Chapter 389: 384: New Snow, Old Snow

"Uusi lumi on vanhan lumen surma."

"New snow if the death to old snow." 

-        Finnish Proverbs

The scouts trudged difficultly in the snow, although the snow is only around two centimeters thick it still created a hell lot of problems for these scouts. First it made the lands slippery making it almost impossible to continue the journey riding on their horses in the fear of the hooves. And the snow covered the narrow dirt road in to a long strip of moist swamps, trapping any one's feet sinking inside. All of these factors combined, plus the worsened visibility gave these scouts a night mare. 

"Do you see anything?" 

"No I don't, except for a few rabbits… Maybe we can hunt a few of them and bring back for dinner." 

"Shush, focus on your task first, you two are making too much sound, if there's an Ottoman nearby, he would just sneak upon you and slit your throat." 

"Yes boss…"

Among the snow, a scout veteran is bringing along two new local recruits on this trip, teaching them every thing they need to know performing the role of a scout, and what kind of mistake that can expose themselves and cost their lives, like the mistake they just made a moment ago. 

The entire scouting mission seemed to be like a wild goose chase, they have ventured in these snowy terrains for the past two hours but found totally nothing here except for some rabbits and wolves. A difficult journey indeed for the three soldiers, but that is the kind of life they have already expected before he even entered the scouts formation. The three soldiers have traveled a distance of roughly two Roman miles, what they do not know is that they are now standing on a point where by they are only thirty miles away from the Ottoman capital city. 

And there is another thing that they do not know apart from the distance, that is just a hundred meters away from where they are standing now, there lays one after another Ottoman war fighter on the snow patches, disguising themselves with the help of the poor visibility and dense wild grass lands, covering their breathe hiding their presence like a viper standing guard to strike any target that is approaching. If one has an elevated view from the sky, he would definitely be shocked to find out that the Ottoman soldiers are not just a handful, but counted in thousands.

The three scouts approached the Ottoman troopers on the outskirt with their sounds minimized stepping softly on the thin layer of snow. But every step they take are being carefully watched by a fleet of enemies, with their weapons already prepared counting the distance between their hands and the incoming Romans, no doubt that when the distance is appropriate, they shall leap on to the enemies hunting down these three men before they can run back to send signals.

Twenty meters… Fifteen meters… Ten meters… nine meters… eight meters… The Roman squad of scout carefully continued trudging forward still not realizing the fact that they are being watched by the hunters in the bushes due to the low visibility, howling environmental winds and the good disguise being put up by the Ottomans. At the eight meters interval a hot blooded Ottoman could hardly resist himself as he eyed these incoming people with alert and valiance in his eyes, gripping hard on the spear he has by his side preparing to leap out first and give these enemies who took the land passed to him by his ancestors away a head strike. 

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The Ottoman veteran by his side noticed the silent cry for battle coming in from his apprentice by his side, and he reached out his arm grabbing the young recruit, shaking his head slightly with a weak but stern look warning the recruit to not do things according to his own likings and in the end spoil the entire plan laid here by Hamza Pasha. The young recruit got the meaning of his mentor's gestures and laid back in to disguise biting his teeth hard with his whole body shivering not only from the extreme heat loss in the cold, but also because of the increasing adrenaline level rushing blood all the way to his head. 

Just as all of these are happening in the stealth, the Roman patrols approached the ambush spots keeping a distance of five meters away from each other, totally unclear that there is a whole herd of alligators waiting for them in the wild bush. But luckily when they close to stepping their foot on to the trap, the leader of the squad called them out from a distance. "Hey boys! Fall back here! Lets call it for a day!" 

The scout would never know that he was that close to be hunted down by the enemies that he failed to detect, with his opponent already aiming at his heart with their spears. If he trudged another two more meters forward his chest would have already be penetrated with at least three spears coming from different direction, the same goes for his pals. 

"We have scouted too far ahead boys." The leader of the Roman squad gathered his men around and concluded their mission. "The head quarters only required us to scout a distance of two miles, but we have almost scouted three miles ahead… Luckily for us we did not encounter any enemy presence, but remember, when you two become veterans next time, definitely do not expect your every day to be as relaxing as this… Never be complacent in times of war, understand?" 

"Yes boss." The two new soldiers stood up right listening to their leader's speech, hoping that they get the opportunity to go back fast and consume their already hardened out field rations. 

"Alright, let us go back and inform the commanders." The veteran looked up at the position of the sun. "Judging by the time, our troops should have already started marching off. We got to hurry and inform them that there are no threats ahead. We are too far in to the heart lands of Ottoman territories, and my senses are trying to tell me that some thing here is definitely not right, every thing has been way too peaceful and quiet… This should not be the case, that is why I made you two venture one more Roman mile ahead, I hope that you two will not hate me because of this." 

"Definitely not boss." The two boys just want to get over with this fast. 

The veteran nodded his head in satisfaction and started bringing the two new boys back to where they came from. A few minutes away and no more noises of boots trudging against snow can be heard in this area, with their vague shapes disappearing under the before noon fog caused by the rising temperature and the increasing rays of sun light.

Slowly, snow flakes stopped falling down from the skies. 

The Ottoman recruit fidgeted a bit to flex his stiff arms and legs after making sure that the enemies shall not return. He looked to his side with a guilty conscience at his mentor, who is usually strict and would definitely punish him for fidgeting unnecessarily during a high profiled task. However the mentor seemed to be taking a rest regaining his energy, totally not caring or responding to his apprentice. The recruit heaved a sigh of relief inside his mind, and went back to alert watching his front waiting for the next innocent prey to drop by his jaws. 

Due to the need to expand the force as much as possible after experiencing several defeats, the Ottomans adopted a similar system too like their Roman counterparts putting recruits and conscripts who have just enlisted straight in to operational units after going through a mere three days of basic trainings, which in the words of the high commanders they are trying to 'make the soldiers learn how to fight wars through the most effective method – going through it by themselves'. Each veteran who have served in the Sultan's army for more than a year shall be assigned with an apprentice, whom shall live along side with the veteran and learn from him at the same time. 

No more scouting activities are being spotted along this massive ambushing fields that stretched to almost one Roman mile, but that definitely does not mean that the Ottoman army can now lower down their guard and stand up embracing the scarce warmth of the sun light. This is an army built by Hamza Pasha from scratch, being secretly taken from the western fronts to here to deter against the offensive by the greedy emperor of Constantinople. In other words, if Antonius who is still dealing with bandits and lands now knows that the western front of the Sultan is empty and launches an attack, the Sultanate would definitely crumble facing pressure from both sides. 

But of course, he would never know, and if he knows later, it would already be too late.

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