1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 345: Another Meeting

By the end of the day, every major commander that is not involved in essential combat tasks are gathered around in the tent of Antonius, all keeping quiet as they think on what action to take next. Every commander has spoke their words of opinion on what to do next, but each proposal either get denied by Antonius for being too illogical, or they did not gain half of the support from every single person standing here.

Actually every one knows that the situation of the war has entered a situation where they hated to see the most, a stalemate. Under the command of that Hamza Pasha limiting and blocking them off in this narrow terrain halting all military progress, with the only hope being some internal conflicts in Edirne that would scrap the entire Ottoman defence system. Now, with the direct support of their Sultan it is quite obvious that there shall not be any more civil dispute at their back that would disrupt their strategic military operations, Hamza Pasha can now face them with no more political stuff as his distractions and burdens.

The meeting ended up as fruitless as no really feasible plans are being decided, with only some advice being made and executed, such as designing a new form of projectile weapon that enables in an high arcing ballistic trajectory, enabling them to fire shells past the walls on to the head of their enemies, which of course sounds like a hoax but the chief engineer Orban said that he can give it a true. The commanders also proposed to construct a few new towers and walls of dirt and pebbles, so that their archers would have the capabilities to pour their arrows in to the Ottoman camps.

However, Abdullah knows that these two actions are basically worthless, as there is one thing that they does not have, that is time. The sowing season is coming in just a few month's time for both the essential crops like wheat, barley and also cash crops like grapes and cotton is arriving soon. The conscripted soldiers need to be dispersed by then, if they miss the sowing season not only the peasants will suffer, but also the state as they have to spend a tremendous amount of government budget to buy a surplus amount of food from those greedy Latin merchants just to prevent another famine from happening, shaking Antonius' foundation of rule and the current agricultural based economic foundation in Thessaloniki.

Antonius wished that there is a kind of crop that can be grown in massive quantity per acre of land, able to be planted in even the worst kind of soil and terrains, can be stored for a duration long enough before it spoils, and most importantly be able to provide a steady source of staple food for his people so that no more cases of possible starvation can happen in his land. But of course there is no such magical crop that can do such things, at least not now.

The meeting ended with little progress, with one last proposal by Abraham suggesting that the marines and Varangians can do a struck in to the heart action, launching a surprise attack at night attempting to capture the Ottoman Sultan. However, this proposal is straight away denied by Antonius as judging by the Ottoman defences it is simply impossible that a thousand men can charge in to their fortress landing at their back and capture the Sultan. Furthermore, even if they managed to succeed, would this change anything? Antonius does not think that his opponent Hamza Pasha will change his tactics because of it, and he does not know that the Sultan Dowager is there inside the fortress with the Sultan.

After the meeting has concluded, every one left the tent back to their duty, but a few minutes later Abdullah came back, and Antonius can see from his emotions that he has something to say that cannot be said in front of the other people.

"AdmiralMy brother." Abdullah sat down and sighed. "Have you considered"

"Considered retreating?" Antonius asked. "Aye, of course I have."

"I can tell you admiral that most of our commanders are thinking about this as well, but at the same time I have noticed a phenomenon that can potentially alter the outcome of future battles. That is after victories and victories our commanders have developed the sense of over complacency and pride making them feel ashamed if they talk about any thing like retreating or pulling out. This can be very dangerous, you know."

"Then? What do we do?" Antonius sat down on the carpet and began throwing wood in to the furnace. "Do I be the one to say this for them? Just to soothe their worthless sense of man's pride? And remember my friend, we have thrown in way too many resources for this war, we waited for an entire five years just for this precious opportunity, assembled all the things we can get and marched here, just to be stopped by this stupid walls and that persistent Pasha, if it is not for him"

"Calm down Antonius." Abdullah sat beside the stove warming his hands with his pal. "You see, all of these only proves that we have not yet done enough pre war preparations. Like, we don't have enough understanding on the Ottoman political structure that for a very long period of time the events ongoing within Edirne is like a fog of war to us, hence we never know what kind of bargain or price did the current Ottoman ruler after the Grand Vizier, whom we still have no idea who the hell he is, pay to persuade the other two factions to abide by his orders and pull back during this time of crisis for their country. And furthermore, one thing, one thing is certain my brother."

Abdullah jumped up lifting up the curtain of the tent, pointing towards a distance away where supposedly the Ottoman camp is located. "With that flag of the Sultan hanging over that fortress, the difficulty of us overcoming them has doubled, no, tripled. If before this we estimated that we need to have a casualty of three thousand men to tear down the defences of that Hamza Pasha, now we need to pay a total of nearly ten thousand lives, and with that staggering amount of casualties, I am afraid that our own troops will crumble and submit before the Ottomans."

"I know that you are trying to persuade me to call for a retreat, Abdullah." Antonius sighed. "But"

"We can get a lot more benefits than what you have expected, my friend, if we call for a retreat." Urged Abdullah again. "Like there is an ancient Arab saying that there is no point sitting under a wall and wait for the prey to come in to our stomach by itself, the enemy government is originally disjointed and close to a civil collision within themselves, and it is only our iron fist that forced them to unite back again in facing the bigger threat. One thing is clear from our failure this time."

"Striking before we make them get divided enough?" Abdullah grinned and answered after realising something.

"Yes indeed." Abdullah nodded. "We need to make them get even more divided when we retreat, with all means possible as personnel morale is almost worthless in a national wide war, we need to use those dirty intrigues. Intrigues that can successfully widen the split between the three political factions making them unable to unite together next time; I know that everyone is blaming Helio for the failure this time round, but honestly speaking he did a satisfying job as a captain, a military planner who only thinks in the aspects of war, but many other people even including you failed to realise that a war is not only about combat, combat only makes up to less than half of the elements in a full scaled war between nations."

"Do not worry, I never blamed Helio for my personnel failures as my men's command in chief but what do you plan to do then?" Antonius frowned as he had a disliking for things like intrigues and plots by natural instinct, as from his background he loves to get things done in a straighter forward manner. 

"We can start with a few rumours to the other two sides that the Sultan is going to deal with them after he has managed to solidify enough prestige and control of Hamza's army, some words always helps as at the end of the day no matter how 'patriotic' they are, they still knows that they have rebelled once and has already lost the faith in their Sultan's eyes, then together with some bribes, and finally we can begin selling arms or provide manpower support to all sides showing our support, you know, there is all sorts of methods in to achieving our final result of separating them, and I do think you can consult Anjelo first, he is a master in this things."