Chapter 62: First Rule of Commander

Antonius and Abdullah took six hundred men comprising mostly of sailors, or we can also address them by the name pirates. While leaving two hundred men behind tending for the wounded pioneers and looking after the ships preventing them from floating away. Despite most of them having expressed a strong will to fight, Antonius, although deeply touched, did not change his decision and explained to them why. It is because most of them are either newbies who has not been properly trained before for battle, or they are the only child in the family.

There is a quote in the Art of War saying that 'Treat your men as how you treat a new born infant, and they will help you with your dilemma and difficulties. Treat your men as how you treat your own beloved sons. And they will follow you to the deepest valleys even if it leads to their eventual death.' In this case, Antonius, being their admiral, gave them a thing that most of them never had.

He gave them respect.

In the medieval ages when most nobilities, aristocrats and landlords treat their subjects like slaves or properties and see them like they are ants, at most with pity, pretends to weep covering their eyes with their elegant silk sleeves and drop a few coins in sympathy when they see these poor starving kids of peasants running around helping their parents to get their daily ration of food with an exposed buttock.

That is not what they want.

Antonius and his six hundred strong force moved to a place one Roman mile away to the Eastern gate of Gölcük and waited here, well covered and disguised among the hills and woods guarding the paths and roads beneath them with crossbows already loaded with bolts and waited while the sky around them slowly darkens and the hooting sound of owls can gradually be heard.

Just as Antonius has planned earlier on, immediately as the sunlight fades away, three canon shots can be heard from the sea even one Roman mile away, thanks to the large calibre artillery provided by Orban and Jacob which can only mounted on big ships like Formidata. Upon hearing the three canon shots, a luminous dragon formed by torches appeared before the Easter gate and North-Western gate of Gölcük and rushed into the port.

"Mauro and Abraham have sprung into action!" Abdullah said nervously as he jumps as hard as he can eyeing the naval installations a mile away. "What are we going to do now?"

"We wait." Antonius replied calmly as he is still seating there on that half-broken stool supported by another rock.

…

Meanwhile in the port.

Things are not looking too good for Julian and his men, he has already dented two blades from the constantly clashing with enemies, enduring wave after wave of strikes by his enemies who is using a tactic called 'depletion'. Five Ottoman warriors form a team and support each other on the battle line exchanging their positions fluently minimising their consumption of energy, causing a great stress to Julian's men who as compared are mostly just sailors on sea, never really trained on how to form formations and support each other on a land battle like this.

The counterparts of Julian fell down one by one, even Julian himself merely survived two slashes which almost caused his death instantly. While he too never had any land battle commander experience before also, he never knew that as the commander of a thousand men army fighting in a limited terrain like this in a port, he is supposed to stay in centre in a high ground sending out commands to maximise the potency of his force, but obviously he do not know, thus the Roman sailors are just fighting around messily, one man down and another is being pushed to refill the gap only to find out he is facing three Ottoman blades coming for him.

Men screamed in pain clutching and holding their grave wounds or lost limbs as their brother in arms lie emotionlessly with their ashen eyes still open beside them, with tears still flowing from their eyes. Meanwhile despite much effort the Ottoman army still stood high and defiantly before their blades, keeping their backs straight blades raised and formations intact.

"Regroup! Regroup! Do not fall back! Do not fall back!" Julian wiped his blood-covered face with his blood tainted sleeve and cried towards his men, then picked up another blade from a dead sailor and looked around blankly.

He brought a thousand men with him on this task, and now there is only around six hundred left.

When Julian's men are on the verge of collapse, Abraham came just in time and started attacking the Ottoman army from another direction through the roads between the governor's office and the residential area, caught the Ottomans by a little bit surprise but under the command of Kapudan Pasha Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey who is an experienced army commander, they managed to put up a successful defensive line despite facing enemies on two fronts. Although this greatly reduced the stress on Julian's side.

Seeing this, Julian cried out laughing. "Splendid brothers! I knew that the admiral will not abandon us!" Then he jumped into the battle line again. While on the Ottoman side, the Kapudan Pasha Baltaoğlu Süleyman Bey gave a cold humph and jeered with his red battle excited pair of eyes. "Weakling! Weakling! Since more of you come, I shall have no choice but destroy you all! Wryyyyy!"

Just as he finished his words, Mauro and his well armoured troopers approached the Ottoman rear silently taking advantage of the valleys and corridors as their Italian plate armour and long sword glister under the dense moon light. Like a white leopard carefully lunging for its prey in the darkness.

The Kapudan Pasha still has his full attention on Abraham and failed to place any rear guards or at least any spies on his rear, which failed the first rule as a qualified commander.

"Always stay observant and alert, even if you are going to win."