18. The Raven

  Adaneus on the 31st of January sold 11,900 solidi worth of goods, 1253 litrai of cloves , 1253 litrai of cardamon and 940 litrai of black pepper, 45,900 solidi now in the state treasury. Adaneus immediately spent 900 solidi on bolt shooters.

  “Either way we need bolt shooters for the defence of this city, if it turns out he will betray us, we must be ready!” Adaneus shouted to his people.

  The new part of the city was now fully operational, with an additional five catapults and five ballistae, and at least 500 immigrants from the countryside who had built houses inside the territory. 40 catapults, 30 ballistae and as many as 1200 bolt shooters the city was getting used to independence. Local peasants came in with eggs, and some with cows, given by the city authorities basically for free, as they received small literacy lessons and small nods from the local new priestly class.

  “Helios blesses us every day, the chosen are blessed by him and can create, this is the secret to our prosperity but even without this blessing we will take over Italy and make a new order.”

  “Western Rome is just and wise,” a peasant said.

  My observations today are just the same as yesterday, something happened at the docks, but I couldn’t see in time what happened, from what I know Adaneus’s ambitions are not just for this city, if he manages to expand the Normans will surely lose.

  Damn it, I am almost a papal spy aren’t I, I should write a report for them too.

  The Heathen realm is preparing for something I have no intel as to what, but he is gathering gold and with gold can only come bad things, his enthusiasm for siege weapons reveals an ingenious level of self preservation. If the Holy-See were to try and take the city it would take an army larger than currently available to the Normans. That being said Guiscard doesn’t seem to wish to give up on the city, and is from what I can tell is gathering men. Even if he gathered the 12,000 maximum army, it would likely lose, but I wouldn’t put it past him. Still it would make more sense to take the much more lush Sicilian lands that are easier to take. But then again he can’t exactly ignore this guy either, the stage is set, and Adaneus must be dealt with, that is my recommendation to the Holy See. A large force must be sent to help.

  Adaneus could not see the spies, but he could sense them, and he could sense that eventually the Christians would come and fight his city.

  “Stockpile stones and bolts,” Adaneus said to Kwame, “I fear the worst.”

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  Citizens were put in charge of bolt shooters, as well as spear and mace.

  “It is better that we have people who are competent at this,” Butros said, “but economy first.”

  “Economy first,” Adaneus said, that’s how we can afford these contraptions to begin with.”

  “If any of our lovely Christian neighbours attempt to invade Bari, they will meet rock and bolts,” Kwame said, half to himself.

  Another directive unsaid but obvious was that extra catapults and ballistae were being built for other cities, to fortify them and make recapture more difficult a small stockpile.

  The 1st of February was an ordinary day, with Adaneus mobilising his people to fortify the city, spending 2000 solidi, the treasury went to 43,000 solidi, 1253 litrai of cinnamon beefed up the treasury back to 46,000 solidi. Bolt shooters were made in abundance, reaching the number of 2000 bolt shooters in the event of a cataclysmic siege, there were more in storage but the reality was that Adaneus preferred to keep the economy chugging rather than fully man the bolt shooters constantly; such was the reality of the state. He had planned another expansion of the city, and had a roster of new dyes he wanted to cultivate, and was cultivating, waiting for his batch of dyes to be exported.

  Indigo has a premium, and I planted it a while ago, I think by tomorrow, I have the batch ready to export. The city of Bari will grow rich, and I will make sure of that fact, but I need quite a large amount of people working in it, my workers are growing tired cycling through.

  Spending 1000 solidi, whittling down his reserves to spend on 600 workers to work in the various industries in the city, spices, dyes and various grown things needed tending to, processing and a large amount of labour, even with Adaneus magically spawning and watering the plants it needed an army of people to manage them and make them grow for the good of the city and future of his future country.

  The 2nd of February Adaneus sold 11,000 solidi worth of indigo dye 1253 litrai, alongside 1500 solidi worth of cinnamon some 627 litrai as well as 1253 litrai of cloves bringing the total to nearly 6000 solidi worth of cloves. Adaneus was ramping things up increasing the processing power, he decided to invest his newfound wealth in pulleys to hasten the delivery and transfer of goods. With all the exported goods he had 60,500 solidi to invest in his newfound state, staggering wealth to invest and hire more mercenaries and ultimately run his state, he made the docks more efficient, if he could transfer out goods quicker, more merchants could come, granted this would require quicker processing time, but with each haul the city could potentially earn more revenue, with rumours already growing of the remarkable port on the Adriatic whose new leadership had somehow found access to all sorts of exotic resources. Adaneus would spend 2000 solidi upgrading his harbour, his citizens awed by the pace of change and by the energy and zeal of Adaneus. He did not demand their loyalty, but even the new immigrants understood why Helios was worshipped, and why it should be respected. Such was the way of the city of Bari, to the extent that the priesthood training was coming along, with at least 20 or so low level sun priests handing out pieces of paper or preaching to local visiting peasants.

  “Don’t forget to talk in short sentences, be memorable,” Adaneus said.

  “You never did that,” one Helios priest joked, “so I wouldn’t be so sure, the truth doesn’t have a word count.”

  “Quite,” Adaneus half muttered, smiling.

  And so the 2nd of February ended, with accumulation and tension, Norman scouts circling around the perimeters to communicate with the various lords and warlords of their strategy.