Chapter 10
Tyre (3)
The moment Michael entered the barracks, his eyes narrowed very slightly.
From the outside, it looked decent enough.
The barracks inside the walls had warehouses and training grounds that clearly matched the name of a “garrison of the King’s domain.”
But the soldiers filling it were in terrible condition.
“…….”
The soldiers’ postures were sloppy, and the way they held their spears was awkward.
They could not even hold their shields at the proper angle. Most of them were not even wearing gambesons, the padded armor normally worn underneath other armor. Instead, they were wearing blue tunics with only the emblem of the Kingdom of Jerusalem on them, along with blue cloaks.
It was enough to make one wonder if it was at least fortunate that they had been given helmets.
‘What a sorry excuse for a garrison…….’
He did not say anything out loud, but his eyes had already judged everything.
The King’s domain.
And in a strategic stronghold like Tyre, this was the level of the defensive forces……
“How much training have they received?”
At Michael’s question, Hugo hesitated for a moment.
It was only for a very brief moment, but that hesitation alone was enough.
“Basic spear training and formation drills, at least……”
“That is not enough.”
He cut Hugo off before he could even finish.
The air instantly froze.
“This is not a garrison. This is practically a militia……”
It was blunt.
But it was an extremely accurate description.
The faces of the garrison soldiers standing nearby stiffened.
Anger, shame, and reluctant acceptance were all mixed together on their faces.
“Bernhard.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“We are taking control of these barracks starting today.”
“Yes.”
There was no hesitation.
The order had been given, and it would be carried out immediately.
“Completely reorganize the training system. Inspect the equipment. Select the soldiers. Everything will be redone.”
“Understood.”
A sharp light appeared in Bernhard’s eyes.
He had no intention of simply standing by after seeing this scene either.
“Hugo.”
“Yes…… my lord.”
“These forces cannot protect the city.”
His voice was quiet, but he drew a clear line.
“Starting today, I will take over command of these forces.”
These troops were nominally soldiers belonging to the King of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV.
However, as the Lord of Tyre, Michael had been given not only the right to collect taxes, but also direct administrative authority, the right to conscript soldiers, and command authority over the garrison.
Therefore, he had the authority to completely rebuild them.
“……Understood.”
“Good.”
Michael answered briefly.
His gaze swept over the soldiers once again.
“From now on, I will completely tear out the roots of these men and rebuild them from the ground up. Those who cannot keep up will be discarded. I do not need soldiers of that level under me.”
The faces of the garrison soldiers twisted when they heard Michael’s words.
But some of them showed a faint hope.
Perhaps they could become different as well.
Most of them had originally left their hometowns to build a new life in the Holy Land.
If they could move forward and become better than they were now……
They thought they could endure almost anything.
Of course, most of the troops were still made up of Turcopoles……
Soon, Bernhard approached the garrison soldiers with a smile.
The soldiers looked at Bernhard and instinctively realized that hell was about to begin.
After finishing the reorganization of the barracks, Michael took about thirty knights and infantry sergeants with him and headed toward the palace.
The Palace of Tyre.
A small fortress located inside the inner castle.
There was another wall inside the outer walls, and the area within it was the very heart of the city.
The center of power.
“……”
Looking at the fortress, Michael stopped for a moment.
The doors opened, and he entered.
The inside of the Palace of Tyre was better than he had expected.
It was not luxurious, but it was practical.
Thick walls, a sturdy structure, and a design capable of withstanding outside threats.
“……”
Michael slowly looked around the interior.
Then, without hesitation, he naturally sat down on the lord’s seat in the center of the hall.
This was his place now.
There was no reason for him to hesitate.
“First…… I should write a letter to His Majesty the Emperor.”
He quietly muttered to himself.
But there was a clear intention behind those words.
The so-called PPL operation.
Preparation for a much bigger game.
A week had already passed since Michael arrived in Tyre.
In that short, yet somehow long, period of time, Michael had managed to understand the general outline of Tyre’s administration and how the city operated.
He had also naturally discovered the true nature of the city, which was completely different from the order it appeared to have on the surface.
And the conclusion was clear.
Although Tyre was supposedly a royal domain, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the city was practically controlled by merchants.
There were currently three merchant districts in the city.
Among them, the largest power was Venice, which was growing with the support of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Genoese merchants had originally established themselves as a major force in eastern trade by supporting the Crusades.
However, compared to the Venetians, who had established a base in Crete through the Eastern Roman Empire, the Genoese took longer to cross the sea.
As a result, they were naturally beginning to lose their advantage in price competition.
Because of this, Venice had practically come to dominate trade almost exclusively, extending as far as the Principality of Antioch and the Kingdom of Cilicia.
The position of Genoa in the Levant was becoming narrower and narrower.
At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they were pushed out.
In any case, the second-largest power after Venice was Genoa, which had just been mentioned.
Thanks to their contribution to the First Crusade, they had once held almost a monopoly over eastern trade.
But when Venice, backed by the Eastern Roman Empire, began to enter the market in earnest, cracks began to appear in their position.
On top of that, another maritime trading city, the Republic of Pisa, began pushing into those cracks.
Eastern trade naturally became a three-way competition between Venice, Genoa, and Pisa.
