1444, Byzantium Resurrects

Chapter 31-Baptism
August 1446, 8, North Africa, Port of Sirte.

A month later, the place became even more desolate than before the Byzantine occupation.

This place was originally a distribution center for tribal transactions. When the nomadic tribes no longer came here, there was naturally no mobile population, and the place became quiet.

Soult's rebaptism movement was not successful at first.

The 4,000 residents in and around the port of Sirte mainly make their living from dryland agriculture and animal husbandry, with arable land concentrated in a semi-arid area ten kilometers along the coast.

Isaac first invited the sheikhs from subordinate villages and nearby tribes to come for a chat, but few responded.

Most nomadic tribes had a natural distrust of the Eastern Roman Empire, which had just occupied the port.

After the initial few invading tribes were easily defeated, they were not convinced.

These diehards still count on powerful tribes to take the lead and drive away the pagans.

The few small tribes that responded to Isaac's call came to the port of Surt to eat and drink, but they were reluctant to change their religion.

Inside the harbor, Isaac decided to strike hard.

"Anderson, gather all the tribal leaders and wealthy businessmen in the city."

"Let Mehmet prepare."

These Berbers have remained consistent from ancient times to the present, firmly sitting on the fence. The stronger you are, the more obedient they will be.

A little later, the tribal chief, wearing sackcloth and a turban, rushed in noisily and saluted Isaac, who was sitting in the seat of honor.

They were very unhappy about the guards confiscating their weapons at the door.

They spoke in a crude dialect, which Isaac, who knew a little Arabic, could not understand at all.

Mehmet and Maruna, who were sitting nearby, glared at them. Albert looked straight ahead and sipped the wine slowly. Abusheh, who was standing next to Isaac, looked at these tribal chiefs who thought they had found an easy target with sympathy.

Isaac pretended not to notice the tribal leader's offense.

"Your Highness, the city's largest merchant has arrived." Anderson finished his notification work, hurried in, and whispered to Isaac.

After a while, a young man walked into the City Lord's Mansion and knelt down respectfully.

"Your Highness, the ruler of Surt, your loyal servant, Urda salutes you."

He speaks fluent Greek.

"On behalf of all the merchants in the city, I pledge my loyalty to you and bring you a gift worthy of your status."

The young merchant named Urda handed Isaac an exquisitely crafted scepter with both hands.

"Besides that, we have brought supplies for your army."

Isaac looked in the direction of his finger and saw three fully loaded carriages parked outside the city lord's mansion.

Wheat and dates were placed on top.

Isaac looked closely at the meticulous businessman.

Unlike the local Muslims, he did not wear plain clothes and a white turban. Instead, he was draped in gorgeous silk and dressed very elegantly.

He is of medium build and always seems to have a smile on his face.

His complexion was healthy and his beard was obviously well-groomed and shiny.

He does not look like an Arab peddler, but rather has something in common with the ostentatious wealthy Italian businessmen.

As soon as Urda entered the reception room, the tribal leaders glared at him.

“You’re not a local, are you?”

"Your Highness, I am of mixed blood. My father is a Greek Orthodox Christian from Naples, and my mother is the daughter of a local chief."

“I grew up here.”

Isaac pointed at the restless tribal chiefs.
"Why don't they like you?"

Urda sneered.

“They are very unhappy with our food prices, but there is nothing they can do.”

Isaac played with the scepter that Urda had handed him.

The scepter was made of ebony, polished to perfection, with the base encased in metal and the top inlaid with a large piece of gold.

Several names are engraved in Greek around the scepter.

Urdhar Laldu, Bornoman Ali…

"These are the names of all the great merchants in our city and the affiliated villages. They symbolize our submission to you."

Urda reminded at the right time.

"Carving so fast?"

Urda smiled but did not answer.

My goodness, I’m afraid you have prepared a lot of similar things.

"It's a very valuable gift. I accept it. I wonder what you want from me?"

Urda spoke.

