Chapter 31: Campaign Anatolia (Part 4)
With the naval battle won and the Genoese fleet crushed, these men guarding the walls of Mylitene felt very unsafe. I sent a messenger requesting a surrender hoping to avoid a siege, saving me time and allowing me to seize control of a few more islands.
The 200-man Genoese garrison capitulated against the will of their commander who still had the will to fight for his profit and nation. Looking at the gate the garrison marched out with a few men arrested and no weapons. Sent my cavalry again to secure the city, and the prisoners took less than 2 hours.
Then once my ships were in port I sent my army to secure the island. Traveling in the same tactical groups these men marched across the island making aware of the citizens who are their new overlord. And forcing fortified towns and castles to give up their control of the walls.
No looting was done on the island as they technically did not resist a siege, and there isn't much wealth among the citizens here. But the treasury of the Genoese merchants and other catholic merchants here was well worth the effort, I secured my country enough funds to recruit another army.
This is one of the main reasons for this conquest, new taxpayers and system cities. I need funds to continue construction, feed my troops, and build the new Anatolian standing army. This new army will be much lighter in armor than my current army and will be known as the Rumelian army.
After an entire day, the island was secured, and my army prepared to leave. This time no men have split from the army to garrison the island, as Thessalonica is close by, I had trained garrison troops sent here to the island.
Now the week is up, we were already 2 days into the turn when I set off. So now we can continue our campaign as my most important conquest in this campaign Smyrna is secure. Moving my men we used the merchant fleet that we hired to shuttle us back to Smyrna, whilst the navy continued to seize another island called Samos.
They will not only secure Samos but also take the small islands around Samos as well. This will be the last Independent Genoese colony in the Aegean Sea, as the rest are all connected to other kingdoms' cities. Like the Genoese colony next to Constantinople, unless I want to start a war with all the countries, they have their colonies in I must leave them for another time.
On the return route, we received the remainder of the army that I garrisoned on the islands we seized. All the remaining men of my army are garrisoned in Smyrna so once I return there my army will be complete again, and ready to go on the offensive once more.
Leaving the sea and once more returning to land my men look much happier. I can understand them, I truly am not a seaman. Arranging this large army into marching orders and arranging the restocked supplies took some time but within an hour we marched off to Smyrna.
Looking at the beautiful new port in front of me, I have a satisfied smirk on my face. This port is much better organized than the previous port, and the defense of the port is more secure than the previous port's castle. More space to build ships, and more space to garrison them as well, leading to the outcome I wanted another port city to build up my fleet.
Not only my military fleet but trade fleets as well. The more trade fleets I have the more gold I can obtain. My foreign trade will be based on the selling of complete products shortly, as I am currently building up my workshop/factory facilities and the number of them. These factories will convert wool, cotton, and raw silk into fabrics and even clothing and take iron and make tools this will not be all but the easiest examples.
I plan to do many things to improve my state's trading capacities and lead my nation to become the land of gold. But forgetting this I walked into the Acropolis of Smyrna, walking to the throne room where I want to read and hear all the reports I missed whilst out for a few days. The first person to enter the room was a spy I haven't seen before, honestly, there aren't many I have actually seen.
He stepped forward and said "My sultan, I am sorry for arriving here directly. But I have information that is necessary for the completion of the campaign. I have proof, Umur Ghazi, the bey of Aydin is leading his army to raid or conquest our new lands here, I saw him receive information about our army here, and that we seized the lands and left immediately. So, he believed he could easily add these lands to his own."
I replied "Good, I like this... You have done well I will have you rewarded, but do you have exact information on the army?"
The young spy responded "My lord, I do indeed have information on this army. To get here I actually snuck away from the army en route to here, they should be less than a day's march to Smyrna. They number a little more than 25,000, and they are an army of light horsemen about 13,000 of them, and 12,000 or more infantry. There are also crusaders in the army as well, I am not sure of their origin though, but there are at least a few thousand of them."
