1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 445: [Bonus Chapter] Anatolia to Azerbaijan

The camp almost became a mess when they still could not find their general for the roll count that night. No one knows where he went, there are some who knows that the Sanjek has went for a breeze along the lake, but comon it's a lake with a size of ten plus square Roman miles, who on Earth knows where along the lake is their Sanjek enjoying the breeze and he never told any one before he departed. There is no way that the camp can suddenly send out a group of people in search of the Sanjek, every one knows that if these conscripts got a chance to go out of the camp gates at this time, they would flee back to their homes under the cover of darkness almost with out hesitation.

The courtiers and advisors are already discussing about the worst kind of possibilities that the Sanjek has already been captured by Rumelian infiltrating scouts when the ally of the Sanjek, Ceylant emseddin sent words back here saying that he has found the Sanjek with the help of some local Rumelian fishermen collecting their nets being laid at a nearby position.

Meanwhile back along the lake, the two commanders of the perhaps only remaining armies in Epirus that are still carrying the banners of the Sultan sat together, looking at the city of Kastoria, or Kesriye according to them. The atmosphere has already darkened, with the stars and moons shining covering the skies, and a few comets randomly passing up over their heads. The two men gazed at the city seating quietly in the middle of the lake, this is the city that they are here to protect.

"Your citizens really love you, don't they?" The Sanjek murmured. "Those Rumelian fishermen, they even bothered informing the news that there is a strange group of people seating here all day long. I don't observe this kind of things happening in the other cities."

Semseddin shook his head. "They do not love me, if they have the chance they would all have ran beyond the border to the areas ruled by the kafallahs. It is just because I do things according to the basis of fairness, I spent years teaching my citizens the simple fact that if they do the correct things, they would get rewarded. If they do the wrong things, they would be punished accordingly, it is all being stated on that giant scroll of goat skins hanging beside the city gate."

"So did you reward them accordingly for this information?"

"Yes, with a bag of dried cabbage."

The Sanjek nodded in agreement. "Offering necessary rewards for people's actions with a suited amount of reward and making needed punishments that matches the mistakes that the people made, and in the end one shall find that the cost running a harmonious society is greatly reduced even with the amount of rewards being given to the mass public. I can say that most of those ignorant war lords that came from the army or the regional land lords does not understand this, offering golds and silvers frequently on a random basis, and executing people to death for random penalties merely judging by their mood. You did good Semseddin."

"Thank you honourable Sanjek." The owner of Kastoria, Semseddin remained humble in front of this old man who is almost double of his age.

The conversation died down after this, the age between this two Ottoman lords are way too vast for them to have any matching interest or life experience. The Sanjek is still missing the distant past during the reign of Sultan Murad II who has impacted his life, he has seen the rise of the Ottoman Sultanate and witnessed her peak, like Hamza Pasha he too loved this country though his personnel land and interest still comes first. While Semseddin on the other hand, does not really have any feeling on the Ottoman identity that came with him, as since young he has been living among the Rumelians in Orchirid, and for the most of the time since he entered adult hood, he is accompanied by the constant and rapid decline of the Ottoman Sultanate which made him assemble a force using the influence left by his deceased father, and occupied Kastoria and its surrounding areas.

The water level of the lake raises after nights fall, slowly the water elevated and reached the boots of the Sanjek, but the later showed no signs of moving away. He gazed at the city slowly turning dark after the curfew is imposed, leaving no more light coming to his eyes except for the reflection of the moon in the lake. The guards became anxious as they can already hear wolves howling in a distance, but still the old Sanjek decided to carry the conversation further as he asked Semseddin, breaking the silence.

"Arkadas, tell me, do you have any memories of your home town? Or the place where you and your family originated from?"

The question caught the young lord by surprise, he had never even thought about this question in deep ever since his father passed away. He did not even spend a single day in that place where his father kept trying to tell him that the hills of Amasya is his true home, but he did not feel the same, as he spent almost his entire life around the area of Kastoria, the concept of a home town is already way too far for him. With this doubt in mind Semseddin answered. "I would consider my home town to be here, in Kesriye. While the place where my family originated from is Amasya."

"No, Semseddin, we do not belong here." The Sanjek turned serious for the first time today as he looked at Semseddin with a stern face. "We do not belong here, this place is not for us, at least not for you and me. The only place that is suited for our survival with our heritages and culture kept, is the vast mountains and plains ranging from Anatolia to Azerbaijan, we are like children stranded from our mothers, we are stripped of all connections to our home land ever since this cursed pirate came. To be honest Semseddin, you now feel more like a Rumelian to me rather than an Ottoman, staying in this place for too long with out spending a day back in Anatolia has changed you, thoroughly in to a person with a vastly different belief and behaviour."

Semseddin did not reply, for he knows what the later has spoken is true. Actually this did not just happen on him, it happened on almost every single second generation kid who are migrated here. Some of his friends' and subordinate's kids have already lost the ability to communicate in a fluent Ottoman Turkish, finishing most of their daily conversation in Greek, using their home language only in Religious ceremonies or state levelled events.

"Do you know about the Van Gl?" The Sanjek stood up and threw a pebble in to the water, surprisingly it skimmed on the water surface for a few times before finally dropping in to the water. "It is almost like a sea, that is almost four times the size of this lake before us. A picturesque place that makes it a pity for any one who have not visited there before. I grew up over there, living alongside the water since young."

The Sanjek looked up at the crescent, beautiful as always but still feels like it is lacking of some thing important to him. The Sanjek knows what it is, that is his belongingness. Thinking about the lake of Van he murmured. "If it is possible, I am going home after this battle, with my wife, of course. She is the only woman I have married." 

Semseddin remained silent.

The two men continued sitting there enjoying their moment of peace, when suddenly an array of fire can be spotted beneath them accompanied with frantic shouts of panic attack and screams of commands that can almost be heard by the two of them, who are roughly half a Roman mile away from the encampment. It did not take too long for the two experienced commanders to make an assumption on what has happened it is a tumult within the conscripts.

This kind of phenomenon is actually a rather common thing among armies of this age, composed with conscripts lacking training and not knowing what do they fight for, resulting in a poor discipline and morale. Accompanied with the fact that they are now in a dangerously close proximity with an unknown number of enemies, any minute accident can straight away penetrate through the psychological barrier of the soldiers and lead in to an uproar. If this is left untreated, the riot might spread to the entire encampment and in the worst possible case, it can make the entire army scramble in to non existence even before they face the enemies in a direct combat.

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