Chapter 353: 348: Thunder Rolling Over the Beach

"Солдатушки, бравы ребятушки, а кто ваши жёны? Наши жёны — пушки заряжёны, вот кто наши жёны."
"Soldiers, you brave lads who are your wives? Our wives are our loaded cannons, that's what our wives are."
-        Soviet Army Song
The Romans pulled out under the guidance of their battle instincts and the waving banners of Julian, reassembled and made a reverse passing by their Ottoman counterparts. While the later could only stand there and watch as their commander is still trying to regain control on every segment of the army trying to stop them from losing contact and organisation, which is one of the worst thing can possibly happen on the field. However, reorganising the already broken up commanding structure of the Ottoman army has proved to be a no simple task for the Ottomans, as their size is much larger than the Romans and at the same time most of the soldiers, even the respective officers and commanders, are totally not educated making them only able to understand verbal instructions and commands which its meaning be can changed easily in the process of transmission.
The thousand plus rangers successfully lost their tail with the Ottomans and began their yet another long march all the way to the designated beach area where supposedly there are a fleet of gun convoys awaiting them. While the Ottomans behind them finally got themselves back in to action beginning a wild chase for the Romans whom they think is on the verge of collapse after such an exhausting battle and march, leaving their prepared positions and at the same time, losing the protection on their flanks, as their friendly forces simply remained at their position doing absolutely nothing, neither are they going to help to intercept the Romans, nor are they going to follow up to continue protecting their sides, just nothing.
The commander of the chasing Ottoman forces of course knows what the Sultan's troops are thinking of, as his superior Mahumad Pasha Angelovic warned him that he ought to take more caution on those supposedly friendly forces and trusted allies than the Rumelians as being stabbed on the back is much more painful than losing a direct fist fight. But he could not care that much now, as the bounty and honour of hunting down an entire one thousand Roman army is simply too much for the Ottoman commander to refuse, he ordered his three thousand men to pick up the pace and follow the Romans at the close proximity, with some troops on the sides preventing his Roman prey from making an escape back in to those turtle shells.
By this time, the sun has changed its position from the east to the west as the time slowly sips in to the afternoon. Which means that the rays of after noon sun light are shining right on to their faces obstructing their view to the front. To the surprise and joy of the Ottoman commander, the Romans seems to be running in a totally different direction from what they have expected making it seems like they are not trying to escape but seems to be luring them towards some place.
With a vigilant heart the Ottoman commander instantly realised that there must be some thing fishy going on around here, but when he tried to put a halt to his troops he found out that his orders are simply being disregarded, as those officers beneath him are simply all way too excited about the loot and plunder they are going to get, while the others who are awake also disregarded their commander's orders because if they missed the opportunity and did not satisfy their men with enough loot handling all of the plunders to the other units, they would cause a great dissatisfaction or even an uproar within the soldiers.
Seeing this situation, the commander could only make a sigh and continued ordering his troops to pick up the pace and try to block off the Romans from continuing their run. Out of plain hope the commander made one last turn back looking at the two other friendly forces, and just as he had assumed, those men are still remaining standing there for nothing. Seeing this the commander made a curse and whipped his horse making it go faster.

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The long run continued with the Romans leading the way with a superior stamina gained from walking up and down the mountain trails all day long, evading the smaller enemy groups trying to stop them in the track and continued trying to reach for their final target. Although two plus Roman miles might not seem like a lot for an individual who can run a similar distance in less than thirty minutes, but the case here is totally different as it is not just one person who is running, there is more than a thousand of them. Julian had to maintain the speed of his army while making sure that the organisation and command structure of his forces does not get messed up in the process.
Finally, the forces of Julian arrived at the beach, stretching along the shore line, the soften hues beneath Julian's feet makes a soft song as wave after waves of sea water comes in her reassuring way continuously, making it seems that the water enjoys soothing the vast sand land beneath. With a warm coloured sun light shining on top giving the entire scenery a glistering effect. This place is where the warm Mediterranean current clashes with the Northern cold winds preventing the water here from becoming frozen, preserving a natural deep water harbour.
But Julian had no time enjoying these good views, as he jumped down the horse with out even taking a breath and looked anxiously towards a far, trying to catch a glimpse of the fleet on the seas. And there it is, Julian spotted a line of little dots being spread evenly on the seas one Roman mile away, for the others these dots might not be a big deal as they looked no bigger than a pebble on the Earth, but to Julian who is a sailor when young, he can identify the vague shape of a ship even if it is over two nautical miles away, a talent and skill that the Ottoman commander obviously have not mastered yet.
Arriving on the spot Julian made three loud laughs and collapsed on to the soft sands gazing in to the blue sky taking a break, while his rangers, following the example of their captain also clumsily sat down every where on the sands with their energy already worn out from the long strenuous running all the way from before the early morning till now.
The Ottomans did put a team of scouts beside his forces when he moves, but due to the obscured vision from the stronger sun light pouring directly down at them, plus the dust and sands being tossed in to the air as the two groups of army runs it all prevented the scouts from having a clear view of the ships ahead, actually even if they saw the ships staying a float ahead of them, they would most likely disregard them as a not so serious issue as none of them believes that a ship in these ages can have a canon mounted on the deck and is able to fire for more than a mile on the seas.
Thus, the Ottoman commander drove his forces in to combat formation with out having the knowledge of a whole Rumelian fleet one and three quarter miles away from him. Being vigilant as always he resisted the temptations within him and refused his officer's request to charge in directly taking advantage of the worn out enemies. Instead, he followed the same old practise being set by his superior and ordered his troops to form an encirclement, then approach the Rumelians step by step closing the gaps and limiting their activity space. Just like how a python suffocates its prey.
This decision proved to be a serious mistake. But of course, it is not the Ottoman commander's fault.
The Ottoman troopers began marching to the Rumelians with swords in hands and shields at the front, squeezed with each other shoulder to shoulder singing songs praising the Sultan and roaring cheers of war, from their eyes it seems like as if they have already secured this battle and ready to hit it hard on their foes. They did not even follow their common practise first of hitting their foes with bolts and arrows first prior to charging, as they feel that the more captives they capture, the more slaves they can sell later on and the more profit they can gain from this battle.
The glee on their faces continued till suddenly, a flare is fired from within the Rumelians right on to the sky with a trail of smoke behind, and as it loses its velocity it made an explosion in the sky. Not that loud to be called thunderous or defeating, but enough to be heard from miles away due to the open space of the beaches.

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