1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 26: For He Shall Be Late Again

Zaganos Pasha started hesitating.

Various Beys and Pashas have already started gathering outside the tent, waiting for their superior's orders. Ottoman cavalries have started readying their horses, and janissaries have started lining up in formations and sharpened their blades. They are all waiting outside for their commander's orders.

Seeing this, Selim pasha whispered under his breathe again. "Zaganos Pasha, I have an idea why don't we allow whoever there attacking Rumelihisar to save us the trouble of removing Candarli Halil Pasha's men in our army, then we arrive, encircle them and claim their heads and bounty for ourselves"

Zaganos Pasha shook his head and mumbled. "No Selim Pasha, we are all Ottoman warriors in the eyes of our Sultan, I, as their commander cannot let them die, it is my responsibility"

"No! No, no, no Zaganos Pasha." Selim pasha, seeing his commander like this, anxiously continued trying to change his mind. "Our Sultan shall only be happy to see an eye of Candarli Halil Pasha getting removed in the army, that is why he sent me here. We are here to diminish Candarli Halil Pasha's influence in the army, remember?"

Zaganos Pasha, finally convinced, nodded his head slightly.

The Ottoman forces, led by Zaganos Pasha, set off for their destination in the afternoon, and finally arrived at the gates of Rumelihisar fortress by dusk. They encircled the fortress layers by layers leaving no gaps behind in their formation that no one can sneak out of the fortress alive.

The scouts scattered around by Giovanni has already caught sight of them hours before they arrived. According to the plans they were supposed to finish what needs to be done with this fortress quick and get the hell out of here within hours, but they encountered a severe problems that delayed their progress all the way until now, even with god's help there was no Ottoman reinforcement disturbing them till now.

First problem they encountered while digging is the ground conditions. The land in the surrounding is filled with a thick limestone rock layer beneath the soil, the soils surrounding is filled with grained gravel. Moreover, since the Fortress is built right beside a water source, it makes the foundation moist, making the evacuation even more difficult.

Thus, when the hidden scouts in the woods reported the movements of an impending army flying Ottoman flags, Giovanni soon realised that they are too slow. After having a discussion with Constantine, he decided to call back all scouts back into the fortress, locked the gate preparing to defend a potential siege. Most importantly, he sent two waves of messengers on small boats down the Bosporus strait back to Constantinople calling Antonius for help.

Meanwhile, in the Ottoman army, Zaganos Pasha observes the fortress. He came here just couple of days ago, but now it looks so damn different.

"Pasha, that's a double headed eagle flag flying over the fortress!" A scout exclaimed.

"I know."

"Pasha, it is the Romans who got us, they got out of those walls!"

"I know."

"Pasha, we found no surviving Janissary on guard duty"

"I know, stop reporting, yenieri." Zaganos pasha stopped the scout from reporting further as he feels he sank into a state of questioning. He knows that he definitely should not have sent the orders to wait for a couple more hours as an experienced military commander. But he also wanted to fulfill his Sultan's wish which led him into a dead end like this.

But thinking of this now does not help the current situation to become any way better. Zaganos Pasha, riding on his mount raised his arms with a livid face and stern look.

"After the prayers, prepare for siege."

Selim Pasha riding behind him immediately rode forward and persuaded. "Pasha, I advice you not to attack because of anger, decisions made while angry begins with madness, but ends in regret!"

Zaganos Pasha did not heed his advice. Bursting with fury now, he only wants one thing to get that fortress back, slaughter everyone inside, give the janissaries a proper burial to wash away his dirty stains and the overwhelming feeling of guilt inside his mind.

"Prepare for siege!"

With that order, the re-conquest of Rumelihisar began. The first to initiate the attack is the Sinop regiment, fearsome valorous warriors living by the side of the Black Sea, provided by another Ottoman tributary state called Candar in North Anatolia. Theses warriors, having gruesome paintings on their faces and staggering tattoos on their arms and legs, dressed in light cow-hide armour and Turkish turbans, rushed towards the walls of Rumelihisar raising their Shamshir blades yelling in a strange nomadic cry.

They made easy target for Roman archers and Genoese crossbows.

With their light cow-hide armour and turbans offering these brave young lads little or even no protection against piercing bolts and heavy arrows, they got picked down one by one, one after another. But the warriors behind ignored their pals dropping dead or whining in agony and rushed forward yelling.

The Ottoman archers at the back of them fired arrows after arrows of retaliation strikes against the Roman archers trying to suppress their firepower, but all efforts proved to be useless. The Roman archers and crossbow men are too well protected behind those twenty-meter walls and arrow slits.

When the Sinop warriors reached the walls, they found themselves short of ladders to climb, many tried with their bare hands but all failed. This piece of fine Ottoman architecture proved to be fatal to their own people. Some smart lads found those logs scattering around on wagons. They took advantage of it and started ramming the gate of the fortress with those logs.

However, after a few rams, to their surprise, the gate opened by itself. What emerged from it, to their shock, is a swarm of Roman heavy infantries armed to the teeth; In full plate armour, Barbute helmets, heavy Pavise shields and long swords. These infantries surprised the Ottomans ramming the gate and gradually chopped down them one by one.

The archers and crossbow men on the walls then formed a no-men's land by concentrating their shots near the gate at once. This gave time for the heavy infantries to form a shield formation outside the gates, which they took advantage and even pushed the already-exhausted Ottoman warriors out, setting fire to all the logs near the gate in the process. Then under cover of the archers, they retreated back into the gates.

Dusk arrived, the rays of lights from the Sun cosseted behind the mountains, dwindled to barely visible, painting the sky and clouds with a blood-red colour. While on the ground, it is the same thing.

The swords and blades laying on the ground, the battle cries that shook the Earth has silenced down, as their masters are now lying lifelessly on the ground. Their blood stained the dirt red. In the middle of them, some warriors still crying hopelessly in agony, as their last trace of breath and life fades away. Crows began having a feast feeding on the corpses while cawing sending shivers to everyone watching. Together with the blood-red sky, it gave Zaganos and Selim Pasha the feeling that this is an apocalypse.

In the end, around five hundred men of Sinop regiment dropped either dead or wounded, while the rest retreated.

The first wave of attack ended in a disaster.