1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 315: Press Down the Reaper

"Homines ad deos nulla re propius accedunt quam salutem hominibus dando."

"In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men."

-        Cicero, Pro Ligario, XII.

With the decision set the progress towards constructing a new hospitality system began with the aim of cutting down the chain of infection before it evolves in to another massive out break. However it soon turned out that the main objection to these new regulations and works is not the limited resources or the shortage of time, but it is the people, the soldiers who became the main opposers to these anti spread regulations. 

Surprisingly no one wanted to bathe, with various excuses saying that after bathing the dirt away it shall make them even more vulnerable to an infection. Like wise for the washing of hands saying that water will wash away the blessings by God on their hands. The soldiers and workers too rejected the order to boil their waters or cook their meals, giving various reasons but Antonius knows that it is because they are already way too tired and worn out with loading and burning corpses every day to prepare the additional burning materials, wait for the meal to be cooked and then wait for it to cool down. 

This truly leaves a hell lot of problems for Antonius leaving him with no choice but to take up the role as an unfavourable character this time round taking up stricter measures creating a new team to patrol around the campus with a red head dress and wrist band stopping any personnel from going against these new rules, slowly the image of this team grew more and more notorious given many nick names by their fellow comrades like 'rod carriers', 'red cl

owns', 'cold faces'. But slowly they received a unified title called the military prefects, or can be simplified in to MP.

But for now just after one day Antonius has got no more time to think about all of these stuff, as now he has an even bigger issue on his plate, it is the massive amount of the prisoners of war taken as captive in the previous campaign.

Just the next day after Antonius has issued the orders of enforcing the laws of standardised hygiene, a report came in from Helio, who was previously safe keeping all the refugees in the camp ten plus miles away, specially built for them avoiding them causing any troubles. It was delivered to Abdullah under the informal way signifying that the situation over there has became so dire that Helio on the other side has no more time to waste.

Antonius intercepted the letter from the messenger whose jaws are almost going to drop seeing their admiral coming back to alive. But still passed their letter to the admirl, bowed and left in a haste reporting back to their captain for duty with out saying much words. Antonius unsealed the letter and apparently it is a letter requesting for immediate support sent by Helio himself with the highest urgency code, with out even using a formal format in his letter.

After briefly scanning through the letter Antonius now have a rough idea of what the hell is going on in the other side, apparently in the letter Helio described the current overwhelming situation in the refugee camp that is about to explode, and it is still because of the admiral Antonius. Apparently ever since him getting sick the entire situation around the entire place has been quite tense. This is basically because Helio, being the care taker overseeing the entire refugee camp grew increasingly concerned that the prisoners might take the chance of chaos to rise up and rebel. 

However, this actions instead received a negative effect as what Helio has expected. Being prisoners of war these people became increasingly acute in their senses on the changes taking place in the outside world, they too sensed this sudden tightening of security and caught a glimpse of the things going on in the outside world which instantly became a new source of rumour that started spreading to every single corner of this one mile large camp in diameter. 

The rumours began with the fact that the admiral is sick, then it evolved to the admiral Antonius De'Ricci has died because of illness. Following this rumour things escalated to two further different versions, version one says that the admiral did not actually die of an illness, but died because of a political struggle between the various faction in the Thessaloniki political system; Another conspiracy theory says that some body revenged them assassinating the admiral for their deceased pals. Nevertheless, in two day's time our dear admiral Antonius has already been confirmed to be 'dead' in the minds of these tens of thousands previously Ottoman prisoners of war. 

With this conclusion in mind those ambitious ones among these people started to have some ideas forming up in their heads that they are not supposed to have. These people started forming up to spread even more conspiracy theories  around the camp saying that the Romans are going to kill them all after a brief period of time, combined with the vigorous rumours spreading around and the Roman patrols tightening up their security this is just like a dynamite exploding in the heart and minds of every single person inside this camp, with the guys spreading conspiracy theories acting like they know every thing going on in the Roman side with all those 'hidden insights' they claim they have.

By the time Helio has noticed this thing going on in his camp things are still not that late, with only a limited number of people believing in the conspiracy theories this situation can still be controlled. However Helio being Helio being a more practical leader who are lesser experienced on the side of human psychological studies unlike Abdullah and Ibrahim, took up even stricter measures seeing this fearing a mass rebellion, imposing a number of new death penalties in the previously lenient captive camp rules and digging a number of large pits outside the camp threatening them that if they do not comply with the rules they shall meet the death penalty.

This created an uproar among the prisoners instantly as all of these actions in turn certified that the Romans do have the intention to kill them here, many stopped hesitating and joined in to the side of the secret rebels in the fear that their lives might get taken away by their enemies, some even started having plans to raid the arms stoke to acquire weapons, while the others started organising protests, building road blocks and barricades in the camp having a stand off with the Roman patrols.

Every experienced commander knows that once the first spark of rebellion and protest is ignited it will not be that easy for it to be extinguished, and thus Helio hurridly sent this letter to Abdullah trying to acquire some useful advices from his intelligent old friend hoping that perhaps, maybe, he got a solution to save him out of this dilemma before every thing is too late, or before the admiral knows about his ineffectiveness in this position as the captain taking in charge of the refugees?

Sadly, for him it is not Abdullah who got the letter, it is Antonius.

After reading it thoroughly Antonius made a few dry cough and laughed to Abdullah who just got back here commenting that. "Hey my brother, do you know what, now there is a couple thousand of people thinking that I am dead!"

Abdullah too read through the letter and too realised how dire the situation has escalated. "Antonius, this thing is no joke, our men are all way too dispersed right now to various battle positions and fortifications, if these fifty thousand prisoners are go on to a revolt we only have four thousand usable forces in our disposal!"

Following Abdullah's words of concern Alexios suggested. "Admiral, my lord, as your advisor I must ensure that you are in a safe position at all times, please, evacuate back to the walls of Thessaloniki before every thing is too late! Leave the rest of the things here to us, we can control it."

"Leave it Alexios, thanks for your care and concerns." However, Antonius rejected Alexios' kind words with out any further thinking. "Alexios, think about it, if I am to abandon you people here and go back to within the walls, let me ask you, what will my men think of me? What will the captives think of me? Most importantly what will you people think about me? I can do any thing I want for my safety, sure, but I cannot, and I do not want to disappoint you guys making you think that I have changed after this sickness."

"What are you going to do then?" Asked Yuri who holding his battle axe guarding Antonius silently at the side.

"Easy, prepare my horses, I am going in to Helio's camp."