"Is that a Latin fleet?" Not being close to the sea, the Ottoman commanders, including the Sultan, did not pay much attention to the fleet approaching the battlefield.
In their stereotype, the only fleets that would approach at this time were probably those of the various commercial Republics of Italy.
As for the Latin fleet, the Sultan chose to ignore it as always; firstly, he had some dealings with these commercial Republics, and secondly, the life-preserving merchants, seeing the Crusaders almost completely routed, would at most send people to rescue the stragglers rather than directly intervene.
Besides, if the Latins insisted on intervening, Murad was confident he could easily beat their army.
However, he misjudged this time.
As the Sultan was about to continue his march to annihilate the last organized Wallachians, a reconnaissance report from the scouts in the army invigorated him.
"A pure black double-headed eagle banner on a yellow field!?" Upon learning that the approaching fleet on the sea was flying this flag, Murad II's originally relaxed and sneering expression immediately turned into a bewildered and incomprehensible look, almost completely the opposite.
"It's the Bosphorus Despotate's fleet!?"
Quickly realizing who the newcomers were, the Sultan on his imperial carriage immediately flew into a rage, his previous confidence and ease vanishing completely. "How did they bypass the swamps to the south!?"
According to Murad's original plan, the Bosporus Army, having been significantly depleted by Turahan Bey's forces, should have been exhausted after crossing the swampy terrain around Varna Lake to the south.
Then, he would lead his large army to engage them in their fatigued state, crushing them like other Christian armies, rendering them unable to recover, and thus solidifying the Sultanate's rule in Rumelia and Anatolia.
After all, under these circumstances, to theoretically reach the main battlefield of Varna as quickly as possible, the Bosporus Army would have to confront the unfavorable terrain of Varna Lake.
Using naval transport? According to the intelligence Murad had, the Bosporus Navy had only been established within the last five years; could its quality be even higher than the Latin navy?
But now, the facts proved that even if the enemy's navy was not as powerful as the major commercial Republics, the efficiency of short-distance troop transport completely exceeded the expectations of the Sultan and others.
Realizing that the enemy had directly bypassed his trap, Murad II roared in anger on the spot:
"Manuel Gavras!"
But after that outburst of anger, the seasoned Sultan forced himself to calm down and face the enemy. "Kasim Pasha, immediately take five thousand light cavalry to the coastline of Varna.
The Romans should be in the process of just landing, not yet firmly established; you must drive them back into the sea as quickly as possible!"
"Yes, Sultan!" Receiving the Sultan's order, Kasim Pasha immediately prepared to set off with his troops.
But just then, volleys of artillery fire, not from their own forces, erupted from the far rear of the Ottoman Army.
Even the central army, where the Sultan was located, was affected; many elite soldiers were thrown by the air blast of stone cannonballs, some even dying on the spot.
Such a commotion naturally could not escape the Sultan's notice; he turned around and looked towards the southern end of the battlefield, only to realize that the artillery fire indeed came from the rear.
Looking closely, one would find that these artillery positions also displayed a huge pure black double-headed eagle banner on a yellow field, symbolizing the Bosporus.
"Those despicable Romans, they actually used the swampy terrain of Varna Lake against us…" Before Murad's curses finished, the Bosporus Army launched another volley of artillery fire.
This time, the artillery firepower far exceeded the previous one, directly blowing away many officers and soldiers in the Ottoman rear, forcing the Ottoman Army to halt its pursuit of the Wallachians and instead shift towards a direction away from the artillery fire.
"Damn it, damn it…" Watching his elite soldiers, whom he regarded as the nation's finest, being blown to pieces on the battlefield by the sudden attack from the Bosporus, Murad's heart was bleeding.
The severe holy fire disease had directly impacted the Sultanate's production, especially agriculture, causing the cost of training new recruits to rise to an unbearable level for the national power.
If too many elites were lost in this battle, the current Ottoman would find it difficult to replenish them quickly in a short period.
