Chapter 437: 432: The Four Leave Clovers

"You are right." Antonius looked at this gigantic Nordic man, thought for a while and replied in a sincere way. "You are right, the troops shall lose their morales and will to fight in a few months' time getting stagnated in the camps, it is indeed my mistake to not have noticed this phenomenon." 

The Moskva prince certainly did not expect the Caesar of the Romans to make a personnel apology to him in front of so many other people for such a matter, and became speechless not knowing what to say. Just as he is there cooling himself down, thinking about a way on how to express his apologies in a modest way to this man whose rank is supposedly even higher than his brother, Antonius continued speaking looking like he is totally unaffected by these harsh words. "But, gentlemen, you might not have heard much about me in the past. I am actually that kind of person who shall never put any plans in to action, if the success rate is not higher than seventy percent."

Antonius looked around; he can see that people have doubts on his decision being not able to understand why is he not executing his plans when every thing is ready. Antonius knows their doubts, his plans for a new crusade has already spread over to the seven seas and the enemies are surely not that stupid to seat back and not do any thing before the attack initiates. They shall recruit more troops, fortify more walls, block off the roads and form in to alliances which shall make it much harder to break through their defences, which also means that they shall suffer a lot more casualties than what they have planned before.

However, Antonius got his own problems he is facing when looking as the perspective of a landed ruler, making his way of cognitive thinking differ from the thinking process of these men who are mainly war fighters on the land, by a lot. Being the legitimate ruler of a kingdom that is going to be directly impacted by this war, Antonius needs to put a lot of stuff in to consideration, such as;

Is his army able to push the bulk of the war in to the inner lands of Epirus preventing the fire of war from burning on to his territory?

Is his economy and food supply sufficient for the entire army and population if the war drags on for more than a year, causing a wide spread draught across the country sides?

Is his navy competent enough to fend off any possible Venetian naval aggression in the entire Eastern Mediterranean?

Is his naval defence sufficient in preventing his trade route from being sabotaged? Is he able to prevent his ports from being blockaded? One must know that the Strategos of Thessaloniki is mostly dependant on maritime trade for even daily necessities like grains and salt to feed her booming population. If the Venetians decide to blockade the ports, not only the trade and economy shall suffer, his people too shall suffer from a major food crisis.

If this nightmare scenario really occurs, will the mass public who was there in the hippodrome crying their support for the war regret their deeds a year ago? Will they develop hate for this man whom they have encouraged a year ago? Will these hate slowly accumulate in to a volcano of abhorrence, and then in to a force powerful enough to topple his regime? Knowing that one of the main reasons why the mass public supported this war is because the previous ones brought little impact but benefits to these city dwellers, which can be quickly reversed one hundred and eighty degrees if the war really escalates in to the situation that affects them.

Antonius must be careful in planning every single move in front of the famed naval forces of his long lasted rivals he had since the times he spent as a Genoese privateer, the Venetians.

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After the meeting is concluded, Antonius went for an inspection to a nearest army camp located ten miles away from Thessaloniki where the bulk of the foreign reinforcements and some troops under Helio are being housed in. No matter what, the dwindling morales and spirit of the army is still a problem for him that needs to be dealt with quickly before it is stripped of its former discipline and glory, turning in to a bunch of rogues and mess up the security of the region.

Antonius rode in to the camp, where he is greeted by a bunch of junior officers led by their junior commanding officer Halfdan. Antonius knows the later for quite a while already even before the battle they fought together in the mountains a couple of months ago. Honestly speaking, if it was not for his brother who sacrificed for the city of Constantinople, Halfdan would not have climbed to such a high rank acting as the commanding officer of nearly a hundred people at such a young age.

The admiral had no idea how did these officers know that he is arriving today, but still he maintained the smile on his face and saluted each and every one of them, gave them a little encouragement and then turned back on to the chariot, ordering the rider to ride back Abdullah, who is seating to the opposite of Antonius all the time, is puzzled by his old friend's behaviour, asking. "Admiral, why are you turning back here? We came a long way here for a task, you know."

"I know, but you ought to know what it means when you see these people standing over here, waiting for us at the camp's gates." Antonius closed the doors, and pointed towards his back. "We came here hoping to see the real situation inside the camp through a sudden and unexpected visit, but these people shows that our schedule has been leaked! By who, I do not know, but now it seems like we are unable to have the element of surprise and these officers might put up a show, a staged play for us to watch, that is not what I wanted."

Abdullah had no other choice but to seat back and watch these junior officers stare at each other with an ignorant face, the chariot set off once again, but they did not go back to Thessaloniki. Instead, they turned one big round to a nearest village, had a meal over there, took a brief moment of relaxation under the shades evading the glazing sun, and then rode back to the same old camp, through another entrance of course. This time there are no people standing at the gates waiting for them, of course.

The two of them entered the camp, using the identity of two new officers that have just been posted here. They left their carriage and rider at the gate, and headed straight towards the dormitory and bunk area of the camp, as they know that only the living area is where the soldiers shall show their real attitude and discipline. It is just an hour pass the mid of the day, and the troopers have already started gathering up in preparation for their after meal training, meaning that there are no one inside these bunks.

Antonius and Abdullah randomly picked four bunk areas each hosting the soldiers from various countries, and the results they found out has much in similar; Little soldiers followed the standard of protocol for personnel hygiene and discipline, their towers are every where, their toilets are awful, their beds and mattress are unfolded, their cabinets looks like if they have been ransacked. But there is still one good thing they observed, that is the soldiers are still tidying up their armour plates and blades, meaning that at least they have not yet lost all of their motivations and morales, still preparing for the upcoming battle.

"Seems like the worries of that Nordic prince is right." Abdullah sighed. "It has only been a month, and they are already losing their military discipline… And that is not the thing that worries me the most, the fact that theres no one walking around to check and rectify these mistakes only means that even the commanders of these soldiers have lost their patience, or, even worse, lost their prestige among these men."

"We got to find some thing for these people to do to spend their time and energy. "Antonius frowned and walked around the ground with his hands behind his back. "I miss those old boys from my ships, they never complain about the passing of time living a boring life on the ships, these men are nothing as compared to my sailors."

The two men walked out of the bunks, and ventured towards the first dining hall, which is of course, supposed to be empty now. But instead they found out that there are a cluster of soldiers surrounding a small patch of land, whistling and cheering.

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