Of course, Pisa was geographically closer to Western Europe, and in reality, it focused more on trade around the Iberian Peninsula.
Because of this, it could not exercise much power here in the Levant.
For example, Venice and Genoa maintained their own mercenary forces.
The merchants of Pisa, however, had no such military power.
They simply did business in the smallest district and quietly kept to themselves.
‘For now…… I should use Genoa, which is relatively weak and is being crushed by Venice, to keep those Venetians in check.’
Michael’s gaze slowly became colder as he reached this conclusion.
This was not merely an idea.
He was already calculating how to put it into action.
He planned to use Genoese merchants as the merchants who would deliver his letters to the Emperor, while also establishing relations with the Genoese merchants in the process.
Furthermore, according to what Hugo had told him, most of the mercenaries causing various small and large incidents in Tyre were Cuman mercenaries hired by Venice.
Cuman mercenaries had originally been a force mainly monopolized by the Eastern Roman Empire and the Republic of Genoa.
However, Venice had also secured a small base city called Tana near the entrance to the Sea of Azov.
Since they maintained contact with the Cumans there, they were able to bring in Cuman mercenaries as well.
One might wonder why they would go all the way to the distant north to bring nomadic cavalrymen to the Levant.
But these men were exceptionally valuable troops for dealing with the “hit-and-run” tactics of Saracen horse archers.
Of course, there were also mercenaries called Turcopoles, made up of people of mixed Greek and Turkic ancestry or Saracens who had converted to Christianity.
But there was a considerable difference in quality between them and the Cuman mercenaries.
They were not simply cavalrymen.
They were a warrior people who had been born and raised on battlefields, which made them stronger and more elite.
Cuman mercenaries were such excellent warriors that they were not inferior even when compared to the Mamluk cavalry under Saladin.
Mounted archery was basic to them.
They were also highly skilled with lances on horseback, and if necessary, they had no hesitation about dismounting and engaging in close combat on the ground.
Every aspect of their fighting style had been optimized for actual combat.
The instincts engraved into their bodies were difficult to match through training alone.
Their equipment was not poor, either.
They wore lamellar armor over chainmail to increase their protection.
Their helmets were even made in the shape of human faces, covering the entire face.
Simply looking at them could cause an instinctive feeling of fear.
“Cumans……”
Michael quietly muttered.
His eyes became even deeper and colder.
The Eastern Roman Empire had once possessed a powerful army.
If Western Europe had knights, Eastern Europe had the Pronoiai.
The pronoia system gave these men land in a way similar to knights.
However, unlike knights, who could inherit and manage their fiefs, these men only possessed the right to collect taxes.
Their only duty was to fight for the Empire as heavy cavalry.
But as the Empire’s territory shrank, the pronoiai, or fiefs, of these pronoiai holders naturally became smaller as well.
Once their pronoiai disappeared, the pronoiai holders found it difficult to maintain weapons, armor, warhorses, and other necessary equipment.
On top of that, the Empire’s centralized political system shifted toward an aristocratic republic.
As a result, the pronoia system effectively collapsed in terms of numbers.
The pronoiai of the present day had become similar to Western European knights.
They served as a small elite force of heavy cavalry while also taking on the role of commanders.
Furthermore, as the pronoiai given to them became larger, they were able to hire mercenaries under their command.
This created a rather strange military structure:
Leadership → Pronoiai → Mercenaries.
In any case, among the mercenaries who formed a major part of the Eastern Roman military, there were exactly three groups that deserved the most attention.
The most representative were the Vardariotai.
They were made up of Hungarian Magyar and Pecheneg peoples living around the Vardar River.
They were large, excellent horsemen.
At present, they formed the backbone of the Eastern Roman army.
They served as light infantry and light cavalry, while highly loyal members were also used to form heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.
Along with the Varangian Guard, they were used as imperial guards.
Next were the Varangians, made up of Viking peoples from Scandinavia.
They had served as powerful elite guard mercenaries of the Eastern Roman Empire for a very long time.
For generations, they had been a group that remained loyal only to the Emperor of Constantinople.
Therefore, when the Latin Empire captured Constantinople and a Frankish ruler took the throne, they became loyal to Baldwin I, the new Emperor of Constantinople.
Of course, some Varangians went to the Empire of Nicaea, which inherited the legitimacy of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Others scattered to countries such as Epirus and Trebizond.
And finally, the group that completed the three great mercenary forces of the Eastern Roman Empire.
The Cumans, a northern nomadic people.
The Cumans were fast, brave, large in stature, and had rough personalities……
Bow?
They were skilled.
Spear?
They were skilled.
Axe?
They were skilled.
Swordsmanship?
They were skilled.
They were practically weapons of war themselves.
In the future, they would also put up considerable resistance against the Mongols.
They were also one of the few peoples in Europe to give the Mongols a serious headache.
Of course, they eventually lost……
But their ferocity and fighting ability did not end there.
Those who were enslaved by the Mongols were sold to Egypt.
There, they became Mamluks.
And eventually, they overthrew the existing regime and went on to establish the Mamluk Sultanate.
‘If I can hire them…… they might not be bad forces to have under my command.’
