1453: Revival of Byzantium - Chapter 493

“وَقَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ لَوْلَا يُكَلِّمُنَا ٱللَّهُ أَوْ تَأْتِينَآ ءَايَةٌ ۗ كَذَٰلِكَ قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِم مِّثْلَ قَوْلِهِمْ ۘ تَشَٰبَهَتْ قُلُوبُهُمْ ۗ قَدْ بَيَّنَّا ٱلْءَايَٰتِ لِقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُو”

“Those who are devoid of knowledge say, Why does God not speak to us or show us a sign? The same demand was made by those before them; their hearts are all alike. We have made the signs clear to those whose faith is firm.”

–        The Qur’an, Sura 2:118

It is a little after high noon, just nice the time for faithful Muslims to do their prayers of ‘Dhuhr’. The Sanjek kneeled towards the direction of the Holy City Mecca and started praying sincerely for the saints and the Great Prophet to offer him some hints that can help him overcome his difficulties. This is the only thing he can do and he want to do in the current situation. Almost the entire Ottoman army, except for the necessary troops guarding the flanks and the rear, have all been engaged in close quarter combat with the Rumelians which means that it is impossible for the Sanjek to continue giving them any more command.

Due to the limited number of troops for defence the Sanjek have, he emphasised more on the left flank of the Ottoman army from the decision he has just made through the limited amount of intelligence he gathered through the scouts. The Sanjek kneeled down again placing his head, knees and hands on the carpet on top of the tower to perform the procedure of ‘sujood’ or prostration maintaining a position of ‘Sajdah’, murmuring the praises and wishes for his lord before continuing to confess his sins to get pardoned and also recite his wishes.

Just as all the procedures of Sujood is about to come to an end, the Sanjek felt that the wooden structured wooden tower is starting to shiver slightly again which instantly grabbed his attention, for he is way too familiar with this kind of shivers. The Sanjek stopped praying and jumped up from the carpet like a youngster turning his head to look at his back – which is the left flank of the army. But to his astonishment there are no enemy cavalries sighted over that direction, and yet the shivering of the tower is getting more and more violent. This set the alarm bells in the Sanjek’s head as he turned another round to the direction where he was praying to just now, and what he saw indeed appalled him, there is a whole bunch of horsemen, already forming a spearhead wielding their blades and preparing their spears, charging in at high velocity right towards his right flank.

This is the biggest visual shock that the Ottomans have received ever since the start of the battle in the morning. Literally thousands of horsemen from all nations in the Eastern block of the known world, waving the banners and standards of the nations and the two most populous belief of the world forming the charge together, shouting out war cries in numerous different languages that mostly means the same thing. Their silver armours glisters and shines under the glaring sunlight of the high noon dazzling into the eyes of anyone who dares to look at it. Their hooves shook the Earth making the Sanjek Bey feel like his tiny make shift tower can come crumbling down at any moment. This is the scene that the Sanjek has anticipated the most for hours, and when it finally came to his eyes it traumatised the old Sanjek making him shiver at the same pace at the tower, for this scene came at the most inappropriate time, and in the most inappropriate direction.

To the Ottoman soldiers on the right flank, they just felt a whole army of Rumelians are coming for them on horsebacks. Because they came from upslope, the Ottomans have to look up to observe the incoming enemies which means that they have to narrow their eyes to avoid staring directly at the sun. But the sunlight reflected from the silverish plate armours of the incoming enemies is already enough to form a gigantic light source in the eyes of the Ottomans which is more than enough to overwhelm the photosensitive cells of their retina. Soon these riders became little black dots in the Ottoman trooper’s eyes forcing them to divert their eyes somewhere else or close their eyes.

The Sanjek has finally broke down in panic, his head is filled with the depressive thought of nothing can be done now, everything has already been too late, and his prior decisions are completely wrong. These three thoughts are almost killing him, making him develop headaches all over the place. But he is definitely not going to give up and admit his defeat to these Rumelians, to that pirate bastard who stole the lands from the Sultanate he loved. As of today, despite of the danger, he is still the ruler and sovereign of entire Epirus. Despite of the age, he is still the horse that came from the lakeside land of van. Despite of the danger, he is still as valiant and courageous as when he was still that recruit fighting under the lead of the Sultan he has sworn to love and follow, Murad II.

The Sanjek looked back at the hilltop where the Mamluk cavalries are, indeed, they are still there running around in the woods but shows completely no sign of attacking. The intention of these men has been clearer than ever in the head of the old Sanjek; they are just deployed here as decoys, that pirate Antonius has never planned to use the Mamluk cavalries to attack his left flank in the first place. The Sanjek became swifter than ever as he climbed down that tower, hopped onto his horse and plucked out that blade given to him by his Sultan. He gave the horse a pat on the manes and shouted out to the rest of the guards. “Follow me! My sons!” And scrambled towards the right flank. Some guards followed, and some guards hesitated. But most still respects their Sanjek for the years of rule and benefits and decided to fight by his side for the last battle of his entire life.

By now the right flank of the Ottoman army has already came into a vehement clash with the Rumelian horsemen. Prior to this their Sanjek has made a bet that the Rumelian offensive shall definitely happen on the left, and so he placed most of the counter cavalry forces over there leaving the right flank with the bare minimum amount of defensive force required. There are still a few thousand men guarding the right flank, of course. But considering the fact that they are being spread all over the place on a thin formation line, one can hardly say that they can serve any purpose against the Rumelians.

And of course, just as expected, with only one crash the Ottoman defenders scattered away, and the Rumelian cavalries successfully torn open a hole right in the middle of the Ottoman’s right. One after another Rumelian cavalry flew past the hole and quickly moved on to the sides under the horror sight of the Sanjek. He can almost guess every single step that the Rumelians are going to take after they have broken through his defences from his own experience. First they are going to continue charging in to the sides, separate the army into multiple pieces and break off their connections with the central command plunging their prey into absolute chaos, then their infantries are going to come over to slowly finish the job of eating the encircled prey up while the cavalries gather around again to purge their next target – which is him.

The battle went on just like what the old Sanjek has speculated in a few minutes, the Rumelian riders went in, separated into two groups, cut through the Ottoman defenders like a pair of scissors, surrounded them creating a no man’s land in the middle, and then going to the next target. This process went on over and over again before the entire flank of the Ottomans finally cannot take it any longer and collapsed, running towards all directions hoping that they can get away as far as possible, with many ended up dying under their own pal’s blade or in stampedes, dying hopelessly as they feel their pals stepping over their backs.

The entire process took less than ten minutes, ending before the giant war machine of the Ottomans could even respond. In just ten minutes the Roman cavalries have torn through a hole tramping past the entire Ottoman formation going from this side to that side, before the entire Ottoman chain of command can even start working to pass the orders up and down.

This is why the cavalry force, when in large numbers, always has the ability to become the decisive factor of victory in battles of this era. The bulk of them are rarely used for the most time of the battle, with only some on scouts or messengers while the rest staying on standby.. But when they move, they have the capability to topple the balance, and claim their master’s victory before the enemy can even respond.