08. Palaiologos ANABASIS part two.

"Oh, come on! Please don't start this again." I snapped.

"I feel I have to," replied my brother Thomas and continued:

"Why don't you see it, my beloved brother? God has chosen you to lead us in this holy cause. "

"John is not only our rightful emperor but our brother too. What you suggest is treason in so many ways." I replied with a serious tone.

My brother Thomas seems to have been deeply affected by the propaganda of the "Ieros skopos." Our latest triumphs galvanized his beliefs even more. He truly believes that the holy spirit guides me and that my destiny is the Roman empire's renaissance. At first, it was fun to deal with it. I thought that it could be good for the troops' morale, so I didn't really bother. But a couple of weeks ago, when he went to capture Tyrnavos, the main settlement of Ottomans in Thessaly, he burned the village to the ground killing all the residents in the name of Jesus. This news alarmed me deeply. Sure its fifteenth century and massacres are pretty standard, but as a born and raised up timer, I am used to different standards. What do I want to achieve here? I don't want to be the ruler of a bunch of fanatics. I want to help this world evolve faster than in my OTL. Hmm, what if I make a new propaganda text preaching equal rights, freedom of speech... Ops wait a minute, that could be tricky too...

George Sphrantzes, enter the room and interrupt my thoughts.

"What is the news you bring me, George?" I asked.

"Kyrenia and the supply ships will be in Demetrias any day now, my Despot."

"Good, we need the supplies before we start moving again," I replied.

"The new fortifications are ready too, brother. More than three thousand volunteers helped," said Thomas.

"I have more news, my Despot," said George.

"There is news of a rebellion in Albania, A noble under the name Andrea Thopia seems to be the leader."

"It just started, I am pretty sure we will see lots of rebellion all over the Balkans the next years," I replied.

We left Larissa five days later, leaving behind a new small fort. With a garrison of two hundred, including a few newly arrived Drakos cannons, this new fort will serve as our leading military headquarters of Thessaly and as an advanced recruitment center for auxiliary infantry.

The sky is heavy with dark clouds, and so late in the evening, everyone is looking forward to making camp for the night. I galloped with my horse along the marching line of my third Tagma, racing toward the vanguard. The scouts have returned, and I am anxious to hear their reports. We are approaching Thessaloniki, and so far, we didn't find any resistance in our path.

As it seems, there is a considerable garrison in the city under the command of a nephew of Sinan Pasha. Our offers for amnesty didn't work out, so Thessaloniki was ironically under a siege again. Although stripped of her population, the great town is still strategically ideal for controlling Macedonia, and her major port is an important trade hub for all the Balkans.

After two days of observing the fortifications, we decided to set up our Artillery aiming the walls on the West Side of the city.

The first to see action was our fleet. My dromon Kyrenia and seven canon modified trade ships got attacked by around fifteen ships of various sizes, including three war galleys. Despite our overwhelming firepower, the enemy fleet managed to sink one of my merchant's vessels.

Their losses were far more significant, with almost all their fleet destroyed, but losing five Drakos, including two twenty-four-pound siege cannon, really pissed me off.

My fleet unloaded my other six siege Drakos the next day, and we started blasting the walls soon after. After a week of bombardment, we manage to make a decent size breach. Two thousand auxiliary volunteers stormed the wall breach under cover of three Tagmata barrage while another two Tagmata stormed the walls behind them. The city fell shortly after, with nearly nine hundred auxiliaries and a couple of dozen musketeers killed in the process. More than three thousand Ottoman defenders died, and another six hundred were now our prisoners. To my surprise, we found four huge and pretty primitive mortars in the city arsenal. I got informed that those mortars were used in the siege of the city last year from the prisoners. They didn't use it against us cause their powder stock got wet and spoiled. What was even more exciting to learn was that North of Thessalonika and near the town of Skopje, there are some sizeable natural saltpeter deposits.

One of the most crucial problems I was facing at the moment was the lack of a steady supply of gunpowder. Building up an efficient gunpowder manufacturing industry and transportation network based in Thessaloniki is now the top priority. I would need to repopulate the city, with settlers, although.

In less than one hundred years ago, the city from one hundred thousand population had now a mere number of two thousand Christians and a couple of thousand Muslim settlers that brought after the fall of the city last year, and many of whom just converted to Christianity. That offer to turn pissed a lit bit my brother who wanted to slay them all.

After a couple of days in the city, I started to like it's potential more and more. Heck, I could even move my headquarters here. Despite my recent improvements in Glarentza, Thessaloniki have far better fundamentals to build on and expand. So when I got informed that Thessaloniki is also close to the Siderokausia, one of the most productive silver and gold mines in the Balkan, I knew that this city would be the real deal. Gold and saltpeter combination? Where do I sign?