13. In the steps of Alexander the Great.

Gallipoli March 2, 1433 A.D

I crossed the Hellespont with an army of forty thousand soldiers under the protection of a fleet of twelve dromon warships and numerous transports drawn from Constantinople and various Greek merchants. The crossing proved, as expected, easy as no Turkish force came to face us. With the release of the book of Alexander the great still fresh, his stories were quite popular in my army. So in a symbolic move, I decided to be the first to set afoot to the Asian soil holding the double Eagle banner of the Roman empire. A galvanizing, minute-long "IEROS SKOPOS" chant from the army sparked the moment I stabbed the flag in the sand. The conquest of Anatolia started. I must confess that these cheesy propaganda stunts do wonders in this era...

After the crossing, we swiftly marched to Biga, where the local Christian population welcomed us as liberators. From them, we heard that the Bursa Beylik Sultan is gathering his forces in his capital city. We hastily marched straight from there to Bursa, where we smashed the enemy forces in another swift battle.

The arrow sliced through my purple tunic. "Damn, that was close," I murmured, with eyes wide-eyed at the sudden assault.

My bodyguards hastily closed to my side, shields drawn, to protect me. Serjeant Kapopoulos unshipped his pistol, fumbled the cartridge, cocked and aimed it in a single motion and fired. The enemy archer was sent to meet his creator.

Several arrows winged from the thickets, higher than the first. "Take cover,' i yelled just before another arrow volley released.

After several minutes of chaos, the situation cleared. Enemy forces ambushed us for the second time but with no significant success.

After our initial crushing victory against the Ottoman forces in the battle of Bursa, the Ottoman remnants in the area didn't dare to face us on the battlefield again. The only exemption was a few sporadic ambushes. Within weeks after Bursa's battle, we liberated Nicaea, Nicomedia, and pretty much all the lands under Bursas Beylik control. The operation was even more comfortable than my staff, and I expected to be. With the majority of the local population being Greek and orthodox, we mostly paraded from town to town "liberating" them. After securing the area that used to be the province of Optimatoi, we marched back South to the Ionian coast.

Shortly after, I accepted with great pleasure the surrender of the Aydinid capital of Smyrna. The Ottoman officer in charge was half Greek that swiftly converted to Orthodoxy, among hundreds of other Muslims, and joined our ranks. From him, I got informed that the Aydinid Sultan, with the bulk of his army, had fled to Karaman seeking help. After a spectacular liturgy, hosted by the member of the Ieros skopos and Orthodox bishop of Smyrna, I proceeded along the Ionian coast, liberating the cities Ephesus, Palatia, and Miletus.

Further South, I received a delegate from the knights of Rhodes were they pledged their allegiance to our holy cause. The Roman resounding victories in the last two years made the knights worrisome regarding their position. I accepted their offer gladly since concentrating on Anatolia was the top priority. It's now the end of May and the first phase of the campaign done flawlessly. All the Anatolian coast is under my firm control, and hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Greeks are "liberated."

After establishing new garrisons in the Caria region, I proceeded into mountainous Lycia and the Pamphylian plain, asserting control over all the coastal cities.

I soon reached to Attaleia(Antalya), a beautiful coastal city. It covers a large area and is one of the most attractive towns I have seen so far, besides being true multicultural and well laid out. Each section of the inhabitants lives in a separate quarter. The Latin merchants live in a quarter of the town known as the Mina(the port). The Orthodox Greeks live in another quarter next to the port, while the Jews in another in the west side. The Muslims in another, with each of these quarters being walled. Round the whole town and all the quarters mentioned, there is another high wall. The city contains orchards and produces excellent fruits, including an admirable kind of apricot called Qamar ad-Din, which has a sweet almond in its kernel. This fruit is dried and exported to Egypt and Cyprus, where it is regarded as a great luxury.

Upon arriving, we camped near the southern side of the city and deemed the southern walls weak for our artillery. The wealthy town surrender after four days of bombardment and with promises of mercy.

From Attaleia and Pamphylia, onwards, the coast held no major ports. In the war council, we decided to moved inland to march straight to Karaman capital of Konya, hoping for a decisive battle against Ibrahim II of Karaman.

Bravely but wrongly, the Karaman Sultan ordered an all-out attack against us. With the troops of the Aydin Beylik and most importantly, the ten thousand horse archers reinforcements from the Timurid warlord of Ankara, Ibrahim II felt secure and confident in meeting us in the battlefield. South from Konya, the Muslim army descended westwards into the plain, while some twenty-five miles away, our army entered the plain from the eastwards. A day later, I received news from the scouts that Ibrahim II was waiting for battle on the other side of the plain. I greeted the news from the scouts with relief. The last thing I want is guerilla warfare.

The battle of Konya

The battle began early in the morning on July 19 and took place on the open plain South-West of Konya. The vast numbers of Muslim horse riders on the right under the command of Ibrahim II himself rushed against us. My cavalry from that side lured them straight to several Drakos canons battalions. Bruh, once again, the canister shots from the Drakos massacred the enemy forces. I followed this move by swiftly attacking the Muslim center. The volley fire of ten thousand musketeers ended the battle within minutes. Ibrahim's forces sustain huge losses while my army had three thousand dead and wounded, as usual by enemy arrows. Hohoho, bring me Shah Rukh, this is like stealing candies from babies!

Aftermath

The Battle of Konya was a decisive Roman victory, and it marked the beginning of the end of Muslim power in Anatolia. It was the first time in over one hundred years that the Roman had again under their control Konya(Ikonio) and the province of Anatolikon.