Chapter 59 Ottoman Concession and the Formation of the Crusade

Chapter 59 Ottoman Concession and the Formation of the Crusade

Bayezid arrived at Varna immediately with his army. He was angry and ordered the siege without waiting for the arrival of siege equipment and artillery.

Bayezid was also furious. He was beaten violently when he went up like this. Because it was a siege, the cavalry was of no use and had to rely on infantry. But the problem is that you don't have any siege equipment at all, and all the previous transportation has been robbed. So how to fight now, if you just rely on the ladder to go up, you will naturally suffer heavy losses.

Seeing that he could not defeat him for the time being, Bayezid ordered someone to persuade him to surrender, but the other party refused and almost killed the envoy.

Okay, let’s wait for supplies.

I'm afraid Bayezid has never lost such a temper in his life. In order to avoid sneak attacks at night, he also increased cavalry patrols. As a result, there were no sneak attacks for several days, which made him feel relieved.

Yes, Peter is not planning to attack at night, he is planning to attack in broad daylight. Absolutely unforgettable.

At noon that day, all Ottoman soldiers prayed. They never imagined that the enemy troops were nearby.

"Allah..."

The Ottoman soldiers were praying when they suddenly heard the sounds of fighting.

These camps were only temporarily fortified, and with low morale, the Ottoman soldiers on the outermost edge became ghosts under the knife before they even took up arms.

Attacking while the other party is praying, well, not bad, very good.

Although they were caught by surprise, many Ottoman soldiers reacted and took up arms to fight. At the same time, soldiers from other places also arrived quickly, and Bayezid led Yenicheri to help.

"They have insulted Allah, kill them all!"

Yanicheli's fighting ability is good, but if they face Cossacks like them, they can only fight at a 50-50 ratio. After all, the opponent is killed with real swords and guns.

And as they gradually moved eastward, to the west of the camp. There was a louder sound of fighting.

Those who came were none other than Peter's main force, and their sudden backstab caught Osman off guard. But relying on the numerical advantage, it gradually stabilized.

The enemy retreated, but the Ottomans suffered heavy losses. Bayezid had to consider retreating, especially now that he was alone and deep.

In order to lure the enemy troops out, Bayezid ordered the troops to shout and curse. He said that Peter was a coward and did not dare to come out because he was frightened by Osman.

Peter listened to them without any expression. Just looking at the map.

"Only the desperate ones yell."

Peter continued to maintain his policy of clearing the country and at the same time sent people to disrupt the Ottoman supply lines. What's more, due to sanitary problems, disease broke out in the Ottoman camp. Many people are gone.

Bayezid could not hold on any longer. After losing two pashas and a large number of soldiers in succession, he issued an order to retreat.

This was Bayezid's humiliation. He had never been so aggrieved. At the same time, he also cursed Peter several times, thinking that it was because he did not dare to fight that they suffered heavy losses.

Going back was another loss. Osman gradually suffered losses in Peter's mobile warfare. And Bayezid had no idea.

In the south, Mircea's army also successfully captured Burgas. Because most of the defenders in the city had been taken away by Bayezid, and now there were less than 2,000 defenders in the city, Mircea took it without any effort.

The two towns of Sofia and Burgas fell, and it can be said that the Ottoman expansion that began with Murad I was completely in vain. At the same time, the Ottoman army could not return.

----Dividing line----

Okay, look elsewhere. News of Wallachia's victory over the Ottoman army also spread to other parts of Europe. The King of Hungary believed that a crusade was needed to completely drive the Ottomans out of the Balkans, and Venice was also worried that the Ottoman Empire would control the Balkans, including Venetian possessions in Morea and Dalmatia, which would weaken Venice's control over the Adriatic, The influence of the Ionian and Aegean Seas.

Genoa feared that if the Ottoman Empire controlled the Danube River and the Turkish Straits, they would eventually monopolize the trade routes from Europe to the Black Sea. Genoa controls Caffa, Sinop and Ammasra on the Black Sea. The Genoese also controlled Galata, north of the Golden Horn of Constantinople, and Bayezid I once launched an attack on Galata.

Even though the Great Schism in the Western Church split the papal office into two, with the popes of Avignon and Rome opposing each other, and the pope's power to call for crusades long gone, the pope in Rome still called for crusades against the Turks .

At the same time, there was another key factor in the formation of the Crusade: the Hundred Years War between Richard II of England and Charles VI of France and the support of Philip II, Duke of Burgundy. In 1389, the Hundred Years' War entered into a periodic truce, for which the topic of the Crusades grew again.

To increase his chances of victory, Sigismund sent four knights and a bishop to the court in Paris to describe the "40,000" Turks who were plundering and endangering Christian territory, and to request help on behalf of Sigismund in Hungary. Charles VI had reached a peace treaty with England through intermarriage, so he responded that as "the leader of Christian kings", he had the responsibility to protect Christianity and teach Bayezid I. French nobles responded eagerly. Philip of Artois, the French knight commander, and Jean Le Maigret, the French marshal, both said that it was the duty of a "warrior" to join the Crusades.

Philip, Duke of Burgundy, originally planned to lead the Crusade with John of Gaunt and Louis I, but the plan was ultimately aborted. Philip said that the peace treaty with England indicated that Britain must participate in the Crusade, but I am afraid that is because no one wants to leave the throne. , while other contenders for the throne are around. Philip appointed his eldest son John Nevers as the nominal commander. The Duke may have believed that his eldest son and second son E and Boucicaut were under 35 years old at the time and lacked the necessary experience, so he appointed the most experienced warriors and politicians in the country. The Duke of Cousy, Anguerain VII, was John's "chief advisor".

Nevers had a host of "advisors" around him, as well as a number of distinguished French lords whom Nevers could "consult as he saw fit" because medieval warriors did not understand the concept of unity of command.

Their main goal was to expel the Ottoman Empire from the Balkans, relieve the siege of Constantinople, then invade Asia Minor and the Levant, recapture the Holy Land of Jerusalem from the Mamluk Sultanate, and then return by ship. Although the Crusaders' goals were lofty, their actions were shameful. The Crusaders lacked unified command and loose military discipline. They burned, killed, and looted along the way. They extremely despised the Ottoman Empire and did not carry siege equipment.