Early January 1448, Nafplion.
A Cruiser carrying Palaiologos Flag sailed into the port. Before the ship could stop, the captain jumped off the trestle in a hurry and knocked away the officers who came to greet him.
Amid many surprised looks, the captain ran towards the decisive battle fleet headquarters in the distance. The guards outside the door recognized the captain's identity and did not stop him.
Soon, the captain came to the war room on the second floor and reported bad news to this group of senior officers:
Venetian Fleet drove away from Candia Harbor and hid in Souda Bay on the northwest side of the island.
Cohen turned his attention to the map table. This is a long bay running east-west. The sea at the eastern entrance is about 1.6 miles (2.4 kilometers) wide.
Subsequently, the Venice people imitated the defensive measures of the Volos port, placing guard ships and erecting iron cables at the entrance of the bay. Their ships were anchored on the west side of the bay, five miles from the entrance, beyond the ultimate range of Rocket.
Felix asked, "Last month, we launched the second round of Rocket offensive against Candia. How could they resume navigation so quickly?"
The captain replied, "Those damaged warships are parked in Candia Harbor, a total of ten ships. The remaining ships have all been evacuated."
Souda Bay is the bay with the best berthing conditions in Crete. The disadvantage is that the infrastructure is not perfect enough.
There were still two months before the beginning of spring. Cohen asked the messenger to report the news to Central Administration and suggested that Central Administration carefully consider the landing location.
Blachernae Palace, Privy Council.
As soon as he received the news, Vitus called everyone for a meeting.
This time, Eastern Roman Empire plans to dispatch 30,000 soldiers.
Sakarya Legion, Hermes Brigade, Dragon Cavalry Brigade, and Light Cavalry Brigade gather at Peloponnese as the first and second echelons.
Anatolia's Konya Legion are heading to the western coast, and they will serve as the third echelon.
Varangian Legion and Heavy Cavalry Brigade stay at Constantinople as the last reserve team to guard against the Jagiellon Dynasty's surprise attack.
Romanus, as the commander-in-chief of this operation, decided to continue the previous combat plan and land from the south of the island.
Crete is a long and narrow island from east to west. Venice has three strong strongholds: Chania in the northwest, Rethymno in the mid-west, and Candia (Heraklion) in the middle. They are located on the shore of the North Sea and have built new city walls.
Therefore, the landing sites selected by Privy Council are all located in the south of the island. The entire south coast is 170 miles long and has many beaches suitable for landing.
Romanus had two favorite locations, the southwest coast of the island and the coast near Yambagion in the south. He took out two sets of combat plans and showed them to the participants.
Vitus read both plans in advance and remained silent throughout the process. Other ministers discussed certain details of the documents and found no major omissions.
Subsequently, the focus of the meeting shifted to the Adriatic Sea.
After the army landed at Crete, the Eastern Roman Empire fleet detached some escort warships to attack Venice's small and medium-sized strongholds in the Adriatic Sea to save time for the subsequent general attack.
After the meeting, Romanus was busy packing his luggage. Leo came after hearing the news and wandered around the courtyard where his brother lived, hoping that his brother would take him to the front line to join the war.
Romanus ordered the servant to put the clothes into the copper box and responded impatiently, "Don't bother me. This is not an outing. I don't have time to take care of a little guy like you."
Leo retorted, "When you participated in the Sakarya battle, you were not yet fourteen years old, and you were younger than I am now. Why can you go and I can't?"
The two argued for a while, and Leo successfully aroused Romanus's anger. Before his brother could take action, Leo nimbly passed through the many servants, like a slippery sea fish.
In less than half a minute, Leo fled to the entrance of the courtyard. He turned around and mocked his brother who was not far away.
"Haha, I ranked second in the long-distance running competition in the class, and you couldn't catch me. You didn't let me go to Crete, so I took a boat to the Adriatic Sea. I heard that the navy was going to use Lagoon Rocket to bombard the Venice mainland. The scene was much more spectacular than Crete."
Romanus was focused on the upcoming war and really had no energy to fight with Leo. He turned around and walked back to the room, ignoring this noisy and gluttonous guy.
After packing his bags, Romanus set off for the front line. There was still more than a month left before the landing, and there was not much time left for him to get familiar with the troops.
In early February, Peloponnese southeast, Gythio Harbor.
This port is only one hundred miles away from Crete and serves as the embarkation point for the Army.
The shortcomings of Gythio Harbor are poor infrastructure and insufficient town area. Twenty-three thousand Army soldiers built wooden houses outside the city, burned fires for warmth, and almost cut down all the trees in the nearby mountains.