I waved the young man off after telling a guard to get him a reward. Moving out of the acropolis immediately, I began to spread the marching orders. We must leave while there is still light outside, we must find this army and find a battlefield I find fit for our army to dominate these enemies. I still see the same issue I had when I fought against my rebel brothers, even if I win the battle these invaders will just run away with the survivors to return later.
I refuse to allow such eventualities I need to force these men to fight. I do not think I can use the same strategy as before I must use the simplest method to win a war definitively which is to capture the leader. I heard this Umur was a good general and has been at war since he was a young man. Supposedly he managed to seize Chios in the past and has fought all around these lands in the west of Anatolia.
So, I believe my only choice is to crush them with force and capture Umur swiftly with tactics. I believe this is my only option to crush them and not allow them to retaliate or retreat and lick their wounds. If one is to attack my state there must be consequences and these will be big, I will take all and nothing less.
Finally managing to get my men back up and into marching order, I left out on the road once more. Once I began to campaign myself, I see why medieval campaigns were so short, this is a rough life compared to my comfortable palace with hot baths and soft women.
Leaving down the road we marched rather slowly, I am not truly sure where I am going so, I do not want to march too fast without any information. I am just moving toward the general location of the enemy army whilst waiting for my spies to return with more accurate information. Then when we get closer to the enemies that are when the scouts come in handy as they can accurately locate the enemies and the lands in between us, leading me to sort the information and choose a proper tactic.
After marching for 4 hours along a well-beaten path, the first group of spies began to return. So, I stopped the army for a break, where they can eat, drink, and catch their breaths. The spies began to explain the situation which surprised me, the enemies as if they were hunting dogs who caught wind of our scent.
The enemies have begun to retreat slowly, back toward the capital of the Aydinids. I cannot be too sure if the enemies are drawing us into a trap or truly retreating to their lands because I brought my army to meet them. Both are plausible as easy conquests are preferred over a staunch defense, but the fact that these Turks also have crusaders in their army makes me believe this is a trap.
Simply, why would they bring a foreign ally in on something if they plan to give up at the first wall? Thinking in this way, I sent my scouts out to figure out the geography of the lands the enemies are heading towards. Then I sent messengers to my navy who should be defeating or have defeated the garrisons of Samos, I want them to begin to raid and seize the Aydin coastal settlements once they finish with Samos.
Then I had the spies describe the land that they saw around the area, as I am looking to camp my army early tonight. I want to place my men in a well-fortified camp in between Aydin lands and my lands. This will not only test whether the enemies wish to trap me, but it forces the enemies to face me or attempt to sneak around our camp, which isn't happening.
Once finding a proper location for the camp which is located nearest the banks of the river, we marched for 30 minutes to the area, located in a valley between two huge mountains in the distance. With our backs to the river, and an open plain in front of the camp this location is easy to defend and observe.
Once we arrived the camp-building process began, luckily for me a lot of my men used to be a part of tribes. So, the tents went up quickly, and the longest process was the large stakes placed on the ground like a short wall about the height of a gate.
We would usually build a palisade, but this was impossible as time constraints would make this impractical in fact there aren't any large trees in the area where we placed the camp. We need the open ground to allow my elite Kapikulu to fight oncoming enemies, and the cannons aren't that useful in forests either so wide-open plains may help the enemies, but it will help us even more.
By the time the camp was set up, and the defensive artillery batteries were constructed the night was already upon us. Some scouts already returned with information about the core area of the enemies, they described the area where their capital is located as a flat plain, but the entire area other than that is mountainous and hilly.
Not even daring to enter without a proper understanding of the lands the scouts returned and explained that the lands the enemy army heads toward is a death trap for an army who does not know the area. also, it is freezing temperatures there right now so any army who wants to march through there has to be completely prepared to march through snow and muddy mountainous regions.
After hearing the details of the location, I am positive they wanted to lead me to chase them into the deathly mountains. My men would've been constantly raided and harassed by the enemies leading us to starve and lose our way eventually succumbing to the mountains. I never will make such a rash decision to run headward into unknown circumstances. The enemies picked the wrong enemy, maybe they think I am a greenhorn because I am young. I shall just wait for my enemies to march themselves to my Death Valley camp.