Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 66

Time War (1)

The rebellion that began in spring continued into summer.

Dry air scorched lungs in Trabzon and Beysehir, and the parched land kicked up dust with every step.

The enemy slowly approached, shimmering in the heat haze.

“Keep your wits about you!”

A soldier had wicks soaked and dried in saltpeter [potassium nitrate, used to make gunpowder] water wrapped around his arm, and a stern reprimand was issued to another soldier who accidentally extinguished the fire on his wick.

If it were during training, they would have laughed at the sight of a soldier hastily seeking help from a comrade, but the soldiers facing battle had no such余裕 [yoyu – composure or余裕 in Japanese].

They simply checked their match cords and moved their heavy feet, careful not to make the same mistake.

As they approached within a certain distance, both sides stopped as if by agreement.

Commanders poured encouragement on their nervous soldiers.

“If we follow our training, we can win!”

“Don’t forget that if we are breached, we lose!”

The basic Ottoman tactic was the hammer and anvil, used since ancient times.

While the infantry in the center withstood the offensive, the cavalry on both wings attacked the flanks and rear.

The most crucial element of this tactic was the infantry acting as the anvil, withstanding the enemy’s offensive.

If the anvil broke before the encirclement was complete, they could be defeated piecemeal, and even if it was completed, if the anvil was breached, the enemy could escape through the opened passage and regroup.

Knowing the core of the tactic well, the Janissaries [elite Ottoman infantry] growled at Yusuf’s infantry.

“You little pups better do it right. If you don’t do your job with those skewers you’re holding so dear, I’ll personally send you to Allah’s embrace, even if you survive.”

“Don’t be mistaken that the Prince will protect you.”

A Janissary, only allowed to grow a mustache, leaned in and threatened, causing Yusuf’s soldiers to grind their teeth.

They wanted to tear off that mustache, but they couldn’t start a fight before the war.

However, they sharpened their own blades just the same.

“If your fancy weapon is worse than this skewer, we’ll tear off that mustache of yours, so you better be on your toes!”

“If you don’t have a beard or a mustache, you’ll be a complete woman. You shouldn’t be on the battlefield; you should be looking for a man.”

Beards were so important that the Devshirme [Ottoman practice of conscripting Christian boys], which conscripted Christian boys from the Balkans, included those without beards or bald men among the exemptions.

So, for the Janissaries, who were Muslims but only allowed to grow mustaches, beard stories were a sore spot.

The words of Yusuf’s soldiers made their insides boil, but they didn’t cross the final line.

“We’ll see, you little pups.”

The Janissary spat out the words and roughly planted a stand in the ground, hanging a hand cannon on it.

He knew from countless experiences that war was imminent.

As both sides fully reorganized their lines, the sound of drums announcing the war echoed.

With the heart-pounding drumbeats, the cavalry on both sides slowly moved, gradually increasing speed, and the sound of hooves shook the earth.

The cavalry, totaling 30,000 from both sides, clashed first on the wings.

The Kapikulu [Ottoman household troops] cavalry, heavily armed, swung maces and axes as they collided, and blood and corpses scattered with the sound of bones breaking.

Even the heavily armored Kapikulu fell from their horses, pierced by swords that penetrated their chainmail, and suffered casualties as their bodies were crushed in head-on collisions with the enemy, but the lightly armed Turkmen cavalry suffered even more severely.

Like the Kapikulu who broke through the enemy’s left wing as if grinding them down, Yusuf’s cavalry also broke through the right wing.

With the heavy cavalry who had already played their part in the war with Ismail at the forefront, they collided with the enemy cavalry, and enemies skewered like skewers on long spears fell to the ground like straw.

Having done their part in breaking the enemy’s spearhead, the heavy cavalry discarded their spears and drew their swords, breaking through the enemy’s right wing.

Both sides broke through the wings with heavy cavalry at the forefront, but this was the result expected by both sides.

The core of the battle lay in the center, acting as the anvil, and the center, which would determine the outcome of the war, also began to fight.

“Fire!”

