7. Porcupine strategy

  On the 12th of January, not much happened, Adaneus accumulated more spices, saffron, black pepper and cloves. On the 13th some Eastern Roman traders entered and bought the cloves, Stephen Pateranos taking his leave of the city, not entirely in good will, but nonetheless thankful he had not had his head cut off. 155 Litrai (50 kg) of cloves were sold in the market for 460 solidi. The same amount of black pepper yielded only 139 solidi, making the coffers 599 solidi. The golden coins were welcome for Adaneus had big news for the city.

  “We will not tax the city of Bari. Blessed by Magec, Helios, I will sell my goods to fund the city’s affairs. Defence, economics. We will be a shining beacon of a city, and the glory of Rome will shine through!”

  Guiscard sat on the other side of the walls, receiving news of his mostly destroyed fleet and the fact that the blockade had been totally destroyed, what he did not know is that the city was about to become something impossible to attack. With 100 solidi he was intending to buy wood, and talked to the merchants about supplying it.

  I can make my own, but this will accelerate my plans. If I know Bari is impregnable, I can begin slowly peeling the Normans off my land. I will ask the east for official recognition. These bastards have to realise they were losing this city anyway.

  “Tomorrow I have to make saffron, I will need to hire people,” he muttered to himself.

  “Saffron?” A trader asked bewildered, “you have saffron?”

  “Helios surely does miracles,” Adaneus laughed, “but yes, there will be saffron in two days, that I can assure you.”

  The late afternoon rained, and the wells filled without Adaneus needing to do anything. He ate with his new comrades and old sailors. Kwame and the sailors became something of a committee, counting the coins and thinking of distribution.

  “Eventually we must think of gifts for the people, and mercenaries,” Adaneus said gnawing on some imported meat.

  “About that,” Butros interrupted, “I have ideas on military strategy. So there was this guy Alexander…”

  By the 13th of January Adaneus had made a massive saffron flower patch, using both crystals to grow a vast quantity of them, perhaps 700 litrai (227kg), this then had to be hand picked by of citizens. Paying roughly 100 solidi massively over the standard rate, they worked hard picking the flowers, and Adaneus thought of the wealth he could acquire from constantly producing and exporting spices. The abolition of taxes was a popular decree, and had gotten 1000 more converts to the cult; Magec or Helios worship was now 60% of the city, and any kind of violent unrest was unthinkable and unworkable. Buying wood, many citizens now had jobs building more catapults and an additional defence of ballistae. Another 100 solidi had bought food for five days, although this was not strictly necessary it allowed Adaneus to focus on making a backlog of spices that he could continuously export. Carpenters made siege equipment which he had to fund directly, costing another 100 solidi, plus another 100 to the army. This left 199 solidi, which he promised would soon be much more.

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  The next day Andreas fearing his lack of authority attempted to organise a protest, but at the end could only muster up 200 people, the rest staying at home. Religious liberty was guaranteed so there was no urgency to rise up. The lack of economic extortion was also a factor, no taxes, an end to the blockade and now a new spice trade made people be hopeful for the future. Andreas was approached by one of Butros’s aides. The 14th of January 1071, some people approached the Eastern Christian and said quite bluntly:

  “We want you to be the official ambassador to the east.”

  “This is lawfully Eastern Roman territory.”

  “This is now Western Roman territory,” the man said with a wry chuckle.

  The man was not amused.

  “This usurpation is a travesty to god, to think more than half the city turned heathen! It is the work of the devil!”

  “A Christian polemic for anything they don’t like, nonetheless, we wish for cordial relations with the east, since we have mutual enemies,” the man said most diplomatically.

  Beyond that, there were some feasts, the soldiers openly broke bread and ate imported fish, staring at the confused Norman army that watched the happy soldiers on the walls.

  “That doesn’t look like a starving army,” one of Guiscard’s lieutenants whispered.

  “That doesn’t look like an Eastern Roman army,” Guiscard seethed.

  With the port opened there wasn’t as much urgency to fortify the town with catapults, but at least three were put on the walls, with a lot of ammunition. Ballistae were likewise being mounted on the wall slowly, with artillery crews slowly being trained.

  January 15th, he sold a meagre amount of saffron. Selling a mere 28 litrai of Saffron (9kg) he only earned 200 solidi, but with 678 litrai of cloves, he earned 2000 solidi. With 2400 solidi, and a now impressive array of artillery in the city, 30 catapults and 20 ballistae, 10 catapults guarding the harbour and five ballistae, with 10 in the front wall, with 5 on the other 2. The city had food, money and artillery capable of barraging would be enemies.

  “Our army should not be a hodgepodge army nor should mere spears hold the line. I’m telling you siege crossbows are the way, you are already invigorating industry, let’s have crossbowmen trained,” Butros said, “by Helios you must know.”

  Kwame smiled at the addition of the last phrase.

  “You’re probably right, I need to make sure the city is defended. I will probably be hunted if they drive me out, we can’t lose it to any of these Christian polities.”

  “The Muslims are expanding too,” Butros explained, “Almoravids, Seljuks, even Fatimids to an extent.”

  Having cleared out a certain area for harvest, while it was true that 200 people were processing, a lot more were collecting goods. Bari had a series of merchants buying and selling goods, and Adaneus had a few ideas for city expansion as well as further addition of siege artillery.

  “I need a bigger area for producing resources, more people to immigrate in, more soldiers, more money, plus I am surrounded.”

  January 16th Adaneus experimented with Myrrh and Frankincense, saddened to hear that he could only tap into the resins within two weeks. They nonetheless had prepared it, hearing of the revenues that could be made. No taxes, a Republican administration, trade and destruction of the blockade had transformed Bari into something quite different to what it once was. The population was now 65% Magec supporters, 6500 out of the 10,000, the day passed relatively uneventfully as Adaneus prepared new schemes for his state.