05. Book sales and guns blazing.

Glarentza May 1430 AD

When I got back to Glarentza, my primary concern was expanding my print and paper factories' output. The trip to Italy exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. It turns out that the book market is much bigger than I expected, and I can pretty much monopolize the book's sales in Europe for quite some time. That means that I have to multiple my production substantially and start sending book-sellers all over Europe as soon as possible. Hmm, making similar deals, like the one with the papacy, with various Kings and lords could also play out nicely. I can also print the first publications of the bible in multiple languages. The sky is the limit!

In April, I received news of the fall of Thessaloniki and the massive destruction of the city by the Ottomans. Poor Thessalonica...

By mid-July, Glarentza had no fewer than one hundred presses and Andravida twelve new paper water mills operating with more than one thousand people working on my small printing empire. A side effect was that I stopped the exports of my cotton and paper production. A minor issue since the profit from the books was much higher. For that reason, I also started experimenting with the creation of linen paper for future use. Another side effect of the sudden economic growth was the continuous waves of peasant flocking for work. A noticeable percentage of the most recent migrants were Albanians and Greeks, oppressed by the Ottomans, from Thessaly. My triple town base was turning to one big city. More than thirty thousand people were now residents, most of them in huts around Clarentza and Andravida. All this sudden population influx had some adverse effects too. Most notably, the significant rise in crime that I had to address by creating a new police force of fifty mounted police officers, all equipped with my first stock of flintlock pistols.

Speaking of flintlocks, the progress my Arsenal is making is substantial. I am the happy owner of the first flintlock muskets and pistols factory in the world! Way more advanced than everyone else by a significant margin. Despite being the most advanced in weapon technologies in the world, my flintlocks were prone to some problems. Misfires were common. The flint had to be adequately maintained, as a broken or poorly knapped piece of flint would not make as much of a spark and would dramatically increase the misfire rate. The accidental firing was also an early problem. A burning ember left in the barrel could ignite the next powder charge as it was loaded. Running a lubricated cleaning patch down the barrel with the ramrod would extinguish any embers and clean out some of the barrel fouling. My soldiers on the battlefield would not afford to take these precautions, though. They had to fire as quickly as possible. On our first tests, they were often firing three to four rounds per minute. That high ratio achieved by the use of a paper cartridge that contained both powder and shot. A simple, but super effective idea of one of my Arsenal craftsmen that made my paper cartridge even more useful.

Loading and firing at such a pace increased the risk of an accidental discharge, though. This problem could be avoided by waiting between shots for any leftover residue to burn completely. My tactics on firing in volleys helped to counter this to a considerable degree.

Another breakthrough was the first successful canister shot by my Drakos cannons. It took nearly two years of tries and three deaths, but we manage to make a proper one finally. The successful canister shot consists of a closed metal cylinder loosely filled with iron balls packed with sawdust to add more solidity and cohesion to the mass and to prevent the balls from crowding each other when the round fired. The canister itself made out of a tin with the ends of the cartridge closed with metal disks.

The Drakos cannon family, consumers of my new canister shots, grow both in sizes and numbers. Drakos's cannon family consists now of six-pound and a nine-pound anti-personnel and a twenty-four-pound siege version cannons. With steady cash flow and the newly available weapons, I am finally able to enact my first set of army reformations.

The Ionian expedition.

While working on my reforms, I received news from Epirus. Exactly one year back, in July 1429, Carlo II succeeded his uncle Carlo I in all jurisdictions. His succession was opposed, however, by Carlo I's illegitimate sons, led by Memnone. Memnone and his brothers were now in control of Ioannina and Carlo II in control of Arta and the Ionian sea islands. It turns out that Memnone appealed to the Ottoman Sultan Murad II to secure the inheritance of their father, and the sultan, while he promised to help, changed his plans to deal with a significant threat. There are rumors that the Shah Rukh, Sultan of the Timurid empire, is ravaging the eastern parts of Anatolia. No wonder the Ottomans are consolidating their forces to meet him.

So with a civil war between Toco's sons and the Ottomans preoccupied in the East, I decided to proceed with my first offensive operation. In early August, I lead a small fleet of three ships and three hundred troops(including two hundred Musketman) to capture the Ionian islands of the realm of Carlo Toco II. We set sail first for Zakynthos, where i "liberated" the island with basically no resistance at all. The population of Zakynthos, nearly twenty thousand, were in vast majority Orthodox Christians. By merely re-establishing an Orthodox bishop on the island, I instantly gain broad support from the locals. After leaving a small garrison of twenty soldiers, I moved with my fleet North to Cephalonia.

In Cephalonia, there was a small Toco garrison fortified on the castle of Saint George. Never the less the siege didn't last long. After three days of siege, I managed to set up four nine-pound Drakos cannons opposite the hill castle. After a few shots, they surrender the same day. Again same as Zakynthos, re-establishing an Orthodox bishop on the island gave me instantly broad support from the locals. In Cephalonia, I realized that playing the protector of the Orthodox faith will benefit me substantially... After leaving another thirty soldiers in Cephalonia as a garrison in Saint George castle, I continued North to Ithaka, which fell without resistance.

In Lefkada, I finally saw enemy movements. Carlo Toco II, with his fleet, came to meet us. Two galleys and six other minor ships against my three vessels( my Dromon and two customized merchant ships). The big difference was that my fleet had a total of twenty-two cannons and their none... So as I expected, the battle was utterly one-sided.

All of Tocco's ships destroyed; many of the crews killed, and over fifty men taken prisoners, including Toco himself. In the negotiated settlement, to his surprise, I let him control South Epirus, forcing him to pay me two thousand gold florins and acknowledge my suzerainty over the Ionian islands. My right hand George Sphrantzes agreed with me that having a small buffer with the Ottomans would serve us better for now.