Chapter 538: Fishing Is Fun
"They conquered him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
love for life did not deter them from death."
- Book of Revelation, 12:11, USCCB
The Sultana Dowager chose an eunuch to be the acting commander of the newly built two thousand men strong army, of course, due to her lack of trust on the group of officers. The newly formed two thousand strong army is given another honorary title of Kapi Kulu Janissary, giving all of them a raise in pay of roughly twenty percent and a promise of other benefits before they embark. Which did raise the overall morales of the troopers a bit, but that still does not make up for the new army’s damaged and twisted leadership structure.
The eunuch who is appointed to lead this army has almost little to zero military experience, the only thing he knows is how to appease his overlords, how to serve him well, how to steal money from the national treasury and how to survive in political struggles. Immediately after the army embarked, the soldiers started noticing one after another problem on this new commander. Normally the commanders of the Ottoman army, no matter big or small even including the Sultan, would travel on their horsebacks with blades and their full set of armour carried by their esquire and lieutenants by the side. But this new commander, chose to travel alongside the army on a chariot.
When it is time for dinner, this commander would have his own pot cooking fresh lamp chops, while the soldiers would gather around to eat nothing but portage mixed with hardened salted meat. The eunuch even brought fifty sheeps with him on this journey, making it look like a vacation. Many soldiers could not tolerate such a behaviour, because one of the most important things in the army is called mutual respect whereby the commanders respect the soldiers’ basic rights first so that the soldiers would respect the commander’s orders in times of war, and a fundamental step to achieve this is to suffer together, enjoy together, sleep together and fight together.
Obviously neither do the Sultana Dowager nor this eunuch know about all these basic princeps in the army, they live in a completely different system in the palace whereby if one is a noble or of a higher rank in the palace, then it means that he has a complete dominance over the subordinates, given the right to enjoy more benefits and luxuries than the others.
Things are of course, completely different for the five hundred men of Celalettin Özgür, who went in to the fields to dig the fortifications alongside with his troopers making himself look like just an ordinary footman, after the supplies to the garrison has been completely cut off, he began eating the similar ill qualitied combat rations (portage mixed with black bread) with different sections of troopers per meal, engaging with them personally understanding about their concerns and troubles, chatting casually as if he is their grandpa, looking totally unlike a high ranking officer.
Volunteers came to join the fight every single day, the army of Zaganos Pasha, stationed across the straits, sent people and equipment and food to the garrison which did aid the situation of the rebels by a lot. And after they leave the garrison, they spread what they saw with the other armies along the way, which again boosted the reputations of Celalettin Özgür, making more people who had a mutual hate on the government in Edirne abandon their old unit and joined the rebels, slowly before the battle starts, the total number of men under Celalettin Özgür’s command has increased to around eight hundred people.
The army of the Sultana Dowager took a week to march here – which is a complete disaster. This army is ill prepared in logistics and mobilisation, many cavalries only has one mount with them, and they have to carry their own armours, helmets and blades stashed on the sides of their horses which is considered to be a dangerous mistake that any experienced cavalry commander should not make. These horses are made and trained for war, their stamina must be maintained at a cautious level at all times, and their stamina ought to be used for war, not to be wasted on carrying heavy burdens like donkeys or arses. Furthermore, making these valuable mounts carry heavy stuff for a prolonged period of time would only deteriorate its health conditions damaging their hooves.
Ah yes, the commander of this force is no experienced cavalry commander, for he is only an eunuch that has even lesser military experience than a merchant from al-Qāhirah.
The rebels have already fully prepared themselves before the arrival of the troops from Edirne. Both sides fly the royal standards of the Sultan, the war banners of the white horse, speaks the same kind of language and wears the same kinds of armours. Thus, in order to better differentiate between themselves, Celalettin ordered every single soldier on his side to tie a piece of white cloth on their arms to be identified as friendlies.
The battlefield they have chosen is a strange one, with just a bit over three Roman miles in width between both sides of the straits it can be said that this battle is the narrowest battle that Celalettin has ever fought in his military career. This leaves a problem for him, in such a narrow battlefield any attempts of bypassing the enemies on land to flank them or attack them from the back would not work, because every tiny action from both sides is clearly visible leaving no extra space to manoeuvre secretly without being noticed. Most likely the two forces can only meet heads on, a direct hot-blooded battlefield here right on the spot, with the army from Edirne attacking and him putting up a desperate defence.
If that is the case, then Celalettin is almost destined to lose the battle, no matter how much military experience he has and how high the morale of his troops are, it still cannot counter the overwhelming disadvantage in manpower versus the enemies. Thus, he had to abandon all of his former offensive tactics and turned his fortress into a tortoise shell.
He built three archer towers in the time span of one week allowing the archers to have an elevated view of the battle ground providing assistance firepower to the friendlies while making it hard for the enemies to reach them. His men have also dug three layers of trenches measuring to around three hundred meters before the fortress placing booby traps and sharp objects inside, if the enemies are to attack from the direct front, they must climb past the three trenches, endure through the traps inside the trench and the heavy firepower from above before they have a chance of facing the enemies in closed quarter combat. By then their formation will be entirely scattered and it will soon become a slaughter.
The main intention of this defensive tactic is to force the enemies to attack from Celalettin’s two flanks, which would minimise the disadvantage in manpower and make sure that the friendlies are under the support of friendlies at all times.
The battle commenced at the April of year 1463, a decisive battle that shall determine the future of the Ottoman Sultanate and its future course of history. Everyone in the region held their breath and started waiting for the outcome of this war, shall the new challenger be victorious and topple over the old geopolitical situation? Or shall the iron lady inside Edirne claim her victory, and her rule of iron grip shall live on till eternity.
Even Zaganos Pasha, who is busy subjecting warlords in Antalya became aware of the situation over here in Europa. He hurriedly left his army in the frontline, leaving the command over to a trusted subordinate, and went back to Bursa watching over the battle. He offered his help to Celalettin, saying that if he wishes, the troops of Anatolia shall set sail immediately to support Celalettin in his righteous action. The later politely declined though after giving his gratitude in the return mail but made another request pleading Zaganos Pasha to help him watch if the Rumelians in Constantinople is planning to do anything fishy taking advantage of the chaos of its neighbours.
Zaganos Pasha did just as requested, gathering another fifteen thousand troops in Izmit and Biga, making a threatening stance to Constantinople and Thessaloniki’s settlements in Erdek, warning them of the possible consequences of an attack on Edirne.
Although Celalettin has rejected any military aid from Zaganos Pasha, there are still things that the always victorious pasha can still do to support him, that is his superior amount of intellect and knowledge when it comes to war awareness and the ability to seek for opportunities. After all these deployments, Zaganos Pasha wrote a return letter, to be delivered together with forty fishing boats.
