1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 277: Coast Of Greece

The coast of Greece, near the port of Thessaloniki, a group of people stands watching urgently waiting for some thing to appear on the sea surface above the horizon. 

It seems like the wild animals are always the first ones to bring news, whether be it good or bad, before humans. The gulls sang their high notes skidding around the sea surface for a good day's catch along the shore lines, singing their melodies before the crowd as if they are celebrating some thing. In the twilight the beach sparkled the colour of gold forming a great contrast with the dark blue ocean water. 

Antonius and the others have already received message from a fast galley sent by Abdullah informing him of his diplomatic success in Cairo and the tremendous amount of aid he has acquired for the state. Bursting with joy Antonius immediately dispatched a task force out in to the Aegean to protect the ships from any danger, and also help to carry some of the pressure and load on the current caravan fleet. As from the report it says that in only one week's time, Abdullah's fleet already had a loss of fifty men, eighty plus horses plus two ships from various accidents and diseases. 

Finally, after a long wait, a series of shadows started appearing on the horizon of the sea surface. First, they look nothing more than a bunch of little black dots looking no larger than the sea gulls, then they began to enlarge and finally accompanied by the hoorays and cheers of the spectating crowd, a massive fleet consisting of over a hundred plus ships, the largest fleet the people in this region have ever seen, started showing up along side people's eyes. 

Both the sailors and the crowds on land cheered as the kids ran alongside the sailing ships, and the adults threw petals of anemones flowers, and their head dress in to the air, an old tradition of this sea faring nation. The ships docked carefully outside this beach, which is connected to the flat land, and laid down its gate to the cargo cabins letting the poor horses inside finally had a good refreshing breathe of the bright outside world after suffering in this dim, stinky, wet environment for a prolonged period of time. 

Wiped and guided by the Egyptian slave herds men the groups after groups of horses neighed and galloped out of the wooden ships trouding in the shallow sea waters washing their manes and arrived on land, then they started to gather in groups and had a feast of this juicy grass land beneath them on the plains next to the beach, which is obviously much better than the mossy dried hays they ate on the ships. 

The Mamluk reinforcements forces soon followed, but instead of being like the horses getting so energetic the moment they saw land, these elite warriors of the Sultan struggled to even stand up and walk straight down the ships, some even continued puking along the way having a pitiful amount of experience of sailing on the ships. Some laughed but others knew that this is no serious matter, as it is common in this era for non nautical people to have a high possibility of death after sailing on the sea for a time longer than a week due to various reasons, and these people just sailed for around two week's time. 

Many people rushed to help these people stand up straight and support them walk on to the land. And finally after coordinating all the men, cargo and horses reach on land spending a few hours, Abdullah's ship slowly slide itself in to the beach side and with it came the glorious and victorious ambassador that brought all of these stuff home with him. People could no longer control themselves and cheered even louder in the sight of Abdullah knowing that these reinforcements brought back by him can be indeed life saving in these times of troubles.

Antonius controlled his temptations to jump and rejoice like the rest of the people, instead he simply walked forward with a warm smile and gave his good old friend a tight hug that almost again, suffocated him, and whispered before his ears.

"Welcome home, my legatorum campionem."

Abdullah finally relaxed himself after seeing Antonius landing his feet on familiar soil and responded whispering to Antonius' ear. "I am home."

Then, Antonius raised his friend's hand high up in the air and shouted out to the crowd in front of them. "Cheer! Applause for our champion on the negotiation table! Abdullah!"

The crowd bellow shouted out in a unified voice at the top of their lungs. "Abdullah! Abdullah! Abdullah!"

Antonius and Abdullah strolled forward with a confident grin on their faces through the middle of the crowd as they automatically parts away in a swarm, like how Moses parted the Red Sea, with eyes of anticipation and eagerness. Most of the people here have went through the quench by the flames of war, being war veterans of course they knows what will happen if there is a thousand more cavalries joining their side in the impending war, especially now it is no secret among the people in Thessaloniki that their admiral is planning to face the Ottomans in the open wild.

After a short period of speech to motivate the people, Antonius is brought by Abdullah to meet some notable people he has brought with him on this trip, and the first being the captain of the Mamluk reinforcements Cavalries Mamsriqwe, a strict senior officer in the Mamluk Sultan's personal legion that had a similar experience with his master, once a slave born in the Circassian region, raised up and sold to Egyptian slave traders, then served in the army of the now Mamluk Sultan who was still not a Sultan at that point of times.

The meeting with this senior captain with a face full of seriousness ended fast. The moment Abdullah introduced him to the admiral he simply nodded holding the handle of his curved blade and commented. "I must tell you my admiral, that there is another order from my Sultan, which is to supervise the safe beings of all followers of the True Faith living under your regime, whether they are mistreated or whether their mosques are demolished, but it did surprise me that a Christian Rumelian sovereign to treat every one fairly."

"Of course, I have to, Captain Mamsriqwe." Antonius answered. "Not only because I need to ensure the stability of my realm, preventing civil conflicts, have a larger pool of tax payers, merchants, soldiers, and I have not yet forgot my plain wish of providing a place for every lawful person to live equally, but also if I don't want to get banned."

"I see, I still must thank you admiral."

Antonius and Abdullah then moved on to the next person standing in the line rubbing his hands. "My brother, let me introduce you to"

"Greetings, admiral." The middle aged man grabbed Antonius' hands and started shaking frantically. "You can call me Fahim, I was once a Rabbi running the Friday prayers back in Alexandria."

Alexandria soon realised who he is. "Oh! I know you; Abdullah wrote quite a lot about you in his letters and reports."

"They must all be compliments and praises, am I right?" Master Fahim rubbed his hands nervously again peeking at his good pal Abdullah, who turned his eye sight away pretending that he is appreciating the sea side views. While for Antonius he controlled his facial muscles from twitching in to a smile and shook Master Fahim's hands back replying. "Oh, yes, you don't need to worry about that, Abdullah Did compliment you in a lot of areas, which gave me a better understanding on who you are to."

"Thank you admiral, thank you Abdullah."

"While for now I think that you can just continue as your job of being a Rabbi to the local communities But just like those Christian priests in the city, every time before you conduct any sermons or teachings, you must hand your scripts over to me first to check that there are no instigate words or radical ideas, can you do that?"

"Yes. Of course." Fahim hurriedly nodded.

Abdullah turned to his five followers and continued. "These five people followed me through out the entire journey supporting my mission, going through even more hardship and bitterness than me, there are even several occasions that they are almost killed, thus I can say that these five people have actually contributed more than me on this mission."

Antonius turned serious too looking at the sun tunned face of each person in front and complimented. "I have too read about you, I must thank all of you for your loyal support to my friend Abdullah What reward do you all want? I can assure you that I will give you the reward as long as it is within my capabilities."

The five people looked at each other's eyes with anticipation and replied as one. "Admiral, we want a job!"

Thus, this five people became the first batch of diplomats of Antonius.