Chapter 228: Winds Howling

An hour later, the Sultan's team of Ashji bashi prepared a sumptuous feast with roasted Ürdün lamb meat, cooked Hejaz yogurt and other delicacies of the Saracen states giving Antonius and his men quite a fresh taste towards the food of the unknown world. While the followers of Antonius are down there busy gobbling down their feast and appreciating the artistic belly dance of Persian maidens, Antonius and Orhan are up there caught in a situation of embarrassment, grinning at each other exchanging toasts of Cyprus grape wine but not knowing where to start. 

Both sides have their intentions and border line of negotiation clear in mind; Antonius undoubtedly wants the Peninsula of Erdek, and at the same time he do not want Orhan to lay command on his men having a total liberty on this siege. While for Orhan, not only does he want to enforce some level of control on Antonius' fleet, but also does he wants Antonius to take up the main role of offensive preserving the strength of his Ottoman warriors. 

As for whether does he wants to disobey the deal of ceding the Peninsula of Erdek? No, no matter what Orhan sees himself as a noble, a royal, a prince, and true nobles never lie.

After a while, One of Orhan's Janissary guard showed up in the tent whispering before the ears of Orhan. Orhan nodded taking a peek at Antonius raising his cup and broke the awkward silence. 

"My friend." The Sultan grinned and cheered. "I have just received news that the coward hiding behind the tortoise shells, that Ibrahim Pasha in Izmit, have sent a letter to you seeing your arrival." 

"Oh?" Antonius lifted up his eye brow. "Why don't you help me read it? I don't understand your language." 

The Sultan gave Antonius an interesting look having understood his hidden meanings, "He said that upon seeing your flags appearing on the horizons he is 'excited till he can't sleep', knowing that you have arrived seeing those ships flying the double headed eagle purple flag appearing on the horizon, how he wish to meet you again in person ever after that confrontation back in the woods… Interesting letter isn't it." 

Orhan passed the letter, passed it to the servant and stared into the eyes of Antonius wiping his mouth and hands. "Do you have any words of reply? My friend?" 

"Sure." Antonius replied placing another piece of lamb meat without thinking. "Tell him that I do not remember who he is, perhaps only if he does some thing impressive then I will have a place for him in my mind." 

Sultan Orhan continued staring at Antonius for a while and then burst into a chain of laughter. "Hahahaha… It is indeed challenging to acquire recognition from the renowned admiral Antonius isn't it".

Antonius returned with no words, only a smirk. 

Orhan glanced at his unfaithful lords exchanging toasts with the captains of Antonius singing songs together, engrossed in their own world of fantasy forming bonds in the soldier's way, and leaned forward towards Antonius whispering before him maintaining eye contact. "My friend… Are you full now? Why don't we take the valuable occasion, and have a full inspection of the city we are deemed to take, before the Güneş goes down?"

"Gladly." 

Orhan showed a satisfied grin, stood up and reached his hand out towards Antonius. The later also showed a grin wiping his hands standing up holding the hand of Orhan. 

…

Twenty minutes later, on a small hill outside the camp, facing the city walls of Izmit. 

Antonius made it up here fast like a breeze demonstrating his superb level of stamina, while Sultan Orhan on the other hand, took a little more effort climbing up to hill top panting up and down wiping the perspiration on his fore head. 

"Look at you, prince, or no, Sultan." Antonius taunted Orhan who just made it to the top. "You really need more exercise my Sultan, look at that large belly of yours! If you'd shake those things off you shall be as agile as me, which might be able to save your life next time!" 

Orhan retorted. "My belly is vastly indifferent, for I contain all my knowledge on how does the moon and the sun moves, how does crops sprout out from the dirt, how does the world revolves through the teaching and philosophies of the Great Prophet, how to write gorgeous scripts with master craft calligraphy, what about you? What do you have in your belly?" 

Antonius did not reply. 

This small commotion is quickly over as the two men began inspecting the already crumbling city walls, darkened from all those burns and shelling by the siege machineries, with the moat already dried after Orhan managed to block the water channel connecting the city's moat and pipes to the nearest drinkable water sources. If it is any other ordinary city cutting off its water supplies would result in a quick succumb, but Izmit is different, she has inherited those complicated irrigation infrastructures from the age old Roman era. 

"Look at these walls." Exclaimed Orhan. "These gorgeous walls, I have no doubt that your Rumelian are not only strategists choosing such a place to build a city giving me such a headache, but also expert craftsman always be able to construct those architecture marvels, tell me my friend, how do you think of these walls?" 

"More like a bunch of dirt and bricks combined together to me." Antonius replied narrowing his eyes. 

"Oh?" Orhan is pretty surprised as he points out to the flag of Ibrahim Pasha on the Eastern tower. "The owner of that commanding flag, a man called Ibrahim Pasha, he is called the lion of Erzurum, famed for his bravery and cunning, never getting defeated, and never surrenders even if it is a situation like beating a dead horse trying to make it run." 

"So? He is still just a normal man with a pair of eyes, a nose, a pair of ears to me, no difference from others." Antonius sniggered at Orhan's description. "Since he is a normal man, he can be defeated." 

"Really" Orhan lifted his eye brow up in disbelief.

"Trust me… The reason why you never conquered this place yet, is because of your army's inefficiency and the defensive bonus of the enemies occupying those walls, which definitely does not mean that this man called Ibrahim Pasha is invincible." 

Orhan clenched the riding crop in his hands. 

"I have seen enough." Antonius turned back down the hill. "Let's go back, winds howling, and later it shall be the wolves." 

…

Upon their return, the sun has sunk half of its mass into the horizon with some twinkling stars slowly showing up in the dusk sky. Antonius' men have already peached their tents just beside the Sultan's camp as instructed by their admiral, getting some rest on their feet trying to regain their balance of directions with the help of land. No matter how these sailors loved the seas, they still long for a stable piece of land to step on after a long voyage. 

Immediately after Antonius jumped down the horse, he threw the whip to the horse fettler, and gave Abraham an order asking him to assemble every single captain of his fleet to his tent to discuss the plans for battle. Even if the captains have dozed off after getting drunk, they still need to be awakened by simply a bucket of cold water on their head.

After every one have settled down, Antonius announced his plans which instantly awakened the mind of every captain blowing their drowsiness away. 

"We shall attack tomorrow morning before dawn."

The captains could not believe what they have heard breaking into a series of debate and arguments saying things like the troops have not even readied themselves for the incoming siege with little equipment and machinery, it is a most inappropriate thing to attack before sun light as many soldiers suffer a curse of poor vision in the darkness. some straight forward ones like Abraham could not control himself, stood up and reminded Antonius of Abdullah's advice of always thinking thoroughly through the head before actions. 

Antonius patiently too the chance to reply to each of these questions. 

"I know that your arguments are logical, I know the risk of letting the troops attack tomorrow before dawn, and I also know that if all went unwell this will end up giving us the biggest number of casualties we have ever seen after we left Constantinople…" 

"…But think about it, lads, if you logical thinkers all think that we do not have the capabilities to attack tomorrow, what about the Ibrahim Pasha seating in that city? Will he also goes thinking that oh we are still pitching our tents preparing our siege engines, and the troops of Orhan will also not be planning an attack tomorrow because he is busy trying to establish a combined command with us and thus there will not be any attacks tomorrow, will he then allow his exhausted worn out soldiers to close their eyes and get some quality rest?"