Became The Sultan Of The Ottoman Empire [EN]: Chapter 91

Skirmish (2)

In war, supplies are an incredibly important issue.

War means experiencing comrades who were with you until yesterday becoming crippled or departing to Allah’s embrace every day, and fearing when you might die.

Even elite soldiers suffer from stress that gnaws at their minds, and if they don’t even get proper meals, it can lead to disobedience and even rebellion.

Arda felt a glimmer of hope when he first noticed problems with the enemy’s supply.

He thought that even the renowned Kizilbash [a term for various Shia Muslim groups, often associated with Turkish Alevis] would face difficulties once their supplies were compromised.

‘I underestimated them.’

Arda bit his lip.

The enemy, as if enjoying a last supper, held a grand feast and then launched a relentless siege day and night.

With constant fighting, fatigue piled up on the faces of our relatively smaller force.

However, the real problem wasn’t fatigue.

“The, the walls are collapsing!”

Cement had been doing its job so well that it could be called a gift from Allah.

Cement had played a huge role every time the castle was repaired.

However, cement wasn’t a cure-all, and with the constant fighting day and night, there wasn’t even time for the cement to properly set.

It was no surprise that the poorly repaired walls eventually reached their limit.

“It’s alright! It’s just the harbor walls!”

The harbor walls, which were relatively low and weak due to the low probability of invasion, had unfortunately collapsed, and Arda shouted loudly to reassure the anxious soldiers.

It wasn’t an easy gap for nomads who had lived lives far removed from swimming to invade, and the soldiers were relieved by Arda’s words and focused on the battle.

Having barely calmed the soldiers’ anxiety, Arda muttered to himself.

“This isn’t good.”

“…It won’t be easy to hold out. The chains connected to the breakwater have also been released as the walls collapsed.”

As his subordinate Batur said, the breakwater surrounding the harbor was connected with thick iron chains.

If they couldn’t escape through the harbor anyway, they had to prevent invasion.

The problem was that part of the wall had collapsed in this incident, and the chains had been buried under the sea after hitting the breakwater.

Of course, he was confident in burning enemy ships to a crisp with fire arrows if they dared to stick their heads in, but the mere fact that there was one more thing to worry about was enough to undermine this precarious battle.

Unfortunately, his ominous premonition came true.

“Damn it! Tell the civilians to retreat to the inner castle!”

“Retreat quickly! Retreat!”

The ships of Samtskhe were lingering around, dispersing the troops, and a portion of the walls that had reached their limit collapsed.

Arda made a decision after confirming the enemy soldiers crossing over one by one through the collapsed gap, and the civilians who had been holding out until the end quickly fled to the inner castle.

They knew well that the sooner they evacuated, the less damage the soldiers would suffer.

As the evacuation to the inner castle, which was situated on a hill, proceeded smoothly, Arda issued a ruthless order.

“Soldiers, except for the delaying force, retreat to the inner castle.”

“…Understood.”

A soldier must obey in any situation. There are times when sacrifice is necessary for someone.

With this one word, the deaths of hundreds of people were decided, but Arda coldly turned his back.

Even though it included those who had been like brothers to him, as well as his third son, he couldn’t be swayed by emotions.

Because there was something he had to protect, even if it meant risking not only his son’s life but his own.

That day, the outer castle of Trabzon collapsed.

***

“Ah-euh!”

Aisha gave a faint smile as she watched Hasna toddle around and smile brightly.

Kugugung! Thump!

The continuous roar and the faint screams.

That distant sound had become even closer, and even the maids in the castle had left their places to lend a hand.

Hasna, taking clumsy steps, hugged Aisha tightly, patting her mother’s face with her small hands.

“You should reflect on yourself. You made that little child worry. Don’t you think so?”

Aisha nodded at Hatice’s assessment.

“I’ve become a bad mother.”

“Ah-euh!”

Aisha, hugging Hasna, who was smiling even brighter than usual, tickled her daughter’s cheek.

Even while feeling guilty that they had turned peaceful Trabzon into a battlefield, her heart would soften when she saw her child’s smile.

That’s why it was even harder to make a decision.

“Hatice, it may sound ridiculous to say this, but Hasna is also my child, just like Mehmed.”

Hatice, who was sitting across from her, lightly stroked Hasna’s hair at these words.

“But you still have to make a decision. To prepare for the worst-case scenario. Once you’re captured by those foreign enemies, there’s no turning back.”

It was a great humiliation for the Sultan if his woman was taken as a prisoner, and there was a high possibility that she would become a burden, just like Tazzlu had.

Moreover, being a prisoner meant that her purity could be questioned, and even if she was lucky enough to return, this stigma would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

This was likely to have a negative impact on the son who held the right of succession.

“It’s better to end my life than to let that happen.”

“It’s not because I’m reluctant to give up my insignificant life that I’m hesitating.”

Hasna, who inherited Yusuf’s bloodline, was valuable enough as a prisoner, and if she chose to commit suicide, Hasna would have to go with her.

This made Aisha hesitate to make a decision.

What parent could easily take their own child’s life?

Hatice said with sunken eyes.

“But you’ll have to make a decision. It seems like there isn’t much time left.”

Because the screams sounded even louder today.

***

Ismail, who had conquered vast lands, had a lot of experience not only in pitched battles on the plains but also in sieges.

