1453: Revival of Byzantium - Chapter 488

The Roman cavalries are gone, but that definitely does not mean that the Ottomans are now safe. In fact, the situation started turning straight down as the sound of horns and even more war banners started showing up on the horizons from every single side stretching beyond the maximum distance that the Sanjek can see. The Sanjek knows that the time has finally come, he ordered his troops to come to a gradual stop and sent messages to every single commander of the army, especially the ones at the first lines of the formations, granting them the right to make their own military decision because the Sanjek knows that his fragile chain of command might not last long once the troops begin exchanging blades and arrows.

The Sanjek climbed onto the makeshift tower of three meter tall with the assistance of his guards, risking himself to be an icon and totem of the entire Ottoman army, telling all of his men that as long as the tower is still standing, their sovereign is still here standing with them. The Sanjek looked towards his foes, he can have a clear view of the holy standard of Chi Rho, the shield of the Holy Trinity, the royal banner of the double headed banner and most importantly, the war banner of the scarlet lion in front of all the others.

“Look! Sanjek! That must be the bastard pirate warlord Antonius!” A guard of the Sanjek exclaimed.

“Pass me my glasses!” The Sanjek ordered, his guards carefully took out an optic glass elegantly made using bronze, with carvings of the lion of Saint Marco on the eye rim and passed it to the old Sanjek who is suffering from Presbyopia. The Sanjek hastily looked up towards the direction where his guard pointed, and indeed he can see a vague shape of a sturdy man riding on a mount in the middle of a gang of people, indeed that unique red cloak is the thing that makes him stand out.

“Pass my orders! Whoever that is able to bring me the man that is wearing a red cloak, shall be awarded ten okka of Gold (Copper), one büyük dönüm of top notch land, thirty woman, grant him as an Agha and offer him to be my vizier!”

The messengers on horseback quickly passed this piece of message to the entire army. “The Sanjek Bey has promised! That anyone who slay the man in red cloak shall be awarded heavily!” Upon hearing the reward stated for the man in red cloak, the morale of the entire army heightened roaring and cheering dreaming about the lucrative award that is going to fall into their hands, only the Rumelian formation acting as the rear guard remained silent.

The more the Sanjek observes the enemy formation the more worrisome he has in his mind, as his enemies form a strong comparison with his men. While his men are roaring, cheering, weeping and quarrelling among one another, the enemies maintained their utter silence as if they are statues giving the Sanjek a clear representation of the enemy’s superiority in military discipline. Moreover, he can clearly see from the reflections donned to his eyes through the morning sun light that almost every single footman in the enemy formation is armoured, while his troops are mostly just wearing leather armour or even no protection.

But despite all odds, the Sanjek still thinks that he has three advantages that shall allow him to at least hold the grounds until the end of the day.

First, and most importantly, although the opponents have the upper hand in equipment, but in a close quartered combat that does not mean that the advantage the Rumelians have can be turned into absolute superiority when confronting his army who has the advantage of manpower. One got to remember that the battlefield the Sanjek selected is an open ground with their back covered by a valley, meaning that the battle width is sufficient enough for the Ottomans to use their vast numbers to counter the Roman’s advantage in equipment.

Secondly, although the Ottomans have already left the valley, their left flank is still covered by hills and complicated terrains meaning that the enemies can only use their superior cavalry force can only charge in from the front and their right flank. Charging in from the front is most likely impossible and so the only plausible way the enemy cavalry might attack is on the right flank, where the Sanjek has placed all of his companion cavalries and noblemen over there. He is confident that the Rumelians would not be able to use their cavalries effectively this time round giving him extra confidence in his arrangements.

And thirdly, of course, is that valley and stronghold that is still standing behind him roughly three Roman miles away. If at the end of the day his troops cannot fight the Rumelians, he can still run, there is no shame in tactical retreating temporarily. By then he can just order the troops to orderly retreat from the sides while his rear guard, those Rumelian formations can step up, block off the valley and become meat shield for the retreating troops. They would not suffer much either ways.

Honestly speaking, the Sanjek assumes that the Rumelian commanders opposite to him are clear regarding this as well, if not their thousands of Mamluk trained cavalries would not be just hanging around there without doing anything.

With all of these in mind, the Sanjek boosted up his confidence again as he looked around at his troops and passed the order to attack first. With the blowing of horns and beating of drums, three thousand Ottoman light infantries forming six striker groups started coming out of the frontier formation and charged towards the Rumelian formations under the cover of round shields.

Behind the six light infantry striker groups, the archers readied themselves plucking out the arrows on the ground placing it on their bow strings just in preparation for the light infantry regiment’s retreat. The thousand mounted archers and nomad hordes men gathered from respective war lords readied themselves too to grind into the enemies if the infantries managed to show some results, the infantries on the two flanks too got ready to reinforce the frontline.

Julian, the commander standing here at the front line, turned back at the direction of the Caesar. Of course, he is unable to see anything over there, and no special messages are passed to him either. Julian knows that this means that the Caesar is confident in every step he takes giving him full rights of command, and at the same time Julian s relieved that it seems like the Caesar has listened to the harsh words of Apostolos and stayed there at the back.

Julian took out the cutlass by his side slowly, pointed it out towards the sky and shouted. “Advance!”

The commanding flags began waving behind Julian and the bronze horns started blowing sending a series of blaring sounds across the entire formation. The junior commanders acknowledged the order and started leading their respective troopers forward. In just a moment’s time it looks like the entire formation has came back to life as the quietness over here is suddenly replaced with shouts and horns. Eight hundred Roman troopers from the regiment commanded by Julian ventured forward towards the Ottoman light infantries coming at them.

The Sanjek gazed the front as the two units came into a violent clash, he then sent out orders asking Hussein on the right flank to embark and move forward, and Emir on the left flank are to send two thousand men to strike the Rumelian formation from their right flank in order to disturb their movements. Suleyman in the central are responsible for reinforcing the gaps left along by the flanks. Just as the old Sanjek is making all of these arrangements, a series of clip clop sound produced by a horse galloping can be heard from his back which almost spooked the Sanjek, as he knows that at the current point of time any news coming from the front might not be a good news, but the news coming from the back is definitely a piece of bad news.

The incomer, covered in mud and sweat, stopped in front of the tower and almost rolled down his mount and climbed onto the tower panting. Upon seeing the face of the man, the Sanjek’s heart almost jumped out of his chest as this uncuffed man is actually a noble that has been appointed by him as the commander of the Northern supply base located in Dispilio that in charge of coordinating all the supplies from Kastoria and the border regions to the frontline. This man definitely should not be here in this state.

“What are you doing here!” The Sanjek frowned slightly as he eyed this man, with the feeling of uncertainty and anxiety showing up in his had.. “Is there any negative news coming from the back? You should not be here, you know.”