Chapter 537: The Rebellion of 1463
"Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
"Now have salvation and power come,
and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who accuses them before our God day and night."
- Book of Revelation, 12:10, USCCB
A shocking news came from the southmost border of the Ottoman Sultan’s realm; A petty officer of the Ottomans commanding over only a mere five hundred people openly declared a rebellion towards the supreme Ottoman government, accusing the later of setting up a trap for all the Ottoman army’s high commanders, including the head of the army Hamza Pasha who is respected by almost the entire force.
At first no one treated this commanding officer who declared an open rebellion with no more than five hundred men and a castle seriously. But within the following days more and more information from reliable sources started leaking out of Edirne, claiming that these field commanders ended up in a pathetic state, almost like a dog getting dragged around by the palace guards until their final demise, inclusive of their supreme leader the humble Hamza Pasha.
This news, no matter true or not, instantly sparked another round of terror and rage among the various Ottoman army factions, no matter whether they had any conflict in interest or political ideas before this. One thing that many might have forgotten about the history of the Ottoman armed forces is that the backbone of the army is built by joining the forces of multiple chieftains, emirs, mercenary leaders and lords back two hundred years ago in the old Seljik Anatolian lands under Suleyman Shah (Osman I’s grandfather). This created a tradition in the Ottoman army whereby the soldiers would mostly only listen to the orders of their direct superiors, who might be their fathers, elders, seniors, who would then listen to their direct superior like the chieftains, lords.
This tradition lasted even till today, thus the Sultan usually would not have a strong and reliable connection to his troops, the allegiance and loyalty sworn by the military leaders to the Sultan does not mean that his soldiers believe in the same thing. Usually, a Sultan need to fight his way to earn the trust and loyalty of the soldiers making them believe that this Sultan is a strong leader that can lead them into victory bringing them benefits. But if a Sultan loses his ambition or has become old and frail, the army will start to seek for a new leader....
Thus, when the news from Edirne arrived, many Ottoman troops became furious that their military leaders, who might be from their clan or their closed ones or their tribal leaders, got executed by the Sultana Dowager. And the other military officers who are yet to be affected started getting afraid of their own heads dropping or their posts getting removed, because there are already palace guards escorting eunuchs out of Edirne arriving in various army camps taking over the command, so they became silent when the uproar is widespread among their soldiers despite multiple orders from the higherups ordering them to stop these unrests.
It is clear, that the Sultana Dowager, who lived most of her political life deep inside the haram, has little understanding of how her son’s army works and functions.
She might have felt that a small rebellion with only five hundred men is nothing but a laughing stalk that would joy her in her afternoon tea session. However, when on troops stationed in the region apprehended her orders to seize the rebels, she started to panic, and vaguely started to feel that something is wrong here, that old man who still refuses to eat or drink anything in the dungeon cells might have more influence in the army than she has expected.
Following this event, she went down to the dungeon herself and lodged a serious of curses and assaults at the old pasha, and of course the later did not reply with anything. She ordered the guards to stuff food and water down the throat of the old man to at least keep him alive. Then she demanded the commanders of all the troops to cut down the source of the rumours that the pasha is dead, and spread the news that Hamza Pasha is still alive, only quarantined for some time because he needs to be investigated on a recent conspiracy.
However, there is no tool or device in this era that can send visual interpretated information to the very eyes of every single personnel in long ranges to prove that what the Sultana Dowager has claimed is correct. In fact, what she has said is immediately treated nothing but a inept attempt to cover up her crimes, and after explaining it made more soldiers who is still hesitating on this matter to start to believe that their pasha and commanders are already slain, if not why would the Sultana Dowager panickily try to stop these supposed ’rumours’ with such a pale explanation?
The tide has turned against the Ottoman central government from this point onwards.
Everyone knows that the relationship between the Sultan and his army is dependent on one another, the relationship between the commanders and the soldiers is also roughly the same. The commanders must appeal to the popular opinions of the soldiers if they want to keep their post, and thus more and more garrisons and armies started making secret connections with the rebelled corps of Çanakkale Boğazı. Many soldiers even openly joined the banners of the rebels in the vow of getting their revenge and save their chiefs.
The government of Edirne again caught itself in a dilemma and dispatched another bunch of palace guards and courtiers to the surrounding garrisons to establish a firmer control, gathered a regiment of two thousand men – the max number of men that the government can control, and marched onto the rebelled garrison in Çanakkale Boğazı.
The entire Sultanate has their eyes focused on the outcome of the battle.
