Chapter 347: 3000

The Ottoman Sultan kept his promise and sent an army of around three thousand men to the field to challenge the Rumelians for a fight even before the sun has came out of its hidings, with another two armies acting as flank guard and reinforcement which under his promise, shall not come out to aid the fight at all. And when Antonius went up the tower to have an inspection on the situation trying hard to observe under the weak early morning sun light, he understood it all. He laughed and pointed at the troops beneath him and sniggered.

"I knew that the Sultan shall not send out the best of his troops… Look at this my boys, these troops are flying the banners of the Ottoman army group East which is not under the Sultan's direct command… No wonder the Sultan sent them here, they want to use us as the sword to chop down the limbs of his enemies! I must compliment him on this, what an ingenious thought! But no matter what kind of army he sends, they shall still be mercilessly cut down by our superior forces!"

Hearing this the soldiers haggling around Antonius all roared and cheered in support of their admiral's words. With the morales of his armies boosted Antonius walked down the tower towards the tent of Julian, and there he is pulled to one side by Alexios who asked him. "Do you think that it would be a piece of cake defeating and slaughtering those enemies facing us, admiral?"

Antonius pondered for a moment and gave a frank reply. "No, we have faced the armies of Mahumad Pasha Angelovic last time, and I must say that he has an unique way of training, and his armies too has an unique way of combat which makes it quite hard to bite…"

"I believe that you have seen through what the Ottomans are intending to do, admiral, using you as a hammer to solve their problem…"

"Aye I know about that."

"Thus, I suggest that we ought to only disperse that army under Mahumad Pasha Angelovic, try not to inflict a damage that is too high to them disabling them from further combat operations… Not even try to weaken them, we need to return this trouble back to the Sultan and foil his naïve thoughts of making us weaken his enemies."

"You are right… That is exactly what I thought." Antonius nodded and replied. "Let me talk to Julian on this, and see whether he can make it practical."

"And do not forget that no matter what the result of this battle is, we still need to retreat admiral!" Seeing that Antonius is about to leave, Alexios picked up his pace following closely behind.

Antonius acknowledged and entered the tent an conveyed the idea to Julian, who gave a bitter smile and shake his head saying. "You give me a difficult task admiral…"

"I know it is hard." Antonius looked in to Julian's eyes. "And hence I have another plan for this, you shall only lead a smaller task force that can be commanded and maneuverer fast, then face the Ottomans and after a while of close quartered combat, pretend that you have been defeated and make a run towards the beach two Roman miles away, there we have prepared a surprise for those Ottoman pricks… A full fleet of gun ships with improved range artilleries ready to fire, the Ottomans will not know that we have an artillery that can fire a Roman mile away."

Hearing this Julian remained silent for a while, then picked up the Florentina helmet from his table accepting the order. "If you already have a plan admiral, then I shall personally lead the finest troops I have under my command, and face those damned Ottomans myself! Please be here and patiently await my good news for you."

"I trust you my brother, but please, be there fast. If you arrived there way too late the mist on the seas might be dispersed giving them a clear view of the ships a mile away, if the Ottoman commander is a man cautious enough… The worst case scenario is that he might not approach you and instead try to surround you on the beach, if that kind of thing really happen… We might need to launch a real full scaled offensive which will fail our strategic goal, and will result in a indecisive and meaningless victory with a casualty too high."

"Leave it to me, admiral, I know what I should do."

Antonius nodded and helped his most trusted general buckle up his set of armour, then gave him a strong pat on his back and watched him leave towards his troops.

Julian rode to the camp located two Roman miles away where the rangers, the finest infantries under his command that are responsible of patrolling the mountains having combat with the Ottomans within the woods every single day. He summoned every one in the camp for this operation assembling an army counting up to an one thousand and five hundred men, only roughly half of the size of the enemies they are going to face, and then marched off after a quick breakfast under the vague winter Sun light of the early morning. 

The rangers led by Julian managed to reach their designated target by noon, a time which is to their disadvantage as the sun is still in the east shining down right towards the Roman rangers obstructing their vision, while the sun light does not affect the Ottomans as they are facing the sun light with their back. And also taking in mind that the Romans have just finished a pretty long march of around three Roman miles with a pace even faster than normal, now with five men gone missing in the process the organisation of the Roman army is already slightly messed up, while the Ottomans on the other hand are still in good shape seating there on the ground for the entire morning, though judging from their faces Julian thinks they probably not had a proper meal since morning.

But they are not just some random soldiers one can find in any military camps, they are rangers who goes in and out of the forest every single day hunting down Ottomans no matter what kind of conditions they are in. There is no exception for this time round as the moment they arrived on the spot facing the Ottomans, they became the first to launch an attack with an oval formation trying to maximise their contact area smashing right in to the still preparing Ottomans, giving them not enough time to even use their same old tactic of flanging one round of arrow first before engaging.

But that is exactly the effect that Julian wanted as his force is mainly comprised of light infantry troopers who put in more emphasize on battle skills and techniques thus neglecting the defences against enemy projectiles like bolts and arrows. Within five minutes of the rangers division showing up on the fields the first wave of contact have taken place, with the Romans getting teamed up in their usual smaller formations of six supporting one another trying to pierce through the Ottoman defences as much as possible.

And of course they failed, as the Ottomans, although being caught ill prepared by the Romans still have not managed to build up their formations, still built up their defensive stance after losing their feet for a while. The Roman rangers, though superior at infiltration and piercing tactics, are still not cavalries at the end of the day with a relatively lower agility and armour rate being unable to tear through the enemy lines, finding out that the holes and spaces they managed to open by cutting down the Ottoman defenders are immediately filled up by even more Ottoman waiting at the back.

Julian watched the overall battle field with a cold eye commanding various troops to be engaged in to battle at the back. He knows that for any battle that involves more than a thousand people, personnel bravery of the commander is almost negligible and thus he did not charge in to the enemies with his men like what he used to do when he was young. And he made a right decision, as from his angle standing on a slope he can observe clearly that his men are already getting weaker on their attack stance as their energy are starting to get worn out.

With out any hesitation Julian rose the flag and starved waving back and forth signalling the men of the horns, who acknowledged what they captain means and started blowing transmitting the piece of information to their comrades fighting at the front line. The rangers, led by their respective team leaders and minor captains started pulling out trying to get attached to the Ottomans. This too gave the Ottomans a surprise, as it takes time for the Ottomans to switch from a defensive stance to an aggressive stance.