11. I am a Roman Emperor!

Thessaloniki March 1432 AD

Staying overwinter in Thessaloniki was beneficial. I cleared in my mind what I want to achieve in this new life. I want to introduce equal rights for everyone and various concepts and ideas of my previous 21st-century life. But implementing all these ideas and concepts in the 15th century is somewhat tricky, to say the least. So building up a reliable and stable empire is my first goal towards a new world. My expansion the past year was overwhelming, so not rushing to Constantinople served my plans better. A strong core and solid fundamentals are the essential things if I want to achieve my goals.

In this direction, one new implementation at the start of this year was my version of the "pony express." Using the surprisingly good road network, "Tachis Ippos" Greek: Ταχύς Ιππος(1), my new mail service company, will be delivering messages throughout the main cities of the empire. The same network and the main stations of my new mail company will also serve as supply stations for wagons trains for military and commercial use. By early March, one hundred mail riders, four hundred horses, nine hundred oxen, hundreds of wagons, and several hundred personnel( including station keepers, stock tenders, and route superintendents) were part of this new network. Heh actually, everything is part of a militarized corporation, from the printing press factories in Glarentza to the mines in Chalkidiki and the military academy in Thessaloniki. My corporation recruitment is going quite well, and with nearly unlimited cash flow from my mines, I pretty much recruit everyone to my growing machine... Glarentza reached nearly fifty thousand population, while Thessaloniki is also rapidly regaining population. More than two hundred thousand people all over the Balkans-Greece, work in my various factories and fields, while another fifty thousand are part of my army and fleet. Another three thousand people, mostly priests and merchants, are part of my intel/spy network that covers now most of the Balkans and parts of Anatolia. With such slow access to information, compared to the 21st century, a vast intel network is crucial.

From the intel reports, I learned that Albania is now pretty much independent with Albanian lord George Aryaniti emerging as the key figure. I also received news from Wallachia, Serbia, and Venice. Alexander I Aldea is gathering troops to expand his kingdom to the South. At the same time, Despot of Serbia, George Brankovic expanded his realm significantly bordering with me now in Pristina. Venice also took advantage of the situation and grew her lands in the Albanian coastline. I also received numerous delegations from various places calling for my help to "liberated" them, most notably from the orthodox Bishop of Smyrna, the king of Cyprus, and the Despot of Trebizond.

It's logical with the Ottoman collapse that all the regional players will try to grab as much as possible. With this in mind, during the many war councils in the winter, we came up with a plan for a second blitzkrieg in three directions.

***

The morning of September 22, 1432 A.D, is a day of celebration for Constantinople's citizens. I am about to claim the highest honor a Roman could receive, a triumph, a spectacular ceremony in which roman generals and emperors paraded through the streets, flaunting their prisoners of war and spoils of victory. This day promised to be like none other before it: Today, besides the triumph, I am about to be crowned co-emperor too. The army had now massed in the hippodrome—all during the previous day, tagma after tagma arrived in the capital. Now, the ceremony was almost ready to begin. I will march first in the stadium, accompanied by one hundred mounted bodyguards. After me, the military regiments will advance through the hippodrome, take an oath, and hail me as co-emperor. After that, several panegyrics will be addressed to me, including ones from the emperor and the Patriarch.

My crowing as co-emperor was the most surreal moment so far in this new life. Everyone was delighted with the accomplishments of the last year and a half. Afterall bringing back to the empire almost all the Balkan lands is an astonishing feat. The first thing I did as a co-emperor was to reorganize the themes and clear the jurisdiction of the realm with my brother. After several lengthy talks, we rearrange the provinces in nine themes with me in control of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Nikopolis, and Peloponnesus. My co-emperor brother John will be in control of Thrace and Paristrion, Thomas of Thessaly, Theodore of Hellas, and Demetrios of Strymon. Demetrios and especially Theodore didn't receive this news with satisfaction, to say the least, but they obeyed without much hustle.

(1)In 1432, about sixteen Tachis Ippos stations were about ten miles (sixteen km) apart along the Tachis Ippos route of Thessaloniki to Skopje and another twelve stations along the Tachis Ippos route of Thessaloniki to Larissa. At each station stop, the express rider would change to a fresh horse, taking only the mail pouch/backpack with him.

The officers stressed the importance of the pouch. They often said that, if it came to be, the horse and rider should perish before the bag did. The backpack was thrown over the saddle and held in place by the rider's weight sitting on it. Each corner had a pocket. Bundles of mail were placed in these pockets. Eventually, everything except one pistol and a water sack was removed, to help keep the horse fresh for running. Riders changed about every 40–50 miles (60–80 km), and rode day and night. In emergencies, a given rider might ride two stages back to back, over 20 hours on a quickly moving horse.