Chapter 362: Forgetful Yuri

"دو تربوز به یک دست گرفته نمی‏شود"

"You cannot hold two melons with one hand."

-        Afghan Proverb

Borislav came in to the terrace praying hard to Christ that he shall keep his life, making him perhaps the most faithful Christian in the world using every single bit of time available to pray. And it seems like God has answered is prayers, not only did he not lose his life but also gained a place in the lord's central government, and also a place for his grand son in the Central academy of Thessaloniki. This might start small,  but it successfully laid down a slab for his family to start paving their future and influence in the central government and in the respected fields of studies.

From this moment onwards Borislav shall not need to afraid that one night his estate get bursted in to with his family confiscated and his wealth ransacked. From today onwards he can say that his family is a house of scholars and knowledge instead of saying his house is full of land lords and merchants, which is largely despised in the East, being the land of knowledge, when compared to their counterparts in the west, there is a reason why Romans living on this land hate the Latin merchant republics even to this day, and it did affect the position of Roman merchants as well.

Antonius smiled as he watched the expression on the old chairman's face. He has done some prior research before coming here of course, and he knows that this elder man before him is the most influential merchant here in Drama. With him in the team he can say that the alliance between these merchants and land lords have been broken with out the need for an action or fight, and of course with out the need to disturb the already screwed up social stability in the region.

He turned to the rest of the people and raised both of his arms high up in the sky exclaiming out in a luring tone "Gentlemen! As I have mentioned, I am not that kind of unreasonable tyrant who will go around killing off my own people for no reason. I need you to help me develop the economics in my land to give me more taxation, man power and stability. While in exchange I can guarantee you a healthy and stable government system with a logical tax required, and also a strong shield protecting you against any form of justice or danger. Remember especially when you are trading with foreign delegates, that our fleet forms your strongest back bone, our canons form your guardian of justice, our army makes sure that the foreigners make proper deals with you…"

"Hooray!" The merchants cheered first standing up, singing songs of praises around the Caesar. This night is simply too much of a surprise for them, though they did not gain real benefits like the sly Chairman who managed to appease the Caesar first, but at least they kept their head, their wealth, and their families with out being charged and locked away.

However just as they are still over there cheering, Antonius suddenly remembered some thing as he continued forcing a smile on his face looking at these clowns he despised dancing and cheering beneath him. He finally could not control his emotions when he saw that two kids Yuri brought with him over here roaming around finding food to eat, Antonius made a cough, which immediately quietened down the people around him, and the silence together with the cough spread around within seconds making complete silence returning to the terrace.

"Alright, gentlemen, may you please be seated, my boys have prepared their mutton and now let us have our meals first before we continue our discussion on the future of Drama." Antonius made three loud claps, and with it a fleet of troopers each carrying a plate of cut muttons came out from the back, dumping the meat in to the boiling pot, and placed a jug of wine in front of each person here, with now a proper cup, dressings and dining utensils.

The merchants and land owners finally started having their uneasy meals after a long day of wait, though they must say that despite having a relatively sweet ending for the events of today, and a relaxed atmosphere, the muttons that the soldiers served is hardly considered to be in shape for people like them to consume. These hard boiled mutton are hard to bite, tasteless like the cooks never added any salt inside, and the interior of the meat remains cold and uncooked, making the elderlies like Borislav having a difficult time trying to bite the meat from the bones.

While for Antonius he did not eat the over cooked mutton at all, just seating down here with his wine cup giving a smile to these people, watching them suffer by trying to gobble down the meat with their decaying teeth. It just seemed like another plain fun night for him as he had all the other kind of activities arranged for these gentle men, when suddenly another another rider came from a far claiming that he has an immediate report for the Admiral. The guards men under Yuri faithfully fulfilled their duty once again, intercepting the letter and then passed it to Antonius.

Antonius was just discussing the recent various fun things that has been going on in the army camp when he got his hands on the letter, but as he reads the letter that grin slowly became frozen on his face, until when Yuri realised that Antonius stopped replying to what ever he has said. Yuri leaned his head forward shoulder surfing the contents on the letter. However sadly, with that inadequate amount of Greek vocabulary which is entirely different from what he has learnt before.

"Yuri, let me ask you some thing, from a military perspective." Antonius suddenly crumbled the paper in his hand palms, and set it alight on the candle light, then asked Yuri at the back while watching sparks of flames dances on the slowly darkening paper. "You once faced that Mahumad Pasha Angelovic personally in battle three years ago off the coast of Crimea… Tell me, what kind of military leader do you think this guy is?"

The battle that Antonius has mentioned is a confrontation that happened three years ago between Abraham and Yuri against Mahumad Pasha Angelovic, when the Ottomans of Thrace and Bulgaria worked together to construct a fleet outside a hidden spot called Igneada, Thrace. This is intolerable as it although the new Ottoman navy is relatively small and fragile, but due to their building capacity they might potentially grow in to another giant and be a nuisance to the dominance on the seas by Antonius' fleet, the worst outcome being the Straits of Bosporus being sealed off again, denying any further entry by the Romans in to the Black Sea, cutting off an important source for trade, warriors, horses and most importantly, wood.

Thus, Abraham and Yuri, who are already the significant figures in the state of Antonius now, are being dispatched under the direct order of Antonius leading a fleet of two Carracks, twelve war Galleys loaded with artilleries, fifteen Galleys with no artilleries but crossbows acting as trajectory weapons, plus a lot of trading cogs kindly donated by the passing patriotic merchants trading on the route along the Black Sea.

The Romans have never assembled a fleet this size for years ever since they have destructed the Ottoman fleets along the coasts of Anatolia, that due to insufficient trainings and corporations the massive fleet could not properly coordinate with each other causing a series of accidents and jokes like when the fleet was passing through the Strait of Bosporus, the guiding ships did not check the nautical situations of the waters correctly, resulting in a messy transition of messages causing a few transport ships to wreck on to the boulders, and also a few ships collided with one another when both ships are not willing to give way to the other ship, which is illegal as according to the protocols, the ship travelling on the right should always give way to the ship on the left.

However although the Roman navy put up a rather ridiculous performance totally unlike what they have shown to the Mediterranean states a few years back, they still accomplished their strategic goal of destroying that Ottoman navy they spent so long to rebuild easily for a very simple reason, this is a realistic world of adults, and no matter how much hope and faith the Ottomans put in to rebuild their maritime force, it can be easily squashed by an overwhelming amount of ships and artilleries the Romans possessed, with one round of bombardment first, followed by another round of bolts, then ending with a round of marines charging up shores led by Yuri, and every thing is settled. The Ottoman fleet that they have been building for the past two years, have now literally gone back to its original state of wooden planks.