Chapter 311: 306: Should I?

"You are Ibrahim Pasha?" Antonius asked in a intriguing tone scrutinizing this tiny little man before him curiously. "I almost thought that you are the newly recruited staff of Julian when I first saw you! You really know how to hide yourself don't you making people not even able to feel your presence." 

Ibrahim Pasha immediately kneeled down banging his head on the carpet towards Antonius. "To the majestic admiral, I am merely a defeated general who is lucky enough to be grabbed in to captain Julian and your merciful hands… I must repent myself of the sins that I should not have resisted against your mighty army making me in to a joke, a clown on both side,, then things like this shall not have happened and I believe we could have met in a more peaceful and conducive place."

"The place of where we meet is of no importance to me, it is the meeting between me and you that makes things important." Antonius gave this man an interesting look and commented. "If the results are diverted, you are seating up here and I am defeated kneeling beneath, I would have looked like a joke too trying to fight an enemy a hundred times bigger than me. But I won… I appreciate your honesty and sincerity for turning yourself in with out the need to play that kind of hide and seek, though I bet that you must be having some thing in you that you want to say to me…am I right?" 

"Yes, majestic admiral." Ibrahim Pasha sunk his head even deeper. "Please allow me to be frank for one more time, since your imperial army has swept through the Ottoman army causing a havoc on the Sultanate, I plead for your approval to support me in taking over Candarli Halil as the regent to bring peace and stability back to the realm…" 

"Pfft…" Following the last sentence of Ibrahim Pasha every one around, including that of Antonius sniggered and chortled silently in Ibrahim's ambitions, Antonius sighed shaking his head. "That is indeed very frank of you to say such words." 

"I have already been defeated by your top notch strategies and your brawny army, my soul has been soaked out by you through this defeat, and thus I dare not tell any more lies in front of you because I know that you, majestic admiral, shall definitely be able to see through my mind." Ibrahim Pasha rose his head up from the ground looking eagerly at Antonius and continued. "Please do listen to me admiral, I have a few reasons on this." 

Antonius' interest has been aroused by this man and he raised his hand up signaling Ibrahim Pasha can continue trying to convince him.

"Admiral, with this gruesome defeat I have wasted almost one tenth of the entire male population in my Sultanate, with every single tribe, tributary, nobles, pashas, lords, basically every one in the Sultanate will now hate me, dread me, see me as their sole enemy wanting to get rid of me in a way as cruel as possible… If I am going to continue being the regent in Edirne the only source of aid I can have is you, honourable admiral, and thus no one shall be more loyal and faithful to you other than me!" 

"Sounds legit." Antonius returned with a playful grin. "Go on, please continue Ibrahim Pasha, your reasons definitely sound convincing." 

"For the second reason." Ibrahim Pasha pretended that he never saw the gleeful face on Antonius' face and the sarcastic taunts of other people. "If I am to ascend to the seat of the Grand Vizier under your aid, I will be seen as a traitor definitely. But although I am seen as a traitor, I still has fifteen thousand troops loyal to me at my disposal back in Thrace, and having the largest political influence aside from Candarli Halil and Zaganos… I can assure you that I shall be the most suitable candidate to sign the terms that greatly benefits you with out having the need to worry about a change of regime abolishing all of those." 

"Oh? Really? You still have fifteen thousand men under your command" Antonius found things escalating more and more interesting for him. "But from what I know your Sultan still has a thousand Janissaries, the northern border garrisons and the another tens of thousands of troops brought by our old friend Zaganos Pasha to Anatolia… If your Sultan, together with your Grand Vizier, keeps the city of Edirne well garrisoned while summoning all the other troops to rush back for aid, I do not think your troops can hold any much longer against all of these people against you, don't you?" 

"Admiral, you have over looked the capability of my Sultan." Ibrahim Pasha gave a smirk and went on evaluating for his audience. "My Sultanate is established on the foundation of several families, clans, lords and nobles coming up together recognizing the Osman family as their ruler a hundred years ago, and that practice has continued since then, and this kind of things are still existing now. The Sultan is merely the largest land and war lord of this country, these forces cannot unite together unless there are special circumstances, as for the Janissaries they are now nothing but merely fanciful toys of the Grand Vizier." 

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"Hmmm I see." Antonius feels like he has learnt some thing new. 

"Not only that, there are more of these kind of disadvantage in the Ottoman political system." Ibrahim Pasha continued explaining. "We have just walked out of that kind of Nomadic way of life for a hundred years, and till now we still have not completed our systems of law, governance, ranks… From what I can assume, those people who escaped the man slaught will not even be able to unite together getting a leader to lead them, maybe every one of them is now thinking of going back to their demesne and declare independence becoming the king of their land!" 

"I see." Antonius laughed leaning backwards on the Sultan's bed. "Is this why you decided to turn yourself in instead of going back? If you go back now you shall achieve nothing accept setting up a target under the broad day light for your opponents making them rise up as a coalition against you, right?" 

"Yes…And no, honourable admiral." Ibrahim Pasha gave a shy giggle. 

"If it is yes!" Antonius frowned and asked again. "If things are really going in the way you are saying, why can't I simply advance my army now and grip the entire piece of land under my feet like having a slice of cake?" 

"No, no, no admiral I am afraid that you cannot do that" Ibrahim Pasha shook his head violently in disapproval. "Admiral, if you do not disturb them, they shall begin another round of internal conflict trying to subject one another. However, if you go straight to taking Edirne, they shall unite up against you! Just like what you have said earlier on! And the city of Edirne is not like Thessaloniki, it is a city that is built since the Romans to specialize in defense, there is no way that your pitifully few ten thousand plus people can lay siege to that level of city!" 

"I see." Antonius turned serious finally holding his hand palms on his thighs. "So you are trying to say that if I go on myself, I will definitely not be able to get Edirne, but if I am supporting you, then you shall have some magical trick that will allow you to get in to the city with my help." 

"Yes! Indeed! Admiral!" Ibrahim Pasha banged his head once more on the carpet. "What is the point of having an entirely useless siege ending up wasting lives resources and time, when you can easily put me in to power, and then I can promise that I can offer you every thing that you want! Gold, women, land, cities, soldiers… Every thing! To serve a better purpose under you, the Grand Admiral, and of course the other captains here." 

"Listen, Ottoman." Antonius leaned forward letting his word sip through his teeth. "The Ottomans, they killed a lot of our people, a lot, my friends, my comrades, my loved, every thing! I have been fighting them for years and it will not just take some money, women, prestige or what to sooth me, and further more it is you people who started this war, and now you want to conclude it in such a easy way?" 

Antonius drew out his cutlass banging it on the table before him almost shattering it. "I! Don't agree! My comrades! Don't agree! And my blade! Don't agree!" 

Hearing this Ibrahim Pasha also chose to let all his bargains out shouting back as a reply. "If the honourable admiral thinks that all of these are still insufficient, I believe my Sultan is willing to pay a visit to Thessaloniki as a form of building mutual trust between the two states… And we will recognize your sovereign over the entire Greece, including that of the city Constantinople."

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