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Anno Domini 826, December-27
As soon as I withdrew from the emperor's viewing box, several palace officials—who were clearly cursing me in silence—guided me to the imperial treasury and, under the watchful eyes of many of the scholai, with the help of my Varangians who were finally allowed to pass, we withdrew 30,000 nomismata from the imperial treasury in several chests
I could tell the state of the imperial coffers, since what I withdrew amounted to roughly ten percent of what was stored in the treasury, so the chaos the pirates were causing to the finances was evident, as they were preventing the collection of taxes because many merchants were unable to reach their destinations and pay fees and duties
So while palace workers and officials were already beginning to look at me with resentment, for whatever reasons they were imagining as to why the emperor had handed me such a vast amount of gold, there was no time to lose
Because while my bodyguards and I, after recovering our weapons, went to the ports where I needed to work my magic to obtain the fleet the emperor required
Noticing the patterns among certain merchants—showing nervousness or accountants counting as if tallying every last coin—I approached and began offering gold coins for their ships
In most cases I managed to purchase a ship far below market price, since I encountered people desperate to turn their vessels into gold; many merchants had to undertake voyages that were no longer profitable due to pirate activity and were barely managing to stay afloat
Thus, in the span of three hours, I had acquired the fleet the emperor was lacking, securing eighty transport ships at a ridiculously low price, spending 16,000 nomismata
With the ships acquired and the paperwork left to a notary, with documents signed as the merchants affixed their marks, I headed to one of the city's fortresses where the imperial army was stationed, taking control of the army and displaying the imperial seal that had been given to me
I met the tourmarches, the imperial general, and the imperial admiral who had been appointed by the emperor; as expected, they were not very motivated by the idea of embarking on a campaign that, in their eyes, was doomed by the lack of equipment
While I tasked them with preparing the men to board the ships, I went to the markets to attempt to negotiate supplies, since upon observing what the emperor had gathered, although there were enormous quantities of grain and dried meat, there was nothing beyond that
Therefore I had to secure legumes and, if possible, some fruit—though given the season this was difficult—since an outbreak of scurvy was a real possibility; in addition to trying to obtain cloth, medicinal plants, and visiting the city's houses of healing to hire physicians
After that, my attention turned to recruitment… I could not go around recruiting men from the city's themata, but I could do so among the orphans of Constantinople's churches, and what Constantinople had in abundance were churches
There were dozens of them, each with their own groups of orphans, since they usually cared for them until a certain age and then expected some form of economic return from them, so using part of the imperial gold I began making small donations at each church and recruiting youths
The trick Lysandros came up with worked perfectly in the city of the world's desire, since due to poor working conditions, overcrowding, and disease, the churches were full of ideal subjects for recruitment
Even more so because they barely participated in the city's economy, as they usually took the most miserable jobs and no one would care about a dead orphan, which was the most likely outcome… but I needed numbers
So moving through the city like a voracious recruiter, I managed to enlist three thousand who were within the necessary age to become soldiers, although I may have even recruited some thirteen-year-olds
But having the numbers was that important, since merely seeing a larger army could provoke a surrender, so I simply had to ignore the fact that I might be taking the path of a warlord with child soldiers
Once I had worked my magic to secure ships, soldiers, supplies, a group of physicians, and vast amounts of equipment—spending nearly everything I had taken from the imperial treasury—by late afternoon we contacted the imperial fleet and quickly set sail with more than one hundred and twenty ships, eleven thousand soldiers, and roughly four thousand sailors from the imperial fleet
The only real dilemma was clear: the journey. A great deal of vomiting, many sick from the motion of the ships, which was to be expected considering that many had never set foot on one
The voyage, aided by strong winter winds, was fast, and we soon stopped at Ainos, where within the span of an hour I brought over most of my company, leaving the protection of my settlement in the hands of the city's kentarchos, since I could leave no one behind
I had to commit everything to this, as I had invested nearly all my wealth into it and there was no possibility of turning back now
So taking all my armor—around four hundred sets I had forged over the past months—along with thousands of spears I had stored, bringing out all the captured Bulgarian equipment I had kept in reserve, I began equipping the new recruits
Distributing padded jackets, spears, and crossbows among everyone, taking several thousand bolts, gathering bows and swords, practically emptying my own warehouses and taking everything down to the last item
Taking my thousand mercenaries and speaking with the Varangians about how they had the best opportunity imaginable to secure the richest deal possible, I recruited the second and third sons who had arrived recently
Many had not even fully settled yet, but the prospect of plunder was too tempting for them, so I recruited a thousand Varangians into my ranks
