As Chancellor Seresnus of the Bosphorus Despotate stood with Caesar's guards before Adrianople, facing the last great Ottoman army, he couldn't help but recall Caesar's explanation to him that night not long ago, when he refused to negotiate with the Ottoman:
"The peace terms offered by the Ottoman are naturally tempting, but in reality, they are undoubtedly a poisonous apple. Murad's concessions seem generous, but they do not thoroughly uproot the Sultanate. Bulgaria, including the remaining half of East Thrace, such as Gallipoli, and other important strongholds like Hüdavendigâr, have not been ceded. This negotiation, in the end, is merely a temporary expedient for the Ottoman.
"Furthermore, if the Ottomans can break one peace treaty, it means they can break a second. And this time, it is one of the Sultans with the best reputation in history who has broken the treaty. Regardless of the reason for breaking the treaty, if even the most trustworthy and virtuous Sultan has committed such a faithless act, even if I am willing to believe, will the Romans behind me be willing to believe?
"Therefore, only a dead Ottoman is a good Ottoman."
As Caesar said these words, he fiddled with the pistol in his hand, his expression outwardly gentle but inwardly cold. It was only after he finished speaking and realized he was facing his Chief Minister, not the Turks, that his expression changed.
After quickly reviewing the events that had transpired, Seresnus gained a deeper understanding of the battle currently unfolding.
On the battlefield now, tens of thousands of soldiers were fighting fiercely. Although Murad II, caught off guard and responding hastily, had only brought out fewer than thirty thousand troops, the Bosporus Army facing him numbered just over twenty thousand. In terms of numbers, the Ottoman even held the advantage.
However, if one compared quality, both sides were actually quite evenly matched at this time. The Ottoman's military equipment and training level were naturally beyond question; even though the country had suffered a major plague, the Sultan and the High Porte had not shortchanged their soldiers, so the Ottoman's equipment and training level remained top-notch. But to the surprise of the Ottoman soldiers, thanks to the preferential treatment of artisans and the control over the Panticapaeum iron mines and Georgian copper mines, the Bosporus Army's equipment and artillery were not much inferior to theirs. Coupled with Manuel's high Pay attention to military training and development, the quality of the peasant-soldier legions and the Philaka Legion, which now formed the backbone of the Bosporus Army, totaling nearly twelve thousand men, was such that the former surpassed the Ottoman's elite Kapikulu Corps, and the latter could even rival the Janissary Corps.
In the Bosporus Army formation, Manuel, who was commanding the entire field from the central army, couldn't help but break into a sweat as he looked at the front lines where the fighting raged. To achieve ultimate victory, he had specifically chosen the plain in front of Adrianople's main city as the battlefield, to completely avoid any topographical interference. Of course, this also meant that the Bosporus Army could not utilize the terrain as before but had to rely on pure strength.
To this end, at the very beginning of the battle, based on his understanding of the Ottoman military structure, he began to break them down one by one—
The vanguard of the Ottoman were often scouts and light cavalry and horse archer units collectively known as "Akinjis," the latter still mainly recruited from Turk tribes in Anatolia, and a favorite of Murad II's father, Muhammad I; while the vanguard, flanks, and rear guard were mostly heavy Sipahi cavalry, and the Kapikulu Corps and the Topkapi Corps artillery were generally positioned in the middle of the formation.
In response, Manuel ordered the agile Tatar Legion to serve as the vanguard, allowing their horse archery skills, far superior to those of the Turks, to gallop across the plain, in turn pinning down the Akinji cavalry, allowing the phalanxes of pikemen and spearmen following the Tatar light cavalry to advance smoothly.
Facing such actions from the Bosporus, after a brief surprise, the Sultan and his subordinate commanders adjusted their tactics. After all, the mission of the Akinji Legion, which launched the initial attack, was not to kill enemies, but to quickly feign retreat, to draw the enemy into the center of their own formation, which was the core of the main Ottoman army.
Upon learning of the Ottoman's response, a cruel sneer immediately appeared on Manuel's face. He had studied Ottoman tactics for nearly thirty or forty years across his two lives; how could he fall for such a trick again?
"I know that you are waiting for the enemy to fall for the trap and pursue, then have the religiously fanatical Turkmen conscripts rush in to entangle them, causing our army to fall into a death match with the elite Ottoman Janissary Corps and Kapikulu Corps, then open fire with artillery to break up the formation, allowing the Anatolian Legion and the Rumelia Legion to outflank and annihilate them, right?
"Don't underestimate my intelligence network!?"
A thought flashed through his mind, and Caesar made an incredibly correct tactical decision. He ordered the Monaspa and the fully armored cavalry, the two heavy cavalry units, to suppress their desire to pursue, firmly holding the two flanks of the Bosporus Army, while the Tatar light cavalry continued to use their mobility to clear obstacles for the main Bosporus infantry. The armored infantry phalanxes continued to advance steadily, not seeking to push the front line forward, but only to annihilate more of the Ottoman's living forces. At the same time, Manuel also ordered the central army's artillery to bombard the Ottoman army in advance, intending to use firearms to suppress the Ottoman army first.
