บท 123: Everyone Has a Tradition of Voting

"No one knows the Rumelian better than me"

- Candarli Halil Pasha

"Let me continue, please, gentlemen." Candarli Halil Pasha rinsed his throat with a cup of warm tea, and continued. "I believe that everyone here knows that the Sultanate cannot be stuck here with this never ending siege for one meaningless city when we have no control of the two seas, thus we shall write a letter proposing to that Genoese pirate, to offer him a sum of gold and prestige for him to join and lead our navy, while we shall immediately notify the lords on coats around the state to commence on a massive ship building project."

"Pardon me, my old friend." Selim Pasha stood up and enquired. "As the head of the treasury I must inform you that the Sultanate now do not have the expense to construct another fleet, and our sea trade route with other followers of the True Faith has also been interrupted by those barbaric infidel pirates, thus I am afraid to say that our revenue is not as sufficient this year, and furthermore, will that Genoese come over?"

"No, he wont." Candarli Halil Pasha took another sip of the tea. "The main purpose of the letter is to create discontent between the Rumelian and the Genoese… Like I have mentioned, we will keep building up small gaps and cracks between their relationships, and eventually it will create a deep gap between them, big until it can no longer be closed…"

"What about the money?"

"We have no choice." Candarli Halil Pasha pondered for a while and waved his hands in hesitation. "Increase the taxation on the commoners, we need them to endure the period of hardship with the state, but do not touch the followers of the True Faith, increase the infidel tax, especially increase the commerce tax of the Armenians, Rumelian, and Georgians, they are flowing with fresh money."

"But… Will it cause an uprising…"

"I don't believe that our army cannot handle an uprising by the peasants, my dear Selim Pasha." Candarli Halil Pasha interrupted. "We can defeat them once; we can defeat them twice… Furthermore, we are just taking their money, not their lives.

"Yes, Grand Vizier." Selim Pasha retorted no more, sat back down there looking at Candarli Halil Pasha as if he is an idiot.

Candarli Halil Pasha ignored him and decided to call off the meeting for today. "Alright, my honourable colleagues, if nobody have any doubts, this shall be the end of this meeting… Now, lets gather our respective troops, and withdraw portion by portion while we send the necessary requirements to the Romans. Remember, we must hide the fact that our Sultan has passed, we must make sure that we display an image that everything is perfectly normal."

The other Pashas and Lords nodded in agreement.

"Let's retreat and get out of this place. Anyone has objections to my plans?" Candarli Halil Pasha smiled satisfactorily.

"I have!" Out of a sudden, the curtain door of the royal tent is opened entering Zaganos Pasha supported by Karaca Pasha. "I have objections!"

Candarli Halil Pasha frowned, he hate it when things unexpected happens. He sneered at the weakling and enquired. "Why? Which part of the plan do you not agree with, my honourable Zaganos Pasha?"

"We should not retreat! Have you not heard the Sultan's last words?"

"Last words?" The Pashas looked at each other with confusion in their eyes, obviously they have not heard of Mehmed's last words. Even if they have, it is apparent that they have forgotten about it.

"Our Sultan, when passing to heaven, said that we need to get over those walls! And conquer the city! So that he can go in peace, don't you not get that?" Zaganos Pasha, although weak and lying against the shoulders of Karaca Pasha, still exclaimed out with a thunderous voice and determination in his eyes.

"Forgive me, Zaganos Pasha, for my interruption." Selim Pasha stepped forward and explained. "We have discussed earlier on that whether we still have the capabilities to continue laying the punishment of the Mighty Allah upon the Rumelian, and we concluded that with a shrinking source of wealth and the prolonged time of the siege, we are not able to continue…"

"We need to persevere! Since when did money become an issue for the past Ottoman conquests? When we had much less peasants to collect tax from and much more hostiles to fight?"

Zaganos Pasha stopped for a while panting from venting too much force and anger in his words, then continued spitting his words of anger. "Even if we have a financial problem, there are so many land owners, merchants and infidels in the country, why cant we ask them to sacrifice their wealth for the well beings of the nation? I am sure that those true sons of Ottomans shall donate their wealth to us without even blinking an eye! And for those who refuse, it is the greatest disrespect to the Sultan and the state, we can just confiscate their wealth and throw them into the prison!"

The Pashas remained silent thinking about one thing. The 'land owners' Zaganos Pasha is referring to, does it include them? The 'merchants' he is referring to, does it include the merchants belonging to them the 'infidels' he is referring to, does those infidels who he is going to raise tax on from their demesne? Which means that if they rebel and raise the banners, who will take the responsibility? Is it Zaganos or them?

Candarli Halil Pasha noticed the state and reactions of the Ottoman noblemen to Zaganos Pasha as they whispers their discontent to one another discussing about this. With this, he went forward confronting Zaganos Pasha and suggested.

"Our dear Zaganos Pasha…. Does has a point in his… 'wise words'. With this, I suggest that we should follow the great tradition of our forefathers, and call for a vote."

The lords in this tent nodded hesitantly to this idea.