Ismail’s fame, who had established a kingdom at a young age and defeated large armies several times, made the enemy hole up in the castle.

He had fought in so many sieges that it was hard to count on both hands, but this was the first time he had fought such a difficult siege.

‘These tiresome bastards.’

They had given him a headache when he broke through the outer castle, and the remaining enemy soldiers who were buying time were also formidable.

Despite wounds close to being hacked to pieces, they blocked the way until the end, and if the arm wielding the weapon was cut off, they would bite.

Even the Kizilbash, who had experienced all kinds of battles, were fed up and piled up the corpses in one place.

It meant that they recognized them as warriors, even though they were enemies.

“But it seems like their endurance is slowly reaching its limit.”

“That’s right. The end is in sight.”

Ismail and Mohammad looked at the inner castle’s gate and walls.

Crack!

-Push harder! It’s almost broken!

The siege weapons, the battering rams, had cracked the walls in several places, and the gate was tattered.

Ismail could see weapons being shoved into the gaps in the gate.

“Fortunately. It seems like they didn’t pull off any strange tricks on the gate this time.”

“Well, they can’t block the escape route, can they?”

He was dumbfounded when he found out that the outer castle gate was firmly blocked with stones.

It was like thinking he had finally broken the door, but then a solid wall appeared again.

So much so that he gave up on the gate and broke the weak walls with battering rams, digging tunnels.

Fortunately, he was able to avoid that this time, and if he broke through the inner castle, he was confident that he could easily break through the citadel, the last line of defense.

Although victory was just around the corner, Ismail’s complexion was not very good.

“The damage has been greater than expected because of those incompetent bastards.”

Sargis hardened his face at Ismail’s words.

Since there was no need to block the harbor any longer after destroying the outer castle, the soldiers of Samtskhe were also mobilized for the siege of the inner castle.

Even in the most dangerous places.

Even if he heard such taunts in a situation where his subordinates were dying in droves, Sargis couldn’t say anything. Either way, they had become dependent on the Safavids [the ruling dynasty of Persia from 1501 to 1736].

-The gate has been breached!

-Waaaaa!

A shout erupted at the news that the gate had been breached, and it was when they were thinking that only the citadel remained.

“B, big trouble! Ottoman forces have appeared!”

The messenger from Samtskhe, sweating profusely, shouted as he knelt down, and Ismail’s face hardened.

“What is the size of the enemy force!”

“I, I don’t know. There were too many. There are so many enemy ships!”

At the soldier’s rambling words, Ismail’s head turned to the harbor, and he could see a fleet approaching darkly beyond the horizon.

The ships of Samtskhe hurriedly moved towards the Ottoman fleet as if trying to block the fleet’s approach, and a tremendous roar echoed.

-Kwaaaang! Bang!

It was the sound of cannons.

***

“Padishah [Ottoman Turkish title meaning “sovereign” or “supreme ruler”]! Trabzon is visible!”

“I can see it too.”

He had become Yusuf and spent most of his life there, so there was no way he wouldn’t recognize it.

That’s why he was even more angry at the sight of black smoke rising in various places.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem to have been captured yet.”

Unlike the tattered outer castle and inner castle, the citadel, located at the highest point of the hill, was intact at first glance.

If the citadel was intact, it meant that his women and daughter had not yet fallen into Ismail’s hands.

Still, judging from the tattered state of the inner castle, if he had been a little late, he would have only seen Ismail’s back as he completed his objective and ran away with his tail between his legs.

“Enemy ships, identified as Samtskhe, are approaching!”

The ships of Samtskhe, having belatedly discovered the fleet, were approaching little by little, and Yusuf ordered Kemal Reis, who was next to him.

“Get them out of my sight.”

“I will obey your command, Padishah.”

Kemal, who answered that way, gave instructions to the helmsman, and the helmsman raised the flag and gave orders to the other ships.

The rowing speed of the galleys that received the instructions by flag increased, and flames and smoke rose from the bow of the galley that came out at the head.

-Kwaaaang! Bang!

Wooddeudeuk!

The shells fired from the ship tore and pierced the wooden ships like paper, and the stray shells caused huge splashes of water.

In one round of shelling, more than half of the Samtskhe ships were tattered, and the galleys that received the helmsman’s signal reduced their speed.

Because two large carracks [a three- or four-masted ocean-going sailing ship] and more than a dozen small sailing ships began to turn their bodies sideways.

The enemies seemed to have seen the cannons lined up on the sides of the hull and tried to escape in a hurry, but it was already too late to escape.

-Fire! Fire!

With the commander’s instructions, the carrack shook violently with a fierce explosion.

The ship shook so much that he almost slipped, and Yusuf hurriedly pushed away the hand that was grabbing him.

“That’s it. It’s clean now.”

In the continuous shelling, only a few ships were lucky enough to be intact, and most of them became piles of firewood or were half-sunken.

Allied galleys passed indifferently over the enemy sailors floundering in the sea to survive, and bullets poured over the enemy ships trying to resist.

The Samtskhe fleet was quickly dealt with to the point that it was embarrassing to even call it a naval battle, and Yusuf looked up at Trabzon Castle in the distance.

It couldn’t be, but he felt like he was making eye contact with the person who had called him here.

“Ismail, I came all the way here to see you in person. What are you going to do now?”

Yusuf bared his white teeth.