Chapter 324: Three Plans

"When shall we three meets again In thunder, lightning, or in rain?"

-        Macbeth, William Shakespeare

In a newly renovated strategic meeting room inside the government house, every major commander under Antonius is gathered around here just before dawn looking at the gigantic map laying in front of them, which Julian is pointing at with a wooden twig he found in the court yard. The map, or more precisely speaking a table filled with sand and rocks symbolizing the various mountainous regions in the Greece peninsula, liquid symbolizing the Aegean and flags representing the various important out posts, castles and cities. 

"Lads, we have made up three plans according to the current situation, in which one is to expand west wards, one is to expand north wards, and finally one is to expand east wards." Julian described confidently towards his colleagues the plans made up by him and Abdullah through almost two years of scouting, studying, analyzing and investigating. 

"If we are going for the western expedition, we shall set up our supply head quarters in Veria, our troops shall march off the out post fortification Vromopigado towards the west in to the lands of Epirus, our goal is to secure the two major cities of Kastoria and Ioannia together with its surrounding areas and fortresses. Militarily speaking this way is the easiest for us to take as the Ottoman presence here are minimized after the defeat under the walls of Thessaloniki and the chain of activities conducted by those crusaders." 

"Excuse me captain, I would like to add on some thing honourable admiral." Anjelo interrupted briefly standing up spreading another map on the table. "For me personally I would like to strongly suggest that we adapt to this plan towards the west, because if we managed to take down Kastoria we would be able to build up a stable channel of communication with the Albanians and their leader the man called Skanderbeg, allowing more corporations between the two states in the future. Taking down the city of Ioannia will allow us to secure southern Epirus, which is a place with numerous mountain ranges acting as natural barriers giving us a suitable place to expand our common market, and also a channel to directly communicate or trade with the Latin states. Especially, the pope." 

Antonius nodded staring at the map. "Thank you for your suggestion, Julian please carry on."

"Yes, admiral." Julian moved the twig towards the east pointing on the peninsula of Erdek. "From what it seems now it seems that Zaganos Pasha does not want to have a conflict too early with us creating a double sided front line splitting his power away unnecessarily. However following the recent events the commander of the fleet Castello suggested that we should probably make a pre emptive strike on the core territories of Zaganos taming the beast in its cage while also grabbing the endowed coastal cities of Smyrna, Samos, Ephesos while he is still busy engaging the remnants of Orhan's forces in the mountains." 

"We would split in to three portions." Julian gave out his proposed plan prepared long ago. "In to army group north, army group central and army group south. From north we shall start our attack from our peninsula of Erdek and try to capture the current capital city of Zaganos Prusa cutting off his political support, the army group central shall land near the city of Smyrna taking the main source of his economy, while the army group south shall land right on his back blockading the major exits and supply routes, leaving his troops to starve inside the mountains and even better forcing him to do exactly the same thing his opponent did losing the popularity of the local population…"

"Send a letter to Abdullah in Erdek and consult him on his advice for this plan." Antonius leaned back frowning with his head already a bit messed up scouting the various locations marked on the map. "I do not think that Zaganos has no preparation before hand in case of an invasion by us from the sea." 

"Aye, admiral." Answered Julian. "For the third plan, we shall mobalise our armies like a pincer. According to our prior intel that crooked Grand Vizier of the Ottomans, by lucifer's curses he is still alive, has placed six garrisons in the strip of plains of Maroneia with their backs facing the mountains of Adrian trying to copy the tactic we used last time. Our army shall be spread in to two parts with twenty five thousand men crossing the mountain paths of Kavala in to Thrace directly confronting these six garrisons of around forty thousand men." 

Julian moved the twig upwards towards the back of these marked garrisons. "Then, our marines, and sailors, with a total of approximately five thousand men shall land on the foe's back attacking them from the east while the bulk of our forces shall attack them from the west encircling them in the tiny strip of land they have chose for their own, making their own garrisons becoming their very own tomb grounds… I have finished on all of my three plans, what do you think about it admiral?" 

"I…" Antonius opened his mouth but could not make a decision with so many messy thoughts inside his head. "I… fine, we shall wait for another two days and then I shall inform you people of my final decision. Thanks, Julian, for the year long of planning, I know that you long to liberate your home town from Ottoman rule giving me such a detailed plan on the northern expedition. But I am sorry, I still need some time to think about it." 

"It is fine admiral." Julian was caught by surprise with the admiral finding out about his tiny little tricks. "The entire army and the navy, thirty thousand of us shall be waiting for your command…" 

Antonius nodded hastily and left the room followed by every one else. A moment later Anjelo came forward to Julian giving him a pat on the shoulder with a wide grin on his old face. "You know what kid; you should not have said that last sentence just now. It makes you almost sound like you are forcing the admiral to make a decision fast with the entire force backing you up." 

"Oh…" It is then did Julian realise his inappropriate use of words as his face blushed and hurriedly bowed towards the old man in front. "I am sorry old master, you see my mind is filled with the thoughts on the upcoming battle that I did not bother thinking much about my use of words, you see… I am a pure soldier, please help me to convince the admiral to pardon my bad…" 

"There is no need for me to convince the admiral." The old man made a bright smile that his two eyes almost formed a curved line on his face. "Trust me our admiral too is a sailor and a warrior in heart, he totally would not mind these trivial matters like misuse of words from us who are being trusted deeply by him, though things might turn out to be on the other way round if we got people like the emperor of the Greeks Constantine as our sovereign. However still be careful young kid, for people can change, especially a ruler, a monarch, you never know what is happening inside their minds…" 

"Thank your old master." Julian packed up his stuff giving the old man another bow.

"Now, if you really want to liberate your home town my dear boy." Anjelo continued as he strolls away with his hands on his back. "I would suggest you seek for the help of Abdullah; he is the one that can truly influence the admiral's mind in making strategic planning and decisions. As you can see today, the admiral is not that decisive in making big decisions nowadays, he still needs some one, some one who has always been by his side giving him confidence and intelligence to push him. And I am sure Abdullah will agree with your plans on northern expedition, too." 

Julian made a short run following closely behind the old man and continued clearing his doubts. "But old master, why has the admiral become indecisive? He wasn't used to be like this last time…"

"Well, there is a lot of reasons." Anjelo stared in to the garden in a distance through a window in the hall way. "Five years ago, the admiral had nothing to lose, with only a city on his back with no families or what so ever, nothing to care or worry about when making decisions just like a gambler; it is either an all in or an all out. But now…" 

Anjelo stared deeply at two figures in a distance, a young girl playing merrily in the bushes and behind her there is another lady with a big belly seated on a chair near by reading books taking advantage of the soft fading sun light. "Now our admiral cannot afford to lose any thing, be it his people, his territory, or his family."