09. Palaiologos ANABASIS part three.

In the weeks following the capture of Thessaloniki, I rebuilt the walls and reorganized the city's defense. At the same time, I started the preparations for the next phase of my campaign. According to my latest intel reports, Turahan Bey, with his remaining troops, pledged allegiance and joined forces with Sinan Pasha as did most of the other smaller Ottoman warlords in Central Balkans. While we marched to siege Thessaloniki, Sinan Pasha moved with the bulk of his army to Thrace to face Mehmed Pasha, seize the ex Ottoman capital of Edirne, and proclaim himself as the new Ottoman Sultan. Sinan Pasha was counting that the sizeable garrison of Thessaloniki will hold against us for some time. After all, the last siege of Thessaloniki lasted ten years. Heh, he couldn't possibly know that the siege would last one few days, thanks to my Drakos cannons.

So with Sinan Pasha preoccupied in Thrace, I decided to make a fast march in the North capture Skopje and the precious natural saltpeter deposits and then return and march to Thrace and deal with the Ottomans. Despite the adequate Roman road, the march wasn't so fast at all, due to my super heavy to pull, twenty-four-pound siege cannons. Finally, after almost two weeks, we reach the city. Skopje's town fell quickly, but the Ottoman garrison of the sturdy and robust fortress at the end of the city decided to resist us. Like in Thessaloniki, it took us several days of firing at a specific pinpoint to make a decent breach in the walls. Again, the Auxiliary volunteers paid the most substantial death toll price, minimizing although the losses of my tagmata. I turned a blind eye when my brother and the Auxiliary slaughter the remaining Ottoman garrison within the fort. Cynical thinking, an example of those not surrendering, had to be made. I am afraid this war and era are changing me.

The orthodox bishop, a Greek as most of the higher clergy in the area, was delighted with our victory and joined the cause of "Ieros skopos" instantly. I must confess the Orthodox cleric helps us substantially controlling all these freshly reconquered lands. In every place so far, Orthodox Greeks, Albanians, and Slavs flocked in masses to support us. With the latest recruits here in Skopje, there are now more than twelve thousand volunteers under my banner. Two thousand under training for filling the ranks of new Tagmata in Clarentza, another one thousand training for Auxiliary-support duties in Larissa recruitment center, and another three thousand in garrison duties in Thessaloniki, Athens and other towns and small fortresses. With my army now reaching ten thousand, including six thousand auxiliary volunteers, I quickly set up a few new saltpeter mines and gunpowder mills. It's noteworthy to mention that in my inspection of the natural saltpeter deposits, I was stunned. The pieces of information from the Ottoman prisoners in Thessaloniki was modest at best. The deposits are enormous, and even the quality is better(1).

During my stay in Skopje, I received Infos from the Serbian Despotate. Despot George Brankovic, despite hesitant in the start to take action against the Ottomans, decided to take advantage of the situation upon hearing the news of our successful campaign. He swiftly captured several towns, including Žiča, South of his realm, and at the moment, he is sieging the city of Kruševac. Analyzing the situation with Thomas, George Shrantzes, and a few trusted senior officers, in the routinely by now daily operational briefing, I decided to send an emissary to learn his intentions, and offer some sort of mutual agreement against our common enemy. His wife Irene is a cousin of mine, after all. Furthermore, scouts and diplomats are on their way all over the Balkans to have a clear view of the situation. These Albanian and Serbian revolts serve my agenda pretty good for now, and I bet the Bulgarian nobility will surely try to get profit from the Ottoman collapse too.

In early October, while preparing to return South, word of Ottoman sightings near Thessaloniki alarmed us. I hastily departed with the troops, leaving the twenty-four-pound siege cannons in the fortress of Skopje.

The battle of Thessaloniki

The Ottomans appeared before the walls of Thessaloniki on October 10th, laying siege to the city. We arrived in the plains west of Thessaloniki just two days after the Ottoman arrival. Sinan Pasha then prepared to meet us on the battlefield.

The battle opened the next morning with mounted Ottoman archers marching towards us to little effect. They were met with a barrage of our cannons. Unable to achieve anything, they quickly withdrew.

This initial attack soon proved to be a decoy since during their archer's withdrawal, the Ottomans tried to charge us with Sipahi cavalry in both flanks while another Ottoman cavalry unit appeared on our rear side. Sinan Pasha's plan was pretty solid, a mass charge from multiple sides, to counter our firepower. Truly a good general of his time. Alas, for him, my army had nothing to do with the armies of the era. My tagmata proved their high mobility and quickly moved in positions to cover the flanks while my Auxiliary pike's reserves hold the rear.

What a blood bath! More than twelve thousand cavalry charged us. Despite the heavy volley barrage, the left flank got highly pressed, and the pikeman lines barely hold against the massive charge. Thankfully the enormous Ottoman losses weren't sustainable for a long time, and soon after, their lines collapsed. More than ten thousand Ottomans were dead or wounded. For the first time, my tagmata sustain substantial losses, with more than six hundred men dead and injured. Almost half of my six thousand Auxiliary also died bravely. Sinan Pasha and Turahan bey both killed in the battle. With the last two main Ottoman warlords dead and their armies destroyed the road for Constantinople was now wide open.

(1) Early in the 15th century, the Ottomans produced saltpeter near Skopje and Priština in the Balkan provinces. Because of its abundant and quality saltpeter deposits in the Balkan, the Ottoman Empire was able to out-produce its rivals in gunpowder quality and quantity in the 15th-17th centuries. The Ottoman lands were rich in natural saltpeter deposits, and unlike many European states, the Ottoman Empire was self-sufficient for all its domestic saltpeter needs. In particular, Northern Europe did not possess the climate that helped decomposition occur quickly or the long dry period that allowed nitrates to leech to the surface. Most European gunpowder makers had to search far and wide and often found low-quality, naturally occurring saltpeter deposits. (THE MANUFACTURE AND TRANSPORTATION OF GUNPOWDER IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: 1400-1800 by Cameron Rubaloff Nelson)