If it had been a few hours earlier, the Ottoman Army could have brought out its own artillery to bombard the Bosporus Army.
But after several hours of fierce fighting, the Topkapi Corps still in Varna had almost run out of gunpowder.
What shocked the Sultan and others even more was that, judging from the two previous volleys from the Bosporus Army, the enemy's artillery range and firepower were not only comparable to theirs but even surpassed them.
Under these circumstances, the swampy terrain along Varna Lake, originally intended as a trap for the Bosporus, turned into a trap for the Ottoman Army instead.
If they insisted on crossing the swamp to attack the enemy's artillery, they would likely fall into the muddy swamp and be pursued and annihilated by the enemy's infantry.
Therefore, while continuing to order Kasim Pasha to lead the Turk light cavalry to block the Bosporus Army's landing, the Sultan immediately led the main force north to alleviate the pressure from the constant shelling from the rear.
As he moved north, Murad II couldn't help but look back at the Bosporus troops behind him.
The enemy wisely chose not to follow, but to remain on the southern shore of Varna Lake.
"It's over," the Sultan smiled with relief in his heart.
Now, as long as Kasim Pasha reached the coast and annihilated the landed enemy, and he himself bypassed the western side of Varna Lake to flank the Bosporus Army, the victor of this battle would still be him!
But he always felt something strange, yet unable to grasp the full picture of the enemy, he couldn't clear the fog before his eyes.
Just then, loud artillery fire also erupted from the sea east of Varna, directly targeting Kasim Pasha's cavalry unit.
And directly in front of the rapidly moving Ottoman Army, a formidable force charged out from beneath the hills to the northeast.
In their very center, a pure black double-headed eagle banner was also flying.
...
"Murad, you fell into my trap!" Manuel, who was commanding the entire army from the central camp, was overjoyed as he watched the Ottoman Army crash into them.
Indeed, as Caesar said, both the heavy bombardment of the Ottoman Army's rear from the south of Varna Lake and the conspicuous landing of the navy on the shallow shores of Varna's eastern coastline were mere deceptions he employed.
Their purpose was to force Murad II to lead his large army north, away from their original battlefield.
Because Manuel himself and the main force he led had already arrived by ship at a less noticeable shallow northern beach when the two Danubian Principalities launched their charge.
He deliberately detoured north of the hill and ambushed there, precisely to deliver a heavy blow to the Turks.
Moreover, during naval transport, to throw off suspicion, he had specifically ordered the ships to temporarily take down their pure black double-headed eagle flags, and some even replaced them with Venice's St. Mark's Lion flag, so that the Ottoman Army, then focused on annihilating the Wallachian army, would not detect him.
Once he led his army quickly to the top of the hill, the time was perfectly ripe.
At this moment, Caesar drew his sword from his waist, faced the direction of the Ottomans, and shouted loudly:
"Hallelujah, for God, for the homeland, charge!"
At Caesar's command, nearly fifteen thousand Bosporus troops charged down from the hill towards the unprepared Ottomans.
And their respected Caesar Manuel, leading the army's most powerful thousand-plus iron-armored Holy Knights and Monaspa heavy cavalry, like a sledgehammer, ruthlessly smashed into the Ottoman army's formation, utterly scattering the already unstable enemy.
The Bosporus infantry, led by two commanders, followed behind the heavy cavalry, harvesting the lives of the wailing Ottomans; the light cavalry, led by Kristo Balin and other generals, including the Tatar cavalry, moved around, preventing the Ottoman Army from restoring order, while simultaneously cleaving the heads or chests of one enemy after another.
Like the final log that broke the camel's back, the great Ottoman Army, of which Sultan Murad II was so proud, completely disintegrated after half an hour of resistance.
Caesar Manuel, having confirmed the Ottomans' inevitable defeat, charged into the already collapsed Ottoman central army, protected by the Filakas heavy cavalry.
After personally slaying nearly ten Janissaries, he finally saw the monarch he considered his archenemy—
The Ottoman Sultan, Murad II.