Chapter 187: 182: Magyar

"Be without fear in the face of your enemies, be brave and upright that God may love thee, speak the truth even if it leads to your death, safeguard the helpless. That is you oath."
- "Kingdom of Heaven" Balian of Ibelin
The Magyar calvaries caught their foes by a great surprise as these Ottoman horse archers are not expecting the enemies to unleash their light calvary that fast in counter for their tactics. In the minds of these riders who are recruited from the Ukrainian Steppe they are still expecting these Hungarians to face them like how those Rurikids and Polish faced their distant Mongolian fore fathers, trying to get those stubborn old knights in fancy bucket helmets coming down trying to chase them into a close quarter combat.
They are proved terribly wrong.
The Magyar cavalries under John Hunyadi, inspired by the tactics and strategies of the Ottomans and Cumans, were mostly used as light cavalries for agility equipped with a horseback sabre that resembles the Ottoman Kilij blade, and other weapons for horse back fighting like lances, bows and arrows.
The two armies of cavalries encountered and without any hesitation the Magyars returned what the Ottomans did to their counterparts have done just now by flinging them with a round of heavy arrows as a priority strike. These armour piercing arrows, with a greater kinetic force and penetration instantly pierced through the thin layers of armour of the Ottomans wiping out a few dozens of them instantly messing up the entire organisation forcing them in to a halt.
"For the king!" Roared Emeric Zápolya as he threw his bow to his back and drew out his horse sabre, his men followed soon and charged right into the crowd of Ottomans and begin slashing and cutting their foes down to the ground. The Ottoman horse archers soon scattered back to the back and began using their similar tactic maintaining a distance from the Magyars and exchanging arrows with each other, trying to avoid head on combat as much as possible.
Emeric Zápolya and his men wants to lure these Ottoman cavalries closer to their main army in the fear that if they are separated too far away they might get eaten up as the Ottoman cavalries are definitely superior to them in numbers as seen from those hundreds of Hungarian scouts who got hunted down by the Ottomans facing them one to three, even four sometimes.
"Our cavalries have chased way too far." John Hunyadi squeezed his eye brows. "Sound the horns."

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The blasting sounds of horns placed in the front soon started blowing sending the King Regent's message to Emeric Zápolya and his men.
"Wait!" yelled Emeric Zápolya. "Let me catch some one to interrogate from those bastards first!" Then, he gave his mount a whip and accelerated even further, taking out his bow once more, arrow out of quiver, pull string, aim, and hit right on the jack spot of the horse of the nearest Ottoman rider making the horse collapse on the ground throwing its rider off its back onto the ground, then without any hard effort, Emeric Zápolya swooped up the rider stepping on his stirrup with his dazzling riding skills right onto his horseback. The rest of the Magyar cavalries cheered and raised their blades into the air seeing this and although they are very much unwilling to retreat, they still followed their commander John Hunyadi's military orders because of their strict discipline ironed into their bones, while maintaining a pressure on the Ottomans by turning their backs and consistently showering them with arrows.
The Ottoman horse archers, who have been inflicted heavy damage, aborted the plan to try to save their pal and also started turning back to retreat to inform their commander about this commander.
"You and your men have encountered hostiles?" Asked Zaganos Pasha who is reading a map and consulting a local guide. "But this is still three Roman miles away from the Hungarian encampments!"
Then, he looked around at the other beys and chieftains in the surrounding, who are equally as confused, but those faces of his mounted archers covered in the fresh scent of blood, and those arrows stuck on their bodies cannot be fake. After a while of thinking Zaganos Pasha finally got it, coughed and commented to his followers in an embarrassed tone. "It looks like our dear old friend John Hunyadi has decided to come out of his fortified camps and meet me with a straight on head to head battle, what a surprise! Both of us had the same thoughts and intentions!" Then, he threw the map off his hands and gave the poor shivering local guide a pat on the back and laughed. "You know, sometimes it is a marvelous experience having this barbarian John Hunyadi as my opponent, it adds a little bit more delight into my boring life…"
"Now pass my orders! Full army advance! Battle formations! The division of Yanina in front! Four divisions at the sides! Two divisions out! The other Siphais and Akıncı on stand by!"
The mounted messengers quickly delivered Zaganos Pasha's military orders to their respective captains. The gigantic advancing Ottoman army immediately started changing their layout in a coordinated speed which is already familiarized from years of training. They regrouped into a battle line that resembles a 'w' shape. Like a wyvern with a head protruding out, two wings stretched to the sides, and two claws out of the wings.
Strangely enough for the rest of the Ottoman commanders, although Zaganos Pasha chose undoubtedly the most traditional and most secure way of regrouping and advancing, but strangely enough all armies face towards one side facing the Hungarians, making the left flank of the Ottomans vulnerable to the Serbians. However, when these folks tried to remind their commander raising their worries, Zaganos Pasha simply replied with a smirk and a sentence of meaningless words. "Worry not, for I have full trust on my partner Selim Pasha, and thou shall worry about it too."
The beys and chieftains, although still as puzzled, but asked no more questions out of their confidence for their commander.

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