Chapter 601: Abbas Pasha’s Troubles
In the heart of the battlefield, bathed in the ghostly glow of twilight, stood a solitary figure, which is none other than our dear Julian. His towering silhouette seemed to defy the dimming light, emanating a sense of triumph amidst the eerie aftermath of the surprise assault. A gust of wind ruffled the edges of his war-weary cloak, revealing a set of well-polished armour that bore the scars of the recent confrontation. His gaze, steady and penetrating, surveyed the scene around him, scanning over all the Ottoman weaponries, fallen banners, and the bodies of those who had been discarded by their Pasha just an hour ago.
Julian has just hammered the Ottoman forces from the mountains of Bulgaria directly on its core, smashing the entire troop led by Abbas Pasha into pieces through a successful ambush in the areas around Lesovo and Valcha. This is achieved thanks to the superior intelligence system and scouting of the Romans, which revealed the marching routes and rally points of Abbas Pasha at least days ago. Julian waited in the woods together with his men for twenty hours, bearing the heat of the summer in his full set of armours and the mosquitos prowling onto his face, until the Ottomans finally arrived. Then, Julian allowed the Ottoman pioneers to march through, before striking the Ottomans right in the middle, cutting the five thousand Ottoman strong forces into half.
While the Ottomans, on the other hand, are totally unclear of how many Romans are there in these terrains, and soon rumours began spreading like wild fire among the Ottoman troopers, some says that that Rumelian Caesar has sent an army equalling their size here to intercept them, while after passing around for a few times the rumour is exaggerated to the Rumelian Caesar is here with fifty thousand men just to finish them off here, and conquer the whole of Bulgaria up next.
The rumours began spreading to the ears of the various big and small Ottoman warlords as well, instead of planning on to make a counter offensive rescuing their fellow pals inside, they started coming to their direct superior Abbas Pasha, asking him to withdraw their forces because of the fact that ’there are not enough intel of the enemies’, suggesting that they ought to only attack when they acquire the precise information of the Rumelians, or maybe they should only continue with this operation ’in the fullest of time’.
Though in fact everyone here on the spot knows that they are just playing a bit of tricks to try to save as much men as possible to preserve their strength in the local domain, preventing themselves from getting eaten up by their ’friendly allies’.
Abbas Pasha is astonished by these men, as he yelled in fury pointing his whip to the troops trapped in front. "Don’t you people understand? Those are our allies! Allies! And our Sultan! If, if God forbids we are unable to save Edirne from the jaws of Antonius De’Ricci, then the next one he will strike immediately shall be us! By then, we will be losing everything we possess now! Don’t you understand! Come on lads!"
The others remained silent.
Of course, they understand about the consequences of Edirne getting captured by their foes, but they simply cannot allow their troops to be depleted first for the greater good, as if their troops are gone being fed to the front line, then their domains shall be gulped down instantly by the ’friends’ around them immediately after this war concludes. That is the rule of survival between the Ottoman warlords in Bulgaria, a decade of internal conflicts have erased any form of trust or corporation between one another, the rules in Bulgaria is pretty simple now; whoever that has more troops, land, and money, shall rule over the rest.
Abbas Pasha is to be blamed for this situation, for he was the one who is the most eager in subjecting the supposed colleagues around him first when he entered Bulgaria with his defeated troops a decade ago, breaking the fragile balance of peace here. And unlike Zaganos Pasha in the east, he is totally incapable of enforcing his laws across the entire Bulgaria by force, only self-proclaiming himself as the ’Beylerbey of Bulgaria’ which neither did the Sultan and the Sultana Dowager, nor did Candarli Halil Pasha and Celalettin Özgür recognise.
Abbas Pasha is not like his Sultan, he does not have the legitimate right to command over the other Ottoman nobles, as they are not his de jure subjects or subordinates, in the rule of the Ottoman Hierarchy, they are in fact, equal.
All efforts have gone futile, and Abbas Pasha had no choice but to abandon the plan to rescue his Sultan, but to leave throwing another six hundred fresh corpses here behind the line of ambush, where Julian is standing in right now.
Little did the pasha know that the Rumelians only had a thousand men throughout.
"We did it! General Julian!" A lieutenant exclaimed in excitement to his superior. "We deterred the Ottomans! Now there ought to be no more Ottoman reinforcements coming from Bulgaria!"
"Don’t let your guard down." The general replied with a stern face. "Abbas Pasha is never a real threat, the true and sole threat lies in the east."
Yes, Zaganos Pasha, that is the main threat.
It has been a week plus since the capture of the Sultan, Zaganos Pasha, who is still fighting with the Mamluks and its puppet factions in Anatolia and Armenia Minor, ought to have received the news now, and judging by his loyalty to Sultan Mehmed II and the Sultanate, he will definitely come for aid, but it will take him at least a month before his troops can show up on the other side of the straits.
"Send out the cavalries, chase and disperse the Ottomans but not engage, I want to see them sod off back to Sophia with their tails."
"We only have sixty cavalries with us, your highness." The lieutenant reminded with caution.
"I understand, which is precisely why I suggested a pursuit, not engagement," the general stated, his tone firm. "At their current state, the Ottomans have no interest in pausing to determine the size of the cavalry chasing them. A mere semblance of pressure should be enough to ensure they do not halt in their flight."
"Understood, Your Highness," Julian responded, before being interrupted by another lieutenant who approached hesitantly. "Sir, with the retreat of the reinforcements from Bulgaria, should we reconsider our plan to flood Edirne? You must realise, general, that there is a considerable number of civilians residing within the city, unfortunate souls who couldn’t escape in time. The Caesar has given explicit orders against mistreating the people who will soon be our future citizens..."
The lieutenant’s voice trailed off, silenced by the icy stare of his superior officer. The temperature in their vicinity seemed to plummet, a palpable frost born from the general’s glare. As a long-serving member of the general’s staff, the lieutenant knew how strongly the man opposed the suggestion he had just proposed. Yet as a soldier dedicated to the Caesar, he possessed his own set of beliefs, his personal principles, his individual pride. Gritting his teeth, he held his ground, defiant under the general’s cold scrutiny, unwilling to retreat.
Seeing this, Julian sighed and gave his lieutenant a pat on the head. "We are soldiers, do understand your role, we do not think of anything apart from how to win this war with our troops, we do not associate ourselves with anything political, those things are left for the Caesar, Abdullah, Alexios and the rest. We have a plan, that is to build that god damn dam around the city, and so we execute with that plan, until further instructions from the Caesar came telling us to stop the work. You get what I mean?"
"...Yes, your Highness."
...
Antonius finally departed from Kavala, this time marching with a troop that is much stronger. Abdullah has sent out all the prepared orders in the name of the Caesar to each and every garrison throughout the entire Greek peninsula summoning troops to Antonius, and so right now the Caesar has rallied up a staggering twelve thousand combatants, eight hundred cavalries, with thrice as much manpower at the back providing all sorts of logistics support, with a whole fleet safeguarding the coasts and a batch of brand new thirty six artilleries pieces freshly produced by Jacob and Orban that are relatively easier to be moved around.
One of the things that truly stand out this time round, is that there are some new equipment mixed within the new shipment, that is something that looks like an artillery, but relatively smaller that can be operated by only two people, with the person in front carrying it on a shoulder and the one on the back looking at the sight. This gear, as described by master Orban in the letter, apparently drew inspirations from a kind of gunnery that exists in tiny numbers within the Ottomans called arquebuse.
