Chapter 322: 317: You Have No Master

"…. Our words are clear! We are not like your old barbaric slave masters that will kill and torture people simply for fun! We are human! We are the creations of God! And you too! Are humans! The creation of God! We are equal! We are equal!"

The next day in the afternoon when the temperature is slightly higher, the captives in the camp are gathered together in different groups in the respective gathering points listening to the speech given by various captains under Antonius and the other representatives of his force huddled together in woollen clothing and warm drink cooked in pots. Being different from last time a large portion of them did not even understand the Greek language, at least not the Greek tongue and Antonius is speaking. Thus, Antonius had to bring a translator along with him, this time being Abdullah, of course.

"We are all equal!" Antonius repeated his words again loud and clear with his hands on his waist glancing through his audience "You and me! Are all equal, our blood is red, we got two hands, two legs, two ears, two eyes, two heads… um no one head, we are all the same! I have heard about complaints from my commanders around the camp saying that there are some nobles here who sees themselves so called 'more prestigious' than the others creating a whole lot of unnecessary needs and waste… This is intolerable!"

"Even I don't do that, and I see myself as the same as the other people, thus if you think that you are probably 'more prestigious' than me feel free to have a talk with me, let me see what kind of piss pot you are and whether you are worthy for my leniency and better treatment… Any ways, I do not want to waste time with these kind of people, and friends! We might be enemy last time, but that squabbles we had in the past does not mean that we shall stay in that state forever! Now I can proudly say that we can still be friends!"

"Thus, I have some plans for you, all of you." Antonius opened the scroll of paper on his hands, cleared his throat and read it out loud. "For those of you who wants to join my army, we welcome you and shall bring you to your new captains equipped with new gears. For those who wants to join my labour force, we applaud for you on behalf of master Orban. For those who wants to want to settle down here for agriculture, we praise you and we shall distribute new land and tools to you with guaranteed no taxation for the first three years, and for those who sadly wants to leave us back to where they came from, we are disappointed but we can still escort you to Thrace and hand you over to the Sultan."

Following the words translated by Abdullah the crowds beneath soon bursted in to a serious of discussion and debates with the admiral's words. Antonius can feel that most people are touched by his offer, with some not giving a damn as they desires to go home soon, but most displayed distrust and suspicion towards Antonius for an extremely simple reason, where in the world are there such good things where by you invaded a foreign piece of land to kill their people, get a crashing defeat becoming a captive, and then your enemy still returns you with a piece of land and a sum of wealth?

Antonius sensed the mistrust and suspicion among these people. He smirked sitting don on the stage facing the crowd like the good old days when he was still a pirate captain shouting out to his crew. "I know that there is still no mutual trust between us, but it is fine. I want to gain faith in you people first in order to work together better in the future and thus let me be very frank to you on why I am doing this giving such welfare…"

"… It is because I need people, I need man power, I need to unite every bit of men strength under me as much as possible no matter with it being my enemies, my friends or my allies. Because of the tyrant rule of the local Ottoman Beys who knows nothing except drawing local population for conscription on to meaningless things and taxation that is sky high, accompanied with the series of conflicts and battles since a decade ago it has caused an immense amount of damage to the local population and habitat. With many local population either killed in the wars or have evacuated to more stable places.

Antonius picked a man randomly pointing at him asking. "What does this means?"

The man gave Antonius a blank look and shook his head. Antonius pointed towards several more people asking the exact same question, but most returned with an ignorant look. Antonius frowned and then answered the question on behalf of them.

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"It means that although I have gained a victory, but I found out that I have lost more than my gain, one quarter of the population of the entire region around and including Thessaloniki has fled to evade the war, one quarter has been drafted by the Ottomans as hard labour and siege foot men, one quarter has died and now I only have one quarter of the original population remaining under my rule… Thus, I need men, I have lots of vacant lands, houses and tools, the only thing I lacks now is fresh man power. In other words, this is not only a welfare I gifted to you people, but also a trade deal, I distribute you the land, tools and seeds, while you repay me with economic growth, labour and food."

With Antonius concluding his statements the previously loud discussions soon quietened down with many started considering on the admiral's offer. However, seeing the people around him really considering about the lucrative offer by their devilish enemies an Ottoman noble stood up against Antonius shouting out. "I do not believe you! Lord of the Rumelians! Who knows whether you will stab us in the back one day! You are a Chris…"

"May I ask this gentleman over here." Antonius narrowed his eyes and stared at this man. "What do you want from me to increase your trust then?"

"I want to go." The man bites his teeth and continued confronting the admiral. "I want to go back with my demesne, and I want to take back my peasants and slaves with me. And I do not want you Rumelians to send escorts to peek on my supervising my trails and ambush me on my route back home, I want to go back by myself."

"Of course, you are free to go after this, just report your name to your assigned captain." Antonius nodded first but shook his head. "But I must tell you that you are not allowed to force your previous slaves and peasants to go along with you."

"What? Why?" The lesser Ottoman noble could not believe what he has just heard. "But they are my properties! They belong to me!"

"Shut up your feudal scum bag!" Antonius suddenly raised his voice roaring back at this man constantly going against his words. "Have you not heard the words in my speech just now merely a few minutes ago? I said that you, me, your peasants and slaves, all of them are treated as equal under my rule? What kind of capability do you think you have to enslave others to provide a more satisfying life for you? Huh? Are you valorous? Are you intelligent? Are you diligent? Are you a man of virtue? Then what made you think that you can lead other people? Just because your rank is higher? Or your title is longer? Huh?"

The captured Ottoman noble is caught in a state of shock with the admiral's words unable to make a clear response except for a series of vague mumbling. Antonius ignored this man and went on seeking the group of peasants and slaves that is supposed owned by this inferior Ottoman noble, who are trembling in both cold and fear from the admiral holding their mug of warm drink and asked in a relatively gentler tone. "Listen folks, I shall only ask you people this question for one time, do you want to go back to your old places following this useless piss pot, or do you want to join me earning a brand new way of life?"

The group of people huddled together still looking at their old master, apparently still filled with fear over their deep pain in memories. Antonius gave a cold hmpgh pulling these people up. "Stand up! Tell me a straight forward answer! He is no more your master why are you still looking at him?"

"Ye…Yes! Your highness!" After a while of hesitation, the slave responded. "Please allow us to follow your guidance!"

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