Chapter 491 - Wanna Sleep

The old Sanjek bey halted his footsteps and started hesitating on what to do next. But as an experienced war commander he has totally forgot about the thing he learnt last time, that is one should never ever hesitate too long on making a vital decision, as anything can happen within minutes, even seconds in a war zone that can change the tide of where the war is going. 

During that one minute of hesitation of the Sanjek, the defense of the Rumelian troops in the frontline started cracking, as the Ottoman army is unable to carry out this order of suddenly changing their formations unprepared while facing combat, leading to a negative result whereby the troopers at the frontline are unable to get swapped on time. Meanwhile at the back things are not appearing to be so great either. As the thousands of soldiers in the center are moving backwards while maintaining their battle ready stance, the organisations of different troops got messed up as some troops chose to go back faster while some are relatively slower, meaning that the chain of command between the higher ups and their assigned units are temporarily disrupted. 

In this kind of disorganization it brings chaos, and in the chaos it brings fear, and when fear enlarges it slowly overtakes the minds of people preventing them from thinking logically, and when this kind of negative sentiments is being spread on a wide area, the Sanjek is getting affected by it too as he started panicking and breaking into cold sweat as well, when the Sanjek is getting anxious he start making decisions that he think suits the best for the situation, though in fact the frontline situation is actually a lot more dangerous and unstable as he expected, resulting in the two commanders at the frontline Hussein and Emir sending messengers back asking for reinforcements, one messenger even showed the old Sanjek a blade that is full of blood stains and dents, saying that it belongs to their general Emir who has cut down multiple enemies with this blade fighting for an hour now, as a proof on how bad the situation in the front line is.

Suddenly a shout came from a far breaking the conversation between the Sanjek and the messenger. "Look! Fire! It is fire!"

The Sanjek's eyes are attracted by it almost instantly, and to his horror, he see the woods on the hills two Roman miles away from him burning, with numerous flags being waved on top of the hills, and the most obvious one among these flags is of course the Rumelian double headed eagle flag. The Sanjek stared at this horrendous scene without saying a word, he can roughly guess how did these forest flames and flags come about. It is most likely down by the Mamluk cavalries that attacked his supply depot and has manuevered here showing themselves behind the Ottomans in such a dangerous moment. But how did they get here in such a swift speed? The Sanjek's head turned quickly, and it took no time before he finally formed an answer within his brain.

"Drag me that commander of Dispilio here!" The Sanjek ordered.

The nobleman of Dispilio has almost thought that he has been pardoned of his mistakes through that mistake just now. He returned to the chariot of the Sanjekwith his head lowered, waiting for any further words of the Sanjek while wishing that he is able to get away this time round.

"Let me ask you, what is the distance between Dispilio and this place?"

"A…Around four fersah?"

"Then what time did the attack happen yesterday? And how long did you take to bring me the news?" the Sanjek continued asking, with each question being like a hammer pounding onto the heart of the nobleman as he too started to realise something and kneeled down towards the Sanjek.

"T…the attack? It happened around… a day ago! I was trying my best to get here taking around… six hours? It is just that I fell asleep for around an hour beside the roads, because I was already fighting for more than half a day before…"

"You dare to sleep with such an important news to report? And you still have the mind to sleep after committing such a mistake causing the destruction of my supply base? How dare you!" The Sanjek jumped up burning in rage, he drew out the blade of his guard man and with all of his force the old Sanjek slashed the blade right through his face, then leapt over the man who is still crawling and rolling on the chariot in pain and agony covering his face and ordered. "Execute this man! And hang his head up high on the flag pole! Then go and tell Emir and Hussein, that I do not have any spare man for them! If they still insist on caling for reinforcement, then I shall be there! With only one man, one blade and one chariot!"

The guards and messengers in the surrounding hurried to do their duties passing the orders of the sovereign, cutting down the head of the noble man ending his agony, cleaning the chariot clean of blood. They are all guards that have accompanied the Sanjek for at least a decade who understand their master. The Sanjek knows that by executing this dog who is ignorant towards his duty and responsibility shall not bring any changes to the situation and shall only waste the precious time that is slowly sipping away from their hand palms. The only two reasons why the Sanjek is doing this is because one he is angry, and two he got no better idea in his head other than this one to terrify his soldiers and commanders making them fight even harder. 

After everything has been cleaned, the Sanjek boarded the chariot again and headed back to the tower taking back his post of command chasing Suleyman bey back to command the rear to watch out the troops that has rebelled. But just as the Sanjek took his seat on the three meters tall makeshift tower, he noticed something coming out from the woods on the hills in a distance away from him. The Sanjek stood up and took out the specially made monocular gifted by the Venetians, narrowed his eyes and focused on these hills, and what he saw made his jaws drop onto the ground. 

The Sanjek saw numerous flags and banners showing up from the hills and the woods all around him in almost every single corner, on the left there are the flags of Saint Andrew, flags of Saint George and the True Cross. On his right he saw the yellowish flag of a horseblade, the flags of white horse, the war banner of the hospitallers and the flag of Fleur de lis. Behind him there are the Holy Cross of the Chi Rho, the war banner of a crowned white horse, the flags of Saint Peter, Saint George, and Saint Maurice. In front of him of course, there is the iconic flag of the crowned white lion in a red background, with the flag of the double headed eagle and the flag of the Patriarchal cross by its sides. 

"How is this possible… How is this possible…" The Sanjek mummured as he leaned backwards lifelessly, supporting his body against the wind and the gravity with the wooden guard rails. His heart and mind is already in a mess almost since the start of the battle, all of his war experience and preparations that has offered him the confidence to lead his men out to fight has been proved to be completely useless against the enemies who are superior in way too many aspects. Now his final guardians – the terrains and time, has proved to be no difficulties for the Rumelians as well. The Sanjek found himself plunging into an abyss, the abyss of incomprehension, for he finds out that at the end of the day, he still knows nothing about his foes despite having confronted them for a year.

…

Two miles away, in the middle of the Romans, Antonius seats steadily on horseback surrounded by all of his intellectual advisors and commanders. He has headed Apostolos' advice and resisted his temptation to go onto the battlefield risking himself, and in order to prove that he has changed his mind, Antonius even removed his chest place and helmet keeping him far away from the flames of the war, he seems to be not concerned about the situation by a bit, as he even started playing the game of zatrikion with Apostolos.

"Your majesty!" Helio approached Antonius with caution.. "Why don't you go back and have a rest? You have been sitting here for the whole day, I am sure that master Julian and I are fully capable of carrying out master Alexios and master Apostolos' plan of decorating the surroundings with various flags of our allies to scare the Ottomans into submission."