Chapter 397: Can You Feel It

Fresh hot blood started drippling down from the trough of Mauro's blood, with its formal owner still maintaining that weird smile on his face as if the blade strike was nothing to him. Mauro remained this posture and to his fright, the ambassador Gedik Ahmed Pasha seems to be enjoying this process or what, using the last bit of energy he had to inch a step forward making the blade pierce in to his body even deeper. Every one gaped looking at this scene, all not sure what to do with it while finally, one eunuch decided to take his leave and report this to the emperor, who is now able to briefly wake up and keep his ability to think and remember things only for three hours per day. 

"You cursed little cunning prick star." Mauro hissed. "Don't you feel any pain by my blade?"

The man continued trying to inch forward, until his body finally could no longer take this massive leakage of blood, making him loss his control on his muscles and finally falling heavily on to the ground, with his limbs still twitching. Knowing that his demise is near, Gedik Ahmed Pasha made a few weak laughter and replied. "Certainly, I feel pain, but the pain has been squeezed away by my feeling of joy and happiness… But you know what, the ultimate reason why our trick worked, is still because of your greed…. Rumelian, we did not kill your army, your greed for Thrace did." 

Mauro pulled his blade out, which made Gedik Ahmed Pasha loss his blood of life support even faster, at the very end of his life Gedik Ahmed Pasha barely lifted his head up staring at the man who slain him, and murmured. "Do not touch those people who followed me… They do not know a thing… Please…."

Then the man finally collapsed on to the ground, again, and laid there unconscious ever since. The man who was once the head of the Janissaries, fought in both iconic wars of the past decade, was once the 'big three' of the Sultanate after the Grand Vizier died and was once in control of one quarter of Edirne, now succumbed to his wound in a year when he just reached forty years old. And till the very end of his life, he still did not utter any words of fact on whether if the Ottomans had been planning this ambush long before and sent him here as a spy, and no one shall know why did he throw down his life in Edirne to risk himself among the Romans, and now certainly no one can certify what he has just said is indeed true, all of him is now a complete mystery. 

"Control the rest of the Ottomans." Mauro lifted his blood tainted blade up and started wiping it with a cloth. "Do not touch them until further notice… I may want to interrogate them later." 

"Yes sir." Two guard men acknowledged his order and marched out of the room, only to bump in to another man who seems to be on a rush here. The incomer, who has his head almost entirely grey, did not bother messing around with these two soldiers and climbed up hurrying in to the room, with the eunuch following him closely behind. This man is Senator Innocentius Zonaras, a man known to be a mad dog in the Senate of Constantinople paying allegiance to the oppositions. 

The moment he stormed in to this room and caught sight of the still twitching corpses on the ground, Innocentius realised he has been way too late. The old senator sighed shaking his head, and passed the message of Constantine to Mauro, who is still standing there wiping his blade. "His Majesty, the Autocrat and Basileus of all Romans, and the protector of all true Christians…"

"My head is messed up like pottage, honourable senator. Please only say the words that are truly necessary, if you do not mind, please." 

Innocentius skipped the formal part and laid down the words Constantine asked him to pass in a monotonous way. "The emperor orders you to interrogate the potential Ottoman spy, but with the borderline of keeping his life." 

Mauro placed his blade back in to the scabbard and rubbed his face clean. "Well, I guess that the emperor's message is too late now, he is such a pain in the arse that I had to kill him, please pardon me honourable senator… What has already been done cannot be undone, you know." 

The old senator sighed, took a step back giving this murderer a disgusted look, and threatened. "You know what, general, I am going to launch an investigation and a report on this matter in the Senate as soon as we get back to Constantinople, killing an ambassador, no matter under what ever circumstance, is a strict no go in the codex. We are not the Ottomans, we are civilised."

"Do what ever you want." Mauro shrugged his shoulders. "But my sixth sense tells me that my assumption of him being a spy is correct, and I do not regret the choice I have just made." 

The old senator knows that he is unable to actually do any thing to Mauro as they two belongs to a totally different system and thus decided to take his leave, but before he left the room he made one last sentence. "It would be much more profitable if we would have kept him alive, we could have extracted so much intel out from his mouth with time, grind in to the Ottoman systems to find and exploit any potential weak spots… You know, those 'old methods' being recorded in the history of Anemas in Blachernae… But you decided to have him slain, alright, alright…"

Mauro remained wordless while being flamed by the old senator. Of course, he is not feeling guilty or what for killing the Gedik Ahmed Pasha, instead he have killed way too many people to have the mentality of a man who is in to killing for the first time. In fact, he is only concerned about one thing now, that is how is he going to explain this to Giovanni on the decisions made by him, and how he shall seek pardon from Giovanni in losing six hundred of their best men in one single ambush, with the probability of losing more in the coming day.

Mauro has began to realise it, that the words of the dead ambassador might be indeed correct. 

The emperor fell back to sleep again, and never sent any message to disturb the peace of Mauro. The entire Roman camp slowly quietened down when they realised that the Ottomans are not here for a direct attack and began fortifying the area in the preparation for an enduring encirclement battle. Till this time, they are still not very concerned about the Ottoman's weak encirclement, as it is a common battle knowledge that in order to have an encirclement on your enemies, not only you need to have the geography and land scape on your side, you also need to have at least five to six times the total number of combatants as compared to your enemies. 

The Ottomans had neither the advantage of geography, as Thrace is mainly made up of plains, nor do they have the full advantage of man power. Thus, from the moment they decided to abandon their element of surprise and agility by staying put and not start a rapid assault on the Romans, they have already lost the chance for a decisive strike. If the Romans would really want to tear an opening on the surroundings and break through, the Ottomans would not be able to stop them. 

In fact, the Roman commanders are now more concerned about the Ottomans intercepting their supply routes which seems to be the case. Some suggested that they should march southwards first to the coast and rely on maritime transportation for supplies. However, this proposal too has its own flaws, like how are the Romans going to march through a whole lot of Ottoman controlled territories with out expecting to meet any resistance? What made them think that the Ottomans would not come and assault them with the usual mangudai 'hit and run' tactic? How would they know that their planning would turn this march in to a death march? And most importantly, how are they sure that their current supplies are efficient to keep them for a few days before they reach the coast? 

Judging from the looks that his subordinates gave him, Mauro can be sure that these people did not really have an answer to these questions. That can be quite normal some times, as he knows that these commanders all climbed to the positions they are in now through battle and bravery, not through tactical thinking, and unlike what Antonius is doing now in the south, Constantinople certainly does not have the resources to educate her bunch of illiterate commanders.