Following the commander’s order, the hand cannons, which could be called small cannons, were ignited.

With a loud explosion, the bodies of the Janissaries, who were aiming with the help of stands, staggered, and acrid gunpowder smoke and pressure shook the surroundings.

The result was devastating.

-Heeheeheeing!

“Kuaaaack!”

The cavalrymen, with holes in their bodies from the hand cannons that had more power than muskets, rolled on the ground, and the horses, startled by the roar, reared up in fear.

However, this was not enough to completely stop the enemy forces surging like a wave.

Yusuf’s soldiers, trampling on their fallen comrades, shouldered the gunstocks that had come out faster than in the original history and aimed their guns at the approaching enemies.

The enemy, who had been as small as beans, grew larger and larger, and just as they felt impatient about whether they should shoot quickly, the commander’s order came down.

“Fire!”

Tatatatadang!

At the same time as the order was given, a rain of bullets swept through the enemy, and they immediately pulled their bodies back at the sight of the enemy falling like hail.

As the first row pulled back as trained, the second row stepped forward and fired, attacking the enemy who were reorganizing their lines.

It was the moment when muskets came to the forefront of history 16 years earlier than in the original history.

***

“It’s quite useful. It’s no wonder you asked for gunpowder.”

The Grand Vizier [chief minister], who was watching the war situation from a distance away from the battlefield, assessed it that way.

The situation in the center, filled with black gunpowder smoke, was indeed advantageous.

The rebels were mostly untrained nomads, and the hand cannons and three consecutive musket volleys were enough to blunt the enemy’s breakthrough.

The cavalry that reached the phalanx could not break through properly and were bogged down, and the soldiers who had finished reloading cut off the enemy’s breath at close range.

Yusuf shook his head lightly at the Grand Vizier’s praise.

“It was just luck. It wouldn’t have been this easy if we were facing proper cavalry.”

It wasn’t humility, but the truth.

Muskets took too long to reload, and to do sequential firing properly, they needed not three rows, but twelve.

‘But if I had matched it with 12 rows, considering the reloading speed, I wouldn’t have been able to create a proper fire net and wouldn’t have caused much damage.’

Proper cavalry would have been able to exploit the gap created by reloading.

He ordered the firing with three rows because he believed that the Janissaries would hold out well in the worst-case scenario, and it worked out well.

The Grand Vizier, watching the slowly completing encirclement, turned his gaze beyond the battlefield.

“We should move before the enemy commanders run away.”

The scales of victory had already tilted to one side, and the enemy commanders, who were slightly off the battlefield, could escape.

Yusuf, who was pressed for time, had no desire to play tag in Anatolia.

Yusuf ordered the thousand or so cavalrymen he had left as escorts and reserves.

“Let’s go, to see our brother’s face.”

The time had come to end the rebellion.

***

Shakhulu, who had confidently moved his troops, trembled at the shadow of defeat that had fallen.

It could be seen even from a distance.

The sight of his allies falling one by one with a thunderous roar.

“Le, let’s run away! The enemy is using Satan’s tricks!”

“Satan?”

Shehinshah scoffed.

It was ridiculous to call gunpowder Satan.

However, even Shehinshah, who knew of the existence of gunpowder, did not expect the course of this battle. He thought they could break through even considering the gunpowder.

‘The Janissaries’ weapons can’t show such power.’

The continuous firing and the subsequent continuous firing sounds were impossible with hand cannons, which had many operational difficulties.

He hadn’t heard any news that the Janissaries were using new weapons, so there was only one culprit.

“Yusuf, it’s you.”

Shehinshah, who spoke the name of his brother whom he had never even seen, asked Shakhulu, who was urging him to run away.

“So, where are you saying we should run away to?”

“Konya, no. If we run away to Shah Ismail! He will welcome us!”

“Ismail, huh.”

The prince of the biggest enemy country, the Ottoman Empire, would be welcomed with open arms if he came on his own feet.

“That’s right. He will welcome me.”

“Yes, let’s run away right now…”

Shakhulu, who was continuing his words, gaped at the knife stuck in his chest.

