35. The Faithful Servant

  On the 7th of March, Zethos was marching north to Toritto, he encountered some small village along the way, but mostly ignored it for the sake of speed, it nonetheless paid homage to the army, but it’s market was so small that Zethos wagered it was hardly worth the bother.

  Perhaps the Republic could have developed this place, every market is an opportunity to make more money.

  Taking most of the day, they marched to the town of Toritto seizing it without a fight for fear of the large army that wandered next to them. With that Zethos had secured one road and prevented opportunistic Norman raiding. He didn’t know but the local town of Casamassima had been bribed by the Republic to go under the administration of the central government of Adaneus, some 8000 solidi, whittling down the reserves to 192,000 solidi, and opening up two roads down to Taranto. Bari’s influence was strong in Toritto a man was hanged for being a polytheist, in retaliation the Church was looted, and the locals hanged the local priest in revenge. Zethos discouraged their behaviour but they insisted and he rested in the town. He sent a man on a horse to go to Bari and convey their actions.

  Bari had in fact already known of Zethos’s movements from intercepted communications of Norman spies. On the 8th of March the rider galloped into the city relaying the information, with Demetra sternly looking at the rider.

  “We thank his service to the Republic,” Adaneus said, “he has secured the road from Bari to Taranto, this is a valuable service, but his orders were to stay and reinforce Taranto, how would you explain yourselves?”

  “Sir, we have just beaten the Norman army, there is no way they can possibly organise a siege on such a short notice, Zethos just seized the initiative and took the local towns that might raid and be a nuisance to you.”

  Adaneus and Demetra could not fault the logic of the rider, sending him on his way with a new mount, and supplying a wagon train of grain to go to Toritto, to replenish their grain supplies having just been a host to an army. It was generous of Adaneus and it showed his good tact and manners. On that day it sold some 6300 litrai of indigo to the Eastern Roman and Muslim traders, the total earning for the state, added on top of clove sales of a similar weight were 92,000 solidi added on top of the 192,000, the treasury buckled with the Saracen and Eastern Roman coin, making the reserves 284,000 solidi. However the coin was whittled down to 200,000 again as the state leased out land to the local Heel agricultural community, sending 84,000 to the local peasants immediately in exchange for 25% of produce over 20 years, leaving the peasants to keep 75% of their crop. The land leased was 18,000 iugera roughly.

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  By the 9th of March Gocelin had at Molfetta marched to Bisceglie, intending to surprise the local Norman garrison, and surprise them he did, he didn’t have as much firepower as Zethos but he managed to intimidate the garrison enough to surrender after only a few shots of the bolt shooters. Following the quick capitulation, Gocelin received some 8000 solidi from soldiers equipment, governors coin and church looting. With 64,000 solidi in his personal coffers he decided to send his fleet to Bari to request bolt shooters, either through purchase or simply asking nice enough. Meanwhile he focused on bolt shooters.

  Glaives are the nice middle ground between spears and pikes, manoeuvrable enough to actually be utile, but also not so flimsy as spears; maces are likewise good, my units are all spears. I need to spend some money fitting them with better gear, perhaps the bigger men can have maces. Or perhaps glaives and pikes, until I can find some bigger men to be mace-men. I have 500 Normans who are big enough for the role.

  Over the course of a day he hired roughly 1000 Normans and Lombards and made them a mace-men unit, not having quite enough glaives, but swapping out 500 of his spearmen for glaivemen. All in all he had 6500 men now consisting of: 500 glaive-men, 1000 mace-men, 3500 spearmen and 1500 bolt shooter; he waited for his glaives and extra armour before he thought about the other towns up north.

  Gocelin of Molfetta huh?

  “Gocelin, are you sure you want to hire Normans?”

  “I know them well enough, plus it’s also some Lombards, so don’t be too worried.”

  He had splurged 10,000 solidi, but he was content to wait a bit and outfit his army properly before making such a move.

  Zethos resupplied and headed along the country roads back to his real objective of Potenza. He would march down the road back through Altillia to take the town of Gravina in Puglia, it was an estimated two days march, and Zethos had achieved his official objective and now could pursue what he really wanted.

  “So we march on Potenza?” Lucanus said.

  “Yes,” Zethos said, “I hope, we can get friendly locals to tell us the way, I know there are numerous towns that we should probably take for our safety.”

  The rider rushed back dismounting the horse and leaving the different steed in the local village.

  “The Republic was not exactly happy, but they were approving enough of your operations,” the rider said.

  “Well, they can’t fault the logic, even if they want to, is it true they seized Casamassima?” Zethos asked the rider.

  “From what I can tell yes, they bribed the town 8000 solidi to fly their banners, it seems there was already quite a cultural influence,” the rider explained.

  Zethos looked at the village, and decided to buy 20 horses and hire 20 or so lads for 200 solidi, with the horses costing likewise 200 solidi.

  “Thank you!” Aspar said, “much appreciated.”

  Aspar did the pleasantries, while Lucanus quietly nodded his approval.

  “Much better,” he quietly muttered, “we have some forward vision.”

  “Ride out a bit in front, avoid combat, simply be our eyes and ears on the flanks and out in front,” Zethos said, “give a shout if there’s trouble.”

  The scouts did their job relatively well, while they trundled along on their southern march. Zethos intending to expand his wealth further, while carefully and methodically taking the towns he thought would be a threat.