Chapter 522: Run For Your Life!
"Listen here, infidel, you can call me whatever name you want, and curse me with whatever vulgar you know. But remember, there are tens of thousands of Ottomans still living in this area, they shall watch your downfall... And revenge for me, take that in mind, you bloody infidel..."
Antonius did not bother to continue wasting his time with the captive, knowing that there is not much of a possibility to fork any piece of information out of this man’s mouth. He went out of the cells, nodded and shook his head to the caretaker of the prison and left the area, immediately after he left, a shrieking scream came from behind him followed by an utter silence. Knowing the ultimate fate of the captive, Antonius picked up his pace and left the area.
This man still managed to somehow prove to be useful to be Antonius today though, reminding him that he still got tens of thousands of Ottomans who have resided in this land to rule. Now it ought to be the time for him to start to plan and consider on how he is going to rule over them as the new government and sovereign of Epirus. It is vital for Antonius to minimise the impact of the change of rule and reduce the amount of people that is like the captive today to ensure the safety and stability of the region.
The army marched for an entire day next day nonstop till they reached another village named Pentalofos just when the dawn started showing herself. Antonius got off his horse to have a look at the view of the surrounding when the others started pitching up the camp site.
"Great view, spectacular.... Like a sculpture, made by the finest artists."
"Indeed, your majesty."
"I see potential in this place, you know. This is the only path linking from the city of Ioannina to Kastoria through these mountains, the Ottomans can build a fortress over here, on this highland, and they shall be able to oversee all traffic coming pass this place."
The guides beside Antonius looked at one another with their eyes full of confusion and hesitation, after a while a guide came up and answered. "Your majesty, the locals usually prefer to go by the road up north to the minor city of Korce, where it is more populous with more commerce, this path... It is solely used for armies and mails."
"Oh..."
Antonius don’t know what to say.
A while later the guide continued trying to soothe the embarrassment, he has caused to the Caesar just now. "But there is still a saying within the local Epirutian population, that usually the strongest walls are never brought down by the outside force, it starts crumbling down by itself first for most of the times, caused by the internal strives or negligence behind the walls."
"Ah, ah I see, wise words indeed." Antonius hastily nodded his head trying to hide his embarrassment. "Let me guess, this saying must have originated during the times of the internal conflicts between John V and John VI."
The guide frowned and replied yes, of course he cannot say that he just came up with this supposed saying by himself a while ago, but surely there got to be some thinkers in the ancient past that has come up with some lines carrying the same meaning.
The troops then passed by the village of Arrenes heading southwards going around the mountain of Smolikas Oros, making Antonius claim yet again that this must be the highest mountain that this got to be the highest mountain peak that he has seen with his very own eyes for his life. Thinking about this, it is absolutely a tragedy and a pity that Antonius never had a chance to have a view on the Alps, which is so near to his hometown of Genoa, yet so far away from him personally.
Finally, after an entire week long marching, the troops of Antonius finally arrived in the commerce hub of Kalpaki where the goods between the Adriatic sea and the silk from the Thessaly are traded and exchanged before it is transported away to somewhere else. The good thing about this is that now they are only less than twenty Roman miles away from their indented target, and the pioneer scouts have already come back reporting that the city of Ioannina is already within sight.
Though there is also another piece of information these scouts brought back, apparently a large group of people on wagons and escorts have already left the city a week ago, but ever since then the city gates have been entirely shut down with no one being allowed to enter, nor can anyone leave. This just seems like the entire city has already gone to an entire lockdown following a strict war time regulation.
This only means one thing, that is the city has decided to turn herself into a military force trying to put up a desperate defence against the arriving Roman forces. A troublesome situation indeed for Antonius, because he only has four thousand men around with him, with only five hundred local Roman soldiers with him, with the rest mainly comprising of crusaders and volunteers from Moskva, Serbia, Poland, Lithuania and other Balkan states. Before this Antonius has already ordered nearly a thousand men to act as garrisons in the towns and points, they have just conquered, maintaining security and stability, hunting on escaped Ottoman troopers and local bandits, and safekeeping the supply route behind them. Of course, he doesn’t have any heavy siege equipment here at the moment.
The four thousand men is then divided into three portions encircling the city of Ioannina from three directions, leaving only one side open heading towards the Adriatic Sea. Antonius and his guards arrived last with a dimmed face, for he got to admit that he has made a serious mistake in his ops planning before they departed Kastoria, that is he has far too underestimated the leftover forces of that Sanjek; Antonius has never had the thought of the possibility of any walled cities in Epirus daring to oppose his forces, now he feels like that Ioannina has just given him a slap in the face.
"What do you think of this, Apostolos?" Antonius asked with a not so happy face.
Apostolos found it difficult to come up with a detailed plan in such a short period of time, but he must say something in response to his liege’s question, thus after a while he sighed and replied. "This is a difficult situation for us your majesty, Ioannina is the largest and only city that belonged to the Ottoman Sanjek that is left standing against us now. We came into Epirus promising that we are here to liberate the Romans here from their Ottoman enslavers, so we definitely cannot lay a siege onto the city pondering the citizens and structures with shells, as that would inevitably cause a tremendous civilian casualty and thus go against our pre-set goal and our propaganda to the locals. But at the same time, we need to hit the Ottoman remnants hard so that we can set an example on what shall the outcome of those who opposes our rules be..."
"...And speaking from the military operations perspective, laying a siege shall definitely bring a heavy casualty to our forces; I reckon that the armies we brought with us, comprised with soldiers from a thousand nation, has that morale and can be coordinated to complete such a task; And even if they will, I can be sure that they shall unleash their natures when they enter the city after an enduring battle, you know, turning into bandits ransacking, robbing, killing and raping the population."
Antonius kept on frowning as he listens to the words of Apostolos. It seems like the later has said a lot of things that do make sense, but thinking deeper about it, Apostolos has just mentioned a bunch of troubles and issues that the army is currently facing, but absolutely did not give any form of helpful suggestions to the situation and in the end threw the question back to Antonius.
Honestly speaking, tactics and intrigues on field can only come into place when the armies from both sides are about equally as strong, or one has a superior understanding on the opponents. But in this case, Antonius knows almost nothing about what is going on inside the walls of Ioannina, and he definitely cannot breach open the walls of the city, actually he does not even know who is really controlling the city at the current point of time.
But just as Antonius is still pondering about the next step he is going to take, the gate that Antonius’ forces did not encircle, with a road connecting to the Adriatic shores, came abrupt open and a bunch of people carrying luggage on wagons started squeezing out of the city gate.
