have already been stationed there previously. My diplomat says loudly to the crowd " Welcome to the stage our Sanjak lord, conqueror of Thrace and Macedonia, Ruler of Karasi, Thrace, and Macedonian Sanjaks, The Bey of Beys, Şehzade Alaeddin son of Sultan Orhan Ghazi!" My supporters in the crowd began to chant "Long live Alaeddin, long live Alaeddin, long live Alaeddin" over and over at least 3000 people seem to shout because it was LOUD!
Walking onto the stage I had a straight face wearing a domineering decorative golden plate mail armor with Arabic letterings throughout the armor. After putting my hand up to signal the shouting crowd to quiet down I removed my helmet to reveal my handsome appearance to the surprise and amazement of the woman in the crowd. I began my speech in a calm but loud voice thundering across this theatre designed to amplify the noise "Thessalonica's precious people, many thought they stopped our power when the Seljuks fell, but they forgot that those raging rivers which are frozen, keep streaming when the sun rises! THAT SUN RISES AGAIN TODAY! Our flood destroys the barrages of captivity and stones of cruelty! Our love is blessed, and our Da'wah is eternal! You should know that if the Ottoman and Kayi flag is placed somewhere no one can lower them until the last ottoman dies! I know you have had difficulties since the roman empire has been in decline, But I tell you today that the old order has returned, and all the extra taxes are removed as of today! The cruelty and fear have been defeated, and justice has been served! Now we shall live in peace, we will empower our homeland and trade with peace and justice! JUSTICE UNTIL WE DIE! FREEDOM UNTIL WE DIE!" I finished my speech with my fist raised high in the air and chanted the final lines of the speech, this fired the crowd up!
The crowd roared endlessly as I walked off the stage "Long live Alaeddin, long live Alaeddin, long live Alaeddin" *Woohoo woohoo woohoo*
The crowd was excited that a ruler has promised them justice instead of forcing them to offer their last dollar with cruelty. This to them is how the empire used to be before the 4th crusade and the fall of Constantinople, they had at least a court system to make complaints... But after the fall and subsequent rise of the new roman empire, it appointed nothing but tyrants as emperors and governors! Leading the people to hate and despair about their empire, because there were no benefits for them to support such a state. After giving this speech I had my army offer a free feast to the citizens at my expense of course... There was a circus invited, there were many different attractions for them to enjoy as well, this will buy me some love from the citizens for sure.
About a week has passed since the conquest of Thessalonica and the speech was given. My family and single harem member arrived in Thessalonica, my mother was extremely surprised by the very roman palace compared to my Turkish-styled palace in Abydos, so she felt more at home here in Thessalonica. Given the fact, my mother is a princess, the populace has taken a liking to her immediately as she began to attend the Christian churches on Sundays. But other than that this week I also have recruited 5 units. These units are 2x Naffatun units, 2x Varangian guard units, and 1x Ottoman infantry. bringing my elite standing army number to 4,420 members, making me very close to my original goal of a 5000 men strong standing force. With Thessalonica alone, I can recruit at most 360 men a week and with the hippodrome, I can recruit horsemen in this city unlike other cities like Abydos that can only recruit infantry.
After waiting a little more than a week, my diplomat finally returned to Thessalonica. He walked into the throne room bent down on his knees and raised the treaty into the air saying "My lord I have successfully drawn the roman attention away from us and onto each other, when I was leaving Adrianople our spy there told me that the former regent is planning to sneak attack Constantinople with the help of his remaining supporters. I don't have much hope for his success I just have to let you know. I also managed to get the treaty signed by the emperor in Adrianople and the emperor in Constantinople, this treaty has brought us six months of peace with the Romans."
I asked my diplomat "What did you hear in Constantinople about my conquests?"
he replied "My lord, your name is spreading like wildfire since your conquest of Gallipoli. Adding your conquest of Thrace when I arrived there, the citizens were speaking of the siege the eventual siege of Selymbria, and their chances of survival, this is what made it so easy for me to sign a peace treaty with the emperors of both cities."
Satisfied with his answers I sent him back but only after discussing his newfound skill as he is the first person recruited by the system to upgrade his level other than the troops. He said he has been feeling better lately as if he could convince any ruler to do what he wants... That is how he described it at least. After he left I called in the next subject waiting to see me, that is my spy the one responsible for overseeing the spies outside my territory, he would usually be located in Abydos but I moved him here and move the spy that was here to Adrianople once again raise support for me before I conquer the city.
After entering the throne room, he also fell to his knees, I nodded my head to him letting him know he can speak. After getting the go-ahead he said "My lord, the spies in Constantinople have reported that your name is spreading all over the city and even the merchants coming from all over the world are hearing your name after the conquest of Thessalonica the Roman lords are scared of making war against you. But the spy says they are looking at alternative ways of battling against you such as using the greed of others against you to make them attack us, my lord. The report says that they may even reach out to the other Turkish states and ask them to attack us as well hoping to destroy us before we even have the chance to attack Adrianople or Selymbria."