Chapter 363: The Four Plans

"O Solon, Solon, Hellenes aei paides este, geron de Hellen ouk estin"

"O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you."

-        Plato, Timaeus

There is a reason why Antonius asked Yuri to recall that boring and shameful battle he fought two years back, as the name of the Ottoman commander of the East is again mentioned in the letter. With that in mind the admiral asked Yuri again, on his opinions on that famed Ottoman commander Mahumad Pasha Angelovic; What is his style as a war commander, how is his battle field judgement and how capable he is as a general and war fighter.

Yuri gave an honest reply to Antonius' chain of questions; He do not remember.

There is a reason why Yuri could not remember any details about Mahumad Pasha Angelovic, first that battle was fought in a haste with out any pre war evaluation on the enemies, then the entire battle was just fought as according to how it was planned on paper – a very rare scenario as almost half of the times the plans on papers do not serve the practical needs on the fields.

They can see that the Ottomans did prepare a lot of trenches, barricades and fortifications in preparation for an Roman offensive from the sea, but the fleet commanded by Abraham simply loaded their artillery shells from a far and blasted all the fortifications and barricades wave by wave, then the marines led by Yuri crashed any resistance of the Ottomans in the trenches, successfully reaching the interior port and set the ships and towers alight giving the artilleries a shell guiding light source, resulting in the not knowing how many times of destruction of the Ottoman fleet.

Thus Yuri does not remember almost any thing about that Ottoman commander, because in his eyes that battle was won way too easily making him more boring instead of getting his blood boiling. The enemies lost their defenses so easily proving the fact that they are still way too weak against a Roman offense on the seas. Yuri only remembers the people who gave him challenges, not people who lost to him in such close proximity of time and giving him such boredom. 

"Why are you asking this, admiral?" Asked Yuri after he described every bit of details, he knew about that Ottoman commander. "Was it mentioned in that report you burnt just now?" 

"Yes." Antonius nodded slightly continuing to stare at the flickering candle light. "News came from Anjelo's agent in Constantinople, the emperor of Constantinople launched an offensive…"

Just as Antonius is about to talk further, that chubby merchant who was freaked out of his life a few hours back approached Antonius hugging his wine cup, looking a little tipsy. "My lord! May the grass beneath your feet be always green, may the wave beneath your sail by always tamed, may I have the pleasure of inviting you for an exchange of wine?" 

Antonius looked at the chubby merchant who can already no longer stand steadily on his feet with reddishness on his face, he simply gave a smile and exchanged a toast with the chubby merchant, who then went on with his business disturbing some other people.

Yuri waited for the chubby merchant to go away first, then lowered his voice and asked again. "That turtle emperor in Constantinople launched an attack? Where could he have struck with that puny little force of his… Or has he decided to withdraw the stationed troops in the Peloponnese?"

"It seems like it…" Antonius recalled the earlier intel's of suddenly increased ships travelling from the Peloponnese peninsula to Constantinople and dipped his head. "He seems to take the advantage of the retreating Ottoman forces to try to reclaim some towns and fortresses outside Constantinople, create a buffer zone and a line of defence so that the enemies will need to fight their way in through the new fortifications and defence mechanics in order to touch that Theodosian walls…"

"That means the peninsula is empty!" Yuri suddenly realised some thing in his head and suggested. "Why don't we take the opportunity and seize it in to our hands from that emperor of Constantinople? It would certainly be a much better use…"

"Hell no!" Antonius turned around and straight away declined with a weird emotion. "We shall never do that kind of things, remember. Any ways, it seems like Constantine did achieve his tatical victory over your old foe Mahumad Pasha Angelovic, with the help of my good old brother Giovanni, killing a total of around five hundred Ottomans, the largest Roman victory commanded by Constantine himself in his entire life, that is why he is pasting posters all over the city to advertise his victory."

"Real winners do not need to be advertised." Yuri sneered.

"We need to settle the things over here fast." Antonius ordered. "This entire event is way too bizarre for me. I do not trust that Constantine is unable to foresee the fact that the overall Ottoman power held in this region is still way higher than his, and he ought to know that the best time for him to strike is yet to come… We need to go back and have a clearer information source on all of these things happening in the east."

Yuri nodded, but he glanced around and saw the merchants, land lords and others still throwing a party in a distance. He frowned and asked again. "Admiral, do we just leave these people like this?"

"No, we don't." Antonius gazed in the distance. "But for now, the only thing we can give them now is a verbal warning, a harsh one to make them remember like today, and may be next time we shall make a come back for them after we have settled very thing else… Now Yuri, help me pack my stuff, we shall stay here for another week to finish our work here in Drama, then we shall set off back to Thessaloniki… Be fast."

Yuri acknowledged and went away, leaving Antonius and the rest of the guards here with these partying merchants and land lords, who are still awaiting their Caesar to come back and celebrate with them. The Caesar Antonius did come back, but that iconic wine cup has disappeared from his hand, with both of his hands folded behind his back as he strolled towards them with a vague smile on that crooked face of his.

"My lord!" A merchant approached Antonius with quick steps and a cup of wine in his hand palms. "We have been waiting for you! Now please, accept my humble offering and…"

"No thanks gentleman. "Declined Antonius as he pushed the cup away from his face. "I am going back in to the city later on horse back, and because of that I cannot drink."

"What a pity."

"Gentlemen! Here! Gather before me!" Antonius shouted out to every person standing. "I have some statements to make!"

The land lords and merchants gathered before their lord, still chattering and taking sips of wine in the process, while some with acute senses have already guessed that what coming next is a serious conversation, kept their mouth shut, ears open and waited for Antonius' words with a clear mind.

"Please, Mikhail." Antonius waved to the teenager that Yuri saved previously and passed him a stack of paper. "Please, help me pass this out to every person here."

Mikhail, who has been quiet seating there with his brother throughout the event, bowed and distributed the paper around. Apparently none of the regional influential figures here knows the identity of this young man, making them think that this man might be an advisor, or a secretary, or an influential high ranking governor that has been accompanying the Caesar around. Thus they started putting in double the amount of courtesy they had as compared to the usual days, standing up to receive this paper with both of their hands.

The paper they received is doubtless, a kind of contract, written in official government forms, with one after another term and article being stated. Almost every person here knows how to read and write at least, and thus they had not much problem understanding what is being written on these papers. The title of this letter, written in bold black ink, states "Drama Five Years Plan".

In the document Antonius listed a few of the 'urgent' and 'top priority' tasks for both the government, the garrison unit and the people of Drama.

First and most importantly, rebuild the people's reliability and confidence to the government, produce the census of population and man power for this year to reinstate government control.

Second, eliminate the threat of rogues laying ambush in the woods and hills, rebuild government security system.

Third, rebuild schools and educations systems, and recruit children back in to their schools.

Fourth, renovate government projects like those abandoned irrigation systems and water canals, making sure that they are at least usable by the planting season of spring next year.