“I heard that you want to spread the gospel of Christ in this land?”

Isaac nodded.

"I can follow my father's example and convert to Orthodoxy, but some merchants and citizens are unwilling to do so. I wonder if this will be allowed..."

Before he could finish, Isaac immediately denied it.

"This is impossible."

"Since you are willing to convert to the Lord's embrace, you should pull more lost people out of the sea of ​​suffering."

"I will not allow pagans to live in the Lord's territory."

Perhaps Islamic countries would allow the existence of the Dhimmi class, but Isaac would not dare to let a group of Muslims live under his nose.

"So what are you going to do?"

Isaac thought about it.

As a whole, the merchant class doesn't really care what they believe in; they only believe in money and profit.

They are simply worried that the port of Sirte will be isolated by the Islamic world after its conversion to Christianity.

Merchants and tribes that originally went to the port of Surt to trade would take a detour, thus affecting the economic value.

This phenomenon is bound to happen.

The Portuguese port of Ceuta was originally an important trading center in North Africa, where Islamic merchants and travelers gathered.

Since being occupied by Portugal, Islamic merchants no longer go to the port of Ceuta to trade, and instead go to the port of Tangier.

This meant that Portugal’s years of planning did not achieve the expected results.

How did the Portuguese solve this problem?

"Urda, have a long-term vision. My career will not end here. Brega, Misrata, and even Tripoli, which is farther away, will be filled with crosses in the future. By then, you can take over the trade share left by local merchants. Isn't that great?"

That’s right, just continue to expand.

I take Ceuta and you take Tangier?
What if I occupy an entire main road?

But it was obvious that Urda was not very interested in this plan.

Normally, it is not clear whether Isaac can gain a foothold here now, and no one will believe such big talk.

However, Urda also knew that His Highness's determination could not be changed.

"Since you have decided so, I will go back and prepare."

Isaac called out to him.

"I plan to set up a business union in the port, which will be responsible for formulating business rules and setting prices for basic commodities. If you can convince the majority of people to convert to Orthodoxy, the position of president will be yours."

"Yes!"

Only then did Urda smile a little.

After all, they were the first local power to surrender to him, and they were so humble and polite, so it would be unreasonable not to give them some benefits. It seemed that he had given up the important power of pricing, but in fact, there were too many areas that he could manipulate.

What is a basic commodity is not up to me!

After Urda left, Isaac turned his gaze to the tribal chief who was fidgeting and scratching his head.

"Abu! Tell them to gather together for baptism in public three days later."

Abu translated it loudly.

The chief immediately refused to do this and started shouting.

Isaac gave Mehmet a look.

The Purple Guard soldiers hiding behind the scenes rushed out and knocked them down with just a few punches and kicks.

"Tell them to send the heir of the tribe to Moria in exchange for their lives!"

"If anyone deliberately causes trouble in three days, he will be executed without mercy!"

The soldier dragged the howling tribal chief away with a grim smile.

August 1446, 8, in the city of Surt.

The original mosque was converted into an Orthodox church by Isaac, and priest Elster of Dobruja volunteered to serve as the bishop here.

Amid the sound of bells, Abshekh and Urda, as role models for the tribe and merchants respectively, were baptized by the priests.

More than 4,000 people in the city watched the baptism.

The guards stood by with a fierce look in their eyes, ready to arrest the criminals at any time.

Before the ceremony, the two had received the anointing of the bishop.

The priest then sprinkled holy water on Abu and Urda. They closed their eyes and seemed to hear the mantra of God.

"The servants of God are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

murmured Reverend Elster.

In the crowd, priests also splashed holy water on people, regardless of whether they avoided it or not.

Then, Bishop Elster led the whole city in prayer, asking for God's protection.

At this moment, there was a commotion in the crowd.

Several ulemas disguised as civilians drew out hidden daggers and rushed towards the Orthodox priest.

After a while, the commotion subsided, and the Purple Guards cut the tendons of the rebellious Ulema and dragged him before Isaac.

