Chapter 470 - Be Obedient

Less than five hundred meters in a straight line distance away, four teams of Rumelians are working against the Earth tossing up one after another shovel of yellow into the sky, kissing the metal in their hands against the frozen soil working their way for the trenches as ordered. While as compared the bunch of Ottoman higher ups are just standing there on the walls, watching everything going on right before their eyes.

Semseddin arrived on the spot, and immediately he made the similar assumption as the rest thinking that the enemies must be digging tunnels to reach the underground of the walls.

But Semseddin soon found some doubts and questions that he is unable to answer by himself after giving it a thorough thought. First the Rumelians are making their intentions way too obvious by not covering the spot with makeshift tents or launching a feint attack to divert their attentions. Furthermore, the hardness that is felt through the top of his boots told him by instinct that it must be a bad idea to dig a tunnel when the ground is so hard.

So, what are they doing? Semseddin is filled with questions for he knows that the Rumelians are doing something fishy, and he don't have a glimpse on their intention. This kind if mysteriousness and uncertainty is definitely killing him as a commander.

"We got to find out what they are up to." Semseddin feels like his heart is being stung by the bee of anxiety and uncertainty.

"But are you going to do then? Infiltrate the Rumelian camp again?"

"I am going to lead a tiny squadron myself to try to sneak onto their encampment and have a look myself." No one expected Semseddin to really have this kind of thought as the young prestigious nobleman grabbed his helmet and headed downstairs, but before he could leave he stalled as he felt his arm is being pulled by someone. The pulling force is weak, but still Semseddin had to stop as he knows that the single person who dares and has the authority to pull his arm is the Sanjek.

"Do not go, Semseddin!" The Sanjek ordered. "Your action shall appear like a laughing stalk to everyone if you make such a hasty decision! Your father left you to me, and I shall definitely not let you make this kind of foolish mistake."

Semseddin did not stick on to his decision like a stubborn donkey, instead he calmed down from his anxiety and intuition. He knows that the Rumelians over there must be preparing for them to make infiltration attempts or quick assaults, there are probably already more than a hundred pairs of eyes hidden everywhere in the woods and terrains beneath him peeking onto their fortress, waiting for him to come out and jump into the spider cob web willingly.

However, there is always a kind of belief stuck in his head that in this kind of situation, the only solution he can have is to cling on to taking hasty military actions that have high risks, or to put it in a much more precise term, a military gamble. Semseddin is becoming more and more used to adopting a gambler's mindset when making military decisions since years ago since it brought such a lucrative amount of benefit and victory to him, especially after he got that fabulous victory on that infiltration attempt on the artillery site.

The senior Sanjek on the other hand though is able to see things with much more clarity. He knows that military gambles are only applicable when they have a clear understanding on the enemy's action and themselves knowing that they have no more other way out other than taking up a gambling action. If one are to go on an operation without any clear information regarding the enemies, then that would not be called a military gambling, it would be called a military dynamite.

The bunch of Ottoman commanders went back again and started observing closely on what are the Rumelians are up to, and slowly the intention of the enemies became clearer and clearer as time passes when the trenches in zig zagged shapes began forming its shape stretching closer towards the walls of the Ottoman fortification.

Semseddin's face turned green in colour. "These Rumelians are trying to dig a trench all the way to us!"

"But for what? Why would they want to do that? Digging right under our nose?"

"Are they thinking that we are deaf and blind?"

The crowd of commanders on the walls bursted into arguments. Some pleaded the Sanjek to form up troops now and destroy those trenches no matter what kind of use they are for, the sense of unknown is really sending chills spiking down their spines. Some retorted that there are most probably some ambush near the trenches that are using it as a lure, a bait to get them into the booby traps and pleaded to the Sanjek to remain calm. While some others whose troops are not under the Sanjek and Semseddin, mostly those warlords in the South, insisted on having a look and went off the walls to lead their own troops.

The Sanjek did not stop these people, he is instead very calm in his mind. Everyone else  standing here can panic facing this kind of situation, but he, as the most senior member and the heart of the army must retain his clarity of mind. He watched with a pair of cold eyes at those folks who refused to follow his general orders gallop out of the gate with their troops. And it came as no surprise when they saw these disobedient troops fall into traps set up by the enemies one by one getting eliminated, with only a handful of them managing to get back to the gate begging the Sanjek to open the gate, which the Sanjek in the end did show his mercy.

The outcome of these poor folks who died under the blades of the Rumelians successfully made the rest of them shut their mouth up and stay obedient to their sovereign.