After that, I quickly prepared one of my dromons and sent it to the capital loaded with all the silver and gold I possessed to repay the loan and to load the remaining twenty thousand nomismata I had, since I would still need to purchase more supplies, as I did not know when we might be able to plunder Crete
Adding another two thousand men and loading everything onto the ships, we set sail once more, taking a slightly longer route, but one where it was more likely that we would not be intercepted
The admiral decided to advance with the dromons, since they were faster thanks to their rowers, placing them at the front to intimidate any pirates and make them believe we were merely a fleet patrolling the coast, while the entire transport fleet moved through areas the dromons had already passed through and where nothing had been detected
Sailing mostly along the coast, we reached the city of Thessalonikē, where we stopped to purchase more supplies, filling the last transport ships that were still empty with additional grain and salted food, and loading an entire ship with olives, since they could help sustain the troops as they were preserved in salt water, along with many dried fruits available in the city
With that, our journey continued
Without stopping for almost anything, we pressed on, and on several occasions the dromons engaged pirates they caught while they were raiding villages, having seized their ships beached on the sand, so we quickly got off on the right foot, scoring small victories as the journey continued
The long voyage was already starting to wear on me, as every day I watched people relieve themselves into buckets and then throw them overboard, and the stench and sanitation aboard the ships were terrible
Fresh water had to be carefully rationed and could not be wasted on sanitation protocols, so I was constantly worried about an outbreak of disease within the ranks
We had been fairly lucky with the sea, since despite it being winter and the winds being strong, the waves were not excessively large or uncontrollable
What we were doing was completely insane, but for the moment everything seemed to be going well
After nine days at sea, stopping only for a few hours on the island of Naxos to refill water barrels and clean the ships—some of which reeked horribly because we were transporting horses—we paused briefly on the island, replenished everything that had been consumed during the voyage with fresh water, and finally
We sighted the island of Crete
Up to that point, we had seen very little of the pirates, as the dromons had been driving them away from the area; now all that remained was to hope that the emperor's assumption was correct and that most of the pirates were away from their bases
We continued sailing so as not to be seen, heading toward one of the beaches closest to the city, while at the same time trying not to get too close
Finally, when we had land in sight, everyone began to prepare, since ideally what we wanted was to trap the Sarakenoi inside the city, because a significant portion of our forces were not ready for prolonged fighting and, if in the worst case they truly had the fifteen thousand men the emperor mentioned, we would have time to set up camp and determine how to win the war
So we disembarked quickly
The first to land were the dromons, as their sailors took up shovels and rapidly began fortifying the beach, raising a palisade of stakes while digging holes so that all the ships could be securely beached on the sand, although twenty dromons remained on standby to blockade the harbor once we marched
Without wasting time, while everyone equipped themselves—either with my best armor or with the assortment I had given them so that at least they had something—we began marching toward the city of Heraklion, while the sailors secured the area on their end
The moment we began marching, it was clear that the new recruits were struggling, while the forces of the themata kept pace without difficulty, and the horses continued pulling the supply wagons
Advancing with the cold wind striking our faces, we approached the city as it appeared on the horizon
Being winter, almost everyone was shut inside their homes; unless it was a city with industry, it was rare for peasants to be out at this time of year, as they preferred to preserve warmth indoors
There was no one outside as we approached, and when observing the houses, some clearly appeared abandoned, while others showed unmistakable signs of life
Until we noticed that the city's occupants became alert as we neared the gates, while the ships sailed close alongside us and quickly began forming a naval cordon to prevent any messenger from escaping
Some cavalrymen from the thema rode ahead and watched the gates to prevent messengers from riding out to warn other places of the siege, leaving the city isolated and, if possible, preventing them from calling for help
We halted about three hundred meters from the gates of the fortified city, which had a wall encircling it and an inner fortification, making any siege a true ordeal
We immediately began setting up the siege camps
While the Sarakenoi prepared their own defenses, we, with shovels and axes, began digging a trench around the city and established fortified camps at each of the city's three gates, while simultaneously raising a palisade around the entire perimeter
For the rest of the day we dug earth, drove stakes into the ground, raised tents, and lit fires
By nightfall, the city was surrounded—at least in basic terms—since the trench would be completed in two or three days
Meanwhile, we rotated the watches and observed as the other twenty dromons arrived to reinforce the blockade
I noticed that they began deploying a kind of small boats with lit torches to illuminate all the exits of the harbor, while positioning their scorpions aimed toward the city
The siege had gone far better than expected, as at no point did they come out to harass us
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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