Chapter 395: I Have the High Ground!

"Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln"

"War is a mere continuation of politics by other means"

-        Vom Kriege, Carl von Clausewitz

"Let me say this boys and remember my words in your heart carefully because it might be able to save your life later on. War, or any form of activities that resembles a war, is to serve the politics decided by those higher ups seating in the Sultan's court. We as the humble servants of the Sultan are to follow the viziers and the Sultan's spirit at all times, and we are forbidden to make strategic decisions by our own. Since we have already accomplished our goals, we are now settled with the enemies and any further actions shall only weaken ourselves and leave the western front increasingly vulnerable day by day, do you now understand?"

The Ottoman commanders showed their faces with various emotions like surprise, ignorance, disdain and impatience, apparently no one is interested in the long speech given by Hamza Pasha, all only interested in cutting down more ears and plundering more loots, powered by not knowledge and thinking but only the lust for wealth and prestige. Actually, if it is not for Hamza Pasha's influence and position in the army, some of them would have already left the premise to chase the Rumelians by themselves thinking that the old pasha is wasting their time. Things are clear now, no one here among the younger generations of the current Ottoman commanding structures is able to understand what their old pasha is thinking and feeling.

Hamza Pasha remained emotionless as he squeezed his wrinkles and scrutinised each and very one of the lords standing before him, sighing silently within his heart. As a man who came from the age of Sultan Murad II he knows that if these people are to live in the era of the previous Sultans, they would never have the chance of climbing to their current positions. It is only because of the destruction of the elite army by the last two wars, resulting in a severe shortage in experienced commanders that gave them a chance to be called beys by others.

But what can he do? Hamza Pasha still has to rely on these war lord like commanders to fight wars and he cannot offend all of them at once. Knowing that the sincere words he has said a while ago has successfully made it into a bunch of geese' ears, Hamza Pasha suddenly felt bored and lack of interest about every thing that is going on, waved his hands ordering every commander to return to their combat posts and wait for his further command.

The Roman mercenaries composed with heavy mercenaries advanced carefully through the winter marsh land, maintaining their caution while marching as quick as possible with the constant awareness that the enemies are just lurking around them, probably waiting for a time to strike. As a spear head they are familiar with their purpose of operation, that is to pierce through the possible enemy defensive lines which is built to stop them from escaping, and thus they are equipped with the finest gears that Mauro has to offer – they even had cross bows mounted on carts like the old Romans, a rare thing that any state can get in these difficult times.

However, to their astonishment they did not seem to come across any real enemy resistance along the way, it just seems like the enemies are just popping out from every where but giving them no big threat except for some scares and traps along their march. Although they have not been dealt with any harm till now, but they felt no ease or complacency about their mission, instead they felt a deep fear, which came from all the unknown factors, the mysteriousness and uncertainties about their enemies. The greatest fear of a warrior on the fields is always about the unknown.

It did not take long before some Ottoman units could no longer resist their urge and temptations and laid attacks on their own, charging in on to the Roman formations through a forty five degrees angle in an attempt to avoid being torn by the spear heads. However, they came across the other Roman units who are still being fed up from their general's mistreatment earlier on, and of course these disobedient Ottomans met a tough opponent and are forced to with draw their attack after suffering countless casualties, gaining nothing but in turn giving their opponents a bunch of head counts as their grand prize.

In the end of the day, the Romans successfully retreated back to their frontier supply base located all the way in Babaeski before the early winter sun sets beneath the mountain ranges of the Balkans. It is indeed an accomplishment for Mauro and his commanding team to lead seven thousand men on this massive retreat mission that he has not done before, without creating much mess and disorder in the process that might lead to a total collapse.

But at this point of time it still does not mean that the massive Roman army is completely out of danger. First of all they are already low on supplies, medication, combat rations, fresh water, weaponries, almost every thing they need to fight a war. Secondly the fortress of Babaeski is way too small to host seven thousand plus soldiers, plus another thousand and five hundred supply personnel which means that the majority of the army must be housed outside of the stone walls pitching tents, leaving a tremendous defensive weakness as it is already too dark and too dangerous outside for the troops to collect wood and build another layer of walls outside.

And just as what Mauro has been always worried about, at night times the Ottomans who are constantly on their tails followed up behind his troops, and there are a lot of them. From Mauro's point of view standing on the highest observation point in the small castle looking at a mile away, it just seemed like they have been surrounded again by a sea of fire torches lit in the pitch dark sky. If one is just judging by the number of fire torches it almost seemed like the numbers of enemies have doubled. Although Mauro knows that the Ottomans are probably just playing the old trick of one person holding two torches, but he certainly cannot take any more risk in a situation like this.

If the Ottomans decide to do a charge now right at the captured Roman fortress, the thousands of people outside would be the first ones to be in trouble with no unified organisation, lack of central command and walled protection. They would be seating ducks for the Ottoman cavalries, and Mauro knows that he cannot order these troops to come in to the gates now, as not only shall the troops create an unsolvable lawlessness with thousands of people trying to cram in to a small gate like how a peck of sardines is trying to cram through a hole on a fishing net, only resulting in a stampede which shall be followed by a massacre.

More and mor enemies appeared in the darkness, slowly surrounding the Romans from all directions, and now Mauro finally realised the fact that how much power and forces the Ottomans still held despite their areas being shrunk to Thrace and Epirus; They are an empire that has been built for more than a hundred years, and of course it still has some potential remaining despite coming to this state they are in now. Mauro is sure that the Ottomans did hide some of their troops a while ago, but what is the purpose for that? Give them the ego and confidence to fight on in that ambush just now thinking that they still have the superiority in numbers?

The Ottoman forces continued gathering in groups, staying a rough distance of one Roman mile away from the Roman temporary encampment, making sure that their large presence can be seen by every one and at the same time, showing a posture that they shall not launch an attack. Some Romans started panicking and protested to leave the area at once, some decided to go on exile trying to flee the place among the chaos, only to be imprisoned by their foes as a brand new prisoner of war, but most are just way too tired to carry on moving after such a long day, and fell asleep whenever it is possible, some even fell asleep when they are standing.

Just as the stand off continues stretching in to middle night, Mauro realised that they have forgotten a group of men, who have been around them all the time for the past week, that is the group of ambassadors with a pasha being their leader; A night scout came reporting that one of the ambassadors tried to take advantage of their defeat and flee the place too. Only to be caught before he manages to leave the castle.