Under the calm response of the Bosporus Army, about half an hour later, Murad II, who was commanding from the center of the Ottoman army, became somewhat restless. Just as his enemy Manuel had guessed, in this battle, the Ottoman Army still adopted its usual battle formation: the Sultan himself led the Janissary Corps in the center, with the Kapikulu Corps cavalry guarding the core of the central army, the Janissary Corps, the Topkapi Corps, and the two flanks of the Kapikulu Corps infantry; in front of the central army were conscripted Turkmen tribal militias, all infantry; while the heavy Sipahi cavalry from Anatolia and Rumelia formed the two flanks of the entire army, with the Akinji cavalry still at the very front; at the same time, another unit of Turkmen militia was responsible for covering the rear of the main army.
This "iron tortoise" formation was mostly invincible against other Christian armies under normal circumstances, because the latter generally used heavy cavalry as their breakthrough core. After they broke into the center of the Ottoman army, they would often be unable to escape, then be subjected to an artillery barrage, and finally be surrounded and annihilated by the swarming Janissaries. If the previous battle at Varna had not seen the Catholic Crusaders under Hunyadi fight with all their might to briefly destabilize the Ottoman army, and if the Bosporus Army had not temporarily gained some topographical advantage by forcing the enemy to change positions, it would be unknown whether the Romans, who were actually inferior in quantity and quality to the Ottoman at that time, would have won.
However, this time, the Ottoman had truly met their match. The cautious and valiant Bosporus Army did not step into the meticulously prepared Ottoman encirclement but precisely engaged and eliminated the enemy's living forces on the periphery with the cooperation of their cavalry. Moreover, due to their superior artillery firepower, the Ottoman central army, which remained in position to maintain its formation and wait for the enemy to crash into them, not only failed to gain an advantage but also gradually showed signs of decline.
Seeing their own morale constantly slipping, the Sultan and his commanders all felt anxious and worried. In previous operations, because the Janissary Corps primarily adopted a wait-and-see approach, they rarely took the initiative to attack. And the combat effectiveness of the Turkmen conscripts was not strong, so the Janissary Corps and the Kapikulu Corps were undoubtedly the mainstays in this tactical system; their ability to hold out was an absolute prerequisite for the formation of the encirclement. The core of both these corps consisted of infantry, which meant they needed to use various defensive fortifications to protect themselves when facing enemy cavalry.
Like the Janissaries beside the Sultan, they either occupied a small hill or were positioned behind a row of sharpened stakes and a ditch. When repelling enemy charges, the corps would often form horizontal lines with several ranks deep, and each rank would advance in turn, creating a volley effect. Because they were disciplined, courageous, and had undergone extremely rigorous training, they could maintain the integrity of their formation even when facing enemies with heavy firepower. However, the Janissary Corps did not passively wait for the enemy to attack; when the enemy approached and their formation became scattered, they would launch a charge.
Now, that moment had finally arrived. Murad II took a deep breath and ordered: "All troops prepare, attack the Romans! Allah is above, Long live Allah!"
At the Sultan's command, the wedge formation of the Janissary Corps and the Kapikulu Corps immediately dispersed. With the cheers and encouragement of the military band behind them, the corps abandoned their original fortifications and charged irresistibly towards the enemy in front of them!
Receiving the Sultan's order, Ishak Bey and Kasim Pasha, under his command, led the Akinji cavalry and Sipahi cavalry respectively to cover the movement of the infantry legions, while his eldest son Ahmed led the Kapikulu Corps cavalry to coordinate with the infantry in a fierce charge towards the center of the Bosporus Army. As for the Sultan's beloved son and the next heir to the Sultanate, Sultan Aladdin Ali, he, along with the Grand Vizier, led the main force of the Kapikulu Corps as the primary attacking force. The Sultan himself, accompanied by the Imperial Guard commanders Khadijah Khazar and Veli Mahmoud, led the Janissary Corps from the front, attempting to tear through the Bosporus Army's formation.
Under the fearless onslaught of the Ottoman army, the Bosporus Army, faced with unexpected circumstances, indeed fell into some confusion as Murad had anticipated, and a considerable gap was torn open. Although Caesar quickly reacted, ordering infantry phalanxes and cavalry to make up for the losses, he could only watch helplessly as the Ottoman elite continuously poured through the breach.
But at this very moment, Prince Muhammad, observing his father leading the main force in battle, did not obey his father's military order to fight with the Akinji cavalry and Rumelia Timar Sipahi under his command. Instead, after a long period of contemplation, he issued an unthinkable command to the five thousand troops assigned to him:
"For the victory of Allah, march south!"