43. The Factions

  Zethos had by March 26th arrived at Grassano, the town fell without much of a fight, surrendering to his army that arrived and showed a demonstration of bolt shooter power. He promptly rested in the local town to replenish and buy some more bolts, as such whatever he took from the local church he practically recycled back into the economy, buying everything he needed, his reserves actually went down slightly. Taking him down to 57,000 solidi, he planned his next move, to take the next town along the road, Tricarico. Replenishing spent ammunition, negotiating with locals and advertising the Republic’s leniency to ensure safe travels along the roads. He was close to Potenza, but he had decided to ignore many of the smaller towns surrounding while he focused on the singular goal.

  March 27th, Bitonto. Messages of the Holy orders success in taking Ruvo had Kwame dancing up and down in jubilation. He had acquired 20,000 solidi mainly from churches and the governors funds. The Shadows were reinforced and more recruits were gathered, Kwame had his Shadows confiscate slave populations and freed them, openly and with much fanfare and propaganda. Training them and feeding them to throw knives, spears and axes, they became something of a rallying cry. While the Republic had targeted regular citizens, it had armies, and it promoted prosperity through investment, Kwame had now touched on something even more profound, the enslavement of thousands across Italy, who with the help of The Shadows were being freed. The political implications of their movements were significant, the local villagers were inculcated with the propaganda of The Shadows, with agents recruiting more agents, and the funding going to the good of the religion. In this way Kwame and Sauromates were probably more radical than Adaneus. Adaneus had said things against slavery, and he at least attempted to free them, but now Kwame was making good of this promise with uncompromising action. Slaves would be freed.

  “Every slave must be given their freedom, if they are a child, they must be given temporary caretakers of their choosing, the women as well as the men have the right to want revenge,” Sauromates said.

  The training centres had ex slaves and freemen throwing knives, running, digging and lots of functional training. It has perhaps more than doubled in functional size, with 1000 core professionals and 1500 new recruits. Kwame awaited more days to perfect the Shadows and make them a proper fighting force.

  March 28th Zethos marched toward the prize he had spent so much of his energy marching toward. Besieging the city almost immediately, the bolt shooters set up in front of the walls, 2100 mace-men armoured themselves, 2000 glaive-men likewise lifted their glaives before readying themselves for the assault. Ladders were immediately gotten ready as the local forces watched Zethos prepare the assault.

  “We are from the Republic surrender or face an assault!”

  They taunted Zethos, and Zethos shot at the defenders. The bolt shooters aimed and shot the garrison who were too close on the walls. Falling off and into the city behind them. Soon enough the city was then subjected to the ladders. The assault was not as pretty as others, with Zethos watching as some of his men were stabbed and shot at. 300 casualties as they attempted to take the battlements, but soon enough the walls were theirs and the gate opened with the other infantry being able to flood the settlement. Mace-men worked well in the tight corners, being able to smash the enemy and bludgeon themselves through, while glaives worked well against any cavalry charges and in large open spaces. The citadel had to be assaulted within the town, but a mace-man commanding 100 men had managed to breach the building and capture it, parading a Republican flag over the battlements signalling the battle was over. Zethos had suffered 400 casualties, and he cursed himself at his recklessness.

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  “There was no helping it,” Lucanus said, “but now we control the heart of Lucania.”

  Aspar looked at maps of the local area noting that the road to Bari was convoluted, and pointed to the minor town of Tolve.

  “It is a problem general,” Aspar said, “those towns are crucial for logistics, they could interfere and rally troops for the Normans. Or worse raid our supplies.”

  In the end Zethos’s army took the church and cathedral gold and silver, and likewise helped themselves to the administrations money and army pay, all in all it netted something like 40,000 solidi, leaving Zethos with 97,000 solidi which could easily replenish his losses. He was not such a man to care so little for his men, but he nonetheless was happy that he could hire more men, looking at the situation with envy. The usual Republican promises of low taxation and what not were given, but even with such promises Zethos didn’t quite understand that his little detour would accelerate the Christian powers in their willingness to want to attack the Republic.

  March 28th Gocelin was still camped outside Andria, not wanting to waste the lives of his men in ordering an assault, he just sat there, in a fortified camp while he looked at the walls, not much of note happened, he would wait, and in the waiting when he had an opportunity he would storm the city.

  March 29th, Adaneus had sold 3140 litrai of saffron powder and 3140 litrai of cloves; roughly 46,000 solidi entered the treasury, nothing incredible but nothing bad either. Adaneus considered alongside his council, the idea of hiring another army.

  “We have it attack Calabria,” Adaneus said, “or better yet, have it seize Sicily.”

  “Making war with Muslim powers while we are still very much dealing with Christian ones, is probably inadvisable,” Butros warned, “the Muslims themselves are asking for a coalition against the Normans, we might have two large religious coalitions crashing against us.”

  “Sir, sir,” a man said, “a saracen raiding party off of Taranto was dealt with using catapults and bolt shooters, after which they promptly fled, although two ships were sunk.”

  “That is good news,” Adaneus said, “that they failed, not that they tried. It also gives us a pretext.”

  “A pretext to raise another army to take Italy, what about Zethos and Gocelin?” Demetra said, looking at the report with her own eyes, “my spies report that Kwame has taken another town.”

  “Another town?” Adaneus thought, looking at the situation with a skeptical eye, “is he expanding that quickly?”

  “The official treasury counts 552,000 solidi,” Butros said, “this means that the state could afford a massive campaign, we could hire two more armies conceivably maybe more, the usual mercenary logic is 10 solidi per man including all kit, so 50,000 potentially if we spent every solidus.”

  “50,000 would be crazy though,” Demetra said, “I am not sure there are that many men to hire under arms, and even if you hire that many, imagine what would happen if they disagree with the Paganism, it would need to be split into many armies.”

  “Regardless, we are creating something of a collegiate of commanders and officers in Bari,” Butros said, “to perhaps command future armies.”

  “Calabria is important to us, Crotone can be taken first and then the others.”

  “My spies report that Zethos moved in the direction of Potenza,” Demetra said, “the situation is getting out of our control. Bitonto and Ruvo now belong to Kwame and his Shadows.”

  “Shadows of Hermes and Artemis,” Adaneus said, the shadows of Helios, while we are the sun, they are the shadow of that great light.

  Adaneus and the central government pondered how they would deal with the situation, whether perhaps another admiral or general was necessary to hire.

  We could conquer Italy faster, but at what cost, I need to reinforce all these new conquests with garrisons, and artillery, let’s not lose track of that before I do something so reckless.

  “Let’s make sure all our conquests are properly garrisoned, that is how we reinforce the Republic’s role,” Adaneus said, “the authority of Bari in the Republic.”

  “Our authority,” Butros affirmed, “will indeed be strengthened by the artillery and paying of garrisons, even if the army and now the clergy do their own thing, we can still assert the Republic’s role. Bari’s role.”

  Splurging 50,000 solidi, they did just that, making sure that artillery would be sent out to various locations and the towns heavily fortified. 502,000 solidi in the coffers of the state, the Western Roman Republic was determined to glue itself together.