Vlad the Impaler Chapter 20

 The Ottoman War

20.

“Open the gates. I am an emissary of the Sultan.:” Vlad had ridden to the fortress in Guirgiu.

The city of Giurgiu was probably established in the 14th century as a port on the Danube by the Genoese merchant adventurers, who established a bank and traded in silks and velvets. during the reign of Mircea I of Wallachia, and was conquered by the Ottomans in 1420 as a way to control the Danube traffic. The Ottomans named the city Yergöğü, It was said by Lord Vlad II, whenever the Ottomans "want to harry Wallachia or Transylvania, they and their horses can cross" the Danube near the fortified island at Giurgiu, connected to the Wallachian bank by a bridge.

Vlad II had attacked the fortress there and the Ottoman garrison of the fortress capitulated on the condition that they were allowed to freely leave for the Ottoman Empire. However, after they left the fortress, two thousand Wallachian soldiers attacked and massacred them at Vlad II's order, because he regarded the Kogalsai of the Ottoman garrison responsible for his captivity in 1442. The Ottoman took it back later during the rule of Vladislav II, and Vlad was determined to take it back.

“Open up quick. Imbeciles!” Vlad spoke in the language of the Turks. He had ridden there with a small detachment of fifty guards dressed like the Ottoman, and in the dim light of the dark, only his loud voice was heard. The fortress guards than were afraid to distress the Sultan’s emissary had the gates opened. Vlad rode in and his men spread out at the gate.

The Wallachian guards killed the guards there before the alarm could be sounded.

“Keep the gates opened. Sound the signal to get the others in.” It was then his hidden column of ten thousand strong armies rode in and conquered the fortress.

“Take them all. We have to secure the fort.” It was a ploy that he had learned from the old Greek’s reading of Troy. Instead of the wooden horse, he rode in on a live one. The undermanned fortress was not prepared for an attack was soon subdued. Hamza Bey was taken, prisoner.

“I was told that you wanted to entrap me here and take me to the Sultan. It’s a vicious method.” Vlad looked to the captured commander. “Do you know how a pack of wolves attend to a hunter who traps them? They mauled the hunter with their fangs.”

Vlad had then two wolves he had snared and presented it to the captive.

“I am not as vicious. I will not do that to you.” Vlad smiled. “I am civilized like the Turks.”

“Release me and I will ---” Hamza Bey spoke up.

“Release? No, Hamza Bey. You will be spared of that kill. You will be punished by my method.” Vlad looked to Janus. “Impale him.”

Hamza Bey was impaled at Targoviste.

Vlad in his victory call wrote to Michael, the King of Hungary.

“I write to you that more than twenty thousand Turks and Bulgarians are taken, prisoner. They will be executed on your order. They will impale for their acts of killing our people than when they seize of the fortress here at Guirgiu.”

“While I am victorious here, I am with a small army of ten thousand, and your military assistance will be appreciated. I have severed my servitude and had broken the peace with the sultan for the honor of the King and the Holy Crown of Hungary and the preservation of Christianity and the strengthening of the Catholic faith.”

The action of Vlad then was due to the new call by the Pope to mount a new crusade towards the Ottomans. Pope Pius II called for a new crusade against the Ottomans and on January 14, 1460, at the Congress of Mantua, the Pope proclaimed the official crusade that was to last for three years. His plan, however, failed and the only European leader that showed enthusiasm for the crusade was Vlad whom the Pope held in high regard.

Michael, Lord Vlad displayed exemplary courage.” Pope Pius II spoke of Vlad’s victory. “He can be our next John Hunyadi to bring us victories.”

Sadly, the Hungarian King was not convinced and held back his army. Vlad went on a campaign from Giurgiu and slaughtered enemy soldiers and population that might have sympathized with the Turks; first in southern Wallachia, then, in Bulgaria by crossing the frozen Danube. While in Bulgaria, he divided his army into several smaller groups and covered huge tracts of land in two weeks as they killed many Turks.

“My Lord, we are strengthened but we are not strong to repulse the Turks if they attack us,” Janus told the Lord. Vlad waited for reinforcements with patience and wrote once more to the King of Hungary.

“I have killed peasants men and women, old and young, who lived at Oblucitza and Novoselo, where the Danube flows into the sea, up to Rahova, which is located near Chilia, from the lower Danube up to such places as Samovit and Ghighen. We killed twenty-three thousand Turks without counting those whom we burned in homes or the Turks whose heads were cut by our soldiers...Thus, your highness, you must know that I have broken the peace with him.”

“I need your army, Sire.” It was indeed a desperate call by Vlad but it was also a call of arms by the Ottoman.

Having learned of Vlad's invasion, Mehmed II sent his grand vizier, Mahmud, with an army of eighteen thousand to destroy the Wallachian port of Brăila.

“My Lord, they marched to Braila.” Vlad heard the call. “We are too thin there to protect the town.”

Vlad turned back with his army towards there; twenty thousand strong. He arrived in time to flank the Turks and mounted the battle on both ends. Vizier Mahmud found his position untenable and called for a retreat.

That victory of Vlad inspired the people there to celebrate his presence. He had the prisoners impaled to strike fear into the Turks. Many Turks were then frightened of Vlad and left the European side of their empire and moved into Anatolia. Sultan Mehmed, when hearing about the events, abandoned his siege at Corinth and decided to go against Vlad himself.

“I want an army that the Wallachian’s will regret battling me.” Sultan Mehmed was furious. “I want to see them lined up to the horizon of my sight.”

“You will ride to battle with me against your ---” Mehmed was cut off by the Radu.

“Vlad is no more my brother. You are my brother, my Sultan.” It was an impulsive reply by the other in which if the Sultan was in a foul mood, Radu could have lost his head then.

“Yes, Radu. You are indeed my brother.”

And indeed, it was then, an army of over three hundred thousand warriors was formed.  These consisted of the janissaries (the elite slave troops); infantry soldiers; sipâhis (the feudal cavalry); saiales (the sacrificial units composed of slaves who would win their freedom if they survived); Akinji (the archers); silahdârs (the custodians of the sultan's weapons who also protected the flanks); azabs (the pikemen); beshlis (who handled the firearms) and the sultan's bodyguards.

Vlad's half-brother, Radu the Handsome, who willingly served the Sultan, commanded four thousand horsemen. In addition to this, the Turks brought with them a hundred and twenty cannons, engineers and workers that would build roads and bridges, priests of Islam (ulema) and muezzin, who called the troops to prayer, astrologers who consulted Mehmed and helped him make military decisions.

On the side of Vlad, his regular letters were unanswered by the King. His request for reinforcement was not given. He was alone despite his ‘noble’ action.

“I received none but I am not to give up.’ Vlad told Janus. “Send out the call that men of military age, but also of women and children from the age of twelve up; and included Gypsy slave contingents; I cared not. They are to fight for me.”

“They are ---” Janus protested.

“I had said it before. The peasants will battle for their rights to use the land, or shed their blood there.” Vlad has an army of thirty thousand strong. The majority of the army consisted of peasants and shepherds, while the boyars on horseback—who were few in numbers—were armed with lances, swords, and daggers and wore chainmail as armor. Vlad's guard consisted of mercenaries from many countries and some Gypsies. 

It was then he consulted the gypsies to strike fear into the peasants who believed in the vex of the occult. He also encouraged them to fight for him.

"Fight for me. It would be better than those who think of death should not follow me." Vlad told his leaders. “My death will be your death. They won’t impale you. They will serve your body to the pigs and in turn the pigs to your families and others. In turn, they will be killed and served too until there are no more of us or the pigs.”

It did not deter the Ottomans.