Chapter 547: Si
The commander of this Venetian fleet is actually a ’good old friend’ of Antonius called Benedetto Vitturi, yes, if anyone remembers, this guy was the ruler of Candia when Antonius paid Krete a visit to do something that no one remembers more than a decade back. Governor Benedetto stepped down soon after Antonius’ visit going back to Venezia to serve as a savii del consiglio in charge of carrying out government policies, then just a year ago, by God’s grace the man is not yet, he became the admiral for the Venetian fleet, due to the fact of his long service and bearing the family crest of the Vitturi family.
Benedetto saw Antonius as nothing but a pawn back then, hoping that he would stir up the Ottoman’s trade route in the Aegean and keep them busy from contesting with Venetian influence in the region. Though it seems like the pawn back then is a little way too successful now.
The small Roman fleet violently clashed into enemy intercepting fleet, and slowly it seems like the flames of these enemy ships igniting the Ionian Sea started to diminish, bit by bit the last bit of Roman colour seems to be erased by the black sails of the Venetian ships. It is almost a slaughter for the better equipped and experienced Venetian sailors against these Roman ships who are all manned by a bunch of chemists who have never roamed the sea for more than a year.
Benedetto nodded his head in satisfaction, to him this battle is nothing but just another boring onslaught on the enemies of Venezia, his colleagues only made such an effort to show the other city states the true capabilities the Serene Republic has, serving as a warning to all other powers if they have the thought of meddling with the Venetian big boss. But nevertheless, he is the admiral of the republic, and no matter how weak his opponents are, it is his responsibility to win this war for the republic.
Benedetto raised his head ordering the entire fleet to continue advancing, but suddenly a gigantic fireball erupted shooting towards the moon in front of his eyes covering his entire pupils, for a brief moment the skies are changed from the night to the days just like there is an artificial sun being hung high up there, then came the roar of gunpowder echoing through the air, blasting the eardrums of the poor old Benedetto making him almost lose his balance on deck that is violently shaking alongside with the explosion.
In their very last moment, the Roman sailors chose to set off the charges of those explosives on their ships and blow themselves up along with their Greek fire and sulphur being carried on their ships. These flames instantly turned from a vibrant yellowish red to a dim blue, with occasional vague crying of men that is barely audible. The face of Benedetto turned pale in colour, for he has expected a hundred tactics that the Greeks can possibly use in the pre war evaluation, but never did he expect these Greeks, who are known for their court intrigues, to commence suicidal attacks.
A second round of explosion came again, which came even bigger than the previous one blasting multiple Venetian ships into pieces. This in turn successfully opened a way out for the only two remaining Roman ships that still have their hulk intact, and they chose to continue advancing towards the Venetian fleet at an almost negligible speed due to the fact that their sails are now full of holes and still burning vigorously in a dim blue flame making them look like ghost ships on the dark sea, though with this speed it is obvious to every Venetian sailor that they would never be able to reach the Venetian main fleet.
Even the Venetians are moved at this point. "I cannot imagine that there is such a group of courageous warriors that are willing to die for a dictator, fighting against democracy." Said a Venetian commander named Giovanni Ser di Mocenigo, a member of the Mocenigo family, who is sent here to enhance his naval warfighting skills.
"Oh, my dear Giovanni." Replied Benedetto. "You got to open your ears, widen your eyes and raise your awareness to more things in the outside world, inside of shuffling out of the Consiglio dei Pregadi everyday listening to all those biased reports based on popular believes and propaganda, those things are used to fool those back benchers to gain more votes."
"What do you mean, sir?"
"Not all states can adapt our system of an Authoritarian democracy, and certainly it does not mean all dictators are devils, you got to see things from a case to case basis."
"...Such as that man named Antonius De’Ricci?"
"I cannot say for sure." Benedetto shrugged his shoulders. "But at least it has been a long time since there are any reports of mass starvations or daylight robbery happening sent by our merchants and espionage in Thessaly."
"..."
"Send two gallots and ram these two ships." Benedetto ordered. "Those Greeks are truly great sailors, and I shall present them a glorious ending that a great sailor deserves."
"Yes sir."
Two gallots of the Venetian fleet serving as frigates picked up their speed, approached the two burning ghost ships by their sides, and rammed them with ease, leaving the two ships breaking into halves, then being dragged into the shallow sea by a whirl created by itself, leaving countless sailors blobbing their heads up and down struggling to survive, in which the commander of the Venetian fleet laid down multiple boats approaching them to come to their rescue.
Rivalry between two nations do not necessarily mean disrespect to one’s opponents who are worth commemorating, in fact people with the same chivalrous code of conduct are often attracted to one another.
By now Abraham knows that he only has one way of winning this battle, that is to lead his entire fleet, charge head on into the enemy fleet, come close quarters and then make full use of their advantage in their broadside artilleries to blast open the hulks of the enemy ships, and then turn around to face the other opponents.
If only artilleries of this age could be mounted on the front deck, or even be able to rotate around, that would give Abraham so much advantage that he could easily overturn the tide of the battle, but sadly there isn’t any.
However, just as the Roman fleet is struggling to make its way Northwards, the similar, but weaken sounds of explosions can be heard again, this time from their back though, and it is not just one explosion, it is a series of explosions, one after another. Abraham knew that it has to be something with his mines, and he is not wrong, just ten minutes later, a small boat is paddled all the way to the command ship, passing the message by the captain of the rear sweeper that the Venetians are trying to force their way through the mine field. The Venetian ships will just sail as per normal until a ship comes into contact with a sea mine and loses its mobility, then the Venetian ship at the back will just simply shove the ship at the front to aside gently to let it sink by itself, this process repeats until a safe passage is cleared.
It is now clear to the Romans that as contrary to them, the Venetians do not care about the loss of ships, not at all. It is either because they have too many ships to dispense, or they are way too rich so that they can afford the cost of this war. Actually, at this point of time Abraham kind of got it too, that is the Venetians will not hesitate to defend its core territories - the Adriatic trade route with any sacrifice as Venezia is not a big country like Alemannia, it is just an isle whose life and death depends on this sea.
Lord Antonius has really kicked an iron ball this time round. Abraham thought to himself, though he did not just stop there thinking as he separated a few of his war galleys to venture southwards to delay these Venetians at the back to prevent themselves from fighting on two fronts later. Everyone knows that these ships would probably never return again, but they are prepared for it the moment they chose to be the rear guards of the fleet, and so they followed the order without any hesitation.
Now, although many delays, the two main battle fleets, the two strongest standing fleets in West Mediterranean, came to a violent clash to one another, at the darkest hour of the night, in the place where their comrades and pals were just blown up, fighting in the waters where beneath it lies hundreds of deceased sailors scattered around the sea bed alongside with those red star fish.
