1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 60: Send the Signal, Raise the Flag.

Time passes fast.

By the time after Antonius finished his ridiculous ill quality piece of triumph poem and the Romans managed to hold their control of the beach outside the burning port, the sun is already finishing up his day of work and tilting west into the horizon.

Antonius managed to find himself a stool out of nowhere that has two of its legs already burnt. Abraham managed to find a rock and stacked it under the stool, then Antonius sat down there with his fellow captains standing or squatting around him in a circle. Behind him stands two sailors, one flies the military standard of Roman imperial purple with a double headed eagle, another raising the Christian Orthodox Insignia of Chi-Rho cross.

In a distance away there are some newbies who are virgins to battlefield like this, vomiting to the ocean disgusted by the strong smell of burnt flesh and other 'leftovers' of the battle. Some other people coughing and covering their nose with soaked wet rugs to prevent inhaling the smoke and toxic gases.

Under the dimmed afternoon sunlight, the Kapudan Pasha and his calvaries arrived finally from the east against the sunlight.

A leading Ottoman calvary leader, named Talmi, saw there's a military standard over here and a crowd of people from a distance away, assuming that it must be some high ranking enemy officers over here, he led the charge together with a two hundred strong calvary directly towards the military standard hoping to achieve a quick and conclusive victory.

However, just as he is about two hundred meters away, crossbowmen and archers started emerging out of nowhere and welcomed him with salvos after salvos of bolts and heavy arrows plunging themselves through the thin leather armours of the Ottoman riders which provides little or no protection against these piercing projectiles.

The leader of the Ottoman calvaries, Talmi, too, got an arrow right onto his head, although he got lucky as it is a ricochet, the arrow bounced off his helmet but still creating a dent and a bump on his head. With immense pain and a sudden cold sweat, he halted his horse, bite his teeth hard and threw his helmet onto the ground, then he expectorated at the Roman military standard and ordered his men to retreat, leaving around fifty corpses behind and ran away enduring the consistent rain of arrows and bolts.

The Kapudan Pasha, Baltaolu Sleyman Bey saw this at back, he immediately started hissing after Talmi and his men came back to the main formation. "Oh, you foolish stubborn goats, don't you goats know that that Romans are known for their bows and arrows? Listen, I only want my port back, do not ever care about the enemies here, understand?"

The men surrounding the Kapudan Pasha halted and all started giving the Kapudan Pasha a cold look, while Talmi started bellowing like a beast hitting his chest with his fists, all of them neglected the Kapudan Pasha's instructions. While the Kapudan Pasha Baltaolu Sleyman Bey immediately realised that these blood-thirsty folks are not his own men, they are subjects and vassals belonging to Ibrahim Pasha, just lent to him and put under his command temporarily.

He immediately laughed, touched Talmi on his shoulder with his horse whip as comfort and changed his tone. "Never mind, it is my fault, you know, was just being a little angry from the. Alcohol! Even the Great Prophet once said that 'Arrogance diminishes wisdom.' My brothers! Help me take back the port, and I shall allow you to loot and plunder, take whatever treasure you want to take! Furthermore! After this, I shall award each of you with silk and gold!"

"My brothers! Follow my lead! Discard all your horses and heavy equipment here! Kill all of'em with only our blades!"

Then, the Kapudan Pasha jumped off his horse and charged into the port first with his guards showing as an example of bravery, then the other men started following his lead and charged into the gate of the harbour. Talmi gave another cold snort and followed his lead.

Seeing this, the captains around Antonius immediately grew edgy and looked at Antonius hoping for some instructions. Antonius, however, is still just sitting there covering his nose and frowning his eyebrows from the smoke in the air, not only him but the crossbow men, archers and guards from the encounter just now also sat down and started replenishing their stamina.

After some time, battle cries and clanging of blades can be heard from inside the port, Abraham and Abdullah immediately guessed that the Varangians and marines led by Yuri has already started clashing with the Ottomans. Then, Antonius turned back towards his guards and ordered calmly.

"Send the signal, raise the flag!"

The guard nodded, ran to the back, picked up another viridescent flag and started waving it high in the air.

Immediately, hidden Roman sailors under the walls of the harbour received the signal and paddled their covered in soaked leather boats through the still burning sea into the dockside where Yuri and his Varangians are, taking advantage of the narrow wooden docks which limited the number of Ottomans able to engage with the Varangians at one time, and slowly retreating back onto the boats. After most of the Varangians and marines got onto the boats, the sailors leaved the dockside and paddled them away, leaving some marines on the docks to keep the Ottomans busy and distracted, a while later they completed their tasks with flying colours, jumped into water and swam towards the boats not far away, leaving the angry Ottoman soldiers who do not know how to swim on the docks yelling and shouting.

The boats did not go very far away, they stopped in a distance from the docks where it is unaffected by the fire. Strangely enough, they did not start tending to their wounds, instead they started washing their blood and sweat soaked rugs in the water.

At the same time as the chain of events in the dock is happening, Julian and his men returned stealthily back to Antonius' side.