Chapter 453 - One Step Forward

"Who is with me, please step one step forward."

The guards hesitated, of course. The Ottoman army have lost the tradition of going all the way to the front with their general to inspect the enemy lines long time ago. They believe that this is just a thing that are only done by the weaklings who is trying every thing to achieve a desperate victory against a stronger foe, and the Ottomans, at least still in the perceptions of them in Epirus, have been achieving victory forever. However, they seem to have forgotten the irony that things is not different, or maybe it takes them some lesson and time to realise that the tide has changed.

Only a handful of the noble guards stepped out of the line, and despite being disappointed, Semseddin allowed the rest to go back together, and then rode towards the Rumelian encampment through a hidden narrow trench curved along the woods, creating a way forward by hacking and slashing through the twigs and branches blocking their way, slain two Rumelian patrols, and finally they reached the outskirts of the Rumelian encampment.

The funny thing is that Semseddin has not yet realised that he has miraculously managed to achieve some thing that most of his professional scouts did not achieve, that is have a full inspection on the walls and layout of the enemy encampment with his own eyes. And he got to admit, that as compared as to his own camp with tents randomly scattered around and people defecating every where even along the streets, the Rumelians built their encampment like a piece of art, being designed in to various segments separated with walk ways and internal walls, sufficient toilets, large bunk areas and logically allocated watch towers.

Semseddin sighed and gathered his guards. "Look guys, study the way they design their encampments, we might need this kind of skill one day."

"Your highness, with all the respect I must remind you again that our main objective here today is not to study the way the Rumelians lay their encampments, we are here to find the site of the Rumelian artilleries…."

"Yes, yes." Semseddin too realised that he has been spending way too much time here looking at some irreverent stuff. The gang of people continued moving in the outskirt of the Rumelian encampment according to the calculations made by the mathematician.

And upon finally discovering the site of the Rumelian artilleries, they found out that all their assumptions and evaluation are wrong. The Rumelians indeed did not use the common methods of firing shells through a straight angled bronze artilleries as they have did it before, and they can at least comfort themselves again that these Rumelians did not invent some sort of magical artillery piece that can fire toward the sky and land on to their head, instead they discovered that…

The Rumelians used trebuchets and catapults, they returned to the good old times of a hundred years ago, which really blew the mind out of Semseddin, he had never even gave a thought that the Rumelians can use this form of method out of his expectations. Though it seems like the mathematician by his side seems to be even ore depressed and so he still had to force a gentle smile and comforted. "Well, you see, at least these Rumelians are not that advanced yet, we might still complement them for their quick thinking, you see, thinking out of the box."

"True, the most sophisticated product might be composited with the simplest formulas and calculations." The mathematician agreed, though the worry did not disappear from his face. "However that can only mean one thing, your highness. You do not know how hard it is to land their strikes precisely on to that spot with the shell landing spots so tightly packed together, that would only mean that its either their mathematics capabilities have surpassed us, or…"

"There are imposters among us who transferred the first hand information on the precise location of our ambush troops to the enemies." The mathematician had a gruesome look on his face. "And that imposter must have a foundational understanding on geometry."

Semseddin felt a chilling shiver down his spine as he listens to the theory of a possible imposter, but still he forced himself to stabilise his mind knowing that the trend of inter suspicion and purging definitely cannot be started within themselves in the stand off, and he knows how time and effort consuming it is to dig up a spy in the twenty thousand men camp. So he sternly turned down this theory and replied. "It must be because the Rumelians have a whole team of mathematicians that is enrolled in to the war efforts."

"Maybe, maybe." The face of the Mathematician dimmed feeling defeated in his own field of specialisation. The guard by Semseddin side felt some thing coming and anxiously approached his leader, hissing beneath his breathe. "Your highness! Now we have a clear information of the enemy artilleries, we have achieved our goals! It is time for us to retreat!"

Semseddin nodded his head slightly, but then shook his head. "Yes true, we have achieved our goals, but you ought to be a noble right? So, let me ask you my fellow noble man, if you only do things according to the conservated present objective and goals with out any guts and wits for an adventure, can we ever reclaim those lost lands belonging to us Ottomans? Did our ancestors think in your way when they dressed up as women to attend the murderous wedding by tekfurs of Bilecik and Yarhisar? Did they think like you when they crossed the Bosporus in to Thrace?"

The noble guard gulped and did not know what to reply, as he does not think that he has made any mistake this time round.

Under the apprehensive sights of his men, Semseddin pulled out his blade, climbed on to his mount and gazed at the Rumelian site of artilleries.