13. The Collection

  On the 24th of January Adaneus woke up and sold 940 litrai of cardamon and 627 litrai of Saffron and 940 litrai of black pepper, all in all netting some 6500 solidi of gold coins. He planted other things, cloves to replenish budget, the merchants who came there where interested in his product, and he was interested in making the city rich. 20,100 solidi was now in the coffers of the state, with Adaneus celebrating with his close companions and some local soldiers who overheard the budget report.

  “This puts us on course to be able to hire mercenaries,” Kwame said.

  “Hmmm, I don’t know about that, we could do that of course, but mercenaries have dubious loyalties, like I said the army should be artillery based, strong enough to repel any attacker, and make every fortress a pain to take back.”

  “That makes sense,” Kwame said, “but our population is only 11,000, so how are you going to achieve that?”

  “It’s a question there,” Adaneus said, “for it’s not exactly like I can drain the city of people to conduct campaigns.”

  “Many kingdoms use levies,” Butros said, “or professional armies which is expensive, or mercenaries which is even more expensive.”

  “While true,” Adaneus said, “we should have an artillery based army, it makes more sense, with some infantry to protect it, we can take Calabria and Apulia,” Adaneus said.

  The plans were set in motion, now he just waited for more money, he couldn’t do much more than wait, for he didn’t have the people to do it.

  “Each bolt shooter requires 3 men, you know that right?”

  “I am keenly aware,” Adaneus said, “that’s why we need to expand the economy, the city is a free port, with no taxes on anything let alone imports, we can outgrow all economies, and soon enough people will flock to live here.”

  “It is true brother, it is true,” Butros said, “only time will tell.”

  They ate well that night, feasting on imported fish and bread, eating with a whole slew of people from the city, many people toasted to Adaneus at the city’s prosperity. At night the local guards boarded the city not allowing entrance, but local merchants came and traded their wares, startled by the lack of duties.

  “No taxes at all?” A Christian merchant said, carrying the cross on their neck, amazed by the idea.

  “No taxes at all,” a soldier smiled in reply.

  “That is wonderful, perhaps I could live here?”

  “Of course,” the soldier said, “but you do know about this place?”

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  “A den of vipers and satanists?” The trader said, “I thought it was lies.”

  “We do not worship the one god here,” Adaneus mused, “monotheism is self defeating, for if it is true, then that must mean good god made evil.”

  “Easy brother, you’ll scare him away,” Kwame said, knudging him with him with elbow.

  The man did not baulk, digesting the attack of his old religion while clutching his cross.

  “So the rumours were true?” The man said, “but if the city isn’t even paying taxes, there must be something to it. Truly Jesus has blessed you.”

  “Magec my friend, Magec or Helios is the god of this city, but I appreciate the blessing nonetheless, you are always welcome.”

  As he went away from the man, Kwame nodded to him. Eyes looking with intensity at what he needed to say.

  “You see what I mean, we need a proper books, pamphlets, the countryside, other cities will be full of Christians, and it will be a problem to administer them without revolt or subversion,” Kwame warned.

  “That could be our strategy,” Adaneus said, “since we have a war chest of gold, we can encourage conversion to Helios and subvert the Christian countryside to us. Eventually towns will turn and we can capture them not with armies but with friendly local populations.”

  “The local authorities will skewer them though,” Kwame warned again, “anyone caught with these pamphlets, well they’re going to get strung up or worse.”

  “But then we can take towns and villages at our own leisure, we can provoke our neighbours into foolish adventures against us, our city will hold, and we can invite our neighbours populations without a massive standing army,” Adaneus said.

  “The reprisals against these new Pagan peasants are going to be huge,” Kwame said.

  “If we raise an army and it marches down the south Italian coast, do you not think the local Catholics and orthodox Christians will be hostile to us, we are alien to them?” Adaneus said.

  “We can do a mixture of both strategies, spread the ideology across to Monopoli, to Taranto and likewise prepare an army,” Kwame advised, nodding as he thought aloud to both of them.

  The two other figures nodded along in agreements, clasping their faces and nodding.

  “I think we need 2000 bolt shooters,” Butros said, “if the Christians of the west unite against our tiny city, hell if the Muslims across the ocean do, we need to properly be able to resist them.”

  “On the walls?” Adaneus said, “that’s 6000 men, more than half the population of the city.”

  “We must have a secure base for this project,” Butros said, “I may have been a Christian, but the problem becomes if they march on us with 20,000, 30,000, perhaps naval forces in tandem, even with all the catapults and bolt shooters, we are going to have issues.”

  “Then the city must become 20,000 for us to be truly secure,” Adaneus said.

  “Which comes with more food needs and higher upkeep,” Butros said, “everything has a price Adaneus, perhaps we should just hire mercenaries and take over the countryside.”

  “I could probably afford them, but they will grow too powerful,” Adaneus said, “granted as an offensive army it’s not impossible, I just don’t see the value of having hired people who don’t share our morals, our ideals and whose only motivation is coin.”

  “Coin is a valuable motivation,” Butros said, “it is why Bari is even ours to begin with.”

  “I proved to the city of Bari that Helios could make a city under siege, one of the richest in the Mediterranean, I’m not going to sacrifice half the city on meaningless conquest and garrison them everywhere and stretch them thin,”

  “We gather our forces, we proselytise our neighbours,” Kwame said, “my people are not going to be the ones to do it, since we stand out a little too much.”

  Building continued as did production and proselytisation of the Magec god, perhaps 9500 of the 11,000 of the residents of the city were now supporters/worshippers of the new religion, but to the surrounding countryside they were a city of devils and vipers, demon worshippers who had sold themselves for gold and goods. Soon enough, the strategy nestled in their heads, ready to be spread.