Chapter 217: Erdek

"Don't allow your unique character and values, the secrets that you know and no one else does, the truths - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency."

-        Aesop (620 – 560 BC, not the Brazilian skin care brand)

Antonius stayed on the island for one week going around exploring the different towns, villages and settlement doing the ritual of a new lord knowing more about his demesne, while getting the local subjects to have a view of him getting to know him better, he also brought his varangian and the best of his marines marching around with him carrying the emperor's banners and the double headed eagle flag luring more local youth to join his army, just like that defected soldier called Helio.

The Island of Marmara became the largest piece of solidified territory under Antonius' control, with a land mass above water surface calculating to forty five square Roman miles it even exceeds the size of the Roman capital Constantinople by a staggering eight times. Considering that the Peninsula of Peloponnese is now under the control of the two incompetent brothers Thomas and Demetrios, and the Duchy of Athenia, Antonius can now proudly declare that he runs a state nine times bigger than the Roman empire.

The population of the island seats mainly on three main holdings with various smaller settlements scattering around, having a population of around five thousand people feeding themselves through fishing, harvesting olive oil and mining marble stones selling it to the Genoese. And most importantly, Antonius now finally can say that he has a town rather than a bunch of villages equipped with a true nature harbour that can be used for trading, providing great convenience for him doing business with his fellow Genoese traders that came rushing here to trade. 

Antonius now has successfully caught the eyes of the Genoese governor of Chios Durazzo Giustiniani, yes, you guessed it right, a member belonging to the same house as the dear Giovanni Giustiniani belonging to the Maona di Chio e di Focea, a protectorate of Genoa that is ran by the Giustiniani family for almost the past century. There is a reason why he chose his mercenary camp over there.

The governor, hearing that there is a legendary Genoese adventurer who defeated the entire Ottoman navy serving under the emperor of the Greeks now managed to conquer the Ottoman islands in the Marmara sea, immediately realised that this is an opportunity to expand both Genoese and his family's influence further into the Bosporus dispatched a convoy sending a few ambassadors to Antonius establishing a diplomatic relationship asking for the admiral to grant Genoese charter of trade on his territory.

But unfortunately for those envoys they did not manage to catch up with Antonius as he has set off for his next destination. Which might be a good thing as he ambassadors were welcomed by a captain named Abdullah who got appointed by the admiral to stay behind handling all the affairs on the island. The ambassador from Chios, assuming that the 'captain Abdullah' is a man who knows nothing about the laws of trade and economy, tried to negotiate some treaties benefacting the republic to Abdullah, but was all plainly rejected by the later saying that he is not authorised by his sovereign to discuss any deals. When the ambassadors asked Abdullah on the where abouts of the admiral, he lied saying that he has completely no idea too.

The ambassadors had no other way and after settling down waiting for a couple more days, waiting for the news of the admiral but sadly for them looking for the news of the admiral is just like looking for a nail in the ocean. In the end, all negotiations between the two parties are foiled. Which judging by what happened in the later events, might have been a good thing.

So where is Antonius right now?

He is on his final task of securing the Sea of Marmara.

Antonius set off from Island of Maamara on the fifteenth of August separating his fleet into three naval groups heading out for the three islands. The southern naval group, led by Julian, has their target on the island of Ekinlik, former name Koutalis.  The central naval group, under the direct command of Antonius, is heading towards the island of Avşa, former name Aphousia. The northern naval group, led by Abraham, is heading towards the island of Paşalimanı, former name Halone. 

The overall plan of this operation is that the islands should be all taken down in at most fifteen day's time judging by the signs of dwindling Ottoman defense on the sea ever since the internal conflict in mainland Anatolia started, as the Grand Vizier Candarli Halil Pasha drawn most of the forces guarding these islands onto mainland guarding the garrisons on the coastal cities and ports, leaving the islands pretty much undefended. If not it would be a much more difficult task for Antonius and he would not have dared to separate his fleet into three. 

This is perhaps called the butter fly effect. 

The plans are initiated successfully with all the islands getting completely controlled in less than ten days. The main reasons why Antonius conquered these three island with out much of a trouble, apart from the Ottoman withdrawal of troops, is that they got almost every single bit of support by the local population. For they have been longing for decades after decades of see

From the day they arrived, the locals helped them supply food, building materials and manpower. When they start assaulting the fortress, the locals helped them look after the wounded, patrolling the ships with pitch forks preventing a surprise attack in the middle of the night. The day the fleet began their bombardment, the locals helped to transport ammunition and provide details of the fortress' weak points. When the marines are looking for remaining enemies deeper into the island, the locals provided themselves as guides and volunteers securing the island dragging the remaining enemies out of their hiding fox holes. After all of these is done, the fleet finished the job off with the usual procedures, giving them a trial, and sending them to see their new sultan in Prusa. 

However, the real challenge still waits for them ahead, in the supposed final target for their expedition, at the Kapıdağ Peninsula. 

The Kapıdağ Peninsula, or the Peninsula of Cyzicus, is a rather fascinating location in terms of Geography studies. It was in fact a completely isolated island just like the others a long time before, but was joined together with the Anatolia mainland thousands of years ago through a narrow strip of land connecting it to the nearest port of Bandırma, old name Panormos forming a unique gulf on both sides. Which is exactly the thing that makes the entire situation become immensely complicated and troublesome. 

With the strip of land over there, the naval superiority of Antonius is barely useful, ever since news of Roman attack on the islands, the Ottoman beys, chieftains and pashas have been reinforcing the area building fortress after fortress. What makes it even more surprising is that these conservative old hags even realised the importance and overwhelming functionalities of modern artilleries, considering that these people once opposed the previous sultan Mehmed II's idea to start a national effort towards development and manufacturing of artilleries. They mounted the new fortresses with these artilleries that has been stored in the ware houses eating dust for god knows how long. 

Being overly complacent with the previous easy victories they have acquired, Antonius and his captains decided to take an extremely bold plan of directly attacking the chief town of the peninsula Erdek sealing off the strips of land connecting it to main land Anatolia, and then eating up the rest of the peninsula slowly but steadily. However now it is the time for them to learn about the rules of war, never be overly complacent. 

Antonius's three fleet combined into one and started bombarding on the naval fortress in the south of the town of Erdek, sealing what is remaining of the Ottoman ships inside the naval base and tried to ignite all the ships inside like what they did back in the naval base of Gölcük. Only to find out that the Ottomans have their ships well under cover with short range cannons. The advancement efforts on land are also encountering great difficulties due to their inferior in numbers and little support of the local population. 

Things are rather different here than in the islands, as the Ottomans have already been ruling in this place for over a century, the local culture, politics and heart of people have already been pretty integrated by the Ottoman lords who treated this piece of land as their true demesne, not like the recently conquered areas that are treated like the treasury, the exchequer where they can take from it freely. The local population in Erdek have became so unfamiliar with the flags of their old country that they even saw them as foreigners, instead one of their own kind. 

It is an era when nationalism is still sprouting.