Chapter 291: 286: Totally Useless

"Shame to all men, for how ungrateful is he!

From what substance did is he created? From a sperm-drop. 

It is He who creates him, raised him, then provides nourishment for him, 

Then it is He who decides him to die, then puts him to a grave. 

Then, when He will, He revives him. But! Had he fulfilled what He had commanded him?"

-        Qu'ran 80 : 17-23

These political analysis by Antonius is almost certainly unthinkable for many captains and commanders standing on this platform as most of them are still uneducated people carrying out normal civilian life before they enlisted in to Antonius' fleet. If it is not for Antonius they would not have even thought for that much. After listening to Antonius' words, they suddenly had this thought evolving in their head that probably… This battle might not be as hard as it seems?"

"Lads, listen to me." Antonius looked around and declared. "Think about the recent events evolving around the Ottoman court and political system… a young puppet Sultan, a courtier gripping hold of power, entire country split in to two… Actually three, engaged in a seemingly endless civil war, peasants and ordinary people forced in to hard labour and slavery with no food to eat, ambitious regional lords entering a half autonomy state, you know what do all of these symbolise?"

All the people here, especially Abdullah, felt a tightening grip in their heart, but still they have never dared to even think in to that direction. However, they still vaguely get what Antonius mean in his words, that is….

"That is the Ottomans have lost their mandate and blessing by the God!" Suddenly now Antonius changed his usual ways from being an almost non believer and began taking advantage of God. "And we just happened to expand to this place taking up the challenge and initiative against them, have you people not thought about it?"

"It means that now the trinity has descended the mandate and ownership to us. If we does not take the offering by God and missed the chance to liberate the mass public from the whips and laws of tyranny from the Ottomans, the people shall be disappointed at us, our soldiers will be disappointed at us, the families shall be disappointed at us, and… God shall be disappointed at us."

Antonius drawn out his brand new cutlass and waved it forward towards the Ottoman Sultan's war banner of white horse flying in a distance. "Now! Listen to my orders! Julian, Yuri, Fisnik, Helio, Fjodor!"

"Admiral!" The four bowed down and awaited orders.

"Yuri and Fjodor shall guard the forts on the left side, with Yuri as the main commander and Fjodor as the vice commander."

"Aye! Admiral!"

"Helio, Fisnik! You two shall guard the forts on the right side, with Helio as the main commander and Fisnik as the vice commander."

Helio certainly did not expect him to get a position as the main commander among all the other commanders to lead thousands of people, he reluctantly bowed down and acknowledged the order. Antonius gave him a pat on the shoulder and comforted. "I know your gingerliness mind shall make the perfect trait to be a future general that shall excel in defensive battles, and you are probably the one who is the most familiar with these fortresses as you are the one who constructed it. Come, my boy, show some confidence!"

Feeling deeply touched by the admiral's words Helio said no more and acknowledged the order and went down the tower to his post. While for another boy Fisnik, a mixture of emotions of envy, question, and admiration started raising in his mind as he listens to the compliments of the admiral… but it is not for him. He too went to his new post following Helio. 

"Alexios!" 

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"Yes, admiral!" 

"You shall be in charge of all logistics work, and you must ensure to me that no matter what happens, the food, ammunations and medications for our men fighting a bitter war must not be stopped. If the supply chain is disrupted, we shall die. I now hand you the most vital job of the entire army, can you take it Alexios?" 

"I swear, admiral." Alexios became much serious this time facing a life or death situation. 

"Khalid, Mamsriqwe. I am sorry but I now have not much use of a cavalry force with such battle restrictions, thus I need your men to get off their horses and fight on the walls in the three defensive lines using their superior archery skills."

"Yes, admiral."

"Julian…" Antonius looked in to the eyes of his most trusted commander. "Needless to say, Julian I have my full trust on you, and from now onwards you shall take over me as the commanding officer of the defences in the central forts. I shall also hand you my flag newly sewed by Anna and watch you perform…. In other words, my life is now dependant on you." 

"Aye! Admiral!" Julian kneeled down as Antonius handed over his commanding flag in to the hands of Julian. 

"Abraham!" Antonius picked up his bow and handed it over to his old pal. "Take this bow and bring along a hundred cavalries to patrol around the different camps. If you spot any one, no matter if he is a regular soldier or a commander, kill him at once with this bow… If one soldier decides to desert from the battle field, his entire family shall be punished along with him… However, if we win this battle, I shall take not a single bit of loot or interest, and all plunders shall be distributed to the soldiers accordingly… Go spread the message!" 

"Yes, my admiral." Abraham accepted the order and went away gathering his horse men, while these words sent a shiver down the spines of every single captain in this area. 

"Abdullah, my brother." In the end Antonius smiled towards Abdullah and said gently. "Your friend, Fahim, has brought me some good smelling green leaves from the East… Expensive stuff, lets have a seat on this tower and enjoy eating the green leaves on this tower while over looking the entire battle field." 

Abdullah is surprised as he is still waiting for his orders, but still he had nothing more to say and nodded seating down on the wooden plank with a hand gesture inviting Antonius to seat down too. 

Both sides prepared nervously over night stock piling ammos and medication, while the captains prowl through the walls trying to find any defensive holes that can be exploited. 

The battle over the fortresses outside Thessaloniki officially started the next morning. 

The first ones to emerge are the drafted infantries that are mostly farmers holding simple blade, spears and even pitch forks. Being almost countless in number like a tidal wave ready to strike on to a boulder they screamed and shouted while charging towards the wooden walls while being chased and supervised by Ottoman anti retreat barrier horse men at their back. 

These drafted soldiers, ready to burst in to the Rumelian fortresses to loot and plunder just like what their commanders have previously promised them under the thunderous sounds of drums and horns flying their basha or bey's banner. However when they swarmed all the way until the walls, they then realised that they do not have a proper kind of siege weapon to get over these walls! Not even a ladder! As they charged too fast breaking their coordination with the ones who are carrying ladders leaving them behind. 

Thus, they had to slip in to the one person tall moats in front of these walls first, and make a climb up. But when their hands touched the wooden walls countless spears started poking out of the walls from the prepared holes and slits plunging them right back again in to the moat lying there and get stomped to death by their own pals. 

Of course, they did have archers to support them, but these archers soon realised one thing; They had to get in to a closer distance to the walls in order to make sure that their arrows can shoot in an angle that is enough to elevate through the walls and reach the Rumelian defenders behind, however the Rumelian have developed and equipped with a kind of cross bow that far out matches them in range. This caused the Ottoman archers to be picked on first and eliminated one by one before they even reached the appropriate distance, some archers out of panic stopped far way and started shooting arrows just for show to the supervising horse men, but instead of hitting the Rumelian their arrows hit the besieging Ottoman infantries causing another round of casualties on the back. 

However, when the Ottoman infantries pushed their ladders to the walls after stagnating there for a long period of time, they are horrified finding out that the only siege equipment they have, the ladders, is totally useless on these Rumelian barricades.

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