Rainfall is frequent in winter, and the rainwater washes away the bare hillsides and converges into the rivers below the mountains, causing the river water to appear a turbid gray-yellow color. When Romanus arrived in the northern suburbs, I almost thought I had found the wrong place.
"The large-scale military buildup will cause too much damage to the local environment."
Romanus suddenly remembered the Sakarya battle a few years ago. More than 200,000 troops gathered in the northwest of Anatolia, consuming a large amount of wood and fresh water every day, and the forests and pastures around the station were often exhausted.
Last year, he returned from Cappadocia to Constantinople and passed through Nicaea and other places. The forests in some areas were still in the recovery period.
"Coal can be used as fuel to reduce wood consumption."
Entering the naval command post, Romanus informed Cohen of this suggestion. The latter was stunned for a moment. He focused on high-quality wood that can be used to build ships, and never cared about other types of trees.
However, since the crown prince spoke, Cohen immediately allocated two large merchant ships to focus on transporting coal from Thessaloniki to Gythio Harbor.
The coal matter came to an end, and Romanus got down to business. "What is the situation of the enemy fleet? How many Cruiser are active outside?"
Cohen pointed at the ship model in a certain area of the map. "After multiple reconnaissances, all those Battleship were anchored at Souda Bay. Before landing, I personally led some ships to block the bay outside to prevent the enemy Battleship from interfering with the troop transport fleet.
The enemy has no more than ten Cruiser at its disposal. Their combat style has become conservative and they try to avoid fighting with us. Their main task is to reconnoiter the northern waters.
Cruiser functions like a light cavalry and is flexible. Even if we have the numerical advantage, we cannot destroy all enemy ships in a short time. When we land on Crete next month, we may encounter the enemy's Cruiser."
Time passed by, the weather got warmer, and the sea conditions at the Mediterranean Sea gradually calmed down. On March 1, the fleet left Nafplion one after another and sailed towards Crete under the blowing of the north wind.
The sun is warm and shining on this vast sea without any obstruction. The flags on the masts are flapping. Forty transport ships are lined up in two columns. Their draft is very deep. Even if all the sails are fully loaded, the speed is only six knots.
On the periphery of the column are twenty Cruiser, which keep moving forward at half sail and are always alert to potential threats in the distance.
There are four Battleship at the head and tail of the column. Even if the remaining ships of Venice suddenly appear on the sea, the escort fleet will still be able to fight.
On the second day of going to sea, a bitter northeasterly wind blew on the sea. A Venice warship appeared in the east sea. The warship did not stop and hurriedly turned around to evacuate, trying to send the news back to Crete.
On the deck of the flagship Nesos, Romanus looked at the outline of the enemy ship with a telescope, "The other party was so lucky that they actually encountered our fleet."
However, the enemy does not yet know the specific landing location of the legion, leaving Romanus with plenty of time.
In the afternoon, the fleet circled around the southwest end of Crete and sailed towards an open, deserted bay.
The vegetation on the coast is sparse, and behind it is a stretch of low rolling hills, generally in a dry yellow color. A small river with shallow water flows into the sea. The staff observed the reference objects on the nearby coast and confirmed that this was the landing site.
Romanus asked the flagship to send a signal to notify Marine Battalion to log in.
Soon, the fleet lowered the sails and slowed down, and the anchor chain slipped rapidly from the anchor chain hole, making a heavy rumbling sound. The anchor fell into the sea with a huge splash, and was immediately engulfed by the surging seawater. The hull rushed forward for a short distance with the help of inertia, and then was suddenly pulled by the anchor chain. The hull stabilized and undulated slightly rhythmically with the swells.
After the fleet came to a stop, the officers of each ship blew their whistles. Marine Battalion The soldiers came to the deck from the crowded and damp hold. Their vision suddenly became brighter. They half-squinted their eyes, trying to adapt to the environment in the sun as soon as possible.
The sailors were busy on the side of the ship, using ropes and pulleys to slowly lift the landing gear Longboat, and then lower it to the sea.
Di~
The company chief sergeant blew the whistle Brass Whistle, and the soldiers slowly climbed along the rope ladder on the side of the ship to Longboat below, like some clumsy beetles, looking for a foothold between the swaying hull and the rope ladder.
Occasionally, a soldier accidentally stepped on the air, causing a burst of exclamations and curses from the officers.
Eastern Roman Empire totaled two Marine Battalion, belonging to Aegean Fleet and Black Sea Fleet respectively, with a total of one thousand soldiers. They occupied fifty Longboat and sailed slowly to the beach in the distance.
