Chapter 307: 302: The Fastest

"Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth."

-        Macbeth, William Shakespeare

On top of that singular word response 'no', the city council returned Mahumad Pasha Angelovic a particularly interesting letter of 'apologies' that definitely sounded like one in its use of words, as quoted in the letter "we cannot clear up the residences of our own citizens to give your highness' massive army a place to sleep, for our citizens shall freeze in the cold, we cannot afford prepare the stored food for the troops as our citizens shall starve, we cannot provide your army water to drink as your tens of thousands of men shall suck our well water dry, and we definitely cannot allow your defeated army in to our city, for you and your money shall only bring starvation, disorder, rape, lawlessness, crimes and plagues in to our beloved city." 

Upon reading the letter Mahumad Pasha Angelovic unleashed all of his frustration, grievances and depression out tearing this letter in to multiple pieces and pierced his blade in to the chest of the messenger panting heavily. Then he took a peek at the flag of the white horse belonging to the Sultan hanging right above his head, and he did some thing rather remarkable and rather unthinkable to others – He jumped down the horse, draw out his blade and sliced through the wooden pole of the flag making it fall on to the muddy winter soil, tainted with a mixture of snow, Earth and blood. 

"We cannot stay like this state any longer!" Mahumad Angelovic cried out to the people who are still following him. "Now those infidel bastards in Serres has betrayed us, and if I guessed correctly, the Rumelians shall make their final assault by tomorrow morning, if we still stays unprepared and defenseless like this we shall be doomed…" 

"So? So what?" Another lord retorted back. "How do we still prepare ourselves in this current situation? We have lost our control over the entire army. No one dares to stop in their tracks, not even you! Even you has zero control on the entire force… Listen to me, pasha, you are of much more worth being alive, and we are not defeated, neither are we retreating… We are simply conducting a tactical maneuver! So just run pasha!" 

"Tactical Maneuver…" Mahumad Angelovic made a tsk sound and laughed out in a sarcastic tone. "No, I am not saying that I shall attempt to form another defense here in this spot, I know our current capabilities don't need to worry about that I have not yet became a lunatic. But tactical maneuver…. That is indeed a nice phrase…" 

The people surrounding Mahumad Angelovic looked at each other guessing the meaning and intention in this pasha's words, while some straight forward commander asked. "What do you mean pasha?" 

"What I mean is pretty simple." The pasha looked around on the faces of every one and replied while taking off his perspiration soaked gauntlets. "Things has evolved in to a completely helpless state now, and thus what we ought to do is to stop being such obvious targets in the middle of this massive army which is like a torch light in the middle of the night luring the Ottomans to come for us." 

The noble immediately thought of the decision which previously seemed to be impossible. "You mean… Have you finally made up your mind pasha?" Following this question many more realised what they are talking about but remained silent with their heads lowered, clearly not willing to waste their lives here away meaninglessly. 

"Yes, you are right." Mahumad Angelovic threw his helmet on to the ground and proceeded on taking off his armor. "We shall disguise ourselves as slaves, and then run towards the citadel of Drama tens of miles away, the gate keeper there is one of my former students, and I am pretty sure that he shall not betray me. There we can carry on to gather our remaining troops and form a line of defense, just like how the Rumelians did to us." 

Many nodded and agreed, but suddenly one lord provoked a rather sensitive question at this point of time. "There must be some one who will remain here to guard the commanding flag to give the Rumelians a sign that we are still here… And we need the clothes of those slaves, but where are they now?" 

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"Clothes should not be an issue, just take off your armor with only your interior wear, and then take a roll in the mud then you shall look exactly like a slave, but you got a point… We need some noble men to remain here with the army, come, lets decide, who shall stay here? And who shall leave with us?" 

No one dared to utter a sound fearing that they might be hand picked to be the carrier of the flag attracting the attention of the feared Rumelian cavalries. Seeing this Mahumad Angelovic clapped and ordered. "Every lord must have a son or nephew remaining in the army to guard the flag! For me… My son has died in the heated battle just now, and so my nephew shall remain here as my representative." 

The nephew of Mahumad Pasha Angelovic standing behind immediately started breaking in to sweat of panic as he has never expected that he shall be the one to be picked to die first ahead of others. He looked at his uncle with a pair of begging eyes pleading for his dear uncle's mercy to let him return home. 

Seeing his nephew's emotions Mahumad Angelovic sighed and gave him a pat on his shoulder explaining. "I am not sending you to die, when the Rumelian cavalries come you can dispose the flag and run away on your own, but for me and the other lords which are critical figure heads of the government and the army, we need to get back safe in one piece so that subsequent work and projects can be organised and carried on, so that we will still have hope against the menacing expansion of the Rumelians, you understand?" 

Seeing the surrounding returning to a complete silence once more Mahumad Angelovic wasted no more time and words. He stripped himself half naked wearing a regular white robe that resembles the clothing of a slave, checked all the seals that represents his true identities putting it in to his pocket, and then took a roll in the mud beneath making him almost successfully blending as an old slave. 

"Look at our commander! Damn! He now looks like a real miserable eighty plus years old slave!" A lord sniggered sarcastically towards his former boss. "There is absolutely no way that those idiotic Rumelians can recognize our thrifty commander like this." 

Mahumad Angelovic has indeed aged by an appalling amount judging by his looks, it only took one night for his hair to turn from pitch black to a full white with wrinkles appearing on his face ever after the tragic defeat. He remained silent packing his own stuff not bothering to retort against his sub coordinate's word, and then went back in to the woods with his loyal old horse following closely behind. The rest of the lords soon followed dressing themselves up as slaves including the sarcastic guy just now, taking a roll in the mud and dispersing in to the woods to run for their lives. 

However, when the higher ups of the Ottoman army are about to make a full segregation with their commanding flags and troops, a familiar but filled with anger voice came from a far echoing loud enough that it shook the birds nesting in the woods making them fly back in to the sky, it is that nephew of Mahumad Angelovic.

"The coward commander Mahumad Angelovic has run away from us saving his own arse! He threw us here as a distraction to be eaten up by the infidels, and chose to run to safety to continue having his luxurious life!" 

Following this sentence, the 'dearest' nephew of the pasha threw his uncle's flag down in to the mud and made a hasty run in to the woods. The rest of the guards startled and then followed the example of this man before them, instead of performing their duty as the guards of the commanding flag they too made a run for the woods. No one ever thought of chasing that nephew down or getting that flag which carried their honour and prestige in to shape, no one cares any more about honour in times like this. 

The rest of the nobles followed their glorious example too scurrying to the woods, with some even not finishing their disguise yet, but that should not be a worry for them as being pampered with out any experience of winter wild life survival, these noble men shall look exactly like those wild tribal humans a few days later.

Among these people, Mahumad Pasha Angelovic ran away with the fastest speed.

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