Chapter 57: Occupation of Sofia

Sure enough, Bayezid, who had not yet come out of the first letter, started to lose his temper again.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I will kill you, I will kill you."

Bayezid was completely furious. He first gave him a woman's dress to humiliate him, and then said he would twist his head off and kick it like a ball. He was fed up with such humiliation.

He wanted to completely destroy Wallachia and make all those who despised and insulted him pay the price.

"Listen, attack Varna at full speed and make sure to take it down for me."

Although the Sultan was angry, the soldiers were thinking about another situation: Would they be like this?

They had never seen such a punishment. This piercing from bottom to top magnified their fear. Some weak-willed soldiers even planned to escape, but they were afraid that the Sultan's anger would fall on their heads.

"Sultan!"

At this time, an Ottoman cavalryman ran over, rolling and crawling, and even fell several times.

"You are..."

"Sultan, please go back quickly, Sofia is surrounded by the enemy."

"What?"

Bayezid did not expect that the battle line in the west had deteriorated to such an extent that even Sofia was surrounded.

"What's going on? What is Lazarevich doing?"

Bayezid scolded his brother-in-law. He wanted to go to Krushevac in person to ask him what he was doing and why he hadn't sent troops yet.

"Sultan, you can't count on them. We accepted some Serbs in Sofia, and they said that the Wallachian army had defeated them before. Even their king died."

This was undoubtedly another critical blow to Bayezid. His brother-in-law was gone. And with him, the Serbian reinforcements were gone.

Now, the three armies only have 30,000 troops led by Bayezid. But after the previous Burgas battle and the impact just now, morale has dropped a lot.

Whether to continue moving forward or retreat to Edirne has become a difficult choice.

Bayezid needed time to think, and he ordered to set up camp not far from these people.

For Ottoman soldiers, the night is not terrible, but those who died on the spikes are terrible at night. Not to mention the wind and the crows.

Bayezid did not sleep all night, and he thought about many ways over and over again. In the end, he actually had a choice difficulty syndrome.

? ? ?

What kind of fairy scene is this, a ruler with excellent tactics actually has a choice difficulty syndrome.

Bayezid is not an indecisive person, his fast interspersed tactics are unmatched in Anatolia. But it was less than 40 kilometers away from Varna that he hesitated for the first time.

But now it is time to make the final decision, and Bayezid finally decided. Continue to go north and capture Varna.

In this way, the enemy troops in Sofia will also be mobilized, and then they can be caught in one fell swoop.

The Ottoman army began to advance at full speed.

————Dividing line————

Mircea had been besieging Sofia for half a month. Every day, many Bulgarians came to him and brought intelligence and food.

Along the way, many people believed that Grand Duke Mircea's troops were sent by God to save them.

The Orthodox Christians and Muslims in Sofia began to fight, and the Sofia garrison had to allocate some people to maintain order. The well-known millet system was the masterpiece of Mehmed II. At this time, the contradiction between the two sides was very intense.

After the siege, Mircea decided to fight quickly. At this time, there were less than 3,000 garrisons stationed in Sofia, and some of them were poorly trained militias. Seeing this, Mircea was not polite.

The long-range firepower strikes consisted of artillery and catapults, and they threw stone bombs, corpses, and some burning things at Sofia.

Even so, the destruction of the city wall was very slow. For this reason, Mircea directly used the general method: digging tunnels.

Digging tunnels under the city walls and burning the supports to collapse the walls is also a solution. But it takes a long time, weeks or months, and there are certain risks, because the defenders will also counter-reconnaissance.

Fortunately, the siege tower and battering ram are also ready. Thanks to the large forests near Sofia, there is no shortage of raw materials. Of course, the defense tower is not a sports car, and it can only move 40 meters a day at most.

One by one, huge stones and shells fell on the city walls and urban areas, and the defenders were under great pressure. But there were more Orthodox citizens in the town.

The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides have entered a situation where Wallachia has the upper hand, in order to prevent the destruction of this beautiful city. On the 18th day of the siege, the Orthodox Christians in Sofia launched an uprising, killed the defenders near the east gate, and opened the gate to welcome Mircea's army.

Just as the Ottoman offensive was unstoppable, Mircea's offensive was also unstoppable. Sofia, once the most important city in the Bulgarian Empire, fell into Mircea's hands.

Mircea enslaved all the remaining Ottoman soldiers, and many of them joined Mircea's army at the call of Bishop Sofia.

The news of the fall of Sofia directly inspired the local anti-Ottoman movement. The surrounding guerrillas all surrendered to Mircea and tried to reach Edirne.

But Mircea was thinking about his son, and he had to lead the army back quickly. Peter's military strength could not stop Bayezid's army.

But some generals suggested that if Plovdiv was attacked fiercely, Bayezid could be forced to come back. By then, the crisis in Wallachia would be solved.

But Mircea disagreed. He could see it, but couldn't Bayezid see it? He dominated the Balkans and Anatolia with lightning tactics. It would only take a moment for the offense and defense of both sides to switch.

Of course, the way back was not the way he came. He walked directly along the mountains and tried to get to Burgas as quickly as possible. In this way, Bayezid had nowhere to escape.

The news that Wallachia had captured Sofia also reached Sigismund in Hungary, and he was very dissatisfied. Why could Mircea capture Sofia, but he couldn't? Didn't he come to the throne earlier than himself? (Note: Mircea succeeded to the throne in 1386, and Sigismund in 1387.)

Although he came earlier than himself, the Hungary he ruled was larger than Wallachia. Even if they annexed Moldova, they were no match for Hungary.

When he heard that the Serbian monarch had died, he felt incredible. At the same time, he also felt that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and planned to lead his army south to capture Serbia.

But the great nobles in the country did everything they could to stop him from sending troops, because they would have to pay for most of the expenses, so Sigismund could only send a small force to expand. After he finished arguing with the nobles, he led the army south.