1453: Revival of Byzantium

Chapter 390: Good Old Tales

The Ottomans decided that now is the time for the decisive moment, a final charge that would send the Rumelians scrambling for their lives, like how an egg jumps on the frying pan when over fried. The man, who looks like the leader with that fancy cloak behind him, charged head on wearing armour towards a weakened area on the line of Roman defence.

Normally speaking a cavalry, no matter heavily armoured or not, would not want to challenge a man holding spears or pikes head on like this especially when he is charging at high speed. The impact hit on him by the concentrated iron tip of the pike can still be large enough to penetrate the chain mail the rider is wearing, or even easier slice the throat of the horse making the entire rider collapse and lose any further ability to fight. If the rider is lucky and rich enough to get a better protection, lets say a plate armour, the impact would still be large enough to leave a dent on the armour and damage the internal organs, leaving the rider blinded for a few seconds.

Thus, the cavalries, especially the Saracens Ottomans and Mongols, usually would go on a hit and run tactic taking the advantage of their opponent's incompetent mounted troops, following their enemies, keep on flinging arrows as they moves in smaller groups and chase the enemies towards the direction they want the enemies to be. The process can usually take up for days until the surrounded enemy finally runs out of supplies and morales, and finally collapse.

Or the Ottomans could simply flank them, find a place where there are not that many spikes and slice in to the enemy formation through there, making the job much easier for them. But still the Ottomans decided to challenge the spikes head on in a barbaric way like the Germanic and Burgundian knights in the west. Not only because they have seen through the weakness of these Roman spear men through their shivering hands and loosened formations, but most importantly the commander leading the Ottoman cavalries, Emir bey has decided to pick on an interesting target he has just spotted among the crowd.

The emperor Constantine might not know about it, but Emir Bey once had several chances to take a view on the Rumelian emperor on the battle field. First was when he was captured by the still despot of Morea Constantine during his failed conquest in Thessaly, decades ago and he had to be rescued by the Sultan Murad II which he remembered it as his shame in life. Then they met again, even face to face this time in Constantine XI's coronation ceremony in Mystras.

On the ceremony Emir Bey asked the Mega Doux and the newly crowned Basileus under his Sultan Murad II's order to increase the amount of tribute paid to Edirne per annum, testing the emperor's borderline of obedience to the Sultanate seeing if he can be tamed in to a loyal pet, or another prick in the throat like his brother. And in the end, the result is pretty clear, the emperor said nothing holding that Persian tainted wine glass of his, while the Mega Doux which Emir Bey has already forgotten what his name is, tried to use his diplomatic skills and bluff over this matter saying that they are still loyal to the Sultan, but just that they got in to a minor economic crisis because of the Genoese monopoly and would need some time to recover.

Of course, Emir Bey did not believe in the kind of crap that the Mega Doux told him, from that day onwards he had a full inspection of the emperor's face and memorised that face by hard knowing that it would come in handy one day. And it seems like today is just the perfect day, although the ruler of the Rumelians now looks much older and has more whitened beard by his chins, Emir Bey still recognised his target with ease. He knows that this target is definitely a target that is worth taking the risk for.

The hundreds of riders commanded by Emir Bey picked up their maximum acceleration and crashed in to the Roman spears within five seconds, hardly giving their opponents any time to react and prepare. The first Roman soldier to come in to contact with the Ottomans bravely stepped forward holding his wooden spear despite being absorbed by grieve and terror, and stabbed it right in to the chest of the horse coming for him. The gigantic creature let off a thunderous neigh with a gruesome wound, raising its front hooves up and thumping it right on to the Roman soldier's chest, instantly making his chest flat like a piece of paper, then falling heavily on to the soldier, still alive with its eyes still open and blood gushing out of its chest, with the soldier beneath it already long gone.

The first Ottoman rider fell too alongside with his horse, and then died instantly from the stampede by his pals. Several other similar cases happened along the ten plus meters long breaking through point becoming the first few Ottomans to die in this charge. However, their sacrifice successfully breached a hole in the fragile Roman defence system with the formation of spears toppled beyond shape from that impact just now leaving the lines right open to their opponents, just like what happens after a lady or man unwinds their dressings.

The Romans showed their powerlessness now in the event of a relentless strike by the Ottoman superiority in horsemanship. Immediately after the Ottoman riders broke through the defensive lines laid with spear men and archers they hardly met no more obstacles; The morales of the other units dwindled to a bare minimum and started falling back bit by bit under the careful controls of their respective field commanders. The central command by Mauro quickly sent the signals for the soldiers covering the sides, including that of the heavy infantries to quickly maneuverer to the central and form a new layer of defence, but this takes time too and the only thing that can possibly stop these creatures are themselves losing their advantage of speed stuck in the masses and gets pulled down one by one.

The Ottomans continued going in using their combat tactic of three to one fluently, with the leather armours they are wearing now already enough to protect their vulnerable spots from slashes and pokes by the enemy conscripts. The greatest bravery for these semi knights is the knowledge of their invincibility on the fields, and this is one of the factor that kept them going and charging in actions knowing that they have the least possibility to die here as compared to the others.

It all seemed like a good start, but there is one problem for the Ottoman commander Emir Bey and his small but elite task force, that is they seemed to have lost sight of the Roman Basileus as the later is wearing a common set of clothing and armour making him completely like an ordinary soldier, the only thing that makes him stand out is that purple cloak and the celebrity's face which can be erased away if he removed the cloak and put on his helmet. If the Ottomans failed to capture their intended target it would be completely a tactical failure even if they sliced the Roman formation in to half, and their leader Emir Bey would be charged by his strict superior Hamza Pasha for leading his troops in a reckless manner causing so many casualties to the Sultanate's elite forces with each cavalry worth more than a bag of silver ducats.

Realising that the target has blended in with the crowd of messy situation and is no where to be found with naked eyes, the entire mission seems like a failure but suddenly, the commander Emir Bey remembered a tale he has heard from the Romans having been spreading within themselves to promote patriotism and sense of pride fighting in the army seven plus years ago outside the coast of Anatolia. Emir Bey cleared his throat and tried his best to shout out in Greek using a native Thrace dialect. "Basileus! My emperor! Your majesty! Are you going to abandon us like this under the hooves of the infidels?!"

It might seem ridiculous for an Ottoman to shout such an ambiguous sentence directly to the high command of the enemies, but in this kind of screwed up situation no one could possibly know where the sound came from, and Emir Bey used the weak spot in the Roman soldier's hearts fearing that they have already been abandoned by their emperor, which judging by the emperor's personalities, can also be a weak spot for him. Now he is just observing the field to wait and see if the fish bites the bait.

In the crowd, some Roman soldiers began recalling the tales they heard before and shouted the same sentence as Emir Bey.

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