Chapter 303: 298: Not A Trace

"There is small risk a general will be regarded with contempt by those he leads, if, whatever he may have to preach, he shows himself best able to perform."

-        Xenophon

The next morning on the first day of November the Ottomans started packing up embarking on an organised retreat, group by group, starting with their rear first. The Ottoman commanding group knows themselves and the troops they command well enough to stop the foolish idea of starting the retreat over night. If they are to retreat over the night their woeful organisation level shall almost be certain to automatically evolve in to a precipitate collapse even with out the Rumelians coming after them. 

Though they also know that they are at their most critical situation when they are retreating under broad day light, requiring a sturdy defense at the front line. Because there is almost no reason for the Rumelians to not come after their tails when they get the information that their enemies are retreating. If they managed to stir up some trouble in the back it can cause a series of panic to spread to the entire army with rumors passing around, and then ending up in a stampede causing even more irreversible loss. 

And if the Rumelian are to launch a counter offensive, every one here in this tent can assume straight forwardly that they are definitely going to unleash their cavalry which has not been used since the smart of the battle. If it is last time Mahumad Pasha Angelovic can still pat his chest and reassure the people here that his cavalry is able to push the Rumelian cavalry back, but now with no horses he simply set there like a puppet. 

Being an unstoppable force, the cavalries can easily ram through the fragile defenses in to the retreating troops. Every one here is an expert in horses and they knows that because of the foolish decision by some random old man who is sadly not here to see all of this today, the Ottomans pitched their camp in the middle of a broad road, combined with the height of the horses, accelerated speed of cavalries and formidable charge, it shall be the day of doom for the Ottoman troops. 

By then, if the Rumelian leader values his horses and riders, they can choose to stay in a distance and pour down showers of arrows on to the retreating Ottomans chasing them in the direction they want, following behind their tails, making the entire army unable to stop and take a rest exhausting itself to the very end until the troops can no longer take it and disperse in all directions, causing stampede and chaos. That is why the calvaries are the dominant figures in the entire battle field, with a mixture of agility and attack. 

However, there is still one way left for the Ottomans if they want to have a full retreat, that is leave an elite force behind under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, line up in formations first and push the Rumelian back if they showed signs of coming out from that walls mustering up in charging formations. Cavalries are far less reliable in short distances against organised infantries in a limited terrain, and thus they shall not be able to form a charge and with that the Ottomans shall have no more worries about their back getting pounded by Rumelian hooves. 

And that is exactly what Ibrahim Pasha is planning today, immediately as the massive retreat started, he pulled out an entire twelve thousand strong forces as rear guard, with eight thousand men forming up outside the camp, four thousand inside the camp solidifying and guarding the fences, and another eight thousand on stand by. All of these is done on the purpose of stopping Rumelian cavalries as soon as they appear in sight.

All of their intentions is almost transparent to Antonius as he knows that since the first day that Candarli Halil old man chose to construct his front line camp at such close proximity distance, one of its core purpose is to stop his calvaries from charging out in formations keeping them inside the walls just in case in the almost zero possibility that they failed to take down Thessaloniki defenses and needs to call for a retreat. 

Ibrahim Pasha has already decided deep in his mind that even if his bones are shattered in this piece of foreign land today, he will keep the calvaries of the 'lion' locked in the cage they constructed for themselves. 

Never can he allow the Rumelian calvaries to come out of the walls in large numbers, and never can he allow the Rumelian cavalries to successfully line up in formations before him. 

If the thousands of Rumelian cavalries are to appear on this broad one way road like terrain in large numbers forming a spear head, they can break through these Ottoman rear guards cutting and slicing them up in smaller segments leaving the rest of the job for the infantries, and they can continue to be in hot pursuit for the retreating troops. Ibrahim Pasha knows that it shall be a catastrophe.

Just as Ibrahim Pasha is fully absorbed in his own thinking, a round of cheers and clapping came from the Rumelian camps breaking his thinking process. He rose up his head and saw that familiar war banner, that red flag with a Rumelian crown and a white lion that caused all these dread for this entire month but yet Ibrahim Pasha is unable to start any resentment of hate towards this flag, only horror and panic. As he knows that this war banner means, it means that his sole enemy that Antonius is now here on the walls watching him and his men. 

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"Send out the scouts!" Shrieked Ibrahim Pasha on the horse. "Send out all our scouts, I want a full detailed information on what the hell is the Rumelians doing inside there!" 

A couple of minutes later the scouts started to gallop back to their commander one by one. "My honourable pasha…" The first scout scrambled down his horse and kneeled down reporting. "All the Rumelians have came down from their walls!" 

"There are a lot of dust showing up behind the Rumelian walls!" 

"Go scout again!" Roared Ibrahim Pasha as he felt some thing is not right by his instinct. 

"The Rumelians are gathering up in formations behind the walls!" 

"They pushed down their stoves, tents, towers, they look like they are pulling out of their camps too!" 

"Go scout again!" Ibrahim Pasha sniffed at the scout's innocent thought. 

Around fifteen minutes later another scout came back with a pale face and trembling lips. "Cavalries! Massive…Massive amount of Rumelian cavalries are spotted behind the walls, almost countless, forming up an attack formation right behind the walls!" 

"There are at least five thousand Rumelian cavalries I can spot with my naked eyes on that hill, honourable pasha." The scout's face is like a piece of white paper. "And roughly another five thousand infantries forming up on the front of the cavalries, they seem to have brought along some thing in their hands…" 

Hearing these words Ibrahim Pasha squeezed his eye brows trying to figure out what are the Rumelians planning to do. It seems to him that it is very obvious that Rumelians are going to come out of their walls with infantries first charging in to his troops trying to push them back in order to save the time and space for their cavalries to come out of the camp and get in to a spear head formation. Then their cavalries shall begin the charge outside the walls from the flanks squashing his infantries, breaking through the camps and chase the retreating forces… But there is still a voice in his head that tells Ibrahim Pasha that some thing is definitely not right here. 

However, there is no time for him to ponder any more, any second on the battle field is critical that can decide the final victor of the battle, especially for the commanders on both sides. He needs to make a decision fast and thus he decided to stay put with his infantries already separated in three defensive zig zagged formations that shall maximise their battle width, and ought to be efficient in stopping both the Rumelians infantries and cavalries. 

Honestly speaking he did want to start pushing forward to squeeze the charging space for the Rumelians but knowing the poor morales and organisation level of his troops he gave this idea up knowing that if they start moving it is nearly impossible for his troops to march in a coordinated manner, breaking the chain of command up and in the end causing another catastrophic defeat. 

After he finally made up his mind Ibrahim Pasha went back to the center of the army and awaited the arrivals of his foes, mentally prepared that this shall be his fight of redemption, and he is already planning on how much political influence he can gain from escorting the hundreds of thousands of men to safety. 

But after waiting for half an hour, not a trace of Rumelian can be seen.

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