Shakhulu’s followers, who did not expect Shehinshah to attack Shakhulu, drew their swords and cried out.

“Lord Shakhulu! It’s a betrayal!”

“Kill him!”

“Protect the Prince!”

A battle broke out between Shakhulu’s followers and Shehinshah’s soldiers, and Shakhulu, who spat out a mouthful of blood, said softly as if he couldn’t understand.

“…Why?”

Rather than answering this question, Shehinshah stabbed Shakhulu again to cut off his breath.

Because the loser must welcome the winner.

As Yusuf’s cavalry rushed in, the followers who were fighting got on their horses and ran away, and Shehinshah shouted to the remaining soldiers.

“You guys run away too. I’m enough to greet the guests.”

The soldiers, who hesitated for a moment at Shehinshah’s order, hurriedly took refuge at Okai’s gesture, and Shehinshah, who was standing watching Yusuf’s approaching cavalry, said.

“Okai, you should run away now too.”

“I will be with you until the end.”

Shehinshah chuckled at the firm will.

“It wouldn’t be bad to stand together before Allah.”

The rushing cavalry surrounded Shehinshah, who was wearing a fancy outfit, and the Grand Vizier and Yusuf, who parted the crowd, appeared.

The Grand Vizier, who carefully examined Shehinshah’s face, said to Yusuf.

“It is Shehzade [Prince] Shehinshah.”

At the Grand Vizier’s guarantee, Yusuf took a step forward.

“I’m sorry to meet you like this, brother.”

“Isn’t this what a meeting between princes is like? The one person the younger brother is looking for is here.”

Yusuf nodded, looking at Shakhulu, who was already dead and coldly 식어 [sigeo – growing cold].

He had roughly 예상한 [yesanghan – anticipated] the situation when Shakhulu and Shehinshah’s soldiers said they were fighting.

He didn’t know why, though.

“Why did you kill him?”

“I can’t meet my younger brother empty-handed when I meet him for the first time… Cough cough.”

Yusuf’s face hardened as blood appeared on Shehinshah’s hand as he coughed roughly.

Whether he coughed up blood due to a respiratory disease such as pulmonary tuberculosis or vomited blood due to a digestive system injury, it meant he was seriously ill.

“Did you do this because it was time to die?”

“…I was born as a prince, so I have to try until the end. Because that’s the fate Allah gave me. That way, I won’t be able to lift my face even after I die.”

Shehinshah smiled sadly.

It may sound insignificant as a reason for the rebellion, but as a fellow prince living under the weight of fate, he could understand it even a little.

‘But I have no intention of saving him.’

Because it was the end he chose.

“Do you have any last words?”

Yusuf asked as Arda stepped forward with a silk cord to strangle Shehinshah’s neck, and Shehinshah smiled.

“Although I lost in this battle, I have no regrets because I killed Korkut and grabbed Ahmed’s ankle.”

“It’s not just grabbing Ahmed’s ankle, it’s cutting off his lifeline. I’ll send you to his side soon.”

To cross the straits, he needed permission from the manager at Maltepe, which was attached to the straits, or a ship to transport troops.

The manager had long been bribed through the Sanjakbey [district governor] of Ankara, who had shown loyalty to him, and with Korkut’s death, he had completely lost his grip on the maritime forces.

‘And I even joined hands to isolate him for sure.’

With Selim, the last enemy.

Yusuf turned his body, looking at Shehinshah, who was 늘어진 [neureojin – drooping] with his neck strangled.

“From now on, it’s a time war.”

***

“You monster.”

The main ports in the Black Sea are Kefe and Trabzon.

This means that the power of the Black Sea can be divided into Selim, who has Kefe, and Yusuf, who has Trabzon.

Selim raised one corner of his mouth, recalling Yusuf’s proposal to isolate Ahmed together.

If Yusuf would take care of Ahmed, who was trapped in Anatolia, there was no reason to stop him.

“Keep struggling. I’ll be the winner anyway.”

While Yusuf catches the rat in the trap, he will occupy the capital and become the master of the empire.