Romanus raised the telescope and stared nervously at the hills in the distance. The sweat from his palms made the mirror slightly slippery. Suddenly, the lookout high on the mast shouted:
"More than a hundred people appeared in the Northeast Hills, and the number is still increasing!"
Ambush?
Romanus was startled and looked over according to the lookout's guidance. A group of farmers armed with wooden spears and pitchforks came out from behind the hills, and the leading black-robed cleric held up a Orthodoxy cross.
At this time, the flagship and the remaining seven Battleships have been loaded, and the 18-pound heavy guns are aimed at the hills in the distance. The gunners hold the ignition rods, ready to ignite at any time.
Romanus ordered the captain, "Wait a minute and let the fleet stop shooting!"
Ten minutes later, Marine Battalion and Longboat were anchored on the beach. They gathered in company units into eight small square formations and slowly headed to the nearby hills, hoping to occupy these commanding heights near the sea.
Soon, Black Sea Marine Battalion came into contact with these ragged villagers, and Deputy Battalion Commander discovered that they were indeed Greece people, so he lowered his vigilance slightly.
He observed the inland area, which lacked dense forests and there was no possibility of setting up an ambush, so he sent a signal to the sea to notify the second group of troops to land.
At four o'clock in the afternoon, a total of 3,000 soldiers completed the landing. They occupied the nearby hills, half of the soldiers were on guard, and the other half were busy cutting down the few trees and building simple dock facilities.
Romanus came to the beach and learned about Crete's current situation from these farmers.
Among the many overseas territories of Venice, the residents of Corfu have the lightest burden, and their loyalty to Venice is acceptable. The residents of Crete have the heaviest burden, and many uprisings have broken out.
Last year, Eastern Roman Empire recovered Ionian Islands, and the contact between Venice and Crete was significantly reduced, which caused a serious problem:
The local military pay cannot be shipped, and Crete's mercenaries cannot receive their wages!
At first, the Duke and Venice commanders comforted the mercenaries and swore that Venice would never default on their debts, so they managed to fool them.
What's worse is that Crete has not only lost contact with the mainland, but has also been cut off from Trade of Egypt.
Without Egypt's source of cheap grains, the prices of Crete's agricultural products soared. When the mercenaries went out to spend money, they found that the prices of wine and meat had risen to an unbearable level.
Over time, rumors spread among the army. The mercenaries believed that the Duke deliberately raised the prices of agricultural products to drain the mercenaries of their savings, and then used the money as new military pay to distribute to the brothers.
In order to calm the mercenaries' anger, the duke and his advisers urgently discussed and decided to temporarily increase taxes and provide more wine and meat to the mercenaries.
This move stabilized the morale of the military at the cost of increasing the burden on local farmers. Some poor people could no longer survive and were forced to kill tax collectors and flee into the mountains to become bandits...
Eastern Roman Empire has captured some enemy officers, and the information he has is: Crete has a maximum number of 20,000 mercenaries. After the continuous consumption of the war, there are still 12,000~16,000 people.
Romanus made a quick calculation. "The total number of mercenaries, Venice descendants, Militia, and navy exceeds 30,000. Crete only has more than 200,000 civilians. It cannot afford to support so many soldiers when it is cut off from the outside world."
Crete Public dissatisfaction spread, Venice mobilized some troops to maintain order. Romanus speculated that this war would be easier than expected.
March 3rd, morning.
Sakarya Legion completed the landing, and more than ten thousand soldiers gathered on the beach. Romanus sent thousands of soldiers deep into the interior to cut down trees to obtain more wood.
After a battle with Uzon Hassan, Romanus sadly discovered the fact that he did not have the talent of a "famous general" and was not suitable for difficult operations such as using the weak to attack the strong and using fewer enemies to defeat more enemies.
The advantage of landing in the southwest of the island is that it is far away from Candia. After the main enemy force receives the news, it will take 5 to 6 days to arrive.
Using this precious time, Romanus can build a semi-permanent camp in the bay and wait for the second wave of reinforcements.
The disadvantages of this coast are that it is barren and has poor soil, making it unsuitable for farming. The army cannot raise supplies locally and can only use Longboat to transport supplies between the fleet and the coast.
However, compared to logging in other areas, this plan is now the most reliable, ensuring that the early login of the Army will not be disturbed.
"The transport fleet is returning to Gythio Harbor. In five days, when the main force of Venice arrives, my reinforcements should also arrive. Even if the reinforcements do not arrive, Battleship can provide fire suppression on the sea, and the enemy will not be able to attack it anyway."