1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 137: Orhan Çelebi

Antonius' fleet went into action again after the end of the siege.

A quarter of the ships, most of them loyal to Antonius not the emperor, sailed southwards into the Sea of Marmara, in the name of blockading the connections of Ottomans between Anatolia and Thrace through Kaliopolis, while another smaller fleet sailed into the Mediterranean towards the Republic of Genoa, passing by Candia and other Venetian properties in the Aegean.

The emperor had no choice but to approve, because he found out that he has already lost the control of the navy with almost all the ship captains and commanders being Antonius' men, which means that the fleet would still set sail even without his approval, thus it still might look like he has the control over the Roman navy on the surface if he approves it.

There is an actual motive for the fleet, of course.

One fleet is to establish a frontline base in the waters around the Isles of Princes, where the emperor has promised it to Giovanni and Antonius, so that it would serve as a jump board for the Genoese back to safety, if anything fishy happens in Constantinople, of course.

The smaller fleet, sailing a distance much further, is to establish diplomatic connections with those Mediterranean maritime Republics, building friendship between the empire and the republics in the emperor's name of course, only represented by Antonius' men and ships.

Antonius is planning a safe passage for himself, for a simple reason, he cannot afford to take the risk if the emperor decides to not take his promise seriously.

On the day when the fleet sets off, Antonius saw a surprising view at the harbour of Prosphorion, a fleet of ships are already waiting there loading up supplies, of course, there is nothing to be surprised about this as the harbour is by right a civilian harbour for merchandise, what make it eye catching is that the ships are flying Ottoman royal flags, and the sea men are mostly donned in Turkish turbans. What is strange about them, is that they are armed with Roman styled swords and Roman leather armours.

Out of curiosity, Antonius inspected the five Ottoman ships in the name of security, as the admiral of the Romans Antonius as the de facto right to inspect and check all ships in Roman harbors. He was invited onto the ships without any resistance.

The fleet turned out to be the properties of a man whom Antonius has only heard but never seen before, Orhan elebi, an Ottoman prince, claimant of the Ottoman Sultanate, grandson of the co-ruler of the Ottomans Sleyman elebi during the Ottoman Interregnum, a weapon that has been in the hands of Constantine a long time ago to add on as a bargaining chip when debating with the young Sultan Mehmed II last time.

The Ottoman prince warmly welcomed Antonius onto his ship, and showed him his arsenal, a standing army of six hundred men strong, equipped with probably the best equipment Constantine has to offer, ranging from cannons supplied by Orban, crossbows by Milanese merchants, swords by local black smith, and armour by the Venetian duchy of Candia.

An army made of a million nations, wish that they have the combat capabilities of a million nations combined too.

"Lord De'Ricci!" The clumsy well fed Ottoman prince's laughter can be heard three ships away as he gave Antonius a warm greeting hug, a kiss on the face, which almost made Antonius think that this prince came from Sicily, and then introduced Antonius his troops hugging the arms of Antonius.

"Look! Lord De'Ricci!" Orhan laughed. "Are my soldiers brawny?!"

Antonius inspected each of them with his professional pair of eyes and shook his head. "They look sturdier only because their armour increased their body size, they still need a lot of physical training."

Orhan laughed feeling embarrassed, but he still commanded his soldiers to form up in a formation and paraded them in front of Antonius and asked. "Look! Lord De'Ricci! Are my soldiers well trained!"

Antonius watched the entire process of them gathering up, moving and marching together, then shook his head once more. "I can see that these men came from different backgrounds and are of different compositions, there are not really that kind of bonding between them, as you can see from their formations, they took way too long, and this can be deadly in real battle."

Unmoved, Orhan bite his teeth and split his troops into two teams, with one team acting as the stimulated enemy and commanded the two teams violently clashing with each other, then turned around and asked once more. "Look! Lord De'Ricci! Are my troops well disciplined!"

Antonius went down and walked in circles around the formation, it seems like there's nothing that can escape his eyes as he points out to Orhan. "They keep fidgeting around, and furthermore we can see from the speed of them forming the formation showing that they are not really familiar in formations"

"On the overall scale, I don't think your men are properly trained, they need more time getting familiar with the military tactics and training to be able to be formed into a combat suitable army If not, trust me prince, I faced the Ottomans myself, your men, will, I am not kidding, get slaughtered by their Kilij, stampeded by their horses, pinned down by their arrows, they will die." Antonius said earnestly to Prince Orhan pointing out all the weakness of his men.

"I know." Prince Orhan stepped forward gripping Antonius by his arm. "My friend Please allow me to address you as my friend, this is why I trusted you and showed you my army Not only as a test for you, but also trying to see if you are worthy of being a true friend to me, Orhan elebi Ottoman, you have proved yourself Now may I boldly request my humble friend, you, to accompany me and be my marshal, I shall offer you a noble title of a Bey and Pasha, a noble much higher than what you are now"

Antonius wanted to reject at first, but hesitated.