"take away."

Isaac didn't even want to look.

Afterwards, everyone prayed together.

"Amen!"

The ceremony is over.

From then on, the people of the entire city became believers of God in name only.

Some people find it novel, some are terrified, and some grit their teeth.

In the following days, the army and intelligence agencies worked together to destroy several religious hardline groups that were plotting a rebellion.

Isaac stipulated that newly baptized slaves would be released as freemen, and newly baptized freemen would be exempt from taxes for one year, except for commercial taxes.

Albert mobilized the people to supervise each other, and those who reported secret gangs would be exempt from taxes for three years and receive a reward of 50 groschen.

In one week, more than 500 Muslims who were unwilling to accept reality were sold into slavery.

At the same time, the first Orthodox slaves from Theodore arrived in Surt.

300 slaves, both men and women, 100 Goths and 200 Slavs.

They will be settled in several water sources outside the city that are suitable for agriculture.

The slaves who had just been freed were in high spirits and immediately began to plow the land.

Isaac shook his head at their crude methods.

They are clearly not adapted to water-saving agriculture in semi-arid areas and are very inefficient.

Forget it, I don’t ask for anything, as long as I can support myself.

They will adapt slowly on their own.

Agricultural reform and so on should be implemented after the survival problem is solved.

Afterwards, Isaac will also relocate some Greeks and Yugoslavs to live in the port, focusing on the service industry and fishery, and gradually complete the cultural transformation of the port of Surt.

A few days later, Isaac's follow-up troops finally arrived.

The Chevalier de Conti arrived at Soult with 200 cavalrymen.

Currently, Isaac has a total of 400 Purple Guards, 200 Black Guards, and 200 Oak Guards cavalry.

It was barely enough to carry out a sweep of the surrounding disobedient tribes.

It's not that we don't want to bring all the troops over, it's just that the supplies don't allow it.

For this plan, the Monferrato trading fleet put aside trade in other areas, loaded up grain from Genoa and shipped it to Soult, and then returned loaded with slaves to sell.

The profits were barely enough, and some northern Italian merchants were already beginning to feel dissatisfied.

Sirte is still far from being self-sufficient in food.

For a long time, the income here will come from the robberies of Captain Fidel's fleet.

"Conte, go and notify the commanders of each legion, as well as Steward Albert and Minister Lancelot, and ask them to come to the meeting."

"Also, gather the tribal leaders and Dobruja people who obey us, and tell them that part of the land we conquered this time will become their new pasture."

Anderson and Isult both went to prepare for immigration, and Conte temporarily served as a herald.

Soon, all the important people were sitting in the reception room, waiting for Isaac's orders.

After being dealt a lesson, the tribal leaders became much more obedient.

Today, their reputation in the Islamic world is not much different from that of Judah in the Christian world.

So they changed their previous rebellious attitude and flattered Isaac using the Greek sentences they had just learned.

Isaac didn't want to pay attention to them and concentrated on looking at the map.

He circled a few points with a pen.

"Our main mission this time is to occupy the important water sources and oases outside the city and annihilate the tribes that are unwilling to submit."

"I will distribute the captured prisoners and livestock according to their merits, and divide the pastures after the war."

Ghazi and the other chiefs immediately smiled happily.

"In return, you guys,"

Isaac pointed at several leaders headed by Abu.

"Both servants and livestock must be provided."

Several people nodded with bitter faces.

"We won't be entering the great desert this time, so you won't bleed heavily."

The points circled by Isaac were all located in dry land near Sirte, and all of them were large water sources or oases.

The characteristics of fighting in semi-arid grasslands are very obvious.

The enemy will not circle around with you, nor will they gather in large numbers for long periods of time. Instead, they will station themselves in tribes at large water sources.

The war has changed from a two-dimensional surface to points and lines.

So, it’s actually quite simple.

Use superior forces and focus on the water source.

(End of this chapter)