Chapter 324: 319: Time Pass Fast

After the series of conflicts, negotiations and minor sieges the region of Thessaly entered an abnormal time of chilling peace when no major confrontations between either parties ever happened again, the entire country is loomed in a quiet atmosphere, way too quiet considering the fact that the two states and four factions revolving around this region are still dead rivals who sworn to their God wishing to slit their blade down the throat of their foes. 
Every one, inclusive of the victors, losers and spectators all needed time to take a little breathe before they move their next step. The Ottomans need some time to take a breathe consolidating their country which is already falling apart, rebuild her fractured army, collate their ineffective government and most importantly get the mass population back to the fields where they came from to plant the new crops before spring comes so that it will not evolve in to a grand famine if they miss the seed planting season timing. 
For Antonius his situation is even more dire than the Ottomans as no matter how grand his victory is it still does not change the current state his army and economy is. His military is still mainly composed of an overly powerful fleet and a worn out, tired, diminishing army of only less than ten thousand – many soldiers laid down their swords and armours returning to their homes for their own business after successfully defending their mother land with pride and glory. 
After a while Antonius found himself powerless to go on to any further expeditions expanding in to new territories when his troops are even insufficient to hold the forts and cites they have taken over. And apart from this he received another piece of message sent from Alexios regarding the grain storage inside Thessaloniki, it has almost dwindled to a pitiful amount that is probably not going to last until the next harvest even considering the fact that they have control of the sea trade route. The cunning merchants of the Mediterranean republics have already sensed this and of course, by their nature they began stocking up their grains raising the price creating a bargain to maximize their profits, though they know that when hunger spreads people can die in mass groups literally. 
In life it is better to rely on one self than others especially when it comes to areas that decides matter of life and death, this principle applies both to persons and countries. 
Though there is still some things that can be done, such as Antonius recruiting most of the captives allocating them on to the vacant land or land confiscated from those land lords with tools and seeds to get prepared for next year's harvest, and also dispatching troops in to fields to try to look for the eggs of pests like locusts, dig for wells and finding soft soils to push the stretches of canals in preparation for the next planting season all in the hope for a good harvest next year.
All actions are halted, all trainings are put on a slower pace with the newly recruited troopers out in farm lands to feed themselves and with it the expansion of Antonius is completely halted, with his new domain south ending at the fortress of Platamon, to the west occupying the important regional city of Edessa, to the North stopping the city Kavala which is an important intersection between Thrace and Thessaly overwatching the Sultan in Edirne.
With the period of insurgency ended it is now a time to rest, starting with Antonius travelling around his newly controlled state donned in a set of fancy ceremonial dress that God knows where did Anjelo dig out from the ware houses of the government building, which Antonius removed it throwing it back inside the basement in less than a week. He still prefers that leather coat that he wears back when he was on the seas, with a design that gives its wearer not only agility but most importantly freedom. That is exactly why Antonius despised those fancy ceremonial dresses, according to him "the tight collars almost suffocated him and that absurdly heavy crown almost broke his neck". 

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The fires of war in  is now Thessaly extinguished, but every one with sense knows that this is only for temporarily with the situation still being like a pile of gun powder waiting to be ignited and explode. 
Nevertheless the region still kept an unusual kind of peace between the different regional powers and factions except for occasional minor skirmishes on the borders, leaving a few corpses behind at the end of the day. Although it seems to be meaningless but it is only thanks to them that their families and country men at the back could have a relatively peaceful five years with out getting disturbed from their production activities which in turn provided enough material support for these brave souls standing at the front lines. 
Of course, a lot of things happened in these five years in the Peninsula, like there is a regime change in the distant northern land of Wallachia again replacing the current ruler with a new guy called Vlad who seemingly jumped out from no where breaking the tributary ties with the Ottomans. The age old Despot of Serbia finally went to see Jesus Christ to repent his sins personally. John Hunyadi starting a new round of recruitment exercise in Hungary but faced pressure from both the people and his own sovereign resulting in an extremely slow progress. To the South the two brothers ruling over the Peloponnese seems to have some bigger fancy idea inside their head of constructing a palace for their own luxuries with some help offered by the Venetian delegates on building materials and monetary loans in exchange for some thing, of course, their service never comes free.
However, the most important changes came from the west and the east, in the west there is change of leadership for the Bishop of Rome Pontifex Maximus. Not only one change but two, with the short lived Callixtus III the Valencian succeeding Pope Nicholas V, and then succeeded by Pope Pius II. Interestingly speaking both popes are interested in assisting the catholic powers and the emperor of Constantinople expel Ottoman forces out of Europa. Though unfortunately speaking these powers are still struggling to recover from their last defeat and the emperor of Constantinople still being cautious unwilling to be the pawn that acts first. However, the Latin states are definitely not willing to sponsor much of Antonius who is the only one showing progress in the conquest for a simple reason, for his… not really noble reputation in Italia for what he has done decade before. 
Actually, for Antonius things in the west did not really interest Antonius, for he never had a good impression on the people of the west after witnessing or hearing so many defeats, so many failures and so many atrocities done by these people who has never been united together even when facing the same enemy. To him things on the Eastern side of the Aegean interested him more, as after a prolonged engagement between Orhan and Zaganos a shocking news came from Anatolia. 
Sultan Orhan suffered a catastrophic defeat near the plains of Senirkent in the west of Lake Egidir against the troops of Zaganos Pasha. Though no precise detail of the battle arrived at Thessaloniki but under a series of analysis and studies the commanders are still able to produce a rough assumption on how did the battle happen from earlier intel they acquired; Ever since Zaganos Pasha stepped foot on the lands of Anatolia, Sultan Orhan has aborted most operations and holdings along the coast of Anatolia retreating in to the vast mountain ranges of Anatolia avoiding direct battle knowing that although his army is superior in quantity but greatly inferior in quality and unity.
The battle has been stagnating ever since with Zaganos Pasha rushing back and forth to rescue coastal holdings under attack by Orhan's forces who would suddenly come out of the mountains and lay attack, and after a while retreating back in to the mountains like a whirl of wind before Zaganos could arrive with his reinforcements. This whole thing almost became a cat and rat game. 
The situation continued for four plus years, with Sultan Orhan losing most of his sources of taxation and trade but successfully preserving his strength, Zaganos Pasha gained almost every city on the Western coast of Anatolia but now he also has a larger area to defend greatly tiring his troops, and with the situation escalating towards the worst many towns and cities began developing their own defenses recruiting their own city guards, started producing weapons in their own black smith, constructing new walls and anti siege improvements. It just seems like if the war drags on these towns and cities could potentially have an autonomy high enough that allows them to declare their independence from Ottoman rule.

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